Thrift Share Giveaway

I've missed posting a thrift share giveaway over the course of the past month or so and I'm excited to be back not only with a vintage Pyrex giveaway, but also to share some of the goodies that I have managed to thrift in recent weeks weeks.  Read on, fellow thrifters, and feel free to post a comment for your chance to win the fridgies pictured at the end of the post.

Over the past two weeks I've had the chance to stop by two church rummage sales, about a dozen garage and yard sales, and one lovely estate sale.  I'm trying to be more mindful about what I purchase - because I like it and the price is good is not enough of a reason to buy something - so I just satisfied myself with taking photos of some of the things that I came across but decided not to bring home.

I am drawn to Couroc trays and own several of them - at least one of which has this very owl.  Although I swung back down the aisle to check out this bundle several times, I decided to leave this cute little find for someone else.  One of the things I like about Couroc is the wide variety of patterns that have been produced.

The glasses almost made me change my mind.  I not only enjoy Couroc pieces, but I dig owls.  I've seen these glasses in photos, but this was the first time I have actually found any.  It was only the recent addition of the glasses below that stopped me from snapping these up.

This picture doesn't do these glasses justice.  They are absolutely beautiful and I love drinking out them - the kids really like the smaller ones because they are just the right size for their sweet little hands.  These belonged to my paternal grandparents and were their wedding crystal when they got married in 1949.  Sadly, my grandmother passed away in December.  My grandfather recently moved from the home they shared on the river to a cottage in a local retirement community.  He came across these glasses - which have been in a box for about 25 years - in his attic and was pleased to pass them along so that they could be put back into daily use.  I know only that they are called Electra and were made in Europe at least 62 years ago.  I certainly wasn't going to bump these out of my cabinet for the Couroc owls, though I was tempted to get rid of the vintage Smurf glasses that my kids love so much to make room.

Vintage game...complete...priced at just $1?  Ah yes, so very, very tempting!  But after my recent board game purge I decided not to bring this one home.

This vintage precursor to the modern pin ball machine was really cool.  Even so, I don't have a great place to display it and I don't really need one more "cool" thing to collect dust around here.

Okay, these vintage linens were harder to pass up.  They were in great shape and priced reasonably (at 25% off, make that priced very reasonably).

Now that I've demonstrated I am capable of restraint (though Running Man may dispute my claim of self-restraint), I'm happy to share some of the goodies that did come home with me.  This is just a sampling - some of the items I found are destined as gifts, so I don't want any surprises ruined by picturing them here - but I am excited to share just the same.  One of the great things about thrifting is the wide variety of items that can be found. From pieces of Americana to books to office supplies, you never know what might turn up on the shelves of a thrift store or in a box on a driveway.

This box from the Monticello Dairy was a real find for $3 at a yard sale two weekends ago.   Its previous owner was storing (and selling) old records in it and seemed surprised when I asked if I could buy just the box.  I plan to use it for storing books.  Apparently the Monticello Dairy building is still standing - and housing retail stores - in Charlottesville, Virginia but I couldn't find any information about the dairy itself in my initial web search.

This vintage Virginia Dairy bottle was one of two that were at the church rummage sale I made it to on Saturday.  At $5 a piece I bought just the one.  As you can see, it needs a good cleaning, but it will make an excellent vase once it is cleaned out.  My initial searches online didn't turn up anything about the history of the Virginia Dairy.

On the back: "Our SAFETY Code - 1) DRIVE WITH EXTRA CARE  2) WATCH ALL CROSSWALKS  3) SLOW DOWN IN SCHOOL ZONE  4) KEEP ALERT AND HAVE YOUR VEHICLE UNDER CONTROL  5) MAKE SURE ALL IS CLEAR BEFORE BACKING UP"  Seems like good advice for all of us!

