Pyrex in the Wild

Hello PC3, SusieQT here from Practice in Time!

I don't know about you, but I have been a bit dumbfounded watching some recent ebay auctions for Pyrex. Even things that are not really rare (hello, Pink Stripe 403) have been going through the roof. So with that in mind, I have decided to keep my Pyrex hunt on the ground, so to speak, and only buy things in the wild. To me, that means thrift or yard sales- I suppose antique stores would count, but I am trying to get things cheap so that mostly leaves them out.

Like most of you, things are hit and miss. I do find good stuff in the thrift stores, but a lot of times I come up empty. I go a lot, though, so I'm bound to find something one in a while. Usually I hit up 5-10 stores a week, some multiple times, but I probably only average about one piece a week. Then there's church sales and yard sales, which are also usually feast or famine- mostly there is none, but occasionally you hit the mother lode and can buy multiple pieces.

Since it's been a while since my last post, here are some of my recent ITW finds:

I found this delphite 401 and 402 at a thrift store. I actually overlooked them the first time I walked  by the shelf- probably because I was looking for patterns on white, not blue! And they were really priced reasonably; my guess is the thrift didn't know they were Pyrex because of the color. These are actually duplicates for me- of course, I bought mine online a while back thinking I would never find them ITW! The woodland butter dish goes into my collection of butter dishes- I only need the Autumn Harvest, Snowflake Garland and the elusive Sandalwood to complete them.

I picked up this Butterfly Gold 922 just this past weekend at a yard sale. I love to haggle, but I didn't even bother with this one- 75 cents was cheap enough!

These are a (very good) week's worth of picks- the Spring Blossom casseroles (475, 474, 473) were all found as a set. The Square Flowers divided dish was found at another thrift- not my favorite pattern, but the price was right and it had a lid. I almost dropped this piece in the store- somehow I caught it with my left hand at the last minute. Gah- heart attack! The cinnamon mugs are my favorite color and match my Autumn Harvest, so they will get a lot of use.

Spring Blossom just seems to be following me home lately. I have a 'no fridgie left behind' policy, as long as they are in good shape and have lids- so these joined my collection. I guess I am now trying to get all the fridge sets... ;)

I have seen the Ponderosa mugs, but have never seen plates before. Now I have two- I got these at a yard sale; the lady said her sister had worked at Ponderosa and brought them home. The turquoise hostess ramekin was a big surprise one day at a thrift store- I looked in vain for the chip bowl and bracket but it wasn't there. I have this set already; once again it is not something I ever thought I'd find ITW.

I am most happy about these two! I have never seen a pie plate and I have been looking for years. I know they're not terribly hard to find, but for some reason they had been eluding me. This flamingo one is mint and I found it in the same thrift as the Heinz promo, and also found four Fire King Blue Heaven Cinderella bowls. That was a great day! I totally stalked a lady that had picked up the Heinz and carried it around all the while she was yapping on her phone. Finally she set it down again and walked away and it was mine. I have almost bought this piece online on several occasions. 

So that's about it for my recent in the wild Pyrex! It goes to show that there are good things out there, you just have to be persistent and frequent at the thrifts, I guess.

Pyrex Vacation!

Hi PC3, SusieQT here from Practice in Time!

We recently spent a week and a half at our cabin upstate. One rainy day up there, I cleaned out a lot of the stuff we don't use and took it to a thrift shop in the local town. I dropped off four big trash bags full of stuff! And the bonus was I got to shop at the store too, and this is one little shop that hasn't yet succumbed to the high prices of the big chains. Nothing in the store was more than $2!

You can bet I was super excited to find Pyrex on my vacation- I was going through withdrawal at this point, and these were just what I needed! The snowflake divided dish (with lid!) was $2, the flamingo plate was 25 cents and the turquoise vegetable bowl was $2 at a flea market (more on that later!). I already have the snowflake DD, so this one will be for sale. I'm trying to resist collecting the Pyrex dinnerware, so will have to let the plate and bowl go too (eventually!)

I got a bunch more stuff too, so come on over to my blog and check it out! 

Keen for the Green

The last post got me thinking about what green Pyrex I own... I didn't think I had anything except the green fridge dish, but then I remembered I got these little gems a few months back. 

In case you've never seen an 080 in person... they are tiny, yet absolutely perfect for holding spools of thread and for baking individual 8 oz berry crumble. The fact that they come in super fun colors like lime green and flamingo pink makes them even more delightful.

I found them at the same antique store in Virginia where I scored the cereal bowls on sale. I had already buzzed through the store once, and I decided to make another pass going in the opposite direction. Lo and behold, little pinkie and the lovely lime green casseroles were staring at me. I searched all over the booth, but only found one lid to match them. 

More often than not, I discover all kinds of goodies on that second round through a store. (I'm also convinced that some sellers purposely 'hide' their Pyrex because they don't actually want to part with it...!) Regardless, I'm glad I had time to walk through the store again -- otherwise someone else may have nabbed these little cuties.

