December 2012 in Photos

Not a whole lot of blogging happening here in December.  I think this may be one of my worst blogging months on record!  Here's most of December documented in photos:

We saw Santa and kept our No Crying Children streak alive.

We sent out Christmas cards.

We got ready for the Mayan Apocalypse.

We painted a keepsake plate at one of those pottery painting places.

I scored some sweet Pyrex.

We read Christmas and Hanukkah books by the light of the Christmas tree.

I finally got cold and busted out a hoodie from college.  That thing had not seen the light of day for probably eight years or so!

I started physical therapy and seeing a nutritionist.  One week into the new diet and I'm not only down 5 1/2 pounds, but my wedding ring (that hasn't fit in almost two years) fits again.

New pjs were procured.

Santa came!

We attended Mass for the first time since the baby was born and she slept through most of it.

I made Christmas dinner and served it all in vintage Pyrex.  Realized I needed a Butterfly Gold 043.

I baked a birthday cake for Jesus and Bubba decorated it.  Kelly was into it... literally.

And finally -

Little Miss turned six months old today!

Hopefully you all had a great December!  I hope to get back to regular posting in the New Year.

Surprise Pyrex

Collecting vintage Pyrex is a recent hobby of mine.  I'd guess I've been doing it for just about two years now.  I don't have a lot of pieces for two simple reasons:  

1.  I'm really cheap.  Like, really.  I'm used to shopping at Goodwill, so I want to pay Goodwill prices.  Also, because I do like to hang out at antique malls, I know what the pieces go for there so I know when the pricing folks at Goodwill have been smoking the proverbial crack, so to speak.  After all, a collectible is only worth what someone is willing to pay for it!

2.  This simple mantra:

Some people say they collect a certain item, but they really just buy anything that fits into that category.  Soon their homes are completely over run with what basically amounts to junk.  I don't want that to happen to my house!  I mean, I like my stuff, don't get me wrong, but I also follow the adage "Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful."

I've been collecting milk glass for about five years now, I think.  I did start out just buying anything I came across, but quickly realized that was no way to go about building a collection!  Who wants a bunch of cheap florist vases and ugly grapevine stuff cluttering their shelves?  Not me!  I became more selective with what I bought and set some rules for myself.  I skipped the more opaque pieces, with a few exceptions.  No hobnail - not my thing.  No grapevines either.  (No offense to people who like those things!  They're just not my style More for them I guess.)  

Of course, as I scoured the shelves of all my local Goodwills for something to add to my collection I kept coming across a different kind of milk glass - of the Pyrex variety.  For a long time I resisted them.  I wanted to stay with my nice, plain white pieces.  I replaced the utilitarian clear glass items in my cupboards with lovely white Fire King custard cups and old Hamilton Beach and Sunbeam mixer bowls.  I pieced together a three piece set of lovely Federal glass bowls, as well as this set:

They are shaped like Pyrex, but the bottoms didn't have the mark so I just figured they were nice plain milk glass mixing bowls.  I bought each one separately at different thrift shops at different times, just like the Federal bowls.  They're nice and sturdy and I use them all the time.

Of course, eventually I caved and started to pick up Pyrex here and there.  Lately, I've started to really get into it though, looking through boards on Pinterest and searching hashtags on Instagram.  I joined a Vintage Pyrex group on Facebook.  I decided I wanted to learn the model numbers of the different pieces, so I started to read Pyrex Love.  I noticed a couple of times that a bowl looking like the smallest bowl in my set would pop up here and there.  I started to wonder - could my bowls be Pyrex too?

I took this photo and took advantage of my new forum; the vintage Pyrex group on Facebook.  Within a few hours I had my answer, via a link to a site called Corelle Corner.

"400-Series Round Nesting Bowls: Available from 1954 to 1956, plain white 400-series nesting bowls were called an Opal Bowl Set. This set was less expensive than decorated bowls, often priced 25% to 50% cheaper. The peculiar feature of Opal bowls is the absence of a backstamp; there is no brand name, model number or capacity marked on the bottom. What might be on the bottom is a one or two digit mould number, but this could be absent too. Any 400-series bowl that does say "Pyrex" on the bottom would have had some kind of decoration originally, either patterned, solid-coloured, or gold-banded."

Well, hot damn.  Let's hear it for surprise Pyrex!

Score!

This past weekend, my sister in law came to visit.  She had to meet the newest Fehling and catch up with the previous ones.

