Second thrifting trip of the new year

I was happy to pick up these 3 Cronin Tulip pieces, 7 dollars for the three. I collect this pattern, but haven't added a new piece in some time.

Next up, just a small hodge-podge of housewares. Nothing too rare or exciting, but all things I collect. The Corning Ware coffee perk is my first electric. Haven't tried it yet, but it was in lovely condition, so I bit the bullet and bought it.

I also found two Spring Blossom Corelle plates, two Fiesta mugs in discontinued P86 Rose & Persimmon. And also somewhat coffee related, two metal heat diffusers. These guys would be used with Pyrex Flameware or other glass cookware, allowing it to sit on the coils of an electric stove. 

And finally, a blast from the past. Lisa Frank! I hate to say it, but if this hadn't been kittens, I probably wouldn't have picked it up. (or unicorns. Or..or....okay, I probably would have picked it up no matter what was on it, lol!)

I can't tell a whits difference between current Lisa Frank stuff and 'vintage', so I really don't know how old this is. And I can't find one like it to compare. But I bought it to use. ( I like to load up a couple of coolers of drinks and snacks to keep me and the hubs powered up through our epic all-day antique shopping trips we take every few months or so. :-)

Lisa Frank inevitably reminds me Trapper Keepers. And have you seen how much 1980's Trapper Keepers are going for these days? Gah! In all my thrifting, I've never come across a single one. I'd collect the crap out of vintage Trapper Keepers if given the opportunity. Haha.

Anyways, that's my second thrift haul of this new year :-)

Hope you're finding great stuff!

Happy Thrifting!

More pretties - a recap of what I failed to post in 2013

These lovelies are marked Brookmark melamine mixing bowls. I am assuming they are the largest size - approximately 5 quarts would be my guess. They were a local splurge, 10 dollars each. The pink was coming home with me no matter what, but I hemmed and hawed a bit over the blue/beige. In the end, I just couldn't pass them up. It's rare that I see a confetti bowl for less than 30 dollars or so.

This is literally every melamine mixing bowl I own - both new and vintage. The bottom and top bowls are new Zak! designs I picked up pretty cheaply at Tuesday Morning. I believe this color is called Bluebell and that it's being discontinued. The large bowl is insanely large. I think it's 7 quarts? You can buy a 4 piece set and nest it inside this bowl. (I tested this theory out in a JC Penney the other day, lol). Going up from there are my two new vintage Brookpark. Then 3 in a row are Rachael Ray garbage bowls in orange, Fennel, and red. An unmarked beige-y one is hiding above the red RR, then a marked pink-ish Texas Ware bowl I scored for 99 cents at GW, and finally on top is a lidded Zak bowl. I like the addition of the new style melamine with the older vintage bowls. They add a lot of color that either didn't exist originally or is otherwise rare/pricey in the original vintage.

Next up, a couple of Christmas presents from the hubs. I failed to get a picture of this Fiesta measuring set before I unfastened the million little twisties they attached them to the box with. It reminded me of when I'd get a new doll for Christmas, couldn't wait to play with it, but it had seven hundred different twisty things holding it to the package. I love, love, love the spatulas, I really needed them too. I like the measuring cups and spoons, but they remind me of kids play keys! They are even the same colors. I like a lot of the new Fiesta accessories, I just have a few complaints about them. One is that they are going overboard on the Roy G. Biv and two, they've gotten a lot of props lately for being Made in the USA, tv shoutouts, magazine articles, etc. So what do they do but unleash a wave of stuff made overseas. Of course, if I'm buying it, I'm also a part of the problem, you know? But damn it, Jim, I really nnneeeeeeeeedddded those spatulas.... ;-)

And finally, my husband bought me the Sandalwood 470 casserole set for Christmas. Pyrex for Christmas! That's a first in this house. He also bought me two Horizon Blue mixing bowls that he let me open early!

Sandalwood Complete!

