Birthday Thrift Crawl 2014!

Hello Friends, it's good to have you here!

So, last post was the pre-Birthday Thrift Crawl post, and this is the one with my finds from my actual single-day Thrift Crawl. Which actually fell on my birthday this year, March 1st! I got to 6 stores over about 40 miles in 4 hours. I got a bit of a late start because I had to go to my son's hockey game (he scored 2 goals!) and also got to stop in and visit with an old friend before ending up at my parents' house for dinner. It was a good day. And as I get older it's so much less about the stuff, and much more about the experience...but then again there is always plenty of stuff!

So on with it...

This set of Kromex canisters was a lucky find. They were all scattered about the store and priced individually came to less than $5 total. They're in great shape- I took them over to the booth.

Of course, I am looking for Pyrex first and foremost. The Butterprint 401 and the unmarked green 403 are duplicates for me, so they went over to the booth. I have been looking for this green for a long time, because it enabled me to complete an unmarked primary set for the booth- I have had no luck selling them separately so will try it this way. It's in great condition- amazing for being close to 70 years old!

I found the square flowers 473 at my first stop- and it was a gold mine for Pyrex! Also at that same store I found an unmarked opal 403, and a pixie. This is the second birthday thrift crawl in a row where I found pixies, and I have never found them any other time, go figure. 

I also found this sad excuse for a pink stripe 401

...but it was only 99 cents so I couldn't leave it there. And I don't know about you, but I have never seen pink stripes in person, so yeah, I'll bring it home and love it. But look what I found the next week (last week, at a different store)- mommy stripe! And this one is near perfect! Who knew? Pink stripes in the wild!

 I found this cute nursery set as well. I don't know the maker, but it is really sweet, and has all its pieces in great shape. I wish I had this when my son was a baby- and I don't know anyone else expecting a boy baby, so I will probably list it on Etsy or take it to the booth.

At this point in my travels things were really getting picked over. It's not surprising that almost all the good stuff was found early. I should make a reverse trip some time and see if the stores farthest away are good first thing on a Saturday morning...but I pride myself on my ability to find something good in any store, any time. And I think this is pretty good:

It's an oil painting, almost 3 ft wide. No frame, but I can tell by the stretcher and the keys that it is likely pre-WWII (see, Mom, that museum degree comes in handy!) It's not in the best of condition, but certainly worth the $15 I paid. I have a small collection of vintage landscape paintings at our cabin up in the mountains- this will fit right in!

And this is my last find of the trip- a vintage chenille bedspread. But not your average floral or even a peacock. No, this one has 120th INF (Infantry) 30th DIV (division) and the division herald. I have never seen a military-themed chenille bedspread before- they are usually very feminine. So if you are looking for a full size chenille bedspread with somewhat of a different theme, check it out in my Etsy shop! It's in mint condition- not a mark on it. And as always, since you all are such loyal readers, enter coupon code PIT20OFF and you will get 20% your order!

Pre-Birthday Thrift Crawl Haul!

Hello Friends, it's good to see you again!

It's that time of year again- time for my annual birthday thrift crawl! That's when I take a whole day and go to all the thrift stores that are outside my usual neighborhood. It's good to kind of check in on places a bit farther out, just to see what's available. But I never have quite enough time to get to all the places I want to go in one day, so...I've decided to turn it into a week-long event. As in, get to a different nearby store every day this week, and save the long distance ones for the actual day (which was this past Saturday- that's the next post).

I've had some pretty good luck in spots and some terrible luck in others. (Like today- drove 35 miles and came home empty-handed...) But, you win some, you lose some, and you'll never win if you don't play the game!

I got very lucky in the Pyrex/vintage glass department, and that always makes everything better! I found this charcoal snowflake divided dish with lid- it's my first piece of black snowflake found ITW. The only other piece I have is a space saver I bought on ebay. It's in mint condition and I love it!

Can you believe I found a piece of Fry glass at the pound store? Yep, a Fry oven glass (iridescent) pie plate with a 1915 date stamp for about 50 cents! I think it was $0.89/lb, LOL. I have enough pie plates right now (even tho this is sooo pretty) and no oven to bake them in (hint: watch for a stove update soon!) so this one will be for sale I think.

I also found these Hazel Atlas pretties in the discount room of a different thrift- 25 cents each! Two dinner plates and two cereal bowls. I have mixed these in with my Pyrex turquoise band dinnerware and they look amazing!

