Back with a vengance!

Don't let the long hiatus fool you - I am thrilled to be blogging again!  There was unfortunately a lot of upheaval in the last year, what with starting a new job that was a 45 minute commute (that's one-way), the joys of home ownership, AND getting married...  Amongst other things.  I felt like I never had time to do anything, or I was too tired, and my thrifting outings became non-existent.  But no more!  Thanks to a lot of thrifty living and boring bill-paying, along with Jason's hard work earning him some nice raises at his job, I have taken the leap - I left my job to stay home and make junking my new full-time career!  I'm on week two and it is going great - I now share two booths with my mother-in-law Kathy, one at The Rose Too in Rogers and our newest booth at Home Town Flea Market, just a few blocks away.

I don't know if the hot weather is the cause, but summertime has also brought a LOT of great stuff out into the thrift stores lately.  When I had been getting out on occasion there wasn't much that I saw to pick up, but perhaps the thrift gods are welcoming me to my new career - since I've been going out more there has been piles of good, cheap stuff to buy!  So keep checking back for more updates - with all these goodies to photograph, I won't be neglecting the blog again. :-)

Jason and I went out thrifting last Friday and we scored some great stuff.  We had to work hard for these pretties.  I think we rummaged for at least a good 30 minutes in the kitchen utensil file cabinet drawers at the Rogers Salvation Army.  I feel pretty confident that I found all that there was of this great set.  I've wanted a set of starburst flatware for a while now.  These are marked 'Stainless Steel Japan' and are marked with the brand 'Sapphire'.  I wasn't able to find any info on this particular brand of starburst silverware when I did some research on the internet.  At 25 cents apiece I'm happy to keep these and hope I find some more!

I picked this Kmart Spice of Life coordinate 'Sim R Pot' up at the Rogers Salvation Army also.  Appliances were half off, so I actually only ended up paying $2.50 for this, and it was tested and in working condition!  Sweet.  It has a nice milk glass bowl for the inside.  It was pretty stained from chili or beans or some such, but bleach water took it all right off.  The Corning lid that came with it is a little chippy around the rim, but I don't know that it is original anyway, it seems a hair too large.  This is going with the rest of the Spice of Life items that I have at The Rose Too.

This old Sears and Roebuck vaporizer was marked $3 at the Salvation Army, but thanks to that half-off appliances sale I paid just $1.50.  Very cool to actually find this with the white plastic cradle.  Unfortunately we got it home and I started having a weird allergic reaction to something - I was sneezing, eyes watering, throat itching, the works.  Jason cleaned out the vaporizer - there was a some kind of white powder and some yucky grease inside, he told me - and that seemed to solve my problem.  The perils of thrifting!

Two Saturdays ago Jason and I stopped for a church sale - great decision!  There was a large round table FULL of blue cornflower dishes.  The lady was super nice and marked everything down for me. I also got two roasters, a 4 qt. dutch oven with lid, and lipped saucepan with spout that aren't pictured here.  Oh, and some vintage cookbooks for a dollar apiece.  The 8" square pans were $5 each (I got 3 total) and the pie plates were $4 each (also 3 total).  When we were chatting I mentioned having a collection of vintage Better Homes and Gardens cookbooks, which of course she then tells me they had piles of earlier that morning.  Ah!  It always kills me to hear on what I just missed out on!  She very nicely offered to keep my name and number because she had many more items from her mother that she had yet to dig out.  I hope I hear from her again!

Our trip to Springdale's Council of the Blind was pretty fruitful as well.  These cute Disney melmac dishes were $2 for the set, and Pyrex Drink-Up is a nice addition to my mug collection at 50 cents.

I love finding these Couroc of Monterey pieces at thrift stores so far away from California.  These were the third and fourth pieces that I've seen, and at $2 for the cypress plate and $2.50 for the large round roadrunner plate, I wasn't going to leave them at the Council of the Blind!

I was excited to find the Couroc, then I rounded the corner and saw this Corning Ware electromatic skillet base!  It was marked '$4.50 works'.  It went in my cart immediately.  There was some stuck-on food debris, but with the super-smooth surface and a little Bar Keeper's Friend it wasn't too hard to get off.

