Don't trust anyone under 30!

Hey-a, loyal readers! Like always, it's been a long time between updates. I've been up to a lot lately. One thing I did since last update was have an art show as part of the return of the amazing Chicago Blackout. I sold a lot of paintings, but this one was one of my favorites!



Another thing I did was turn 30. The Hemingers got to play a super fun show in Kalamazoo with Peach Kelli Pop for my B-day...here's a pic!



I finally got my hands on one of these nifty bird banks. I almost got one a couple years ago, but when I showed up at the antique store with money, it was gone. This one is in REALLY great shape, and still has a key to open the bottom and a scroll with a poem on it intact. It's made by Oy Mk Tuote Ab in Finland, in I'm guessing sometime between '65 and '72. Gonked Glooked Slurped wrote about these a year or so ago.



Here's another view of it on my cruddy living room couch.



I got this neat ceramic drunk monk bank from the local goodwill for $2. There's no maker's marks, and I assume it's just something someone made in a ceramics class.



This folk art PBR can man was at one of my favorite local antique stores. It's neat but when you lift his can....



....he has a wang! The rubber band is broken, but when you lift the can, he's supposed to get a boner. I had to buy it, 'cuz I'm nothing if not classy!



We picked up this nifty Stanley cabinet last summer in Lansing, and I never got around to uploading the pictures until now. Our friend Colleen wrote about this exact cabinet last year on her excellent Space Age Squirrel blog.



We had our eyes on it for a long time, but it was out of our price range. Every time we saw it, it got a little cheaper until we finally snagged it for $95.



It's at Melanie's bakery,and is currently LOADED with antiques...and the bakery now has a cooler floor. Right after we got this, my mom scored a pair of even better cabinets by stanley at an estate sale for $75. I'm jealous!



There are no manufacturer markings on this KILLER chair. We found it in Marshall, MI at another of my favorite antique shoppes. I now need a giant world map with red pins marking my next targets, and a long haired cat to pet while I plot evil deeds.



This picture is in the bakery basement, but it currently sits in the office. Any info on the manufacturer would be much appreciated.

You Don't Go In The Bathroom With Me!

If you don't get the Misfits reference, don't worry, this post isn't about poop...Hell, that song isn't even about poop, it's about murder. This post isn't about murder either, though. It's about the redecorating job I did on the bathroom at the bakery.

I wish I had pictures of this bathroom when Melanie bought the place. It was UUUUGGGLLLLLYYYY! It was a dark red, with gold poorly sponged over it, with 80's navy blue light house wallpaper half-assedly glued half way up the wall.

This is what I did with it...



On the two larger walls, I hand painted this design. I based it a lot on the background painting from shows like the Flintstones, the Jetsons, and Ren and Stimpy, along with mid-century(and mid-century influenced) hipster artists, like Shag, and Jim Flora. Also, cheap motels and gin and tonics. Yes, it took a very long time to get it just right...I was a total Nazi about it too, just ask Melanie.



The door was just a plain, light, cheap, wood office door. I redid it(along with all the doors in the bakery) in a 50's mint green, same as I used in the middle of all the squares on the walls. The trim is a gloss gray.



The trash can under the sink we picked up in Ypsilanti, MI. I forgot why we were there, probably on the way to Detroit for a show. I had seen these online and had it in mind when I did the bathroom, so I had to grab it the second I saw it. It isn't old, and was really cheap, like $10 I think.



The clock is a Lux(No Cramps relation). I see these a lot and for cheap. In fact, there's two at the local antique mall right now for around $30, if I remember right. I think we got this one for $15 or $20, I don't remember. I do remember that we bought it the day our apartment in Kalamazoo got robbed, and I was carrying it in when I noticed stuff was amiss. I'm guessing it's from the later 60's. It plugs into the wall, but I wound the cord up behind it, because it's an ugly, kinked up cord, and the clock is loud when plugged in, and I don't usually go to the bathroom to check the time.



