thrift store spoils, ch. 21: Marimekko Oy, Dansk, and Remington Steele meets Strawberry Shortcake

I have become a Me-TV junkie. For those of you unfamiliar with the channel, "Me" is short for "memorable entertainment." That is, classics. (Don't you like the retro logo above?) 

These are shows that are quite often potically incorrect, without apology. (Oh, the freedom!) 

They are unafraid to feature cigarette smokers, sunbathers, and seatbeltless passengers. (You won't find twerking here, though. Thank the good Lord.) 

And they are as vintage as vintage gets. 


And I'm glad that I've been able to introduce some of these classic shows to the kids—shows such as Gilligan's Island, Columbo, and Wonder Woman. And for the first time in my memory, I, myself, can watch Remington Steele in syndication.

I spent the 1980's as a high school and college student, and (not that you asked, but) my must-see shows of the decade were Magnum, P.I. (duh!), The Dukes of Hazzard, Cheers, Hart to Hart, and Remington Steele. 

Yep. I liked Doris Roberts before she became Raymond's mom. And I liked Pierce Brosnan before he became 007—and even before he gained the extra muscle that made him even more attractive. And, I must say, the only accent more appealing than a British accent is a Southern one. (Thus, the inclusion of the Dukes in my list!)

Me-TV broadcasts Remington Steele on Sunday afternoons, and I use my handy-dandy DVR function so that I can watch it alone later in the week. So this week's episode ("Steele Knuckles and Glass Jaws"—with a plot obviously piggybacking on the Rocky movies' boxing theme popularity during the decade) has, in one part, our debonaire Mr. Steele going undercover as a wheeler-dealer (a role not unfamiliar to him, given his mysterious and suspect past), during which time he meets briefly with a shady character in a diner. Vintage dishware alert!

Check out what's sitting on the counter in front of them: an Anchor Hocking milk glass mug featuring Strawberry Shortcake. (I think this is the exact one.)

Why is such a precious mug sitting in such a seedy scene, you may be thinking? I have no clue. Irony, perhaps?

I was never a Strawberry Shortcake fan; instead, I was of the older Holly Hobbie generation. But my little sister was the prime age when Strawberry Shortcake became uber-popular in the 1980's. And I think I remember that she had a Strawberry Shortcake lunchbox?

Anyhow, just thought I'd share the vintage sighting surprise that occurred while I watched vintage TV.  

Now on to the week's finds.

I picked up this simple, white veggie bowl by Merimekko Oy (Pfaltzgraff). It's in great condition, with some crazing only. Marimekko has sold well for me in my Etsy shop, so I'll list it there.

I also found this classic metal trivet, made in Japan. Truly kitschy-cool. Hey, who doesn't like a practical kitchen item that also demeans (good naturedly, of course) the authority of the man of the house? And check out the weapon bread roller at the bottom. 

This Mrs. Clause salt shaker is also made in Japan. Isn't the detail on her face sweet? Alas, the pepper shaker was nowhere to be found. A day in the life of a thrifter.

And this mug is by Dansk. I know very little about it right now, only that it reads "Dansk Designs Denmark" on the bottom. I'll learn more and then list it on Etsy, I suppose.

This pair of owl mugs is unmarked—no "made in Japan" or anything. (I assume they're vintage 1970's, though.) I got them because pairs are good to list. They also remind me of the several houses (rented and owned) we had growing up. Owls were always represented, and the decor always included a healthy amount of brown.

These are items I found and bought for Mama. As I've mentioned before, she's a fan of yellow. The Opal loaf pan is Pyrex, of course. And the platter pattern is "Fresh as Spring" by Mikasa Light 'n Lively, made in Japan. I think I've loved every Light 'n Lively pattern I've come across.

This Tupperware Servalier canister set was marked at $4 for all eight pieces. I texted a photo to Mama, told her they were a pale yellow, and asked whether she wanted them. "Yes!" she responded. (I believe they're officially listed as Harvest Gold, by the way.)

And that's it. 

If you're so inclined, check out some Me-TV. Thrifters who are vintage nuts should be watching some vintage TV!

