Major Pyrex haul!

My baby decided he didn`t want to nap yesterday morning, and since it was half off day at GW, I decided to do a round of thrifting.  My plans were actually to find some lids for my recent acquisitions since lids are often priced at $2 or more, which is a bit ridiculous in my opinion.  Funny thing was, I found no lids (very unusual) but some great Pyrex pieces (which almost never happens on half price days)!!

Check this out!

I found the two baking pans at one GW. 

The flamingo square pan was not in good shape but I thought the glaze on the outside looked ok and a good scrubbing would save it.  Unfortunately, after cleaning off the grime, I realized that this poor girl has dishwasher effect and I couldn`t get rid of the discolouration on the inside.  Oh, and there`s a big scrape on the glaze that I suspect happened after it was donated because there was no dirt caked into the scrape...how sad!

That`s ok though, I only paid $1.25 for her and she has a new life as a cute tray for my 501 and 502 fridgies.

The green baking pan turns out to be a Heinz promo utility dish and is quite minty.  It was priced $3.03 so at half price, I ended up only paying $1.52 for it.  Score!!

I also stopped by a neaby VV and found Woodland Pyrex teacups.  I actually didn`t realize Pyrex made tea cups, I thought there were only corelle coordinates for tea cups. I paid $1 each, plus tax.

On the way to another nearby GW, I saw a rummage sale sign and I quickly pulled over.  It was being held in a nursing home and the parking lot was jam packed!  I didn`t realize they held rummage sales on Fridays.  This turned out to be really great one with tons of stuff.  I found 13 of these torquise autumn band Pyrex sauce dishes:

I found out from the lady running that table that there had been matching cups and dishes but they had been sold already (sadly).  There was also a huge stack of grey band and grey autumn band dishes, but they were not in great shape so I left them.  I paid $1.25 for all 13 of these sauce dishes.  Now when I have a sushi party, everyone will have a pretty little Pyrex dish for their soy sauce.

My best finds of the day were at the second GW I went to.  That place was so crowded I honestly didn`t think there would be anything left.  But a quick stroll through the housewares sections and I found these:

 
That`s right, not one but two large designs casseroles!!  And they were only priced at $5.05 each, which meant I paid that for both because it was half price day!!!  I also found the flameware teapot and large perculator.  For all four items, I paid just over $8...talk about a steal!!!!!

It was so surreal I thought I was dreaming!

Since I found two designs casseroles, I decided to give one of them to one of my new Pyrex friends who had just gifted me with Pyrex the day before.  It turned out that she had been looking for the large designs casserole for some time because she had the small one already.  I was so happy that I could return the favour!!  It was giddiness all around.  :)

Do you share the joys of Pyrex or thrifting with others?

First trip to antique mall and gifted Pyrex

I went to an antique mall with my new Pyrex friends yesterday.  It was so much fun!  There were so many booths with Pyrex that I felt kinda overwhelmed.  Some of the prices were insane (almost $70 for one casserole!).  Sure made me feel super proud about some of my great thrifty finds!  Even some of the more reasonably priced Pyrex was still a bit more than I was willing to fork over.  I ended up getting 2 pieces of snowflake:

I paid $10 for the bigger one without a lid and $15 for the smaller one with the lid (though it has a chip). 

I came home with a lot more Pyrex though because my new friends, who have been collecting Pyrex for a few years, decided to give me a bunch of Pyrex to help me with my collection! 

Nicest people ever!!!  I'm having fun sewing some gifts for them. 

Don't you love it when common interests (i.e. love for Pyrex) brings people together?

Spring Pyrex

What is more cheerful than a daisy divided?!  :)

Found this beauty at a VV a few days ago for $7.99.  Bought a few other things and used my 25% off coupon.  

Have you signed up for your VV super saver card yet?

Thrifting Jackpot!

It was a busy Easter weekend that left little time for thrifting.  But I did managed to squeeze in one estate sale and a yard sale.

The estate sale was that of a designer who had moved and was downsizing.  I arrived 15 minutes after the sale started and there were already over a hundred people in the house!  I missed out on some great stuff but still managed to get a few of the things I wanted.

I've always hated the fireplace cover in our living room (gold with a sliding metal mesh screen) so I was really excited to see this in the preview pictures of the estate sale.  As soon as I got in the house, I searched through all the main rooms and the bedrooms but this was nowhere in sight.  I asked three employees before one said that it was in the upstairs bathroom.  I probably only got this because it was hidden away since a few people mentioned that they had wanted it when they saw me dragging it out afterwards.  This lady sure had a ton of fabrics.  I wished that I could have taken all of it home, but managed to control myself and only bought $10 worth. 

