Thrift scores and a day on the town

This Caboodle is one of those 1980's childhood nostalgia items that came home with me despite having no idea what I was going to do with it. It might replace the train case I'm currently using to hold makeup. I actually still have my childhood one (it's light pink and purple) but I couldn't resist this black & white one with hot pink interior.

Continuing the trend of finding my entire American Sweetheart depression glass collection via thrift stores, I got these sherbets with metal holders for $1.99 a piece. To my knowledge, these are the only clear pieces in the American Sweetheart pattern, though MacBeth Evans did produce other patterns and colors with these same metal holders. I wanted to show one out of the holder and flipped so you can see how the glass was actually made. 

Since my husband and I were a bit disappointed with our big trip out this last Wednesday, we took the opportunity yesterday to go in a different direction and go to some other out-of-the-way antique stores. I bought this empty Shiny Brite box for two dollars to hold some of my smaller, loose ornaments. I didn't photograph it well, but I love the detail of Uncle Sam shaking Santa's hand.

Truthfully, I paid a small fortune for both of these pieces, but as my husband said to me in the antique store, I'm getting to the point in my collection where pieces I want, but don't have already, are becoming harder and harder to find, and they are probably going to be fairly expensive when I do.

I got the turquoise 2 quart baker (my first piece of turquoise bakeware!) for 30 dollars and felt rather bad for being willing to pay so much. Curiosity got the better of me, so when I got home I checked ebay for what they were going for, and pretty much immediately changed my outlook. Now I feel like it was practically a steal. (Well, maybe not a steal, but a good deal, nonetheless :-)

The 2 1/2 quart Snowflake Blue casserole was the first time I'd seen this piece in the wild, so I went for it. Merry Christmas to me! I'm getting pretty close to a complete collection of this pattern - even the matching Corelle. I love it!

I also have a couple of items still soaking in a nice, warm bath that I'm saving for another post!

***

I'm so grateful to have the opportunity to get out and hunt for this stuff. Every trip my husband and I take together is a memory I won't soon forget. I frequently complain on this blog about prices, prices, prices, but in truth, I still love collecting Pyrex. It's been a really fun hobby. Thrift shopping and antiquing are something my husband and I really love to do together. And though we are looking for different types of items, so many times he's spotted something for me that he knows I like, and I just enjoy that so much - seeing him with something in his hands he knows I'm looking for. And he's actually pretty darn good at it, too!

I'm grateful that we have had the health to get out and go places together. And that we've had the disposable income to set aside purely for enjoyment. That is a real blessing and a true gift.

I sincerely wish everyone a very *Wonderful Christmas* Happy Hanukkah* Happy Holidays*, and a much blessed and prosperous *New Year*!

Happy Thrifting!

Butterfly Blue

My husband and I headed out yesterday to an antiques district we generally only go to a few times a year.

When we both began the prowl for vintage we used to find tons of treasures - more than we could  afford! But these days, there's more stores/booths than ever, but just not what we are looking for, and hardly anything actually vintage! So much decor, TJ Maxx-style home furnishings, and repainted furniture. I am no longer a fan of chalk paint/milk paint or any other distressed-look style. I've just seen far too much of it in the last couple of years.

So hubs and I left almost empty handed. In fact, we spent more on lunch at Cracker Barrel than we did shopping, and that's counting both of us combined.

I love the things I did get though!

This is a small stack of scratch-and-dent Homer Laughlin pieces. The rippled edges are Riviera and the small round plate is Carnival. They were a dollar a piece, and I just couldn't pass them up at that price, despite small chips and glaze skips. Riviera and Carnival are my two favorite lines in Homer Laughlin to collect. It's much more rare for me to pick up a new piece of either than it is to find a tempting piece of Fiesta, so I basically collect it all. My dream is to buy either a geniune vintage medical cabinet stand to display my pieces in or to get the one they currently sell at Ikea in jadeite green.

And here's some Butterfly Gold I know for a fact that my mom doesn't have. And I'm not giving these to her because they are just too weird and cool.

According to pyrexlove and corellecorner, these were a gift item in 1977, commemorating Corning's first patent. Corelle corner references original packaging, but sadly, I can't find any pictures of what that might look like.

My husband thought they were the Blue Cornflower Corningware pattern when I showed these to him. I wouldn't have known what they were if I hadn't seen them several years ago via the flickr group. These are definitely my favorite Butterfly Gold items!

Hope you are having great luck and finding most excellent treasures!

Happy Holidays everyone!

Thrift Scores

Seems to be a running theme here that I've been absent for a couple of weeks. This time it's been because of an awful flu my husband caught first, then of course I caught it. Still not over it after a week & a half, we both just wanted to get out of the house for a little while yesterday.

So we went thrifting & popped into a couple of our favorite nearby antique stores. Here's my loot:

I cannot even say how much I love these ornaments. They were an antique store splurge, but I had to have them. This was the first time I've found a box of Shiny Brites for less than 25 dollars a box, and half of them are my favorite - indents! So I went for it.

I also picked up a copy of a Southern-based antiques magazine called the Busy Bee Trader, which also happened to have this fantastic article on the history of Shiny Brites. Found out something I never knew - that Corning produced these ornaments. Yet another Corning product I collect and never knew it!

These Friendship casseroles were together like they were a pair, and no sign of the other pieces that actually did come with originally. I had one already, with the opal version of the lid, so now I've got one of each and a spare. I just can't pass up Friendship if it's at all reasonably priced. Last time I saw a piece of Friendship in the wild, it was a 403 mixing bowl for 30 dollars. Ouch!

And here's my two thrift finds:

Couldn't get a good picture of this baby pink Rubbermaid silverware tray. I have the exact same one in turquoise already, but it was probably made a bit more recently than this one. The pink has an older, cursive script on the Rubbermaid logo, but my turquoise one has the current logo, a block script inside an oval shape.

And finally, this piece of Markley descoware has been put through the ringer, but I had to buy it anyway. I love the pattern! My husband spotted it for me. I think his hunting instincts come out when we go thrifting and antiquing. It's both sweet and maddening at the same time, because he's always racing ahead to try to find the good stuff, but he's calling me over while I'm still looking somewhere he's already moved on from. I lag behind because I'm looking for possibly buried treasure!

Hope this has been a good week for you!

Happy Treasure Hunting!