The Museum of Salt and Pepper Shakers

You know I couldn't be in Gatlinburg without visiting the Museum of Salt and Pepper Shakers. We visited for the first time in 2009, and then again in 2011. It is just as fun every time! The museum is right off the main strip in Gatlinburg and is just three bucks to get in! It is a MUST for any vintage/kitsch lover. We have a salt and pepper shaker collection, so that makes it even better! I've got around 50 sets now, but I didn't see very many of them in this over 20,000 they have at the museum. It is such a fun thing to collect because there are endless sets to find out in the world.

I took almost 100 photos inside! But I narrowed it down to around 30 for you. It helped that I took tons of pictures of things I took pictures of the last two times I was there! Haha, there are some motifs I just can't resist!

 Corn with amazing mustaches. 

 This kind of gives you an idea of what the cases look like. So amazing. They are organized in categories. It is really fun to play I Spy and try to stump the other person.

 I love those weird little pepper babies! And look at the freaky eyes on the little pea pod guy in the bottom left! I didn't notice that one until I looked at the pictures later.

 Travis likes it there too. Really! 

 Viking cats.

 I want a cute set like this, with paprika and cumin, since we use those a lot. 

 That mouse coming out of the cheese kills me! I think it is his little legs.

 I can't decide which duck couple is the cutest.

 Ugggggh, this makes me want to built tons of little shelves and color coordinate my collection.

 I would LOVE to have a set like the JFK on the chair. How cute is that?

 A great little walnut craft section. Oooh look at those! The fish! And the squirrels!

 A little section of flocked sets. I have the orange pig set!

I like all the Florida vacation sets together. I really want a flamingo set but I haven't seen one in all my vintage shopping that wasn't super expensive.

 I thought the clasped hands were so pretty!

 The big headed deer are another set I would LOVE to have! They were big, probably six inches tall.

A shop near me has that great skull set for sale! But it is over 50 bucks, and my limit for shakers is about 12. But I would love it in my collection!

 I love their sweet expressions. And that mouse who looks like he is judging them. 

 Those donuts! One of my favorites in the whole museum.

I wish I could have gotten a clearer picture, but look at that mad bowling ball! It is in a weird spot too, so even funnier. He looks especially cute next to the dopey pin.

Though most of the museum showcases the figural sets, there is a section of classic shakers. Lots of jadeite and depression glass and metal ones. I just breeze by that section usually. Give me things with faces!

They have these maps up with pins showing where their visitors are from. The big pins you can see are for collectors, there are tons more thinner pins for everyone else. I was happy to put up our collector pin! If you are in the area, you have GOT to check this museum out. It is fun every time, even though not much changed. Last time we were there it was for sale, but the signs weren't up this time. How amazing would that collection be to have? Maybe someday I'll have my own crazy museum filled with my personal collections.

Collection 19: Poodles! Part 1

I have lots of poodles, and all different kinds, so I thought I should break this collection into two posts.

I think I first saw these amazing poodle bottle cover on Heidi's blog a while ago. I LOVED them, but never seemed to come across them. I don't really buy much stuff online, where the possibilities are endless. I've got enough stuff as it is! So when I found the pink one with the red tongue at an estates sale I was thrilled! The rest have been picked up sporadically throughout the year. 

They are all covering bottles except this one covering toilet paper! That is the only one I've bought online. I just NEEDED one! Look at those pom poms. I need to learn to crochet so I can make ridiculous things. 

Their heads come off so you can still use the bottles! How much do you love the one on the Aunt Jemima bottle? I love these silly guys. I probably won't pick up many more because this group looks GOOD on top of my hutch in the dining room. But I'll never say never.

These black guys are my favorite style of vintage poodle figurine.

My poodle collection started with this thing. I saw one like it in an estate sale listing, but by the time I got there it had already been snatched up. I found out the next day that it had been broken while the man buying it was waiting in line and ended up in the trash. The poodle spice set continued to haunt me. I saw it at a few antique malls for over 75 dollars, but I just couldn't bring myself to pay that much! Then, on the way home from our trip to Florida last year, we stopped at one random antique mall to break up the long drive, and there this lady was, with one broken puppy, for less than 10 bucks! I REALLY love it. I like to imagine the type of family that had spices in something like this.

Two cute book ends. Gina sent me one of these!

I'm not sure what this poodle is supposed to hold, but isn't she cute?

Some salt and pepper shakers of course.

And a silly ash tray. It's pretty funny that I have at least 5 ash trays in my house, but have never smoked. Sometimes they are just too cute to pass up!

I'll show you the rest of my poodle collection later! Someday I hope to own a little teacup poodle! I need to see if their is a poodle rescue near me. Of course, I might never be able pass up the chance to have more pugs. We'll see!

Collection 5: Milk Glass Mugs

It is nice to have a collection that you can get some use out of (other than decorating of course). I love mugs, but obviously with just the two of us, we don't need THAT many. So i made my mug criterion pretty strict. they have to be milk glass. they have to be blue or red. and they have to be cheap. most of these are from the goodwill outlet so they were probably about 25 cents. i think this collection started with the weird flower one, or maybe the blue hazel atlas glass. i love the look of milk glass. my friend crystal actually found this little devil. but she tries to not buy much, so she said "please buy this so i don't have too." i was happy to comply. this universal studios is another favorite. i guess everything on there used to be rides at the park? do they still have a parting of the red sea ride? sounds thrilling. of course, i haven't always stuck to my mug rules. i have some with deer handles and one that is shaped like e.t. but for the most part i am able to resist.

Anniversary Trip: Day Seven

well here it is, the last day of our anniversary trip.

we woke up here!


i loved it!

we've been looking for concrete stuff for our yard (because we are old ladies) and were really excited when we passed this place in the dark last night! so much stuff!!

i love everything in rows. we bought one of those dogs.we found some really old painted things in the back of the lot. we bought one of these too. so cute.we head to the wildlife museum! i've been wanting to go here for a while. because i love taxidermy. and i heard it was crappy.

there was an entry in the guest book that said "you should advertise that the animals are DEAD." like they thought it was a zoo or something. hahah. dummy.

time for the mystery house!
inside the mystery house! dali and escher posters! how spooky.

first room is a black light room! the teenage girl giving us the tour seems to think we will be very impressed by the fact our shirts/nails/lint are glowing.

optical illusions!

hall of mirrors! this was totally cheesy and totally worth a dollar.

i'm really hot and want some ice cream so we stop at a little diner.

i get a root beer float. he orders a sundae with all the toppings. we share fries. we were supposed to go to mammoth cave, but we've been gone for 7 days and we're only an hour and a half from home and we miss our animals so we decide to just go home.
tennessee!!

we stop at my favorite firework outlet to get some sparklers, but they didn't have the kind i wanted.
final mile count! we went over 1500 miles on our trip!
as soon as we get home we put our new cement deer out!

scampi is very excited that we are home! she is travis' cat.
we drive to my parent's house to pick up our baby! rose!

she is really happy to see us!

she loves it when he growls at her and bites her ears. look at that face!
i took 42 pictures of her in the car. haha.
so all in all we had a great trip! but i was really glad to finally be home.