How is your summer going? Of course we’re interested in if you’re having fun, but we’re mostly interested in have you scored any awesome vintage in your travels? The signs for yard sales and estate sales are everywhere and the pickings at thrift stores on  Tuesdays or Wednesdays can be great if the store has processed the weekend’s donations. The best month for picking tomatoes, corn and vintage is August, at least here in New England. It’s a season to savor. We’re all stocking up our bins and boxes with treasures we’ll roll out over the upcoming months as fresh to market vintage picks (and some of us are filling our freezers with homemade tomato sauce for the winter ahead).

If you do holiday and birthday shopping while you’re summer picking, what method do you use for remembering who you bought what for? Do you keep a list on your phone? With photos maybe? Or do you rely on your steel trap memory? Or are you like A.A. Milne, who said “One of the advantages of being disorganized is that one is always having surprising discoveries.” We are in the Milne camp. We are always sure we’ll remember what we have stashed away, but we’re always surprised and often delighted when we pull out said stash and there are things we have no memory of picking up.

Speaking of picking things up, we picked up a few things this week that we’ve assembled for our fresh to market vintage cavalcade, starring ginkgo and demitasse cups and mice and codfish…

Ginkgo Leaf Brooch

Ginkgo leaves are not only renowned for their beauty. They carry symbolism throughout history and culture. For some, they symbolize longevity; for others, hope, and peace. This larger-sized plated brooch is lovely, regardless. It would make a fine gift and be a nice addition to a lapel, sweater or hat.

Golden Ginkgo Leaf Brooch, $43.95

–Pam, Vintage Renude

Two Josef Mice

These two are the only kind of mice I want to see in my house! We have two cats, but we aren’t certain they are mousers. One keeps me company in my workroom and the other’s important job is to stay on the bed to protect us while we have our morning coffee. That’s just fine with us. These two kitschy cute ceramic mice will sit quietly on a shelf, ready to make you smile.

Josef Mice, $34.99

-Mary Ellen, AuntHattiesAttic

Hand-painted Demitasse Cup and Saucer c 1940s

Offering a demitasse cup and saucer handpainted in a lovely floral design. Raised gold paint. Stamped “Made in Occupied Japan” on the bottom of both pieces which dates the set to the 1945-1952 timeframe. Purchased in Japan in the 1950s.

Floral Cup & Saucer, Made in Occupied Japan, $40

–Linda, Selective Salvage

1928 Massachusetts Codfish License Plate

There are license plate collectors and there are vintage/antique car owners who use the plates on their cars, providing the number is not in use. However, not many license plates are infamous.

This infamous license plate that got MA fishermen riled up because the cod looked like a guppy and was swimming away from the word “Mass.” They blamed the plate for causing a rotten year for the cod fisheries. License plates were issued annually at that time, and the year and the “Mass” places were flipped every year to prevent scofflaws from just repainting their existing plates. (Per the New York Times). The next year the fish was cod-ier and it was facing “Mass.” So this isn’t just a license plate, it’s a piece of history.

Massachusetts Codfish License Plate, $250.

–Laurie, NextStage Vintage

That’s our fresh to market vintage for this week, as fresh as an ear of butter and sugar corn hot out of the pot. Like we were talking about at the start, if you have a great method for remembering what you have stashed for gift giving events in the future, please share them in the comments. One of us could use the help.  We’re not saying which one.

If you like surprises, you might like subscribing to our newsletter. We deliver one email a week with links to all our posts. We might surprise you with what we write about. You never know what sort of vintage things will catch our eyes.

And if you are a tea cup and demitasse fan, you might like our post about collecting and using decorative tea cups. And yes, we think you SHOULD use them.