This May Be Getting A Little Ridiculous

Ok, so you know that my thrifting has gotten a little bit out of hand when I spend the ENTIRE day Sunday unwrapping, peeling price stickers, washing, taking pictures, and putting things away.  But whats a girl who loves to shop to do?  It used to be $200 jeans and expensive handbags that made me swoon.  Now it's finding a cute little coffee cup at Goodwill and seeing that it has the half off color of tag that puts me on cloud 9.  Now I am going to have to start selling off those jeans and bags to pay for this thrifing addiction hobby.  What started off as a slow week only got better as the week wore on.  Bear with the long post, folks.  It's been a fun last couple of days.

We had about an hour between dropping our son off at his basketball game and the actual start of the game so I conned the husband into going to St. Vincents and Goodwill.  I headed off to housewares and he went over to the books with Miss Maddy.  As I was walking to the checkout, I noticed he was intrigued by these Hans Christian Andersen books.  I was a little taken aback my the fact that he was actually looking at a book.  Seriously, the only thing my husband reads is the DirecTV guide.  But he was convinced that these were worth more that the $7.00 they were asking for the set so we bought them with the hopes of someday turning a profit.  If not, they are really cute and in awesome condition so I wouldn't mind hanging on to them. 

The only other thing I found at St. Vincents was this cute little Fire King single serve casserole dish.  I couldn't find the lid for it but for $.99, it's perfect to put on Maddy's dresser to keep her little treasures in.



So I have a new method when it comes to thrifting.  Sister, I'm not sure if I have told you about this.  Picture what the item will look like in your home, not on the metal shelves of Goodwill.  I wasn't totally in love with these cute little Anchor Hocking tulip coffee mugs when I saw them in the store, but after thinking about how fun it would be to drink my afternoon coffee out of them, I was sold.  Once I got them home and put them with the rest of my mismatched but beloved mugs, I knew I had made the right choice.

It must have just been my day for coffee cups.  I also found these Pyrex mugs at Goodwill.  But I have another thrifiting rule that I have to follow otherwise I will thrift myself out of room in my house.  If I love the mug, I will only keep it if I have an uneven number of them.  Even number sets are so much more appealing to buyers.  But the only stipulation to this rule is that if there are only two mugs (like the Tulip mugs above) the rule doesn't apply.  (It's my blog.  I can change the rules to benefit me at my will).  Bummer, there were four of these.  Alas, they are destined for the sell pile.  Then it was off to the basketball game.  The Thurston Colts won 54-48.  My son had 20 points.  Way to go, Colts!

The kids didn't have school on Friday, so Miss Maddy and I went to our two favorite antique malls while we waited for Alex to get out of basketball practice.  I don't collect plates, but these were all between a quarter and 50 cents apiece in a booth that had everything under $10 50% off.  Awesome.  I think I have just started a new collection.

I have seen these penquin hot and cold servers on a few of the blogs that I read and had decided that I needed one.  Without even questioning it, I knew that the lady who has a booth at one of the antique malls would have it.  I LOVE HER STUFF!  She always has tons of Pyrex in pristing condition at unbelievably fair prices.  She isn't looking to make a ton money.  She just wants to share her love of vintage kitchen stuff with others.  Well, I wasn't dissapointed.  There was one sitting right on one of her shelves waiting for me.  This one has the Bakelite handles and was only $12.95.  I can't wait to use it.  I am pretty sure that it will be time for her to re-stock soon.  I can't ever visit her booth without buying something.

I knew it would drive me crazy trying to find that one last piece of pottery to fill my shelf.   I was losing sleep over it at night.  Ok, I may be exaggerating but not really.  I found the turquoise planter on the far left of the second shelf and it was a perfect fit.  Now I just need to find another shelf and let the vicious cycle begin again.

And of course we can't let a week go by without yet another Royal Chine Jeannette pie plate, this time in Pumpkin.  This was a gift from the hubs so I can't be held totally accountable for my hoarding of these plates.



On the way to the next store, we drove by a thrift shop that I don't normally frequent in a sketchy part of town.  Maybe it's the bars on the windows that turns me off but what kind of thrifter would I be if I drove right on by when there was a sign out front that said 50% off?  It was a red spray painted sign on a piece of plywood, but intriguing nonetheless.  Boy am I happy I stopped.  I got the 1.5 quart oval Pyrex casserole with matching opal lid in the Blue Snowflake for $5 and the 2.5 quart Butterfly Gold with matching opal lid for $7.  They are both in PERFECT condition.  I am starting to collect more of the Blue Snowflake and although the Butterfly Gold isn't a pattern I usually lean toward, it is HUGE and perfect for a roasted chicken.  Moral of this story is never judge a thrift store by the bars on the window.  They had some really great things and the little old lady who was running it was just about the sweetest thing I have ever met.  She was half my size and offered to carry my items to my car.  Priceless.

At the last stop of the day, I came across this.  I thought, "Oh cute, a wastebasket with a handle".  I was wrong.

It's an old vintage portable sewing tin.  The blue insert holds spindles of thread and the lid comes apart into two pieces to form an embroidery hoop.  Genious!  I am still going to use it as a wastebasket though.  Hows that for re-purposing, Sister?

Ok, so maybe I should never call someplace "my last stop" beacause you just never know what may happen.  On the way to pick up Alex, I stopped in at one last more place that I have only been into one other time.  I found this Fire-King server for $2.00.  My husband said its ugly and that I should sell it.  I like the idea of putting cheese and crackers on it and serving it along with some wine.  Or maybe I just like the wine idea.

I picked up this fired on turquoise bowl and was genuinly shocked that it wasn't Pyrex.  It looked and felt just like Pyrex to me but had no markings on it whatsoever.  A few shelves down, was an identical bowl in white.  This one had Hazel Atlas markings.  They are the perfect size for cereal bowls.  And at $1 for both, how crazy would I have to be to pass these up?  Leaving these beauties behind are the kind of things that give me nightmares.  I know.  I have issues.

After plying the hubs with a few drinks on Friday night, I was able to convince him that it would be a good idea to drive to the casino an hour away from our house on Saturday.  He could gamble, I could thrift.  I found quite a few Pyrex pieces but at the risk of this being the longest single thrifting blog post in history, I will be posting those finds on the Pyrex Collective 2 in the next couple of days.  Have a great week!