Thrift finds

Almost all of these are thrift finds. I really haven't been out much, but I think I've picked up more in the last couple of trips than I've previously found all winter. The nice weather must be responsible for it.

Couldn't resist the red. The little Glasbake casserole has the beginnings of dishwasher damage, but it had its fin lid. Also picked up the little Zak strainer bowl - you can't tell it in this photo but it's shaped like a strawberry - and it's the perfect size to rinse a small package of berries all at once. 

Picked up yet another damaged vintage Fiesta mixing bowl - an Ivory #3 for 3 dollars at a nearby antique store. I can't pass up vintage Fiesta mixing bowls at a good price, even when they are really damaged.

Another set of Heartland items I'd never seen before - 23 knobs and one pull. Someone must have had a whole kitchens worth of them. They were absolutely filthy when I bought them and they have no mark, so you just either have to know they are Heartland or just so happen to like the pattern. I have absolutely nowhere to put them, so they are living inside the last Heartland casserole I bought. This pattern never ends, lol!

Military medical mess hall dishes are the one style of restaurant ware I let myself pick up. Only the platter is new, I just photographed it with my two other pieces. It's huge! Kinda wish now I had another place settings worth so my husband and I could each have a set to use once in a while.

And finally, my Pyrex finds:
 

My husband found the Spring Blossom bowl for me at Goodwill, and it is literally the first piece of opal Pyrex I've seen there in two years. It set me back $5.99.

I also found this marriage of a Pyrex lid with an opal Fire King body at the same Goodwill, different day.

I might should have passed on the very dishwashy Heinz baker, but it was two dollars and in good shape other than being dishwashed, so I thought I might try to clean it up.

And finally, my antique store purchases. These came out of a new booth in a local antique store, 9 dollars for the space saver, 10 for the Butterprint fridgie with lid, which is now what I'd say is well below average price around here now. (Everything I see nowadays in antique stores is pretty much 25 dollars+,  sadly).

A dealer who was working that day, who knows I collect Pyrex, exclaimed exasperatedly that she had meant to buy these and just forgot about it. I'm not sure if she was genuinely trying to get me to not purchase them for myself, but I pretty much refused to give them up. I was nice about it, apologetic even, but it kinda bothered me that a dealer was more interested in getting the good deal for themselves than being helpful to frequent customer of their store.

Hope you're finding nifty treats and treasures!

Happy Thrifting!

Why I thrift

Come to mama!

Sure these guys are battered and bruised, but at $5.99 you'd have to be a very discriminating Fiesta collector to pass these guys up entirely.

Here they are after a bath, best sides showing. I'm in love! The vintage red & yellow add a really nice pop of color to my predominantly blue & green collection - which is not that way deliberately, but just how it's worked out so far.

The damage to the pieces is unfortunate, but it doesn't hinder me at all from thoroughly enjoying these beautiful pieces!

 And on the same day, different thrift, I found this milk glass 1 pint dry measure. It also has a chip, and it very nearly didn't come home with me. I got it for $2.50

 Worse, I actually passed it up altogether, the first time I saw it. I honestly thought it was a reproduction. The milk glass is swirly and has many straw-marks, all characteristics of something cheaply made.

And it probably was cheaply made. Only now I think it could be from the turn of the century - 1920's.

I can only find two bits of information, both auctions. One appeared to just copy and paste the same info from the first auction, so I can't be sure.

And here's where I admit that I'm a dunderhead. I would have bought this anyway. Just cause I liked it. But I probably would have looked at it for years and years without deducing what my husband did in about 8 seconds. -  National Biscuit Company = NABISCO. !!!!

According to the auction house that sold a grouping of turn of the century Nabisco items, these dry measures were given to retailers to measure product out to customers. And when it ran out, they could keep, sell, or give away the glass measuring cup.

How neat! I LOVE the story behind this piece, and it will fit right in with odd collection of depression era glass, half of which has some chip or imperfection anyway. I think I'm a sort of retirement home for half-cracked glass.

The expression 'half-cracked' is telling, isn't it? lol!

Hope you are finding thrifty treats & vintage treasures!

Yardsale Extravaganza 2012

This weekend has been a big annual (semi-annual?) yardsale weekend. Unfortunately, instead of great deals there were lots of folks who were using this as an opportunity to host Antiques by-the-side-of-the Roadshow. 

