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.

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... ;)

Summer is here, and so is thrifting

Well, Leilani and I may have died off on this blog for a while, but we've still been getting out there and finding all kinds of goodies to photograph and post. I know Leilani's been busy with school (even right now during the summer she has class, aw!), but I don't have as good of an excuse. I take pictures and then neglect to post! Well no more!

With the arrival of summer I definitely always feel like the "good stuff" is more plentiful. There are tons of garage sales every week, and the estate sales are picking up too. Like Leilani, I'm starting to prefer going to the source and trying to get things at estate sales. Well, around here there are more estate auctions. Which is great because they are entertainment in itself. But, since I haven't posted in a while, I'll share some of the things I found earlier this spring.



I've been getting worse. I knew I didn't need this retro orange electric coffee perk. I have plenty of Corning coffee perks. But I get to where I just can't leave things behind. This was $4.00 at the Benton Co. Women's Shelter Thrift.



This recipe box was just worth getting for the old cards. None had any recipes to try, however. I love the cute aqua design. I could do with a nicer box though. This one is just a dark avocado green, not too attractive. 50 cents from Second Chance Thrift.



Yes, I gave in and I collect Woodland now. I didn't find brown very attractive before, but it has grown on me, I'll admit. Plus my mom had Woodland mixing bowls (she actually still uses them), so I was partial to this pattern anyway. This is the largest round casserole. Found at the Salvation Army for $1.50 I believe? I also managed to get a hold of a nice lid for it locally for $1.00.





I picked up this vintage Dormey handmixer at The Council of the Blind. I had never heard of Dormey, but they made a great mixer. It still works. In fact, it works so well that I'm getting rid of my Hamilton Beach handmixer that I got from Walmart. I've really started to switch over to all vintage for my kitchen appliances. They just work better, even after all these years.





Vintage bun warmers. Very 70s. I bought the orange one 1st at Samaritan Thrift, then when I came back, they had put out the other one. I snapped them up, naturally. I think they might have been around $5.00 apiece. They both have their original cords and they still heat up. Kind of an odd buy, but I have a dream to one day host a large Thanksgiving dinner, set up entirely with vintage cookware and prepared with vintage appliances. So I have to get these things now! Bun warmers would be perfect for a buffet setup.



I can't remember how much I paid for this clock at the thrift, I think it was a couple of dollars. It's a cute little desk clock that plugs in. I couldn't resist its atomic goodness. The side with the atomic star also lights up.



Usually estate sales in my area aren't that great, but I found these at one in Bella Vista (it's where the older folks live). Stuff was a little higher than I would've liked, you can see the $1.50 price tag on the mug. But I needed that one for the Pyrex mug collection! The old spice tins were about 50 cents apiece, I think, and the atomic carving set was $2.



Quite a while ago I found a nice vintage green autograph album that had never been used. Then a month or so ago I saw a very similar photograph album at the Council of the Blind for $2, so I had to get it! The photograph album has a ripped page, but otherwise they were never used.



I've definitely developed an appreciation for mid-century modern style and dutch modern furniture. I had to get this shelf when I found it at the Salvation Army because it totally fits the bill! In this picture we were using it in our entry hall, but now it's been re-purposed (read: taken over by me) for Pyrex displays. :)

The Vintage Thrifter-ator!

I have to apologize for my lack of posts recently. My internet has been trying to die on me, and on top of that I just got done working 6 days in a row (ick). I was exhausted, but now I'm feeling much more rested, and I've finally found the time (and daylight!) to photograph the rest of my finds from the past week.

It was a really good week for me with all the kitchenware. I found some really nice, minty pieces, and the prices were pretty reasonable.



These Old Town Blue Pyrex mugs were my first find. I only photographed one of each style, but I actually found 6 of each at the Salvation Army, for 50 cents each! It was perfect for me, because I have a set of 12 Old Town Blue Corelle dishes, teacups, and saucers, but I only had 6 cups and 6 mugs, so these complete my set!



