Posts Tagged ‘screaming’

thrift store kitsch

Posted: May 12, 2026 in stores
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Kitsch.  Such a great word.  From the Merriam-Webster dictionary: ” kitsch, the various bits and bobs of popular culture—fuzzy dice, plastic flamingos, cartoon-themed plastic lunchboxes, etc.—that enjoy widespread popularity but don’t hold much cultural esteem.”

And where is a great place to find fine examples of these bits and bobs?  A thrift store.  Maybe you’ll recognize one or two of them!

below: A snail on a bare baby fairy bum and bears playing accordions, oh the things that people will collect!  The bears are from Cherished Teddies which were very big in the 1990s.  There were a vast number of them for all occasions, all seasons, and all ages.

collection of figurines for sale in a thrift store

below: Can you read this little piggy’s expression?  I am afraid that is confuses me, …but the coffee cups are nice.  I made a small mistake and googled this image – to my horror, you can get a 12 piece pig/piglet set with the pigs in different “cute” poses, of which this is one, for about Cdn $80 on Ebay.   Google it as your peril!

small plastic pink pig wearing denim short overalls

below: This one almost came home with me!  The glass that is, not the frog.   Sorry Mr. Frog.

wine glass with words on it, i'd rather be a mermaid

below: More confusion – she’s kinda cute in a kitschy kind of way.  The little person at her feet though – is this a mother and child?  Or is this an angel watching over a child?  Mother Nature dressed in lavender and feathers?

figurine for sale in a thrift store

below: Wise advice, especially if it comes with glittery pink cowboy boots!

keep calm and buy shoes poster on the wall of a store

below: He’s not listening; he’s not taking good advice…. he needs to buy some shoes….

yellow rubber chicken with wide open screaming mouth, on a shelf beside a stack of papers where the top one has the word nervous written in large letters

below:  Another anthropomorphic  animal…. a long eared rabbit this time. She’s wearing a hat and a dress and very blue footwear.  She’s also wearing a surprised expression that makes you wonder what the goose said or did.

Anthropomorphic rabbit wearing straw hat and blue dress, figurine for sale in thrift store

below:  I’ve got one hand in my pocket and the other’s carrying something blue….

resin figure, girl wearing rust coloured overalls, one hand in her pocket

figurine for sale in throft shape, lady in long pink skirt is on a swing, man approaches but has hands up in the air

below: A smart purchase! A steal at $3.99

black t shirt with words, Nothing artificial about this intelligence

below: All that Mardi wanted was to be gras…..

red baseball cap for sale in a thrift store, with words that say make mardi gras again

below: Maybe it’s the hair?  ….  but I suspect that no one is going to mistake me for Wonder Woman!

wonder woman poster in a thrift store

below: Not really kitsch, but that’s a lot of weird looking bikini undies!

lots of bikini underwear for sale in a thrift store

square mirror on a wall in a thrift store

Have fun!  And maybe find a bargain or two while you’re at it!

spring, stikmen and smiley hearts

Posted: April 9, 2018 in alleys, graffiti and street art
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graffiti words on a wall, black sharpie, Save us

It’s early April and we’re all tired of winter but it lingers on.   How are you coping?  Yes, you!

Cameron House mural on Queen Street West, woman in pink blouse is looking beyond the window to a man walking past.

below: Is this wishful thinking?  or maybe just a little too optimistic?

chalkboard sign on the sidewalk outside of a store on Queen Street West, sign says Spring is here

below: Spring is in the air?  They forgot the question mark.   Is the cat reacting to the disconnect between the sign and the reality? … or maybe  its expression is because it’s just realized that it’s sitting beside a book about Justin Trudeau?

sign in a store window that says spring is in the air. also some stuffed animals

These were the only signs of spring that I saw yesterday as I walked although I noticed that someone was trying to cheer things up.  Not sure how long these have been sitting outside.  They’re looking a little weather worn and grubby.  Hope may be wearing a bit thin?

small leafless shrub in the front yard of a house, small yellow fake flowers strung through the branches, the flowers are old and dirty.

below: Elsewhere yellow birdies were playing hockey.

two women are having their picture taken in front of Uber5000's mural about Toronto in the winter, little yellow birdies playing hockey.

