The inside scoop on KookyKitsch.com!
Some nuggets o' info about the creators of this site:
Hi. My name is Jessica Lindsey, and I'm a collectiholic.
It all started innocently enough, with a McGruff the Crime Dog hand puppet that
I sent away for in college. You know, the dog whose motto is "help take a bite
out of crime, blah, blah, blah." Originally I had ordered it solely to annoy my
roommate who had a distinct dislike (hate is such a strong word) for all things
McGruff. Okay, I've got other issues besides my passion for collecting. But, I
decided I liked it and kept it for myself. Then one thing led to another, and
now I've got a house full of all kinds of miscellaneous "treasures" I've
found in years of flea markets, garage sales and swap meets. My general rule for
kitschy finds is: if it's not too expensive, makes me laugh and is most likely
in bad taste I'll buy it!
I'll give you fair warning - kitsch kollecting
is addictive. My husband, Mel Waldorf, naively came along with me the first few
times, thinking I was a little nuts, which is not entirely off base, and, of course, has
little to do with my hobby. Now he's hooked and there's no turning back.
Mel created this website for me, probably hoping that I'd be so
busy with it I'd have no time left to acquire even more items with which to
decorate our home (1960s ranch style with deep-pile shag carpeting, of course).
Now, our daughter Natasha provides another excuse to buy fun kids clothes and toys!
So, you may well ask, what are my favorite things?
I particularly enjoy advertising premium dolls, especially the really sick ones
like the Foley's Catheter Doll or the Fleet Ene-man (Check the site under "Past
Favorites"), Little People, 60s furnishings, Tiki & Hawaiiana, True Crime,
Izod Lacoste Cardigans (only with the alligator logo) and art in bad taste. This
includes Keanes or other art done in that Big-Eyed style, gravel art, velvet and
paint by numbers. I also collect TVs, mugs that say "I Heart ----," (NY, Being
Jewish, My Cat, etc.), W& R Berries statuettes from the 70s that say clever
things like "I tingle when we mingle," or "There's a word for a person like
you - terrific," and food items from foreign countries, especially with
packaging in broken "Engrish."
Um, what is "kitsch" anyway?
According to my dictionary, kitsch is "professionally produced
art in bad taste." A more detailed definition is "cheap, tawdry, tasteless
things, pretentious, junky, but popular. "The word is originally Yiddish,
meaning "trash," especially "gaudy trash." While certainly not everything on
this site falls into this strict definition of kitsch, it's all kitschy, at
least in spirit! So, feel free to e-mail me with your comments (but only if
they're good) or suggestions (ditto) Also, if you'd like to rid yourself of
any unwanted stuff, that may or may not be kitsch, please let me know and we can
talk.
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Happy Hunting!
Jessica
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Visit our showroom
upstairs at
Park Street Antiques and Collectibles
Park Street at Lincoln
Alameda, CA
Open Tuesday through Sunday - 11AM to 6PM
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Mel, Jessica and Natasha:
Alameda landmark 'House of Lites' now in our yard:
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