How often have you found hidden Pyrex lurking in a corner? And more importantly, isn't it more thrilling when the very thing you're looking for is waiting for you to take it home to add to your collection?

May your Saint Patrick's Day bring you lots of luck searching for Pyrex!

Brenda
 

Flamingo Pink and Butterprint, all in one thrift store!

Hi PC3, SusieQT here from Practice in Time!

Today is a beautiful day here in the Northeast, and after dropping off my daughter at preschool this afternoon, it seemed a shame to head right home. So I thought I'd do a little thrifting- I was hoping to cash in on some after-Christmas clearances at my favorite store close to home.

Well, I had some good luck there with holiday stuff last week, but I guess by this week it was all gone or all packed up for next year. I poked around the nicknacks a bit and then headed back to the housewares. The shelves were pretty crowded but I spotted some pink under it all. A flamingo lasagna pan!

I was pretty excited about this because 1) I collect pink Pyrex (who doesn't?), 2) I have never found a colored pan this size, and 3) I use my clear Pyrex lasagna pans all the time. Woohoo!

So, the trip was already a success.

Then I headed back to the section where they keep the nicer antiques- and don't you hate when a thrift store has a separate section for "antiques"? I have seen some Pyrex there before and it was all overpriced and crappy. Not good.

But today was a good day- three Butterprint fridgies! Two of the large 503s (only one with lid) and one 502 with lid. I scooped them all up and headed to the register. (Even though I already had a 503 at home- these are absolutely mint, and my other one is not.) Once I got them home and washed, they are beautiful- now I only need one more 501 to complete the set.

I also found a state glass for 50 cents. It was a great day- so glad I went! And the total for all was $22.00- not too bad for these pieces I think.

New Kitchen Cabinet Display

One of the things I love best about collecting kitchen items is displaying them in my glass-fronted cabinets. When we bought this house, having cabinets like these was on my wish list. (It definitely wouldn't have been a deal-breaker for sure, but it helped when we looked at this house!)

So it was a perfect place to display some of my collections. For a while I collected printed glassware (another post on that coming soon), and I inherited some really neat red and yellow pottery, which went with my kitchen's yellow, green and red color scheme. Those made a nice display for a while. But lately I've been collecting Pyrex, FireKing and jadeite, and decided to re-organize my displays to better reflect that.

That meant moving things around and re-thinking what I reallly wanted to look at for a while. It took me the better part of a rainy afternoon last week to finally settle on a layout, so to document that, I thought I'd show you all.

Here's the before:

Not too bad, really, but not as organized as I would like. Some of these things have been in the same spot for ten years! Also the clear glassware at the top right kind of disappears. (It's really neat close-up, with etched stars, but would be better put away somewhere else.) You can see the printed glassware all jumbled in the lower right. I figured, since you can't really make it all out, maybe it's best if I put most of it away and only get out only one set at a time.

Here's the finished display, and close ups to follow:

I tried to organize it by color a little bit, with the red and yellow pottery near the yellow and green Fiesta. Then the jadeite and Peach Blossom FireKing (which is a match made in heaven, I think), then the Pyrex on the right.

The Fiestaware is not old (mostly), and our regular everyday dishes, so they have to be easily accessible.

This is probably my favorite one, with the FireKing and jadeite. The printed glasses in the carrier are the only ones to make the cut right now. You can see some of the Pyrex holiday mugs sneaking into the picture there- guess they wanted a bit of face time in the FireKing cabinet, LOL!

The Pyrex cabinet. I am trying really hard to limit myself to just the primary colors set  (I'm using the yellow 404 at the moment, so it's not pictured) and turquoise Butterprint, plus pink and promotional designs. The lone FireKing wheat casserole in the lower right belonged to my dad, so it still gets a place of honor.

Right now, I'm pretty happy with it and it is a nice change of scenery!

Finally, a pink casserole!

Hi all, SusieQT here from Practice in Time!

I can't believe, after however many years of collecting Pyrex and never finding any pink, that I have found two pieces in two weeks.

You may recall my previous post here about finding a pink fridgie, and now I have a Flamingo casserole to go with it!

Last Saturday, our town had its community-wide yard sale (love those!). At the first place I stopped at, I spied this beauty in mint condition. For $1. You can bet that I carried it around with me the rest of the day!

I love these casseroles (is there a 'correct' name for them? I'm drawing a blank...) They are a perfect size for many recipes. I have a clear one that I use just about all the time (and the beauty of that one is that it can go in the dishwasher :). I've been on the lookout for another in any color or pattern, but never even let myself think I might find a pink one. I'm thrilled!

I also found this Old Town covered margarine dish the other day at a thrift store for $1. I don't collect this pattern, but my grandmother had the matching Corelle dishes, so it has some sentimental attachment. I found a use for it right away; while we don't use margarine in our house, I do use a lot of cream cheese in a brick. It's a perfect size to keep that partial brick of cream cheese once the wrapper is opened. Much classier than a zip-top bag, right?