Carving time, a magical find, and what got me started....
It started with a teapot. Yup, that's right. I snatched that kitschy little teapot shaped like a snowman right off the shelf and fell in love. After that, I kept my eyes peeled for teapots at every turn. Yard sales, thrift stores, estate sales, I found the 'housewares' section and dove in. Now, it's years later and my teapots have found a new home on a built in shelf in the kitchen of our new house. When I was younger, I was not picky about which teapots came home with me. I really only had one rule...it had to be unique. Somehow, the plain reds and blues and flowers came home with me but ultimately I craved the really really unique ones. After awhile, it was harder to decipher which ones would fit along my new shelf and my husband (bless his heart) put his foot down about the fact that teapots were overrunning his life. To be fair, until we moved here my teapots didn't have a home so they were, in fact, overrunning the house. Now I leave behind the ones that are more plain...the ones that have no lids or missing pieces...the ones that I might something close to already on my shelf. The ones that are lidless in my collection have been moved to be more useful. They hold our cooking utensils, the pampered chef bamboo spoons, and a variety of succulents that I haven't managed to kill yet.
I still keep my eyes open, though. In fact, this is a good time to point out that it is so very important to open everything. Hear me? Open Everything at a thrift store. Every container might be empty but then you might stumble upon a raggedy looking asian-inspired fabric box and on an off chance you might open it up and find this:
Exquisite. There are no markings, other than some characters that I can't decipher. But there is literally not a scratch or a chip on this set. There is a total of 5 cups, only 1 was missing. This is just proof that there might be something hidden in the rough looking items you find! I had already seen at least 5 empty boxes like that that held nothing. Imagine if I had just walked past this one thinking it was an empty box. I wish I had taken a picture of the actual box, it was rough and I was unable to save it. I'm not even joking, I'm the one at the antique store on her hands and knees pulling out that hidden piece in the back of the shelf. L doesn't like to come with me for this very reason ;)
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After teapots, I fell in love with vintage pyrex. I know, I know. Everyone seems to love vintage pyrex. My mother has so many dishes still up in her cabinet that we used every day 40 years after she and my father received them as a wedding present. Hers are dishwasher-faded, a fact she admitted was because when she got them there were no blogs or websites or warnings that putting them in the dishwasher would fade them. Doesn't matter, they still work. So now that I have a new love, I tend to slip away to the thrift stores whenever I have a chance. We just moved back to our hometown, and the thrift stores are sparse without a good drive so this past weekend I dropped my little'un off at the grandparents and did some Christmas shopping kiddo-free during the morning. My parents love living close to us now so I let S. stay at their house through lunch and hit some local charity thrifts and a goodwill. Here's my finds from my impromptu Saturday thrift!
Two 401 pyrex mixing bowls. I already have a complete set of Early American cinderella mixing bowls and I was going to stop, but hey...I can't. My mom has several dishes of the Amish Butterprint variety, and I found a fridgie set so now I have a mixing bowl to start THAT collection =) I like the idea of having a set that's not the cinderella style so when I found the 401 old orchard, I snatched it. There was a 402 of the same set at the salvation army store I found that one in, but I left it behind because it was pretty beat up and priced three times as much as the 401. The Amish Butterprint cost $2.25, the old orchard was $1.98
I collect and use daily vintage fire king mugs. This bright orange one came in a set of 3 for $3.25. One is slightly faded so the color is different and another has some fading around the rims i'll keep those two but the other one is set aside for now until I set up a small resale shop or something.
I can't tell you how many times people have given me the side-eye when I give a little squeal and turn a mug or five over to see the standard Fire King markings.
This...this my friends is a corning electromatic E-1310. I found it sitting in the midst of the the forgotten electronics. It works, but I have yet to try to cook/bake anything on it just yet. I need to find a manual online to get specifics. I might keep this, I had planned on reselling but damn, it's just so pretty. We'll see.
A Coleman Lil' Oscar. I love this thing. It's in perfect condition...had some unidentified stuff on the outside but with a gentle scrubbing it was good as new. Mr Swift Thrift has already claimed it for his own.
and this? This is my golden find. I have a love affair with space savers by pyrex. I haven't ever found any but I drool over pinterest pictures of stacked space savers. Then, as i'm strolling down the aisle of goodwill this past Saturday, on my first stop of the day, I stumble across this beauty. She's a promotional piece that pyrex released in 1958, Embroidery pattern space saver. She's got some staining on one handle...i've tried barkeeps friend with no success but really, other than that small blemish she's in perfect condition. It was marked 2for#2.25 and I scoured the entire aisle for a lid...I even went back and searched all the surrounding aisles with no success. Never mind, I put it in the cart with my other finds (which also included some christmas light hooks and a string of bright lights for one of my trees) and headed up front. When the cashier pulled at the small sticker, she asked where the other piece was and I told her I couldn't find it she took 50% off my baby. AHHH!!
So yeah, I scored. I had a pretty good day =D I left a few pieces behind, some teapots (I took pictures though, planning to make a little album of the left-behinds)some pieces that belong to the corning spice of life collection. I already had everything that I found, and several I found were overpriced. I found two antique malls to kill time in, but they wanted antique mall prices such as $10 per fire king cup, $45 per pyrex casserole, and $95 for a 3 piece primary mixing bowl set. I went back to a good will to find some pryex spice of life canisters that I left behind but alas...they were gone. They've found a good home somewhere though, so I can't be upset about that!
