Goodwill Finds

The weather around here has pretty much settled into cloudy, with the probability of rain, daily. This will go on for at least six months, only to be occasionally interrupted for ice and snow. For a thrifter, that brings good news and bad news. The bad news is, there are few garage sales and you will get wet. The good news is, the only people brave enough to have a sale in this weather are probably liquidating an estate or selling everything for a move. That means they have my kind of stuff, and they really want to sell it. Fewer garage sales also means more things are showing up in the thrift stores, and it pays to check in more often.

I was able to find some nice bargains this week. We found an estate sale with a some 10c Tupperware. It was pretty grungy, so I'll spare you the photos, but after soaking overnight and a good scrubbing, it looked just fine.

But I will show you this Tupperware I found at Goodwill:

Deviled egg tray inserts for my cold cuts keeper for $1. I've been looking for them since I found the keeper in August.

A small parts cabinet full of goodies-$2. Mom brought this home for Dad, but he emptied all the little parts (hinges, screws, brass bits, etc) into one of his other cabinets and gave this to me for jewelry and craft supplies. I think I'll be painting it a brighter color next Spring. She also brought me a giant box full of scrapbooking supplies. She said they practically paid her to take it away.

Mom also made a trip to the Goodwill Outlet Store. This is where they send all the stuff that hasn't sold at the regular stores. Sometimes Goodwill's pricing system makes no sense to me.

These Currier & Ives pots were originally marked $6.99 each. That would be $28 for the whole set! They are very pretty, made in Japan, and look brand new, but really? I think $6.99 for the whole set would have been more reasonable. But they ended up at the outlet for $39c/lb, and Mom is very happy to have them for $1.11. She's thinking about an indoor herb garden.

This golf push cart will be fitted with a garbage can and used to haul gardening tools around the yard - $5, more than she wanted to pay, but she's been looking for a while, and she was feeling generous after finding this:

Maple child's table and chairs - $15.00

And everywhere we looked we found...

Pyrex!!
Some are from estate sales, some are from Goodwill. I believe the dark brown bss lid is Old Orchard, but I like it with the Woodland. The yellow bowl is a small hostess bowl I was very surprised to find at Goodwill for $3, and I really like the bright orange Daisy round casserole. It's holding the leftover Halloween candy now. We paid $17.00 for everything in the picture.

And my favorite this week:

My Letter Jacket, Laura.
There are a few holes in the ribbing, but they should be easy to repair. Since the sleeves are wool and not leather, it was actually affordable, at $14.60. I've been looking for a letter jacket at Goodwill for a while but haven't seen any. Now I know why. The tag says it came in last March. They've been saving it for Halloween. I guess next year I'll have to check all the GW stores when they first put out the Halloween stuff. I'd still like to have one with leather sleeves. What's your favorite find this week?

I'm linking up with
Thrift Share Monday
Thrifty Thursday



Junkin' Finds

Nifty Thrifty Tuesdays



Click the links for more thrifty finds.

Jim the Pyrex Man and the great Pyrex-palooza

Everyone has connections. Some people have a computer guy, some people have a car guy, when I was working at Disney World I had a free ice cream guy. Yesterday my mother and I met our Pyrex guy.

I was doing the requisite weekend searches for estate sales (on craigslist) and trying to pick one or two to hit up. A little bit frustrated with the lack of early postings close to my home, I decided to just search "Pyrex" as a keyword in all for sale.

It turned up a hit for a man listing lots of bottles, jars, pans, and TONS of Pyrex. He even had prices listed and they were GOOD. He didn't seem to know patterns but at least two things were pink. I just had to see his stuff!

I called the phone number he had provided but had to try a few hours later to get hold of him. When I got him on the phone he gave me the directions to his house and Mom and I were off - another trip over the river and through the big city (to Pyrex Jim's house we go).

When we got there he had his garage literally stacked floor to ceiling with boxes and boxes, mostly of canning jars. Right after we got there, he started to pull out the Pyrex (which he had stashed all over) and he had beautiful pieces. Most of them were patterns that I recognize because they're fairly usual but he had some pieces I had never seen before.

He told us that he goes to Estate Sales (only if they have pictures online so he knows what is there) and just buys all the Pyrex they have for about $1-$2 each and then sells it on craigslist for not much more.

Here are the things we bought from Pyrex Jim for a total of $24.00


1.5 QT White Daisy on Pink oval casserole, no lid.
2 QT Verde oval casserole, patterned lid.
1 QT Gooseberry Pink Bake-Serve-Store, clear lid.
1.5 QT Friendship (promotional?) divided serving dish, clear lid.
1.5 QT Promotional Yellow with Gold leaf Floral pattern, clear lid.
1.5 PT Delphite Blue glass with Gold Leaf Grapes Cinderella handled bowl.


