Recent Finds

I'm so excited that auction season is beginning again!  This past week, I got to go to flea markets, thrifts, and an estate auction.  What did I pick up?  Take a look below!  (I really must get an Etsy store set up...)

I had a workshop in Joplin last Thursday, which was released early because the presenter wasn't feeling well.  So, I took an opportunity to enjoy my extra time and hit up a few stores.  The first place that I stopped at was a flea market / antique place.  When Mick and Patricia visited last summer, we stopped at this place.  I usually find a good deal or two, and this time I found one.  I picked up the 1.5 quart size Opal Pyrex mixing bowl to go with my 1.5 pint bowl.  Hopefully I will stumble across good deals on the other two some day.  I picked this one up for $4, which brings the total price of the two piece set to $4.50.  Not bad.

Next, I hit up my favorite unnamed thrift shop, but they hadn't had much come in since the last time I was there, so I left empty-handed.  I didn't have any luck at the next thrift I visited, either, so I traveled to a town about 10 miles away where the Goodwill store moved after the Joplin location was lost in last May's tornado. I did have a bit of luck there.  I picked up this small Butterfly Gold fridgie.  It was priced at $2.00, but it was 50% off one item day, and since it was all that I was buying, I got it for $1.  Now I have two of these.  Another set to complete.

Saturday was a cold day, with temperatures in the mid-upper 30s, not exactly perfect auction weather, but it was nice because it kept the crowd smaller, and the deals were better.  At the auction, I picked up two small Butterprint fridgies for $3 each.

I also got a few planters for $2 each.  I really like the green one.  I am thinking that it would match Mick's green kitchen.  The white one is marked Frankoma.

Who could pass up this fun 1960s chicken clock for a mere $2?  It is electric, but it has been running for over 48 hours now, and it keeps excellent time.  It also has the fun hum sound that vintage electric clocks make.  I may end up passing this on to another lucky person though.

I also picked up this set of pink plates and platter for $3 for the set.  Anybody know anything about them?  There are no makers markings on them.  The stack of Franciscan Desert Rose bread and butter plates was picked up for a fraction of retail as well.  If I ever get an Etsy shop set up, this will be one of the first things I list.  They are in excellent, flaw-free condition.  I can't believe that one of the dealers at the sale didn't snatch these up!

I also picked up the stuff in the following pics.  

A couple of double glass candlesticks.  I believe that the one without the silver flowers is McKee, but I don't know anything about the one with the silver flowers.  Do any of you?  Also, picked up this Early American Prescut punch bowl base (I believe) which doubles as a bowl when turned over.

That pretty much sums it up.  Did any of you find some great deals over the weekend?

The Pink House

I ran across this postcard on the big auction site yesterday.  It is a postcard of the Lutheran church behind my house back in what I am estimating to be the early 1960s.  It is a great building with some wonderful mid-century architecture.

However, it isn't the church in the picture that I am most interested in.  Do you see that little pink box to the left of the church sign?  That's the Cul-de-sac Shack!  Yes, I want this postcard because a sliver of my house appears in it.  From the time that my house was built, until the vinyl siding was installed, it was known around the neighborhood as "the pink house".  Personally, I don't think I would like the pink paint with the sandstone on the front of the house and the grey roof, but that isn't a decision for me to live with.  I have found many signs of evidence around the outside of the house of it's pink origins.  Pink paint splatters on the foundation, driveway, and a little place on the cement cap on the stone front.  I do know that the original siding was of the board and batten style, which I do think would look good on the house.  That doesn't matter though - I'm not getting rid of the vinyl.  What do you think of the pink house, white trim and brown sandstone and grey asphalt shingle roof combination that was originally on the house?  Personally, I feel that the way I have it today is a more attractive color scheme.  I love that the roof matches the sandstone, and the yellow brings out some of the lighter color in the stone as well.  Green, being my favorite color, was a natural for the shutters.  I also found that the yellow and green colors used on the house are very close to the colors I have found on some mid-century exterior house paint chips.

Here's a close-up of the corner of my house in the postcard.  You can also see the tree that was once in my front yard.  I have found evidence of the tree (the ground is mounded there, and there is a hole where the stump rotted away).  From the size of the tree, I am fairly certain that it was there before my house was built.

Also, here's a photo of the church that I took a few years ago.  The style hasn't been changed, but an addition was added sometime in the late 1970s or early 1980s.

Have a great week!  I hope to post tomorrow with my weekend finds.  So nice to have auction season starting back up again!

Weekend Finds!

I didn't pick up much over the weekend, but I was excited about what I found!  Once again, my finds came from the awesome thrift shop that I will not name.  When I was there all pink tags were 50% off, so I found some real steals!

