Mary Kay Andrews

Better Living through Chemistry


Innocent-looking Chemcraft chemistry set

Friday’s round of estate sales started with an early-morning outing to the far suburbs of Atlanta, which was unusual for me, since I usually stay ITP–or inside the perimenter. The sale was in a subdivision of large newish homes–again, not somewhere I normally stray, simply because I assume the good old stuff will be found in dinky cottages in in-town neighborhoods. But the sale ad looked promising, so off we went. Everything was clean and well-organized, laid out in the large driveway and garage–again, not the norm. I’ve gotten so I actually don’t trust a potential sale unless there’s a towering pile of mouldering mattresses at the curb, a dumpster in the front yard, and the heady aroma of cat piss and mildew wafting from the front door. Can you believe it–the pros running the sale had a basket of fresh-baked brownies and cold complimentary bottles of water at the cash-out table. Say what??? I was highly suspicious, to say the least. But the stuff was actually pretty good, and the prices were only slightly inflated.

Willlow child’s rocker, globe, pick-up stix

I managed to score a willow child’s rocking chair, a Replogle globe, the USA pottery pitcher and creamer, a Pickup-Stix game, a repro ice tea decanter, and an intriguing 1940s Chemcraft chemistry set. Went on to another sale, where I found an awesome hand-caned shabby chic chair and a pair of cool industrial looking lab stools.

Shabby chic cane chair & ice tea decanter

Still later in the day, at an intown sale, I bought a huge chippy picture frame, and what I’m assuming is a repro tin Coke bottle thermometer.
Once I got home, I took a good look at the Chemistry set and was astonished to find that it promises fun with atomic energy! WTF? There are lots of nifty test tubes and beakers and stoppered bottles of chemicals. Oh yeah, and a bottle containing an alleged URANIUM ORE as well as a Radio Active Screen which looks a lot like cardboard to me.


Hand-dandy radio-active screen plus test-tubes


Cork-stoppered glass bottles of chemicals

Um, yikes. I’m actually having second thoughts about putting this in my booth at Seaside Sisters because I’m afraid some little kid (or Tybee miscreant) will yank it down off a shelf and smash all the glass bottles–or swallow some of the alleged strontium, not to mention accidentally set off some not-so-fun nuclear incident. So…all you pro junkers out there–any suggestions on how to sell a vintage chemistry set without harming life on this planet as we know it?

The Kindness of Strangers

Lick-skillet Love
On Friday I went tooling around to some estate sales. At the last one of the day, I was at a sale with ridiculous prices. All I bought was a $7 skillet for The Breeze Inn, and a pair of ’40s black satin slips. As I was leaving two cheerful women were loading their SUV with rakes and shovels that they’d bought. “What’d ya get?” they called. When I told them I’d bought a skillet, one of them asked “want another?”. Well, sure! They told me they’d just found two old skillets on a curb, and although they were going to keep the smaller one, they’d be happy to GIVE me the larger one. “Follow us,” they said, telling me they lived just around the corner. So I drove around the corner, pulling into their drive-in behind them. And the random thought occurred to me: what if these were not harmless, slightly butch-looking women? What if they were serial psycho killers? What if they were planning to lure me into their home with promises of a free skillet, and instead planned to sell me into white slavery? I know, I am slightly, er, OVERAGED for white slavery, but these are the things that occur to somebody who makes a living making up stuff. So I called Mr. Mary Kay and read him their license-tag. “If I don’t come home,” I told him, “call the cops!”. Of course, they came out moments later with the promised skillet. It had a little rust, but we cleaned it up and seasoned it in the oven with some vegetable oil, and it is now good as new–ready for the next fish-fry at The Breeze Inn. And I have a new appreciation for the kindness of strangers. As long as I have their license tag written down.

A Junker’s Price Puzzle

Stangl vase, 10-inch, matte turquoise

Tiny Steiff Elephant, minus tusks

Tonka stake-truck–early 1960s?

