Blah blah blah Pyrex

For all my Pyrex loving friends, today's post is brought to you as heard and repeated by my boyfriend when I told him about my recent Pyrex-y finds...

Blah blah blah Pyrex blah blah. Blah blah Goodwill.
Blahbity blah blah Pyrex blah blah.

Blah blah blah Pyrex blah blah


Blah blah Pink Daisy blah blah


Blah blah Snowflake Open Baker blah blah



Blah blah blah Blue Butterprint


Blah blah blah Spring Blossom Gravy Boat blah blah


Blah blah Shenandoah blah blah blah


Blah blah Opal White blah blah


Blah blah blah Orange/Yellow Bowl blah blah


Blah blah blah Juice Carafe blah blah


Blah blah Another Juice Carafe blah blah

Blah blah blah ANOTHER Juice Carafe blah blah


Blah blah Coffee? Carafe blah blah blah


If you have trouble deciphering my post, ask the non-Pyrex-y people in your life and they should be able to translate as they've probably heard this before...

I'm joining these parties:
Click on the links to see what others have found:

I Hope You're Not Too Tired of Christmas

The day after Christmas used to be a big shopping day for my family. We would head to the Mall to take advantage of the deep discounts on clothing, gift wrap and Christmas decorations. My parents used to give me cash for Christmas instead of buying clothing at pre-sale prices. But this year was different. Because of the economy, retailers started discounting things early. There was no need to wait for sales. And because of all the thrifting I've been doing, I didn't really need any clothes. The only place I needed to go to was Wal-Mart for a year's supply of scotch tape at 3 rolls/$1.

So Mom and I decided to check out the Goodwill and Salvation Army stores for 50% off Christmas items. Here's what we found:

Okay, so Pyrex isn't a Christmas item, and the big ornaments were found a while ago, but I needed another color to break up all the red, and besides, everything goes better with Pyrex, doesn't it?

I was hoping to find Mary Engelbreit Christmas items in particular and I wasn't disappointed.

A cheerful mug and a small tin pail were 50c each.

Here's a close-up of the pail lid. Aren't those expressions wonderful?


And this little elf was $1. His "hair" is a piece of rabbit fur.



Mom found a large poinsettia tablecloth for $3.50. It looks like it's hardly been used.

And this happy spaghetti Santa was $1.50. He's a bank. We had never seen a Santa like this, so we checked our favorite online source for all things vintage - ebay. We found several similar Santas, some banks, some not. Apparently this design was very popular. According to one seller, this particular Santa is a "Santa Saver" made in 1960 by Napco, intended to be sold as a souvenir at the Santa Claus Museum or one of the other attractions in Santa Claus, Indiana.

I love his fat little mustache and his spaghetti trim. The green paint on the holly leaf has flaked off some, but I kind of like him that way, as if he's been well-loved for 50 years.


I'm thrilled to finally find a glass tree topper. Original store price - $12.95.
Salvation Army price - $1.

But the best bargains were found a week later at the Goodwill Outlet. Glass items are sold for 39c/lb, so I got 4 dozen small red glass ball ornaments for 36c.

And the 7 tiny glittery pastel ornaments were...



wait for it...



one penny!

There was also a lot of tinsel and garland and many boxes of brand new glass ball ornaments I left behind. If I were a crafty person, and wanted to make ornament wreaths

like this one by Laurie from Magpie Ethel, or

this one from Sonya at Dime Store Thrift,

I would be checking the Goodwill Outlet regularly from Dec 15th - Jan 15th. I could probably find enough supplies for several wreaths for only a few dollars.

Also found at the Outlet that same day was the yellow Pyrex mixing bowl. Mom saw it from across the room, and time seemed to stop for a moment. She couldn't believe it was there, or that one of the dozens of bears people tearing through the bins hadn't grabbed it.

As you can see, it's VERY scratched up. It's also one of the older, thicker bowls, probably close to 60 years old, and still fully functional. Everyone should have a big yellow Pyrex mixing bowl. Outlet price - $1.35.

