127 yard sale - Everything else

Major 'grail' status achieved! These green Hocking canisters were one of the items I was most wanting and looking for on the yard sale. Neither had lids when I bought them, the ones in the picture are from my lid stash. I actually think the one on the right is the right lid. I'm not sure about the other, I'm thinking Jeannette for some reason?

When I picked them up to ask about a price, the guy said "I'll give them both to you for 10". I couldn't buy them fast enough!

Now I probably shouldn't have bought this mixer, but it's in beautiful shape, I got it for a good price, and I have its pink sibling. Am I collecting stand mixers? Yipes. It even came with booklet, which I've totally misplaced at the moment. I haven't even plugged it in yet. Hope it works as good as it looks :-)

And everything else here was what I'd consider a true yard sale price. Mostly 50 cents or less, and a few dollar items.

Yellow Riviera platter, two Carnival saucers to go with my matching teacups, a couple of vintage Fiesta bread & butter plates.

Sweet milk glass pieces.

Paid 5 dollars for this Chein moon globe, which I knocked over before I could even buy it. The guy said it had been happening all day. Poor globe! Bought it anyway. I'll just pretend they're craters. Lol.

Stanley Home Products Cookies canister ( needs re-lettered ) and Country Calico tins

And a little bit of canister love. Less than a dollar bought me my first  (unmarked) Stanley Home Products Cookies canister  (and a big wave and thank you to Farm Girl Pink for solving the mystery of where these canisters came from. Read all about it here.)

This in my first cookie canister. And the first time I've seen anything in a solid white colorway. There is but the tiny-tiniest little hint of silver pant on the lettering, so I'm going to use the same silver pen I bought at Hobby Lobby to do some restorative work.

This was a final stop at some antique stores on our way back home. Can you guess which of these set is NOT Lustro ware? If you said turquoise, you are correct! They are marked Sterilite but boy they sure do look identical!

And a final thing. A real Would You? or Wouldn't You?

Would you pay 5 dollars for a set of desireable dishes if after going through them you realize that every single one of them is chipped in a major way or cracked? Would you be sad, say your goodbyes and walk away? Or would you be trying to figure out ways to re-use or re-purpose? Or would you be content just to use a/o display them as-is?

Well, I bought them anyway.

Franciscan Starburst. Every one of them chipped. Moderate to bad chips/cracks. And not a lot of minor damage pieces.  As of right now, I really don't know what I'm doing with them. I'm thinking I may just try to display the ones with chips on the underneath, which are still perfectly useable, and think about repurposing the plates with damage on the face/surface. Thoughts, anyone?

That's most all the loot from our yardsale adventures. As usually, I feel like I'm missing out on posting half of what we find due to the absence of my husbands part of the goodies. (He's a toy, vinyl record, games, books guy). And he actually found a fair amount of stuff this year, for once. So we were both pretty lucky.

Hope you're finding great Summertime treasures!

Happy Thrifting!

A few finds

Got a chance yesterday to hit up one of the small church thrifts we don't get to often, and it paid off with these cute (and cheap!) finds.

The diamond mug is Federal and was just 10 cents! Altogether, the pink syrup, mug and glass cost less than 2 bucks. My kind of prices, for sure!

This cameo pattern Glasbake was a touch more expensive at $1.49. I fail to grasp the logic of thrift store pricing sometimes, especially for similar items. But still, I thought this pattern was a little unusual - I usually just see these in solid colors - so I wanted to pick it up.

 I guess this is my Butterfly Gold Corelle. My mom told me she's had enough. LOL. I reckon these will join the Woodland/Old Town/Spring Blossom party I've got going on in my spare room.

I've definitely been on a roll finding Heartland items I don't have and have never seen before. This is one of the metal bowls from the mixing set. There's also a ceramic set I'd like to have. This one was from the same thrift and was just .79 cents.

And finally, remember the vintage ads I found the other day? Well here they are all framed up. The turquoise frame was a Hobby Lobby splurge, along with the matting on both, but the Fire King frame was a Goodwill purchase.

Sorry for the funky angles, I can't find a place to hang them that doesn't make them glare horribly (in addition to my already less than stellar photography skillz, lol)

Hope you're finding great stuff!

Happy Thrifting!

Christy Jordan's Southern Plate Magazine

I first learned of Christy Jordan when I saw her on an episode of Paula Deen, who, if you can believe it, razzed Christy about her Southern accent. (If memory serves, Christy is from Alabama).

Her recipe for Splenda Cream Cheese Pie has worked its way into regular rotation at my house. It's the jam, seriously. And one of those simple, simple recipes that is actually fantastic as opposed to just lazy. Haha.

I read her site for a while before I came across her Pyrex Hoarder post. (And she promises a Part Two in the future. I'm looking forward to it!

