The weird and wonderful treasures of antiquing

I’ve always loved going antiquing. It’s the main reason why I decided to get a degree in art history. And while I have found other loves in that subject besides antiques, I continue to visit antique stores to ogle the weird and wonderful things the shops keep hidden on their shelves.

This is also fun to do when you’re looking for story ideas or want to pick out strange, real life objects to insert into your novel. Antique stores are usually packed with the weird and wonderful, and there’s no limit to what could be in there. Antiques from the 1800s to vintage items from the 1970s all make their way into the dark and dusty corners of these places.

Here are some of the strange things I found on my latest excursion to a barn that was full to the brim of antiques which measured three floors high. This place was massive.

This little beauty is a german stoneware flask. Can you imagine carrying this puppy in your coat pocket? The good news is that if a fellow drunk decided to get a little out of control, it would make an awfully good weapon

Next up was this guy who, admittedly, is not an antique. But this is possibly the most chill dog I’ve ever seen in my life. He was just lying on the path to the antique store all day long, not even bothering to look up at anyone coming or going unless they stopped to pet him. Which everyone did.

My mom and I decided this was a dragon’s skull because it was so big and because we have no idea what it really is. But dragon just seems much cooler, doesn’t it?

There were a couple of these floating around the shop, but this one was my favorite. It recalls stories of ships and mermaids, and a naval adventure full of pirates and magic.

There were a lot of dead things in this place. And definitely more than just a couple of these suckers.

I took this picture for Jenny Hansen because you always need More Cowbell.

This cat did not want to be bothered while she was cleaning herself, but she was more than happy to give me a bath nonetheless.

Not only was this place full of antiques on the inside, but you could drive around the property and look at this veritable graveyard/outdoor museum of antiques scattered all around the yard. So much to see!

Then we went and got chocolate pizza. YES, THAT IS ACTUAL CHOCOLATE GOODNESS ON PIZZA CRUST. And that day was a good day.

And, finally, we stopped off in a massively packed used bookstore that was absolutely brimming with any kind of book you could possibly want. I didn’t end up getting anything, but I scouted the science fiction shelves and I’m definitely going to try to pick up some novels by the greats. Gotta start somewhere, so it might as well be with the best, right?

What’s some of the coolest things you’ve found while out antique shopping?

A Day in the Life of The Midnight Novelist

Most writers lead a double life if they aren’t lucky enough to write full-time. I’m here to talk about that other part of my life – my day job.

In my world, The Evil Day Job doesn’t exist. I’m lucky enough that I really enjoy my job each and every day. Sure, I can’t say that the craziness doesn’t get to me sometimes, but 99 times out of 100, I look forward to going to work each and every morning. How cool is that!?

My day job consists of a 15 minute commute to the house of a family friend. Oddly enough, my mom and my boss met when they both worked at the same doctor’s office. I became friends with my boss’ daughters, and we eventually found out that my boss’ husband used to be friends with my dad when they were younger. I know, small world, right?

This is the name of our soon-to-be website, though the business is filed under ItsAllOurVault.

Well, fast forward about 10 years, and here I am working in the same place I used to visit in order to dance around like an idiot and talk about Harry Potter with just about the only other person who I knew that was as obsessed with it as I was. What do I do there? Oh, a little bit of this and a little bit of that. A typical day consists of:

1. Arriving in the morning and saying hello to the 3 dogs, 3 puppies, 4 cats, 5 birds, and the mouse.
2. Looking at old stuff I would normally only find in an antique store.
3. Writing blogs posts. (Yes, I get paid for this.)
4. Coming up with crazy ideas that we swear we’ll get to one day.
5. Finding loose change to add to our road trip fund.

This is the lucky puppy that was adopted by my BFF. His name is Ares. All together now: AWWWW!

This just part of what I do on a daily basis. So, what is my job, you might ask?

Well, my boss sells antiques and collectibles on eBay. I originally began there as just the shipping girl – it was my job to pack up and send out all of the items that our customers bought and paid for. Eventually I learned how to list, and I suddenly became as addicted to online selling as my boss. Now I do a little bit of just about everything and I joke that I’ll become the Vice President when we become a multi-million dollar corporation. The stuff that I come across every day is absolutely incredible, and I can’t say that I’m not extremely lucky work there. Here are the top 5 reasons:

1. I work out of my boss’ house, which can get crazy, but is SO much better than an office building with windowless cubicles. *shudder*
2. I am actually friends with my boss and my co-worker, and we all get along perfectly. I never have to worry about being shot down if I’m suggesting ideas or questioning anyone’s sanity. (Someone has to be the voice of reason!)
3. I get to come into work in my pajamas any day I want.
4. The animals. ‘Nough said.
5. A typical Friday in the summer consists of going to yard sales and antique stores to spend someone else’s money (whoo hoo!), followed by being taken out to lunch.

Oooo, shiny!

The best part about my job is the flexibility. I can work from home when I want to, and I can adjust my hours whenever I need to. Taking time off is not a problem at all, and I can always make up the work ahead of time. Better yet, I get to use a lot of my skills as a writer when I list items online and when I write for our blog.

The blog is the real reason why I’m writing this post. I want to show you guys another side of me, another passion that I have. Writing will always be my number one, but this is my second love: vintage and antique items. I don’t have a lot of money to spend on them, so I’m lucky that I get to be surrounded by them each and every day. I’d love for you guys to check out our blog. I’ve got three series that I run on there regularly:

Mondays are dedicated to our “How to Sell” posts. The blog is a way to help struggling eBay sellers who are just starting out and don’t know how to buy and sell inventory for online retail. In these posts, I pick a single topic (ie. costume jewelry) and explain our own process. Hopefully it helps someone to get their foot in the door – I understand how scary it can be to take that leap and start selling.

On Wednesdays I talk about our “Word of the Week.” I pick one word to discuss for that day – all related to antiques and collectibles. There’s a lot of jargon associated with this line of business, and it can get pretty overwhelming. We’re going to make a website soon, and this is my way of slowly putting together a glossary for our site.

And finally, on Fridays, I have our “My Weekly Score” posts. In these posts I pick one thing that we’ve sold that we have made a good profit on. I tell our readers what it is, what we bought it for, and what we eventually sold it for. The purpose of this is to show specific items that sellers can look for – things that they know will sell.

I’ll admit that this post is a bit of shameless self-promotion, but I don’t really expect anything to come from it. I know a lot of you like antiques and collectibles, so hopefully you get five minutes’ entertainment from checking out my other blog. If not, no worries! It isn’t for everyone.

If you are interested, you can follow the blog by visiting it here. Our Twitter and Facebook pages are on that site as well. If you know of anyone else who would be interested in our material, feel free to spread the word. If you’ve got any questions or suggestions, I can take them here or over on the other blog. I run it all by myself, don’t hesitate to drop a comment over there!

This is what I get really excited about: costume jewelry!

Regardless of whether or not you go visit, I’m curious: do you collect anything? Do you remember your parents or grandparents having a collection of some sort? If you don’t have a collection yourself, what is the one item you’d be willing to splurge on just for the sake of looking at it?