The yellow oval casserole is a pattern not available at Pyrex Love and I'm dying to know what it's called. If someone can tell me, there may be a Pyrex themed prize in it for you!!


This lovely blue bowl, after some research, has been deemed a chip and dip bowl. Or half of a set anyway. What kills me about it is that Pyrex Jim told us that he'd had the 4 QT in that pattern and a woman had bought only the big bowl from him about two months ago. I don't get why she would have bought one without the other. And chip and dip sets aren't common, so I doubt that I'll ever find the big bowl for this one.

Pyrex Jim assured us that the red divided dish was just a primary color serving dish, but we were pretty sure it was the elusive friendship pattern, missing the decorative lid. Even without the lid we were very pleased to have it.

Pyrex Jim also said that if we just emailed him with a list of lid sizes we were missing (numbers and dimensions) he would hold them for us when he found them! We're also welcome back any time (as long as we call ahead) to check out his Pyrex finds.

After we left Pyrex Jim's we debated about stopping at a Goodwill that we don't often get to. We had gotten a pretty good Pyrex fix and were thinking that Goodwill prices were never going to seem good enough again. But we stopped anyway and look what we found.


My pattern - Spring Blossom!
4 QT Spring Blossom Cinderella bowl
Spring Blossom loaf pan
2.5 QT Friendship oval casserole, clear patterned lid. (there's some wear on the lid but it's the first piece of friendship pattern I've ever seen at goodwill!)

The large Spring Blossom bowl, by some act of God, was only $1.99 (usual Goodwill price would be $6.99) while the loaf pan was $3.99 (but obviously we paid that anyway). My mother was especially happy to find a piece of Friendship pattern with it's matching lid. The lid even fits on the Friendship divided dish that we bought from Pyrex Jim! (Well, it slides a bit - apparently the divided dish is just a bit different in shape, but almost a perfect fit.) How awesome is that?


And to think that we almost didn't stop!

Today, after getting all that Pyrex yesterday, I wasn't even looking for Pyrex when I went out to estate sales. I was finding great sales but not much that I couldn't live without. And then, at the third sale of the day, I saw them. They were just beckoning to me from the table in amongst the Tupperware.

The sale I was at was a late starter at around noon and I pulled in at 12:02. I got out of the car and as I walked toward the sale I headed for Tupperware (always looking for deviled egg plate inserts). There on the edge of the table was the Pyrex.


Daisy pattern: Lasagna pan, brownie pan, loaf pan, 1.5 QT oval, and a small round patterned lid (the matching bake-serve-store in the photo I actually got at Goodwill on Wednesday)
Spring Blossom pattern: 1.5 QT oval casserole with patterned lid.
Verde pattern: 2 QT round casserole (lid borrowed for photo purposes).
(the Butterfly Gold fridgie I got at a later sale for 10 cents!)

I immediately just grabbed all the Pyrex in sight and set it on a table in the garage (next to a large assortment of Pyrex mugs in Butterfly Gold and Autumn Harvest) while I called my mother on the phone to make sure she wanted it. Eventually, after she didn't answer for about ten minutes, I just bought them all anyway. Most of the items were $1-$2.


Do you ever have those times when you just can't stop finding the best stuff? And of course you're afraid that if you stop looking, you'll miss the most amazing thing of all? I'm still out there searching for a lid to the margarine tub. What is it that you've been looking for forever that you feel you're bound to find some day?

Don't forget!! If you can find out the name or more information (year, etc) on the yellow oval casserole with the gold leaf floral design on it, there might be a special Pyrex prize in it for you!! If you want another picture of that dish alone just ask and I'll take one!

I am thinking this post to:

The Garage Salen Party @ Debbiedoos
Thrifty Tuesdays @ Coastal Charm

"A Very Thrifty Picnic" and "Cooking With Vixen"

Tomorrow, July 31st, there is a huge "all church, all county" picnic in my area and a few of my friends and I are going together.

Before we could have our picnic I needed to acquire things like plates, silverware, cloth napkins, and other picnic essentials. Not being made of money AND being into everything vintage, I have been picking things up over the last week and I managed to get everything I needed and more.

No single item in this picture cost me more than $7 and much of it I already owned.


The silverware I got at the estate sale where we found A Bag Of Used Soap. It was $6.00 and all pieces are in what my mother calls the "twinkle star" pattern from various companies but much is Oneida. The drink cooler (named Wallace) is from the same sale and cost me $3.00. The Federal glass salt and pepper (pictured later) cost $1.00 for the pair.