And thanks extended to Sir Thrift-a-Lot, We Call It Junkin, and Thrifter/Maker/Fixer/Farm for the opportunity to link up.

thrift store spoils, ch. 17: Couroc hummingbirds, Porky Pig, and the SS Norway

I'm back after a month-long blogging hiatus. My reasons? Lots of work (I substitute teach)and several snow days (meaning that my kids have been home to trash the house and get in my way). 

And on a much less trivial note, my Kentucky Mamaw died last month. I spent about a week driving to North Carolina to meet up with my parents before driving on to Kentucky and back for the funeral. This Mamaw, my father's mother, was the one I've referenced who spent most of her lifetime on a farm. Among other talents, she maintained her own veggie garden, she quilted blankets (mostly with 60's or 70's fabric), and she churned her own butter. When she got much older, she moved into an easy-to-maintain duplex and, later, on to an assisted living home. Mamaw was 95 when she died. 

Mama asked me whether there was anything of Mamaw's that I'd like to bring back with me, an item to remember her by. My mind immediately went to her aluminum cake cover and carrier. I can't count how many times it was used by Mamaw to serve my brother, my sister, and me one of her three-layered cakes. My aunt and uncle were able to locate the vintage item in Mamaw's garage, and it's now in my kitchen.

I'll use it to store plates of brownies or cookies. Goodness knows I'll never match her in the art of cake making. She knew her stuff.

And on to my latest thrift store finds—I bought this beauty at my favorite GW last month. 

This jacquard tablecloth was made in Austria. My photos stink, I know. But the second photo shows a bit of the detail on the wide border. After I iron it a bit, I'll photograph it better and list it on Etsy.

At the same GW, I found these vintage-hip hummingbird lowball glasses. They're by Couroc—vintage 1950s, I believe. And they're in perfect condition. I'll list them on Etsy as soon as I figure out how to ship them without it costing a fortune. They're quite weighty.  

Yes. I now have yet another mid-century magazine rack to add to my collection. I just love these things. So handy-dandy.

On the way to Kentucky (and we went the backish way—via highways that took us through small Appalachian towns rather than by the more impersonal interstate), Mama and I took note of every Goodwill or Salvation Army store we passed. (I think I've mentioned before that Mama has recently contracted a Pyrex obsession, causing her to stop in at thrift stores as often as the rest of us do?) On the way home, we visited every store on our list.

Of note here is the fact that my brother is an architect who does work for Goodwill in Kentucky: he has both designed rehabs of old buildings for Goodwill offices and/or stores, as well as drawn complete from-the-ground-up plans for them. One of those GW stores Mama and I visited was his creation. Cool!

And at one of those Kentucky stores, I picked up this Glasbake milk glass "Mom" mug. I grabbed it, because I've already sold a pair of similar mugs ("Grandpa" and "Grandma") on Etsy. We'll see how well this one does.

Okay. So it's time to crowd my post with more photos of mugs. What can I say? I cannot pass them up.

This Enesco mug is dated 1978. Garfield was so big back then. (I remember!)It's listed on Etsy.

This mug by Inhesion features artwork by Maria Ryan, as well as her signature. On the bottom of the mug is the name "Cat n' Mouse," which I just don't get. What does "n'" mean?
And? Nope: one too few apostrophes. 
An? Nope: not only does that not make sense, but the apostrophe is in the wrong place.
I've listed this mug on Etsy (cat folks love their cat mugs), but it bothered me to include that incomprehensible name.

This milk glass mug featuring a sweet pastoral scene was manufactured by Anchor Hocking. I have yet to list it (needs a better photo!), and I've yet to research it. The design leads me to believe it's vintage 1980s, though, but I can't be sure.

And I just love this mug. (The blues! Oh, my.) My understanding is that this was sold (or given?) as a souvenir aboard the Norwegian Cruiseline's SS Norway in the early 1980's. I researched and found that the ship was dismantled in 2008. So there will be no more. I thought about keeping this for myself. But, for now, it's listed on Etsy.

I picked these items up here and there: a Longaberger candle crock, a brass owl (with an old Walmart sticker on the bottom?), and a Tupperware ice tea cup (Uncle Si-style). I've already given the cup to my college freshman daughter.

After my trip to Kentucky and on my way home from Mama and Daddy's place, I stopped in at a GW in Salem, Virginia, where I bought this set of Lenox Ware melamine children's cups. I grew up watching Warner Bros. cartoons on Saturday mornings, and I loved the stuttering Porky Pig. 