I hit the motherlode of books at Helping Hands.  While Jason loaded up on several nice cheap speaker sets that he is going to resell on Craigslist, I loaded up on Better Home and Gardens cookbooks for $1 each.  Most of these I already have, so they are going to be at my booth at Home Town.  The Playboy Bar book ($1.50) is also out at Home Town and has a ton of delicious-sounding drink recipes.  I bought the Singer sewing book for myself for $2... which I suppose I'll never forget as they decided to just go ahead and write on the cover of that one with black marker.  :-/  I really hate it when the thrift store ruins items.

I've always wanted an old cell phone like this, so I picked this one up at the Bentonville Goodwill for $3.  The Tupperware (50 cents) was found by Jason who loves these containers for sleeves of crackers.

Finally, of course I had to go around and shop the other booths after I moved into Home Town last week.  Two booths over, I found the Corning 'Season's Greetings 1963' 2.5 qt. casserole for $6.  I had never heard of Corning making anything like this, but the design doesn't appear to me to have been added afterwards.  The pattern is actually in a pretty shiny silver.

Jason found the four Couroc bird bowls, and I was a little iffy about buying them because they have been treated pretty roughly and lost all of their original lustre.  Some of them even have a couple of chips.  Jason talked me into it, as he hopes he can possibly restore them.  I decided to go for it at $1.50 a bowl.

I haven't found a nice piece of Pyrex that I wanted to add to my collection for a while.  This is a cute promotional 'Spices' that I don't have, and still has nice shiny paint and no damage.  It was only $5, so I scooped it up.

Massive Holiday Update

Well, today in Northwest Arkansas is icy and cold, and for the first time in quite a while I get a "snow day"! No work for me, so I have no excuse not to blog. :P

EDIT: This is a kind of ironic beginning to this blog. As I was writing this on January 27th (today is Feb. 9th), the huge ice storm that came through the area caused my power to go out, and it was out for over 28 hours. We were actually pretty fortunate, many people were without power for a week or more. We had friends staying with us because their homes were so cold or the roads were so treacherous. President Obama declared Arkansas a state of emergency, it was so bad. Because the lab that I worked at had to close, they had us work through the weekend, and I haven't had a chance to finish what I started til now! However, barring other natural disasters, I will complete this post tonight! Warning: Since I haven't posted in a while, it's going to be mega-long... that's my own fault, I suppose. :)



This photo was taken all the way back on November 9th. (I was trying to get a November post going but didn't quite get around to it.) These were all finds from The Rose in Rogers. The Designs or "Arches" casserole was a good deal at $7, and I got a non-original lid for it. Woodland, even though it is brown, has started to grow on me, and I've decided to start picking up pieces for my everyday kitchen use. I got the smallest round casserole with lid for $5. On the left, the blue flower "Corning" is actually from the Netherlands - it's labeled "Pyroflam". It's the exact same shape as US Corning. I thought it was a neat buy for $8. The casserole on the right looks a lot like Corning, but it was actually made by Anchor Hocking. I had no idea they made a similar material. I picked it up for just $4. CindyMuffin on Flickr said that when Anchor Hocking produced these pieces, they were sued by Corning. Corning won, so these AH dishes weren't made for very long and are probably fairly rare.



These were buys from ebay a while ago that I've neglected to post. I got a mint set of "blue butterfly", and I had to get the red snowflake beaker when I saw it, even though the pattern is pretty scrubbed. I haven't seen the snowflake beaker before... The snowflake is the same one seen on the turquoise and black Pyrex dishes.



I got these a little while before Christmas from the Salvation Army. The one in Fayetteville almost never has kitchenware anymore since they cleaned that section out several months ago. I did manage to find this Black Trefoil casserole there for just $2, though. According the the Corning guide they are rare, as only 3 or 4 different dishes were produced with this pattern, so I couldn't resist buying it. The handmixer is from the SA in Springdale. I like the more ergonomic angled handle on it. Unusual for vintage wood-handled utensils, this one is painted black.





