Collecting vintage cigar boxes: Cigar anyone?

   My first job after being honorably discharged from the Navy was in a shopping mall working at a coffee store, grinding beans and whipping up specialty coffee drinks - ahh, the aroma was delicious! Only one other place in the mall smelled just as wonderful to me and that was the tobacco store next door. I loved going in there on my breaks because just inside the tobacco store's entrance was a stack of empty cigar boxes for sale: $1 for the cardboard boxes and $3 for the wooden ones. I was particularly attracted to the wooden boxes and bought them to make crafts out of them, transforming them into quirky little purses or jewelry boxes (that was during my Modge Podge years).
     
  


 
   
     Years after my gig as
coffee barista was over, I was in an antique store when a cigar box caught my eye. The beautiful artwork, vivid colors and typography style made me want to take it home - and a collection was born! Most of the cigar boxes in my collection have come from antique stores, estate sales and flea markets. Cigar boxes can be found anywhere from the $2 - $45 range, depending on the condition of the box, the graphics on the box and the rareness of the brand of cigar. I try to keep my cigar box budget under $5, which is why my collection is rather small. 
   I often display them stacked in a tower of color, either on the floor or on a chair. Unfortunately, since they are made of cardboard, the stack can't get too high on account of the lids caving in beneath the weight. Currently mine are perched on the top of a built-in bookshelf in the living room, which allows me easy access to the weird and wonderful treasure I keep inside each one.
  Sometimes I find the boxes with labels attached to them where folks have used them through the years to store various items inside such as stamps, nails & screws or tax receipts (I know this because I've painstakingly soaked and peeled off such labels). I actually don't mind finding labels on them because it's proof of what kept the box from being discarded - and every collector should be thankful for that! 
    This White Owl box is one of my favorites. I found it at the Pickens Flea Market in South Carolina with my Dad, who was just as excited to see it as I was to buy it. The box brought on a wonderful memory he shared with me of his high school shop class where he and his classmates were instructed to make transistor radios from cigar boxes - and they actually worked! If you look real hard at this photo, this White Owl box has the holes cut out as well as pencil markings diagramming where the knobs would be placed (pretty neat!).
    My dad was known to smoke a cigar from time to time and as little girl I was intrigued to watch the smoke curl around his face and dance off into the air in mysterious swirls. Unlike my Dad, however, I have never had the desire to smoke a cigar -  except in my dreams. Oddly, I have had a recurring dream for most of my adult life in which I smoke, and seem to immensely enjoy a cigar (that's one dream that would make for an interesting interpretation!).   
   When I think of someone enjoying a good stogie my mind immediately goes to the late George Burns, the iconic cigar smoking Hollywood legend. Mr. Burns and I shared a special moment many years ago when I (in my early twenties) collided with him as I raced through an airport to catch a connecting flight and nearly knocked the old man over (my only brush with a celebrity). Perhaps it was that brush with Mr. Burns which was the catalyst to my recurring cigar smoking dream...hmm, now there's something to ponder.

Collecting vintage Salt & Pepper shakers: Please pass the Salt!

  
   I guess I wouldn't be a collector of vintage junk if I didn't have at least one pair of salt & pepper shakers in the house now would I? Unlike a "normal" person, however, I can't just stop at a couple of S&P shakers - no, I have to collect more than my share to feel as if I've truly tackled something! 

     The first time that a salt & pepper shaker made me stop in my tracks was about twenty years ago when my friend Debbie and I were shopping at the Rose Bowl flea market in Pasadena, California. We were  looking for good junk, good deals and hoping for a chance of catching a glimpse of a celebrity or two. No celebrities that day, but I did stumble on the coolest thing EVER - a tiny chrome toaster with two cute little plastic slices of bread inside - the white slice for salt and the brown slice for pepper. It had a lever on the side which made the toast pop up or down; when in the "up" position, a slice could be removed in order to use it's contents. I couldn't resist  - I laid down my $12 and it was all mine! 
 