I found this Spring Blossom 2 473 the other day. I am not a big fan of the original SB, but the redesign is really growing on me. I like the small flowers! I might hold on to this one for a while to use in my spring display; I don't have a lot of green except for lime. The little chalkware duck was so cute, I picked him up for 50 cents.

I found another space saver! This is actually my second Golden Pine SS found in the wild. It's in much better condition than the first one, so I will be holding onto this one and selling the first. I love this design- it's a combo of atomic and nature, so it speaks to me. ;)

I counted up all the space savers I have found ITW and believe it or not, I've found 7, including a starburst and a rooster (with lid and cradle). I don't think I'm any more lucky than anyone else, just persistent, so they are out there, keep looking!

Probably my biggest score in terms of reselling was this lot of vintage eyewear. I got everything here for $8, including the vintage safety glasses and the 1920s round specs. I always look through the sunglass and eyewear bins at thrift stores, because these can pay off big online. I've sold quite a few pairs for 3 figures when I only paid a couple dollars for them.

So that's it for my pre-birthday week thrift crawl haul!

Stay tuned for the next post on my finds from the big day!

Thrift Crawl 2013: "This is F#$@&%'n Awesome"

Well, not really that awesome... I don't know if it's that song, or the economy or what, but I remembered why I don't like to go thrifting on Saturdays. The stores were packed and pretty picked over.

It wasn't all bad though- hitting 7 stores in 6 hours over 65 miles is never going to be a total bust. :)

For those of you new to the PIT, every year around my birthday (March 1) I take a whole day and do nothing but shop thrift stores. I try to go to ones I don't normally get to, so it's kind of an event. In general,  don't need any more "stuff"/gifts (though I did get a neat-o espresso machine from my parents, which I love) so all I ask for is a day "off" from being a mom and go out on the road for the whole day. I call it my annual Thrift Crawl, and try to get to as many stores in a day as I can.

This year, I had a few things on my want list- Pyrex, which is my latest obsession, vintage clothing, camp blankets, and anything vintage/industrial. I was successful in almost all the categories, except the vintage clothing. The stores I went to seem to have an incredibly high turnover- there was a lot of empty space on the racks/shelves, so I imagine anything vintage gets snapped up immediately. That's OK, though, I have tons of it in storage- I probably have less than half of my current inventory listed in my Etsy shop. (And, as always, I will remind blog readers that you are all eligible for 20% off your purchase with coupon code PIT20OFF.)

I was a bit disappointed in the Pyrex selection- collecting it must be getting really popular, because I hardly even saw any. Most of my haul came from a single store- apparently the others were picked over before I got there. I did see a fair amount of Fire King (even some Peach Lustre and Gay Fad, which were really tempting, but the condition wasn't perfect so I passed) and the ubiquitous Glasbake.

I didn't see any Pyrex (with the exception of a badly dishwashered red 501 fridgie) until my fourth stop. It took some digging, but I unearthed this Federal Eagle mug. The condition isn't perfect, but I love mugs and have never seen this one before, so it came home with me.

Finally at my 6th stop I found some good stuff. A Butterfly Gold butter dish for $2.50- mint condition. I initially thought I might sell or trade it, but now I'm thinking I might try to collect all the butter dishes. I knew that I would find a butter dish after I went out and bought one (Butterprint) on eBay a couple weeks ago! Well, I'm not complaining- only wishing I had bought the Old Towne butter dish I passed up a couple months ago.

I also found these cute red casseroles- they are so tiny- 10 oz! I posed them next to the butter dish, because they are almost the same size. They'll be perfect for individual servings of broiled seafood and the like, if I can bring myself to use them- except for a few scratches from storage they look like they've never been used.

These footed bowls are Fire King. I wouldn't have bought them individually, but as a group I really like the colors. For only 50 cents each, they are mine. I'm guessing there was at least one more, probably red or brown, at one time to make the set.

This is the first Tiki mug I've found in a couple of years. I have a decent size collection, but acquired most of them a while ago. This rum barrel is from the Kona Kai, Philadelphia's only Tiki bar of note. Check out the following photo- wish I had could have gone there!

This is an old tin from the 30s. Judging by the label on the bottom and the great sports-theme graphics, I think it was for deodorant. I hesitated because the price was $1.50, and for something like this it seemed high. But I'm glad I got it just for the graphics, and I think it will be the perfect size for hair pins on my dresser- definitely an upgrade from the old mug they live in now.

