Catching up

Yard sale score!

This was a yard sale find but around these parts when you walk up and see something you like you never know what to expect. Sometimes it's yard sale prices, sometimes its antique store prices. I set my sites on the teapot, thinking that would be the one piece I'd be likely to buy. But when I inquired, she gave me a price for the whole lot - 25 bucks!

Cha-ching!

Of course, it's mostly the 50's colors that I was deliberately not collecting, lol. But I mixed it in with my original 6 pieces and it looks lovely, so there's where it will stay.

Then the very next day, this happens

Asking price? 10 dollars! For both pieces. In a store, even. I have a running history of finding relish tray pieces for uber cheap. I paid full bore retail for a base, many moons ago, when I had accumulated all the central pieces. But other than that, I think it's been around 5 dollars each piece. Unbelievable! Since this base had a small fleabite chip, I moved my less perfect pieces in to it and now have halfway to a third complete relish tray.

 Speaking of retail, I picked up these two tumblers at the same time and pretty much paid full price for them. I have no tumblers in my collection, and I was so chuffed with the relish tray pieces being so cheap, I was fine with the tumblers being retail. I grouped it here with a lone ivory shaker that I yardsaled for 50 cents.

Since I'd just bought a very reasonably priced lot of HLC Riviera, I was not expecting to find another piece for a while. But my husband dropped off some donations at the thrift and came back out with these small Riviera pieces for 99 cents each. The small plates are just the tiniest bit larger than saucers. 

Sweet little unmarked plastic canister set

The canisters were also something the hubs picked up for me at a yardsale he hit on his way home. I love the details - the lids, lettering, and little flourishes around it. I want to say I've seen these in red before. I love seeing how many colorways different canister sets came in.

A few thrift store Christmas finds. Santa and Mrs. Claus are a salt and pepper set that I very nearly separated accidentally. Santa was sitting by himself, priced at 50 cents, with no match. I picked him up and then set him back down, deciding I didn't want to potentially break up a set when the other piece could still be around somewhere I just didn't see. Sat him down and went about my shopping when Mrs Claus here turned up. Soulmates! Haha.

These tiny Mr & Mrs were cutely tucked away in a box that once held shipped fruit - probably also a holiday thing. I remember being a little girl at Christmas time, getting catalogs where you could ship people fruit and candy packages for gifts. I loved those catalogs. (One of them I remember is Figi's and it's still in business!)

The repurposed fruit box had these hand labeled as "Nut cups". A fancy way of serving nuts at your holiday gathering. Makes sense, since these are definitely too small to be used for eggnog or beverages!

This sifter I just absolutely fell in love with. 10 bucks at a yardsale, but I had to have it. I think it's my favorite vintage sifter I've ever seen.

One yardsale item and a few more thrift finds. The cat shakers and Pyrex lid were GW purchases for 99 cents. The Friendship Pyrex base was 4 dollars at a yard sale. I reunited it with a lid from my own collection.

And this cat? I have no idea what it is or what it came off of. Please tell me, if you know! All I know is, it's cute. A thrift find same time I found the Christmas items.

And last thing. Super cheap yardsale knick knacks. A heartland candlestick holder, some JSNY Country Calico pattern potholders I didn't know they made, and some good old-fashioned red and white checkered shelf liner that will end up as decoration somewhere. All less than a buck.

So that's all for now. I've gotten so out of the blogging habit I'm accumulating stuff to post. Which is a good problem to have after a very dry winter.

Summer seems to be coming back with an abundance of goodies I have no need of whatsoever, but completely adore!

Hope you're finding fabulous bargains where you are!

Happy Thrifting!

Anniversary goodness

Another anniversary spent out of town, looking for more vintage goodness.

I didn't turn up a whole lot. Found a few things I would have loved if the price had been right. Little by little I'm learning not to get too excited when I see something I want before I see the price tag.

Here's the loot I did bring home:

A chippy, but charming, vintage Fiesta teapot in Cobalt blue. 8 small pink MacBeth Evans Dogwood plates I got from a super cheap and cheerful booth.

And two pieces of Pyrex - the Snowflake Blue because I needed it to complete my 480 casserole set, and a duplicate *ahem* triplicate red Friendship casserole set I bought because I wanted it to replace the duplicate piece I have that has a small chip in the handle.

And Hooray! I found the new must-have Pyrex! And on our wedding anniversary, no less!

A very kind Walmart employee with a magical scanner device hunted these down for me. We were at least an hour and a half away from home, so I felt a little bit like a poacher, checking 'someone elses' Walmart. But it was the end of the night and we still had a long drive home, and tired as we already were we thought we might as well check yet another Walmart for these.