Needless to say, it was great to have her here.  She got to catch up with her brother, she played every game in his closet as well as indulging him in his latest obsession, and she suggested to me we hit the Goodwill.

Um, can I just say how awesome it is to have a sister in law who likes to hit the Goodwill so much that she'll do it with you after flying across the country to visit?  Best of all, we don't look for the same stuff so I don't have to worry that she's gonna snatch up something I want?

Even better - check out all this awesomeness I would have missed if she hadn't suggested we go!

I pushed my cart around the corner and immediately spied the large lidded casserole on the very bottom shelf of the housewares aisle along with a large Homestead cinderella bowl.  The bowl had some pretty bad damage to the finish, so I left that one behind, but the casserole went straight into the cart.  There's a teeny chip under the lid on the lip that catches on to the dish, but I figured that was pretty negligible for the $6.99 they were asking.

I looked around on the shelf but didn't see anything else on there that caught my eye.  Then I noticed that one of the stocking attendants had left their wheelie shelf cart there and the baskets weren't completely emptied yet.  I am so glad I decided to take a peek!  Buried in there was not only that small casserole, but these as well:

I also picked up an 8" x 8" square Fire King milk glass baking dish.  When I went to put it away, I realized that between that, and the rectangular baking dish that my friend gave me, I didn't need the clear glass Pyrex ones that were up there anymore.  I pulled them down and put them on Freecycle, and someone had picked them up within a few hours.

Of course, that meant that I'd have to suck it up and actually use the pretty vintage Pyrex I've been collecting.  That's right - I've been collecting it for about two years now and have yet to actually use any of it!  It's just so pretty and I'm completely terrified that I'm going to break it.

I know.  Total OCD move.  Weak.

So, to open the gates, I made enchiladas:

and I made them in the pretty Snowflake Garland baking dish that was a gift from my favorite auction-going friend. I love how Instagram made this photo of my dinner look a little bit like it was out of an old cookbook.  Also, I think they tasted just a teensy bit better than usual.  :)

A Painted House

We worked all weekend to get the living room and kitchen finished - at least as far as painting goes.  My husband did the bulk of the work because bending down and climbing ladders aren't really options for me these days.  THANK YOU, SWEET HUSBAND!

I just LOVE the color we picked for in here.  It looks great with all the black, white and dark wood tones we have going on.  The brown couch and chair look good with it, as does the gold framed mirror.  Bright colors pop against it.  This green (Outback by Behr)  is practically a neutral - score!

Here's one corner of the living room.  I moved the hutch all the way into the corner because that little corner of lost space was bothering me.  All of my Pyrex is on there now.  It makes me happy.  :)  There are four of the pink Gooseberry bowls but I need to find something to elevate the other two so you can see them all!  Also, feeling like I need more pink/aqua/bright yellow pieces.  Hmm...

We went to Ikea and bought replacement hardware for the curtains.  The old one was a thin, silver metal rod and looked kind of cheap.  This one (Hugad, $5.99) is a bit heavier and white.  It was still inexpensive, but it looks more substantial.  Because the rod was so long over that sliding door we added a third bracket (Betydlig, $1.49 each) in the middle for support.  I chose simple round finials (Vasentlig, $4.99) to keep the look streamlined and simple.

I knew I wanted plain, white curtains in here, but holy moly, y'all - curtains are freaking EXPENSIVE!  Especially when you need 108 inch ones.  I couldn't believe what some places were charging for plain white curtains.  $60 for ONE panel?  I don't think so.  Ikea did have some white curtains for about $20, but they weren't plain.  They either had a funky weave, or those big grommets at the top, or stripes... not what I wanted.

I finally went to the Walmarts, bought some plain, white, twin sized flat sheets and hung those.  You know how at the top of a sheet the hem is wider than on the other three sides?  I just took some scissors, snipped a slit at either end on the back side, and threaded them on the rod.  Done.

They didn't look right to me still, so after some consideration I decided what I needed were some tie backs. I had no idea what they were really called or where to find them so I asked Twitter and Facebook.  These things can also be super expensive, I found.  This simple brushed nickel pair I picked up at Hobby Lobby for $5.99 without a coupon (I forgot about it until it was too late, whoops).  We hung them and it was just perfect - exactly what I wanted.  Window coverings, including all the hardware, for a grand total of $31.50?  I'll take it!