I'm linking up to the following parties:

Mary Engelbreit Monday
Thrift Share Monday

1983 Strawberry Shortcake Berry Happy Home Dollhouse

Remember this?

The 1983 Strawberry Shortcake Berry Happy Home Dollhouse that Mom and I saw at Goodwill and I posted about here.

I really wanted it, but I couldn't justify the $30 on my present salary of $0/month. But after thinking about it all night, I decided that I probably wouldn't get this close to one ever again, and I could at least take advantage of Goodwill's generous return policy and bring it home long enough to clean it up a bit and get a good look at it and all the furniture.

So I went back for it the next morning. When I got to the store, the table it had been sitting on was empty and when I asked about it, the clerk told me that a man in his twenties had come in about an hour before me and bought it. He had told them he was going to make big bucks off of it on Ebay. (These houses, without furniture, have sold for $50-$165 recently on Ebay.)

I was VERY disappointed.

But guess what? Santa shops at Goodwill, because when I got up Christmas morning, there the dollhouse was on our coffee table, all dirty and ready for cleaning!

As I think back, I realize that I don't know exactly what the clerk was talking about when she said a young man bought it to put on Ebay. I had only pointed at the table it had been on and asked what happened to what had been there. I wonder what it was and if the buyer really did make big bucks off of it on ebay.

(Btw, have I mentioned recently how nice it is to have a father who is willing to go pick up and transport our thrifted finds when my mother calls, no questions asked? Even when it's raining buckets?)

I haven't really finished with it, but I did clean out some of the insides, the balcony, etc. The house, for the most part, is in good shape except for being dirty. I feel really lucky that all the parts are there. There are two broken places; one is where the bay window goes, but we have the window and fully intend to just glue it in place. The other is a tab that holds the balcony onto the house. I'm not actually sure yet if it's broken or simply not snapped into place. I just know that it sort of "sags" in the front.


I also cleaned off the little bits of furniture that were in it. It came with an assortment of furniture, but alas, only two pieces were Strawberry Shortcake. One was the porch swing which originally came with the house. The other is a crib made for the Strawberry Shortcake Blow Kiss Baby Dolls.

There was also a large storage strawberry designed for holding dolls.
(I have several of these strawberries).
(picture courtesy of strawberry-shortcake.net)

And inside it, lo and behold, were a couple of those Blow Kiss Babies. I couldn't get a good enough picture on my own so here is one I found online.


This picture is of Blueberry Muffin and Lemon Meringue while I have Blueberry Muffin and Strawberry Shortcake. You can see how small they are and they are just darling. They're called Blow Kiss Babies because of the way their mouths are puckered BUT they're actually drink and wet dolls. Mine do not still have their bottles or their "bonnets" but thankfully do still have their diapers.

They were a fun and surprising find with this house. I already have three dolls, but they are in pretty sorry shape. I'll worry about getting proper clothing for them later.

Now I guess I will keep an eye open for furniture for my house. It's all available on ebay, but not at prices I can afford. Who knows if I'll ever find any of it thrifting. But you never know what you'll find. (I never expected to find the house.)

That's what makes thrifting fun.

I'm linking up with

Click on the link and join the fun!

Thrifty Finds at The American Legion

I've been away from the blog for a couple of weeks, but I have a number of thrifting finds to share, so I expect to be posting more frequently.

There haven't been many garage sales around here lately, but Mom and I did attend the local American Legion Post's rummage sale a few weeks ago. We had never been to one of their sales before and weren't able to go until afternoon, so we weren't sure we'd find any bargains.

We were pleasantly surprised.

The first thing I spied was this yellow 1.5 qt 503 refrigerator dish for 25c. Yes, you read that right. Pyrex for 25c!!!!!!

I reached for it. So did Mom.

The world of thrift is not without it's little dramas. I've had something stolen out of my cart at the Goodwill when my back was turned. I've been held prisoner in the back bedroom of an estate sale because another shopper is blocking the doorway while he looks through things and ignores my requests for him to please move. I've had someone lean over me to snatch a piece of Pyrex from under my nose just as I touched it. I realize that sometimes I have to deal with such people. I just don't expect them to be the people I brought with me.

