Hello, Doris.

This is Doris. She's my 1960's Singer 338 and I finally took her out from under the debris of garage sale junk and whatnot. The table is in super minty condition and I have all the presser feet and cam discs that came with the machine. I tried it with the bobbin that came in it and with a new 66 bobbin and the new one didn't work. I guess I'll just have to keep winding the old one with different colors until I figure out where to obtain others that will work. >_<

You may remember the sewing chair from an earlier post. I bought it at an occasional sale earlier this year and finally got around to recovering it. I felt compelled to do so because my legs kept sticking to the plastic fabric that was on it. Here's a before and after.

I'm getting ready for No Coast Takes a Field Trip September 20 and Maker Fair Handcrafted Bazaar October 11 so I'm getting into the Halloween spirit! I've got a bunch of Ouija board placemats cut, pinned, and ready to sew and am heading to Joann tomorrow to get the rest of the fabric I need to finish everything! I got the proofs to some new fabrics from Spoonflower this week too and am so excited about how they turned out! I'm thinking I need to make a tablecloth for myself out of the Pyrex design!

More soon, enjoy the holiday weekend!

Kind of Blah

This weekend's sales were a little disappointing. There is someone who snatches up all the things I go to the sales to buy! I follow the search word 'Halloween' on an estate sales finder website and it usually doesn't bring up many sales, so when I found one that was loaded with vintage Beistle, I obviously planned it into my weekend! Unfortunately I couldn't go opening day, but Saturday was half priced day and I got there at 9 am on the dot. Too bad someone walked in a second before me and took ALL the things I really pined after. I'm talking the black articulated cat which is always priced too high for me when I see it. This sale was heavy handed with the prices which is why I think there was still so much left. I did manage to find a few things such as the lime green Pyrex cake pan and 024 with lid. It is currently holding a vegan summer salad made with Just Mayo. Apparently this is now sold at Dollar Tree stores!

I don't know why I didn't think to find other sales in the area. I just had my heart set on this one sale and that was it, but BJ wanted to find others. There was one not too far away that I wish I would have known about earlier in the day. It had a black gooseberry, a promotional with it's stand, and a bunch of other Pyrex. All that was left when we visited was this lonely little redish fridgie. It was only fifty cents! Granted there is quite a bit of wear but, what a deal. I'm just beating myself up over what the rest of them were marked.

There was an estate sale put on without an agency in a beautiful two-story in Tangletown. I found a box of old Christmas ornaments, mostly Shiny Brite. I also picked up a totally atomic old jar of "hair dressing" made in Minneapolis, another jar with a pedestal of the same product made in Memphis, and an old prescription bottle for eye drops- all empty of course. I think it is so fun that this lady kept these containers. I just love the history! The RX is from Feit Drugs St. Paul, MN prescribed to Mrs. Chott by Dr. Rick on September 4, 1947. The rubber on the dropper is still useable. 

I found the deer sugar and creamer set at Arc's on Thrifty Thursday and then the weird Pyrex mold pan on Saturday. It was in the animal section, presumably because someone thought it was a slow feeder. That's what I thought when I first saw it and picked it up thinking of my greedy-eater, Annabelle. Then I saw that it was marked Pyrex and knew that probably wasn't its intended purpose. I haven't found much about it. I've seen it called a bundt pan or a gelatin mold and several people suggest that they make meatloaf in the microwave in it. I actually planned on making meatless loaf this week, maybe I'll try it!

I was able to get a few Beistle cutouts at the first estate sale. I found a smaller articulated cat, a glow in the dark ghost, and a cat on a skull. They probably aren't as old as the ones the guy before me was hoarding, but I'm happy with my purchase. There was a lady who bought up the rest of the good stuff from an online bid which I didn't even know was possible. I searched their website and am still baffled as to how this happened. How is it fair to have items on the sales floor and online? There is no possible way to know who gets it first. I wasn't pleased with the way that particular company handled itself as a whole. They were very clingy and made me feel like I was trying to steal things because I was picking things up to think about and not running to have it put on my slip right away. On top of that, they had all that paper stuff outside in the insane humidity getting gross and flimsy. Anyway...

My garden went from awesome to dead. First, someone has been stealing our tomatoes which happen to be the only thing going for us. The sunflowers just keep growing and not making flowers, my peas got a white film of mold and died, my butternut squash got yellow and died, my green beans stopped making beans, and everything else is growing at a snail's pace. I think it might be the weird weather we've had this year because my petunias are not looking so hot on my balcony either. At least it will all be over soon and I can focus all my efforts and not killing mums!

