WiseArts

We had so much fun thrifting yesterday, that we decided to get in a little more today. We went to a few more out-of-the-way stores, that my husband and I had never been to before. I found waaaay too much stuff.

Here’s the lowdown!

Books: “Every Man A King; or Might In Mind Mastery” by Orison Swett Marden, 1st ed. 1906 - purchased for  $4.25
“Our Animal Friends” by Virginia Hunter - a Rand McNally Elf Book, 1956 - purchased for $1.75
“Walt Disney’s Bambi” - A Mickey Mouse Club Book, 1948 - purchased for $2.75
“Lassie and the Kittens” - Tell a Tale Books 1956 - purchased for $2.00

“Shirley Temple Tells the Enchanting Story of Walt Disney’s Bambi” - mini storybook and 2 (yellow!) records - RCA Victor, 1949 - purchased for $4.25
“Music From the Original Motion Picture Sound Track of Walt Disney’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs; Someday My Prince Will Come” - Walt Disney Little Gem Record - Purchased for $1.25

Japanese tea towel - $3.25

Vintage linens - $4.25, $3.00, 50 cents

Strawberry fabric - 25 cents
Sheer dots fabric - $2.00
Vintage floral hankie - $1.00

Latch Hook Cats - 50 cents each

Care Bear Cousins and Popple stuffie fabrics! Great additions to my collection! $1.50 each. We have: Lotsa Heart Elephant, Light Heart Raccoon, Treat Heart Pig, and Cozy Heart Penguin. The Popple is unnamed. The Care Bears all have their fronts and backs stitched together already (thus are inside-out).

Wooden Miniature Birds - 25 cents. These have some paint coming off, but I think they’re sort of charming that way. Not sure what I’ll do with them yet.

Van Brode International Dancer Figures - These are cereal premiums from the 1950s. $2.00 for the lot. Left to right they are labeled: Hungarian, China, Italy, West Indies.

Doll Heads! 50 - 25 cents. Someone PLEEEEASE cut me off. I have a whole friggin’ crate full of doll heads and parts. I have made zero dolls. Why am I so intrigued by these?

Along with the doll heads, I found these great books about dolls and stuffies you can make with doll heads!! Novel concept! Maybe I’ll do that sometime. “Darice Darlings” - 50 cents. “Loveable Stuffables” and “Stuffable Playmates” - 1.50 each.

You know you’re obsessed with Care Bears when you buy Care Bears Baby stuff and you don’t even have a baby. This little hat and booties was only $1.50. I’ll have someone to put it on eventually. Just not planning on that quite yet! Gimme a few years folks.

I got in a little thrifting today while visiting my grandma! She also enjoys thrift store shopping, so we had a great time hunting for treasure.

I didn’t find anything incredibly exciting, but I did get this cool vintage fabric for $2.50. I also picked up a few antique books. “Sailing Alone Around the World” by Captain Joshua Slocum, printed in 1911, was priced at $1.50. “Round the World on a Penny” by Anita Willets-Burnham, printed in 1946, was also $1.50. They both have neat illustrations and seem that they will be good stories.

Sorry, posting from iPhone, can’t rotate the photo…

This evening I attended the PhizzPop design challenge, sponsored nationally by Mircrosoft, and locally by mima. Five local design firms (Colle + McVoy, Hanson Inc., Moov Worldwide, Space 150, and Zeus Jones took on the challenge issued by Microsoft. Very basically, the challenge was to use Microsoft Expression Studio and Silverlight to create a multi-platform web application that integrates social media, services, and digital distribution, as well as integrating physical in-store and mobile interfaces to extend the experience. The point of this application is to create a kind of new, richer, shopping experience - one that enhances physical shopping scenarios, brand awareness and improves online promotion and traditional online browsing, selection and cross-sell scenarios, as well as building stronger relationships with online retailers. The title of the design brief was “Touching consumers: Thriving with online retailing and multichannel promotion.”

The concepts presented were incredible integrations of social media and online shopping. These were like Twitter, Facebook, Wists, Amazon, Google Maps, Yahoo Shopping, and lots more… all wrapped up into one neat shopping experience. In the basic essence, each design firm’s application was the same, as it needed to fulfill certain requirements of the challenge; however, each firm added unique features and design elements. There were concepts such as: creating a shopping list for a retail store and then generating an inside map of the store with notations on where your desired purchases are located, reserving a parking space online and having your in-store purchases ready for a quick pick-up, placing kiosks in retail stores where you could view product demos and comparisons to decide which products are right for you, lots more… Maybe not all of it was possible/practical, but very interesting ideas nonetheless. Each firm’s application had a slightly different twist on interface design. The two I liked the most were Space 150 and Zeus Jones’ designs. The name of this conceptual application was to be “Indigo”, and some of the firms really seemed to take the name to heart and make everything BLUE! Blue is nice, but when nearly everything on an interface is blue it seems so cold and austere. The designs by Space 150 and Zeus Jones were more colorful and also did some nice things with the Indigo logotype. In the end Zeus Jones was the people’s choice, and the judges’ choice to win the Minneapolis challenge and move on to the next stage of competition.

In addition to these nice presentations, there were free drinks, and trays of delicious hors d’oeuvres travelling about the room. The lighting and music created a fun, club-like atmosphere. There were a few prize drawings, and some Microsoft swag on the way out.

My only gripe about this event was that I would have like to have heard more about how the concepts were (or would be) implemented/programmed (and also some people in the back that wouldn’t shut up! Probably taking advantage of the free drinks!). I think the point of the event was really to showcase Microsoft’s interactive design products, so why not get into a little more detail there? In fact, I learned more about Silverlight from a nice guy that was sitting at my table than from the presentations. Overall though, a very fun and inspirational event.