When I got home from Tybee on Monday, I was delighted to find an email from my favorite estate sale dealer, Vicki, about a rarity–a Tuesday estate sale. Of course, I rushed over there Tuesday morning. The street was swarming with cars, and the yard with shoppers, because it was a driveway sale. Lots of early shoppers had already picked over the goods, but I managed to score a few things. The three things I’m going to show you were such good buys–and so collectible–I think–that I’m pondering how to price them. The little Steiff elephant still has his ear-button, but the pads on his feet are worn through to the straw stuffing, and he’s apparently missing his tusks, although he does still have his red felt saddle blanket. I’ve checked eBay prices, but particularly for the Stangl vase, which has no chips or cracks, I can’t find anything really comparable. I’m stumped on the Tonka truck, too. From looking at various toy sites, I’m thinking this guy was made in the early ’60s, maybe ’63 or ’64. The tires are rubber, and the windshield appears to be plastic. There isn’t a rear tailgate on the truck bed, not sure if it’s missing, or how that would affect price. Any suggestions from my junker buddies out there in blogland would be greatly appreciated.

I’m baaaaack



Joel and Mr. Mary Kay with the pause that refreshes



So sorry for the interruption in bloggosity. What with finishing revisions for TFB (the friggin’ book), construction projects at The Breeze Inn, and a LOT of company, I sorta got sidetracked. But no worries. I’m back, and ready to “share”–as they say in school these days. First off, here’s a look at the construction projects completed by Mr. Mary Kay and good friend Joel, who came in from Birmingham just to tackle the difficult, sweaty stuff.

The challenge was to enclose our skanky old carport into a garage, where we can secure our bikes, beach carts, yard tools and yes, my extra junk inventory for my booth at Seaside Sisters. After taking a look around at lots of the original Tybee raised cottages on the island, MMK decided to give our humble garage the same kind of look by enclosing the carport with 1-by-4 vertical boards. He and Joel sunk posts in concrete, then built headers and footers, and screwed down the boards. They even built nifty barn-doors so we can lock up our stuff. Cool, huh?



Our new Garage Mahal

Once the garage was complete, they turned to the outdoor shower. We’d had an area beside the screened porch at The Breeze Inn plumbed with a shower two years ago when we were restoring the house, but had never gotten around to building an enclosure. Again, they sunk posts in concrete, then built the enclosure. For doors, they incorporated two of the old wooden shutters I’d been hoarding from my last trip to the Brimfield Antique Market. Then, they put down a boatload of concrete pavers for the floor of the shower and the area next to the garage.



Pam checks out the new shower

Finally, for privacy, Mr. Mary Kay put up a towel rod on the door, so that someone who decides to shower in the buff can simply drape their towel over the crescent-moon cut-outs in the shower door. He also installed four towel or robe hooks made from four old chrome faucets i’d been hoarding from an Atlanta estate sale.



Old faucets make great towel hooks

Once the outdoor projects were finished, we decided to play catch-up inside. In the dining room, we hung the two gorgeous bird paintings I bought in Destin while I was on book tour in July, and created a new sleeping area downstairs, moving furniture around and de-cluttering. For the bed there, I bought a pair of beat-up mahogany headboards at the Scott Antique Market for $50 in August. I painted them the same bright turquoise as the hall tree in that same area, and the Mister hooked them up with a pair of salvaged bed rails from our basement in Atlanta. We took a trip into Savannah and bought a nice new pillow-top mattress, and a pair of new feather pillows and mattress pad at Homegoods. And then the fun began. Rummaging around the closets and crannies at The Breeze Inn, I found a perfect white matlesse bedspread from a forgotten yard sale, two huge linen euroshams with a nautical blue piping, a pair of blue and white ticking striped shams, and yet another pair of blue and white quilted shams left-over from the Better Homes and Gardens shoot last summer. Accessorized with a quilt bought at an antique shop in Tennessee last summer, I think the bed looks pretty and inviting. Best of all was the fact that I had all the bed linens pre-hoarded, er, stashed.