This Weekend's Finds

This weekend's finds had an unintentionally yellow theme. There were a ton of garage sale ads posted on the roads, but I didn't really find many that spoke to me. I spotted a red fridgie in a Craigslist post and of course it was gone by the time I got there, but a cute little Mid Century Modern hot plate with measuring conversions was there. There was a meat one as well, but I decided to leave it there as it doesn't fit with my lifestyle and I don't even like thinking of animals as food in illustration. The little pig with eyelashes pepper shaker and flatware also came from that sale. I swear, I'm not starting a salt and pepper shaker collection. This must and will not happen!

No scores from Arc's which surprised me. Even more than that, I found all the Pyrex at Goodwills! The yellow daisy Cinderella bowl is super duper shiny. The 024 looked a tad beat up before, but it cleaned up beautifully with a lot of elbow grease. The 8x8 cake pan cost more and it was much dirtier. I'll have to do a little investigation to see if I can get the baked on gunk off. I've never seen one of these in the wild, so I'm happy to add it to my collection, despite it not being my ideal color.

I found a church thrift shop that apparently happens every Saturday right up the street from me and everything is 25 cents! I couldn't believe I found a Pyrex custard cup carrier, a knife that matched the flatware I had purchased earlier in the day, and a really cute napkin holder. Now I have to make a bunch of cloth napkins for it. 

I also scored some paper skull Halloween decorations, a glow-in-the-dark plastic skeleton, and a few pieces of black/spider web fabric at another sale all for $1.50! The cherry on top of the weekend was finding $7 on the ground at the Twins game which paid for most of my Pyrex purchase! I took it as an apology from the universe for subjecting me to being molested in all my lady parts by two children the entire train ride to the ballpark! >_< I rarely leave the light rail without a story to tell.

Off to work on a new Halloween design for Spoonflower!

A Small Turquoise Score

What with this being Road Construction Season here in the great state of Minnesota, I didn't actually end up making it to Lake Benton during my trip. My sister decided to kindly take us to Marshall because I told her that I wanted to get some thrifting in beforehand. She wanted to swing through Lamberton on the way there to check out the thrift/antique store she remembered going to years back. Lucky for us there were two side by side and both were having 10% off everything sales!

At the first store I found an early yellow 503 with lid. I already have one that I scored at Arc's for about half the price, but it is a later make. I just love primaries, so what the heck! It was at steal at $5 and change after the discount. Then we headed next door to the place she remembered. It had three floors and there were 50% already clearanced deals in the basement. I found a few white cats, but I passed on them if you can believe it. I only wanted one, but didn't want to break them up. (I found the white cat in the picture at Arc's when I got back. I sadly passed on a Pyrex double boiler and I just don't know what I was thinking. I'm really kicking myself on that one.)

The first thing I saw when I walked through the front door was the turquoise 401 and was disappointed when I noticed it was pretty scuffed up. I'm sure I can look at some Pyrex cleaning pages and try to clean it up a little. It was $9 after the discount, so it wasn't a horrible deal considering the crazy prices on eBay these days and I don't have to pay for shipping. The real deal of the day was the turquoise 023 for $6.30. It's really shiny and only has a little chip in one of the handles. They actually had several red 501's, most with lids, but they were a little spendy, so I passed. I wish I could be the person who finds these cheaply before they hit the resale market. So lucky.

There was no time to make it to the store I wanted to go to because there were more detours along the way. Now I've scheduled another trip in September during the citywide garage sale. I made a good amount of money at the sale we held this past weekend. I've already started clearing out a little more to add onto the next one.

Also coming up in September is No Coast Craft-o-Rama Takes a Field Trip in St. Anthony, MN. I'm going to have my Ouija board placemats for sale as well as the rest of my Halloween stuff. I hate to say good bye to summer because it's so brief here, but I just love Autumn and Halloween so much! Do you think BJ would notice if I started unpacking the decorations at the end of August this year?

Thrifty Thursday

I know I promised a thrift update a long while ago, but I've been a mix of busy and lazy. I'm going down to SW MN this weekend for a wedding (I hate weddings)/to have a garage sale at my mom's, so you know what that means: Lake Benton here I come!!! I'm really hoping that my thrift drought is cured down there and I hit a jackpot of Pyrex gold. I told you there would be cats with an S, so here you go! A few months ago I scored the cats above at Flamingo's. I don't know if the ashtray is Holt-Howard the way I saw one labeled on e-bay, but it's oh so cute despite the damage. It still spins open though, if I ever decided to pick up smoking, haha! >_<

I've finally convinced BJ that estate sales are totally worth waking up early on weekend mornings. I had been drooling over a listing that had TWO PAIRS of Holt-Howard salt and pepper shakers: Santas and sassy cats. The Santas were very reasonable, but the cats were full blown retail, not my thing. I decided to risk waiting until the half off sale the next day and it paid off! These don't meow, but seem like they maybe used to. I immediately disposed of the free salt and pepper, washed both pairs up, and put the kitties on this new green shelf I picked up at Goodwill for my expanding white cat collection. 