Officially, this is the complete line of Sandalwood. Just 7 little pieces. But special magical faerie people also own sets of refrigerator dishes and a butter dish. These were not regular production items. It's also a mystery to me why there wasn't a 480 set along with the 470's. There probably is, but only the high dollar Pyrex Pirates have it. I'll consider my Sandalwood collection complete when I have the striped mixing bowl set completed. These, along with the Berries 024 are all the pieces I know for sure to be this special Sandalwood color. There's an oval casserole called Spices that may be this same shade, but I've never seen it to tell for sure. It may be closer to the light caramel shade from Woodland.

Anyway, I love Sandalwood, and I'm touched that this is what my husband picked out for me. I think he remembered a trip we took when I bought the middle sized casserole and dropped it in the antique store parking lot - to this day, the only piece of Pyrex I've ever broken. I was so disappointed. He's so sweet to have bought me a replacement. I love it, and him, too. (hearts)

Anyways, I'm finally starting to get caught up to 2014!

Hope you're finding fabulousities & fantasticals in this bright new year.

Happy Thrifting!

Way to start out the New Year!

I was so happy yesterday. I could not believe the great things I was finding at one little Goodwill. And on half-off day, no less!

I only have two pictures. My camera batteries need replaced and I keep forgetting about it. So forgive the even-worse-than-usual quality photos I did manage to take.

First up, these dishes were all taped together in a stack, marked 3.99, and they qualified for the half-off.  (They've started excluding the current week's color from half-off sales.)

I looked right over them until something in my brain connected the dots that these are actually unmarked Fiesta from 1970's. The dinner plates are the only marked pieces. They say Casualstone by Coventry, and Made in USA. Here's some more information from a Homer Laughlin book.

I found so much stuff. I was just so excited! I found a few more vintage items I didn't get to photograph, and just general cool stuff I don't blog about. For instance, I got a pair of polka dot Converse for 4 dollars, a pair of jeans, Harry Potter Clue, a couple of books, my husband found a couple of things, and we walked out spending less than 25 bucks. It was a New Years miracle! :-)

But the craziest score of all is something I very nearly overlooked altogether.



Yes, that's pink Kromex. Again! And the crazy, crazysauce thing about it is, I was missing the tea canister, and the sugar canister from my 8 dollar antique store set is cracked, right down between the u and the g.

And the bad thing is, I didn't see them! They were pushed right up against the wall, with something else in front of them on the shelf. I started to walk out of that area, when I noticed there were two silverware tubs on the bottom shelf that I might want to rifle through. So I walked back over. Bent down, I was face to face with pink Kromex. I couldn't believe I found them, and I couldn't believe I very nearly didn't! Ack!!!!

And I about died when I saw the prices. Sugar canister, 99 cents, tea canister, 59 cents. Really?!! I couldn't even begin to tell you the last time I bought anything *ANYTHING* good at this GW for 59 cents. It reminds me of when I first began going to thrift stores on a regular basis. The days when I used to pass on perfectly good pieces of Pyrex, Corelle, and all the other stuff that I now crave with the bloodlust of total crazy-person.

The sugar canister doesn't have even a scrap of black left on the lettering. It looks like it never even had it to begin with. These guys are a little more rough around the edges than my antique store set. And since my camera is dead (at least for now), I can't get a proper family portrait of them all reunited. Hopefully, next time I post, I can take a picture of them all together. And I believe I'll take advice from Farm Girl Pink and fill in the lettering with a Sharpie (or nick one of the hubs Prismacolors).

What a way to start the New Year!!!

Hope you are finding fantastic treasures!

Happy Thrifting!

Thrift & Antique store round-up

I finally found a few new pieces at Goodwill the other day!

This delphite bowl set me back $6.99. I'd seen it before in antique stores with it's companion dip bowl twice before now - once with the bracket for 35 dollars and once without for 25, but it's been a few years back. And those were prices I didn't love for pieces I didn't thoroughly love, so I passed. The time I found this set with a bracket, I picked it up and walked around with it, and was sure I was going to buy it until I literally walked into the next antique booth on the other side and found the square turquoise hostess chip & dip set, complete with the hard-to-find square bracket - all for 10 dollars less than the other booth wanted for the delphite grapes set.

