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!
 

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!

Anniversary goodies

The hubby and I celebrated our 9th Anniversary yesterday. We took a much-anticipated trip to an antique district a bit too far away to be in our regular rotation.

I can't even write about the Pyrex I saw without starting to type out the same sentiment again and again: Prices are going up, up, up, and I just can't afford it. In my area, it's becoming commonplace that higher-demand colors/patterns of Pyrex are more expensive than jadeite and depression glass. It's unreal.


I've wanted the tulip casserole since I began collecting, but I just wouldn't buy it online. In the end, I didn't really save any money buying it in the wild, but I did get to hold it in my hands and see its condition before I bought it. I still love it though :-)


The turquoise dinnerware platter had also eluded me until now. I have the grey and pink and just need the lime to have one of each of the platters I'm collecting. And the pink gooseberry bowl completed my second set of Cinderellas. I have one really minty set on display and another in the cabinet to use. Best of both worlds.

My Fire King and Fiesta finds. The tulips grease jar is pretty faded, but cost me less than 10 dollars, so it was definitely coming home with me. The platter underneath it is Fire King Vitrock and goes with my other pastel Vitrock pieces.

The heart bowls are Fiesta Lapis and Poppy, in the smaller size that is a small/independent retailer exclusive. I missed getting one the last trip we took, so hubby bought me two. I was touched, he went right for the color I was looking for. He really does pay attention to all my dish craziness. Poor guy! He is so sweet <3 br="">

I was looking for more vintage clocks for above my Pyrex display. These are whooped up, but perfect for what I want. And they didn't set me back much, which is always nice.

And I've apparently developed a taste for kitchy vintage refrigerator magnets. I bought a couple of bags of cute ones that have already made their way onto my fridge, but here's some of highlights.

Anthropomorphic fruit anyone?

And the dieter's magnets are just too fantastically cruel to be taken seriously.  No eating. That's always good advice.

Overall, I had a wonderful trip and a great day with my husband! Good stuff!

Hope you're out having fun this weekend!

Happy Thrifting!