The large mirror (Goodwill, $20!!!) was moved to this big wall that has been blank since we moved in.  I have some milk glass plates I want to hang on either side of this eventually.  The plant on the side table (Mother in Law's Tongue - hahaha! What a name!) is new. My friend Suzy found that milk glass pot at auction.  It's actually a very oddly shaped punch bowl (it had cups and hooks too) but I liked the way the motif on the sides matched my plant.  I just popped the pot in there and then take it out to water it since there is no drainage in the punch bowl.

I spray painted that wooden tray (Goodwill, $6) that is on the sofa table (Ikea 2 x 4 Expedit on it's side) white and put some little things on it.  A few old books (Goodwill), a fancy old frame (Junior League rummage sale, $2) with a print of colored quail, and a pothos that I started from a cutting.  Pretty dang proud of that one, actually.  There's also a teeny Limoges teacup and saucer in there.  I have a pair of lamps (some random thrift store, $5 ea) that I spray painted bright orange that will flank the tray once I find them shades.  That is proving tricky.

I'm also thinking I'd like to see one of those Fiddle Leaf Fig plants that have been popping up all over blogs lately tucked by the hutch and curtain.  I've fallen in love with those cool, giant leaves and am ready to tackle the challenge of a slightly higher maintenance houseplant. Obviously I'll have to start with a smaller one because I am NOT spending $100 on a tree, and hope I can grow it to a more impressive size.  How cool would that be?  Maybe my husband will read this and bring me one in the hospital instead of flowers, HAHA!

I moved the window mirror back over the tv.  I would like to get a round one eventually  for this space since there are so many straight lines on this wall (basic rule of design - angles love curves) but that can wait a while.  I like how the white pops against the green.  I need to find some big branch to put in that bottle.  This is just a temporary solution until I'm ready to tackle my "mantel."

Here's a little bit better of a view into the kitchen and of the piano.  It only took us a year and a half, but it's almost done!  We have one wall in the hallway, plus one small wall in the entry left to paint.  We ran out and decided to call it good for now.  Next up is to paint the support "columns" for the patio because the paint is flaking off the wood really bad and to put some fresh mulch in the little flower beds by the front door.  We also need to have the carpet shampooed since we've lived here a year and a half and it hasn't been done yet.  Can't be putting a baby on a dirty rug and let's face it - carpet is GROSS, especially when you can't convince the other people in your house to leave their shoes outside!

I'm also seriously considering getting a Costco membership.  Then we'll be like, REAL grownups.  WHOA.

Signs you are a Pyrex Nerd

You're watching old episodes of Mad Men on dvd and you can't help but notice that Trudy Campbell is serving dinner from a Pyrex casserole dish,  so you open up the page you have bookmarked on your iPhone to see what it's called.

Yup, I really have a cheat sheet bookmarked on my phone to identify patterns of vintage Pyrex.

I know.  Nerd.  It's this page right here in case you want it available for reference too.  Just open it in Safari on your iPhone, scroll until what you want to be your thumbnail shows on your screen, then click the little square with an arrow leaping out of it in the bottom center of your screen.  Click ADD TO HOME SCREEN, then give it a name (it will let you type a lot, but only show 12 characters including spaces on the thumbnail) and click ADD in the upper right hand corner.

In case you're wondering, it was a Cinderella casserole (model number 575) and was a promotional pattern from fall of 1961 called Green Wheat.  I have to tell you, it's amazing the amount of research the prop people have done for this show.  This was in season two (I think?), which was set in 1963!  I bet the Campbells got it as a wedding present, along with that chip and dip...

While I know Betty Draper has a few Pyrex bowls around (you can see them in a few scenes here and there) the ones that show up most in her kitchen are these:

Fire King, aka NOT Pyrex but pretty dang similar.  You don't see them in the first few seasons, but the sugar bowl gets shown a lot in the later ones.  I couldn't find a photo online, but when I see it on the DVD I'll take a picture of the tv and post it or something.  This pattern is called Wheat.  I don't collect patterned Fire King, but I do have several of the plain pieces of milk glass in my cupboards.

Now, that Joan Halloway, SHE is a girl after my own heart.  Check out what's on her cutting board:

That's right - the pink daisy casserole I have been hoping and praying to come across for a reasonable price!  One day, it will be mine.  Just you wait!

It's soooo pretty!  I love it.

And that concludes my Mad Men/Vintage Pyrex fangirling for the day.

