Another Favorite: Globes

It was over 10 years ago that I brought home my first vintage metal globe bank. Dub Ingram had the cutest little junk store in an old house on Main Street in Holdenville, and that's where I spotted three globes in a grouping. They were marked $12 each. I took one home that day, then eventually collected the whole trio.

What I love about these metal banks is that they were so common. Most of mine are advertisement pieces, so they were probably given free to customers back in the day (1960s-70s?).

Another thing I love about globes...I'm a peacemaker. I love our earth and all the people on it. Seeing them just reminds me we're all in this thing together.

These days, I collect globes of all sizes, not just banks, but mostly the smaller globes appeal to me. (In other words, I'm running out of room.)

I ordered one from eBay and was especially pleased to find that it was WAY smaller than my smallest globe. I figure it's pretty rare. See him, right there in the middle on the bottom shelf?

Prices on these shabby little globes have steadily gone up since I started collecting them. My rule is $20 or less, and now that I have quite a few,  I have to be sure I don't have the exact globe.

One year I grouped all of them above our mantel in order to make room for the Christmas decor. Vaughn was aggravated when I split them all up again in the spring because he loved the way they looked up there. They DID look awesome as a "club".

Not long ago, I was in Joplin, MO, visiting with friends. Here we are in some funny hats at a super cool antique mall we all loved.

All this to say...this happened to be right after I did Marie Kondo's "tidying up" in my house. I told my friends I would love to go junking with them that day, but wouldn't be bringing anything home because I had just done all this organizing and clearing out of the excess at my house. Well, who was first to claim something for purchase that day? It was me! When a globe is available at a decent price, I just can't resist.

I even use two globe banks in my fourth grade classroom as my bathroom passes. No, they don't take my precious globes to the bathroom with them. If there's a globe on the shelf, students know they can put one on their desk as a sign to me that they're currently away from their desks for personal reasons. Works like a charm.

I got this awesome globe from Kirk at Gatsby's in Wewoka. Not a bank at all, but certainly worthy of my collection. Wonder how many people have a shabby globe with John Glenn's orbit around the earth on it? Very neat!

Collecting Toy Trucks Together

A few years ago, Vaughn and I decided we wanted to start a collection of something. We wanted to collect something we would gather together, which is quite different than it had been before. (He had not been all that interested in my tiny oil cans, plastic reindeer and globes.) Well, that year we opted to collect old toy trucks together, realizing sometimes they're pretty pricey, and sometimes our junking expeditions would be about the thrill of the hunt, and not the number of toy trucks we'd gather.

Off to the junk store I went that Christmas to get Vaughn a truck for under the tree. I was especially hunting a red one. Well, I don't know about you, but when I'm looking for something that's antique, I'm not always able to find it right off. And that's what happened. Instead, right in the place Vaughn's red truck should have been, there sat a PINK pickup truck with a camper. It was Christmas, it was time to get Vaughn his first truck from me, and there I was, WANTING that pink camper, BAD. So, I did what any junker wife would surely do...I bought that pink camper and wrapped it up and hid it under the tree, with a tag that read, "To Tracey, From Vaughn." (I later got on eBay and found a red truck for Vaughn for that Christmas.) But boy, was he surprised when he saw me opening a pink camper from him. 

This pink Tonka with a camper is still a favorite of mine.

We love Buddy L's too.

Wyandotte trucks have such a neat look.

This one is amazing, color-wise. 

This little dump truck was Vaughn's when he was little. 

We've chosen the office to display most of our trucks. So far we have Jeeps, Tonkas, 

Wyandottes, Buddy L's and a few other brands. 

Not sure how many more we'll collect, because we're running out of space. 

Most don't have a purpose, but once in awhile, I put one of these cuties to work, carrying a Christmas tree or ornaments or our remote controls. 

These toy trucks tickle me. They remind me of a time gone-by, when life was simpler. 

Birthdays

I remember as a child looking forward to my birthday like no other day of the year.

It could be a regular day of going to school or running errands or kicking around at home, but in the back of my mind, in the corner of my giddy heart, I knew it was MY day. 

I knew there was something special to come that day.

Presents!

My favorite meal!

Cake!

Besides all that, it was about the extra bit of attention I could anticipate on that day.

Oh, the year my parents had a Barbie cake made just for me. I was on top of the world!

This year, my 49th year for feeling giddy and special and important, Mom and Dad gathered as many of our local family together at their house (a little early this year...we celebrated on Mother's Day), prepared some of my favorite food, plus the richest banana pudding I love...

The candles wouldn't stand up in the larger bowl of pudding, so Mom made me my very own.

Look at my cute vintage cherry hat I was given for a birthday gift.

I received so many special gifts, carefully chosen for me. A cherry hat, lovely hankies, two small vintage prints of the cutest people, money for Tybee, a Kelly Rae Roberts wall plaque, a vintage girl with bird print.

And this morning, on my actual birthday, the day after school was out at Moss Elementary, two days before our 30th anniversary trip to Tybee Island, I'm feeling exactly as I did as a child.

Special. I'm feeling special because I'm not rushing to get ready for a regular day of school or just running, like normal.

Special. Because of the piles of cards in the mailbox yesterday.

And for so many special Facebook messages, texts and sing-songy birthday phone calls. 

Special food planned by Mom and Dad for lunch (new potatoes are a regular item for my birthday meal but they weren't ready on Mother's Day, so I invited myself out to their house today).

Another special meal planned by Vaughn for this evening.

And he's agreed to my request for a fire in the backyard bathtub this evening (weather permitting). One of my favorite, most special, activities in the world.

Word Junkie

I've been a lover of words for a long time. I like signs for all kinds of things. Like the one in my kitchen. I mean, who really needs to be reminded to EAT? Certainly not me.

