Wahoo Nebraska Vintage Auction Finds

On the way back from our spring break buying trip to Nebraska, we made a little detour to Wahoo, Nebraska.  (Really, that is the name.) Wahoo is an Indian word meaning "burning bush". 

Bought for  $3, sold for $54.

On that particular Saturday there were two auctions in town.  One in a lovely warm building with a bathroom.  The other in an unheated barn with no facilities.  Guess which one I choose to attend? And my husband went to the more "primitive" one.  We both got some fun things.

He purchased the manhole cover (love this, may have to keep it).  Can you imagine a path of manhole covers in your yard?

He also purchased this cool old milk can with a brass railroad tag.  Probably heading to ebay.

Paid $23, sold for $61.

I purchased this transferware ironstone set, which I will probably sell separately.

And I bought an entire set of this Haviland Limoges china for a song, but I am having problems identifying the pattern -- they made over 3000 patterns.

Nebraska Farm Finds

Spring break in Nebraska.  Three years in a row now.

 

 There might not be sand, palm trees (or sun)

but this is our preferred spring break destination.

 

 This is the third year that we have purchased vintage

junk from Richard.  This year he convinced his brother to bring stuff.

How would you feel if you pulled up to a scenic farm house,

saw all this great stuff on display and realized that is was

all for your personal shopping pleasure.

(Yes, I went home with everything in this photo.)

Bought claw feet for $20, sold for $60.

Both brothers were pushed around in

this old baby stroller.

It now sits in my Missouri front yard.

It was nice having two men that were able to explain

to me what some of this stuff was.
The three pieces on the right bottom corner are barn
door rollers that are marked 1901.

Paid $30 for the rollers, sold for $152.

 Oh, and here is something else both brothers rode on...
about 70 years ago.

Hastings Train Depot

I rode a passenger train once in my life.  I am not talking about a tourist train, or a "scenic railway."

 I am talking the kind of passenger train that takes you from one location to another --

through the center of Nebraska.

 And we left from this Burlington train depot

in Hastings, Nebraska...

 ...almost 50 years ago.

I am glad that I made it back for a reunion.

 It was renovated in 2000

and turned into a lighting center.

Happily, it continues to be a centerpiece of the community.

Wherefore Art Thou Junk?

While I was at an auction in Grand Island, Nebraska, my husband took a walk down 4th Street.
 He discovered some interesting things at Gauthier Signs.

Assorted characters watched over the area.
I thought I had a prodigious amount of junk!!

Eclectic mix of old, new, and funky-junky.

My husband visited with locals. They explained that Clark Gauthier grew up in a folk art, flea-marketing family and sells his stuff at major antique fairs in Texas.

Wouldn't you love to look inside?

A lion at home with a minion.

One person's junk will be another person's sculpture.

Birds of a feather junk together.

Sometimes the best view of rural Nebraska is in an alley.

All migrating to Texas. 

Selling My Native American "Collection"

You know how you are drawn to some things, but they never really come your way?  I am drawn to native American items.  Baskets, beaded items, pots, jewelry.  Basically handmade native American items.  I have been collecting for three decades.  And I have two such items.  Pitiful.

We are trying to thin out some of our personal collections as we think about moving.  Painful.  I cleaned our massive bookshelf lately.  In addition to books (many cool ones) it showcases Ozark Pottery, white matte pottery, antique coffee related items, and porcelain doll heads.  Oh, and my little basket and pot.  Not enough of a collection to make the cut.

I picked up the little pot from a garage sale many years ago.  It was made by a member of the
Acoma pueblo in New Mexico. Sold on ebay for $21.

As for the basket, I remember vividly where I got it.  We have a nun retirement home in our community.  I am sure there is a better way to say that, but there it is.  They used to have a FANTASTIC fundraiser sale every year.  I was browsing at one of those annual sales when a cute little nun shuffled out and told the lady in charge she wanted to donate this basket.  I scurried right over and said I was interested.  I don't recall what I paid for it, but not much.

Years later we went to one of the Antiques Road Show locations, and took the basket.  This was the information I received on it: It was made by the Klikitat tribe in the state of Washington.
Sold on ebay for $145.

Antiques Return Home

Once upon a time there was a lovely retired couple in Arkansas.  They had built a gorgeous lake home to showcase the heirlooms that the woman had inherited from many past generations that had settled in NW Missouri .  They decided it was time to move closer to one of their children living on the east coast.  What to do with all of those wonderful and historic heirlooms?

They wanted to share their beauty and stories with present and future generations who lived in the same area of NW Missouri, so they contacted our little museum.  I serve on the collections committee, and when we were told about their offer to have anything our little museum hearts desired, I told the curator I would go down and help her select, catalog and pack said items.
That took place last weekend.

This little story would have been so much better if I would have made time to actually take photos.  No such luck.  We traveled about 7 hours from our county to Arkansas. There was another person from the collections committee, a couple that donate much of their time to our museum, myself, my husband and my burly son -- the curator managed to keep us busy most of last Saturday.  She also videotaped an oral history of the items.  What a thoughtful gift to the museum!

When we were getting ready to leave, the lady mentioned to me that anything left was for sale (most people would have been in a coma state watching all of their family history being packed into a U-Haul).  She was still smiling and gracious so I decided I would just "shop" items in the garage.
I didn't want her, or anyone else to feel like I was taking advantage.  I bought a few things, including this St. Joseph MO confections box.  St. Joseph is about 10 minutes away from us.  I love the thought of this great little box heading back home (like the museum items).

On the way home we stopped by a flea market close to Springfield, MO.  I found this little oval restaurant plate that says "Hotel Robidoux".  I am sure I was the only one at the flea that realized Hotel Robidoux (long gone) was located in St Joseph MO.  I snapped it up.  Heading back home.

My Vintage Bridal Show Offerings

My vintage store that I sell at is hosting a Bridal Show in next week.  I will try to take pictures of the vintage inspired ideas at the show.  This post is highlighting some of the items I am taking to the event.


My husband is usually the chalkboard artist in the family.
He made this for the event.

I had worked on three old windows a few weeks ago.

Painting the back of the window so that the wall adhesive graphics would pop.

After doing the windows that way, I started thinking about some

embossed wallpaper that I had leftover....

I actually just cut it to size and used the wallpaper glue to

adhere it to the backside.  So technically, the paper was

backwards.

But it was super easy to do and gave a great effect.

I did it for this one too.
Added handles on both.
For all of the above I used Dollar Tree
adhesive wall stickers for the graphics.

Sold for $24, had $5 in it.

 This was an assemblage of a board that I had,
old photo that I had, and a couple of Michael's letters
that I got for 50 cents each.
Spent about $3 for materials and sold it for $17.

For these last ones i used Dollar Tree wall graphics
alphabet stickers, spraypainted, then peeled off the stickers. 

Sold for $13, had $2 in it.

I was able to use some of the letters
a second time.

Spent about $3 on materials and sold it for $17.

Here are some of them in my booth.
Along with lace hankies, lace tablecloths,
frames and rhinestone jewelry.
Ready to roll for the Bridal Fair.

Selling Vintage Lace

I dug a small suitcase out of the attic a few weeks ago.  It held a couple of dozen rolls of vintage hand made lace.  Very beautiful.

I couldn't quite remember why I had stashed them up there.

Maybe I had looked at these  lovely works of art and

couldn't quite part with them.

But this season of my life I am re-evaluating

all of the "keepers".

And I decided the lace was something that I

was now willing to sell.

Most of it went to my antique booth,

but these pieces are being sold on ebay.