The silverware caddy came from Goodwill for $3.00 And all the pyrex is from Goodwill as well. The most expensive item is the 4 qt Red Cinderella bowl for $7.00


The red and white checked tablecloth (above) I bought at Fred Meyer's on clearance at the end of May for around $2.00 and it's been waiting for a sunny day ever since.
The quilt (under the mixing bowls) I found at a garage sale for $1.00. The underside is red and white mattress ticking while the top has some great feedsack prints.
The plates I found in a garage sale's free pile.

I think they were once someone's fine wedding china but they were too chippy for their purposes; perfect for mine!

Also not pictured are some cloth napkins, a couple of white melmac plates, and a pair of gemco ketchup and mustard pump bottles (they look like hand soap bottles!) that I found today.

And I'm going to be using our new Town and Country Radio Flyer Wagon (it's supposed to be someone's birthday present but not 'til we fix it up) to cart a lot of these things, along with coolers full of food, from the car to the picnic site. We got it at Goodwill a couple of days ago for only $12.99. It needs some work, but it was a great steal (new it costs $114.00 on Amazon).


Today I made a wonderful new friend, Vixen, the reindeer apron. Here we are when we first met!


It's like we were made for each other! I just had to have her (I love aprons) and at $0.50 how could I refuse? She was just begging me to take her home! I went back today to the same sale at which I saw the Bag of Used Soap and found her along with a few other fun things. She and I had great fun baking today even though she tried to eat everything (it was right at mouth level and all).

As I am "the one who bakes" among my friends, my contributions in the way of edible things for tomorrow are pumpkin bread (which I baked in the butterfly gold pyrex that I scored for $3.00 today) and raspberry pie!



Vixen and I attempted to make Chocolate Chip cookies from a years-old mix but they didn't quite turn out.


My mother (being sweet) says that they look like Pralines while my father (like a ten year old boy) says that they look like fake barf puddles. Vixen was pleased that they turned out so flat because that way she gets to eat them even if she does have to fight my dad for them.

In all, my picnic items cost me (not including the pyrex that we already owned) $16.50. I am very pleased with the total cost and excited to use it all!!

Have a wonderful weekend everyone and happy thrifting! I'll post more next time about the sales we hit today.

I've linked this blog to:

Thrifty Treasures @ Southern Hospitality
Nifty Thrifty Tuesdays @ Coastal Charm
Thrift Share Monday @ Apron Thrift Girl

That 70's House

A few Fridays ago I went with my mother (who else?) to an estate sale about twenty five miles from our house. The sale was a crafter's dream. The woman who lived in the house was into EVERYTHING crafty. She had done Christmas bazaars for years and there were supplies and completed projects including plastic canvas, cross stitch, miniatures, tatting, and more plus the instruction books to go with all of it. Most of the projects my mother remembers from the early 1980s.

We spent a good amount of time outside looking through the craft tables before venturing into the house. As we stepped across the threshold we were instantly transported back to 1971. From the macrame lampshades to the various colors of groovy carpeting and window treatments, the house was a psychedelic dream(or nightmare).

This "groovy" window was in the second bedroom and had matching corkboard wall-art.


My favorite thing about this was that those corkboards were SO special that they weren't even for sale.

This owner had been quite the decorater. Every room in that house had it's own theme. The master bedroom was all red with crimson shag carpeting and fuzzy curtains with pompoms on them. I apologize for not taking more pictures, it really was shocking. Picture this: the last bedroom had a bright blue and green quilted curtain set and green carpet to match. I half expected to see Pete, Linc, and Julie hanging out on the back porch (bonus points for getting the reference!).

(Thanks to wikipedia for the picture.)

As we snaked our way through the house we had to stop constantly to look carefully at the abundance of things they had. We spent a fair amount of time talking to family members about the house and we found out it was built in 1971 (and apparently stayed frozen in time). They even had a rec room entirely in earth tones complete with a giant mountain scene latch-hook rug (which was thankfully also not for sale) and shag carpeting resembling chocolate marble cake with a strawberry swirl.

At first we thought prices would be really cheap as many family members said that prices were negotiable. After spending more than an hour perusing the entire house we went up to pay only to find out that the woman taking money was not flexible with prices. They had had an estate sale expert come in and price things for the family and she was not interested in bargaining down. Most things were unmarked and because we couldn't total it ourselves we simply took the price she gave us and after the half off it came to around $23.00; more than we had intended to spend but not bad.
Here's what we got:
A red Cosco step-stool
A rolling laundry cart (for the clothesline)
Blue baby shoe planter (pictured on the previous post)
A couple of books
Some housewares
And an assortment of craft and fun type items.

