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.

A Whole 'Lotta Stuff, Part 2 - Tennessee Edition

So yes, I suppose it's about time to post what I found during my vacation to Tennessee, woo! The thrifting there wasn't too bad at all., a little better than NW Arkansas, I suppose. I was ever-so-slightly disappointed, but that's only because it wasn't the super-cheap Pyrex haven of my dreams. ;)

I did, however, notice the same trend in Tennessee that I've seen here. I believe Leilani mentioned it in her last post. It seems like this year the pickings are pretty slim at the thrift stores. I really find most of my good stuff now at antique stores. Leilani and I were discussing this a while back. It seems that finding quality items at the thrift is harder, and the prices are going way up. On the upside, though, the antiquing is picking up. For not too high prices (in fact, some antique store booths can be as cheap as the thrift) I've been finding a good amount of nice quality items. We've definitely noticed this trend in the South, but from what I can tell on groups on Flickr that's not the experience for everyone. While I would jump on a nice piece of Pyrex for $6 at the thrift here, I see people posting on PyrexLove that find several items for half that. At least the thrift gods are smiling on them... Hmmm, what with me antiquing and Leilani estate-saleing, the name 'Thriftaholics' is becoming a little less applicable. But the 'Antique Store and Estate Sale Enthusiasts' just doesn't have the same ring to it. :P

So here's what I found at the thrift stores... it was all pretty cheap.



A lot of it was even cheaper than marked, because at this one store that I visited twice the guy at the counter ringing people up kept giving discounts. I'm not sure if it was because he just didn't want to add things up, or couldn't, or what. He would just look at your pile and give you a number. When I got the cookbooks, he only charged me for their marked price ($2), and gave me 2 mugs and the nutcrackers and cake server for free, basically. It was sweet.

The pink saucers are Pyrex. They are actually marked Pyrex in the mold, usually these had a gold stamp. I got those three from a thrift/resale shop for just 88 cents. And that was with tax. Those are officially my best thrift store steal. The mugs were either 50 cents or free from various places.

Mugs from left to right: Pyrex, Pyrex (Snowflake Blue), Hazel Atlas, Glasbake, Galaxy.

Cookbooks: Better Homes and Gardens Cooking With Whole Grains, Good Housekeeping's Cookie-Jar Cookbook.

Now onto the the antique store finds! This is actually a picture of just all the Pyrex I got in Tennessee, so ignore the mugs and saucers from the previous picture.



I think my best find was the double boiler. I've been wanting one for my baking projects, but they go for so much on ebay. This one is in great condition (just missing the lid) and was only $10. It's one of the more rounded ones with a blue tint to the glass and a green flame marking - my Pyrex book says the green stamp is from the first 10 years of Flameware production, 1936-1946, and the double boiler was first introduced in 1937.

I also got a replacement primary blue fridge dish for $10 (my old one was chipped), and it came with a lid, too! This one is in great condition, with an older stamp that matches my other primary fridge dishes. The lids on these dishes chip easily, but this one is still perfect.

I got also got the Zodiac casserole I had been wanting for a while. I couldn't believe I found one with a good lid (the gold tends to come off easily) and the candle warmer. The gold on the casserole is in excellent condition also. It was $20, which was better than the ones I lusted over on the internet.

Lastly I got the Pyrex measuring cup and matching Pyrex-branded beaters. I found the same one on page 40 of the 4th edition of the Mauzy guide. This one wasn't much of a deal ($60). I really wanted it but balked at the price. Jason decided to get it for me though. :) Good man.