Hello!

Hello friends! Long time no see!

It's been ages since I've had any thrifting success. I've been looking here and there but I just don't go to thrift or antique stores nearly like I used to.

I did find a couple of items though on my last two trips in, one of which completed a bowl set for me, so I thought I'd post an update.

First up, this Shenandoah Cinderella 442 bowl was found at a Goodwill I hadn't seen opal Pyrex at in many years. I still liked to go there from time to time because my husband would occasionally find books or records he was interested in. This time he came home with a Rush concert tshirt for two bucks, and for another $1.99 I found this little treasure.

On another day, another Goodwill I found the small one cup bowl from this teardrop Pyrex bowl set, which was the last one I needed to complete this set.

None of the bowls outside the one cup measure are in what I'd call minty shape, but I'm very pleased to have accidentally thrifted each piece. I remember picking up the largest bowl when I first started thrifting 8 or 9 years ago, so it's been slow and just completely random that I ended up with this set.

I was trying to look up more information about them online and wasn't finding what I was looking for, so I dug out my Pyrex by Corning book by Rogove and Steinhauer and found this original ad from 1962.

So that's my small haul for now.

Hope you're finding cool junk and enjoying the ends of summer. Around here there's usually a small resurgence of fall yard sales, so I'm looking forward to more excuses to get out and junk.

Happy Thrifting!

Cathrineholm find and long time no see

 Hello! It's been ages since I've posted last or even been out thrifting. But I did get out this past weekend and pick up a few things I thought I'd share.

First up, this Cathrineholm bakeware pan is only my second piece of the much beloved Lotus pattern, and only the 3 piece of Cathrineholm I've ever purchased. I was walking around an antique store, not finding much, then suddenly appears the booth of my dreams with everything I happen to collect.

You ever experience that? Everything was priced to average ebay asking prices, but I was feeling spendy, and was truly enjoying debating which of the many fantastic things I saw that was going to come home with me. And being than anything Cathrineholm is a few and far between spot for me, I picked this dish as my prize.

Another booth was having a half off sale and I scooped up with Horizon Blue 503 refrigerator dish with glee for 10.50. I adore this pattern.

And finally, these are all Good will finds for less than $3 total, so I'm pleased. This recipe holder was 99 cents and quite possibly my favorite recipe box ever!

And a couple of odd dishes. The turquoise dish is some kind of undertray for something Pioneer Woman I've yet to research what all it came with. Cream and sugar I'm assuming, and probably the red/turquoise mix and match floral patterns than seem to be the main decorations in her line. I've narrowly avoided falling into the endless sea of cute Pioneer Woman home stuff. I did cave and buy what I think is all the jadeite cake stands that have been a part of her line. (Old post here if you care to check it out.

The sweet little pink saucer is a LuRay pastel, date stamped 1/42, which I believe means it was actually manufactured in January of 1942 (someone correct me if I'm wrong).

I bought an whole box of LuRay pastels at a community yardsale years ago (which I also blogged here) and haven't really picked up a new piece since. I have a shelf full of LuRay, Cronin Tulip, and Anchor Hocking pastel Vitrock that I've doved-tailed into being all one collection since it coordinates.

So there's my finds for now. I feel like I've got the bug back and I'm ready for some new thrifting, antiquing and yard sale adventures this year.

Hope you are yours are well and that you're still finding nifty thrifty treats and treasures.

Happy Thrifting!

This Old Bowl

On this weeks episode of This Old Bowl - My first purchase - that I can actually remember, lol.

I'm really not sure if this was my first Pyrex bowl find, but it's definitely the first purchase I can clearly remember making. If I took the time to pursue This Old Blog here, I might be able to find evidence one way or the other. But at this point, I blog infrequently enough I'm just going to march on with this post lest I get distracted and let another 6, 8, 10 months go by without an update.

At any rate, this bowl was purchased at the now defunct Antique Store in my hometown, one of the very first times if not THE first time I was going to an antique store specifically to hunt for vintage Pyrex.

It was sometime in 2010, and probably before I ever started this blog. Or likely even dreamed I'd start an online blog for my thrift store and antique hauls.

I also bought something Snowflake Blue, though now I cannot remember what.

The blue dots bowl was in the last booth before we rounded back to the entrance. It was expensive (to me), but the whole booth was on some sort of discount that would made it 8 dollars.

8 dollars was a lot to me for Pyrex. And it had the tiniest sliver chip around the rim, which wasn't helping me spend the money on it.

My sweet husband gave me what in the future he would say probably several hundred more times - the first, "You want it. Go ahead and get it, honey" of his husband career.

It was quite a long time after that before I added a single additional dots bowl, so I was very pleased I'd picked this one up while I had the chance.

