Friday's Finds

I went to an antique store yesterday that a friend put on Facebook. It is call Stella & Ruby's Vintage & Variety and is on Hwy 321 outside Gatlinburg. 

I believe it is only one owner. Unlike the multi-shop antique stores where each booth has their own stuff, this has everything organized with like items.

And you have to look everywhere because there is even stuff up high and hanging from the ceiling. You never now what you will find.

For those of you vintage lovers who collect the old red utensils, you will be in 7th heaven. This is just one of about 4 or 5 displays of the old utensils.

They even have some of the old pots with red handles.

Percolators of all kinds.

And I love how they have it in the old style kitchen.

I was fascinated by the jars of smaller collectibles. My grandson got three different types of dice for his big brother who collects dice.

I was so thrilled to finally find glass door knobs at good prices. I wanted one for a Pinterest project and couldn't find it. I haven't bought one yet, because I need to go find the project again because I forgot what I was going to make.

Lots of vintage Tupperware and plastic items, all in excellent condition.

And for you photo buffs who love vintage cameras, you should really go check these out.

 I was so thrilled with the Pyrex collection and the prices are so reasonable. There was a lot in my Town & Country pattern and a lot of the acorn pattern that I fell in love with.

Lot of cute little metal items. Especially the little measuring cups. Again, pricing is fabulous on everything. I didn't really see anything that was extremely too pricey. 

They have an awesome collection of phones. I'm planning on a trip back to purchase one soon.

I only had a short time to browse as I had to pick up my granddaughter at cheer practice. But I did manage to find the Pyrex Verde 402 mixing bowl I have been looking for. It was only $8.00. I saw it at two other shops recently and one wanted $22 and one wanted $25. See what I mean, excellent pricing.

I have been looking for some vintage round clothes pins for some projects. They had these for just $3.00. I know I could buy new ones for less, but I want vintage for a reason. So I am very happy with these. 

After I left there, I decided to stop at the little mini flea market that sets up in the parking lot behind Dunn's Market. One lady had some vintage items and if she saw me pick something up and look at it, she would change the price. This was $3.00 and when I picked it up she said you can have that for $1.00. For a vintage ice bucket with the original tongs. Heck yes I bought it. 

And this lamps was marked $5.00. I pick it up and she said it worked and I could have it for $1.00. It does work I checked when I got home. She said it is vintage and the cord is one that is like the cords from older years. If I had to guess, I would say about the 60's or 70's. The cord is very faded and old and has the prongs that are the skinny size of days gone by. I was looking for a lamp with height to fill a corner, not necessarily for the light itself. I'm going to get me a shade for it at Walmart. They have the perfect one to go with it.

And my last find of the day was at the table beside hers. The lady was packing up to leave and I spotted this vintage pitcher. I researched it. It turns out these striped pitchers I keep finding were made in the 1950's by Anchor Hocking in colors to match Fiestaware. The line was called Fiesta Stripes and came in many assorted stripe colors and patterns from sets of small stripes to the big wide bands. I have found them for as low as $14.99 plus $9.99 shipping and as high as $45.99 + shipping. I got mine for $2.00. I think it would be beautiful filled with mums and on a table for fall. I think my daughter wants this one.

As you can see, I had some great finds. Be sure and visit Ms. Debbie's Friday Foto Friends to check out what everybody else has been up to this week. 

Just not happy.....

I thought I wanted my bedroom in bright blue and yellow with a little bit of a beach theme. I thought I loved it, but realized that I wasn't a big fan of the brighter with the white background on the quilt. So I sold it and decided to do something else. All the decorations came from around my house and I only paid $20 for the bedspread and pillow shams so I sold them for $20 and was happy.

I pulled out a quilt I have had for about 25 years and redid the bedroom with that theme in the country rose and sage green. Everything came from around my house or in my storage boxes in the closet. So it didn't cost anything to have a fresh new look. The problem developed about a month ago when I realized I have looked at this quilt on my bed for various times in the past 25 years and sometimes it was on there for 10 years or more. So I am over that now as well.

I sat down and really gave it some deep thought and realized that my problem is I keep trying to go light and airy and in reality I love bedroom with deep rich colors. Add to that I have always wanted a room that I could totally decorate in Primitive/Americana style. So I have made the decision to do just that. I am in the process of looking for reasonable priced bedding. I am looking for something in these colors which are considered the primitive colors. My bedroom walls are close to the Farmhouse tan shade, my carpet is a little lighter than the union blue, but not by much. My bedroom suit is the Walnut. So I am off to a good start.

I don't want a bedspread that is just quilted squares like I had several years ago. I really want something with a big starburst in the center if I can find one that doesn't cost a fortune. Something similar to this, which I love, but this particular one was way out of my budget. Oh how I love it though.

And of course I had to go to Pinterest to get some ideas. My sister is bringing me a bench that Daddy made for Mom and I want to set it at the end of the bed. I don't know how I'm going to decorate it, but I have seem a few things I like. I have always wanted to have a primitive set of Raggedy Ann and Andy so I make look for those and put a basket of the bead vines and an afghan draped like they do on this bench. 

I saw a lot of decor ideas for walls and tables (which I could do on my nightstand). 

I really, really love the thought of this on the night stand.

And I just have got to find or make this. It is too adorable.

Maybe some throw pillows that I can make with homespun fabric and primitive stitchery.

