Why 'My Mink Betty'?

Why 'My Mink Betty'?
I'm not your common, everyday twenty-something year old and when I graduated from High School I got an equally uncommon gift. My parents found for me a beautiful 1940's mink stole at a garage sale. It had belonged to the woman's Great Aunt Betty who had married late in life to a man with money and had only allowed him to buy her this one luxury. The unusually styled stole has the name, Betty L. Jones, embroidered in the satin lining so that's what I call her. They never had children of their own and the mink was passed to Aunt Betty's niece and on to her daughter. Until it got to me, no one since Aunt Betty had worn it. Now Betty the mink and I go to the theater together on special occasions and I hope that someday I can take her to the Symphony or the Ballet. Although Betty hadn't been worn or loved for many years she was waiting for someone to love her again as are most other things I look for when thrifting.

Thursday, February 17, 2011

The Big And The Small Of It

Today I thought I'd show the largest thing I've ever thrifted, and the smallest.

The largest was found a few weeks ago at The Salvation Army during a 50% off sale. It was just under $30 - children not included. It's powder-coated tubular steel; very strong. A new one sells for over $200, so we were very happy to have it.

The smallest thing was found at the Goodwill Outlet, commonly referred to as "the Bins." The Bins is a giant store where they send all the "clearance" items. When the store shelves get too full, they send a bunch of stuff to The Bins, and it gets sold by the pound. It's all dumped into these giant bins, kind of like tables with short sides, on wheels. Customers dig through the bins, looking for bargains. Things get tossed about, and if there are board games, parts get dumped, so I like to look in the bottom of the bins for tiny items.

Here are some of the tiny things I've found. There's a purple wooden mouse, a wooden Professor Plum token, a Barbie telephone, a tiny die, a figure of "Jacque" from Cinderella, a bingo number, a Monopoly top hat, a Clue revolver, some magnetic checkers, a chess piece, a metal figure of the Virgin Mary and a teeny dog. Some of them will be used for altered art, some for dollhouses, some as replacement parts for board games; who knows. Everything in the picture cost about 10c. I also found an entire set of vintage scrabble tiles (with very smooth edges) to make into charms.

Lately I've been ignoring a particular Goodwill in our area, so yesterday I decided to go in and have a look around. And what did I find but lovely Pyrex?! I saw this Desert Dawn oblong baking dish and was immediately interested, so I called my mother to ask if we wanted it. I love oblong bakers, even if we already own two. They have so many possible uses: holding cards, carrying things, making peppermint bark, etc.


This baking dish is a size 232, 2qt. It's smaller than the 3 qt oblong pans that I own in the Daisy and Butterfly Gold patterns. Desert Dawn oblong bakers came in size 231 (1.5 qt) and size 232 (2 qt). I don't know how they compare to one another lookswise but I'd guess that the 231 is probably about the size of a space saver but just as shallow as the 232.

While on the phone with Mom, I spotted this:

An aqua snowflake patterned space saver just like one we saw at an antique store recently for $18.00. My mother loves space savers and aqua Pyrex and was drooling over the one at the antique store. As I picked it up, the conversation went something like this:

Me: I found something but I can't tell you what it is.
Mom: Okay but I'm not sure we need it.
Me: How can you say that? It's Pyrex.
Mom: Unless it's aqua we don't need it.
Me: Only aqua you say? Interesting. What about pink?
Mom: Okay. Aqua or pink.
Me: What about patterns like Daisy?
Mom: I'm really only looking for a space saver.
Me: Okay, Mom. I won't bring anything home unless it's aqua or pink or matches any of our patterns or I really, really like it.
Mom: Wait a minute...
Me: I have to go. Bye!

Needless to say, when I brought it home, she was thrilled, though she'd kind of already guessed it was aqua.

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7 comments:

  1. Love all your tiny finds. The cute little random pieces are sweet together. Oh the Aqua snowflake is wonderful. I want a space saver now! Thanks for joining JFF this week! Hugs, Linda

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  2. LOVE the old seesaw! They just don't make playground equipment like that anymore!
    And i've never seen a Pyrex oblong baker before- looks very useful!

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  3. Your conversation with your mom kills me! That's exactly the type I have with my husband. Lol. Wonderful finds.

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  4. I love the aqua space saver! The see saw is great - what a fabulous find!

    ~ Tracy

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  5. Loving that pyrex--and this week I found a vintage pyrex with blueberries on it. Your posting was sweet--thank you for sharing.

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  6. Haha, you are totally lovingly cruel with your mom, but that is so hilarious!

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  7. Great finds - love your Pyrex - and the Clearance store "the Bins" sounds like a interesting place to visit.

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