Sorry for the poor picture, I need some plate stands! These are the largest and second-largest Corelle plates in Old Town Blue. I found 8 in each size at the Samaritan thrift store in Springdale. I already had all I needed in the largest size, but some of mine had rough edges, so I replaced 8 of my old ones with these, which are in better condition. I actually didn't have any of the second-largest plate size at all, so now I am well on my way to having 12 of those as well! They were a little expensive at a dollar per plate, but I was willing to pay more to complete my collection. It's still cheaper than eBay or the antique malls...



This was another great find from the Springdale Salvation Army. I found this at the same time as all those Old Town cups and mugs. It's a very minty Pyrex Snowflake Garland round casserole, 2.5 quart size. It was $8, which is a little more than I like to pay for a thrift store, but I'll probably never see one like this in such good condition at a thrift store here again!



Two more additions for my mug/cup collection - on the left is a 'Morning Blue' Pyrex cup, and on the right is an unmarked milk glass cup with fired-on yellow. I got both of these from the Bentonville Council of the Blind for 50 cents each.



More mugs! On the left is a steel blue Pyrex mug, found at the Second Chance thrift store in Springdale. I think it cost about 25 or 50 cents. I think this Pyrex mug is interesting - a lot of Pyrex mugs have the diagonal handle like my Old Town Blue mug, but these are more like the shape of the mugs made out of Corning material. On the right, the pink mug is Hazel-Atlas, and was only 25 cents at the Bentonville Women's Shelter thrift.



I love this canister, it's so cute and retro, and goes with the yellow part of my kitchen theme. It was $2 at the Peace At Home thrift store in Fayetteville. It's marked 'Corning Brand Glass'.



This juicer is awesome and hilarious! How can you not love it, it's the Acme brand Supreme JUICERator! Hehe, now my blog title makes a little more sense. I have yet to try it out, but I suspect it still works - this thing is heavy and built like a tank. I also found this at the Peace At Home thrift store. For $5, it came with all it's parts, the manual, and the original box. I may get a bigger kitchen soon, and if I do, this sucker is going right out on display on the counter.



This is the last mug, I swear! I paid $1.50 for the 'Grandpa' Glasbake mug at The Rose antique mall in Rogers. Normally I wouldn't pay that much, but I'm going to give this to Jason's mom. I picked up it's mate ('Grandma') at a thrift store last year, and gave it to her for her birthday. Now she can have the set! Both mugs come with a cute little poem printed on the opposite side. On the left, for about 25 cents I got another Tupperware measuring cup from the Salvation Army in Bentonville.



The rest of my finds are from The Rose antique mall. I found quite a bit of Pyrex there, and it actually was pretty reasonably priced. This Pyrex dish is promotional, called 'Constellation.' I actually had this dish already, but I didn't have its candle-warmer. For $13, I had to get it! The whole thing is quite minty, and I figured I could sell my extra dish and recoup some of my cost.



This 2.5 quart casserole was actually from the very same booth in The Rose as my Constellation dish! The seller's prices were pretty good. This is a regular Pyrex pattern called 'Daisy.' It's really sunny and happy, and it was also $13 - I couldn't turn it down. I've seen some of the original dealer adverts that some members have found and posted on PyrexLove's Flickr, and they show that some of the Daisy oval casseroles came with these wicker baskets. It seems like these baskets get separated from their casseroles pretty frequently, so I jumped on this one.



It's another piece of English Pyrex! It's the same pattern as the ones I found over Christmas. I found out from a member on Flickr that this pattern is called Woodland. This one is the same size as the smaller one I found before, but this one has it's original brown lid. I got it for $7.



Last but not least, I got another Golden Honeysuckle Pyrex casserole (it's on the bottom), in a 2.5 quart size. I found it for only $7, and it's very minty (with it's lid, even!). I already had the 1.5 quart on the top of the stack. I found it last summer, it was actually the first Pyrex casserole I ever thrifted, ~tear~. Now it has a friend! :)