Fairfield Antiques Mall – Fairfield Maine

Since I was already in the area cooing at my submersible friends at AquaCorals, I decided I would stop at an antique mall just down the street. I was told by locals it was huge and would take me at least two hours to rummage through. They were not kidding! This was an enormous building, several old industrial barns I think, with five winding labyrinthine floors. It just kept going and going and going… They had something for everyone here. If you’re familiar with my blog you probably already know what I was looking for – anything really bizarre and a light smattering of soul sucking dolls. I was not disappointed! And since there’s not really much more I can say on the topic I decided this entry will be a little… different. So I am taking my favorite photos of the hundreds I took and am just going to add a little…. commentary. If you’re easily offended this is probably the point you should leave this page, otherwise continue on!

Literally the first thing I saw was a giant cock… no really, isn’t he handsome? If I still ran a poultry farm he would have so come home with me.

After entering the store I stumbled onto this HUGE moose head with the most amusing sign behind him… It reads, “Hunting $50.00 per day, by written permission only.” I’m not a hunter but I sort of think this one’s already spent.

Then I found an album of what is most likely some of my distant relatives…. though this woman has a striking resemblance to Lizzie Borden and I wonder….

Followed by a set of terrifying patriotic mugs…

By this time my mother, who was tagging along in today’s adventures, was rifling through the old photos when she came across this one and finally admitted they might actually be relatives of ours…

I may have replied if I weren’t distracted by a series of pots who appeared to be blooming? Seriously though, what is up with the one on the far left?? It’s going to burst!

Two seconds later I got the sensation someone was watching me and when I turned around I found out it was Amelia Earhart. Huh.

Then I started running into the…. randomly probably quite racist items. I don’t even know which minority this is supposed to be offending. It looks like an old Asian dude wearing an Indian feather…?!

Then I found the saddest lion glued to a hot air balloon! I think he was sad because the hunter on the left shot his family…

“Pediophobia is the unwarranted, irrational and persistent fear or worry of dolls.” Why do I mention this? Oh no reason….

There is no word for the rational fear of dolls but I believe there should be. Just look at this doll and tell me there isn’t something a wee bit off there.

Of course dolls don’t always kill people. Sometimes they take out their murderous rage on other dolls. Evidence of this can be seen here. Witness the empty pram, the demonically smiling blonde looking up at the light like she just sacrificed a baby to the gods – OH LOOK! To the lefthand corner we can see the crumpled corpse of an infant! SHE DID. SHE TOTALLY SACRIFICED THAT BABY!

This doll knows something we don’t, maybe he’s next…

A common trick for serial killer dolls is to leave something shiny out for potential victims to be distracted by… Oooooo! 

AHHHH! Those soulless eyes!

No worries, this next one’s asleep – and I am terribly confused by it. Just… why??

Hey look! It’s a me! I’m not for sale though. Sorta like Alice from Alice’s Restaurant. You can get anything you want at Alice’s Restaurant, excepting Alice…

“Coulrophobia is the persistent and irrational fear of clowns.”

Coulropediophobia is the persistent and irrational fear of clown dolls. (Also I may have just made that up but it seems like it should be a thing…)

Here’s a cow who has apparently been eating cow flops…. Maybe the doll behind him was bullying him?

The eighties were a weird time when little girls across the country all bounded for joy to have their very own Little Miss Prosti-Tot. Her first name is Trix.

This baby knows something, something big, something dark. Hey where’d Trix go?

“Look! I found a re-borne! Its heavy! And cute! IT HAS DROOL!” — “Mom, put that down. It looks like it came from the morgue.”

I know this post is getting a little doll heavy but look at these giggling ankle biters…. tell me they won’t haunt your dreams tonight…

I have no idea what’s going on here…. and something tells me I don’t want to… look at that shocked expression in the back corner!

This one just ate someone’s heart, I swear, ripped it right out of their chest. That’s why she’s so gleeful.

OK OK, time to stop staring at the dolls and hope they aren’t like Weeping Angels, you know coming to kill you as soon as you blink. Look! A weird ENORMOUS painting of a moth! And a lock! How manly! It’s art for menly men!

And of course it’s not a real antique store if there isn’t any froofy furniture… I have for you, a chair, the first of many, but don’t worry, I won’t linger like I did with the dolls.

I was actually kind of impressed with this next one. It’s a bird made entirely of seeds. I call it a seedling.

I rubbed it and made three wishes. All that happened is I got thrown out for molesting the lamps.

Never trust a nun. Never trust a nurse. And never trust a cat. (Also never trust someone with too many Doctor Who jokes.)

