What I did not buy at Goodwill today.

I do have a penchant for the odd and unusual.

But I do have a budget these days for purely silly things and it is a limited budget.

There is a recession going on, ya know…

I want this.  I am willing to wait the 6 weeks or so until it goes 1/2 price.

This is so grotesquely good.

The teeth on the bottom jaw are fabulous.

I got home and thought about this piece of clay work and realized that I almost have a collection of clay heads.

I have had tis one for ages.
Why someone painted it blue and green – I do not know.

Artistic license.

This one is made of plaster and is not aging quite so well.

I always thought she looked a little like Eleanor Roosevelt.

She looks like she would be a nice person to know.

Exercising the Goodwill Way

This must be the time of year that people who bought all that exercise equipment for their New Year’s Resolution realize that these machines do not work well for hanging clothes on and they make horrific  ironing boards.

 

They probably are still paying interest on the credit cards for these things.

( says the person who has prepaid a gym membership and not been there for 3 months)

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Here is an interesting bunch of soap.

Did the disgruntled housekeeper take one, just one, for each lousy day that she cleaned strangers hairs out of sinks and tubs?

A weird sense of entitlement for a lowly job.

Perhaps the philandering spouse kept one bar of soap from each tryst at the same cheap motel – as a reminder of the forbidden times spent together.

 A LOT of forbidden, if I say so myself.

    **************

I like pottery and tonight I got a great Bennett Welsh Studio production piece that I have not seen before.

I am thinking this big bowl will be great this summer for potato salad or chips or for preparing some more of the seasonally fleeting

Hood Strawberries to make some MORE

strawberry shortcake!

Love – Love- LOVE this fir or is it a fern pattern?

No matter. 

It is loverly!

Not Everyday is a buying experience at Goodwill

I got this lovely vase today at the antique mall.

The dealer who knows what I like offered this to me at a good price.

I could not resist. 

This is a porcelain vase.

It is signed, “B Welsh ’83” on the bottom.

It has turnip and rutabagas (?) on it.

Quite an interesting subject matter on a vase.

Fun shape.

Here it is signed – Welsh / Fuller

I wonder who Fuller is?

Anyway – this reminded me of another piece of work that I have had for years – that I probably got at Goodwill or a yard sale.

 This is definitely NOT porcelain.

But this is definitely COOL.

Nice, eh?

I like how the artist embraced the hole in the clay by drawing circles around it.

Different signature than usual.

Maybe someone can tell me why.

PS. I did go to Goodwill today. 

Here is PROOF.

I know.

Icky.

Gloomy Bear Photo for today, too…

There ya have it.

 

What I buy at Goodwill

I go to Goodwill about every day.  I buy stuff to sell.  I buy stuff to keep.  I buy stuff to keep for a while – then I sell it.

Here are some things that I have bought at Goodwill – that I still have!

I just made a great macaroni and cheese in this dish and as I was washing it up – I thought that I would share a view of this fabulous pottery casserole dish with you.

I took pottery lessons for years and I have come to appreciate ceramics in many different styles and applications.

What noodle would not be happy to cook in here?

Now here is a neat mid-century ceramic wall hanging.

Not signed on the back – but I am pretty sure it is probably Fantoni -ish.

I think this is absolutely gorgeous.

 

Nice big raku platter with a vintage Janet Buskirk Coyote behind the platter.

Oh!

Lucky me!

Goodwill Rice Cooker completes the Meal.

My friend, Cecelia, has a fancy schmancy rice cooker with neuro fuzzy logic.  I am not even certain what that means –  but I am sure it is a good thing. 

I really wanted one – but did not want to shell out the $180-$250 for one.  SO…. I kept an eye out at Goodwill for about 2 years and then – THERE IT WAS!

The Zojirushi of my dreams , and in mint condition!

I left the price tag on – so I can gloat each time I use this – that I paid only $7.99…

Tonight – I am making Sechuan chicken – and it is a fabulous recipe. 

This is the way that a GOOD recipe should look!

Some people double a recipe – today, I 5 TIMESED it.  I will eat this for lunch all week.

I got out my HUGE wok and cooked the chicken breasts that had been marinating in soy sauce and cornstarch.

I cooked the chicken in batches – cause even for a HUGE wok – that is a big chore.

Dried hot peppers – garlic – green onions and ginger. 

That is a great combination!

All the cooked chicken is set aside and in goes the ginger and friends into a spicy sauce until it boils and thickens.

Back comes the chicken to swim in the sauce!

The jasmine rice is neuro fuzzily cooked to perfection…

What could be better than this?

 

OOOH!   Ask me!  Ask ME!

Eating this out of a great handmade bowl that sells for over $40 by local artist Ginger Steele!

 

 But I paid only $1.99 at Goodwill…

YUM.

A grinning Cat – A grinning me.

The dealer in the antique mall knew that I really like the fabulous cookie jar that I got a couple of months ago by the noted Oregon potter – Bennett Welsh.