We finished the new sleeping area with only hours to spare before my college roomies from UGA arrived for our chick weekend. We had a great time reconnecting. All of us met when we were living in Creswell Hall at UGA in 1974–except for Sheryl, who roomed with some of us our junior year. Pam and friend Linda are south Georgia girls who come from farming backgrounds. Pam arrived with the best kind of hostess gifts–food! Pecans from her orchard, gorgeous fat blackberries from a friend’s garden, and frozen corn she’d put up herself. We had two nights of feasting. Friday night MMK and I fixed shrimp and grits with shrimp right off the Lazaretto Creek boats.



Mr. Mary Kay’s Really Big Redfish

On Saturday, he went fishing and caught a gorgeous redfish, which he fried up for the girls. A Tybee neighbor gifted us with okra from his garden, which Linda expertly fried up. Pam cooked her creamed corn, and baked an awesome peach and blackberry cobbler for dessert.

A feast fit for old friends

Sunday morning, we prevailed on Pam to fix us homemade biscuits and sausage before we walked down to the beach for an hour or two. We had such a fun time we’re already plotting our next getaway. And Mr. Mary Kay, who’d originally planned to vacate the premises when the girls arrived, will definitely be part of the proceedings again–because who else is going to provide us with seafood? Or build a garage? Or help us figure out the remote control. Ya see, it really is good to have man around the cottage.

Close Cover Before Striking


All in a weekend’s junking

For a brief, shining moment this week, I thought I was done with TFB. (The Friggin’ Book.) Then came a phone call Friday, from my editor, and a six-page edit letter explaining what further trimming and tweaking is needed for the manuscript in ROUND TWO. Ah well. Another opportunity for greatness, right? In between, editorial discussions, I managed to sneak in a little junking at a couple of estate sales and this month’s Scott’s Antique Market.

Posse member Susie and I did a quick sweep at Scott’s on Thursday, which is set-up day. I spied this stuffed wolf, or is it a coyote? peeking out of a dealer’s van.

Taxidermy coyote? peeking out of van at Scott’s Market

The only thing I bought was a vintage cabinet card of a solemn little boy dressed in a sailor suit. I was so struck by his charm that I immediately went home and scored four more little sailor children from eBay and Etsy. They’ll either join this lil’ fella in our nautical bedroom at The Breeze Inn, or make a collection at my booth at Seaside Sisters. I do love a theme, ya know–which is why I have dozens of vintage beach and bathing suit photos scattered around the Breeze and my booth. In fact, I bought a few more little black and white beach snaps to add to the goodness in the booth.


A solemn little sailor boy
On Friday, Mr. Mary Kay made a rare outing to an estate sale with me. He was looking for a power tool for an upcoming construction project at the Breeze, but the tool that was advertised was not the right thing. Still, he was surprisingly patient while I cruised through the sale. I did manage to snag a pair of scrolly wrought iron planter thingies, but the big buy of the day was a set of 16 vintage Griffith’s milk glass spice jars. After some research on eBay I was thrilled to learn that I’d snagged a rarity–16–and they all have their original paper labels intact. They are going right to my booth!

Despite my vow to stay home and work this morning, I caved and went back to Scott’s. But hey, I got home by noon. I did a fast tour of the outdoor dealers and got a neat pre-1960s globe, a vintage framed Girl Scout photo (Girl Scouts were founded in Savannah, you know), and the best buy of the day, an old jar with wire bail handle, full of old matchbook covers. I had the best time sorting through them when I got home. There are several covers for Atlanta area hotels and restaurants, including one from a furniture store that was located right in my little bitty town, as well as covers from Ohio, California and New York. But the best one of all–this little beauty, which is apparently an ad for uh, “social responsibility”. Love the graphics and the slogan–“You’re no MATCH…Don’t get Burned…Use Cover. And the flip side? “…for V.D. NO IS THE BEST TACTIC…The Next Prophyactic.” Couldn’t have said it better myself!


Don’t get burned…or VD!

