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!

Antique store finds

Hubs and I decided to go impulse shopping the other day to one of our only-once-in-while antique store shopping destinations.

I picked up these duplicates because I hoard all the pink I can afford. This 402 bowl bridged two of my other bowls together, so now I have another pink bowl set.

And as for the space saver, I'm probably under the influence of the quantum leap in prices that SS seem to command these days. So if I find one with a lid in a pattern I like, priced for less than the going rates these days, I'm probably going to buy it. Just wish it had been the larger size one I'm still missing.

I might be silly for picking up this jadeite grease jar as well. It has a crack in it and the wrong lid, but I thought it'd display nicely with my shakers so I picked it up. And my cheap and cheerful find was an instruction manual for a 1970's era Sunbeam stand mixer that I paid a whopping thirty cents for in a going out of business booth.

This lovely daisy casserole doesn't have a lid, and this friendship lid has no base, but you never know when you'll find the missing pieces. I sure would love an opal lid for the daisy piece. I have it with the clear decorated lid, I'd like to have both versions.

More cheap and cheerful finds. The Pyrex was just a few dollars each and so was the little dots glass. My dots glasses collection is coming along nicely!

 

And finally, I bought a blue lotus plate at the flea market for two dollars, then turned around and bought a complete set of four at an antique store. I am one bowl away from having an even dozen of these snack sets.

I collected this pastel vitrock before I ever bought my boxful of LuRay pastels, so it hadn't ever occurred to me that they are the same colors. These dovetail quite nicely with LuRay, especially since the Anchor Hocking pieces are mostly serving and accessory, and the LuRay being the dinner service itself. I know that Anchor Hocking made lots of go-alongs for Fiesta, so it would certainly make sense for them to also make go-alongs for the popular pastel rival LuRay.

Had to use the flash to get a picture in my dark house.

Oh, and I also picked up this magazine on the way out of an antique store. This is the July 6, 2015 issue. I believe you can read this article online on antiqueweek.com but I think you have to sign up to access it.

Hope you're finding fabulous treats and treasures!

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!

Glasbake

This is my entire Glasbake collection. The shapes of which make for a rather awkward group photo. :-)

It seems to me, with a few exceptions, that Glasbake is generally overlooked. A cousin of Pyrex and Fire King, but not exactly an equal. And while I love my Pyrex, I love Glasbake just as much. Sometimes even more so!

For all the many, many pattern options that Pyrex made over the years, the one thing that stands out to me with a certain degree of annoyance is that they rarely, rarely ever used more than two colors per pattern. Occasionally, Pyrex made in England (or JAJ) used 3 or more colors. But the US audience is pretty much out of luck there.These two loaf pans are good examples of what I mean. The orange flower, bluebell loaf pan reminds me quite a bit of a couple of British made JAJ Pyrex patterns.I also love the fin lids. I only have the one, and I believe it was actually made for another style of individual casserole. But it fits this one, so all's good.

Though Glasbake is generally priced lower than Pyrex (at least in my area), I still don't come across it all that often. Most of these guys have come from thrift stores. The strawberry loaf pan was one of my very cheapest finds probably 2 years ago. 59 cents! But it was also absolutely filthy. So filthy I couldn't even tell if it was damaged, so that's likely the reason it was so cheap.

Typically I only come across the ovenware, but Glasbake also made mixing bowls. I just don't have any of them, and rarely see them. If you want to see an amazing collection of Glasbake and other type of mixing bowls, check out this amazing collection!

As for the ovenware, I think these generally came as sets. Possible pieces being two sizes of oval casseroles, round casseroles (these can share lids with Pyrex 024's), loaf pans, two sizes of rectangular utility baker. I don't believe they made coordinating pie plates, but I'm not sure. Most all the ones I've seen, both online and in person, have been clear.

