Why you little!!!!!!

That's what I say in my head everytime I step on one of those little green plastic army men which I just did about twenty minutes ago. Which brings me to todays blog...Marx Playsets.

I really wish my husband was here right now cause this is big thing he collects. My closets and garages are FILLED with dusty old tattered boxes of army playsets, cowboys and Indians and lord knows what else he has got hiding in there...as a matter of fact one day I am gonna take pictures of the garages and just blog about the kooky stuff in there.

My husband mainly collects the WWll playsets. He said what triggered his desire for these
playsets is when he was a child he wanted one so bad ...I believe it was the Normandy one...and his neighbor had one and he would go there all the time to play with it.
He found the playset on ebay and than just got into the addiction of collecting more and more. So many of these old playsets would be incomplete so than the new addiction was trying to make a complete set by hunting online and soon it became going to the toy soldier conventions and trading and selling with other aficionados and subscribing to playset magazines and going to message boards. I would wake up at like 3am for a drink of water and notice my husband in the computer room on ebay searching for Marx playset stuff.

Louis Marx was an American toy maker and was the largest toy maker in the 1950's. He sold his company to Quaker Oats in 1972....Every once in a while though my husband will find some cheapy unknown toy company who had made some reproductions from actual Marx toy molds.

It is UN BE LIEVABLE how much his playsets fetch with toy collectors. Almost one day a week I will find a playset assembled in my living room. My son plays with them so often that my house almost every corner you look in or surface we have has a army man or tank on it.

I did however HAD to get one playset for myself.....The Disneyland Playset. I think there are a couple minor missing pieces such as a Disney character and a car...but I am sure my husband will find it for me at 4am in the morning one of these nights.



Here are some pictures of some playsets...
We have these..

The Disneyland Playset

I think we have this one

Even in Paradise it snows..

***snow globes***From a collectors image

A few years back at a flea market I came across the coolest old school Vegas snow globe ever. I was so tempted to buy it but I thought do I really need to start collecting any more items..and let alone it be snow globes where my walls would be covered..hmm I think not but I have to admit after looking at some collections they are pretty cool.

Snow globes or other known as water globes were first seen in Paris in the 1800's. They were basically a glorified Paperweight and became quite popular. They were made of glass and in the 50's they started being made in plastic as well. Every gift shop in every state began selling them and in the 50's back when taking family road trips were the norm it started becoming a must do thing to have a globe from every state you drove through..or spoons or bells for that matter.

There is something pretty magical about snow globes...gazing through them and whisking yourself off back to your much missed vacation. The kiddos love to shake them up too.

After awhile though the water will begin to evaporate and if kept in the window sill or where any active sunlight shines through the image will begin to fade. This is more common to happen with the novelty plastic globes.

I wish I had a globe now of my house where I can gaze into it and whisk myself away from work....

Come and Get it!!!!

A LUCNHBOX MUSEUM...YOUR KIDDING ME???


Someones collection pictured on Flicker



It's Chow time..Today's Blog...Lunch Boxes!!

When I was younger the more fortunate children had lunch boxes..I came from a lower income Hippie family and most of the time my lunches came in a old brown bag. The contents a poor child like me would get in this old brown bag (which was a recycled old brown paper bag from the liquor store most likely). The contents..One bologna sandwich on Wheat bread ( and I am talking the darkest,dry est, wheat bread with the nuts and oats on top (no fun mind you for a 5 year old) a bruised banana or an orange, some fig newtons ( if I was lucky) and 15.cents for a carton of milk from the cafeteria window or water from the fountain was always good enough for me.

Ok ok maybe I exaggerated a little ( the wheat bread is no joke though and neither is the brown bag, nor the fig newtons). But I was lucky enough to have at least one pink plastic strawberry shortcake.. I believe it was.. lunchbox at one time. ( hey it was the 80's all the cool tins ones were replaced by thick plastic ones)

I was always so envious of everyones lunch pails and it really did tell alot about that individual child. They always had the most awesome lunches in them too. A peanut butter and Jelly sandwich on WONDER Bread with a snack pack or ding dong, and pieces of fruit like a Peach or Grapes and a nice thermos with some kool aid or fresh squeezed lemonade ((very few times would see a can of cola included)).

I can't believe the craze on collecting all started off basically by one guy who collected them and wrote a book about what he thought over all his years collecting what they were worth. I guess when you been collecting something for a long time and really done your research on it and it does not have a book ..you can really determine what you believe the value on it would be.

My son..he get lunch money for the cafeteria.

A greeting to remember

I was very surprised the day before Valentine's day to find a Will you be my Valentine card in my mailbox from a very dear friend. In today's world of Ecards and texted greetings it is a rare treat to find a mailed greeting delivered to your home.

Which brings the subject to toady's blog...Cards.

Ever since I was first born every Single Holiday I would get a card mailed to me and it was always signed with the date and year with big xoxo Grandma. I would get so excited and really did depend on those holiday cards to come to my house...I think they finally stopped at about 13 years old.

I kept every card! Well really my mom saved every card. It is pretty nice to go and look back at them. They bring back a lot of memories for me and you can see each year the card change with the times.

In my pile of cards I came across a few of those old tall cards you would find at the liquor stores. from the 1970's. At my local liquor store now you see tucked away a dusty rack with yellow tinted cards that look like they were there still since 1970.

Paper items (ephemera) are quite collectible because they are so easily disposable and destroyed. This is more towards certificates and paper decorations though that hold value.

I started saving cards for my children starting from my baby showers. I hope they appreciate them as much as I appreciated my mom saving my cards.

C is for Cookie..that's good enough for me

It's been awhile I know..but getting back on track now I would like to discuss another fond memory in Childhood

Now I been caught doing a lot of things as a child such as ripping small holes in wrapped xmas presents under the tree and looking in the closet for unwrapped birthday presents and drinking milk from the carton but NEVER have I been caught with my hand In the cookie jar.

Every household I been too has usually had some sort of "theme" going on whether it be Pillsbury or Strawberries or Roosters..the list is endless but where there is a themed kitchen..you will find it proudest piece ..a themed cookie jar.

Cookies jars can be rather valuable. I have seen some go on auction and end in Thousands of dollars. There are SO many different cookie jars out there and that is what makes them a wonderful thing to collect.

People are so Fanatical about their collections they build websites that revolve around their collections. ( a picture I found online of someones personal collection above)

When I try and think back to the cookie jars I had as a child I think one was a animal of some sort..maybe a teddy bear, than we had a beehive one, than a Garfield one.. than for some reason I guess cause I was no longer a child ..it than became a old green Tin container that read FLOUR..