I picked up five Pyrex pink dinner plates on sale for 50 cents each.  They aren't in perfect condition, but they are nice for daily use.  Four of them have gold trim and the fifth one doesn't look like it ever had gold trim.  I have some lime green salad plates and saucers, and they don't appear to have had gold bands on them either, so I'm guessing Pyrex made them two ways.  These pink pieces would be great for a Valentine's Day dinner - like the spaghetti candle-light dinner Mom always had for the family when I was growing up.

Next, I picked up a set of eight Corelle Spring Blossom cups and saucers.  The cups were on sale for 25 cents each, and so were the saucers, so I spent $4 on the whole set.  They had a bunch of the cups in both Spring Blossom and Butterfly Gold, but only 8 saucers, so I just picked up enough cups to match the saucers.  Someone else can enjoy the 25 or so cups that I left behind.

On a happier note about the house, I also stopped by the Joplin Re-Store to search for a new doorknob that would fit the hole in my door.  Didn't find a complete knob, but did find a couple of the mechanisms that go inside the door for a quarter each, so I picked up the extra, and now the original knob is in use again, with a new mechanism.  There are two pluses to this - one, it was cheap, and two, all of the knobs in the house still match.  I also used around a gallon of Liquid Plumr and got the washer and bathroom sink drains working well again.  Lastly I was able to pick up a cheap pull-chain light fixture at Walmart and got it installed in the washing machine closet.  Total cost for this week's repairs?  Approximately $20.  Hopefully the house will give the honey-do list a rest for a week or two.

Hope you all found some great finds over the weekend!

I Will Always Love You

I just saw on Yahoo News that Whitney Houston has passed away.  She was 48.  RIP.

Oh the Joys...

The offending doorknob.

...of owning an older home.  There are times that I dream of building a brand new home.  One where everything works in the way it is intended, and free of the quirks that come with older homes.  Don't get me wrong, I love my little house, but there are days that I feel like it is telling me it is time to go.  I'm sure the owner of any older home understands where I am coming from.  Sometimes I dream of a new house built from a set of 1950s blueprints that I have, using some vintage plumbing and kitchen fixtures to give it a real vintage feel.  Let's look at what happened yesterday:

I work up bright and early.  I sleep with the bedroom door closed, and when I went to open the door, the knob would not turn - the inner workings in the doorknob had gone bad.  It took me 10 minutes to get out of that room.  I would have called for help, but my cell phone was on the charger in another room, and I couldn't take the knob off or the door off the hinges because I don't keep my toolbox in the bedroom.  I would have gone out the window, but with the way the locks on my house are set up, it can only be unlocked from the inside once I am in it for the night (the keys for the house weren't in my bedroom, either).  What an exciting way to start my day!  I bought a new doorknob when I got home from work, but the "universal replacement" set that I got was too big for the existing holes in my door.  Wonderful.

Then, when I got home last night, I started a load of laundry, and when I pulled the chain on the light for the closet the washer is in, the whole chain came out of the light fixture.  Yay for another weekend project!  And finally, to top it off, the plumbing for the house is backing up in the bathroom sink and the washing machine.  The main line to the house was replaced just a few years before I bought it, so now I have to figure out which line needs to be cleaned out...

Anybody else having vintage home ownership frustrations?

1969 Caprice - the Cadillac of the Chevrolet Line

Today I wanted to share this great commercial from 1969.  This body style of the Caprice will forever be one of my favorites, as it is the same basic car as the 1970.  My first car was a Gobi Beige 1970 Caprice 4 door hardtop (no pillar between the windows between the front and back doors).  I loved that car, and still have it today.  When well optioned, a Caprice could rival the features of a Cadillac.  Of course, with the Chevy Bow-tie on it, it couldn't compete with the prestige, but it was still an impressive vehicle.

I once read an article where an automotive magazine did a comparison between the Caprice and the Cadillac (the article dated around 1970).  They found the cars to be more alike than different.  It was an interesting read.

Have a great Wednesday!

Weekend Finds!

This weekend I hit up two estate tag sales and an estate auction (my favorite kind of estate sale!).  I always find great stuff at auctions, and this one had some great things as well that I was interested in, but I didn't really bring any of it home with me.  While I was out, I discovered that my favorite thrift store in Joplin, which was destroyed in the tornado last May, reopened two weeks ago.  This place always has amazing stuff, and they didn't fail me Saturday.  How I have missed this place!

So, here are my weekend finds:

A set of 8 Libbey highball glasses.  These look like they are brand new - the gold has no flaws at all.  A steal at $4 for the set!  From the recently reopened thrift shop (no, I will not tell you the name of it!).

Three "D" handle Pyrex mugs in Spring Blossom pattern.  50 cents each.  (Also from the unnamed thrift shop).

Lastly, I picked up a couple of records at one of the tag sales.  Ike and Tina Turner - Greatest Hits, and Donovan's Greatest Hits.  $1 each.

I hope you all had a great weekend of fun finds as well!