vintage collectibles

I can’t remember if I told you guys already or not, but the fam has been planning a trip to Disney World since January — yeh, before the whole economy scare. (Our timing is always stellar.) Anywho, we decided to stick with the plan, forget reality for a week, and head to sunny Florida. This will be Gracie and Aidan’s first time to DW. We’re really looking forward to it (minus the 10-hour road trip) and as you might expect, the kids are bouncing off the walls already. Granny & Pop are even joining us (it’s their first time too)!

So in the spirit of our upcoming adventure, I thought now was the perfect time to talk about vintage Disney! When it comes to decorating, I’m personally not a fan of the Disney Princesses, Cars, and Buzz Lightyear decor which is available in every department store from here to eternity. But believe me, I know how much the kids love them. Lightning McQueen is a member of the family. But I’d like to think that maybe there’s a way to fulfill the Disney dynasty with the kids while throwing in a bit of vintage flair that stands apart from the aisles and aisles of Disney-branded merchandise. Is it too much to hope for?

Believe it or not, yesterday was the 80th anniversary of Mickey Mouse’s debut in Steamboat Willie. (Who says my timing is bad!) Finding vintage Disney really isn’t hard. It’s incredibly popular and collectible. Prices on rare pieces can get pretty high, but there’s so much Disneyana (that’s the avid collector’s term) out there, you’re sure to find something in even the most modest price range.

I went through eBay looking for vintage pieces that I thought might inspire you. Let me take you on a little tour…

If you have an extra, say $1000 or so, you might want to check out this fabulous 1930′s Steamboat Willie Mickey Mouse doll (shown above) currently up for auction on eBay. Even if you can’t swing the price (yeh, me neither), it’s still worth a peek. It’s the epitome of vintage Disney collectibles.

Another vintage Disney treasure I found was this Mickey & Minnie Vintage Pail. Wouldn’t it look great filled with vintage wooden alphabet blocks? (Stuff the bottom with newspaper first so it doesn’t take so many blocks to fill the pail.) You could use it as an adorable bookend or display it as a central focus on a wall shelf or dresser. This particular one is sold, but you can find many more like it on eBay.

Disneyana isn’t only about Mickey and Minnie though. Bambi, Snow White, Pinocchio, Peter Pan, Dumbo (my personal all-time favorite) — the list goes on and on. You can find vintage versions of all of them and more. Here are two more examples of great oldies that are just itching to be rediscovered and adored…

Vintage Bambi Alarm Clock, circa 1964

Vintage Classic Dumbo Comic Book

Are you just giddy now with inspiration? Ok, well maybe that’s overstating a bit, but I hope you did enjoy the trip down memory lane. That’s truly one of the best things about Disney — the characters that we grew up with are still there among the Jasmines and Lightning McQueens our children are growing up with today. And you better believe I plan to point out every one when we get to that amazing wonderland in the sun — Walt Disney World.

I’m back! The surgery saga was a bit more involved than the doc had led on. The surgery wasn’t bad, but the 10 days in a cast up to my shoulder and now the month or more of physical therapy ahead of me were not anticipated to say the least. I’m more than a little perturbed at the doc for downplaying the post-op. But with the busy holiday season coming, not to mention a family trip to Disney World the week of Thanksgiving, I definitely have incentive to push hard with the PT and get full movement back in my hand and wrist. Typing should be an added help!

So I couldn’t let one of my favorite vintage holidays go by without posting. Halloween is #3 on my list of favorite holidays for decorating vintage. It’s only been in the past few years that I’ve really started collecting vintage holiday decorations. It is so much fun though! Let me share with you some of my favorite vintage and vintage-inspired pieces as well as some things that I would dearly love to add to my collection if I could just go crazy. Hope you enjoy!

I’m loving this Scaredy Cat vintage hanging decoration. His arms and legs are hinged.

And check out this rare valentine. It works double-duty for Halloween and Valentines Day. It just ghost-to-show-you, you never know what you’ll find!

What a hoot. This crepe paper tablecloth is vintage and a must-have for any spooky festivity. I could also see these adorable illustrations used in some altered-art projects. Hmm… Better beat me to it. You can find it here.

Treats are a must at Halloween! These vintage cookie cutters will make any goblin grin. These would be in my collection if I didn’t have a drawer full of cutters already. My clutter means YOUR cutters! Find them here.

Guess Who! These vintage masks are an especially fun blast from the past. Great way for little ones to play dress-up any time of year!

Lastly, here’s a view of my front door. Found this vintage-inspired garland at Target (believe it or not) several years ago. These spooky faces are painted wood cutouts with a glitter overlay. They’re strung by wire that’s pretty easy to twist and shape. I wrap it around my boxwood wreath that I keep on the front door most of the year, and voila! Spooky greetings!

Keep a close eye out for all those little goblins running around this All Hallows Eve! I’ll try to ’round up’ some costume photos of my wee ones to share with you this weekend. Happy Halloween!

I’m not sure if the lack of sleep has improved my writing or just made me delirious, but after a really long day, this post title cracked me up. It couldn’t be more appropriate to sum up my recent experience on eBay…

I tend to hit eBay in waves. I get hooked for a week or two and spend way too much time and often too much money. Eventually I snap out of the eBay fog and ban myself for the next few months. Case in point: After a heated bidding war the other night, I narrowly escaped as victor of this wonderful vintage photograph postcard. How could ‘The Baby Gardner’ not fight for this? It epitomizes the shop, right? But it cost me. Boy, did it cost me. Which brings me to the ‘done’ part. I’ve banned myself from eBay for the foreseeable future. But really — can you blame me?

So what do you think about incorporating this into a product for the shop? Good idea or nah, not so much?

Remember the vintage Charlotte and Charlie dolls I had mentioned in a previous post? Thought you might like to see the collection I have hanging in Gracie’s room. Shadow boxes really come in handy when collecting vintage smalls. I have them everywhere displaying all the little vintage treasures I heart most. And check out the scrapbook paper I used in the back of the box. You’ve probably noticed, I heart paper too.

Hope this sparks ideas for you to add your own vintage touches to your little one’s nursery or bedroom. To learn more about the history of Charlotte & Charlie dolls, you can read my brief description in the Cowboy post or search more online.

Well, as promised, here are some pics from my son’s room. Aidan just turned 3 so we’ve been going through that transition from a nursery to a little boy’s room. As I mentioned in an earlier post, the great thing about vintage-inspired nurseries is they really are timeless (what an oxymoron!). They can transition easily as your little one grows.

In Aidan’s room, there’s very little I’ve changed other than replacing the crib with a bed and tackling the mountain of toys that seem to be taking over. The paint color is the same. The color palette is the same. The random vintage touches have stayed the same.

In his nursery I wanted to go with more of a 40s-50s vintage touch as opposed to the Victorian vintage I used in Gracie’s room. I had a bunch of vintage ’stuff’ that I really loved and had gathered here and there. None of it really had a single ‘theme’ like cowboys or fire engines, it was purely ‘vintage’ in a totally random sort of way — and I loved it for being so.

So I knew that in order to get all of my chotchkies to work together, I had to make the colors in his room work. I painted the walls a light apple green and chose a quilt with blue gingham, white and apple green stripes. On the windows, I sewed long curtain panels using a light denim and used a wide apple green and white pinstripe ribbon to make the tab tops. That was my foundation and then the fun really began!

Aidan’s vintage plush toy collection, a wooden truck, a red wool pillow with a vintage graphic, a vintage pop gun, a bisque cowboy, the three bears… totally random but totally works. Color is the key!