Plus I was hoping we'd have some anniversary luck. And we did! Good thing too because 'my Walmart' can't find these dishes, and the ones nearby have already sold all theirs/have them on order/can't find/haven't gotten them.

I wanted to take a picture of them with the original vintage dishes I thought were closest in size. These are 472's  (the middle size).

The Butterprint pattern is really close in size to the original, but as you can see, the Snowflake Blue pattern is quite a bit bigger, as well as a darker color than the original.

I also realized that this is the first time in nearly 50 years that Pyrex has actually produced the Butterprint pattern. Nifty!

And finally, my husband got the Twin Peaks soundtrack lp for me as a surprise anniversary gift.

I was a weird kid. I remember there being buzz about Twin Peaks before it started, enough so that I remember watching the two hour premiere.

It came on as a mid-season replacement on ABC. I remember me and my grandmother sitting there, watching the opening credits.

I was mesmerized by the music. It was the second time in my young life that the music from something just grabbed me up and stuck in my brain. (The other song, in case you were wondering, which I'm sure you aren't, was when Bo and Hope got married on Days of our Lives. Lol.)

When I was in high school I saw the soundtrack on cassette tape, for sale, used and cheap, so my broke teenager self bought it. And played it CONSTANTLY. It was moody and weird and melodic and quirky and just everything that I loved.

I have spent my adult life buying Twin Peaks (the series) in pretty much every format it's ever been in. Had a boyfriend or two that said they'd done the same thing with buying Star Wars in its many incarnations.

It's been long enough that I watched the VHS box set go from the record store price of $149.00 (pre-internet days), to $85.00 or so though Amazon (dial-up internet days), to used media store price of $12.99 (so cheap I bought a second copy, lol).

I've yet to pony up for the blu ray. I'm sure I will at some point. But for now, I just enjoy the warm, creepy feeling I get when I listen to my snazzy new vinyl lp.

Anyways, that's all for now.

Hope you're finding cool treats and nifty treasures!

Happy Thrifting!


 

Last month's finds

I'm lousy at keeping up with this blog these days. Most weeks it seems like I'm lucky to find even a single thing, and that's just not enough to blog about. Most of my post would go something like this "Well, I went to four thrift stores and two antique stores today and all I have to show for it is a growing sense of how much crack is being smoked in my local shopping area."

I paid a small fortune for this bowl here at an antique store we hadn't ventured out to in upwards of 3 years. It was down inside another bowl in a booth dangerously stuffed with glassware, so I still think I got it by virtue of it being not promininently displayed. I've seen very few polka dots along the way, so this was a special piece I wasn't going to leave without. Wish I were more optimistic about finding the others in the set. This bowl has the scalloped rim, there are sets with this pattern that have the smooth style. Seems like many Hazel Atlas sets are this way. I suspect (but do not know for sure) that some of the shape differences stem from Hazel Atlas molds and factories themselves being purchased by Continental Can Company.

 The rest of my finds are a mix of thrift and antique store from the last six weeks or so.

I only picked up one heart bowl this year, the one with the pink lid. I'm starting to feel like these new Pyrex dishes are becoming a collection unto themselves! The Snowflake Blue mixer completes my duplicate set, so that was a double I was happy to add to my collection.

This Gemco go-along is one of the two patterns I actually want to collect. (The other being the Snowflake Blue Corelle go-along. I was happy to find it for the thrift store price of two dollars.

Another mix of thrift and antique store finds. This poor turquoise refrigerator dish is partially dishwashed, but I'm obsessed. Can't leave one behind that's cheap and has good color left, even if it isn't all shiny anymore. The little melmac plates weren't in the best shape either, but I've picked up the tiniest little dishes in this pattern before, so I had to add them in as well. It almost looks now like it's a child's set.
 

A super thrifty price at an antique store. This LuRay bowl (which photographed badly, but is actually in really nice condition) was just two dollars at an antique store.

 Similarly, I got this odd lot of new and old Fiesta at an antique store for cheap because some pieces are chipped and cracked, and the others are very utensil marked. But I've got an arsenal of cleaners, amassed from trying to clean up abused Pyrex, so I think I'll find something that helps the ones that can be helped. The cracked pieces can go in a mosiac pile.

And finally - YAY! My favorite drinking jars, they decided this year to make them in blue!

I have almost a superstition about drinking with these. Pints for soft drinks and tea, quarts for water only. If I start off my day with a big quart jar of water in the green or purple quart jars - previously the only colors available- I'd end up drinking two or more by days end. I'm super happy these are finally available in blue. They also have widemouth pints, which I'm sure is great for you canners out there, as well as blue jelly jars. If my garden does well enough to try out canning this year, I know what I'm buying, lol!