Out of the free pile we also got a bag of large plastic eggs from Legg's pantyhose - AND there's a pair in one! Score!

All they needed to be even more 70's was one of these in the driveway:


I apologize for not having more pictures of That 70's House. I wasn't expecting to start a blog any time soon.

What's the most ridiculous thing you've seen at an estate sale? Let us know.

I'm linking this post to:
Debbiedoos' Garage Salen Partay (where I was featured for last week's post, Thanks, Debbie!)

Typewriters, Barstools, and Pyrex oh my!

Last Friday afternoon, after deciding we didn't have money to spend garage sailing anymore, my mother sent me out with a list of sales and eight dollars. A good friend of mine whom we'll call Kitty went with me.

As it would happen, the church rummage sale that we went to first had one thing I have been waiting most of my life to own: a working manual typewriter. The machine is a Remington Quick-Riter and light grey with dark green keys. It has its case and none of the keys stick. I paid $5.00 for it and am quite satisfied.

Also at that sale I got a large cranberry colored Samsonite suitcase with a pink lining and a couple of old metal picture frames.

The next stop on our list was another church rummage sale where I found a few small things such as a postal scale, a wall-mounted hat rack, and a velvet painting souvenir of San Francisco.



After that sale I had only a couple of dollars left and was trying to find another sale when I drove past the most beautiful garage sale find of my life! It was a Yellow Crackle Ice Dinette Set. A fairly small table and four chairs, no lea,f and the vinyl on the chairs needs work but otherwise it's beautiful (sorry but I won't be able to get pictures of it until it's been cleaned up). I had to give them some money to hold it and go back home to get the ($15.00) cash but it was worth it. By the time I had loaded the set into our Kia Optima (which left almost no space for anything else) my mother called and asked me to swing by the American Cancer Society's thrift store for her.
I had just parked in front of a house in our city's downtown and was walking to the store when I saw three red and two black barstools sitting outside of a bar with a FREE sign taped to them.
(the dinette chairs are there in the background)


I had Kitty go check them out for condition and got on the phone with my mother because there was no way they would fit into the car with the dinette set already inside. After a few more phone calls to my father and mother both, I called a friend and he agreed to come pick them up for me.
About twenty minutes later I got home and unloaded it all and with only $20.00 I had gotten three things we've been looking for: a dinette set, a velvet painting (sort of), and a typewriter.

And since then we've just been finding better and better things and of course, it happens as soon as we don't have money to really be buying.

Today, in fact, we found these:


Those are Pyrex divided dishes with their lids; one is Snowflake pattern in Aqua blue and the other is an atomic-looking promotional pattern in black on white. Of all the pyrex we own, these are actually our first divided dishes! If you know anything about the promotional dish pattern, please let me know.

That's all I have for you today, have a great weekend and happy "sailing".


EDIT: I found out which pattern the black and white pyrex is. It's called barbed wire and it was a promotional pattern for fall, 1958.

I'm linking this to:

http://creatingahouseofgrace.blogspot.com/
http://linda-coastalcharm.blogspot.com/
http://diane1876.blogspot.com/

A Bag of Used Soap

My mother and I went to a garage sale at a beautiful house with some pretty slim pickings and an estate sale at a less impressive house with a lot of stuff. Here are some pictures; sorry I didn't have anything more fun for you.

The garage sale was at a beautiful house built in 1898.







And the award for the most racist honey advertisement of all time goes to....




Her house was beautiful and she was very nice. We found some lovely picture-plate books on Victorian houses and a few small things.


The estate sale was at a modest mid-century home with too many things to look at. The couple there was moving into their RV and selling EVERYTHING from their house. They had all the essentials: clothing, dishes, books, toiletries, oil funnels, tools, furniture... but the milk crates were not for sale.

Here's most of what we actually bought:








We got a few more things than that including a yellow paint-splattered Cosco step stool for one dollar which I hope to be able to clean up. Did you see the wire-metal grocery cart? We got TWO of those! All the silverware, as well as a not-pictured drink cooler, is for a church picnic I have coming up (and it's even Oneida).

And the strangest thing I saw (I regret not having a picture of it) was a ziploc bag with around 14 bars of opened, and possibly used, soap. I am just dying to see the inside of their house because I can only imagine that they had twelve bathrooms and one bedroom.

In all, it was a pretty great day for estate sales.

I'm linking this post to:
Debbie-Doos' Garage Salen Party
Frugal Fridays @ The Shabby Nest
It's so very thrifty @ It's So Very Cheri
Frugal Finds @ It's a Blog Party