Spring was elusive but what I did spot were a couple of stikmen that I don’t remember seeing before.   I also noticed more smiley hearts popping up in unexpected places again. First, some of the hearts…

smiley heart on pink wall with red spray paint lines around

pink smiley heart on a wall with lots of other colours, street art

small black line drawing of a heart on a metal pipe on a wall, pipe has been painted orange and red to blend in with a street art piece

below: Cool Woodstock makes an appearance too (a yellow birdie of a different kind).  I don’t think she’s too happy to have a bird sitting on her head.

street art on garages, a small yellow Woodstock cartoon character with black sunglasses, on top of a black drawing on white of a girl screaming, a little smiley heart and the word love is beside her ear.

below: The guitar player is now playing with heart.

part of mural of a guitar playing in shades of orange and red. A white piece of paper has been stuck on his chest, with a black smiley heart on it.

And the stikmen….

a broken stikman painted greyish blue on a greyish blue door where the paint is peeling and the wood is fraying

stikman on a white and blue wall

below: Instead of wooden, this stikman is a drawing in a frame.

picture of a green stikman in a little frame, on a wood gate, by a black and white stencil of a man's head

below: Is that a little orange head of a stikman in the bent frame?

….. and then back inside for some warmth!

interior of a coffee shop, people sitting at tables, people sitting on the bar by the window, a TTC streetcar is outside, passing by

I  will leave you with one last look at a window full of yellow chicks and Easter bunnies, hope for spring (Hope springs eternal? Hopes of spring are eternal?).

looking into a store window, that is decorated with little bunnies in Easter clothing, with little yellow chicks and paper flowers

noticed

Posted: November 16, 2017 in general Toronto, graffiti and street art
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A small collection of a few of the things that I’ve noticed over the past while.
Pictures of little things that haven’t found a home yet.

 

a sign on a chainlink fence that says notice. otherwise it is blank

below: It’s not two people each riding an old fashioned bike even though that’s probably the first thing that you think of when you see it.  It’s one bike with two wheels and two riders going in different directions.  Going nowhere probably.  Seen in the front window of Tandem Coffee on King Street East.

a picture of two people riding old fashioned bicycles, in black, in a window.

below: Don’t just peer out the window, get outside and be a part of the world.  There’s so much to be seen!

the front of a grey car parked in front of a white wall in an alley where there is a line drawing graffiti of a man peering from behind the curtains of a window.

below: Love letter to a bike.

a little painting of a bike and a heart that makes it look like the wheels are eyes and the heart is a mouth

below: The mannequins on the balcony in Kensington are now gold!

two gold coloured mannequins with no clothes on are on a balcony of a blue building. one is sitting on the edge and one is standing

below: I’ve seen a couple of these images now. This one is a paste-up on a black metal box near Bloor & Borden. I’ve also seen another painted on hoardings around a construction site, possibly on Bathurst Street.  There was a similar image on the wall of Honest Ed’s but this one has a bit more detail in it, especially the hair.

 

pasteup in black and white of a man with open mouth, his eyes are attached to a black baseball cap that is blowing off his head, to the side and back from his head. he's wearing a black suit and tie.

below: A small sticker, slightly creepy, almost as if the poor girl is being stalked.

small sticker of a girl with long turquoise hair, staring straight ahead, wearing a low cut yellow dress. Behind her is pair of eyes

below: An old clock hiding under a newer sign, forgotten.  Stopped long ago.

a small round clock, old, attached to an outside wall, underneath a bright sign with red and yellow light bulbs around it.

below: It looks like Mary’s been discounted.

a statue of the VIrgin Mary wrapped in plastic, for sale at an outdoor sale, with a sign above her head that says 20% to 50 % off.

below: Always good advice!  Painted in pink on a window that catches the afternoon sun and makes interesting shadows on the blind behind.

the word breathe is painted in pink on a window, the sun makes a shadow of the wod on a blind behind the window.

below:  Take one ball, a stool, and paint and add some imagination – a unique garden ornament to brighten the day of passers by.

in a yard in a residential area, an artwork that is a large ball on a stool that has been painted in swirls of many colours with some black line drawing figures.

below: Decorative tiles on the front of a brick building on Yonge Street (two photos).

decorative tiles form a panel on the front of a brick building, red flowers, green lattice,

below: I wonder what the T stands for?

decorative tiles form a panel on the front of a brick building, red flowers, green lattice and an elaborately embellished letter t

below: Keep your eyes open and you’ll be surprised too!

two round red reflectors mounted on a wood fence, look like two eyes, a piece of green tape is also on the fence in such a way that it looks like the mouth

 Today I’m going to end with the photo below.   To me it encapsulates the idea that photographers can be a weird bunch. Somewhere out there someone has a close up photo of these pipes and dials.  It’s probably a great picture! …. because if they hadn’t been there, I may have taken the same picture.  Instead I took a picture of the photographer in action.   Never stop seeing.

the back of a person takeing a close up picture of a dial or part of a pipe system

Never stop noticing.