So that's my finds for this winter-turned-Spring. My husband and I yardsaled all day yesterday and I found a couple of things for the next post! Hope the weather is getting nice where you are and the juicy finds start flowing your way!

Happy Thrifting!

Dish and vinyl roundup

Wouldn'tcha know it, I finally have some finds to post about and my camera batteries decide to die after two pictures? (I still haven't updated to this millennium with all the cellular phones and pixel cameras and whatnots.)

 

 Other than the bargain ivory Fiesta teacup, the Pyrex pieces were both splurges and duplicates, but having used the Butterprint butterdish for a while, I've got to say, having butterfingers is no joke. I've come close to dropping it enough times that I'd switched it out for the Snowflake blue one I had two of in case I really did break it. Now I can switch it back to Butterprint with impunity.

I also picked up a large round red edged enamelware bowl with just enough wear and damage that I can use it in the garden without feeling like I'm messing it up. I like enamelware, and I've seen many nice pieces of it pop up recently, but with prices that seem like a collector trying to cash out of a long-held collection.

Frankly, I'm too broke for that. Right now what I will buy is cute, cheap and useful. I hope this year I get to go yardsaleing and find some cheap and cheerful pieces!

And not dishes, or even thrift store finds, the local used bookstore yielded more surprisingly good records for decent prices. (And free, really, because we were still using a Christmas giftcard, so all the better!)

Cure vinyl! Squeee. These are the original issues from 1980-81. Makes me wonder if someone bought the 180 gram reissues and decided to trade in their originals.

And in the total opposite end, my husband found a Jane Fonda workout record for me for 50 cents in the local antique store. My favorite workout, too - Prime Time (also known as Easy Going). Lots of times I just use it for the 20 minutes of stretching before it goes into the aerobics. I still get my heart rate up just doing the stretching. I haven't listened to the record yet, but it it's like the video, I can probably do all the stretches by heart now.

I also loaded up with collectors books I didn't get a picture of. An early Huxford's Fiesta book, kitchen bakelite, Depression glass and kitchen glass collectibles. All for less than ten bucks trade credit, so I was a happy girl. One thing I've noticed about the collectors books is that it really can pay off to have each edition made, even if its up to edition 10 because the authors add and remove information in each edition. I've especially noticed that earlier editions tend to have more original advertising and dealer catalogs, whereas newer editions tend to add more and more patterns with less details about them.

Anyways, that's my finds for now. Hope you're finding neat stuff!

Happy Thrifting!

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!

Lucky Day

Seriously, yesterday was my lucky day.

At my first stop, I picked up this poor lidless LuRay pitcher from one of my favorite flea market vendors. It's the first piece I've added to my inadvertent collection I bought all at once as a boxed lot. I joke that me finding good deals is like the 50 cents that will make me spend 50 dollars, because I'm downright compulsive about putting sets together once I find a bit of something I like. I don't just want a piece or two, I want ever color they came in!

But that was just the beginning of the day. Next find was this dreamy turquoise canister set

I'll be honest, they have numerous cosmetic issues. The coffee canister is cracked, they are all stained and discolored even after a nice soak, and the lids are a marriage of two different sets (and I'm not entirely sure which ones are the right ones).

But I still love them. Completely and utterly smitten!

They are marked Cols. Plastic Products, which if I'm not mistaken, stand for Columbus Plastic Products of Columbus, Ohio, parent company of Lustro Ware.

Here I've taken a picture of the largest and smallest canisters from my new turquoise set with my marked red Lustro Ware canisters. Interestingly, each of the red canisters are one size larger than their turquoise counterparts.

Then at the next stop I found only my second new in box Pyrex!

I picked this up for the nice price of $15.00.

It looks like it's never been used. And even has the care booklet.

Quote from the CARE section:

"PYREX (c) ovenware is dishwasher safe; however colors or decorations on the outside surface of the ovenware may fade with repeated washings."

This is the first acknowledgement I've seen from Corning that dishwashers can indeed fade a/o ruin the finish. (Which, unfortunately, all us collectors have witnessed firsthand in thrift and antique stores all over)

And a detail I never realized before. This 474 casserole since it was sold as a single is the darker shade of gold from this version (Butterfly Gold II). When the 474 was a part of the 3 piece set, it was the lighter yellow shade. Meaning there are 3 different Butterfly Gold 474 casseroles.

As my husband and I were heading home (with one last stop at Goodwill in mind), I was just saying how awesome today was. I found really neat things, but I stayed on budget and felt like I still had a little change in my pocket for next time. We stopped at GW, walked though all our areas of interest and were fixing to walk out empty-handed when a worker who was stocking the shelves rolled out with a new cartful of goodies. I couldn't believe my eyes.

