Thrifting While Camping

My husband and little miss took me off into the wilderness again and the same rule applied as last time: If I was going to camp I was also going to thrift. We hit every small town thrift, junk, and random we sell whatever we can find store. We drove off the highway and through small, former mining towns and came away with some great things. I did leave some stuff behind for the next hunter, but here is what made the cut.

The space saver lid and space saver were not found together. I found the lid first and was thrilled, then when I found the space saver the next day, well, I was over the moon.

The space saver has its own story. I found it in a junk store, on the bottom shelf of a bookcase behind a chair hiding in a corner; all I could see was the handle so I moved the chair and pulled it out. It was trashed but the little old lady behind the counter said, "A little vinegar will take that stain right off, honey." I was skeptical so when I got it home I soaked it overnight in oven cleaner. It didn't budge, so I tried BKF. Nothing. My husband made a vinegar compress and an hour later, voila! It wiped right off.

It's been a literal Pyrex desert for me here in the desert where I live so I was thrilled to find so many great things. Little miss was a big help on this trip. She spotted the Friendship 503. I walked right past it but she snatched it right up, It is flawless, notary a scratch or blemish. She also found the Gooseberry 501. She watched a man at a thrift pick it up, look at it, set it down, then she moved in and claimed it. I have a pro on my hands.

Happy hunting!

Jacquelyn

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?

Hitting the hot streak...

I have been collecting Pyrex for about a year now. I got my first piece a several years ago but only in 2013 did I start routinely going thrifting looking for pieces.

However in mid to late 2013 it became a lot harder to find Pyrex!!! I was in a lull, my local savers when it even had Pyrex was charging antique mall prices for pieces in worse condition that what I could get in an antique mall for that price!!! So I started shop hopping around multiple thrift shops once a week, I have a total of about 20 thrift stores on my radar and I go to at least 2 of them a week but sometimes all 20 depending on how busy I am and if I happen to be in various areas of Denver. An example is this week, I spent a half day thrifting early in the week in Aurora and went to about 5 shops, then Friday I had to pick up my son from his university for Spring break which took me to the other side of the city and in the vicinity of a whole lot of other thrift stores, so I checked out 7 that day.

I also go to antique malls now!! I emigrated to the USA from Australia last year and had never seen an antique mall until I came here, that is a revelation!! I love antiquing now, even if there is no Pyrex the malls are soooo fun to visit. But when I am antiquing I am on the hunt for cheaper pieces of Pyrex or pieces that complement a set I currently have.

So with all these efforts to find Pyrex I am finally hitting a hot streak!!! I get new pieces every week, it is great:

Antique Mall Finds

Antique mall buys March 2014

 I paid $24 for the rectangular baker because it is my first time ever seeing one, they seem hard to find here in Denver and $20 for the pink Daisy casserole and lid set to match a piece I already have and the black snowflake divided dish was $20 too but they are very scarce here in Denver. The remaining pieces were all around $10 to $12 or less which is definitely cheaper than what my local savers would charge!!

I love Autumn Harvest so pounced on these for about $5 each in the antique mall

I was pleased to find the alternate Town and Country in the antique mall and it was cheaper than the one I bought at savers recently!!!

I had never seen one of the tiny pink pieces or a pie plate!

My divided dish collection doubled that day!

I have the square baker in this color so was excited to get the matching rectangular one

 But I still find a lot of pieces thrifting and here are some of this weeks finds:

403 Butterprint $ 6 and 402 Butterfly Gold $3

The turquoise divided dish with lid was $3.24, the white with turquoise was $6 and all the others were between $3 and $6

But I am most excited about finding two pink mixing bowls (403, 402) for $11 this weekend!

I even got a pair of Verde Cindy bowls for $11 this week, I had never seen Verde and another piece of Autumn Harvest

So I have had many a happy dishwasher load lately:

I know it is not a popular idea putting Pyrex in the dishwasher but I do! Particularly once they are scrubbed with BKF to remove price tags, sticky residue etc, I run them through on a rinse cycle. I figure it is my collection I make the rules ;) Then I oil the display pieces and they aren't likely to get used again or go in the dishwasher again.

