Goofy Girl Valentine

This vintage movable valentine is one of my favorites. Moving the goofy-looking girl's tongue makes her eyes move, revealing the words 'Be Mine'. American, 3 inches square, circa the 1930s-40s.

Flaming Heart Spinner Valentine

This itty bitty German valentine, just 3 1/4 inches tall and circa the late 'teens or early '20s, features a "spinner" that gives the effect of a flaming heart in the background. For some reason, the little boy appears to be dressed as a wizard.

Topsy Turvy Valentine

"He loves  me, he loves me not," says this circa 1920 German made Valentine, 5 inches tall. A topsy turvy, the character's facial expression changes when the card is flipped over.

Coming Up in February...

-14 days of vintage valentines  

-a 1925 Tootsie Toy dollhouse with original furnishings   

-and our latest restoration project: a fancy 1890s German dollhouse pastry shop...sneak peek below!

Before...





                                 
                                                        and after...

Vintage Space Toy Display in a Gumball Machine

I've accumulated a lot of vintage space toys lately, and was looking for a new way to display them that wouldn't take up so much room. I also had an old gumball machine that I'd been trying to find a use for, and one day, as I looked at it, I thought it might actually make an interesting sort of display case.

It had a prominent metal mechanism in the center, which originally turned to push the toy capsules out when a quarter was inserted, and it also had a wire arch that spanned the front window, used to hold the machine's original advertising card in place. They had a machiney, space-agey, electrical look to them, like props from the set of Metropolis, I thought...so I installed some 1950s children's space print fabric as a backdrop, then arranged a scene using vintage Archer Space Men and robots, along with some 1950s space-themed dexterity puzzles.

A closer-up view:

It hasn't really helped alleviate the crowded display area, 

(which is supposed to be my kitchen table)

but it came out pretty cool: