Just a Pretty Picture!

I'm not hunting in the wild as much as I was.  I posted my last finds here on my blog along with Pyrex I received in trades.  Trading is bringing me more of the things I want/need and at the same time I'm parting with pieces I'm not attached to.  I still have a mountain of Pyrex I need to trade/sell!  But I'll get there!!  Just wanted to share this picture I posted on my blog, I just can't help looking at my pretty Pyrex!

(Hopelessly addicted),

Evie

A Loss (Depreciation) and a Gain (Unplanned): Easter Surprises

It's Easter. I had hoped the Easter Bunny would bring me some Pyrex. In a weird way he did and he did not. This holiday weekend has me experiencing a Pyrex loss and a gain.

Let's start with the loss. It's not a total loss, so perhaps we should call it a depreciation.

I have a Musical Staff. Well, I should say my husband has a Musical Staff. I am not such a huge fan but I love space savers so yay, we both were happy. Then someone offered me a Friendship Penn Dutch for my Musical Staff. I talked it over with husband, pulled the Musical Staff down from the shelf and took some detailed pictures then put the piece back on the shelf, sent the pictures to my potential trade partner, and the trade was arranged. Yay! I pulled the Musical Staff back down and set it on the kitchen table, on top of a Martha Stewart Living, to pack the next day. The next day being Easter (today) we all sat down to eat some waffles and I idly glanced at the dish.

Looks pretty, right?

Then I took a closer look because something just seemed off. I pulled it closer to me and saw this:

Photo taken with a super fancy camera and lens

What the what? How did that chip get there????? It was not there the night before. Nor was it present in any of the detailed pictures I took. The dish was just sitting on the table all night, all by itself. Upon closer examination it looks like there is a small black stone in the chip. At first I thought it was paint but nope, it's a small stone. Then it all clicked. There has been a rash of broken pieces pictured in one of my Facebook groups, and all were traced back to a stone in the glass. The breaks were all clean or sheared, just like mine. Some breaks were on a larger scale than mine, but still, all because of a stone.

So that means I must now write about my gain. Well, we went to an estate sale the day before and I picked up a pretty trashed Verde 502. The lid was pristine and for $2 I was wiling to just get the lid. Husband was convinced he could clean up the dish. I was skeptical, it was pretty dirty and had some white stuff on it. We brought it home and he got to work. It came out like new.

Okay, so I don't like Verde so I told him I wanted to trade it, He said, well, don't you have a Verde 501? I said yes. Then I realized I had two Verde 501s, one of which was in the refrigerator holding diced onions. Then husband pointed out I have a Square Flowers bottom in my 503 stack, and wasn't that a special Verde 503 bottom that was sometimes used instead of the solid green 503? He put it all together and voila! instant set.

He was pretty happy, as you can see, so much so he took a selfie and posted it in a Facebook group. We agreed to keep the 502 and now I have a full set.

Jacquelyn

Itchy to Photograph the Goodness

I wanted to wait until the sun was shining but...  More vintage vignettes at www.gfpastorswife.blogsot.com

Stacey Johnson

Pyrex on the Brain!

Wow!  Pyrex is consuming my life lately, more than ever!  I wrote in my last post how I'm trying to downsize my collection and doing some trading to find those missing pieces.  Well, today I almost posted a piece for trade and then had second thoughts. It's not a spectacular piece, but it is special. Here it is.

This is JAJ's version of blue wheat, but instead of an 023 size, it's an 024.  I took this picture and thought "this really is a pretty dish".  And then my mind wandered to the fact that US patterned 024s are highly desirable and harder to get and here I have this JAJ version, it stacks nicely with US 024s--maybe I should keep it!  Whew!  I have decided to keep it and glad I didn't trade it!

I decided since I would write this post, I'd go out and snap a picture from my garden.

 

Hubby saw this yesterday and came in with 50 questions, he couldn't fathom why I would stick a piece of Pyrex out in the dirt in the garden!!!!  Well, it was slated for donation, one of the handles is half broken off and I have extras of these type lids.  I decided to make it an ornament in my vegetable garden.  Is that sacrilegious?

Lastly, I made a new banner for my blog yesterday.  I took this picture to use in it.  This is what I see every morning now when I walk into my kitchen!  Needless to say--I love it!!!

