Thank You Jill For Your Little Bit Of Everything

Just a few days left on the calendar until Christmas.  Just 3 more days until the holidays will offically begin for me - I actually still have a couple of more things I would like to be able to find for my special someone.  I'm not worried as I'm sure I will find the time to get them. 

I wanted to post a thank you blog to Jill over at A Little Bit Of Everything for the wonderful package she sent our way.  It was an early Christmas gift for sure.

So many treasures she picked up on her second hand store trips that she thought Holly would enjoy;  it was very thoughtful.  We couldn't get over the amount of things you had packed away in that box, it was like diging through a never ending vintage goldmine.



We can't wait to put this in our future baby room.  This is one of the cutest looking Care Bear illustrations I've ever seen.  Really like this plate!



A part of a 3-piece Sesame Street train set featuring Bert as the conductor and ticket collector; Bert is the middle car of the train

We already have a Brave Heart Care Bear plush but this fellow from Jill is in much better condition.  His mane still has some fluff left to it and the tush tag is visible.

Here's an assortment of books that were also included; none of which we had already owned.

I really like the chunky Sesame Street books, I've never seen them before.

And last but certainly not least - this vintage 1977 Whitman Sesame Street tray puzzle featuring Oscar and Herry Monster .  I wonder whatever happened to Herry Monster.  And how about those two-headed monsters?  Anyway this vintage puzzle is one of my favorite items.

Thanks again Jill!

Strawberry Shortcake Ceramics

We picked up these Strawberry Shortcake ceramic figures today from an auction that we won over the past weekend.  It was the first time we put a silent bid on an item listed for auction so we might have paid a little more than what we could have for these guys.  But that's alright.

These figures are all from 1982 - before my time; I don't know much about the characters to be honest but I like the illustrations and toyline.  It was certainly one of the most popular during the 1980s.
 

These will look great together upon a shelf.

Just 5 more days until Christmas Holidays.  I can't wait to wake up early on the 23rd, grab a coffee and head out on the highway; homeward bound.  This is going to be Oscars second visit around the bay and his first Christmas in general.

Linking up with A Living Space!

Little Loot



Sometimes when we find things from a second hand store I wonder what the story is behind it; where did it come from and who had it.

 

Here are a couple of things we found yesterday I got that feeling from.

 

It's a beaver wearing a top hat and scarf coin bank.  This guy is marked 'Reliable' and 'Made In Canada' but is unfortunately undated.  I couldn't find anything about him online either.  He's a great looking vintage bank that has a 60s cartoon character charm.  I can see it being sold on the shelfs of Canadian Tire back in the day.

This rubber teddy bear is marked, 'Made In West Germany' but undated.  I'd really like to know the year of production as I have no idea when it could have made.  Nonetheless it's an interesting looking bear, it kinda looks like Marvel Comics, the Thing but Google returned no results for that search quarry.  Who knows, it could have been part of a toyline or maybe even a doggie chew toy.

You can't go wrong with a rubber faced Santa Claus.  This Saint Nick is marked, 'Made In Korea' and undated, looks 80ish to me.  The cats may fall in love with the beard if they come near it.  Ollie seems to really like furry things and I could see her hauling it down from it's place from time to time.

We had about 15cm of snow last night, the largest snowfall thus far into the winter season - although we're still into Fall.  It wasn't too bad, hopefully the weather is good to us during the upcoming weeks as we have some driving to do during the holiday season.  We haven't had the best of luck in weather conditions when it comes to taking long drives during the winter period.

Linking up with The Thrifty Groove, Rednesday and Share Your Cup Thursday.

A Quick Look At Our Vintage Care Bears Collection

The Care Bears franchise was a massive business during the 1980s.  They were originally created by American Greetings in 1981 for use on greeting cards and in 1983 Kenner took the characters and transformed them into the first in a line of very successful teddy bears based on Elena Kucharik's illustrations.  A huge amount of merchandise was  produced to go along side the release of the toys, everything from magazines to party hats!  The franchise also appeared in their own TV specials, released three feature films and also had their own animated television series from 1985 to 1988.  Quite the repertoire for a bunch of fuzzy, overly loving bears sent down from the clouds.

My 1st Birthday, Care Bear Themed

Personally the vintage Care Bear stuff that we pick up tends to be my favorite.  I grew up watching the animated series, rerun after rerun and the first film was one of the two VHS tapes that my parents would rent for me on a regular basis (the other being The Land Before Time).  Out of all the 80s toys that we tend to keep an eye out for, I feel that the Care Bears have the biggest connection with my very early childhood.

The majority of our collection consists of the flagship plush bears, 15 in total thus far.

Bedtime Bear and Friend Bear were purchased as part of a lot being sold online.  Some things you just gotta buy on the Internet I guess.  Bedtime Bear is one of my favorite plushes from the group, the sleepy eyes adds a little charm.