Here is a picture of the cookie jar.  

 

Last week the same dealer brought in another piece by Bennett Welsh – and she wised up – as I had to pay about about half of what I paid for the great cookie jar for a piece that is similar – but really just quite nice  in comparison.   She was smart.  She knew I wanted this one too…

This cat looks familiar!

 

That tail looks like it got caught in the car door a few times…

Good Kitty.

 

 

Louie the cat.

I find that people who name their pets “people” names – are a very nice lot, indeed.

Nicely signed on the side.

Well marked on the bottom too.

My lucky day that the dealer knows what I like!

 

The Art of Goodwill Hunting

I went to Goodwill after work last night (so what’s new?) and found this great piece of raku pottery.

I used to do some pottery and loved doing raku.

It is so wonderfully unpredictable.

You can get different colors and patterns depending on the medium that you burn. Newspapers – old leaves – whatever.

It is like looking at the Universe.

I knew it was a “good” piece of pottery.
I made so many lousy ones, that it taught me what “good” is…

I knew when I spotted the signature that this was even a little better than “good.”
I did not know the artist – but I know a good signature when I see one.

The artist is Jon Oakes.
His artwork is worth way more than the $2.99 that I paid!

At Goodwill, they do not know art.

They no longer put out many paintings – since there was one that they had on their website that went for over $150,000 a couple of years ago. So most of the art – goes to the internet.
But not pottery. Not so far….

Lucky me!

* * * * * * TEA TIME * * * * * *

I found this lovely Japanese tea bowl at Goodwill the other night.

I don’t know much about Japanese tea bowls.

So my guess is that this is worth anywhere from $3 to $1500….

(most likely in the $24.99 range)

I like the way the glaze is not everywhere on the outside.

There is a wonderful “sparkle” in the center of the inside.

Speaking of tea…

I have become addicted to Trader Joe’s Irish Breakfast tea.

It is strong and dark and powerful.

If I let it steep properly – I cannot see the bottom of my mug!

I add a little Stevia sweetener and cream and I am one happy gal.

Eighty bags of Wonderful in this box.

They come two bags attached to each other all wrapped in cellophane.
No string on these bags.

Strings are for tea wimps.

I bought this tea when I could not get to Trader Joes.

My mistake.

Twenty bags of this costs as much as 80 of the Good Stuff.

And, to me, this simply is not very good.

I can hardly wait to go to bed now, so I can wake up tomorrow and have a cuppa!

Well – Well – Wettina- tonight at Goodwill

I just had a feeling that I would find something “good” tonight on my regular once-a-day-need-it-or-not trip through my local Goodwill store.

At first I thought that it was my lucky day as I found just the right sized cooler for a little trip up to Seattle for a few days.  I want to pack some low-carb snacks and have them handy, if needed.

Not bad for $2.99

Then, I turned the corner and saw this:

” Hello!”

I could not read the mark on the bottom but it felt so good that it did not matter that I could not read the mark.

It did not matter that the bottom was a wee bit cracked.

The cracks were smooth to the touch and not a problem to me.

It just felt so fabulous to place that gently in my shopping cart.

This is a large piece of  Royal Wettina and I just spent about an hour googling to find out more about this  so I can find out if it is worth more than what I paid.

ha ha

So I will try to list it on ebay tomorrow and then on Saturday morning , head for Seattle.

My kid wants to go to the Space Needle.  A friend of his says that her Dad put a post-it note on the wall and in an hour, the rotation brought it right back.   I don’t like heights and I will do the Space Needle thing – but I ain’t stayin’ up there an hour.

The last time I went up in the Space Needle was at the World’s Fair.

Here is a picture of me from that day.

This is how I felt inside when I saw that fabulous piece of art pottery on the shelf tonight.

However, being an adult now, this is probably similar to the look I  had on my face…Well… minus the big booger

** Goodwill COLD Turkey – and I mean COLD! **

Hello, my name is ______, and I have not been to Goodwill for over 4 days.

I am a shopoholic.

At least that is how it FEELS.

I have been sorta ill and then the snow came and then the ice and then the COLD.

So, what to do whey you cannot go shopping?

I shop at home.

I go to a shelf, or closet and find something I no longer need – and sell it on ebay.

Today, it was this fab arts and crafts era design book from 1915.

I so like how they deconstructed bugs to make art.

So then I decided that I had a whole lot of “little” stuff to get rid of and packaged up lots of Wacky Packages from the 70’s and vintage travel stickers – old buttons- and whatevers into cellophane envelopes and ready to sell at the antique mall – where I have a small space.

It is supposed to snow the next couple of days.

School has been closed so far this week – and again tomorrow.

I am a LOUSY driver in the snow.  (Fabulous in the rain!)

And I am lucky that I have someone in town to keep the office open for me.

So tomorrow, I guess I know where I will be shopping once again…