Here is a link to my blog if you want to see my new banner with the other elements I pieced together.  I can't keep myself from playing around with the photo software application!  You can click here for a looksie!

(Hopelessly addicted),

Evie

Golden Leaf Completed!

Feels like I haven't posted in a long time with all those weekly posts I was doing since last fall.  Like some of our other Pyrex bloggers here at the Collective, I have amassed quite a bit of Pyrex and have come to that point where I'm thinking about how much Pyrex I really want. I've made some decisions on what patterns I'll work to complete and which I'm giving up. In an effort to focus on getting what I NEED, I have been selling and trading as well as buying.  As I get things I need I'm also slowly reducing my inventory.  It's fun and a lot of work!!!

I've picked up a handful of things I can use from the thrifts.  A lot of lids!  I found a perfect space saver lid for 45 cents (I find one of these per month!), fridgie lids, very nice 045 and yesterday I found the lid for my Golden Leaf promotional!  I have to admit, I'm tired of looking through those lid bins and very happy I finally completed this set!

I can't wait until next week when a flood of Pyrex will be coming to my house.  I'm sure to have to post as I am so excited about all the goodies that are on the way!

Fridgieverse

I have no new acquisitions of note this week. The only item I have found is a Lime 231. So I thought I'd share some pictures of my fridges. I love refrigerator dishes, they are so functional and are easy to store. I have "working" and "display" fridges. I've also recently decided to get every 501 and 503 outside from the complete sets I am collecting, at least to the best of my abilities.

My "working" fridges. I will eventually move the Spring Blossom to the "extra" collection stack once I find another 503. In the meantime it is put to work. I'm sure there are a few hanging out in the actual refrigerator that are not pictured here; looking at this I know there is at least a Butterprint and Verde 501 being utilized.

This is my stack of "extra" or collection 501s and 503s. These are all duplicates or a set I am not completing, as is the case of the Verde and the Homestead. My goal is to have one of each color/pattern is these sizes. It might take me many years but that's alright. I also use these when I need fridges and all my everyday or "working' fridges are otherwise in use. I have a bunch of extra lids so they don't go topless should they become gainfully employed. 

My complete sets displayed out in the main living area. The Turquoise 503 is not in the best condition (but also not the worst) and it will do until I can find another. I actually found the entire Pink set in the wild at a flea market over the course of about a year.

Yes, that is a Friendship refrigerator set on my dresser. The dresser was my great great grandmother's; my husband restored it just before our little miss was born. Lighting in this room is terrible, my apologies for the not-so-great picture.

Of course my little miss has a set since she is collecting Gooseberry. These are in her bedroom on what we refer to as the dust collector, or a recessed shelf so high up no one can possibly be bothered to dust.

Happy hunting!

Jacquelyn

Spring Vignette

Come on over to www.gfpastorswife.blogspot.com and check out Spring!

Dot bowl finds!

I was so excited when I walked in to a shop and saw these on the shelf. Of course, I walked faster as I approached them! There they were. Waiting for me to...Check the price. My heart skipped a beat when I saw that the price was fair.

The set is incomplete because it is missing the blue bowl and the yellow has lost it shine. But the green 404 and the orange are in great shape with little signs of wear. I already have a complete set but seeing all the dot bowls together is Pyrex bliss lol.

I'm thinking about putting these in my Etsy shop but might be open to offers or trades. I have had some luck hitting sales check out my latest finds at cherrypickedfinds.blogspot.com

 

Posted with Blogsy

My Pledge

As my apartment began to burst at the seams with my rapid Pyrex collection expansion, I began to consider what would be my stopping point...
I decided on Sunday night to pledge to stop going Pyrex 'hunting' 


I get a lot of fun out of doing the rounds of the thrift shops but it is a costly, time consuming hobby! I almost never come home with just Pyrex!! So in future I will only buy Pyrex on special occasions and holidays. I think Pyrex for Christmas, birthdays, Mother's day is quite a logical gift to myself and when holidaying I enjoy hitting the antique malls that I pass along the way, so I am not ready to give that up just yet... if ever!!