Ever since I was little, I pined for a rotary phone. Now I have two! I really am starting to love 70s colors - I adore the mustard-colored phone. Hey, looks kind of like the one the PyrexLove folks have... :) It was $7 at the Council of the Blind. The black phone is a little older. Instead of the standard phone jack on the base, it has a cord attached that has to be connected to a converter box before it will work with a standard jack. Luckily it came with all the parts for just $5 at the Peace at Home thrift store.



Here's some things I received for Christmas... I requested vintage, of course. ;) I was soooo excited when Leilani found the Gemco Old Town sugar and creamer. They seem to be unusually hard to find in that pattern, even on ebay. I was about to break down and buy some online (the price held me back) when she surprised me with them. She actually found them locally while she was visiting. Jason's mom drew my name for the family gift exchange, and I got the Gemco Country Festival S&P shakers that I needed. I had the salt, but not the pepper. She also gave me an extra metal jar opener that she had. She got one in her utensil color, so I got the extra, yay.





Leilani also got me these lovely snowflake glasses with the original cradle. I love these glasses, now I can have a whole winter theme with my snowflake Pyrex. I really like the Tupperware cake keeper also. I had a plain one that was broken, and I like the design.



These were ebay buys, but I prefer to think of them as Christmas presents to myself. I've done really well cutting out ebay, so I got a few things before Christmas that I didn't think I could find "out in the wild." I got a Country Festival loaf pan and dutch oven, and an old Pyrex 1-cup measure that is actually for dry ingredients rather than wet.



Jason's mom also came through and got me a couple of the Corelle serving pieces that I was missing from my Old Town dish set. I got a large serving bowl and a platter. This was definitely one of the best Christmases I've had!



I found all these when I was out with Leilani the day after Christmas at The Rose antique mall in Bentonville. These are all part of Corning's line of Rangetoppers, which have metal bottoms. I really bought these for my mom, this is her pattern. I couldn't believe that almost the whole set was in the same place at the same time! They're all in excellent condition, the metal bottoms don't even look like they were used, and they all have nice lids. They were all really reasonably priced too, ranging from $7 to $16 each.



I also found more Corelle coordinates at The Rose when I picked up the rangetoppers. I have a set of Spring Blossom Corelle also, and the Gemco oil and vinegar cruets and Pyrex margarine tub complete my set. A week or two after our trip to the Rose, I was out with Jason and got a nice restaurant-style napkin holder from the Springdale Salvation Army for $2. It was marked $4, but the lady I see there when I go thrifting almost every Saturday gave me a discount because she didn't see me before Christmas. Awww, so nice!





These are the rest of my finds when I went out with Leilani. This was all pretty cheap. My personal fave is the snack set... The colors are just so great! It was at the Homestead antique mall for just $4.50. It only has two cups, and one of the 4 plates is chipped, but it was too cute to pass up. I found 3 of 4 matching Fire King mugs in the same day. Two were found at Helping Hands, and one at the Rose. They were a dollar apiece. The Joy Glasbake mug was also a dollar at Helping Hands. I also got a set of 70s fondue forks at The Rose for $2.



This is what the Spring Blossom coordinates were taken on in the earlier photo, :P. I finally got a vintage dinette table! They come up so rarely around here, and usually they get snapped up pretty quick. Someone had one in the paper and I managed to be the first to call about it. I got it for $100 on New Years Day. I'm hoping that it might be a sign of good thrifting in the year to come.





In January, Jason and I went out thrifting and we got a great haul from one thrift store - the Council of the Blind in Rogers to be exact. For about $7 I got this partial set of Mikasa. I found on ebay that this is the Montclair pattern. I'm hoping that I might be able to resell some of the pieces.



We also got this nice nutcracker bowl. Jason likes to get nuts in the shell, and it wasn't too bad at $4.



I picked up some saucers that I liked the pattern of, and lo, more Mikasa! The pattern is Veracruz in the Mediterranea line. It's so cute I bought all 3 even though I thought they were a little high at .75 cents each. I also got a brown Homer Laughlin mug to go with. And because I need another napkin holder (read that part ironically) I picked this one up for $1.





Ah, le pièce de résistance! Major props go to Jason for finding this Noritake china bowl. I really love the piece, the flowers are lovely, and it's still in great shape. According to the Noritake Collectors Guild, this stamp dates to 1918. A good deal for $5, I think.