  After our flea market fun was over, Deb and I found an antique mall on the way home where I happened on a salt & pepper shaker in the form of an adorable plastic television set. It was so cool with a little knob that turned to allow the S&P shakers to emerge from the console. For $10 it came home with me. 
      Surprisingly, when I gave my husband the "show and tell" from my day's adventure later that evening he wasn't nearly as thrilled as I was (imagine that!). Since that day I have not been able to pass up a plastic salt & pepper shaker with movable parts; it is a day that my husband shall never forget.

   Thanks to flea markets, antique shops and e-bay I accrued quite a collection in the years that followed - and what I couldn't find on my own, my dear husband and a few generous friends presented to me in the form of birthday and Christmas gifts!

 

  After I had purchased about every movable salt & pepper shaker known to exist on the planet I began to broaden my search and collect S&P shakers bearing advertisements and marketing icons which led to collecting the S&P shakers bearing the groovy colors and funky shapes of  the 1950's and 1960's. Once in a while I'll see a ceramic one that catches my eye but I quickly turn and walk away because if I know if I start on those -  Yikes! There's no end!

   When my kids were little I let them take turns choosing a pair of salt & pepper shakers that the family would use during the month, which was lots of fun for them. It stopped being fun, however, after we moved a few times and had salt & pepper EVERYWHERE during the unpacking process (I wasn't efficient at emptying the shakers before they were packed), oops!
   Since moving into our present home four years ago, I'm sorry to admit that most of my collection has been hiding in storage. I have brought a few out to display on a tray to add a little color and whimsy to my kitchen. Because they are my worst dust collectors, I'm not ready to see the entire collection out just yet - not until I figure out a dust-free way to display them. In the mean time I have two little friends who are in elementary school who love to come over and dust my tray of S&P shakers to earn a little money - I don't know what I'd do without them (thanks JJ and Graysen!).

   I find these vintage S&P shakers just about everywhere from yard sales to flea markets to antique malls. The prices range from 50 cents to about $40, depending of course on the condition and the design. My budget is around $10, although I'd spend a little more (but not too much) if I find a rare one that I don't have.
   I like having these S&P shakers around because they remind me of Jesus' words in Matthew 5:13: "You are the Salt of the Earth..."  Salt does three very important things: it seasons, it preserves and it heals, reminding me and challenging me to keep my salt shaker full and to remain salty for my God!   
 Thanks to my friend Erika, whose blog post "Salt" was the inspiration to this post - Find her blog at www.Erikaunstuck.blogspot.com

Collecting vintage photographs: A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words




By Whimsybop Guest Blogger Autumn Foster

     Hello Whimsyboppers! My name is Autumn and, like my mom (TJ Foster), I also collect things that have no function other than to make me happy!!! I’m kidding- us Foster girls have all sorts of uses for our unique things!  But in all seriousness, I am a collector! Since I was a little girl, my parents used to take me to antique stores, thrift shops, yard sales and flea markets so it wasn’t a shock when I, too, was bitten by the “collecting bug”.

     When guests walk into my bedroom they are greeted with the feeling that someone’s watching them. This is true, of course, but it’s not the eyes of the monsters in my closet but instead my collection of vintage photographs!

 

     I don’t really know when these old photos first caught my eye, but something about these pictures intrigued me. My love for these photos has grown over time and I quite enjoy displaying them throughout my bedroom- something I highly doubt the people in these pictures would ever have expected! Typically, I usually find them at antique stores and flea markets with their prices ranging anywhere from 25 cents to hundreds of dollars, depending on the size, condition, and the vendor- although I try to keep my purchases to under $5.

     So what draws me to these photographs? Well, there are several reasons. First off, I love the mystery of the people in the photos!! I mean, unless they have names scrawled on the back, no one knows who they are. When I look at these photos I can’t help but wonder who these forgotten people were and what their life was like back when the picture was snapped. Questions can always be raised: Are they still alive? Did they have family? Did they have some adorable  fairy-tale romance? Who knows! It’s so much fun to think up stories about the people and, trust me, I do! Sometimes I give them names to accompany these stories.