I have a neat sign upstairs that says LIVE A GOOD LIFE. Not a bad idea. And hopefully I don't need a reminder to do that either.

A favorite quote is posted in the pavilion in the back yard. It's by Ralph Waldo Emmerson. "The ornament of a house is the friends who frequent it."

Words like AUTUMN and WELCOME and HOME are everywhere throughout the house. Recently a friend gave me a sign that says, "Jesus knows me, this I love."

Blocks and scrabble tiles spell out words at my house too. I just can't help myself.

I'm hung up on numbers too.

But this week, it's letters. Words. And today, it's HOPE.

It speaks to me, this four-letter word of HOPE.
It's telling me...
"You can do hard things."
"God is with you through all of it."

And I like the idea of using junky ol' parts and pieces to create such a beautiful message.

At Home at School

There's so much that goes into the houses we live in and own. We're committed deep. Yes, in debt, usually, but also to the beauty of the home, at least in our visionary minds. To the dings and dents. To the sounds of laughter and joy of the ones we love who inhabit or come to spend time there.

It's not quite the same, but I'm connected in a pretty deep way to my classroom as well. There might as well be a connection since the students and I "live" there possibly more hours a day than we live in our homes.  There might as well be hints of who we are and what we appreciate.

3rd Grade won the most AR points for the month...two months in a row.

The menu is posted on the old metal tray. Each day the person in charge of the lunch menu reads it out loud.

We celebrate lots of things.

We count the money in the coin cup (colander) daily.

Each student writes the amount on a slip of paper for a chance to win the daily candy prize.

A very tidy cubby is rewarded with fruit chews.

Lots of students in 3rd and 4th grade are qualified for the first AR trip, coming up soon.

Q-tip skeletons were such fun to create!

If Loving You is Wrong, I Don't Wanna Be Right.

I'm fresh from a glorious fall day of pickin' and all is right in my world. This particular photo was taken as Mom, Rusty and I entered the flea market near Fin & Feather at Lake Tenkiller, but before this we hit tons of yard sales along the main road in Gore.

Picker Heaven It Was... that's what I'd like to declare.

What I didn't come home with (but should have):
*a $20 gigantic wooden trunk. Needed Vaughn's trailer for this one.
*lighted blow molds of all kinds...snowmen, Santas, soldiers. Cheap, in working condition.
*a tiny wooden toy kitchen. Turquoise and white. $10. Too many reasons I should have.
*Johnathan apples from the farmers market. They would have been a good pie.
*a little handmade quilt for $15. Would have been a nice blankie for the winter.
*some Fiesta mugs in Persimmon. Do I really need another color to collect though?

Some of the things I did manage to come home with:
*a bigger-than-I've-ever-seen red and white gingham metal tray. I couldn't leave it there.
*a yellow flower brooch.
*a red blazer. I dream of being cool in it.
*two single clip earbobs to add to bobby pins for my unruly hair.
*a black and white wool gingham vest. I'll wear this to enhance my vintage junker look.
*one lone porcelain turkey. Not sure if he was salt or pepper. But he's mine now.
*an OU jacket for Baby Brannon. Get this. Ten cents. A button-down plaid shirt too.
*a Gap hat for Cora. And a OU cheerleader dress. She'll rock both of these finds.
*a soft beige sweater for ME. Looks warm and cozy.
*two new rosette bobby pins that I plan to copy and mass produce for gifts.
*a yellow rick-rack trimmed dresser scarf, embroidered with sunny flowers on each end.
*the velvetiest pink cardigan for Magnolia.
*the sweetest red child's chair. Folds flat. Wooden. I fell in love with the words "My Own Chair".

The sunshine, the cool temperatures, the sight of so many treasures, hanging with all those people who I could most definitely relate with...amazing. If loving junk is wrong, I don't wanna be right.

Daisies

Daisies were in my little wedding bouquet 28 years ago. They've been in my heart ever since.

Lots of us love daisies. They're simple, but true.

Picked this old print last Saturday. It's big. And it's big time daisy. A real commitment. But isn't it AWESOME?

Have Fun

I finally got to dust and rearrange a bit this weekend. Summer and seashells were all over the entry table and begging for a rest. Once they were tucked neatly upstairs for a few seasons, I put my mind to what I had on hand that would work well with this back-to-school season. It's still summer and over 100 degrees every day, so as much as I wanted to put out the pumpkins and fall decor, I had to hold myself off for a couple more weeks.

So for today, and until I give myself the go-ahead to put out the fall decorations...vintage toys and games. I gathered some from here and some from there (which later forced me to have to go back and fill in all the empty spots in the house).

These items were purchased at flea markets, junk stores and garage sales over the years and usually stuck in bookcases throughout the house. Roller skates, bowling pins, game pieces, Bingo cards, metal dishes...oh, how I love these toys, and I'm sure there are kids all over who hold the stories associated with each one. (The pistol holder in the antique cash drawer has a very sweet VAUGHN written in pen on the back.)

Pumpkins will fit in nicely with some of these vintage items, don't you think?

Junkin' at Gatsby's

Gatsby's in Wewoka, Oklahoma is a favorite junkin' spot.

The store is so beautifully decorated, arranged and categorized, you can feel yourself getting lost in Junk Heaven.

It's a sight for sore eyes, I tell ya.

Go when you're not hungry for junk or you'll come home with way too much. Just sayin'.

Talk about inspiration station. Sometimes I just go there for some junkin' fuel and go home to rearrange what I have.

Today's loot: a vintage cherry potholder and a tablecloth covered with apples that scream back-to-school. I had a 15% off coupon so I was happy with my purchases and the price.