I really couldn't afford both sets, so I put the delphite back and happily paid 25 dollars for my square turquoise hostess set. Little by little, I'm starting to find pieces that I have never seen in real life, or saw once several years ago, and I'm hoping that's a continuing trend.

These guys were also waiting for me the same day - a butter yellow loaf pan, clear refrigerator dish that I bought for the lid, and another spare lid. None of these were terribly expensive, and I'm happy to have them.

These two sweet pink pieces were antique store purchases, but less than ten bucks for both. Thems thrift store prices - for around here, at least. I saw a Pink Gooseberry mixing bowl set for 95 dollars the other day. I can only shake my head. Too rich for my blood. But I'll happily snap up any Pink Gooseberry I see for a reasonable price, for sure.

These are Corelle/Pyrex go-along glasses, marked Bradley & Associates. There's something slightly off about the pattern that makes me think these weren't official go-alongs.

I don't have any Snowflake Blue Corelle. I just literally never see it. Over the years, I've bought my mom a huge set of Butterfly Gold, one piece at a time. And I've driven myself crazy daisy buying Spring Blossom Green. And did I mention I've got pieces and parts of the Wildflower and Meadow patterns too?  (It never ends, does it?)

I'd love to cobble a set of Snowflake Blue Corelle together with the Pyrex Coordinates and have that be my main pattern. Fingers crossed that these glasses are just the first of wave of inexpensive Snowflake Blue items to come my way. :-)

And since this is probably my last post before Christmas, I just want to wish a very Happy Holiday Season to everyone who reads this little blog of mine. I appreciate you so much!

Hope you and yours are Happy and Well!

Happy Thrifting!

Blue Christmas

Haven't been thrifting much lately, and when I have, the shelves are bare. I've read here and there that donations are down in general and kitchen stuff - my favorite- is getting snapped up quick for Holiday meals.

So, again, I'm turning to antique stores to get my vintage fix.

I haven't run across Colonial Mist all that often, and really didn't intend to collect it, but these two bowls were sold together for 12 dollars - thriftier priced than most other items I was seeing - so I bought. I like that the missing 402 and largest sized 404 bowls could come in either white with a blue pattern or be decorated the same as these. As I understand it, the difference is that the set alternated colors when it was sold together in the same box as a 3 or 4 bowl set, but only the solid blue with white pattern was sold as open stock.

The turquoise-on-white version of Butterprint is a duplicate for me, but it came from a booth having a 20% off sale, so it came home with me as well. My husband says I have a sickness for Butterprint. Personally I agree, I just think it also extends out to practically any Pyrex pattern, and pretty much every other type of decorated opal white/milk glass kitchenware - Pyrex, Fire King, Hazel Atlas, McKee etc. :-)

And finally, these are Christmas presents. My husband ordered them as a surprise for me. They arrived just moments before we were headed out the door together. And since they were glass, he was anxious to inspect the package and make sure everything was a-okay. So he just gave them to me early.

(Of course, me standing there like a little kid with Gimme-Gimme-Gimme eyes probably had something to do with getting them early, LOL)

I hope to find the solid blue 402 that nests between them, but for now, my two Horizon Blue bowls are nesting in between the two Snowflake Blue bowls I own, making a sort of blue set of their very own.

Hope you are finding grand and thrifty vintage treasures!

Happy Thrifting!

Long time no see

It seems like ages since my last post. I came down with a bad flu that lasted for two weeks. My husband started coming down with it just as I was getting better. So we just haven't gotten out and about much. Here's my odds and ends from yesterday.