Fortunately, I know her secret tickle spot.

She settled for another 25c item.

Corning 1 qt casserole in the "Wildflower" pattern.
The lid was almost completely brown with baked on grease. This is what it looked like after a lot of scrubbing with Bar Keeper's Friend. And it still needs some work.

A tall vase, a set of cruets, and an OXO push-button salad spinner.
This spinner retails for $18. We paid 50c.

Some milk glass mugs and a Pyrex Visions 2.5 L sauce pan.
This was another item that needed quite a bit of clean-up, but once again Bar Keeper's Friend did the trick. As more people are trying to get away from using metal cookware, Visions pans have become very popular on e-bay, so my local Goodwill charges $6.99 for this pan. We paid 50c.

They also had a table stacked with children's VHS movies still sealed in their packages.

I picked up these 3 for 50c each. I was especially pleased to find "Gay Purr-ee" since it features the vocal talents of my favorite singer, Judy Garland.

Everything we got at this sale cost a total of $4.

I'm linking up to the following parties:
Click on the links to see what treasures others have found.

Thrift Share Monday

The Year in Thrifting

Here are my favorite thrift and estate sale finds of 2010 in no particular order:

Rhinestone Necklace for myself.

I finally found a good one at an estate sale rather than an antique store.

Our mid century coffee table for $1.00

\So much Pretty Pyrex!!!

This was the first year I really started to collect it and I have gotten so much I can hardly believe it.

Assorted mid-century specialty cookbooks.

Various assorted books from the '50s and '60s on "better living" through home improvement
and craft instructions.

Tons of adorable baby planters and the vintage quilt in the picture.

Vintage Shiny Brite ornaments, specifically two with flocked lettering and images on them.

Remington Quiet-Riter and a Eureka typewriter ribbon (in the cutest little tin ever).

Vintage Hotpoint refrigerator.

Old slides, a projector, slide viewers, and even a screen to view them all on.

My vintage pink Sunbeam Mixmaster ca. 1957.

It's been a wonderful year of thrifting and brought me many useful and fun things. How's your year in thrifting been? What are some of your favorite finds?

I'm linking this post to:

Thrifty Thursdays@Bloggeritaville
Junkin' Finds Friday@A La Carte

Join the parties and see what others have found.

It's Mary Engelbreit Monday!

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas with family and friends.

Just before Christmas I found a very pretty Mary Engelbreit square covered butter dish (7 inches square) at Goodwill. It even matches a couple of M.E. teacups that I already own. Isn't it just the cutest butter dish ever? I'm not sure what I'm going to use it for yet, but in this house with all the people in and out I couldn't use it for butter without it getting broken. I'm thinking I'll use it to hide hair clips or something in my room. (If you look carefully, there's a little chip right on top of where a black square should be. I'm not sure how to "fix" it, but any suggestions? My mother suggested china paint might seal it.)


I got something Mary Engelbreit for Christmas, too. My sister knows that I've loved M.E. since I was a child and she found this at Macy's while she was wrapping presents with her Relay For Life team.

It's a tin of Candy Cane Cocoa with a Mary Engelbreit design on the outside. It features three Santas on twistable rings of metal such that you can mix and match hats, jackets, and boots to make several different outfits for Santa to wear. It's only 4.5 inches tall but it's just the cutest tin I think I've ever seen.

Did anyone else get a Mary Engelbreit goody or something almost as cute for Christmas?

M.E. Monday

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas from 1965! This is my mother's family photo after all the kids were born. The nine range in age here from 11 months up to 15 years.

My computer is back up and running and I just wanted to stop in and wish you all a Merry Christmas and a wonderful time with your families.

The thrift and estate sale universe has been particularly nice to me recently and when the holidays are over I'll show you my loveliest finds. Here's a teaser just for now...

Some proof here that my love of vintage things is genetic. Look at that shiny brite! oh... and my Mom.