Junk Love: It's a Zoo Out There

We love animals, and in our humble opinion, nothing ranks higher in the animal kingdom than the cute, kitschy, mid-century critter. While browsing on Etsy today, I came across this magnificent ram coffee table:

Mid-century Ram Coffee Table; On Etsy

And it made me so happy, I had to troll the site for other animals to love. It was like going to the zoo while sitting on the couch in my pajamas. Add in some Chinese food and a fresh blanket of snow on my yard, and this has made for a lovely evening, indeed.

Walter Bosse stacking hedgehog ashtrays; On Etsy

White Mid-Century ceramic elephants; On Etsy

Karl Aubock style teak fish bottle opener; On Etsy

Finland Arabia bull pitcher by Kaj Franck; On Etsy

Kay Bojesen Wooden Hippo; On Etsy

Abraham Palatnik lucite owl; On Etsy

Strawberry Hill pottery beaver; On Etsy

And here is our friend, the fat little horse from the Stig Lindberg post!

Bonus -- It was fifty years ago today...

Our newest window at the antique mall is really an expression of my love for my favorite band (and the greatest musicians ever, IMHO), The Beatles.  It happens to be the 50th anniversary of their arrival in America -- and we were inspired by that.  But we were also inspired by the colors and designs, as well as the lightheartedness, of the 1960s.  We wanted a fun window that was refreshing and sparkly during the cold months of January and February.  And personally, I wanted a window that was full of inside jokes that only true, diehard Beatles fans would get.

The other Blackbird girl likes The Beatles, but she thinks I'm a little cuckoo sometimes -- especially when I start spouting ridiculous, super-specific factoids that about 2% of the people on Earth actually care about.  "J", our window assistant extraordinaire, tried to stump me with a local magazine's Beatles' quiz.  He didn't know he was shoving a Pandora's box of ire under my nose.  They got their own question wrong!  Pete Best was the original drummer before Ringo -- not Stu Sutcliffe.  Geez, it's called Google!

I forced the other Blackbird to watch Help! before we attempted this window, and I was afraid she would liken the experience to a forced death march.  Lo and behold, though, she liked it!  I didn't push it -- secretly, I really wanted to make her watch A Hard Day's Night right then -- but we were off and running with ideas. 

 

We constructed a lot for this window.  We have four chairs standing in for the band -- one has a woven seat of neckties, one is covered in book pages (you might remember it from the Alice window), one is paint-spattered and flower-bedecked, and one is covered in duct tape.  We were going for whimsy, and a loose representation of four separate entities.  We put astro turf on the floor (reminiscent of George's grass carpet in Help!, along with his chomper teeth and "Keep off the grass" sign), and covered the wall with a blank canvas of brown craft paper.  We made "stripes" of things -- guitars, lyrics, strawberry vines (Strawberry Fields), and other images, like silhouette portraits and a Union Jack.

 

 

 

 

More fun references made their way in the window, like Paperback Writer and Across the Universe:

 



 

 

And Come Together:

 

 

And I Am the Walrus and Piggies and Penny Lane:

 

 

And a Blue Meanie stopped by...



 

Ever wonder where Pinky and the Brain got it?  Check out Help! "With a ring like that I could -- dare I say it? -- rule the world."

 









And my favorite, Happiness is a Warm Gun.  Get it? (It's OK if you don't.)

 

 

We reused our sheet sky from the Supersized Nature window.  And of course, added diamonds to that sky.  Then Eleanor Rigby stopped by...

 

 



 

If you're local, stop by and see it.  The photos don't do it justice.  It's really packed full!  I'll end with my favorite Beatles' quote..."And in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make."