Good Luck Bear and Tender Heart.  Not too much to say about these guys; I'm unsure if these guys were also in the lot mentioned previously or picked up at the second hand store.

Grumpy Bear is hands down my favorite.  Look at that face, so crabby!  Also pictured is his ceramic figure which we found hanging out at the second hand store - always nice to find these collectibles for a fraction of the price you would have to spend online for them.

We apparently have a Cheer Bear collection and didn't even know it.  Also included in the above picture is a wall plaque, ceramic and poseable figures.  All thrifted aside from the ceramic figure which I think we picked up online for a reasonable price.

Birthday Bear and Grams Bear.  Birthday Bear is sitting with her poseable figure which we found second hand.  Grams Bear came from the huge lot of plush I had mentioned earlier.  She is without her scarf so she may have to be upgraded in the future unless we find a scarf, which would be ideal.

 
Possibly the most valuable toy that we own, Loyal Heart Dog.  Loyal Heart is part of a line of Care Bear Cousins that were only released in the UK for a short period of time, making him a very sought after plush.  These UK exclusives have sold for thousands of dollars, I know, it's unbelievable.  This Treat Heart Pig plush sold for almost $7K!

We found this guy sitting on a shelf at a Salvation Army in the middle of nowhere for just over $1!  There is a Loyal Heart with a rubbed tush heart and faded tush tag listed on eBay at the moment for $370.

We found the Brave Heart Lion plush for a quarter, his mane is pretty haggard but he was our first Care Bear find so there is a lot of sentimental value personally.  Lotsa Heart Elephant was an online purchase.

Gentle Heart Lamb and Swift Heart Rabbit were gifts from Holly.  Gentle Heart's head is so soft!

Bright Heart Raccoon and Cozy Heart Penguin were also both gifts.  Cozy Heart was my favorite Care Bear member as a child and his vintage plush form looks fantastic.

That's the majority of our vintage Care Bears collection.  It's a growing one for sure.

Linking up with the Colorado Lady and Sir Thrift A Lot!

Finding The Counterpart

A few weeks ago we found a small kissing Santa Claus salt and pepper shaker amongst the hoards of Christmas candle holders and Santa head mugs; he's a cute little item that we brought home and added to our Christmas stuff.  We looked high and low for the other shaker but with no luck, Mr. Claus just wasn't there.   We decided to bring him back with us anyway, for just sixty cents we had ourselves a cute little Santa figure to display.  I convinced myself that we would never find a kissing Mrs. Claus at a second hand store and eventually down the road I would wind up paying for a set online.  Now that I think about it, I don't have the heart to split up two salt and pepper shakers, especially kissing salt and pepper shakers.

Poor thing.  Just look at him, lingering for that kiss, missing his better half.  I'm not sure what year this little guy was made or the country of manufacturing as the piece isn't marked.

Earlier today we made a quick stop into the aformentioned second hand store and hot damn what was the first thing we found?

She must have gotten seperated between the donations in the stock room and was just recently put out for sale.  I feel so lucky as I have the strict notion with thrift stores that if there's a missing piece than you're never going to find it.

I really like these guys.  It appears that they don't go for much on the vintage secondary market but they are worth much more than the $1.20 spent on the pair.

They're finally reunited after some lost hope.  Getting tossed around at the thrift drop-off can be tough.  They are a timeless treasue that we can keep forever and pass on.  They are definitely one of my favorite Christmas pieces that we own.

Christmas in just just 14 days!  It's so crazy how it can sneek up on you.  Before you know it it will be 11:00PM on Christmas Day, feeling crappy because it's basically all over and you have to wait almost an entire year for it to come back around.  I'm waiting on a few packages to arrive and am beginning to fell a little nervous about receiving them all before the 22nd.  I figured a week before December would be fine?  Hopefully this week will be a good day at the mailbox.

Linking up with Cap Creations and Apron Thrift Girl today!

You Might Be A Little Fatter Because Of These

Sitting here underneath the glow of the Christmas lights shining from our mantle and the Christmas tree.  I really like what we've done with the apartment this Christmas.

I just wanted to write up a post before I head to bed.

Tray tables were invented during the 1950s as a way to hold food and beverage items while watching TV.  Chances are you had one or more of these in your home if you or your family ate outside the dining room area.  National advertising for TV tray tables first appeared in 1952 and since then they've been used as a product for merchandising and commercialization.

As I recall, I think we had two television trays in my home growing up.  They were the bland matching type with their own rack where they could be hung when not in use.

As a vintage item I think they look great and are a nice addition to any collection.  As per usual, the older the better apparently.  I did an eBay search earlier for 'tv tray vintage' under "Toys & Hobbies" and only received 51 results. I'm not sure of the scarceness of these pieces as time has done it's work on a few of these metal trays, I'm sure.  But I really like the full picture on the merchandise and the fact that it's printed on something that occupie(s/d) such a prominent place in U.S. domestic and cultural history.