It probably took me another 5 years to finish the set, and let me tell you, the last bowl I bought was the largest green dots 404, and I paid a whole lot more than 8 dollars for it. 

Looking back, there are things now I wish I'd been a whole lot less patient about. Lol! Is that even a thing? Regretting patience?

Lets see, I remember when you could buy a Starburst online for less than 30 dollars shipped. I watched a black Starburst sell for around 11 once on ebay. This was all before the facebook groups even existed.

I remember Corelle Corner, forums on microwavecookingforone that I used for reference a few times. I remember amazing contributors on the Pyrex Love flickr group. The SITE Pyrex Love, when it was still quasi- active.

There's been so much change in this time I can't even name half of it.

So for now I will wrap up this weeks episode of This Old Bowl, and wish you the best of luck out there finding thrifty treats and treasures!

Happy Thrifting!

Halloween Pyrex!

Here's a family portrait of all the Halloween Pyrex I've collected over the last 6 years!

I attempted to do this post this time last year. Didn't happen. Then I had work done on my house for the last few months, too many things went into storage and I couldn't access these dishes.

And forgive me, none of these guys have even had a proper dusting since get them out, I just wanted to get this post up before Halloween could come and go again this year!

These are the first two years they came out - 2012 & 2013. I've bought every years patterns from Target, though I've also picked up spares from the Corningware Outlet. And one year I found one at Ross for $3.99 in the previous years pattern.

The Halloween design was the first time it appeared that World Kitchen was aware of just how popular patterned vintage Pyrex had become, and attempted to make a nod to the collectors with these limited edition pieces.

At my Target, they seemed to sell pretty quick and were popping up on ebay for a premium price. I'm not sure if they made any other seasonal items at that point? I want to say it they didn't do a second pattern until Halloween 2013, but I am really not sure. And I've been too inconsistent about blogging to be able to search my posts to double check.

At any rate, I picked up these Halloween pieces, and made an attempt to pick up Christmas and Valentine's Day when they started coming out. But pretty soon I felt a bit overwhelmed with how many different patterns they were now making. So I slacked off buying any of them except the Halloween. Seemed fitting since that was the first style of these they made, and the ones I was most interested in.

In 2014, they added a white ghost pattern. And in 2015, they traded pumpkins for black cats.

In 2016, they kept the same two skull & cat patterns, but swapped the ghosts out for owls on a fence. Sorry my picture is so dark here.

Trying to get a brighter picture of them all in the right order on my snazzy new tablecloth, also from Target this year.

***

I have really fallen off of the vintage bandwagon the last couple of years. It's just gotten so dog-eat-dog in the collector world it's hard to find the things I love for a price I can pay.

The bad thing is, I've taken up other hobbies that are just as - or even more- expensive. So in some ways, I'm a glutton for punishment.

Oh, and a few last notes. I've seen pictures circulating around of a few things that I believe are special items. One is a Halloween take on the classic Butterprint pattern turned into a headless horseman & witch with lots of fantastic halloween details, rats and tombstones, boiling cauldrons, skeletons & pumpkins. This is a decal I've found available on etsy that you can use to decorate everything from glassware to stand mixers. Very cute, cool concept! I believe it was derived from an idea by a factory employee that may or may not have actually made it though a test production.

And the other one is a take on the Day of the Dead style skull used in both 2015 and 2016's designs, that was posted on instagram by mega-collector and rare Pyrex book author Megan McGrady aka Hot for Pyrex. She describes it as the original design, magnified and layered onto the bowl. It was presented to her as a gift, and to her knowledge it is one of maybe a handful.

Lucky duck!


***



Hope all is well where you are, and that you are finding fabulous treasures out there in the world. My next plans are, the minute Halloween is over, the Christmas decorations are going up. I can barely stop myself from just going ahead and putting up the tree now. I am a maniac, lol!

Happy Thrifting!

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!

Birthday loot and a couple of yardsale finds

This is the nicest grouping of Riviera I've ever run into. It was reasonably priced in an antique mall, and it was my birthday, so perfect time to splurge!

The juice pitcher is a first for me. I'd never even seen one in real life before now. I was happy with the price and happier still that all my bigger serving pieces from this line are turning out to be one of each color.

All the pieces are in surprisingly excellent shape, given that Riviera is pretty prone to chipping. Most of the rest of my pieces have some imperfections but I am now getting to the point where I'd like to start removing the ones with the most damage, until I have a mostly undamaged collection.

The rest of my finds are yardsale. I spent around 5 bucks for the lot. The red refrigerator dishes came with extra lids - who doesn't love that!?

