Tchotchkes & Frippery

I found myself completely unable to pass up this big glass pear. Sure, I could imagine it sitting in a bowl with other glass fruits at someone’s grandmother’s house, but I didn’t buy any other glass fruit and I didn’t buy a bowl. I think this makes an excellent and unusual decoration on its own.

$0.75

I’m a sucker for little ceramic tchotchkes like this (hence my url!), so at $0.50, I couldn’t pass this little guy up!

The first time I saw these alligator (or crocodile? I’ll admit I don’t know the difference, just that there is one) salt and pepper shakers at Goodwill, I forgot the cardinal rule of thrifting: take it out of context! Thrift stores are full of tacky, junky… well, junk. It’s easy for otherwise cute items to be lost amid the sea of porcelain teddy bears and blend right in. So the first time I saw these, I laughed at how weird they were and moved on. When I went back the following week, they had been moved to a counter near the cash register by themselves. This time I got a good look at them, out of the context of the tacky tchotchkes, and realized they were quite the treasure. Are they weird? Absolutely! But from their vaguely pinkish tones to the water lilies stuck to their backs to the fact that they’re alligator-shaped shakers, they’re absolutely unique, cute, and above all else, totally awesome. A few of the lily petals are broken on the pepper shaker, but it’s not that noticeable - in fact, I didn’t notice it until a few days after I bought it!

$1

I saw this lovely brass deer at a consignment shop along with another for $10 each. I loved them, but the price was a little steep (I’m currently unemployed and go thrifting at least once a month, so I’ve got to stretch every penny!), so I walked away… only come to back a few days later for one of them. I debated and compared the two, and decided this one was the cutest. I hated to split up the set, but I just didn’t have a place in my budget to be spending $20 on brass deer. She now sits proudly on top of my dresser, being generally cuter and cooler than everything else up there. 

I found this adorable little figural pencil sharpener at a flea market. The man selling it had quite a few, but they were each about $3, and I only had a little cash on me and a lot more booths to check out, so I limited myself to just one. The choice was difficult, but the diving helmet ultimately won out! And, yes, it still works!

$3.00

As many very old bottles were and are, these bottles lived underground for quite some time. It was very common in the old days for people to throw their garbage in their outhouse, so old outhouse sites contain many old bottles underground. When I found these two bottles at the flea market, I loved their raised lettering, but not the murky deposits the earth had given them. I scrubbed them, I soaked them in all sorts of chemicals, but to no avail, the deposits wouldn’t budge. Underwater, the bottles looked pristine and new, shining like they must have the day they were purchased. I wanted those bottles, not the chalky bottles they turned into as soon as they dried. But over time I began to see the beauty in the discolorations and scratches. The bottles were quite charming all along.