They look like they were meant for one another :)

I posted back in March about "The Happiness Project" - a book that I've had out of the library for several months a different times during the past year that I still haven't managed to finish.  At the low price of $2, I was glad to add it to my home library (and save on future library late fees).  "Little John of New England" by Madeline Brandeis was published in 1936 and will join my childhood collection of books in her The Children of All Lands Stories.  One of my goals for 2011 is to explore museums and historical sites around town (#19), so this tour book of Hollywood Cemetery will come in handy.  As soon as I found"The Wishing of Biddy Malone" - the story of a girl who loves to dance and sing and stumbles into a faerie village - I knew that Princess Wonder would love to read it.

The 4" binder looks like it has never been used and set me back a quarter.  The vintage Boston adjustable hole punch (2, 3, or 4 holes) needs a little cleaning, but for $1 was worth a little elbow grease.  The replacement cartridge for my label maker was free and would have cost me at least $12 at an office store.

And, of course, I promised another Pyrex giveaway.  Looking for a new home today are these two sweet little vintage Pyrex fridgies in the butterfly gold pattern.  If you would like to win these, please leave a comment between now and midnight EST on Friday.

Sorry, the inlaid mushroom tray is all mine, but the Pyrex fridgies could be yours!

I'm linking up to Apron Thrift Girl's Thrift Share Monday.  Happy Monday, friends!


"Have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful."  ~William Morris

Pyrex Giveaway - Thrift Share Monday and Project Simplify Hot Spot #2

You will rarely find me at the mall and my trips to big box retail stores are increasingly minimal - I try to go only when I have an immediate need for something specific like printer paper or new socks.  I do shop at Costco and am too easily swayed by impulse buys there - I'm working on being more mindful about how and where I spend my money.  I like to support local businesses and buy handmade.  I also love to shop second hand.  Whether it be at yard sales, thrift stores, or consignment sales, I am much more likely to be found shopping here than at a traditional retail store.  Thrifting is recycling at its finest, saves money, rescues items from the landfill, and is great fun.  Most of my children's clothes - and a fair number of mine - come from second hand sources.  If there is something cool and unusual in my house, it is probably thrifted.  Thrifting allows me to purchase high quality items for my family that I wouldn't normally be willing to spend money on.  And did I mention the fun factor?  The thrill of the hunt, the excitement of finding something particularly special/rare/unusual, and the satisfaction of finding something that I need for a fraction of the retail price.  Of course, what makes second hand shopping exciting can also make it challenging from a clutter perspective - it is too easy to justify the purchase of an item because it is high quality and inexpensive (beautiful vintage serving bowls and platters are a particular weakness of mine).

One of my favorite blogs is Apron Thrift Girl - Selena has cultivated an amazing community of thrifters on her blog and I particularly enjoy heading over there on Monday for her Thrift Share posts.  As of the time that I am publishing this post, there is not a new Thrift Share post up for today, but you can go here to see last week's post and get a flavor of what her blog has to offer.  Update: I'm linking up to today's Thrift Share post.  I've not participated in Thrift Share Monday before and as I'm working on purging extraneous items from home I am more focused on getting rid of things than buying "new" things.  So I am going to approach Thrift Share Monday a little bit differently this week and offer a giveaway of previously thrifted items that now need a new home.  Like many thrifters who enjoy buying vintage items, I have a soft spot for Pyrex.  I have become much more selective about what vintage Pyrex I will buy, but I recently found that I had too much of it - I wasn't using all of it and my cabinet was practically overflowing.  Today I am offering up two pieces of Pyrex for two lucky winners.  Just leave a comment on this post between now and Saturday and I will draw two names randomly to win one of these two pieces.

Giveaway #1 - a small casserole dish (472-B) in the Shenandoah pattern

Giveaway #2 - an oval divided dish in the charcoal snowflake pattern

On the decluttering front, hot spot #2 for Project Simplify was announced this morning over at Simple Mom - paper clutter.  I feel both excited and overwhelmed by this week's challenge because I have more paper clutter around my house than I can imagine getting through over the course of the next five days.  But that's what is great, for me, about this project - it gives me a specific goal and a specific time frame within to work.  I look forward to sharing my results with you on Friday and hope that you'll consider, to borrow a great turn of phrase from Tsh's post, unleashing vengeance on your papers, too!