Oh my. Look at that kitchen.

Pyrex Friends, she's definitely one of us. Here, she tells the story of family pieces that started her love of vintage kitchen.

And on this page, she gives some tips on what to look out for. I was also glad to read her warning that many of these dishes were made before dishwashers were common in the kitchen, so hand wash these beauties if you want to keep them looking shiny and new.

And one of the things I love most is that she's a fan of it all. Not just Pyrex. The rest of the magazine features Fire King, Glasbake, Hazel Atlas, Federal, etc. It nice to see other glassware getting some attention as well.

Anyways, I just wanted to make a post about this magazine while it's currently on newsstands and easy to pick up.

Happy Thrifting!

I confess. I am a lid hoarder.

This here is my hoard of lids. Yep, you heard me right. A hoard of lids. They live inside my great-grandmothers Pyrex loaf dish, in an upper cabinet that I have to climb on a chair to retrieve.

You may ask yourself and I'm sure you often do "Why hoard lids?"

Well, since you asked, it's because sometimes they go from looking like this:
(sad, lonely little lidsies)

to this:
(Reunited and it feels so good!)

The McKee canister on the left was a lidless GW find for $2.99 and should have come with a milk glass lid. But on a lark, I tried a marked Glasbake lid from my lid hoard, and it fits perfectly. And I actually like it better than what the real lid looks like.

And the Fire King grease jar was quite a bit cheaper than it would have been had it come with a lid. I paid 25 cents for the lid at a little mom-and-pop shop a year before I even knew what it was. It just chilled out in my cabinet with its hoarded brethren, lol.

And speaking of brethren, I'm not even sure I can identify all of these. But by hook or by crook, I know they'll eventually be paired with something - even if that something isn't exactly what it was designed to pair with.
What could be missing in from a hoard of lids? How about a hoard of bases?
This Hazel Atlas Criss-Cross butter dish is missing its bottom, and the small refrigerator dish is missing its lid. Figures, right? Not a one of the lids from my hoard fits its very distinct, square shape.

Oh well, all the sweeter when these guys are reunited.

Happy treasure hunting!

A flower garden of Petal

This is how I started collecting Federal "Petal" pattern. In my last post, I was saying how lucky I was to score 3 new pieces and a new color for my collection.

All of my pieces before now have had the points angling upward in a standard bowl shape. I'm not 1000% sure, but I'd imagine this style is considered 'scalloped' edge. But all my new pieces have the petals facing away from the center of the bowl, horizontally.The glass itself seems significantly thicker than the scalloped edge pieces.

This brings my colors up to 5, counting clear. I believe the colors I have now are Smoke (iridescent), Teal, Green, and (what I believe is) Sungold.I've yet to find a comprehensive resource for Petal. I bought a collector book by Cathy & Gene Florence, called "Collectible Glassware from the 40's, 50's, 60's (8th edition) that had a page dedicated to the pattern, but it only lists pieces by size and values by clear v. all colors - no reference to how many colors there are or any further specifics. Any color names I'm using, I've gotten the names from here.

I also found a globe to complete my hurricane lamp. It was a $1.50 antique store purchase, sitting all by itself, no base. Luckily, I had the base for it at home - another lone purchase from a pile of goods from "the little old man store".

And what a misnomer calling it a hurricane lamp. This guy wouldn't withstand much more than a light breeze. It's tiny! I put it here on a 12" sandwich plate. The base is barely bigger than the center of the salver.Wish I knew how many colors actually remain. I'm especially wanting to find pink pieces! At any rate, I've been doubly blessed and fortunate to have been led to collecting this pattern, and finding these pieces in such short order. I'm getting quite the multi-colored flower garden of glassware here!

33 bucks

Haven't been posting much lately because I just haven't found much. A few reasonably priced antique store purchases, but almost nothing from the thrift stores. Needless to say, I was pretty thrilled to find all of this -in 1 day - for a tax-and-all total of 33 bucks!
First off -Le Creuset. Woo-hoo! This is a HUGE, HEAVY enameled cast iron au gratin, marked #36. It was $9.99 and in pretty fantastic condition, just a few minor scratches in the bottom and some baked-in crud that cleaned off pretty easily. Brand new, these guys are devilishly expensive, so I was thrilled to pay the 10 dollar price tag. Somewhere along the way, I've picked up the idea that white Le Creuset is 1980's, but I really truly don't know. Wish I could find a handy-dandy color chart reference for LC colors like what exists for Fiestaware.Same thrift store, not just one but TWO pieces of Pyrex. That never happens to me these days. Fire King saucer to add to the stack, and an unmarked individual casserole I took a random liking to. I united it with a fin-style glasbake lid I had, and it looks pretty cute. Should have gotten a picture of that as well. Tax and all cost was 20 bucks and some change. Pretty good!