Chairish is the word I use to describe

The Goldilocks approach to junking for chairs

Yes, I know I should have stayed home this morning to finish what my agent and I have come to call TFB–a mysterious acronym for The Friggin’ Book. Only we use a very bad word instead of friggin’. But I stayed home yesterday, ignoring the call of several promising estate sales. And I worked very, very hard all week long, trying to finish revisions of TFB. And I swear, I am this close. But all work and no junking makes MKA a very cranky girl. So posse member Shay and I saddled up and set out this morning for an estate sale in Buckhead, run by Vicki. We love Vicki’s sales, because she gets down to business. Vicki greeted me this morning with the news that she liked the sex scenes in LITTLE BITTY LIES, which she’d just finished reading at the beach, which made us both giggle like naughty school-girls. We traded some more naughty gossip, and then I got down to junking. My first purchase was the little wicker boudoir chair above. Later I found the fun green butterfly chair in the garage. My parents had a pair of those when I was a kid in the ’60s, in a hip orange, so I was happy to find this ‘lil green butterfly, which will join the wicker chair at my booth at Seaside Sisters. I was getting ready to check out when I spotted a trunk which Vicki had just unearthed. Digging around inside, I came up with the adorable plush baby blanket from the ’50s, which is in new condition. And then I found the fun chenille high school letters. Remembering our naughty talk, I suggested that somebody could pin those letters on their sweater and tell everybody they lettered in ‘SLUT’ in high school. Immediately, I realized this is a line I could use in my new book–so you see, junking is a valuable creative outlet for writers. At least that’s what I tell myself. We motored on to another sale, which was a bust, except that it’s always fun to see estate sale ladies like Ann and Dell and Myrtice. And at the last sale of the day, I struck gold with this primo newly slipcovered wing chair. It’s done in great beachy blue stripes and looks like it just came from a showroom. Yay me! If I could find a spot in The Breeze Inn for this lovely, I would, but I think we’ve got a gracious plenty of chairs there, so this puppy will be heading down to my Seaside Sisters booth next weekend. And in the meantime, I’ll have it to “chairish” for at least a week, until I send this and my other treasures off to worthy new homes. Also, now that my creative juices have been re-filled, I’ll just finish TFB.

We Interrupt this Blog

MKA’s McGyvered Manuscript

News bulletin. Your erstwhile blogger is in revision hell. She is overdue, cranky, pathetically needy. Her newest novel is printed out, its chapters scattered all over her sunroom floor, with giant post-it notes telling her what those chapters are trying to accomplish. Her characters are balking at letting their story go, and her editor, up there in New York, is tapping her foot impatiently, beating out a Morse code-like message that seems to say ‘FINISH THE DAMNED BOOK, ALREADY.’ In short, your correspondent is not herself.


The curb sofa that got away

How do we know this? Because she missed out on this super-swell curbside bonanza 1940s sofa this week. Can you believe it? She walked past it, photographed it with Mr. Mary Kay’s cellphone, then strolled home and waited a fateful twenty minutes or more before going back to pick it up in the family truck. Of course, by the time she got her rear in gear and got back there, another neighborhood scavenger was already loading said sofa in her vehicle. Sob. So yes, dear reader, this is what I do, the sacrifice I make for art. Be assured, however, that the revisions are underway, and I intend to make those pesky characters toe the line. Because there’s an estate sale Friday, and there’s a limit to what one poor author can endure.

Junk Throwdown Winners

Wow! After my junk buddy Sue from Vintage Rescue Squad joined me for a junk throwdown at Scott’s Antique Market a couple weeks ago, we invited y’all to guess whose haul was whose. Guess we must be pretty predictable, because just about everybody was able to connect the dots. If you were not correct, or didn’t guess, my haul was A–the $10 bar cart and 3 blue Ball jars with zinc tops for $10, and Sue’s was the vintage basketball poster and dominoes. By divine intervention (meaning I asked Mr. Mary Kay to give me a random number) the winner of my The Fixer Upper beach basket o’ goodness is Mona Kay from Creating A Vintage Life.
Sue, despite a vicious case of poison ivy, managed to do a random drawing and chose Angie at http://www.fabulousthriftyfinds.blogspot.com/ as the recipient of her big box o’ emphera.
Thanks everybody, for playing along, and be sure to watch next time for our interstate spelling bee and trivia fest. (Kidding, although I’m thinkin’ she’d probably whoop my azz at spelling, since she was an English major, although I might give her a run for her money with trivia, since my so-called brain is a goldmine of useless information.)

