Florida Goodness (and I don't mean the oranges)

Once again, I apologize for the lack of posts on my part... although you probably didn't even miss me because Leilani has done great keeping the blog going! I've had pictures ready but just no time to write about them. But I have been busy with something of a vintage/thrifty nature... I have been working on buying my very first house!!! I just got an offer accepted earlier this week after going back and forth with the bank that owns it. It's a great deal, and it's of a nearly vintage mint - built in 1988. I hope that once we move in, I can start some retro renovations and really make the house great! So in the future you all can expect a few more vintage furniture/decorating/remodelling posts, and hopefully some pictures of how everything looks in the new house. Advance warning however - my closing date is in the middle of November, so I apologize in advance for not posting. I'll be moving a lot of stuff. :)



I thought it was high time to post some of my finds from my trip to Florida earlier this spring. While it didn't turn out to be the vintage Pyrex heaven of my dreams as it has for some people I've seen, it was consistently good thrifting. On the drive back to Arkansas we stopped at a large Smiley's antique store to look around, and I found this bowl. I was so excited! It looks like the Terra brown and orange striped bowls, but unlike Terra the bowl is glossy, and the stripes are fired-on rather than grooved in the paint. This bowl seems to be pretty rare, there's only 1 other person on the PyrexLove Flickr group that has one. The best part was, it only cost $3! :)



I picked up this Pyrex sugar and creamer set on a day trip to St. Petersburg. We stayed right by Orlando but went to St. P to catch a Rays game, and I managed to find some thrift stores on the internet to stop by on the way. I found a really great thrift store that had quite a few vintage kitchen items. I was amused because almost everything I got was $1.99. This cute sun/starburst set was $1.99 for both. The gold is in perfect condition, and since I had never before found a sugar that matches the little tiny carafe/creamers, I had to pick them up.



From the same St. Petersburg thrift store, I got this vintage Norelco coffee bean grinder. I usually think of Norelco making shavers, so this grinder seems a bit funny to me. Even better, once we got it home I realized that it was quieter and ground beans better than our other grinder that we got at Wal-Mart a few years ago. I love vintage appliances. It was also bought for just $1.99.



I absolutely adore this Vacron turquoise insulated pitcher and cup set. I wasn't sure about it at first. The set was very grey on the white parts, and the inside of the pitcher was quite brown. At the St Petersburg thrift store, the set had $1.99 stickers all over it. I was afraid that each piece was $1.99, but that was actually the price for the whole set! Once I got it home, it cleaned up great. Magic eraser took off the grey, and bleach water solved the staining issue. Hard to see in the photo, but it was so dirty that I couldn't tell until I cleaned it up that the white parts are actually speckled.



Another thrift store in St. Petersburg was also a winner. I found a couple of vinyl records and some vintage kitchen items, one of which was this Corning Cornflower Blue Bake, Broil tray. These larger Corning pieces are usually more expensive or harder to find, so I naturally had to snap this one up (even though I don't usually collect it) as it was only $5.95. This and my matching open roaster would be great for Thanksgiving in my new house... Although I might have to wait a year to get the house ready. :)



Also at the Smiley's antique mall on the way home I got this promotional Pyrex 4 qt bowl known as "hex signs." I never wanted it bad enough to get it off ebay, but when I saw it for $16.95 in good condition I decided to go ahead. I always thought the design looked suspiciously similar to a certain controlled substance... ;)