We picked up this tv tray table of the Power Rangers earlier today, it was a nice find - It appears that it might be from 1993, during the shows first series.  I was pretty obsessed with the show to be honest; I would watch it every evening and tape it on VHS, pressing the record button during the commercial breaks.  I don't think I would ever watch the VHS over again though :/

Power Rangers was aworld-wide phenomenon between 1993-1995.  The show was huge, the toys were huge and they were in demand for a strong 3 years.  Power Rangers Halloween costumes flew off the hangers.  If I remember correctly they had their own granola bars, cookies & mac n cheese.  I can't believe that it's still on the air!  The more I write about it, the more I like this find.

Here's another tv table tray that we found recently; I want to say 1989 but I have no idea as it isn't marked with a date.

Disney's The Little Mermaid merchandise is still heavily made so it's harder to place a date on the issue.  As for the movie, it's been given credit for "breathing the life" back into Disney animated feature films.  Although it looks very nice I could see us moving this item in the future, depending on the date.

And to top it off, I'll post the last but not least tv tray table thrift find since we've started collecting.

Amazing!  Superman 1976 DC Comics.  I personally think we got a steal when we picked up this for about $10.  I've never been a big fan of Superman but there is no denying the significane of the image and character as a cultural icon in American history.  And as I mentioned before, I like the full image and the illustration; the multi-color stars and pose really define Superman.  It's a very nice collectible that I'm very pleased we own.

Always hoping to find more of these!

Linking up again with Sir Thrift Alot again!

Plastic Santa Face

Christmas is just around the corner.  We decorated our apartment a couple of weeks ago and it appears that everyone else is following suit as the days wind down, watching the holiday gradually come into effect feels really good.

My parents have this plastic Santa Claus face with a red rubber nose; when you press the nose, it lights up and begins to play 'Jingle Bells'.  It's very loud and the chimes are obnoxios.  It feels like a forbidden rule that if you press the nose more than once simultaneously you're just being a ass.  But I love it!  My Dad seems to really enjoy it, as he brings it out every year and hangs the Santa face on a wall in our porch, back home.  Having it hung up, pressing that red nose and hearing that chime is something I'll always remember with good memories.  Through the years he's often showcased it to us all - he'll bring it up, play the chime.  It's almost routinely.  I hope he does it again this Christmas.

Anyway the original Santa Face is still hanging out back home with my parents.  They are pretty 'out with the old, in with the new' so I'm happy that it has hung in there with them for this long.  I think that's a true testament of their love for it.

It just so happened that we recently found a smaller version of the exact same Santa Face, The chime is even the same annoying ring!   All for nothing when it came to nostalgic value.  But I think it was $1.50.

Even though his isn't an original nostalgic keepsake that has been given to us, we have a bunch of Christmas decorations that we use as they've been apart of Christmas since we can remember.  Until next time!

Linking up with Harpers Happenings.  Her blog entry sort of inspired this post, along with the luck of finding this little gem.

Thrift Finds

Welcome to our blog!  Plexiplex.  I figured that I would give this personal blogging thing a go.  I haven't had much success in keeping a blog updated in the past but I'm hoping that I can maybe run with this one.

I wanted a platform to share our thrift finds and toy collection additions - among other things.  As for the later we will see how that pans out in the future but for this first post I wanted to share a few things that we came across during our last second hand store venture.

Overall it was a great haul!

 

We've always had our hearts set on adding the poseable Care Bear figures to our collection.  They're a fairly popular collectible item that are often sold at a high price tag attached - so it was a huge surprise to find these two guys bagged together for under $3!  We've been on a bit of a vintage Care Bear kick lately so these little guys were definitely my favorite find during the visit.

 

Not only did we find these little poseable gems at our recent thrift adventure but we also came across another Care Bear item.

 

 

It's a Care Bear mug! Assuming this is from a line of Birthday theamed mugs released by American Greetings judging by the number 5 illustrated on the cup.  Cheer Bear seems to be our most item collated bear.  This find was a heart-jumper for sure.

 

 

 

 

Did a quick search for some history on this Nestle Nesquik rabbit plush that we picked up but came up empty handed.  There seems to be a lot of the 2009 'open mouth' variation available to purchase online but not so much of this guy.

 

 

Finding something - anything, Rainbow Brite is always considered a nice find.  Neither of us grew up watching the animated series but hot damn, aren't the illustrations adorable.  We found this pillow case and after a little detour through the fabrics section we also dug up the matching bed sheets.

 

 

Another terrific find!  This Strawberry Shortcake birthday figurine is one of my favorite pick ups.  Hope we come across more Strawberry Shortcake stuff in the future.

 

 

 

 

 

Linking up with Sir Thrift A Lot.