The finds didn't stop at the CoB, however. I added more mugs to the milk-glass mug collection. From left to right: a pedestal Mickey mug, Fire-King Kimberly mug, Fire-King stackable flower mug, Hazel-Atlas 'I Love Grandma' mug, and an avocado Federal mug. I was in a bit of a spendy mood, so when we visited the Bella Vista Flea Market I decided to spring for a turquoise sieve for $5.



One more find with Jason was this 1986 Corelle Christmas plate. It's not quite my year (1985 would have me super-excited), but I picked it up. Christmas stuff was 50% off or I would have left it. Grand total: .75 cents.





On Saturday, January 17 I swung by the Second Chance thrift store to cheer myself up after paying a $6 cover charge to go to a sale that turned out to be totally lame. I ended finding a bunch of nice Mason jars, although I'll admit, what got me were the vintage lids. I included a picture of the marshmallow fluff lid, because I find it amusing for some reason. Everything was only .25 to .50 cents, so I only ended up paying $3 for all of it. Better than that dumb sale, for sure. [Oh Leilani, that bowl is for you. :) ]



Jason and I discovered Ken's Auctionhouse in Springdale one Saturday, which is where we got these old military buttons. Jason wanted these and won them for $4. We actually did pretty well, and we're planning to go back soon. We got a huge box full of old board games for just $2. I didn't want to bother trying to photograph everything we got, but there was a 60s Candy Land and an old Yahtzee. We had fun there for a couple of hours watching the bidding. It made me like auctions better -- I've been leery of them since Leilani and I went to an outdoor one in the middle of summer a few years ago and about killed ourselves from the heat.



Lastly, I wanted to mention these although they aren't vintage. Leilani put me onto these utensils at Tuesday Morning. They're good quality, nice and heavy utensils made by Cuisinart called "Retro-Look". Tuesday Morning had a cream color and aqua, and I got all the aqua I could find. Nearly every piece cost $7. I fretted over the price, but Jason (who is my culinary expert) told me that utensils of this quality would usually cost much more than that. Eh, if I can justify it as a deal, I'll take it. They are nice heavy metal, and I like to get newer things for everyday use so that I don't have to worry about damaging vintage ones. I was amused when I went to the checkout. The lady was impressed that I was able to find so many of the same color in the mess of their kitchen section. Hey, digging for kitchenware is what I do!

What's Better Than Vintage Kitchenware?

SETS of vintage kitchenware, that's what! I noticed a trend when I uploaded my pictures to Flickr... I actually seem to have completed or acquired a lot of sets recently, rather than getting a bunch of random pieces. I'm quite proud of myself, actually. I vowed not too long after my descent into thriftmania and pyrexia that if I was going to be a kitchenware junkie, I was not going to have a completely random kitchen! I've managed to stick to my vow and I have only collected in my patterns in color palate (with only a few minor indiscretions). I'll start with my favorite:



The rectangular space saver dish on the very bottom of the middle stack was my last, elusive piece... I finally found a nice one on eBay and I had to get it. I just love this pattern, something about the color and the snowflakes just sucks me in! Oh, and I'm officially getting a larger apartment in a month, and it has a dedicated dining space (!) so they will be on display properly very shortly.





I had to get this carafe when I saw it on eBay... It started at $4.99 and I was the only bidder! It came with everything - candle-warmer, care instructions, original box, and even the tea ball! I loved that it had the same snowflakes on it as my turquoise snowflakes, also. I didn't realize it in the auction, but it has a combination of gold and white snowflakes, which is really pretty. When I got this beverage server, I really felt like my snowflake collection was complete!





I thrifted this carafe and candle warmer quite a while ago. I found out on PyrexLove and saw on eBay that it originally came with 4 mugs as a beverage server set. I had found the matching mugs at a few local shops, but they were in poor condition. The brown paint didn't seem to hold up very well, and forget about the gold design. I finally turned to eBay for these. I managed to get a deal by buying another set of mugs that I needed from the same seller, so I got combined shipping at least!



