A long time coming- thrift scores!

Well, long time no post! I have been pretty busy and haven't had much time to blog or read other blogs, but I wanted to touch base and show you some of my recent thrift finds. In general, the thrift stores haven't been great lately, but over the last couple of weeks I have found some good stuff. I actually took a whole day off on Friday and went to some thrift stores farther away that I hardly ever have time to get to. And boy, was it worth it!

We have a Habitat for Humanity ReStore near us, but it is only open Wed-Sat. It's kind of tough to get over there on those days, and I've been meaning to go there for months. I really went hoping to find Pyrex; I've found some there in the past, and this time I had high hopes. But this time it didn't pan out as I had hoped. I did find some other things (more on that in a sec), but the only Pyrex in the place was this lone Butterfly Gold mug. This is not a pattern I collect, but I love Pyrex mugs, and I was desperate, so I bought it.

(The other Pyrex pieces in the background will figure in to this story a bit later.)

This is a refrigerator dish made by Hall China and is marked on the bottom "Coldspot Refrigerator Dish". It was pretty neat, and only $2. It's actually part of a 3 piece set.

These I bought after learning about Pyrex delphite (blue milk glass). I knew they weren't Pyrex, but I have never seen delphite in person before, so they had to come home with me. I collect jadeite, and really never even heard about delphite until I started collecting Pyrex. They are so pretty, I hope to find more! If anyone knows about the pattern or maker of these, I'd love to hear it, because in the little research I've been able to do, I've come up empty (they are not Jeannette Cherry Blossom- that I do know). They are unmarked on the bottom, except for the numbers 1,2, and 3 (presumably for the pieces in the set.)

I also bought this Otagiri Japan mug for a quarter- cute but not my style- definitely going to my Etsy shop.

Same with this Avon milk glass soap dish- really cute, and I am tempted to keep it...

This bunny planter is definitely a keeper and was only $1. I think he is Napco- there were many more Easter  things in the store and they were all crappy and more expensive than this one, go figure! I guess I have to start getting the Easter stuff out.

Haha, yes I bought this record. I put myself on a record-buying freeze about 3 years ago and have been pretty good about it (I have thousands of records- might even have this already- I have no idea) but fell off the wagon a bit this week. Besides this LP I also bought 4 45s, and one of those was "Karma Chameleon". Well, hey, it was my childhood...you can't put a price on memories...except they were only 99 cents.

Now I saved this one for last- I walked by it and didn't recognize what it was. But on my way back I caught a glimpse of some of the fabric, 

And hey, isn't that barkcloth....

Mint, in the package, never opened. 

Set of four panels...

$10......

Oh yeah....I just found new drapes for my living room! I promise I will do a post on that in the near future. Stay tuned...

Cool stuff from Chez QT: the jukebox

Today I'm feeling crappy, so no Make-it-from Scratch Monday post, just a random pic of cool stuff at Chez QT. Plus, I'm crazy busy getting ready for my son's birthday party- he turns 6 tomorrow. So you just get to enjoy some eye candy, my 1959 Seeburg jukebox:

 When I was growing up, this used to be in the Rec room of my parents' church. It never worked, and was kind of in disrepair, with the title strips all wonky. But as a small child I used to love just going over to push the buttons, even though nothing ever happened. I used to tell my parents that one day I would own that jukebox. Like all parents, I'm sure they just rolled their eyes and said "whatever"...

But I never forgot, and I even kept a list of all the records I was going to buy to put in it. Once I was old enough to go shopping on my own, I started to buy those 45 rpm records.

Fast forward about 15 years, to when I had my first apartment- my mom told me the church was getting rid of some stuff, and right away I remembered the jukebox. So I called up and offered them $200 for it. I think the church secretary thought I was on something, because she said, "You know it doesn't work, and you'll have to move it!"

No problem! I had my brother go over with his truck the next day and we loaded it up. I paid the church and brought it home.

Once I had it in my apartment, I plugged it in and it lit up. but it did not work. That was OK with me; it was mine, and was the coolest nightlight you ever saw! A few years later, after meeting my husband we got it fixed- apparently years ago some kid had gotten in the back and switched a tube into the wrong spot. The repairman just put it back in the right socket and it played. But not that well- I ended up having to get the amplifier rebuilt. This was not an easy job, and back then the repair was kind of expensive (around $300). But it's worked flawlessly ever since.

We bought a fe accessories to go with it, a tableside wallbox:

This is not a "mini jukebox" as many people think- there are no records or speaker and it cannot play any music on it's own. It's really called a "remote selector", basically a remote control that lets you make a selection right from your table and then it transmits the selection over to the jukebox via a series of electric pulses over a wire.

A pair of stereo speakers.

The 1959 Seeburg model 220 (the technical name for my baby) was the first jukebox to offer stereo sound. In order to get the trus stereo effect you had to purchase these additional speakers. Although there are two individual speakers in the front of the cabinet, you don't get the felling of stereo that you get from the speakers in the corner of the room. The promotional literature recommended up to six speakers for a larger room to get the full stereo effect (and to increase sales, because that is what jukeboxes were all about.)

It's interesting to me to note that with digital downloads, people are beginning to go back to a single-driven form of music purchase. Pre-1960s, that was just about all people bought- 45 or 78 rpm singles of their favorite songs. Not until the advent of the 33 LP record in the mid-50s did the idea of an "album" mean anything in terms of sales and artist input.

Now the record industry is all in a dither about "the death of the album", which, if you look at it in historical terms, is not how most people bought music, except for the period from the 1960s-1990s. In fact, a single-driven music industry in the 1950s gave us all those great "one-hit wonder" and regional acts that would never have flourished on a national level. Many of the great 1950s rockabilly and R&B acts were primarily found on jukeboxes, and never got top 40 radio hits. They were strictly niche performers that relied on nickels being put into the coin slots in the areas that they were well-known. It doesn't sadden me at all to think that we might be returning to this type of music market.

So I will leave you with one of those R&B niche acts that hit it big, the Marcels. This is the B side of "Blue Moon", "Goodbye to Love". And it was one of those 45s that I wrote down on my list years ago.