The pink ashtrays are either Depression Glass or repro's, I haven't looked them up to determine. And the little syrup was another sweet little find to add to my growing pink kitchenware collection.

I've had a pretty good week yardsaling recently, but I don't have my goodies photographed yet, so hopefully I will do that soon.

Hope you're finding great junk out there!

Happy Thrifting!

Thrift loot

I've been hitting the thrift stores a little bit lately. It's still mostly misses but just enough good stuff slips through to keep me coming back for more.

The other days find were these yellow vintage Dansk Kobenstyle pieces. They were 6 dollars each and another couple of dollars for the lids - no matching dishes to go with them, unfortunately. I have only a handful other pieces of Kobenstyle, all thrifted.

These all have chips around the edges, but the cooking surfaces are in good shape and I actually look forward to using them! The baker is very large. The scant bit of research I did on them when I got home gave me the impression this was the largest baker available. And from the lid sizes, the covered pot is the medium sized of the set.

I believe these are enamel over steel, which would seem like a good budget alternative (and lighter weight) than the enameled cast iron pieces popular during this same time period. I have a few of those as well, and it's impressive how heavy cast iron can be, especially in the larger pieces!

I bought this chip and dip set halfway hoping I had a bracket at home that would fit it. But I did not. So the search continues! lol

A few more thrift finds. The red JSNY tray is a part of a seemingly neverending pattern called "Country Calico" metalware and ceramics that I started picking up to dovetail in with my International China "Heartland" dishes - neither of these sets I have any need of whatsoever! I have a house full of dishes and my Heartland set is one of those things that's always on the chopping block but never manages to get cut.

The Pyrex was another moment where I really, really did not need doubles of things I have already. But they just hopped into my hands. I really do think I have emotional weakness to decorated opal lids. Even in a not-favorite pattern, they are just so cute. At least the lid and refrigerator dish were cheap!

And finally, and antique store purchase. I hemmed and hawwed about getting this damaged, incomplete set for the 25 dollar asking price, but then noticed the booth was on 30% off. So I got them. The lettering on the tea canister is the best, but the canister itself is cracked. I don't use these plastic canisters anyway, they are for cuteness factor only, but it's always nice to find your pretties in pristine condition. I rarely do, but I imagine it's nice - lol!

I've found quite a bit of pink kitchen goodies in the last few months. Probably more than I've accumulated over all the years I've been collecting vintage goodies. No idea why, but I'm certainly not complaining.

Hope you're finding thrifty treats and treasures where you are!

Happy Thrifting!

A very dry winter

My poor blog. It's been so long since I've had a thing to post.  My area thrift stores dried up ages ago. And the local antique stores have been really scant on the things I collect/very expensive. So I've stopped going nearly so much. Truth be told, I've shifted a lot of my "pretties" money into another even more expensive habit - Makeup. But that's another story, lol.

I did get out the other day and find this cute apple salt and pepper set. A little damaged, but it was coming home with me regardless. No markings whatsoever. I've seen this same set in red with green leaves, and poking around online I've seen it in other colorways. I'd love to find them all. They have that same 50's color choice between pink, red, turquoise, yellow and green that I love so much in canister sets and plastic wall clocks that I find completely, compulsively irresistible. So I'm definitely on the hunt for more!

This little freezer container is marked Foley, a company I already look out for - mostly for their metal measuring tools and some plastic kitchware. But I had no idea they ever made anything in pink. This was a rare-these-days Goodwill purchase for 99 cents.

I couldn't get a good picture of this lidded mixing bowl storage container made by Stanley Home Products. When I looked it up, I found it was the largest of an adorable nesting set. I did not see any others at the thrift when I picked this up, but I was happy the one I found was in pink!

And my final pink purchase was this beat-up set of pink Pyrex dishes. I don't know if these will clean up much, and I probably shouldn't have bought them, but pink Pyrex, ya know! Bought them anyways.

These Miller Studios chalkware pieces were also GW purchases, .49 cents each. Between my set of two cats and two birds, I think I've unofficially begun collecting Miller Studios chalkware.

Only the aqua bowl is new, but I took its picture with the small yellow bowl I picked up and probably never blogged. I have no idea what this pattern is called. It's Federal Glass. And I have no idea if any other colors exist, if these were part of a single set or just two loose bowls from solid color sets. I'd love to know the name of the pattern. It so hard to research this guy. It's like, "what do I Google? Flower swirly circle dot thing?" I'm dubbing it Floral Scroll and leaving it at that, lol.

And finally, Pyrex Space Savers. Two casseroles with one lid I just picked up today at the flea market for 20 dollars.

 I had the smallest of the set already, so I decided to take it out of my display, wash it up and put it in the kitchen cabinets with my doubles when I noticed these got screenprinted differently. (The acorns face down on the top dish and up on the bottom dish.

