What Makes You Smile?

The scavenger hunt on ESN this week is for a sale item that has to do with smiling.  I like to think that everything I have listed at Hazel's HodgePodge, and even all the stuff I have collected in boxes to list, will bring a smile to someone's face.  We hope that each and every one of our items will be "a treasure to brighten someone's day",when they find the piece to complete their collection , a replacement for the broken item, something that brings back good memories, or just the right finishing touch for their new or retro decor.

What makes you smile?  Sometimes it's hearing something slightly funny or cute.  Sometimes it's getting a gift or having someone think of you or do something special for you.  Sometimes it's finding something special you are looking for, or even remembering good times from the past, or anticipating good times to come.

As a teenager, I enjoyed walking down Houston St. in downtown San Antonio (where everyone went to shop before the days of shopping malls) and smiling at the people I passed.  It was good to see them smile back.  This holds true today. Going through Wal-Mart, or anywhere you meet people, even if only in passing, try sharing a smile with them.

By way of reminscing--there was a hatter somewhere along Houston Street back then who had a mirror placed strategically above the sidewalk so you saw yourself coming.  It read : "look at your hat, everyone else does."  It could have said, look at your smile, or attitude; everyone else does.

Here are two of my items for sale,that share a smile or at least a weird facial expression.

Does Red have a crooked smile...or what?
See and buy this M&M candy jar HERE.

Ernie has a happy smile on his way to your birthday party with a gift.
Buy this cake pan HERE for that special party.

Look through the offerings at Hazel's HodgePodge and the other vendors at ESN to find something that will make you smile--"a treasure to brighten your day".  You can be sure that your purchase will bring a smile to the seller's face, as well as making you smile when your package arrives.

Retro Dining

The scavenger hunt on ESN last week was for things related to dining.  This a good subject for someone with a store like Hazel's HodgePodge where we have all kinds of dishes,china,glassware, and also cookbooks, with more and more waiting to be listed.  I am just slow as usual about getting my blog together.

I recently acquired some FireKing cups and saucers.  These made me think of some of the dishes we had when I was a kid.  Of course we all sat down at the kitchen table for supper every evening.  We ate breakfast and lunch at the same kitchen table which was covered with oil cloth which was periodically replaced with a new piece from the neighborhood dime store.  Winn's was a south central Texas 5 and dime which had stores in the various neighborhood like the Dollar stores do today. Their slogan was: "Save a trip to town; shop at Winn's."  I even clerked at a Winn"s store while in high school, fulfilling on of my early ambitions.

Some other things we used for everyday meals was a set of various colored aluminum tumblers.  The ones we used most were a set of 4 shorter ones.  But Mama accumulated a set of 8 taller tumblers and a pitcher from the Borden's Milkman.  I am not sure if these were free or reduced price with the milk we bought several times a week.  I do remember the home delivery of  milk and ice--back when we had a real "ice box".
I remember getting green jade-ite and gold peach lustre fire-king dishes out of the oatmeal.  We had fire-king coffee cups and saucers and cereal bowls,  For Sunday dinner at Grandma's we set the round table in the dining room more formally and used the "good" dishes, which I have since learned were the Mildred pattern and came from the Kress store downtown.  Grandma and Mama both had some of these dishes.

Later Mama got dishes in the green Old Curiosity Shop pattern at the HEB grocery.  HEB, pronounced as initials aitch, e, bee, is a south Texas company.  You got pieces each week with your groceries, and both Mama and my aunt collected them for Mama.  My youngest daughter has these dishes today, and she has even found pieces to add to the set.  As even more time passed and I got married, Mama got me  a set of Onieda stainless steel flatware.  You might guess that in the early 1960's we got it with trading stamps.  I know S& H green stamps were popular across the country, and we got S & H green stamps some places we shopped--notably Piggly Wiggly, but the "silverware" was bought with Texas Gold Stamps from HEB.  There was even a Texas Gold Stamp Center attached to the HEB store in our neighborhood.  We got a lot of things with Texas Gold and S&H Green stamps.

The Fire-King cup and saucer that started these remembrances.
See and buy them here.

Check out our glassware at Hazel's HodgePodge to see more pieces of Fire-King.  Also take a look at ESN   for more items to enhance your dining experience.

Soap Dishes!

