A New Addition to the Family

No mom, I'm not pregnant. Although I still do get a little weak in the knees any time I see a teeny tiny baby, Jasper and I are both sure we don't want another one. Frankly, I don't think I have it in me to go through babydom another time. Granted, I love my babes but still, the day I no longer have to change diapers or push a baby buggy in front of me is going to be the day I throw a bigggg party...The new addition I'm talking about is this adorable little goat here who has joined the Schaufenster/Curious Knopf family.


But first a little background information: I am a total and complete compulsive eBay shopper. A lot of people say there are no deals to be found on eBay but personally I just think it takes a certain kind of person. A very patient and very obsessive person. Like, for instance, myself. I, my friends, am a true eBay warrior. Two tips about eBay shopping: take people by surprise and really bid in the last twenty seconds. Otherwise you will only drive up the price and then still have the item stolen out from under your nose by a warrior like me. Tip number two: keep a cool head. Decide before hand how much you are really willing to spend and don't allow yourself to go over it. If joe schmoe really wants to pay 36 bucks for that Bakelite pencil sharpener then more power to him...


Every once in a while I'll stay up late (not unusual for a night owl like me) and have a couple of glasses of wine (ahem...also not unusual) and then bid one Euro on a series of random things just to see what will happen. The problem is I sometimes end up actually buying more of them than I wanted. This little billy goat was one of my one Euro treasures. But when I saw that the shipping was a little bit pricey I got kind of cranky. "Crap," I thought. "Well, I can probably try and sell him on Schaufenster." Imagine my surprise when I opened the package a week or so later only to find just about the COOLEST THING EVER! (and something I wasn't at all expecting because the pictures on eBay weren't that great.)

Entirely (and skillfully) handmade and hand-painted, this little goat balances on his hind legs on a stand coated in gold paint. Bad billy also seems to be a little bit randy (as you can see in the pictures, it's pre-tty obvious he's a boy!) I guess a sweet looking she-goat must have just sauntered by....Needless to say, I won't be selling him in Schaufenster. He weighs almost 2 kilos which means shipping would cost 35 Euros (42 dollars), but that's not the real reason. The real reason is I'm totally in love with him and, yes, Jasper is a little jealous. ;)

Beside, he does display jewelry oh-so-wonderfully. I'm sure he'll also someday make his appearance in Schaufenster.

A Question of Entertainment....

Since I'm going a little bit crazy here in Babyland as mentioned in my previous post, I am desperate for new ways to entertain myself. One of the ways I've found is a four letter word (not the only one I'm saying these days in my darkest, burnt out mama moments, though I DO mutter them to protect young ears... ;) ): namely, ebay. I have quite a long history with ebay here in Germany (never did get to use it in the U.S., though my brother had a side business there for a while selling stuff from The North Face he had bought at the local retail outlet...). I bought pretty much all of my furniture there for my last apartment- great, vintage stuff at amazing prices. A good portion of the furniture Jasper and I bought together is also from there. Still, the site has gone down. Too many power sellers selling too much cheap Asian junk. The days when it was nothing more than a virtual garage sale are long gone....



Still there is some fun to be had with it. I like to go to the antiques/vintage section and browse through the hundred or so categories they have there. Although I personally don't NEED anything, I've been buying various things for my etsy shop Schaufenster to add to the vintage section. Yes, the name Schaufenster (German for shop window) is why this blog is called Schaufensterbabe. I originally started the blog as a promotional tool for my shop, but seriously, who wants to write (or read) about some new piece of crap I've made? The blog soon started to become personal, a sort of public journal if you will....


Anyway, it's been a lot of fun seeing what I end up with. The whole trick to ebay, of course, is to bid for what you want in the last minute so as not to drive the price up. I am the master of this (it is a bit like warfare, but you have to be careful that you don't go above your own limit and end up spending too much, or at least more than you wanted...) but since I am not buying for myself I just put in the bid for how much I want to pay and then wait to see what happens. I get some pretty funny e-mails: You've just been overbid on the vintage raw wood marionette head of lucifer; Congratulations! You are now the proud owner of five original bra advertisements from 1965! The photographs scattered throughout this post are some examples of recent finds, with more yet to come. Not bad as a distraction from the woes of 24 hour double motherhood, I must say!

The incredible EXPLODING sewing machine!

So I posted earlier how excited I was to get a good deal on a sewing machine for my birthday. It finally came on Saturday, with a big box of needles and other goodies and a pamphlet straight out of the 70s. The sewing machine was rather simple; none of the fancy stitches that the one I use in my course has. But it was easy to use and I want something basic to start out with anyhow. If the sewing thing really takes off, then I will invest in a fancier machine. Anyway, I used it for about 5 minutes, trying out the different stitches and was having a grand old time. The motor sounded kind of loud, but it's an older machine I figured. But then my baby started crying and I had to go lay her down. When I did, I heard a POP POP POP. "What the was that?" My husband shouted from the other room. We both rushed into the living room to see a smoking sewing machine that had exploded. Anyway, that was pretty much a killer for the rest of my Saturday, anger, disappointment, etc. I tried to contact the seller but she didn't answer. I was tempted to give her a bad review (I mean, there is no guarantee on ebay but you DO expect the products to work longer than 5 minutes!!)but thought I'd wait until Monday. Today she finally wrote, very apologetic and offered to give me half of the money back which should hopefully be enough to get it fixed so fair enough. Anyway, I'll keep you posted on any further explosions or eruptions and there consequences!