My BIGGEST SCORE EVER was found at a yard sale I popped by.  It was an hour after it had started and only a couple of people were milling around.  At first I didn't see much but then I spotted this:

I thought to myself "no, it couldn't be", but it was - a Le Creuset french oven!  I gingerly opened the lid (expecting to see all sorts of scratches and staining) but saw this:

I asked the guy how much he was asking for the pot and he held up one of his hands with fingers outstretched and said "5 bucks".  I was so surprised, I had to repeat the price back to him to get it confirmed.  I also kept looking back at the pot to make sure that the Le Creuset mark was still there.  I'm still in shock!  It is marked "26" inside the lid so I believe it is the 5 1/2 quart .

I also bought 10 small skeins of merino wool and cashmere yarn for $5.  Not sure if it's enough or the right weight for the birthday present I'm planning to knit for my mom but it was so soft and I couldn't pass it up for the price.

Still enjoying my Le Creuset high!  :)

Hope you had a wonderful Easter!

Check out all the goodies others have found at Apron Thrift Girl's Thrift Share Monday.

Pyrex goodies

It was a great week for finding Pyrex - must be all the spring cleaning happening.  Here are the rest of my Pyrex finds this week:

This was $6.99 plus tax at VV.  I love it so much!

The Shenandoah was $1.25 and the mugs were $0.75 at GW (1/2 price day) and horizon was $2.99 plus tax at VV.

Keeping my fingers crossed that this trend continues!!  :)

The highs and lows of Pyrex hunting - it's all relative

So I made a quick trip this morning to a SA that I've had some luck with in the past.  I was very happy to spot a woodland casserole with a lid.

It was in beautiful condition and I found this inside:

I love finding things with original manuals. However, the picture on it was a set of butterly golds so I'm not sure it actually came with this casserole.  So then I got it into my head that maybe there was a set of mixing bowls somewhere that this belonged to.  I scanned the housewares isles at least 3 times and I checked the rack near the door, no luck so I decide to line up to pay.  It was a busy day because they had a 1/2 price sale on all clothing.  Since the line was long, I decided to leave my cart in line and take one more peak nearby.  As I walk to up that rack by the door where I found my butterprint fridgie last Monday, there was a girl in front of me.  All of a sudden I saw a flash of orange and saw that the girl had picked up a complete set of daisy cinderella bowls that an employee had just brought out.  I kept saying in my head "please put it back down, please put it back down".  Alas, she did not.  She went to pay for them instead.  For the 10 minutes we were both waiting (in different lines), I looked at those bowls longingly and felt a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach. 

Then I wondered if she even realized it was Pyrex or just some pretty set of mixing bowl.  Believe it or not, I actually got up the nerve to ask her if she'd let me buy it off of her for more than what she paid (I figured there was no harm in asking politely).  She told me that she's a Pyrex collector so that was the end of that.  I guess it was not meant to be.  :(  It bummed me out for most of the afternoon, until I reminded myself that the woodland casserole is a spectacular find and I could have left empty-handed instead, like I've done so many times before.  Funny how perspective makes such a huge difference.  Had I never seen those daisy bowls, I would have been happy all day with my find.  At least I came to my senses eventually. 

Yard Sale-ing

Since it was raining yesterday, tons of yard sales were postponed until today, which meant I had time to check a few out.  I found some toys and a Thomas the Train stool for the baby which will be useful.  But the most interesting was the third and last yard sale I went to.  It was a British couple who were moving to the US and downsizing.  I took a quick scan and spotted some English Pyrex, so I was very excited.  Then I asked if she had anymore, and she showed me one more on another table.  She was asking $15 for them.  I didn't like the pattern on the smallest of the casserole dishes but I decided to put them all aside while I looked around some more.  I'll get back to that in a minute.  They had some very interesting things.  I couldn't resist these adorable milk bottles (even the cap at the top says milk).

There were also some pretty scarves, including a Vera (that I keep reading about on other blogs), which I thought were a steal at $2 each.

I was drawn to these accordian folders that look like purses by Vera Bradley, how cute!

In the back of their garage, I notice a hard case and inside it was this vintage typewriter.

It's in beautiful condition, works and has the original manuals.  Was I looking for a vintage typewriter?  Nope.  Could I resist buying this for $10?  Nope!

Ok, so back to the Pyrex, sadly it was not a well lit garage and there was no sunlight, and partially blinded by my Pyrex fever, I failed to notice some serious defects.  The lid on the small casserole was badly chipped in several places.  And middle casserole (one of my favourite English patterns) was missing a chunk (as well as being lid-less).  I tried to take a closeup but I'm not sure if you can really see, but it's right under the orange flower on the small casserole.  :(

 

I was really kicking myself afterwards because I"m normally pretty good at checking for damage so how could I have missed something so obvious?!  Oh well, you live and learn.  On the bright side, the third and largest casserole dish did not have any significant damage and is an English Pyrex snowflake pattern.  Seems that this was a promotional dish that originally came with a lid and a cradle.  Oh, how I dream of the day when I find a promotional dish with a lid and cradle!

All in all, I was still happy with my purchases.

Linking to Apron Thrift Girl's thrift share Monday