Deja Vu All Over Again

Hi PC3, SusieQT here from Practice in Time!

Several years ago, when I first began collecting Pyrex I had a recurring dream: I was at a sale in a dingy, old, stone basement with junk piled all about. I was digging through what amounted to trash, and found one lone piece of Pyrex- a black snowflake space saver. Of course I grabbed it and promptly woke up. I became obsessed with owning that piece and eventually caved and bought it on ebay. That was about four years ago.

Fast forward to this weekend and I found myself at a sale in a dingy old stone barn with junk piled all about. It was almost exactly like the dream I had. Now, it wasn't really trash, but what some might call rustiques: old furniture, farm equipment, canning jars, pots and pans, all covered with a layer of dirt and mildew. And one lone piece of Pyrex: 

OK, it's not a space saver, but a charcoal snowflake open baker. Maybe even better, because in my experience these are a bit harder to find. And I have been wanting one for a lone time!

So I guess dreams literally do come true sometimes!

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.

Birthday Thrift Crawl 2014!

Hello PC3, SusieQT here from Practice in Time!

Every year for my birthday, I take an entire Saturday and do a thrift crawl- I try to visit as many thrift stores as I can over the course of a whole day. These are the stores that are a bit farther away, that I don't usually have time to get to during the week. This year's big event actually fell on my birthday this year, March 1st! I got to 6 stores over about 40 miles in 4 hours.

Of course, I am looking for Pyrex first and foremost. The Butterprint 401 and the unmarked green 403 are duplicates for me, so they went over to the booth. I have been looking for this green for a long time, because it enabled me to complete an unmarked primary set for the booth- I have had no luck selling them separately so will try it this way. It's in great condition- amazing for being close to 70 years old!

I found the square flowers 473 at my first stop- and it was a gold mine for Pyrex! Also at that same store I found an unmarked opal 403, and a pixie. This is the second birthday thrift crawl in a row where I found pixies, and I have never found them any other time, go figure. 

I also found this sad excuse for a pink stripe 401

...but it was only 99 cents so I couldn't leave it there. And I don't know about you, but I have never seen pink stripes in person, so yeah, I'll bring it home and love it. But look what I found the next week (last week, at a different store)- mommy stripe! And this one is near perfect! Who knew? Pink stripes in the wild!

I also found this Golden Wreath 043 promo last week. It's in near mint condition except for a chip at the bottom- probably happened in the donation bin, I can only assume. I have run out of room for 043s, so I am going to list it in my Etsy store. It's nice and shiny- just hard to show in photos. Check it out!

And since you all are great Pyrex friends, I am offering a discount coupon of 20% (good on anything, not just Pyrex)- enter coupon code PIT20OFF at checkout.

 Cheers! 

A little catch-up

Hi PC3, SusieQT here from Practice in Time!

I haven't had a lot of time to post here, but I'm still on the hunt! I've had some pretty good luck in spots and some terrible luck in others. (Like today- drove 35 miles and came home empty-handed...) But, you win some, you lose some, and you'll never win if you don't play the game!

I got very lucky in the Pyrex/vintage glass department, and that always makes everything better! I found this charcoal snowflake divided dish with lid- it's my first piece of black snowflake found ITW. The only other piece I have is a space saver I bought on ebay. It's in mint condition and I love it!

Can you believe I found a piece of Fry glass at the pound store? Yep, a Fry oven glass pie plate with a 1915 date stamp for about 50 cents! I think it was $0.89/lb, LOL. I have enough pie plates right now (even tho this is sooo pretty) and no oven to bake them in, so this one will be for sale I think.

I also found these Hazel Atlas pretties in the discount room of a different thrift- 25 cents each! Two dinner plates and two cereal bowls. I have mixed these in with my Pyrex turquoise band dinnerware and they look amazing!

I found this Spring Blossom 2 473 the other day. I am not a big fan of the original SB, but the redesign is really growing on me. I like the small flowers! I might hold on to this one for a while to use in my spring display; I don't have a lot of green except for lime. The little chalkware duck was so cute, I picked him up for 50 cents.

I found another space saver! This is actually my second Golden Pine SS found in the wild. It's in much better condition than the first one, so I will be holding onto this one and selling the first. I love this design- it's a combo of atomic and nature, so it speaks to me. ;)

I counted up all the space savers I have found ITW and believe it or not, I've found 7, including a starburst and a rooster (with lid and cradle). I don't think I'm any more lucky than anyone else, just persistent, so they are out there, keep looking!

The Drought is Over (for one day at least!)

Hello PC3, SusieQT here from Practice in Time!

