Friday, February 20, 2015

A couple of finds

It's been freezing cold and all manner of ice, sleet and snow around these parts lately, so I haven't been out much. Didn't even hit the town for Valentine's Day, like we typically do.

I did however find this lovely blue doily casserole at the flea market. For ten bucks, I didn't even try to bargain it down. This is the smaller sized casserole, though it looks larger in the picture. I've had the lid for its larger sized version since very early on in my collecting days, but have never seen the turquoise base to complete it. I've never quite understood why they paired this color base with a dark blue lid?

And my one thrift find is this unmarked almost lavender-colored melmac mixing bowl. It has a size number on it of 111, and it's the same shape and size as a marked Texas ware bowl I have. But poking around on ebay I noticed that Brookpark made bowls with the same shapes and marking numbers. So this could be either of those or neither. The fact that it's not marked is, I'm guessing, the only reason it made it to the shelves at Goodwill. I'm pretty sure they are sending off everything even vaguely vintage to their website these days. Either way, I like it a lot and it's a welcome addition to my new and vintage melmac bowl collection.

Hope you're finding good stuff these days. The antique stores and thrifts around here are pretty bare and whatever they do have is crazy priced. It's a lean time of year around here for vintage goodies, that's for sure.

Happy Thrifting!

Thursday, February 12, 2015

For the love of vintage

Do you have any newly made vintage-inspired items you've bought lately? Or do you only stick to the originals? For myself, it's really hard to justify newly made kitchen stuff no matter how cute it is simply because I've got so much vintage. But once in a while, something really strikes my fancy and I have to buy it anyway.

I've been buying the new colored Ball jars since they came out with blue. I'd just read about the purple ones when I saw them yesterday at Kmart. I believe they are also supposed to be the larger size in these too, but they didn't have any of them. I love the large quart jars for water glasses, pint size for fizzy drinks. Good portion control. I just wish they'd made the large jars in blue. I wonder why they didn't?

And as much as I really don't need any more Pyrex (especially NEW Pyrex), I still have been buying the seasonal patterns when I've seen them at Target. I've missed a few that seem to only be at stores nowhere near me. I believe they are doing this style dish in a New Dots homage pattern. I bet those will sell really well to collectors and non-collectors alike :-)


And finally, I had a ten dollar off coupon at JC Penney's, so I splurged and bought a 4 bowl Zak designs nesting bowl set. I already had the extra-large blue bowl, so the 4 bowl set nests right inside it. As much as I love the vintage Texas ware confetti bowls, the bright colors of the Zak designs bowls lured me in. I also have a few Rachael Ray garbage bowls because of the style and colors.

JC Penney, however, gets on my nerves. These bowls used to be 38 dollars when they were "fair and square" pricing. Now the same bowls that have been sitting there for years have had their prices re-stickered to 62 dollars, so they can be on 30% - 40% for $34.99.

On the other hand, their coupons and gimmicks got me to walk back into a store, so I guess they were right after all. Either way, I got my bowl set, and if I buy anymore Zak bowls it will likely be when they turn up at Tuesday Morning or TJ Maxx.

On the thrift/antique store front, I really haven't been shopping in a while. And when I have, the shelves have been very, very bare. I'm hanging a lot of hope on yard sale season and warmer weather!

Hope you've been finding thrifty treats and treasures!

Happy Valentine's Day!