Thursday, April 30, 2015

Flea market finds

All of these are flea market finds, except the semi-tragic Kit Kat Klock I hemmed and hawed about coming home with. And mostly, they were all cheap and cheerful, my kind of prices!


I added a Country Calico tray to my CC/Heartland horde, small fridgie lid, and two sweet little pieces of green depression glass for just a couple of bucks.

Spent a little more for this turquoise mixing bowl and unusual - at least to me- Pyrex Corning belt buckle.


Didn't have a chance to clean it up yet when I snapped this picture. I'm not sure what the 42 commemorates. Though I did see that the 'reverse dollar sign' symbol is actually the letter "P" for Pyrex on top, with the letter "C" for Corning below it.

The "C" begins right above the bottom of the "P", so that is actually two little lines instead of one straight across. I feel silly now that I never released that's what the 'reverse dollar sign' actually signified!


My one antique store purchase, this poor (formerly) pink Kit Kat Klock. I thought someone had bedazzled it themselves but once I got home with it I see that it's actually orginal. It doesn't work, is missing a hand and tail, and the jewels just put it over the top, but it's going into my crazy clock collection regardless. At least it was really cheap!

And finally, a couple more cheap and cheerful flea finds. Another Language of Flowers Glasbake mug for my unintentional collection, a sweet somewhat rusty unmarked Ransburg match holder, and two Pyrex lids. One is square and belongs to the old 1920's refrigerator dishes. I've never seen the bottom of one for sale but this lid will go into my stash because you never know what you'll see at the thrift.

Hope you're out finding snazzy treats and treasures!

Happy Thrifting!

Thursday, April 23, 2015

Cabinet Update

 I finally got my cabinet painted! But I'm not a good blogger, so it didn't even occur to me to take a "before" shot. This is the closest I have to one:

Once upon a time I think this hutch was a blonde or light brown. But ages ago someone painted it white and it seemed to eventually end up in storage where the color didn't exactly age well.

I painted it semi-gloss white on the outside and about as close as I could get to turquoise Pyrex or Tiffany Blue as I could find. I'll update this post (hopefully) when I remember to get the paint details off the can. *UPDATE* My color choice was Behr Island Oasis from Home Depot *

I did actually take a turquoise refrigerator dish to Home Depot with me to have color matched - something I've wanted to do forever. But alas, the scanner just wasn't helping me out. Light passes through the glass, so the color it kept matching was quite a bit darker and greener. The paint people behind the counter didn't have much better luck either.

Funny thing was, I think the universe was pretty bent on me having a decent match after all. Right beside me (literally, to my right as I stood at the counter feeling disappointed I couldn't get my fridgie matched) was one lone paint sample of a color that looked remarkably exactly like my refrigerator dish. I requested a small can mixed up in semi-gloss, used a Christmas gift card to pay for it, so I literally got it for free. How cool is that?

Here she is all filled up!

Hard to get a picture of it all at once. It's in a small room with an awkward furniture arrangement, so my pictures are all angled and cut off.

I filled it up with some of my very favorite things - and this time I decided on whim to highlight my Fire King collection.

Once I finished painting and hubs & I got it where I wanted it I started filling it up. First thing I put in was my brand newly-acquired pink Sunbeam stand mixer. I knew I wanted my collectors books in beside that, and as luck would have it, they fit perfectly.


Next, I knew I wanted my collection of Hazel Atlas Ripple. And the one thing I knew for sure was going on the top was my Fisher Price light up globe. I have to stop myself from collecting globes, I have nowhere to put them! And now my pink and turquoise canisters have a home! I love it so much!

In the same room, I've been playing around with even more shelves and displays. I didn't think I owned enough Jadeite to make a decent looking display, but I mixed in green depression glass, Delphite and 3 shades of blue Fire King. I really like the way it turned out!

The jadeite shelf is directly above this one, which is housing (most of) my original 6 colors of vintage Fiesta. I haven't actually arranged these yet, they are just stacked by color, but I still like the way it looks all together.


One of these days I'll take a pic of my Pyrex shelves. But right now they are a total jumble.

I used to have my Pyrex mostly on display on the shelves and kept duplicates in the kitchen as daily users. Sounds completely practical, in theory. But in practice, if I wanted to use something I didn't have in the cabinet, I needed to go get it from another room and wash it first. Meaning I tended to use the same pieces over and over again and some of my very favorites just sat on the shelf in another room collecting dust.

So what I did was basically switch out about a hundred pieces. It was a job and a half. Now my kitchen cabinets are full of my favorite Pyrex, washed and ready to go - whether I have a duplicate or not, and my shelves are full of duplicates (both good and bad) and not-as-loved. This may be the incentive I need to divest myself of some overflow.

I've been doing so much Spring cleaning and organizing lately! I feel like these displays are my reward for a hard work and a job well done, and I am enjoying them tremendously.

Hope you are enjoying some nice weather and finding awesome junk!

Happy Thrifting!













Thursday, April 16, 2015

Thrift finds

Almost all of these are thrift finds. I really haven't been out much, but I think I've picked up more in the last couple of trips than I've previously found all winter. The nice weather must be responsible for it.

Couldn't resist the red. The little Glasbake casserole has the beginnings of dishwasher damage, but it had its fin lid. Also picked up the little Zak strainer bowl - you can't tell it in this photo but it's shaped like a strawberry - and it's the perfect size to rinse a small package of berries all at once. 

Picked up yet another damaged vintage Fiesta mixing bowl - an Ivory #3 for 3 dollars at a nearby antique store. I can't pass up vintage Fiesta mixing bowls at a good price, even when they are really damaged.


Another set of Heartland items I'd never seen before - 23 knobs and one pull. Someone must have had a whole kitchens worth of them. They were absolutely filthy when I bought them and they have no mark, so you just either have to know they are Heartland or just so happen to like the pattern. I have absolutely nowhere to put them, so they are living inside the last Heartland casserole I bought. This pattern never ends, lol!


Military medical mess hall dishes are the one style of restaurant ware I let myself pick up. Only the platter is new, I just photographed it with my two other pieces. It's huge! Kinda wish now I had another place settings worth so my husband and I could each have a set to use once in a while.

And finally, my Pyrex finds:
 

My husband found the Spring Blossom bowl for me at Goodwill, and it is literally the first piece of opal Pyrex I've seen there in two years. It set me back $5.99.


I also found this marriage of a Pyrex lid with an opal Fire King body at the same Goodwill, different day.


I might should have passed on the very dishwashy Heinz baker, but it was two dollars and in good shape other than being dishwashed, so I thought I might try to clean it up.


And finally, my antique store purchases. These came out of a new booth in a local antique store, 9 dollars for the space saver, 10 for the Butterprint fridgie with lid, which is now what I'd say is well below average price around here now. (Everything I see nowadays in antique stores is pretty much 25 dollars+,  sadly).

A dealer who was working that day, who knows I collect Pyrex, exclaimed exasperatedly that she had meant to buy these and just forgot about it. I'm not sure if she was genuinely trying to get me to not purchase them for myself, but I pretty much refused to give them up. I was nice about it, apologetic even, but it kinda bothered me that a dealer was more interested in getting the good deal for themselves than being helpful to frequent customer of their store.

Hope you're finding nifty treats and treasures!

Happy Thrifting!