The Gratitude Project - Day 12

Source: gardenviewcottage.tumblr.com via Sara on Pinterest

On Thursday when my husband had the day off, we decided to do a little thrifting. We hit a few stores, but I wasn't really finding anything. I did find a Pyrex bowl at one store that matched one I already had, but Goodwill wanted ten bucks for it, and it was only the second biggest one of the set. That's ridiculous! I've seen it MUCH cheaper at antique stores. That just follows along with this trend lately of Goodwill forgetting they are a THRIFT store, I guess.

We passed by this sad little shopping center that we've seen a million times before, but had never stopped to check out before. On a whim I decided we should go peek because one of the signs in front said Antiques, and I'm always down for a good antique mall! The shopping center was indeed sad and strange but I'm really glad we stopped because I scored this beauty:

It was just nine bucks AND had the lid! It's in pristine condition too - no scratches or nasty gunk that had to be cleaned off. I love the turquoise color and the snowflakes will make it perfect for Christmas time. There were some other ones there I wouldn't have minded adding to my collection, but you know - budgets and all in due time. I'm so excited to have found this one.

Today, I am thankful for other people's old crap. Specifically, I'm thankful for people who took care of their stuff so that others like me could enjoy them in the future. My old stuff is so much prettier than anything you can buy now. :)

Fun Saturday!

I had an AWESOME Saturday! First off, the local antique mall had a flea market in their parking lot. I went thought it was once a year, but a look back at my blog posts says I went at the end of January, so I guess not! I scored all sorts of fun stuff then, so no way was I missing it this time! Believe it or not, I hauled my butt out of bed at 7:30. If you know me, you know this is extremely early in my house. We grabbed the boy and headed out for some family shopping.

I was so glad that the guy with the dollar tables of milk glass was there again this time. He only had a fraction of the stuff he did last year, but I still got some nice pieces from him. After we were done with the tour of the parking lot we decided to go look inside since we were already there. I picked up a couple more items in there. Here's my haul:

I spent about $35 on all this! Kick butt.

I found one of the mini bubble bowls outside for a dollar, and then the other ones inside for $3 each. I now have nine in my collection. The set of four mugs were a dollar each. I got them from the guy with the dollar tables. He has a lot of stuff, but generally it's all SUPER filthy. I'm talking in boxes that look like they flooded and were allowed to just dry with all the dirt and leaves and goodness knows what else. Thank goodness glass can be cleaned and sanitized, unlike porcelain! I also got the footed bowl from him for $4. I noticed it on the table behind him as I was paying for my mugs. That's an incredible price for a piece that big.

The metal thing in the back is a holder/warmer for the split oval Pyrex casserole dishes. You put a tealight in each of the holders, then set the dish on top so your food is kept warm on the table. It's in perfect condition, and it was only six dollars. The little flower frog was $3. I've never seen one in this particular antique mall, and I've never seen one so cheap! It's a bit rusty, so I plan to give it a good scrub with a dry brush and then a coat of spray paint. The bubble bowl was found in the salvage yard area, covered in dirt, on a bottom shelf. Six bucks? Don't mind if I do! I now I have seven. Gotta love odd numbers.

The old Macmillan Pocket Edition of The Idylls of the King was $2 from a vendor in the parking lot. I like it's small size. ONE DAY I will have a large cloche, and this will be perfect to put under it as part of a vignette. ONE DAY!

After we left the antique mall, we headed home so I could drop off the boy and my husband. I grabbed a few things and headed over to my friend Sam's house where she was hosting a craft day. She fed us delicious food (and it was vegetarian/healthy and still yummy, whoa), this awesome crispy bark that she made, and cucumber water. We sat and chatted and worked on our crafts. I forgot my camera, but Sam let me use her Canon (jealous... need a grown up camera!!!) to take photos of what I made. I'll post about it when I get them from her!

After I left there I headed out to Hobby Lobby. Sam was altering this cute little papier mache house and I wanted to make one too so bad but they didn't have any more. I did get lucky though and found that they were getting rid of all their QuicKutz stuff. I got the last cutting mat they had for my Epic. You need two to use it with Sizzix dies, but the $16 price tag made me put off buying the second one. Finding it on clearance for $6 made my day! I also got a cute Love Birds die for $1.75, and a two pack of adhesive for my ATG for $5.99!!! That's so awesome, because usually I pay $7.99 for ONE roll. Yikes, right?

I also picked up a little tube of E600, a papier mache heart and a couple of papier mache stars so I could lift some projects from Paper Princess Studio and Sweet Something Designs, and was excited to see they carried DiscHangers so I won't have to order them online after all for the plates I want to hang. I hate shopping online. I don't get the concept of having to pay MORE (shipping stinks!) in order to have to wait for my stuff to get to me.