     I named this handsome military guy "Jim" because of the vendor's code from the store where I bought his photo. Occasionally I'm lucky and don't have to make up a name because one is conveniently scrawled on the back to let me know exactly who this person was. It's sad to think that these old photographs that should be in a family album somewhere have ended up in antique stores where random people like me buy them.

   Another reason I love these pictures is because I love the clothes! This fall, I am heading off to college to study Fashion Merchandising in hopes I will be making costumes for Disney, American Girl, Broadway or the film industry someday. I think this dream began because I’ve been collecting these pictures for a while and have always adored the incredible outfits these people are wearing!! It makes me wish that I could have a Victorian wardrobe of my own! Don’t get me wrong, we have some cute clothes today but DANG! Just look at the clothes back then!!!! The bathing suits, the picnic outfits, the skirts that wouldn’t dare go past your knees? They were stylin’ 100 years ago! These photos are just confirmation that I was totally born in the wrong era… *sigh* I just love those clothes! Don’t you?

    Another reason that I love these old photos is because they remind me of how short our time on this earth is and how we need to enjoy every moment that is given to us!  Through these photographs we can catch a glimpse of what life was like many years ago and just think, in a hundred years from now people will probably look at our photos in the same way, (weird, huh?). Some of these pictures are probably captured moments of the happiest times in these people’s lives and now they’re nothing more than someone else’s memories in the hands of a complete and total stranger. It’s weird looking at the face of a girl about my age who, at this point in time, would probably be an old woman.

   One thing we can learn from these smiling faces is to embrace the happy moments in life. There will always be tough times in everyone’s life, but we have to take advantage of the good ones! Keep smiling! Make memories! Leave something for the next generation to look back on and wish they could go back in time!

My papa is the boy at the far left, his sister is top right and my grandpa is in the Navy photo!

     
   Our guest blogger is Autumn Foster, seventeen year old daughter of TJ. Her bedroom is crammed with many collections that she's been collecting through the years, which she will leave behind in the fall when she takes up residence in a college dorm.

   

Stay Tuned!

   I'm excited to announce that Whimsybop will have it's first guest blogger who will be posting something fun for us in the next day or so...stay tuned!

Collecting vintage wall clocks: The Face of my Adversary

   You are staring into the face of my number one adversary - the household clock. What may seem to you as an innocent fixture has been the cause of my rushing and stressing out for as long as I can remember. I do LOVE these old clocks for their beautiful form and vibrant colors - but oh, how I dislike their function!
 
    From the beginning of time, I have always been late. When I was a child growing up in Ohio, I frequently kept my family of five waiting in the car for me. My Dad even dubbed me with the nickname "Last Minute Charlie" and joked that I would someday have a child just like me.
   While serving in the Navy, I was reprimanded on many occasions for my tardiness and was even required to muster one hour before working hours began for an entire month - oh the torture in that!
 
   It was during my young adult years that I embraced the mantra: "The party doesn't start until I get there" and lived by it without guilt...until I got married.
   They say Opposites attract; well, whoever "they" are, they were right - at least in my case. I married a Marine Corps Officer (need I say more?). My mantra didn't fly with him and for the next few years my lackadaisical attitude was the kindling to many fires in our days of newlywed bliss. My dear and patient gentleman became an aggravated and frustrated man when he learned that his bride was undisciplined as far as punctuality was concerned. The struggle did however come to a lull when we were blessed with children.

 
   Becoming a parent benefited me tremendously because for once in my life, I had a good excuse for being late: morning sickness, cranky baby, diaper blow-out, hungry toddler, sick child, etc., etc. In the blink of an eye, however, our little kids became big kids, and alas, I could no longer use them as my excuse.  
   To my husband's delight, he had another punctual player on his team, our daughter Autumn. She is very prompt and becomes quite irritated if she is late to anything. 
   I guess you can say, "what goes around comes around," because our son Brian joined my team (although he's not nearly as bad as I am) and is known on occasion to make the three of us wait for him in the family car.  I blame this on my dear old Dad who jinxed me those many years ago.