A vintage forest green Fiesta coffee pot for 2.99.

And it cleaned up perfectly. Absolutely mint. And probably the most flawless piece of Fiesta I have.

I am truly amazed. The coffee server and mixing bowls are my absolute favorite pieces of vintage Fiesta. This is my third coffee pot, and amazingly enough, the second one that's come from a Goodwill. My other is a yellow with a broken finial I picked up for 5.99.

Such an awesome day, with fabulous treasures!

Hope you are finding splendid treats and fabulous goodies!

Happy Thrifting!

Birthday loot

Got to take a trip for my birthday to some antique stores and flea markets we don't get to go to very often.

Picked up this little clock for my collection, and some Hazel Atlas Ripple saucers for a budget friendly dollar a piece.

The jadeite mixer was an antique store purchase, but the dinner plates were a surprise flea market score. These are the only large jadeite dinner plates I own, and also the only pieces of the Shell pattern.

The (unmarked) Hazel Atlas dots glasses were also, amazingly, a flea market score. I'm pleasantly surprised at how many polka dot glasses I've found in just the last few months! The green dot Anchor Hocking pitcher came later at an antique store, marked down too cheap to pass up. It's a duplicate for me, but I'm glad to have a spare!

I bought every bit of this Pyrex because it was super-dooper cheap. The little blue fridgie was 2 dollars in an antique store! I thought those kinds of prices were long gone. Added a 3rd bowl to my Shenandoah bowl set that I totally forgot to photograph. Those were my only Pyrex purchases. Eveything else that I was interested in was insanely high priced.

I have such a crush on Hocking green depression glass canisters. Wish I could afford them! But these sweet shakers were in my budget, so they came home with me. Fingers crossed that I add some of their canister brothers and sisters to them in the future. And I'm not a thousand percent positive, but I think I saw some fakes of these the other day. Perfect, brand new-looking silver lids with a weird quality to the glass. Almost like it had spider-webbing imperfections in the glass itself.

 

My Spring Blossom purchases were actually just the baker at an antique store and the dinner plates from the thrift. My husband bought me the largest mixing bowl for my birthday to complete my set, so I decided they needed a completed/updated photo.

Our trip brought us close to a Corelle/Corningware outlet, so I picked up an extra turquoise dots bowl and the pink lidded bowl for my mom.

And finally, more Fiesta relish tray inserts! (Blogger turned this pic sideways, so I'm rolling with it). 10 dollars each was not the screamin' deal I got on my almost-complete relish tray I just lucked into, but still a perfectly respectable bargain, I believe. I really love the relish trays! It continues to amaze me when I find pieces for a nice price.

So that's my birthday loot. Had a nice trip, great weather. Especially nice for walking around an outdoor flea market.

Hope you are finding nifty treats and treasures!

Happy Thrifting!

Community Sale

This is the craziest, most wonderful single day haul I think I've ever found.

My husband and I go to this community sale every year, and typically find a few things that make it worth checking out every year. But there's a paid admission preview we'd never gone to. (In addition to buying a ticket, there's still usually quite a wait in line and a bit of madness ensuing.)

But we weren't sure what we were missing out on by not buying the early bird tickets. But boy oh boy did I get my answer this time.

New record for lowest price paid for vintage Fiesta relish tray pieces. I had a spare insert, so in a single stroke, I now have two complete trays!

I love how I can look back and piece together the story of how I've completed 2 trays in 3 years time. If you're interested, here's the links to each one.  First, the cobalt center. Then a month later, 4 sides to go with it. Then a green side. Then, about a year later, an anniversary splurge - a base for my inserts. )

Two dollars! I'm keeping this particular set because I know I'll be sentimental about them, but gave my other set to Mom, who loves pink Pyrex but will absolutely not step foot in an antique store. I've bought her pink pieces when I've found them for good prices, but I'd never lucked into the big 475 for song. I'm betting these guys are going to be used for family dinners and even holidays now!

Gigantic unmarked Fiesta platter for two dollars, small turquoise Butterprint for 3.

I didn't even look at the pattern. My brain just said "Pyrex bowl set for 6 dollars" put it in the buggy! Addiction!

There's a surprise set for my mama that's in the first pic, but not exactly visible. I think she'll love it. I also bought an entire set of Taylor, Smith, and Taylor LuRay pastels. Here they are, cleaned up!

So happy we went! Well worth the price of admission. My husband found lots of goodies, too, which is not such a common occurrance. By the end we had a grocery cart filled to the brim and threatening to spill over. It was magical. LOL!

Hope you are finding fabulous sales filled with dreamy goodness!

Happy Thrifting!