But I do use the dishwasher for my regular use Pyrex, but that is usually limited to non set oddball pieces that I will use until I die or the piece breaks.

Recent Finds…I've Had a Stroke of Luck

I've been busy thrifting and hitting yard/estate/garage sales. It's just starting to cool down here (as in, it was 86 the other day) so the sales are plentiful, people are cleaning out their stuff and heading to the donation centers, and oh yes, I went to my first flea market (who knew there is one way out in the country the first Sunday of each month? I sure didn't). After my last post in which I marveled at the recent inflated thrift store prices I have found I was relieved to enter back into the realm of reality.

If I had one Pyrex superpower I would say it is finding lids. Here's proof…I have five, yes five, extra 502 lids, most of which are the older version. One I even got for free. That was a good day. I actually ended up finding bottoms for the two 470 lids a few days later. I amassed these lids over two weeks. I have taken to calling myself the Lid Whisperer.

I'd had a drought at the thrifts and sales until last Saturday. First up was an estate sale where I picked up the Spring Blossom, Butterprint, and Daisy. It's not the best picture but clearly I was excited. Then, that afternoon we stopped into a Goodwill en route to my in-laws' house. Finding this Butterfly Gold 501 for $1 was pretty exciting, given how much Goodwill has been charging these days in my neck of the woods.

How about some embroidered tea towels for $1 each? Or the old school sifter (circa 1950s I think) for $3? Then there's the lime 221 and 22, for $7 each. Steep, but they jumped in my cart and came home with me. I was also thrilled to find this Golden Pine space saver, it's the first one I have ever seen. The leaf is still in good shape, especially on the lid.

Feeling lucky yesterday little miss and I hit the thrifts while my husband stayed home to knock out some projects. I'm not a huge fan of Autumn Harvest but he likes it so I brought them home. Yes, that's another lid, the free one I got from random empty-lot-turned-swap-meet; I asked how much, the proprietor asked what it was, I told him a Pyrex lid, he said take it. The pixies were a fun find as well. The lamp, well, I have a weakness for lamps, I got it at a yard sale that morning. But the apron, that was my favorite of this bunch. It was a whole $2.

And here's what I found at the flea market today. The little shakers are actually mini Ball mason jars and were used by salesmen back in the day to store product samples. The cutlery is a Girl Scout camping kit my daughter got for free from a very nice vendor who found out she is a Girl Scout when talking with her.  

Now, I still left a lot of Pyrex behind at the thrifts. Some was DWD, some too scratched, chipped, or abused. Some were patterns I don't collect and really don't need to haul into my house, so I thought I'd leave them for someone who really wants them. I feel like I've grown up as I used to just grab anything and now I have definitely exercised some restraint. I guess that is progress. 

Jacquelyn

things are picking up.

Things have finally been picking up at my local thrift stores... maybe it's some early spring cleaning?

My first purchases were two Snowflake Garland mixing bowls - #401 and #402 and a Pink Gooseberry casserole - #472. 

Next was a turquoise mixing bowl #403... this is actually my first solid colored mixing bowl, so that was pretty exciting.

My last find was my favorite - a Terra casserole #472, with lid!  Terra is one of my favorite patterns and a lidded casserole has been on the top of my want list for a while.  It was at the sketchiest consignment store ever.  They had just opened up in an old landscaping center and half the store was an old greenhouse.  The building had no heat and a skylight hole in the ceiling was covered with a thin sheet of plastic.  Oh and the cash register didn't work.  So glad my husband came along with me to that shop!

teela.

my so-called modern life

Pyrex Week!

First I found all these at an annual flea market, fridgies, delphite and town and country!

Then 2 horizon blue cinderella bowls on Kijiji and my offer for the butterprint bowls was accepted on eBay. Good week! Find out about all the sets I completed on my blog.