I found this lampshade at this weird antique used mug/junk store that used to be in the neighborhood. The owner died, and I bought a ton of random crap off her son, who I think just wanted to shovel everything into a huge dumpster. I painted the blue squares on it though. The 70's green glass lamp used to belong to a friend of mine who had a bunch of cool late 60's/early 70's stuff...Lots of owl stuff, puke green chairs, things like that. She's one of those people, though, that just snapped one day, got an office job, stopped going to shows, stopped hanging out, married some random boring guy and started shitting out kids. What bummed me out the most is that when she changed lifestyles over night, she abandoned a couple paintings I'd done for her. Another friend of mine rescued them from the trash. What the hell. Anyway, I managed to save a few neat things she was tossing, this lamp being one.



Here it is turned off. The table it's on I picked up at a church sale for $3. The reading material is Atomic Ranch...Which I took WAY too long to find out existed.



I feel bad for going almost a month without a new post for y'all. I've been pretty busy/distracted/drunk. Here's some more posters I've done lately, I hope you enjoy them.

I wish I was in Florida for this...that's one hell of a lineup!



This one's for a show in Dublin, Ireland!



I'm going to this in a couple hours!



I wish I coulda made it to this one too!

Rubber Face Rebels pt 1

I wish I had a time machine. I used to see rubber faced mid-century stuffed animals at garage sales all the time when I was a kid for practically nothing...But as a kid, naturally, I didn't want people to think I was a girly man, so I never bought 'em...My loss. Ebay really started taking off right around the same time I stopped giving a shit what people thought of me, and the pool of dirt cheap vintage rubber faces had all but dried up at that point.

There were a lot of companies churning out these things in the 50's and 60's, but probably the most popular, and the most collectible seems to be from The Rushton Company, in Atlanta(1917-1983). Rushton also seems to have an above-average level of quality, especially in the hand painted faces. This Graduation owl came from the same antique booth as those wall plaques Melanie got me for X-mas, with the guy playing guitar, and the girl dancing. It was pretty pricey(not really, compared to what some of 'em go for on Ebay), but I talked it down to a nice price.



This brain damaged wolf is by My Toy. I'm guessing it's from sometime in the Eisenhower administration...when doctors were lobotomizing people left and right to cure mental disorders.



Close up!



This squirrel(?) was buried in a box of junk at an antique store, and picked up for I think $5, if I remember right. It's from Uneeda Doll Company, Brooklyn(1917-1991). Uneeda was a very prolific manufacturer/importer in the 50s-70s. They were one of the first makers of troll dolls in the early 60s, and also made the creepy "Plumpee" baby rubber squeak toys in the later 60's. Come to think of it, there's a certain creepyness to a lot of Uneeda's products, as well as rubber faces in general.



...The Uneeda squirrel was the inspiration for this painting I did.



This duck is another one from My Toy, and was made in 1964, toward the end of the rubber face era. It's got a wind up key in the back, to play a song, but it no longer works, and I have no Idea what song it played.



This skunk is one of my favorites. It's another Rushton...My only other Rushton. I wish the price on these would come down, because they made some REALLY stuff. I saw a wolf they made once that looked just like the old Warner Bros. cartoon wolf...I need one of those! I've used this guy in my art as well. He rules!



My neighbor was giving me funny looks while I took these pictures.



I got all this nifty stuff in the mail the other day from Amber, of the great 'I Heart Everything' blog. amongst all the hand made goodies is a real cool record player card in an envelope made out of used bingo cards, and a bunch of neat stickers...



...and the bottom 2 of these 3 magnets. The Von Dutch flying eyeball magnet was given to me by a local sign maker that made the Sign for the cake shop, after we got in a really long conversation about Ed Roth, Von Dutch, and George Barris...the big three! I've been meaning to send Amber a package in return. It doesn't help that I usually wake up around the time the post office closes for the day...



Until next time..