The ESN Scavenger hunt this week is for items that connect with "splish splash I was taking a bath".
Well, I have two counts against me before I even got started. One, I am running half a week late.  Two, I have absolutely nothing in my store right now that I can remotely relate to bath time.  So, I decided to go scavenger hunting for soap dishes among the scavenger hunter stores.  I hit pay dirt right quick when I visited CarolinaBlueLady Vintage Collectibles.  She has a number of beautiful Avon soap dishes listed for sale.

I especially like this one and the little bird soaps that come with it.  You may have seen this in a TV commercial not too long ago. We've all heard the adage: "a bird in the hand is worth two in a bush"

See and buy this dish Here!

Everyone wants to make their bathroom  as attractive as possible.  You can find all kinds of bath related products among the sellers at ESN. (Just not right now at Hazel's HodgePodge.But we do have a wide assortment of items and will be adding more)

How Much is That Doggie...

ESN scavenger hunt this week is for"Puppies".
The only "puppy" in my store, Hazel's HodgePodge, right now is this  stylized Basset Hound figurine. Don"t you love his soulful eyes?  

Check out this adorable pooch HERE!

I did enough research to find that a basset hound has a superb sense of smell, second only to a blood hound, and the word basset means "rather low". Bass meaning low.

Some dog lover, and/or hound fancier should like to have this cutie.

I have always been partial to collies, but we've also had an Irish Setter, a Beagle, and several other really neat dogs. I know there are fanciers of every breed of dog.

The nose on this figurine reminds me of a picture we have of my son with his Irish Setter way back when. You look at it and say "Like Master, like Dog".  

Also thinking about our dog's names.  You can bet the Irish Setter was called "Red".  We got a collie pup when the kids were small.  Even though "Dad" and I wanted another name, you guessed it, she was "Lassie."



Now when we see a doggie at a garage sale, Hubby likes to sing, "How much is that doggie in the window"?

A Swimming We Will Go!

The ESN theme this week is swimming. We used to sing a little ditty "A-hunting we will go, we'll catch a little fox and put him in a box, and never let him go.   We can change that around a bit to "A-Swimming  we will go,We'll catch a little turtle and put him in our jewelry box, and never let him go.  (Just don't want to catch him on our toe!)

See more detail and purchase here

This fine specimen of a turtle makes a really attractive brooch pin. It is a vibrant green on gold, and can add just the touch of color you need for your ensemble.  Or some youngster can treasure it as a novelty pin. It is a cute item.

Be sure to check out our friends at ESN. You never know what you might find whether it has to do with swimming or not.

Household Tips and Home Improvements

This week at ESN we are scavenger hunting for things to do with housecleaning. This has been a real challenge,  and to our credit, we have had some very creative approaches to the topic.

I felt sure I could find something appropriate at Comyc Gyrl Collectibles and she did not fail me.  This neat book is one I would like to look at. I am all for picking up tips to make things easier and being a true SHE (per flylady: SHE=Sidetracked Home Executive) I can use all the help I can get. 

ComycGyrl also has a number of books on Home Improvement, repair, and renovation, if you want to go one step further than housecleaning.

You can find all kinds of things among the ESN sellers.  We would be thrilled to have you drop by and shop with us.

Check it out HERE!

Housecleaning without a Hassle

This week we are concerned with House cleaning on our ESN scavenger hunt.
I am featuring this Cherub Clock as my contribution to " Housecleaning".  This is not a usual tool for housecleaning, but according to Flylady you can do anything for 15 minutes.  By cleaning clutter (or anything else) for 15 minutes at a time and following daily routines you can have a clean, uncluttered home.  A number of years ago my house was in a worse shambles than usual.  It, I'm sad to say, bordered on filthy, and I was tired and depressed.  There seemed to be no hope.  Then I came across a Dear Abby column in the local paper telling about flylady. I looked it up and tried some "babysteps" and some basic routines.  I even ordered Flylady's timer and calendar.  The place became much more livable and my depression lifted.  I have never been a full fledged "flybaby", but I do enough to keep things going, and I extol the virtues of Flylady every chance I get.  Since being at my mother-in-law's and seeing after her needs and appointments in addition to ours, I especially see the value of routines to get the everyday things done and a calendar to make sure we schedule everyone's activities and appointments with no conflicts.
This is a fine whimsical clock to keep track of your fifteen minute challenges or it is a nice addition to your nice clean, well organized home after Flylady. 

See more details and purchase here.

