Weird stuff (previously) for sale

Once in a while we'll find an oddity to bring into the store. It's usually just for laughs, but sometimes someone buys our oddballs. We always like to have at least one "what the heck is that?" kind of item in the shop. Thought I'd share a few here (even though they're long gone).

They may not look strange, but the metal words "Bend" and "Fun" above have an interesting origin. Years ago, we bought some old signs that had come from the Bend Funeral Home. Clever husband that he is, Robert got out the hacksaw and turned these into several smaller vintage signs that said: "Bend," "Fun," and "Home." We threw out the "eral" part (although we could have made "era" out of it. Dang.).

They sold within a day, although I managed to snag these two for us. From slightly creepy to cool!

On an antiquing road trip a while back, we came across a set of walking canes, the tops of which were outfitted with a salt and pepper shaker. Now go figure! It made us laugh, so we bought them, thinking they might be in the shop forever. But they sold, too. We had a lot of fun speculating on how they came to be. Somebody's hare-brained idea ("We can sell a million of these at the county fair!")? An eighth-grade shop experiment? A Swiss walking/picnic stick? Just think, if you were picnicking, you could reach across several people to sprinkle some pepper on the deviled eggs. How convenient.

I had a personal collection of tiny porcelain doll parts: heads, arms, legs, headless torsos. I'm not much into dolls (was I the only little girl on the block who didn't have a Barbie, and not care?), but these bits and pieces were so charming in their strange way. Alas, I can't keep everything, so we put them in the shop as a kind of oddity. They were all gone within the week. But here's my most excellent idea for the person who got all the parts (or for those of you who hunt for odd things like that): for Halloween, make simple cupcakes and stick a vertical doll leg or arm in the frosted top of each one. Chic creepy, non?

What kind of weird things (we're talking inanimate objects here) do you have in your house?