First off, I have to say that I have been getting a little bit worried about the state of thrifting in general. Whether you're out to resell or just to find cool things for yourself, it wasn't looking so hot. I think I walked out of more stores empty-handed than with a purchase, and that used to never happen! It seemed like the pickings were slim since November, especially for Pyrex.

Well, I am happy to say that it seems like my luck has changed, at least for today! And it's funny, too, because I feel like crap today and haven't been out all week, but talked myself into going this afternoon just to get out of the house...

I finally found some Pyrex! The Golden Acorn DD is a duplicate for me, but it was in mint condition and had the lid, so I picked it up for $6. 

The Butterprint 401 is something I sorely needed to work on my 400 series set, and was only $2! I have all the 440s and 400s now except the elusive 404. I have been trying to keep away from buying online too, because of all the horror stories of stuff breaking lately. So far I've had great luck, but I don't want to push it, plus it's more fun to find it in the wild.

And the clear 502 fridgie in the middle is one of the early ones, only made from 1950-52. How do I know? Well, besides coming with an old-style lid, it has the sunshine stamp on the bottom. They only made clear 501s and 502s during those years, and when the clear ones were re-introduced in the 80s they would have had a microwave stamp.

I found a few other goodies today too, pop on over to my blog to check them out! 

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! 

My entire collection!

Hi PC3, SusieQT here from Practice in Time.

I was challenged by a blog reader to show my entire collection of Pyrex. So this morning I dragged it all out and photographed it. Come and see!

Oh yeah, there's a lot more: http://practiceintime.blogspot.com/

The Spotting O' the Green

Hi all, SusieQT here from Practice in Time!

Well, pickings have been slim around here in the Pyrex Dept. It's been a couple weeks since I found anything worth writing about. But with Spring around the corner, people must be doing some spring cleaning, and I actually have something worth writing about today!

I am thrilled to have finally found my first piece of lime- a round cake pan. I know these aren't that uncommon, but I have never seen any! As a matter of fact, I haven't seen any solid color bakewear at all recently, and I would love to have a pie plate and square baker to go with it.

It's in absolutely mint condition- appears never to have been used. Quite a miracle, since Pyrex only made lime from 1952 to 1956. The best part was that for St. Patty's Day anything green in the store was 25% off, so I got this for $2.25!

I left behind a 402 Square Flowers bowl and a green 403 mixing bowl that I think this goes with the Square Flowers set, but it has no pattern. They weren't in the best of condition, and I'm trying to leave stuff like that for someone else! I also left two Homestead mixing bowls in mint condition, since I am not too fond of that pattern. That qualifies as the most Pyrex I have seen in one thrift store in a long time.

How has the Pyrex picking been in your neck of the woods?

Pop on over to my blog to hear about the green mug and the rest of my finds!

My first eBay purchase

Hello PC3, SusieQT here from Practice in Time.

I must really be into this Pyrex thing, because I just did something I swore I would never do: buy Pyrex on eBay! I even said it in this very space- "I prefer the thrill of the hunt, and I would never buy Pyrex online!"



Ouch. It hurts when words come back to bite you.




But in my defense, it was pink, and it was a good deal. Did I mention it was pink?

$9.99 plus shipping. 

And I have to say that the seller did a phenomenal job with the packing. I was really worried, seeing some of the eBay horror stories, about the condition it might arrive in. But I think I got my money's worth in bubble wrap alone (I will be re-using it; that stuff is expensive!), not to mention a beautiful pink 503.

So what brought about the change of heart?

Well, seeing some of the alternative sets some of you guys have put together inspired me. I had this idea to make an alternative set of 503s, and just needed the pink one to finish it:

I do love these colors together. 

And it proves that Primary (the yellow 503) can coexist with my pink, turquoise and black. 

See, it's all about rationalization!

Hyperventilating in the Thrift Store

Hi all, SusieQT here from Practice in Time. Normally I am not the type to get outwardly excited about anything, especially shopping. Calm, cool, and collected, that's me. But today I had one of those experiences in the thrift store that got me all sweaty, weak and shaky.

What could have done that to me?

Oh yeah.....a yellow New Dot on the thrift store shelf.

Good thing I was already down on my knees digging through the lowest shelf, because I got so shaky I might have fallen over. It seemed like slow motion as I reached over and grabbed it. And of course from that moment on I never let it go. I think I had a hand cramp from holding on to it.

As I carried it up to the register and I passed a lady carrying the Old Towne butter dish I had debated buying and put down (too expensive at $9.50). I imagined her jealous looks as I paid my $4 for my new prize. (Don't ask me about the crazy thrift store pricing; I'm not arguing one bit!)

So it made it home safe and sound, just needed a little BKF and magic eraser to clean up the scratches. It came out beautifully and now I just have to find a place of honor for it!