I love making things with primitive stitchery and homespun fabric but I never had a room that fit that decor so I will start to do some of that. Here are a couple of ideas I would like to try as well.

And last but not least, I love decorating every room in the house for Christmas but have never been able to do my bedroom because there were no colors that would be complimentary to the Christmas colors. Add to that the fact that I love primitive snowmen but have no wear to put them and you can see where I am going with this.....A snowman Christmas for the bedroom.

I made the mistake of going to Pinterest for those ideas as well.

Suffice it to say I had to stop that immediately or I would have been there all day. But I do have some thoughts. We'll save the rest for another day. 

Some updates....

Over the past few weeks, I have been so busy that I have missed posting some things. Thought I would bring  you up-to-date. I showed you a couple of weeks ago the package with my new shower curtain. Here it is finally hung up.

My bathroom is beach themed with sea shells, tans, browns and blues so this was a perfect fit. And at $11 it was a bargain. 

I have a baking dish that is old. Allen had it when we got married 35 years ago and said his Mom had given it to him. Not sure where it originated. It's my favorite thing to bake brownies and cakes in, but it doesn't have a lid so I have to cover the finished product with Reynolds Wrap so I rarely use it.

Until now. I went to a Pampered Chef party and they now have a stretchy silicone "lid" for 9 x 13 pads. It even has an air vent in it in case you are baking something that needs covered, but  needs to release moisture build up during cooking. It can withstand temps up to 450 degrees. I am loving it. 

I also ordered something that was cheap but has become one of my favorite kitchen items. Toast tongs. They are bamboo so won't burn or scorch when you get your toast out.

Do you ever use flat bread? My favorite way to use it is for personal pizzas. It's delicious. I spread some Ragu Traditional Pizza Quik sauce on my flat bread, cover that with browned sausage crumbled up and then cover the whole thing with colby Monterey jack cheese. Bake it at 400 degrees for 10 minutes. It is delicious. You can substitute your own toppings and your own cheese, but that's the way I like it.

I have been looking at charms to make me a charm necklace. One thing I wanted was an initial and something beachy. I went to Hobby Lobby and found my B for just $1.99.

And this has a star fish which I love, the blue bead to remind me of the ocean, the red to remind me of the sunrise/sunset and the pearl for the sea from an oyster. It was $2.49 with 40% off coupon so I got it for $1.49

I already had a long chain that I use to change out charms on so I used that. I am so happy with the result.

But for times I don't want a bunch of charms, just more of a 1 charm medallion style, I bought this and can change it out onto the same chain. This one was also final cost of $1.49

I see all these people who take a piece or two of furniture and cover it with a piece of wood or counter top to create a desk or work space. Something similar to this.

Since I still can't find a work space for my desk that is big enough that doesn't cost an arm and a leg, I've been thinking about what I could do. The other day, I happened to remember that we used to have a TV in the middle bookshelf unit so we took the shelf above it out so it would fit and I have never put that shelf back in. So I went looking for it. The wood is not an exact match and it isn't long enough, but for a temporary fix I was able to lay it across my file cabinet and my printer stand and have a big work station and temporary desk until I can find what I really want. 

So far it is working out a lot better than the tiny desk I had. 

I went to work yesterday and a friend of mine was back from her trip to Nova Scotia. Check out what she got me. A thimble for my collection and a tiny moose since Thirty-One has a moose pattern now. How cute.

Well, there we are. All updated. Now to leave you with a little mid-week humor. This cracked me up.

Happy over-the-hump day!

Unbelievable

As you know, I love my Pyrex. I've been collecting it quite a few years. I have paid as little as .05 cents for one bowl and as much as $18 for one bowl. When I had to pay $18 to get one bowl to complete my set because it was so hard to find. I almost gave myself a heart attack. I went back and forth on whether I should or shouldn't. I had to go back to the store three times before I finally broke down and paid that much for one bowl. But it completed my set. 

On an average, I pay about $6 - $8 for most of my vintage bowls. It never ceases to amaze me when I see people on my Facebook groups that are selling one piece for $40 - $50 AND it sells immediately and people continue to keep asking if they still have it. I am always in shock and think "Are you kidding me??? $50??? FOR ONE PIECE?" People are just crazy. 

But the craziest thing I have seen in my Pyrex collecting days....well in my whole life for that matter was a couple of bowls for auction on a Goodwill Shopping site. It is the Lucky In Love pattern (left) and the Butterprint pattern (right).  The Lucky in Love came out in 1959 as what was believed a promotional pattern. It has been so rare that rumors began that it was never actual in existence. But every so often over the years somebody would find the pattern and it became known that it was real....just very rare to find. How rare is it today? So rare that the person selling this put in on Goodwill's auction block for $9.99 for both bowls with a little over $2.00 for shipping. They posted it on July 27 at 6:20 a.m. By 6:29 a.m. bidding was up to $101.00. My mind was reeling. Granted, they are getting two bowls for the $101 but everybody knows they the bidding is that high because of the rare piece, which isn't even a really big bowl.

The auction ended yesterday and the total sale price....are you ready for this.....are you sitting down....do you have any smelling salts near by because you are going pass out on this one. Here's the final auction amount on Goodwill....

No, you are not seeing things. It went for $6,501.00!!!! My mind is blown. Even if I was the richest person in the world, I would never pay that for a bowl. I don't think I will ever see anything that shocked me as much as this does. I do wish I had this bowl because I would auction it off in a heartbeat.