We have many more decorator items and collectibles at Hazel's HodgePodge.
Also take a look at our friend's stores on ESN.  You will find such an assortment of merchandise. There is sure to be something for everyone.

Singing--off key and Remembering the good times!

As I was looking through my eCrater store for an item to go along with this week's ESN theme of singing I came across this pair of black and white cows outfitted in full western regalia. You might well ask what these have to do with singing...or music of any kind. Well, they triggered memories of "way back when" I was just a little girl.  Remember riding across Zarzarmora Street in San Antonio going to or from my grandmother's and singing "I'm an old cowhand from the Rio Grande".  We only sang a small snatch of the song and from what I can find now we didn't even sing it right word-wise. I remember puzzling over how someone could ride (a horse) before they could stand. Mama explained that my little brother had ridden (in the car) before he could stand.  I had no idea until just now the origin of the song and that it was a spoof, I only knew and remembered the phrase we sang as a family.  And it was no doubt off key as well as the wrong lyrics.  We were not a family of singers.
Daddy had been  a real cowboy in his earlier life and he would sing "Get along little doggie, yippee,yi oh kyah!" and taught brother and I a crazy song that went  "Sheep and a hog, walking in a pasture. Sheep says "Hog, can't you walk a little faster?" Hog says, "Huh?"Hog says "Huh!"  Researching that I come up with a fiddle tune called "Sheep and Hogs Walking Through a Pasture."  I can only guess that Daddy made up the lyrics...Maybe so, maybe no...

Here's my "cowpoke" cows, that triggered my memories.

Purchase them HERE!

What is a HodgePodge?

What is a HodgePodge?

Recently a customer in the music store saw my sign "Hazel's HodgePodge" in my little nook and asked "What is a HodgePodge?"  I really thought everyone would know the answer to that, but apparently not.  When I picked the name "Hazel's HodgePodge" I had two things in mind. One was the alliteration of Hazel and HodgePodge. The second was that since I've never been known for making decisions, I felt that HodgePodge left the business open for whatever. I could just pick up items of any genre for resale and not be limited to things of one type.  You see, the word hodgepodge generally means a mixture of various things. Other synonyms are mishmash, patchwork, odds and ends, assortment, variety, and mixed bag.  Some words that are associated with food are olio,smogasbord, ragout, gumbo, hash, and salad.  All of these could be considered a hodgepodge as they are a mixture of various and/or dissimilar ingredients.  Some of the not so nice connotations of hodgepodge are jumble--my office--, mess, clutter,-my dining table full of "hodgepodge items", muddle, shambles, and tangle. These all describe the state of my collection scattered all around my house and shop. You might say "unorganized collection" is the best definition of Hazel's HodgePodge when you look around here at all of my "stuff" waiting to be processed, listed, stored, and sold.
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However, when you are shopping at Hazel's HodgePodge, I hope you will consider all the good things about a hodgepodge, such as variety, good assortment, a mixture of various things.  I hope you will consider it to be a store where you can find any kind of treasure, where you can find a special item for your collection or the missing dish for your set, where you might find something nostalgic or something unusual. Here are some of the latest items I have listed. As you can see even these few items make up a hodgepodge. They are so unalike, but each one is a treasure in itself.

This Little Pig is Gold Plated
Made in Japan Piggy Bank is one of many collectible items at Hazel's HodgePodge

16 piece set of Platzgraff Snow Village Dishes
Perfect for your holiday entertaining!
You can buy these and other Christmas Items at Hazel's HodgePodge



This Bella Casa Platter by Ganz is one of several decorator items
available at Hazel's HodgePodge

This is my MeMeMe entry into the ESN scavenger hunt for last week. If you can't find what you are looking for in MY STORE, take a look at the items on ESN.  It opens up a world of shopping choices.
Better Hurry and get that last minute shopping done while you still have time for delivery for Christmas.



New Store Site up and running

Well, I have finally got my store "Hazel's HodgePodge" back on line using BuyItSellIt (BISI) ecommerce venue. I love it! BISI is so easy to work with. Please check us out at http://hazelshodgepodge.mybisi.com . Right now I am featuring some of my Wilton Character Cake Pans. I will be adding more of them as I can. Anyone needing or wanting a specific cake pan just let me know and I may have it here.

I also hope to add some collectible vintage items, including an old manual typewriter and an old adding machine. I will post pictures of them here soon.