That last rhyme said nothing of hares…. but this one doesn’t look trustworthy either.

“OK, I need you to make me a butter dish in the shape of a terrified cat….  make sure to add googly eyes.”

I’m at a lack of words for this next one. Well sort of. I mean I have words….  I just don’t think I should use them. A picture is worth a thousand after all…

Shout out to all the Mass girls…

I’m going to kill you thiiiiiiis much!

Here are some Humbolt figurines telling each other stories of lurid debauchery.

“Can’t sleep, clown’s going to eat me. Can’t sleep, clowns going to eat me.”

For a second I forgot this place actually had legitimately not-scary things for sale…

I actually sort of like this lamp…. which makes no sense since dolls and Cherubs freak me out so much…

Bet you didn’t know UnDead dolls were a thing…

PUPPY!!

Yes, if you want your crank phone to work… add wires. Always add wires.

“All the better to strangle you with!”

I found Liberace’s dinnerware…

I am as surprised as you are – granted I don’t have a bottle shoved up my backside… so maybe not.

Two old tribesmen…. fighting over CDs…. (Seriously the label said this was a CD rack…)

My eye was caught by some really sweet purple bottles…. and then I started reading them. This one literally says “2oz Sperm” which had me concerned for a moment before I continued to read “sewing machine oil.”

Unless you collect buttons you have no idea how impressive this is…

HOLY CRAP. WHAT A BEAUTIFUL CHUNK OF ORANGE… I must be delirious from the heat! (It is actually 94 degrees and muuuuuuuugggggy, so this may be a hallucination. Either way I don’t have $45 or a place to put such a wonder…)

OK, now I am positive I am hallucinating because that wall hanging looks like Wilfred, that crude smack-talking Australian dude in a dog outfit…

PLEASE NO homoerotic displays “DANCING” Coincidentally this sign also reminded me of this scene:

The Doctor: We were talking about dancing.

Captain Jack: It didn’t look like talking.

Rose Tyler: It didn’t feel like dancing.

I’m not going to ask what he’s spitting out.

OH HELL NO. FETCH ME THE FLY SWATTER!! QUICK!!

I found a soulless cocker spaniel. Who knew!

Who stole the cookie from the cookie jar? No one, because no one dared…. holy crap is this thing scary!

A tiny doll mink trap!

This doll is not amused by that last joke. She knew another doll whose porcelain ankle was shattered by a doll mink trap once…

My mother, “I had a doll exactly like this once!” Damned if I didn’t know that – her brother bought it for her when they were children and her other brother ripped off its fingers. She kept the fingers in a tiny drawer hoping someday to glue them back on but then the doll got ruined or thrown out or something and all that was left were tiny tiny disembodied fingers…. which I found later. You know what? This could begin to explain my ill ease with dolls…

WHY?!

LOVE the sign behind these two soulless dears. “Visitors of hotel guests MUST LEAVE.” Must be the hotel California.

“Last thing I remember, I was
Running for the door
I had to find the passage back to the place I was before
‘Relax’ said the night man,
‘We are programmed to receive.
You can check out any time you like,
But you can never leave!'”

There’s too many things in this next work of art that rattle me to the core for me to even begin explaining…

He’s just pissed he’s been stored in a box surrounded on all sides by honky music.

I legitimately thought these were artful renditions of the TARDIS at first…

Another small dead child.

I’m being alerted I haven’t offended enough Asian people in this post soooo…

Look! A jaundiced pig! Who’s up to something.

Anyone remember being read Babushka’s Doll as a child? Also, you know what, my fears of dolls is starting to really make sense now.

Butt nuggets Cookies!!

He’s seen too much.

Uhmmm…. that’s not where salt comes from….

This bitch is too classy for this joint.

What’s that? I also haven’t offended enough black people? OK, we’ll just see what this doll has to say about that!

The only two realistic looking black dolls ARE NOT AMUSED by that last joke. In fact they’re not amused by anything. Whose idea was it to make a series of depressed children’s dolls anyway?

Paradise Lost? “WAKE UP EVE! FOR THE LOVE OF GOD WAKE UP!”

Did you know Native Americans are devils? Me either.

OK the Viking ship is kind of impressive… though I don’t think wooden sails sounds like such a great idea.

These two little gents got their portrait painted after they murdered the rest of their family and took a break to smoke a pipe. Seriously though, why is the little one smoking a pipe?! And are those really cemetery crosses?!

Ah, that’s better, a pony.

I found this cabinet, which I really liked, buuut I think it’s haunted. No reason, just a swirling feeling in my gut…

Just to be sure I opened it to let the ghosts out.