Here is my collection thus far:

My turquoise, opal and Pyrex England (with Nordic Blue pieces that complement it), go in this china cabinet that I got on the weekend for $120:

The top of my kitchen cabinets is overstacked with  T & C, Autumn Harvest and FK Copper/Peach:

These next shelves are all in my living room:

And this piece I can't fit on any of the shelf units, I think I need to go to IKEA and buy and extra shelf for one of the units!

And remember I said I live in an apartment, it is 1400 sq ft and I am a quilter so one whole spare room is bursting with fabric and I have 9 sewing machines!!

So I have picked favorites; anything pink, anything turquoise, lime, Autumn Harvest, Town & Country, Spring Blossom, Verde, Early American, black snowflake. These will be my main sets that I occasionally buy pieces to complement, I am also constantly in search of Friendship. But I am no longer going to buy every print I don't have...



at least not until I have a house to put it all in. I drove past Savers yesterday on my way home from work and didn't feel the urge to stop, so lets see if this can last!?

How do you manage your collecting? Are you obsessive like me? Do you need to set yourself limits? Do the limits work?

Recent Finds

Earlier this week my husband and little miss made me go camping. I am not a camper but I agreed provided I could hit some thrifts along the way. I seriously had the iPad out and was googling places to stop as we drove. My husband was very amenable. I did pretty well in some of the small towns we passed through. I would have liked to have gone to more but snow, yes snow, was in the forecast and after one night in below freezing temperatures we all decided to go home. Here's what I did get, photographed at the campsite before I carefully packed it away for the trip home. I was thinking ahead and brought along some boxes and bubble wrap to keep them safe (and warm) in the back of the truck.

That's an unmarked Opal 401 (mold stamp number says 2, so it's an early one), Blue Stripes 403, and Pink 503 with the older lid. I was pretty happy! It's my second Pink 503 but I'm keeping it. The other one is for display, this is for my 503 stack, the size I use most for leftovers. I couldn't resist the Fire King Colonial Bands grease jar, even without the lid. It took what seemed like a metric ton of stops to get these four items, but they are all pretty minty so it was worth stumbling through the maps app. Not pictured is a JAJ Harvest casserole I found; I;m not yet sure what I am doing with it.

A couple days after our ill fated camping trip little miss and I did a thrift run. She spotted the below, which is wonderful since she collects the Pink Gooseberry in this house.

A trunk shot, I was that happy. This set is pretty minty which made me even happier. I cam home from purchasing these and traded away the set little miss already had for some new goodies for me.

This is the second week in a row I have stumbled on a Sunday yard sale and come away with some Pyrex. Recall Sunday is not a typical yard sale day here, so I am wondering if a new trend is starting.  I guess we'll see what happens next Sunday before I get too excited. Last Sunday yielded up some Butterprint fridges, this Sunday I came away with the below.

Yes dear readers, another car shot. I snapped this one while husband and little miss were checking out yet another yard sale we found, sadly one without Pyrex. Anyway, this find was a total fluke. In fact, there was more I left behind. I wasn't carrying more than a few dollars since I wasn't on the yard sale prowl, just out running errands. I had to use my emergency $20 to get this, and I got to keep my few dollars I already had. I bundled as much as I could into that $20!

So as you can see I did get some good stuff. Of course, since my mantra is "No fridgie left behind" I could not leave the 501s. I've already traded those. The two 403s I will keep. I had thought I would offload my Butterprint but I really like the size of the 403 when I am cooking. The Friendship is a no brainer and I needed it to start in on the mixing bowl set. The Snowflake Garland 475 is a double for me, I will try and trade or sell it when the holidays get closer and everyone wants snowflakes.

Husband and little miss waited in the car while I hit the sale and when I told him there was more and I didn't have enough money to get it all he tried to give me some cash. What a guy. I was okay leaving though, as what I left behind was nothing I really wanted/needed/wanted to hang on to for trade or sale. Hopefully another Pyrex lover found the sale. The funny thing about this yard sale is I was talking to the proprietor and she told me she used to have a lot of Pyrex. She kept some for herself, her kids took some, and now she was selling the remainder. I can only imagine what she kept and gave to her kids prior to the sale.

So, a pretty good week for me. Hopefully you all had some luck as well.

Jacquelyn