This is the very first vintage tablecloth I've ever found at a thrift store. I think it's actually long enough to fit my table! It was $2.99. It would have been perfect for Thanksgiving, but I didn't cook this year (thankfully), so it's alright. Maybe next year :-)

I already have these Richard Simmons cookbooks, but they were a dollar, so I picked them up as spares. The Farewell to Fat book is not a diet/weight-loss cookbook, but more of a how-to make a variety of foods, from appetizers to main course, that are healthier lifestyle choices. I've made two recipes from this book - the first is called "Puff the Magic Meal" (I'm not kidding about the title), and "Campfire Soup" - both of which were quite tasty and I'd make again. Next recipe I'm eyeing is "Angel Eggs", and lower-everything alternative to Deviled Eggs.

Next up, can you guess which one of these is *NOT* vintage? Why, the lovely red dot tumblers that I just bought at the DOLLAR TREE of all places! They are marked with a Made in Mexico sticker, but washed off, reveals the Libbey mark (a stylized cursive "L").

Run, don't walk, to your nearest Dollar Tree and check these out. They also had snowflake glasses that would look darling with snowflake Pyrex, and Holly Berry glasses. I think these are all fantastic alternatives for folks who are hunting authentic-look and feel glasses in vintage styles, but don't want to pay the vintage prices for them - especially if you are wanting a whole set.  Let me know if you go hunting these glasses down and see other patterns or colors!

The turquoise boomerang glass was a single I picked up for 49 cents at the same thrift. I have a pink one just like it. Maybe a decade from now I'll have stumbled into the whole set, lol!

And finally, it was Corningware day, even though I didn't actually score a single piece of it. These are all accessories, but I think they are neat. This is an electromatic skillet. I haven't even washed it yet, much less tried it out, but I think it's pretty cool. I'll probably try to make eggs or something simple in it - assuming it still works, of course. The cradle above it is for the same size piece.

And my prize for the day was a totally mint in box petite pan handle. I love petite pans. They are my favorite Corning Ware piece. I can't see using these small pieces on the stove, but I think it's just ridiculously adorable that they even made a handle for it at all. The most practical use I can think of for it would be as a butter warmer.

Glad to be back on my feet again. Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving!

Happy Thrifting!

Long time no thrift

I just realized that every picture I've posted here relates to beverages. Unintentional themed thrifting!

First up, I love these polka dot glasses. There were just the 3 of them, but you never know when you'll find the odd matching piece. I love colorful dotted drinking glasses. I have a thing for them and anything striped. Good ways to bring in color that can also can be paired with different sets of dishes for maximum versatility.

I tend to like that more than patterned drinking glasses. That is, until I find a pattern like this one:

These little sweethearts are part of the Strawberry Sunday pattern in Corning Ware and Corelle. I have a single Strawberry Sunday casserole that I previously thrifted. This is one of those patterns I'd love to find more of.

These were all thrifted, except the turquoise vintage Fiesta mug on the left. I picked it up for 5 dollars at an antique store. Check out the lenticular winky eyes on the puppy mug!  That's 49 cents worth of fun if I've ever seen it :-)

Help my soul, I can't hardly force myself to call this pattern Spring Blossom Green. In my heart, it will always be "Crazy Daisy", cause it makes me a little nuts that I keep collecting it!

And I've somehow gone from absolutely loathing the open-handle cups to really liking them. No idea why. I have two of them already, and they've become one of my favorite go-to afternoon teacups. After ignoring them for years, I think I want them in all or most the patterns they came in.

Finally, these Corning Ware coffee percs were fairly cheap. The Blue Cornflower is a 6 cup. It was rode hard and put up wet, meaning I need to find a good guide for cleaning up the inside of this pot.

The black trefoil pattern is a new one to me. It's a simple, rather delicate design that I think I've seen only once before, and I'm probably going to keep it just for the novelty of it.

Both of these percs were involved in recalls in the 1970's due to hazard that the body could become separated from the metal top & handle. I've never tried one of these out because of this issue. I'd really like to find one of the models were the body and spout are all one piece with the band and handle fastened around the neck of it.

All in all, good thrifting day. Only saw one sad piece of dishwashed Pyrex (that I didn't buy). And of course they wanted a fortune for it. Boooo. Hissssssss. Other Negative Noises...................... Haha.

Hope you are finding awesome goodies!

Happy Thrifting!