But the best part of the day was going into what I've now dubbed "the little old man store". This place has only been open on random weekend days and is basically an indoor yardsale. The same older gentleman is there every time we've stopped, and as far as I understand pricing, I make a pile of things I'm interested in, he glances at it and give me a price.

First time I did this, it scared me. I had no idea whether he'd ask 50 cents for something or 20 bucks. But after being in there a few times and my total never going over 14 bucks, I stopped worrying about it and just made a pile. This stuff cost a grand total of 13 bucks!
3 pieces of Federal Petal to add to my collection, a Charcoal Snowflake Pyrex space saver casserole (no lid, but I had a spare at home), a couple of spare lids, a pink Anchor Hocking shaker to go with the blue one I bought from this same place a while back, a cute juice pitcher, an unmarked Hazel Atlas milk jug (another Kix cereal giveaway item, like the strawberry and apple jam jars!). And finally, a Hazel Atlas pink ripple salad plate.

If only junkin' could be this good all the time!

Fiesta Challenge update

A good while back, I mentioned here on this blog that I was not collecting Fiesta. Then, I said that I would only buy pieces I found for dirt cheap. Pennies, I said.

Well, and then I said I'd keep track of it here. A public documentation in the hopes I'd keep myself to my word.

Well, I lied. At first it was just a few additional .29 teacups from Goodwill. Not exactly worth posting about. Then it was a couple of super-scratched up dinner plates from a charity shop.

But the real kicker happened when I walked into a GW one day and they were selling an almost-complete service for 8 - in a shade of California Raisin purple that I still don't know the rightful name of (plum, most likely) - for 25 bucks. (And if you've ever met either me or my kitchen cabinets in person, you'd know that I need another china pattern like I need 13 pet raccoons).

All said and done, my "pennies" magically turned into around 35 dollars. Not really terrible, but more than I was intending.

Well, in one smooth move, 1 single additional piece, and *bam* I've nearly doubled my Fiesta shame. Have I ever mentioned how much I love turquoise? I think I have, or at least, I feel like I've mentioned it about a thousand times here.

A vintage Fiesta coffee pot. I'm still really, really surprised to even have this. This body shape & color combination I believe was discontinued in 1956. Every single piece I've bought up to now - besides one lone teacup - has been the post 1986 modern Fiesta. It's all plenty expensive enough - new OR vintage - but of course, the vintage stuff is another one of those categories of collectibles that is well & truly out of my price range.

I paid 25 bucks for it. Not the kind of cash I'm used to forking out at little makeshift side-of-the-road affairs. And there is a catch. It has an inner-rim chip, that I honestly have no earthly idea how badly it affects it's value. It's not so bad that it shows from the outside. But still, a chip is a chip. And since I know so little about Fiesta, I don't know what a "fair price" on this piece actually is. Without flaws, a general poking around the net leads me to $200+ price points. I genuinely believe I got a bargain at 25 bucks, I just don't know exactly 'how much of' a bargain it really was.

At any rate, this is a piece that I bought simply because I fell in love with it. I had no idea it was vintage at the time. I didn't even know for certain it was a coffee pot, as opposed to teapot. I just knew these pieces were pretty expensive, and chip-or-no, it wasn't very likely I'd find such a nice piece in my favorite color any time soon.
And here it is with my only other vintage piece, a rose teacup. I'm such a sucker for '50's colors.

And this, brings my Fiesta damage up to 60 bucks total. *Eeep* Worse still, I'm putting myself through a crash-course in how to identify vintage Fiesta from new - which is a whole 'nother aspect to fuel the addiction that I haven't fully owned-up to yet, lol!

Same place, for a quarter a piece, I found two more small additions to my Federal "Petal" collection. Small base piece for the hurricane lamp, and a small bowl that I believe the color is called Sun Gold - bringing my colors up to 3. I've been lucky to find these pieces in such a short time. My grandmother gave me two pieces of it in clear, and after some research, I decided to try to assemble a small rainbow of the various colors it was made in, instead of trying to build up a more uniform set. I've been blessed with very good luck that I continue to be very grateful for!

Happy Collecting!

I collect: Federal Petal

This is a totally new-to-me glassware pattern. Manufactured by Federal Glass, this lovely "Petal" pattern was produced for app. 23 years (1954-1979) in a variety of color choices and iridescent finishes.

But what started me collecting this pattern, only months ago, were these two pieces given to me by my grandmother.
To my surprise, I've since found 3 more pieces from this line, all from thrift stores. First I found a large clear bowl. It was with another sandwich tray that was the same size as my grandmother's. For better or worse I made a decision on the spot to only collect unique sizes and colors from this line, and no duplicates, so I would never be confused as to which pieces actually came from my grandmother.