     I'd like to say the reason for my tardiness is that I'm just not a morning person, (which is true), but unfortunately my aversion to punctuality is not restricted to the first part of the day. Nope, it's pretty much an all day occurrence with me.

   My kids joke that when the sad day comes to hold my funeral, they will encourage the hearse driver to take the scenic route, stop for a donut, return a library book and maybe whip into a yard sale on their way to the church so that I can have one last opportunity to make people wait on me. 

  In all seriousness, when my husband and I first learned that we were expecting our first child, we read a series of books with the first called "On Becoming BabyWise," [by Gary Ezzo and Robert Bucknam, M.D., Multnomah Publishers Inc]. One lesson caught my attention and has not been forgotten: being punctual is to show respect to others and to be late is to steal someone's valuable time from them. I wholeheartedly agree with that. It's putting it into practice that is such a challenge for me. Being on time is something that I definitely have to work hard at, and every now and then I succeed! Hopefully one day I will be known as a punctual person, (boy won't that flip my husband out), but until then just give me lots of grace and please love me in spite of myself. 
 

  I've been collecting old clocks for about fifteen years and display them in my kitchen. Mid-century wall clocks like these can be found at on-line auctions as well as your local thrift shops, flea markets and antique stores ranging from $5 - $80+ depending on condition, color and style. I try to keep my clock budget under $15, which is a real challege since they are hot items these days. Oftentimes the cords are too funky or too dangerous to plug into the wall. Most of the cords in my clock collection have been snipped off or wrapped tight and taped from behind. Thanks to companies like Kit Cat Klock, Sessions, Westclox Electric, Sunbeam, General Electric, and Lux for making these lovely, stylish and TIMELESS beauties! 
 Note: You can still order Kit Cat clocks today at www.Kit-Cat.com  (I'm on my 3rd one!)

Collecting vintage postcards: Oh, the places you'll go!

  
   This week's post is a letter to my sweet daughter, Autumn, who is now a high school graduate of the Class of 2013 - Hip Hip Hooray! The photos are from Autumn's personal collection of vintage postcards she's been collecting since she was ten years old. 

     Congratulations Autumn, you are now a high school graduate! You are fueled up and have all the resources you need to go wherever the road takes you – oh, the places you’ll go!  



   This is an exciting time in your life and God has mapped out an exciting course with YOU in mind. He knows the people you’ll meet along the way, the baggage you will carry, and the seasoned traveler you will become when your journey is complete. "...all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be."  Psalm 139:16b 


   As a fellow traveler myself, I advise you to take the time to plan for a successful trip, full of excitement and loaded with adventure - please don't leave such an important trip to chance. "Commit to the Lord whatever you do and your plans will succeed." Proverbs 16:3

    Tune your car radio to listen to God's voice as He guides and directs you. Be confident that as long as you follow your road map, (God’s never-changing Word), you will always stay on the correct course. "Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path." Psalm 119:105

   As with any journey, be aware that the roads may not all be perfectly paved or take you where you need to go. There may be foul weather, car trouble, road blocks and detours along your route. Don’t panic, stay your course and keep both hands on the wheel! “Trust in The Lord with all your heart, lean not on your own understanding, in all your ways acknowledge Him and He will direct your path.” Proverbs 3:5-6

  

    Autumn, don't be fooled when some try to give you wrong directions while you’re out on the road alone and away from home; be street smart and be careful little heart whom to trust. "Folly delights a man who lacks judgement, but a man of understanding keeps a straight course." Proverbs 15:21.
   