A Junker’s Sunday


Beat-up yard-sale dresser and cane bench–before

Buying junk is a lark–usually. But if you’re buying junk for re-sale, ya gotta ‘purty’ it up. After my Saturday junk-o-rama with the girls, I got up at the ungawdly hour of 7 a.m. to try to beat the heat with my painting projects. By 8 a.m. I was at Home Depot, and by 9, I’d prepped my treasures and started painting. Job 1 was this cute little Eastlake dresser I bought at a yard sale Saturday. Had to wash it down and get rid of decades of dog hair and cobwebs, same thing for the cute little cane-top bench atop the dresser. After spray-priming both pieces, I got busy painting. A beach glass enamel for the dresser, and a Krylon spray paint for the bench–color is called Pistachio. After that, I tackled the battered wicker trunk I bought at my neighbor’s yard sale on Friday. I gave it a spritz of spray primer, and then dabbed on watered-down white latex paint with a sponge applicator. After that, I decided to jazz it a little bit, and stencilled it with some stencil letters I picked up at the Depot. I’m delighted with the way this turned out! Then, while the larger pieces were drying, I spray painted the two sailboat what-not shelves I picked up at a junk shop in Hartwell, Georgia last week while I was holed up at a friend’s borrowed lake house, working on revisions of Summer Rental. Hey, you can’t work all day, every day! Funny, the shelves were in two different parts of the shop, painted two different fugly colors. I gave ’em a coat of Krylon True Blue, and now I think they’re set for a beach house or a little boy’s bedroom.


Pair of sailboat what-not shelves–as found in Hartwelll, Ga.
Decoupaged pages from a South Carolina atlas

Finally, I decided to pimp the dresser a little more, by decoupaging the inside of the drawers with pages torn from an old South Carolina road atlas. For this, I just watered down some Elmer’s white glue, and slicked it on both sides of the map pieces. I was so happy with the way the whole project turned out, I decided to autograph it like I do my books. Sweet, huh? Let me tell you, Mr. Mary Kay was pretty impressed when he got home from his morning of sweaty golf. Me? I’m covered, smothered, spattered and flattered–and ready to hit the shower and the hay. ‘Cuz niece Sarah says we gotta walk again in the morning. Lawd!


The finished line-up. Tired but happy!

Street Cred

The early bird gets the worm, right? This morning, even before the buttcrack o’dawn, my niece Sarah, who is living with us this summer, dragged me out of the house for our dreaded morning walk. So I dragged my middle-aged (okay, who am I kidding? Unless I plan to live into my hundreds, I am officially no longer middle-aged) azz around our ‘hood for an hour.

It was stinking hot and humid, and by the time we got back to our block, I was drenched in sweat and smelled like a refugee from the goat rodeo. But as a reward for my clean living and devotion to a healthy lifestyle,we stumbled (and I do mean stumbled) upon my neighbor a few doors down setting up her yard sale. Well, quicker than you can say HOLY HABANERO, BATMAN!, I’d selected the two wicker chairs you see here, the piano stool, and the wicker basket. All this by 7:30 a.m. Sweet, huh?
The wicker chairs are really, really old, very heavy, and they have some damage. If I can’t get ’em fixed, I might whack off the backs (which is where the damage is) and make them into stools, complete with flirty little seat cushions with a short ruffle. For $10 apiece, I figure, you can never go wrong with old wicker,right?

In less than 30 minutes I managed so spend $60 for everything, including the little shabby chic bowl on stand, which I think will look cute heaped with bleached-out seashells. All of these treasures are destined for my booth at Seaside Sisters on Tybee Island. And now? I think it’s time for a nap.Us middle-aged types need to rest up for the Saturday sales.