And to quote this iconic character: That's all, Folks!

Oops. Thanks to Sir Thrift-a-Lot and We Call It Junkin for the opportunity to link up!

thrift store spoils, ch. 15: Dansk, polyester, and Pyrex

About a week before Christmas, I saw an oval tray by Dansk at one of my regular stops. It was in rough shape, but I knew that it only needed some replenishing oil. It was marked five bucks, though (more than I wanted to pay), and it looked like it had originally come with a couple of serving bowls of some sort, which were missing. Three more times before Christmas (yep, I stop in too often), I picked the thing up again, pondering it, but all three times I left it there.

Then over Christmas and while visiting my parents in North Carolina, I had thrifter's remorse (sound familiar?).


So the morning after driving home, I was back in the store. I beelined for the shelf where I'd last seen it, and (Yay!) there it was. When I brought the poor thing home, it looked like this:

But I got after it with my handy-dandy IKEA replenishing product, and looky here:

Pretty nice, huh? I figure I have enough thrift store bowls sitting around (or stored, Lord knows) to take the place of whatever serving bowls originally sat on both ends. Loving my first Dansk tray!
 
Back to North Carolina—in an Asheville GW, I found a groovy-but-nasty enamel cast iron skillet with a teak handle, made by Copco. There were a couple of places where some of the enamel had chipped off, but the thing was orange, so I was compelled to buy it. At home, I applied lots of BKF and more of the IKEA replenishing stuff. Check it out. 

It makes a mean grilled cheese sandwich, by the way.

Also in North Carolina, I found these cute juice glasses.

They're by Arcoroc (France), and they're sweet. I do think it's weird that they're decorated with onions and mushrooms, though. (Can you juice a mushroom?)

And I found this tablecloth (handmade) for a steal. Mama thinks the fabric was originally used by Henredon Furniture on one of their pieces. Henredon used to build furniture in Mitchell County, North Carolina, until they had to close up shop there about 10 years ago. You still see their high-quality fabric and ornate and gargantuan pieces here and there in the area, though, because they used to have a great, largely unadvertised outlet store on the premises. I still have fabric around my house, bought back in the day. 

Anyhow, the tablecloth was orange, so I scooped it up.

Speaking of fabric, I bought this several weeks ago. It's blue; it's houndstoothy; and it's vintage polyester. Simply beautiful. (Can't you imagine sewing the best woman's pantsuit ever out of this?) My husband thinks I'm crazy, but I will make throw pillow covers for our bedroom with this fine vintage fabric.

Back home, I bought these bread and butter plates in sage. They're Harkerware by Russel Wright, like the charcoal ones I found a couple of weeks ago. They're already listed in my Etsy shop.

I also picked up this perfect Pyrex Butterprint 503 fridgie. Always love that torquoise!

I have a thing for vintage iced tea glasses. Libbey made the turquoise polka-dot one, Anchor Hocking made the black and red carriage one, and I have no idea who made the green and white early-American one. (But I do already have several others in that set, God help me.)

I bought more coffee mugs. (Duh.) The New York mug is a Jay Joshua design (not so old), and the beetle mug is by Tyrrell Katz (vintage, like, 2013?). You can't see it clearly in this photo, by the way, but John Lennon is included as a "beetle."

And that Wife/Hug mug, made in Japan, is kitschy-cute, indeed. I've already listed it on Etsy.

I haven't eaten meat in years, and I rarely serve it. But I had to have these utensils. They look like the ones Alice would have placed on the table for that blended Brady family.

And last, here are some goofy odds and ends. More Tupperware. Yay! And I'm always up for fun and inexpensive planters. Come this spring, all three of these will be filled with sweet, tiny Hens and Chicks.

Oops. I almost forgot an update: I wrote about some overpriced mugs/cups that I've seen for two years now at my favorite thrift store in Mama's town. Well, they were still there this Christmas. Proof.

Sending much appreciation out to Sir-Thrift-a-Lot and a living space for the opportunity to link up!

That is all for now. Happy, happy thrifting, y'all.

thrift store spoils, ch. 1: Golden Poinsettia and mod fondue plates

Greetings, thrifters. I do believe that, this week, I was suffering from thrift store withdrawal. The family recently took a couple of weeks to head down south and, finally, to Texas, and I thrift shopped only twice (twice, I say!) during that time.