I found the two beautiful kitties in the upper left corner at Arc's on separate occasions.

And I couldn't pass up this silly cat because she looks so much like Annabelle! This one is on the floor with the larger cat that belonged to my grandmother which sat by her fireplace hearth.

The photo above is of my largest thrift haul in one weekend. Most of it is from one of the most abundant estate sales I think I'll ever see. It was a tiny house in Richfield that was packed to the gills and overflowed outside. I went all three days in was held. There was a lot of great vintage Christmas stuff, all those Santas are from there. I picked up all but one that was there because they were a great deal after the sale discounts the second and third days. The ornament with the S&P shakers was left on the third day and came with a couple of ugly ornaments, but this one was worth the price. It looks like a light sticks in the back to make it a little bubbler! I also picked up vintage candle stick holder clips, Santa mugs, two Kewpie dolls, some mini bottle brush trees, a bunch of glass ornaments, a Santa clip ornament, several pairs of screw/clip earrings, a baby doll, and a celluloid Nevalyashka doll. I found some vintage Ball jars, Pyrex, Glasbake, and Fire King at Arc's along with a rainbow+unicorn cross stitch (it happened to be Pride weekend so it was fate!) and a vintage rooster mail/key rack. 

I picked up a papier mâché rooster that, from what I found, was a German candy holder. Later I found a vintage wood burger press with roosters on it. I guess my kitchen will be rooster themed and I didn't even plan it. It all started with a .69 Holt-Howard Coq Rouge plate.

I was on a roll with Pyrex for a while. I picked up all of the bowls above minus the Early American in one trip! I'm only planning to keep the green, flamingo, and DWD yellow ones. I thought I had the Friendship sold on Instagram, but it was called by a non-payer much like my past e-bay experience. Don't be a non-payer. If you don't want something or aren't prepared to pay, just don't bid on it. It's just rude and can really ruin someone's good mood.

Last month at Flamingo's, I found a pink gooseberry 503 with no lid and a pink rainbow stripe 403. Then I went to Goodwill right before close. To my great surprise I found a pink gooseberry 441 just setting amongst the plates! Ah! These are all available. I need to trade pink for turquoise.

I got this shelf off of Craigslist. The former owner used it as a shoe rack because she never got around to re-finishing it for a shelf and it is really sticky. I just didn't have room to wait around until I could re-finish it so I put my Pyrex on it as intended. Well, now it's back to being a shoe rack, ha!

We inherited this marvelous Mid Century China hutch from BJ's uncle's wife's father. :) It needs to be re-finished as well, but I think it just has to wait until we move to a house so it doesn't have to be battered after it gets beautiful. If you can see it on the lower right hand corner, I also found a pink Pyrex pie plate and a pink daisy DD which I found at a garage sale and estate sale respectively. I also picked up three small Salem North Star bowls at the garage sale. The Butterprint 501 fridgie is from Urban Cottage last month. I didn't pick anything up this month so my thrifting fix is really riding on this trip back home.

I found this little vintage needle threader at Arc's and had to have it! The colors match the manual to my vintage Singer, which is sadly still under a pile of rubbish, but that will all change after this weekend's sale! Also, this brand is Witch. Halloween is coming!!! I'll have a craft update soon so you know where to find me this Halloween season and give you a peek at what I've been working on!

Neat

There is a new ground meat alternative out on the market. I thought I'd never see it in a store because it seems that all the things I really want to try never come to my market. I saw this at the Wedge while I was walking through an aisle not even looking for it. I decided to make some bacon cheeseburger juicy lucys. I may be from Minnesota, but I went veg before I'd ever even heard of Matt's Bar or 5-8 Club, so I've never had a meat one. 

The preparation for Neat was extremely sticky. Here's a little Pyrex-in-action. I made these over at BJ's parents house while we were house-sitting. It just requires what's in the package plus two egg-substitutes- I used flax egg, and two tablespoons of water. Easy.

Since I was making a stuffed burger, I had to use two patties per burger. They ended up being slider sized, but fit perfectly on half of a large bun.

We brought our skillet over because I thought these would taste best cooked on cast-iron. Way too sticky to be grilled like BJ wanted.

Add a couple of slices of Daiya cheddar and Lightlife bacon,

some grilled corn, and homemade potato wedges, and call it a meal! Overall, I thought the burgers were really tasty and I didn't get a gross after-feeling or heaviness that I get from most faux meats. The only downside is the packing since I'm trying to go as zero-waste as I can.