I did however find a few cute things for just a few dimes, including this little unmarked plastic napkin holder. As you can see, I've got two butter dishes from the same line. Wonder how many more colorways are available?

This purchase made me supremely happy. It's a Lustro ware Crisper. And it's huge! I've shown it here with my tiny pink Lustro ware fridgie dish.

The story is, I was walking around trying to find a deal when I came across this box. I'd never seen one like it, and had no idea it was Lustro ware. Anyway, the lady was not trying to sell it, she was simply using it as a container for vintage dolls she was trying to sell for 4 bucks apiece. When I asked her if she'd sell the container, she looked like she was at a loss, quoted me two bucks, and said "You know, these are probably collectible now."

 

This was my Pyrex haul. I didn't see much of it this weekend, but what I did manage to find were pieces that I did not have, and at reasonable prices, so I can't complain. I had to spend 8 dollars to complete my opal bowl set, but that was for 3 bowls, so now I have a complete set and two spares. These are the unmarked bowls that Barbara Mauzy said were rare and only produced in 1954. The thing is, I'm beginning to doubt that's the whole story. This makes the 4th unmarked opal bowl set that I've seen just this year, and I definitely don't live in an area that's known for rarities. You never know!

Funny story, an Antiques Dealer selling by the side of the road had a Pyrex bowl set in the Sandalwood pattern for 46 dollars. I need the smallest bowl to complete my set, so I was especially sad that these bowls were nowhere near affordable. Anyway, it sat for two days for that price, unsold. But Saturday? It suddenly was marked 60 dollars, and had a neighbor, 3 bowls from a Butterprint bowl set that they were asking 70 dollars for.

Dealers like that give me a bad case of the grumpies.

These mugs are cuties my husband spotted for me on Thursday when I wasn't with him to shop. But the real crazy score was the deep rim mauve blue Riviera plates. I'm so proud of my husband. He recognized Riviera without me being there!  His humble commentary on it was: "Well, I should recognize something that is hanging on the wall in my house." (I have so little Riviera that every piece I have is hanging on a plate rack in the kitchen, lol!)

This was actually a set of 6 - for only 2 bucks! Just 1 is in especially good shape, the rest have damage in varying degrees, but every one of them is still useable. I put the 3 in the best shape in the cabinet with my Fiesta and Fire King, and put the 3 most damaged in the cabinet to use.

And finally, this is the rest of my loot. Most of this was from one particular stop where we got things for a song. It was one of those where you made a pile and they said, 3 bucks, 5 bucks, etc. I felt like we bought everything that was even vaguely interesting to us.

The yellow Tricolator teapot would have been the score of the century for me if  (A) it had a lid and (B) in my haste I hadn't failed to notice that the whole bottom is ruined. Looks like someone poured very hot coffee or tea into it without scalding the pot first, and the whole thing cracked around in a perfect ring. It's still a pretty 'shelf sitter', but that's about it :-(

Most of this milk glass is going to my mom who collects it. Her real love is the hobnail patterns, but I've found so much grape pattern for her that it far outnumbers the hobnail pieces in her collection.

And finally, some love for Goodwill, who despite all the yardsales, still had some sweet stuff for sale this weekend. First up a banded ring glass that is considered a Fiesta go-along. I have 9 of these now, thanks to various thrift stores.

And finally, I thought for a second that I had stumbled onto what would have been the jadeite score of the millenium - for me, at least. But this one mug is all I have from it. 2.99 and the only jadeite mug I have.

What it was, in their locked case they had 3 chili bowls and 3 jadeite mugs - 14.99 for each grouping. In other words, 5 bucks a piece. I was going to pull the trigger and buy all 6 pieces for a whopping 30 bucks until they got them out of the case. DBD. Death by Dishwasher. Oh the humanity!

Before I could let loose with a torrent of tears, I noticed that one of the mugs wasn't dishwashed. The manager just happened to be around, so I asked her if she'd sell me the one that hadn't been dishwashed to death, and she said sure, she'd let me have it for 2.99. Very cool! I'm curious to know the fate of the other pieces. Chances are good that they'll turn up in the antique store in town.

Thanks for hanging in there with my very long blog. Hope you've found lots of treasures this weekend!