It would be so rude, after all, to make the fam sit in the car on vacation while I run in—if only just for a minute!

This week, I suppose I was trying to make up for lost time. I didn’t score much, though—not much considering how often I “stopped in for just a minute” at the usual haunts, anyway. Still.

This is the Pyrex Golden Poinsettia 2 1/2 quart casserole. When I bought it, honest to goodness, I wasn't sure that it was one of the seasonal patterns—in this case Christmas. (Now when I look at it, I say "duh.") 

But, really, I'm not into seasonal decor; I don't want to store seasonal stuff all year for, say, a day's or a month's use. I prefer to buy solid colors that'll do double/triple/what-have-you duty. For instance, my Pyrex bowl in primary green (404), can work at Christmas, in the spring, or on a lucky St. Patty's Day.

Anyhow, I brought this home (just loving the red and gold combo) and looked it up at Pyrex Passion. That's when I learned that it was seasonal. Ho. Ho. Ho. 

 

And why do I buy a single glass? I do so, because I can't pass up 1950s aqua drinking glasses or barware. Consequently, I now have a small collection of aqua blue, mid-century glasses with diverse designs and of various sizes. I'll write a special post about that odd collection at a later date.

Anyhow, this glass is by Hazel Atlas.

Another with the aqua blue. I can't find any info on who made this one, but I haven't researched much.

Yep, more aqua goodness. And, again, I've been unable to find out who made these. Any ideas?

I finally own fondue plates (inconveniently, at a time when I've promised myself to cut back on cheese consumption). I'd seen similar plates in thrift stores before, but hadn't quite caught on to what in the heck they'd be used for. 

Then I saw this (the following) recipe card in a 1972 Betty Crocker recipe set I bought at a thrift store this spring.

And it all made sense. Handy-dandy for dips and sauces!

All four plates were manufactured in Japan (as per info on tiny, shiny gold stickers that were still adhered to the backs when I bought them), but—for some odd reason—only the orange plates are imprinted with "Japan." 

I love the orange ones, because . . . well, because they're orange. And I love the Harvest Gold ones, because they remind me of my Florida Mamaw's kitchen. She had the same Harvest Gold fridge from the early 1970s when she moved to South Florida until the new millennium, I swear. 

They don't make 'em like they used to.

And I guess I need to start fonduing.

I bought this tile/trivet thingie, not only because my parents live near this mountain, but also because every time we visit, our route takes us right by it. Of course, the fam has gone all the way up the thing several of times. And I've attended a church that used to contain windows that allowed us to see the mountain during Mass. (Really nice.)

Ten years ago, I found two of these trivets/tiles in a thrift store in Mobile, Alabama. (I bought them both and gave Mama the better one, while I kept the one with the chips.) But then, just last week, I found this in a Goodwill store in Salem, Virginia. (I was just stopping in for a minute while dropping off one of the daughters for her freshman year in college. What patient girls.)

I think I'll frame it. Mamaw had a couple of tiles with birds on them, framed. They were kind of nerdy in the 1970s, I thought; but they're cool now.

I found this fun set of mugs (made in Japan and stackable, of course) in a Salvation Army thrift store. I think they're cute as can be, but I had in mind a possible future Etsy store when I purchased them. (I'm still trying to gear myself up for running a resale business . . . . )

Another sweet mug made in Japan. And another Etsy possibility.

I bought this—not only because I think it's pretty dang cute—but because I thought it was a Swanky Swig (which I also own a few of, God help me). I came home, looked in my handy-dandy Swanky Swig collector's book I bought a while back, and couldn't locate it. (Perhaps the book contains incomplete info?) It's obviously a glass that came into a home with a product in it (I swear, it looks like a Kraft pimento cheese jar!), but my research has, thus far, turned up nothing.

The last thing I'll share with you today is this Old Fashioned glass. I bought it because, not only can I not pass up aqua blue drinking glasses, but I also can't pass up cool mid-century barware in which one might serve Bourbon. 


I like Bourbon.

This glass has a signature, but, for the life of me, I can't make it out. It almost looks as if it begins with "Wm," but I'm just not sure. 

And that's it for now. 

Goodness. Where am I gonna put all of this stuff?