Since colored glassware generally has more collectors than clear, I was doubtful I'd find other colors anytime soon - especially at a thrift store. But just last week, I found this bowl. The color is called Smoke. From the top, the color is a deep grey with an iridescent finish on the underside. I'm still trying to get a better idea of the range of pieces made in this line. It does not appear that glasses or cups were made for it, and some of the colors - blue & pink in particular- seem far less common.

And though I only have the 5 pieces, I love the way it's worked out so far. I have a bowl for each plate in clear. Stacked like this, it reminds me a bit of the lovely jadeite "Lotus" snack set made by Fire King.

Since I'm a "set" junky, it's hard not to wish I had 3 or so more sets of each, I'd rather stick to my rule and aim for a variety of colors. And worse, I'm a "dishes" junky - so when I find even 1 stray cup or plate in a pattern I like, my immediate thought is "Oh, I'll just collect a service for 4. Nothing huge, or elaborate, or anything."

(cue the music of doom on behalf of my poor husband)

Price-wise, this pattern is still quite inexpensive, and somewhat lost in the sea of similarly lovely, unmarked 50's, 60's & 70's cut glassware. But I think it's just the cats pajamas. I'm tickled too for the fact that my grandmother specifically thought this would be something I'd appreciate. And I certainly do. And I'm looking forward to having another thing to keep my eyes peeled for in the thrift and antique stores. I've seen a few pictures of some of the other colors together, and I can't wait until I have a rainbow of them.

Thank you, grandma. I love you!

My new old Family

The Fired-On Family so far. My only regret is that this pic didn't include my grandmothers light green casserole (in use at the time that the mood struck to take pictures).

The vast majority of this is newly acquired Pyrex. All the refrigerator dishes were bought at an antique mall, all wrapped together with tape (and free surprise bonus diabetes magazine !?). No lids unfortunately, but the bundle was half price, so I was still a happy girl.

Also suspect that I'm one red and a whole lotta lids away from having 2 primary refrigerator sets (!). Completely unintentional, but sometimes you just have to take what you can get, especially when it's a decent price. I'm still unsure though about the blue. It's hard for me to tell. These 3 are all the same shade and seem more like Horizon blue than I ever imaged the primary blue to be, but I've never seen either in person. Hopefully, someone in the know will read this some day and be able to tell me for sure.

Also, I've noticed this: All 3 blue dishes have the Pyrex markings made in different ways. I'm very curious if this would shed more light on when exactly these were made.

The pink round 024 casserole was from Goodwill, same day. Very happy to find anything pink, but especially happy that my first and only piece is this shape. It's my favorite, I'm a bit sad that most all the patterns and promotional items are oval casseroles.

The rest of the family here is Fire King and one lone orange Federal mug. I just love the solid colors and wanted to have at least one picture of them all together as a family :-)

This was truly Pyrex motherlode day. It was my husband who spotted this lovely Empire Scroll (vines) promotional casserole from 1965. 6 bucks. Not too bad, especially since IT actually came with a lid ;-)

I also scored this amazing Hazel Atlas mug at Goodwill. 29 cents *LOVE* I'm also just a little bit smug proud of myself that I could tell it was a Hazel Atlas mug just from the style/looks of it, without having ever seen it before or even flipping it over to confirm. I've yet to buy any resource books (although I desperately need some right now, I'm too interested in spending money actually BUYING the stuff than buying books about the stuff, ha).

Newbies, right? All I need is the internet, a few resource books and an Etsy store ;-) Just kidding! I am in awe of the amazing finds (not to mention creativity and mad photography skills) of most Etsy shops & sellers I've seen. For me, it will be a long time before I've got the skills, knowledge, and not to mention, treasure-trove of goodies that I could actually stand to part with. Right now, I am buying for myself, to learn, to treasure and to replace a lot of the modern crap-ola that I've furnished my home with for the majority of my life.

Before just a couple of months ago, I had no idea the lustrous peach bowl I've eaten out of my entire life is Fire King. Nor did I think much about the green casserole dish or Butterfly Gold Cinderella mixing bowl that continues to this day to be my moms mashed potato serving bowl. (And it's still beautiful. Selfishly, I'm grateful that my mom has never had a dishwasher!)

I also never knew that cute little mug that looked like Tony the Tiger that was hanging around the house when I moved in with my husband wasn't actually Tony. It's the Esso Tiger ("Put a Tiger in your Tank!") that would later become the evil Exxon we know today. But he's the cutest little Fire King mug, you just can't stay mad at him.

So, I'm buying to learn and to fill my home with color, joy and pieces of American history. It's great stuff, plain and simple. And one of these days, when the larder is full, I'm either going to become a seller or a certified hoarder. We'll just see what happens first ;-)