While I visit Madison, Wisconsin fairly frequently (as my friends Tricia & Steve live there), I've only been to Milwaukee once before. The Amtrak train tickets are rather expensive ($20 each way) and I'm a little afraid to take the Megabus there by myself. Luckily my friend Albert had rented a car for the week (a yellow VW bug!) and offered to take me on a day trip to Milwaukee on a vintage expedition.He took the above photo of me on the 2nd floor of Blackhawk Antiques, they had the best Midcentury furniture there, all in great condition, unfortunately it was out of my budget and it also wouldn't be possible to bring a couch back to Chicago in a bug. I'm wearing one of my $1 dresses from that Evanston estate sale I wrote about in my previous entries. This one has little rows of ruffles on the shoulders and buttons all the way down the front.
My first find of the day was the little gold-filled locket above at Blackhawk Antiques. It was disturbingly cheap, so cheap I thought it must be either tin and/or a reproduction. But nope, it's definitely vintage!
A lovely wool cardigan originally from Marshall Fields (I love the flagship store in downtown Chicago, unfortunately it's a Macy's now but all the original architecture is intact). It has tiny stitched flowers at the cuffs and all down the front, the best part is the silk lining so it won't be itchy!
Now I can use all the sweater clips I've bought over the years, this little goldtone rose clip is from Kouk's Antiques in Northwest Chicago.
There was a surprising amount of antique stores/malls in one area, we found a massive 3-story antique mall called Fox Skylight Gallery of Antiques. As with most antique malls some booths are very pricey while others offer bargains, often on similar items. On the second floor I found rows and rows of vintage salt & pepper shakers, my mom's favorite collectible. I'm giving her the kitties on the left, they have 'real' yarn balls and when you turn them over they squeak! I'm trying to decide if I'm going to keep the wooden owl set with rhinestone eyes or the middle set from Barcelona that has its own little wire & wooden stand with tiny feet.
I don't usually pick up individual charms (I prefer intact charm bracelets) but couldn't resist digging through a tray of charms at Skylight. The top charm is a tiny harmonica and the one on the right is a tiny lucite ice cube in sterling silver tongs. It's now one of my favorite charms as it reminds me of stories my grandmother used to tell me about the ice man giving chips of ice to the neighborhood kids back in the early 1930s when she lived in Winnetka (a northern suburb of Chicago). These charms are pretty tiny, the shield is about 3/4" and the other two are about half an inch tall.
More tiny trinkets, I'll probably wear these on the collar of one of my vintage blouses in the fall. At first I thought the class pin on the left was made for a reunion of some sort but it also could be a graduation pin from 1912, it has the old type of pin latch on the back. Not sure what the 'special merit' pin is for... could have something to do with the armed services? I like to think it might be for some special achievement in school (it would be so much more fun to get a brass pin for merit rather than the stickers that were given out in my day).
Super sparkly ring also found at Skylight. This is my fourth 'bubblegum machine' ring as I call them-- sometimes they're set in sterling silver or some kind of plated metal and they have giant crystals or glass solitaires. While I'm also drawn to delicate jewelry there's something about these chunky rings that appeal to me, they're not pretending to be something they're not.
The broade wallet is from Skylight and is probably from the 1960s. I found the satin green clutch and matching coin purse at a Salvation Army in Chicago a week or so ago.
Next we hit this odd little junk shop run by two elderly men. Of course nothing was priced. I found these two 1940s yearbooks in a stack of dusty books, there were also a few from the 1930s but the pictures weren't as interesting/creative. I'll scan the contents & post them here in the future.
Flintstones valentines from the 1960s (?) and sleeves meant for 'ice milk' (ice cream) sandwiches. I bought three of the sleeves and hope to frame them individually and hang them in my kitchen.
A plastic tube brimming with plastic gumball charms/Cracker Jack prizes. I believe these are from the early 1960s? These are also from the little junk shop.
These charms didn't photograph very well (something about the neon green)... the round charm on the right says "Forget Me Not" and has three flowers on it, there's a windmill second from the left on the bottom and there's a little rocket ship in the top row.
The little baby dolls are super creepy, it's something about their faces. I'm probably going to sell/give those away.
A junkmobile/political propaganda machine that Albert spotted while we were stopped at a red light. He hung out the window and took these two pictures.
So I was super jazzed to visit the St. Vincent DePaul and Value Village thrift stores after reading Kathryn's raving reviews on her Backgarage blog. Unfortunately we must have gone on an off day as there was no Midcentury Modern furniture (like the awesome desk and school chairs in her flickr set) and I only found a few things at St. Vicent DePaul (the tin, souvenir mug and yellow Mikasa knockoff creamer) and a chippy white & aqua potato masher. The green handled ice cream spade was from the Skylight antique store. It's always hard to know what kind of inventory a thrift store is going to have day to day but I was definitely disappointed, I had visions of cheap furniture & rows and rows of Pyrex dishes in my mind! Ah well.
We ended our day on hip Brady Street, Milwaukee's version of Chicago's Wicker Park/LA's Los Feliz/NYC's Greenwich Village. The last time I went to Milwaukee I loved Brady Street, I had the best cookies at Peter Sciortino's bakery and scored several pairs of deadstock vintage glasses frames at Firefly Vintage and several pieces of clothing at Yellow Jacket vintage. Sadly the vintage glasses inventory has dried up at Firefly and Yellow Jacket had some gorgeous winter coats but they didn't fit quite right on me (boo). The cookies (and chocolate croissant) we got at Sciortino's were still amazing and we did find a vintage store just off Brady Strett called Anna's 2nd Hand Chic. It was a tiny space crammed floor to ceiling with vintage so it was difficult to browse (and prices were high). I did find this rhinestone-studded charm bracelet from the 1950s, don't you love the rotary phone & roadster?