This is quickly becoming my favorite find. It's a ceramic owl TV lamp. You can see how the light comes through the holes in the body, and the eyes also glow. It was only priced at $3.50, which is really low for the store I was in, and for TV lamps in general. When I took it up to the register the girl there said she had just put it out- right time, right place for me!

Not shown are another camp blanket- a newer, mostly acryilc version of the pink one I picked up a while back, and an industrial office in/out letter rack, which is pretty cool looking and I will have to take a photo of  another time. All in all, it was a fun day!

Happy Birthday Glenn Miller!

In honor of Glenn Miller's birthday today (b. 1904) and mine (b. 1975, LOL) I thought I'd share with you my favorite Glenn Miller tunes. If you've never heard some of them before, they're well worth the download- follow the links to the iTunes file.

Glenn Miller was, by all accounts, a decent but unspectacular trombonist (I can sympathize). After playing for years as a sideman alongside some of jazz's greatest talents he formed his own orchestra in 1937 but was unsuccessful until 1938-39 when he developed his famous "Miller sound" by adding a lead clarinet to the more traditional saxophone section of his big band. By the early 1940s, Miller's band was the hottest in the country with a string of hits including "Tuxedo Junction", "In the Mood" and "Moonlight Serenade". He and his band were featured in the films Sun Valley Serenade (1941) and Orchestra Wives (1942).

When WWII broke out, Miller longed to be of service to his country. But at the time the armed forces employed only more formal concert bands; there was no place for modern swing music. From late 1942 until 1944, he led a relatively undistinguished group of musicians in the traditional marching band style. Finally, he was able to persuade the Army Air Force brass to permit him to form a swing band and a full string orchestra to boost morale of the soldiers abroad and the homefront. He made hundreds of recordings in England, many of which were also recorded in German and broadcast across the continent to listeners behind enemy lines.

In late 1944, after the Allies had stormed into France, Miller wanted to take his band directly to the troops in Paris. In preparation for the move, he boarded a single engine transport to fly across the English Channel. On December 15th, 1944, in the fog over the Channel, his plane disappeared and no trace of the aircraft or its passengers has ever been found. Major Glenn Miller is still officially listed as "missing in action".

As I've mentioned in previous posts, Glenn Miller's music was probably my jumping off point into vintage culture. I've been listening to it since I was 13, and boy, that makes me feel real old today when I say that has been 23 years! Most of these are on the "hot" side, and totally disprove the notion that Glenn Miller was strictly a "sweet" band.

1) "Peggy the Pin-up Girl" (also in honor of yesterday's passing of Jane Russell)
2) "American Patrol"
3) "Caribbean Clipper"
4) "Mission to Moscow"
5) "Song of the Volga Boatmen"
6) "Johnson Rag"
7) "Serenade in Blue"
8) "Jeep Jockey Jump"
9) "Moonlight Cocktail"
10) "Stealin' Apples"

I could probably keep going forever. What are your favorites?

The Big 3-5

Today is my birthday. Thirty-five years ago I arrived on the scene (that would be the scene c.1975) to change my parents' lives forever. Haha!

Now that I'm a mom myself, I realize what a big deal a birthday is to a parent. Your kids birthdays often mean more to you than your own. No wonder my mom has already called me twice today (and it's only 3:15, so there's plenty of time for another call tonight...). As a matter of fact, she usually calls me at 8:45 a.m., the exact time I was born. Today, she restrained herself until 9:15, but only because she was already on the phone with someone else at 8:45.


My college friends still tease me about the time she called me at 7 a.m. my freshman year and sang "Happy Birthday" over the phone. Needless to say, I wasn't real thrilled. I promptly went back to bed and slept through my first two classes.

But now I understand. I remember everything about the days my son and daughter were born. The weather, the ride to the hospital, the exact time of their birth. Who the nurses were & what my doctor wore, what I ate after the delivery, all of these details are ingrained into you on the day you give birth to your child.

And that's the part of being a mom that no one can tell you about. You have to experience it for yourself. You are truly a changed person when you have a child, and on my birthday I think I owe it to my mom and dad to just say "Thanks." Thanks for giving up everything you loved for awhile and putting me first. Thank you for providing for me, for supporting me and for tolerating me when I made stupid mistakes because I didn't listen, and when I succeeded on my own merits and knew it.

Oh, and because most of you come here because of the vintage angle, I happen to share my birthday with someone you may have heard of: Glenn Miller (b.1903).