Salt & Pepper Shakers & Stuff

I've been collecting salt & pepper shakers over the years and even joined the Salt & Pepper Shaker Collector Club--in the main it's an inexpensive hobby and extremely easy to accumulate a nice collection.  Lately, however, I decided to get rid of (translation: try to sell) this collection, took some to the flea market, and was pleasantly surprised to see that people were interested in buying some.  Well, as long as they didn't have to pay more than $2 a set, of course.  So, I found some good deals on shaker lots on eBay and have been able to actually sell some of the better sets for as much as $4.  These are the ones that are valued in the salt & pepper reference books at over $30, of course, but I couldn't even begin to get that at the antique mall booth.

These are called "turnabouts".

 Ha ha!

In the back row are Trader Vic shakers that are found on every Trader Vic table and sell in their online gift shop for $11.49 plus shipping.  I guess you can buy them at the restaurant, too.  I sold these for $3.  Also in the back are little farmers that are souvenirs of Canada (they also have rhinestone eyes).  Love the Gay 90's pink set and the Tobys.

 Amish children, Asian girls with "salt" and "pepper" in Chinese or Japanese, Scots couple, cowboy & his trusty cactus, and those incredible plastic Venus de Milo shakers.  The salt & pepper come out of their boobs!

 Sleeping Mexican and HIS trusty cactus, Paul Bunyan and Babe the Ox, weird and a little bit scary head split down the middle, Indian chief & squaw, and sweet little Asian dolls.  In the back (hard to see since they're black) are two Buddhas.

I love my newest kitchen addition--a Westmoreland Glass large hen on nest.  She's pretty shabby and I'm pretty sure someone painted over her original milk glass since a red cased large hen doesn't appear in the Westmoreland book.  I don't care--she looks great with my vintage spice set! 

 Vintage Asian guy planter.  Wonder if he is part of a pair?

Found these Beatrix Potter character figurines a couple years ago at the Goodwill before they went all internet and ridiculously expensive on us.  Not sure how many are in the complete set, but here we have (from left):

Mrs. Tiggy Winkle

Goody Tiptoes

Jemima Puddleduck

The Old Woman Who Lived In A Shoe 

My friend Lisa from the flea market gave this to me over the weekend.  It's a small but lovely jewelry box--looks like someone may have rested a lit cigarette there on the upper right corner, though, but that just adds to its character. 

The knob on the front is a rhinestone and I love how it folds out to reveal the red velvet interior. 

I bought a very old, very used jewelry box at a recent estate sale and decided to alter it a bit with decoupaged handmade paper and rhinestones.  The back was broken off one of the earrings in the center, so I broke off the other one and glued them down.  Faaaaaabulous! 

You may have noticed the new photos on the sidebar of some of my rhinestone jewelry and cameos, most of which are Florenza.  Here's how they look together in the altered box.  The large round brooch and matching earrings on top are Karu, and those gorgeous earrings in the back are Florenza. 

The compact on the bottom is cool--the mother-of-pearl top flips open to reveal a mirror, there's a lipstick holder on one end and a perfume bottle on the other.  More beautiful cameos and brooches.

I really like the salt & pepper shakers, but I'm just head over heels in love with vintage jewelry!!!