I came home and my husband made me dinner (leftovers, whOO!!!), we watched a little tv, and then I started work on another Halloween project. I'll show you that when it's done too. I'm just so glad it's October. The temperature is supposed to drop TWENTY DEGREES next week. Hallelujah!

J'adore... Vintage Pyrex

You may have heard me mention that in the past few months, I've started to collect vintage Pyrex. I resisted it for a long time. The pretty colors and fun designs tried their best to lure me in, but I kept telling myself that I did not need a new collection of anything. Of course, then I found Pinterest (follow me here!) and the rest was history. Now I kick myself when I think of all the lovely pieces I left behind in various thrift shops because I wasn't a collector. *sigh*

The set of four Cinderella bowls in the Gooseberry pattern (top middle of photo, stacked) were my very first purchase. They broke the dam, if you will. I found these before I found Pinterest. I'm a sucker for old things, and pink things. These were in perfect condition and it was only $18 for the whole set at Goodwill. The small round casseroles that you see to the left of the bowls were there too, but I left them behind. I still kick myself for that move.

Even after buying these, I didn't really consider collecting. These were just a pretty one off that I happened to buy because I liked them. They were going to be the only ones I had.

Well, of course, when I Googled them to find out the name of the pattern, I found a bunch of other pink Pyrex out there.

How adorable is this set of striped bowls? I love that the wide stripes are flanked by narrower ones. I think that makes them more visually interesting than if they had used a uniform stripe.

And there are all these pretties. Even though it's the absolute BEST shade of aqua ever, I've never really been a huge fan of the Amish Butterprint. But in the pink I really like it! I wouldn't mind having any of these in my cupboards!

These are the ones I'm really looking for right now. Daisies are my absolute favorite flower, so a combination of pink Pyrex with a daisy design is pretty much meant for me!

So at this point I'm thinking I'll collect vintage Pyrex, but only the pink pieces. Then it will not get out of control! I'm just so smart.

Enter Pinterest, and this photo:

Oh. My. Word. I loved how happy and bright all the colors looked together on that plain white shelf. The way the collector organized the colors just made them look so appealing to me! So, now I'm thinking maybe it wouldn't be so bad to collect it just in general, because it's so pretty and colorful!

I have the blue and the green covered casserole dishes on the bottom right corner of that photo too. :)

I started looking for other photos of vintage Pyrex on Pinterest. There are a lot of them out there! This is another lovely collection that is especially heavy on the pinks and blues.

How could anything that makes a person look this happy be wrong?

I really like her collection of the racks hanging on the wall. These took your Pyrex up a notch by giving them carrying handles or turning them into chafing dishes or chip and dip sets.

This old ad shows a lot of the pieces with their racks. I really love the one with the coffee pot. That brings me to the subject of the ads. I'm pinning those on my Pyrex board as well.

This one shows how versatile the pieces are, going from freezer to oven to table. It also shows one of the casseroles in it's carrying rack.

Here's an ad for the Cinderella bowl sets that gives you ideas of how you could use them. Nowadays companies want you to buy a separate product for each one of those tasks, but back then people looked for ways to get more bang for their buck.

Check out the prices on those ads too, if you can see them. If only those folks had known what these would be worth in the future!

Of course, there are the ones that didn't survive quite as nicely as most of them. According to the blog where I found this photo, this bowl was the victim of too many trips through the dishwasher, and I believe it! Dishwasher detergent doesn't clean like regular soap; rather, it's an enzyme that sort of eats the dirt off your dishes. If there is no dirt to eat, well then, it will just start to eat away at your dishes instead. This is what causes etching on glasses, and why you shouldn't pre-rinse your dishes before you put them in the dishwasher. (Just scrape off the chunks.)

I suppose it goes without saying that you should NEVER put anything with a shiny finish that you want to protect, oh, say like vintage Pyrex, in the dishwasher.

This is just a cute casserole that I saw online today for the first time. I love how retro the kitchen designs on it are. Another I'd be really happy to find! I lurrrrve it.

And then there are these. If you think it's hard to find vintage Pyrex that's in good condition, well then, it's almost impossible to find it in good condition in the box in which it originally came! This collector (on Flickr) has a ton of these pieces, many with the original 99cent price stickers and decorative tags. So flipping cool.