I only pictured one of the Peach Shell mugs, but I actually found 7 of these at an awesome garage sale for only $2! I happened upon the sale when Jason and I were driving to Pea Ridge to see his parents. The guy running it had a huge garage full of stuff! I also spied this adorable Fire-King mug. What a cute little mouse!



This is another cool find from the large garage sale. These disposable placemats are very 50's. I love how the packaging enumerates the many reasons why disposable placemats are such a good choice ("saves cost of laundering linens" "longer life for linens" "makes food look more appetizing" "decorates table" "saves work"). We actually got a lot more from this sale that I didn't photograph. Jason found himself an awesome vintage Atari with 2 controllers and paddles, with several games and even the original box for just $15! He's becoming quite the little thriftster himself. We also got quite a few LPs for our record collection, and a nice vintage Yamaha record player with groovy faux wood so we can actually listen to our collection now!



I've been wanting a Pyrex gravy boat for a while now, and I was lucky enough to find this one at the thrift store. It's not my pattern, but it is my mom's, so when I do get the one I really want, I can pass this along to her. She always serves mashed potatoes out of her Woodland mixing bowls, so the Woodland gravy boat will be perfect! I actually only thrifted the boat of this gravy boat, I had to go to The Rose antique mall in Rogers to get the underplate. This is how bad I am - when I saw the boat at the thrift, I knew immediately exactly where I had seen the underplate sold separately before, and exactly where it was. All together I paid $7.10 for it, which is not too bad, I'd say.



I got these from an antique store that Ifound with Leilani during her visit this winter. I hadn't been to it since then (I kind of forgot where it was), but I re-discovered it last Thursday. The Pyrex Cracker Barrel was actually there the last time I visited. I passed on it before, but I decided to go for it this time. It was $4.95. I also found a great Federal glass syrup pitcher for $4.99. I've seen a lot of these in some pretty blah colors, but I had to get this one with the orange lid. A lot of the kitchen gadgets that I've been getting are this color orange. By far the best deal was the Pyrex Pink Daisy dish. It's in good condition, and it was only a $1.99! I question the pricing at that store.



It doesn't seem like it because I haven't photographed it as much, but I probably have as much Tupperware as Pyrex at this point. I got a pasta holder in orange, which has edged it's way into my aqua-jadeite-yellow palate. I got another pitcher because they are just so handy. This one, although a little beige for my tastes, has a nice design on it rather than just being plain.



My last few finds are all additions to my mug collection. I picked up two of these mugs at the Council of the Blind in Springdale. Although they look very similar, the one on the left is Pyrex Tableware, and the other is Anchor Hocking. There were 3 of these together on the shelf. Two were Anchor Hocking with backstamps that dated to different time periods. jeffpyrex on Flickr, who is quite the expert on restaurantware, told me that Anchor Hocking made their line longer than Pyrex did, and because they were so similar many people used them as replacements for their sets.



I'm keen to get all the Pyrex cups and mugs for my collection. This pattern is called Burgundy. It was one that I had been on the lookout for but I hadn't seen it anywhere. I finally got this one for 25 cents at Helping Hands. Woo!



This makes Federal glass zodiac mug Number 2. Technically it's #3, but I have two Scorpios, so I don't count that. Only 10 more to go! :P



My last mug is also one of my funnier stories. I was driving down Main St. in Johnson, and I passed an empty lot that earlier in the week had sale signs up, but no sale. But that day tables were up, so I pulled in. The only good thing was this Fire-King mug. However, I couldn't find anyone to pay. Other people had pulled in after me and were browsing the tables. We all kept asking each other, "Are you running the sale? Do you know who is?" It looked neglected, it had rained the night before and things were soaked, like they had sat uncovered all night. I wanted this mug, so I even dared to go across the road to a rather run-down house and ask if the sale might be theirs. No answer. The people browsing were getting frustrated and leaving. I considered just taking the damn thing, but it felt too dishonest. So instead I went to my car and got a pen and a scrap of paper. I left a note "50 cents for mug" with 2 quarters on it on one of the tables. A lady that was leaving asked me "Did you leave a note?" I told her "Yeah, I figure if they're not going to man their tables, I can make my own price," which she found quite amusing. Someone probably came along and took their stuff and my money, but oh well. At least I rescued a Fire-King mug. :)