Another reason I think Glasbake is lagging behind it's milk glass brethren is because the name was used by different companies during different time periods, which makes for a confusing history and items that are hard to search for. And to my knowledge there are no reference books or even collector's website to gather information. There is, however, a flickr group for collectors, and this excellent blog by kitchenware author C. Diane Zweig that sorts out the tangled history of the Glasbake name.

Sometimes Glasbake items are not marked at all. Some of my pieces are unmarked. But the shapes are all the same, and they all have a pebbly texture on the bottom, typically with a smooth round area that would normally say Glasbake. Perhaps these pieces were made while the company transitioned from being a McKee product to a Thatcher Glass product - or from Thatcher to Jeannette.

Finally, if you're searching for a Glasbake item, try all these various search terms: Glasbak (the very earliest spelling), Flamex, Glasbake, Glassbake, McKee, Jeannette. If you are looking for early Glasbake (or Glasbak) items, such as coffee pots, teapots, glass skillets, etc. these were also marketed as "Range-Tec" items. Apparently McKee had a field day with dropping letters off the end of their product names, lol!
And finally, my favorite Glasbake items. Deliciously pink mixing bowls. These were made specifically for Sunbeam Mixmaster stand mixers. I found these two bowls seperately at thrift stores, and boy-oh-boy do I wish I had the pink Mixmaster to go with them!

Happy Collecting!

The little things

Today I'm grateful for the little things, like a simple cup of coffee. But I'm especially grateful for having discovered the wonderful world of thrifting. Without it, I'd never have this mega-uber-ultra snazzy Sunbeam vacuum coffee maker . (Heck, I still probably wouldn't know what a vacuum coffee maker even was.)

This champ here is a C-30c. Of the 3 models I have, I like it the best, just because it has a handle on the upper chamber. Not scalding yourself to death when removing the upper bowl was an absolutely brilliant idea on their part. Why oh why did they not put a handle on the upper chamber of the other models?!?

My dream model to come across would be a C-30a with the glass beehive top. Gorgeousness! Not only is it elegant-looking, it would be even more snazzy to get to watch the coffee brewing action.
And yes, I am actually using my new old vintage Fiesta coffee pot. It goes very, very well with my vintage Pyrex dinnerware. See, I have this problem with the fact that I buy this stuff to use, but then get fearful that I'll mess it up and I won't use it. Days like today I manage to remind myself that I'm only going to live once and this stuff was made to be useful and enjoyable. Use it!

Coffee!

This has got to be one of my favorite finds ever.

The moment I saw it, I adored it. The style of it seemed 1940's or somewhere thereabouts, and I immediately fell in love with the detailing on it.

And at 50 cents, the price was right.

When I got back to the car with my purchase, I proudly pulled it out and declared to the hubs that this was probably my favorite thing I had ever thrifted.

This is the part I got absolutely right.

But it's what I don't know that could fill a book. Or many books. Volumes, even.

The main thing I had absolutely no suspicion whatsoever that this is the pot from a Cory
vacuum coffee maker. And the truth is, before today, I barely had a notion of what a vacuum coffee maker was.

Okay. Scratch that. I'm totally lying. I had no flippin' idea what a vacuum coffee maker was.

Now, I'm pretty sure they are things of abject and perfect beauty and I really really really want one (or at least the upper part, tube & various other accoutrements that go with mine).

Scratch that, too. I want vacuum coffee makers out the yin-yang.

Santa, if you're listening, I don't even need anything new and fancy (like this). I'd be perfectly happy with a vintage electric Sunbeam Coffeemaster (any model will do).

***
But seriously, it's things like my find yesterday that remind me how grateful I am for the internet. There are an awful lot of passionate folks who have turned their interests, finds, and treasures into invaluable information sources for twerps like me. Because of their generosity, I was able to identify my strange-little-coffee-pot-without-a-hole-in-the-top and discover something completely new to me.

This old Cory brochure was one of the first things I found to help me identify my little coffee pot, and I think it is just the cat's pajamas. Check out the amazing collection here.