I have two pink gooseberry 473's that also have the upside down screen printing. It's not really a noticeable thing, but neat to see some occasional variations that happened over the years.

Anyways, so that's all caught up for the several months (!) absence from this blog. Hopefully the weather will get nicer soon and maybe some yard sales and estate sales will start happening.

Hope you're finding cool junk wherever you are!

Happy Thrifting!

Catching up

 Long time no post!

I really haven't been hitting the thrifts and antique stores like I used to. So goes the tale that the things I look for seem to have disappeared. But the other day, I was out of town for other things, but a Goodwill was nearby, and of course I had to pop in just in case. Lo and behold, Pyrex -AND- something else I collect too - random Starburst silverware!

This is yet another pattern I didn't have a single piece in. I think I'm up to 6 or 7 different starburst patterns. Who knew there were so many? This particular find was super exciting because it has so many forks. Forks are always the hardest to find for me. And I get to the point where I start leaving behind butter knives, because they'd outpace my forks and spoons by dozens each. Maybe someday I will have amassed a single pattern sets worth.

The Pyrex was a super surprising, super exciting find for me, no matter what the pattern. This may be the first Pyrex I've pulled out of a Goodwill in my area in two years or more. It's really been that dry. I was a little disappointed to find after I got home with it that the Butterfly Gold casserole has an almost invisible chip on the bottom. I don't trust chipped pieces to heat in any way, in case the glass has been even more damaged than the naked eye reveals, so I'm keeping this piece instead of giving it to my mom, like I typically would (it's her pattern).

And I couldn't believe it when I realized I didn't have the divided dish already! It's a super bonus when I find a piece I don't have! These guys were cheap and cheerful for 2.99 and 3.99!

And I discovered that Pyrex made another minor appearance this month in the November issue of Country Living magazine. Almost the very last page of the magazine. In previous years since I started collecting, there's been an article on Pyrex collecting in Country Living two other times, if memory serves, they've typically been the May issue (right at my birthday, so that explains why I remember that, lol!)

I also added two of the newest Pioneer Woman jadeite cake stands to my collection.

I bought myself two of the original style stands when they first came out (and were 19.96), then repurchased another single when they came out with the redesign for 10 dollars more.

Since, they've dropped the price a few dollars on the largest one and introduced two more. Each one is slightly different in how they are shaped, but they are quite similar and match well.

These two largest ones can be inverted for trifles, desserts, even a small punch. The tinest one is made the same as these but the knob of the lid is just too large to rest inside the inverted base.

As for the quality, I think these are fine for the price. The knobs are a great improvement from the first version. The two smaller are truer to vintage jadeite in color than the first one I bought, though that may have changed since I bought mine. Let me know in the comments if you have these cakes stands and notice color differences.

A few issues here in the dome. Mine have air bubbles in the glass. Both domes. And I would have loved to see the glass be more smooth and rounded-off on the way it connects to the base. It's a pretty blunt cut, not noticeable when it's closed, but when you lift it off it's just not as finished-looking. But for the price, I'm loving the fact that I have Jadeite cake stands with domes. You just can't beat it. And I love having them on the table and using them for everyday things. I'm pretty sure I made a cake the other day just to put it in the cake stand, lol!

And finally, ornaments. Beautiful, beautiful, delicious Shiny Brite ornaments to add to my collection! And for thrift store prices too! So exciting!

These boxes were a dollar each. The red Shiny Brite box contained some plain ornaments I'm probably going to redonate, and is missing it's lid, but for a dollar, I'm not going to pass it up. The plain bottom is filled with solid color Shiny Brites. I had the intention to move the ornaments to the Shiny Brites bottom, but then I found all these:

newer Radko Shiny Brites

These beeee-yoooo-tee-ful ornaments were a dollar fifty a bag! Choirs of angels singing! Haha.

I rarely, rarely find good ornaments. And when I do, they typically run around 25 a box. Lots of antique stores around here use the original boxes as staging and sell the ornaments for 2-5 dollars each. Which is why I choke a bit at ornaments wreaths and such. I can't even imagine being somewhere where these are abundant and cheap enough to use for wreaths.

But this -IS- the South, where no trip to your local antique store is complete without seeing at least one 100+ Primary bowl set, and you are likely enough to actually see things like a Butterfly Gold Cinderella set for say, $120 or so. It's nuts.

And I was so excited to try to integrate these individual ornaments to my collection I completely forgot to take pictures of any of them. I may try to photograph them when I get them out to actually put on the tree.

So those are pretty much my finds for the last month plus. Hope you're finding fabulous goodies!

Happy Thrifting!