    Make the most of your trip by taking friends who will encourage you to be a good and safe driver, keep you alert when you're headed for trouble, and who will share in your desire to see you reach your destination. "He who walks with the wise grows wise, but a companion of fools suffers harm." Proverbs 13:20 
     Don't rush through the trip Autumn, but try to appreciate every part of the journey. Don't be too afraid when you find yourself in the midst of challenging obstacles - believe it or not, those experiences will help you become a better driver. Most importantly, don't ever be tempted to park the car and give up; keep on driving, keep pressing on toward the goal.  "Consider it pure joy whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him." James 1:2-5

    You may not believe this, but there is no such thing as a perfect driver (gasp!), for everyone makes mistakes every now and again. This is where the tow truck of grace, mercy and redemption come to the rescue. Remember, if you ever lose your way, make a wrong turn or find yourself off-course, forgiveness is yours for the asking and U-turns are always acceptable. Never be too proud or too foolish to remain lost - ask for directions! "Then I acknowledged my sin to you and did not cover up my iniquity. I said, 'I will confess my transgressions to the Lord' - and you forgave the guilt of my sin." Psalm 32:5

   Take the scenic route Autumn, and drive in the slow lane every now and then so you won't miss a thing. Laugh a lot, eat well, get out and stretch when you need to. Take lots of pictures, make wonderful memories and pick up some great souvenirs along the way. Oh, and don’t forget to call home from time to time so we can enjoy the journey with you!

   Autumn, it has been an incredible blessing to be your personal "Drivers Education Instructor" these past seventeen years. I pray that you will be successful wherever you choose to go and that your journey will lead you to incandescent contentment, peace and joy. 
         With a heart full of gratitude and love, Mom 

  P.S. Send postcards along the way!

   "For I know the plans I have for you,”declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart." Jeremiah 29:11-13

  "Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go." Joshua 1:9

Collecting hot water bottles: Bathroom Wall Art

   You might find this hard to believe but sometimes I am drawn to collect things that some folks might find a bit...well, peculiar. Not only do I enjoy collecting these oddities, but I enjoy taking it to the next level and decorating my home with them. My collection of vintage hot water bottles is such a collection and my guest bathroom is just the place where this unconventional collection proudly hangs on display.
   I guess these old rubber vessels first caught my eye back when my husband and I were stationed at Camp Pendleton and discovered the joy of antiquing with fellow Marine Corps friends, Bo & Deb.
   I became enamered with the darling child-sized hot water bottles because of the nursery rhymes, numbers, alphabet, and various animal shapes that were embossed on them.
   After a while, I began to notice the larger sizes which came in various shapes, colors, intricate details, beautiful patterns and distinguishing marks such as the "B.F. Goodrich No. 35" - who knew that the famous tire company also made hot water bottles?  Among manufacturers producing these water bottles were Davol, Rexall, Symbol, Ajax and Faultless.
  
    My friend Patrice, who lives in northern Virginia is of Irish decent. She told me that "her people" still use hot water bottles to warm up their beds at night when the weather is chilly and also to lay them at their feet to keep their footsies warm - such a great idea! At my house they're only used after a tough day of yard work or high school track conditioning when there are aches and pains in need of relief.
   Unfortunately the rubber in these old water bottles crack and discolor with age, so finding them in decent shape is quite a challenge. Most of the bottles in my collection are not in usable condition - but they still look great on the wall, unless you ask my cousin Kitty who still can't believe I would ever put such things on my walls!
    The best part of collecting something fairly unpopular with the masses is that the price is usually affordable - even at an antique shop. I can usually find a large hot water bottle for about $5 - $10 and a child-sized bottle anywhere between $5 -$30 (the smaller ones are a bit pricier because they're more difficult to find).
    When my collection was new, I displayed it stacked high on the back of my porcelain throne; however, it did have its drawbacks: only the top of the stack could be admired, you couldn't admire the collection once you were sitting down, and, due to their width, the toilet lid could not remain in the "up" position on its own. Finally I came up with the idea of hanging them on the wall by using small brass nails, which I've been doing for a few years now.
   So when you come to my house and need to sit on the throne, this is the view you'll get - not at all glamorous, but lots of fun to look at! Unless, of course you're like Kitty- then you can use the toilet at the top of the stairs, down the hall and to the left.