Remember when I said the first thing I saw was a giant cock? Well, the last thing I saw leaving was two giant cocks. Hope you enjoyed my little jaunt, until next time!


Steam Punk Craft Fair and Festival Dexter Maine

Well! As it turns out there’s a bunch of things going on in Maine I should really be up here for so last Thursday I packed up my car and braved five hours of dragon’s breathe (fog) to get to central Maine. I’ll be up here for a couple weeks…. getting into trouble and whatnot. So far it’s been wonderful. I took a photo of the dragon’s breathe and a new friend I found in the yard this morning. I’m calling him Tom.

Today’s little adventure was to a Steampunk Craft Fair and Festival in Dexter. For those of you not in the know Dexter is a tiny town smack dab in the middle of nowhere and a damn strange place to have such a thing…. which is obviously what made me want to go. It’d either be amazing, or amazingly bad, either way I’m happy! So off I went! (I was however not ballsy enough to attend the costume party at the adjoining bar the night before… Not that I had anything to wear on such short notice.)

I must say it is HOT and MUGGY today… and the little festival in the middle of the parking lot around the old factory building. TO my surprise there were a lot of people dressed up! Most were vendors, and the live music, but I think a few were just nutballs like me. I wasn’t totally dressed down – I did wear my octopus shirt which looks very Jules Verne-esque. And someone did compliment it… I think he was trying to say it looked like Cthulhu.

Anyway, I was happily surprised with the diversity here. There were a lot of crafters, a lot of gears, a lot of keys, all glued on masks, tiles, earrings, you name it. Even talked to one young woman making her own chainmail. Seriously. Hand-made chain mail. I asked where the hell she picked up that skill…. she said her school taught it. Wow. Maybe if my school were that interesting growing up I wouldn’t have prayed so hard for the building to “blow down in one good gust,” as one of the teachers lamented, “That’s all it’d take! One good gust!”

Of course I also went in the hopes of seeing local authors. I wasn’t disappointed. I ended up buying three books, all signed, for $35. One was a collection of short stories, another was some sort of whimsical fiction, and the third was a graphic novel which I am not known for buying but it looked so damn detailed… the woman who inked and wrote that one said she was used to doing comic con type circuits, indoors. I could see that. Everyone was super friendly and very passionate, what I would hoped to find in such a gathering. For the dead center of Nowheresville Maine I think this was pulled off pretty well! Especially for the first year in doing this. Maybe next year I’ll return as a vendor!


 

 

A Quick Winter Update and a Reminder Spring is Coming!

So I admit I didn’t get out much this winter but I still have been busy figuring out what to do with spring once it gets here. I have scheduled myself to visit more ruins, castles, haunted places, light houses, quirky one-of-a-kind mom and pop shops, perhaps a few farms, as well as more nature trails and museums. Who knows, I might even indulge in another passion – food! And to add to the excitement I am expanding to my repertoire of photos and writing with my very first video! I am hoping future videos will include interviews with more interesting local personalities, or at least with more subject matter than just me blathering on! ENJOY!

If you are enjoying Catching Marbles please consider donating to my limited gas money fund so I can continue going on and sharing my adventures with you!


An Invitation to a New Adventure and a Request for Help

Hello again dear readers and followers! I have had SO MUCH fun this summer bringing you out to see the wilder spots of New England! And your responses to this have been amazing! I am hoping you’re still enjoying the journey because I am about to embark on another. You see my life fell apart about eleven months back in a big and serious way. I lost my beloved farm due to circumstances beyond my control and now I want to start a new one in celebration of all that is good and wonderful in New England. And this time it’ll be far better because I want to start it just as much for all you as I do for myself. It’ll be an educational farm and intentional homesteading community. If you’d like to learn more or possibly support my cause please feel free to visit my GoFundMe page: https://www.gofundme.com/help-fund-an-educational-farm And if you cannot donate but still want to support my bold ideas please share! share! share!

Thank you again for all your support, your suggestions, and all the beautiful and positive thoughts you have sent my way. May your journey be wonderful and your mind be at rest.

 

UPDATE: The GoFundMe didn’t fly so I have continued my efforts elsewhere. I have added a donate button to this blog to help me pay for gas money and keep it going and in the meantime I still work towards my homestead with my future farm’s website Through the Looking Glass Farm – there I started a video blog to philosophize the life and a store to sell my art (as well as others) and homesteading creations. Any support means the world to me and I thank you all for following my journey.

 

If you are enjoying Catching Marbles please consider adding a dollar or two to my limited gas money fund so I can continue going on adventures and sharing them with you! Thank you!


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