A Little Vintage Sunshine

Just for fun...my favorite vintage Pyrex: Citrus  Happy Almost Spring!  For more on my latest Citrus Pyrex find...if you are into that sort of thing:  www.pyrexcollective3.blogspot.com

Yard Sale Withdrawls and Thrifting Issues

OK, There hasn't been a yard sale or estate sale around here forever.  I'm starting to go crazy.  I can't wait to uncover hidden treasure.  Some to sell, and some to keep!  I got up early Saturday morning because there were beautifully done signs all over town out on Thursday announcing a yard sale Saturday in an older neighborhood.  When I actually started driving there, I couldn't find it.  There were no direct signs to the remote location.  Then, when I finally found a lady putting out balloons and drove in I was very disappointed.  All that time and prep with signs for a washer and dryer and one table full of complete junk.  I mean Walmart picture frames and plastic bowls.  Junk.

So, yesterday, the family stopped by Goodwill....oh, my....what's this....hubby discovers a Pyrex Cinderella bowl, "Scroll".  Well, good try.  It's the cream with gold.  Not my favorite.  Pass.  Then....what do I spot.  IN SOMEONE ELSE'S CART!!!!  Oh, no.  Not the Fire King Fruit mugs I've been hunting for forever.  Mint condition.  4 of them.  FOUR!  I even had the nerve to go up and talk to the lady.  She said...."$2 seems like alot for these."  I was to eager.  I said, "If you decide against them, I will take them!"  Suddenly she seemed to think they were great.  I hung out for awhile hoping she'd change her mind.  Ahhh!

Those of you who don't thrift must think I'm nuts.  But those who do, get it.  Those finds are getting few and far between and I'm ready for spring!  Let the hunting begin already!  I've spent the winter looking over collector's guides from the library.  I know my Fire King, Pyrex, McCoy, Vintage holiday collectibles, lunchboxes and thermos', toys....just to name a few.  Anyone else addicted to these guides?

Well, hope you all are having better luck then I am.  Here's some things I'm searching for!



I have the plates...looking for cups!

 

Thrifting with Mom: AKA, Getting Spoiled!

So, Mom and I went out for lunch and thrifting.....

Fun and Fresh Aladdin canister.  Never seen this before.  Goodwill $2.99

Love this Pyrex butter dish...and when have you ever seen in with the lid!  It's going to hold my stray jewelry that I take off while cooking. $6.00 small thrift

                        "The things that we love tell us what we are."  -                                            - Saint Thomas Aqui

$2.99 Goodwill for the pink beauty

 

 

"Unless you have a feeling for that secret knowledge that modest things can be more beautiful than anything expensive, you will never have style."  - Andress Putman, Parisian decorator

 

 

$2.99 at Goodwill

Oh How I love the apron!  It was $6 half price (the little thrifts, sadly are marking things high...I thought this was alot.  but what 1950's goodness...and this is the type I love to wear that covers the top...I'm a messy cook!)

"In cooking...simplicity is the sign of perfection."  - Curnonsky 

 

A very old Cake Decorator set with everything inside.  Don't you just love the graphics! $3.99

 "I don't follow decorating rules.  I don't even know them.  If I love something, then I'll find a place for it in my house.  Life is too short to follow the rules."  - Edie Wadsworth

 

Vintage Red, Pyrex and GF Scones

Thought I'd share alittle red from my kitchen, along with some Pyrex.  I had a friend over for tea and we had the scones from my cookbook, "It's All Good Without Gluten!".  I will share the recipe as well!

COUNTRY SCONES

1 cup GF flour mix (premix and have ready to use: 1 cup brown rice flour, 1 cup white rice flour, 1/3 cup tapioca flour, 2/3 cup potato starch

½ cups tapioca flour

1 teaspoon xanthan gum

1/3 cup evaporated cane juice/organic sugar

2 teaspoons GF baking powder

½ teaspoon sea salt

½ teaspoon baking soda

5 tablespoons organic butter

½ cup dried currents (optional)

¾ cup organic milk

1 free range egg, separated

 

Cinnamon sugar or sugar for top

 

1) Preheat Oven 425

2) In a bowl combine flours, xanthan gum, cane juice, powder, soda, and salt.

3) Cut in butter with a pastry blender.

4) Stir in currents

5) Blend the milk and the egg yolk in a small bowl.

6) Add the milk mixture to the crumb mix, stir to make dough.

7) Drop by slight ¼ cups onto greased cookie sheet (I swirl the egg white around in the cup each time before scooping in the mix to keep from sticking)

8) Brush the scones with egg white.

9) Sprinkle with cinnamon-sugar or sugar.

 

Bake 425 12 minutes

Makes 10 scones

  

Vintage Booklets

I don't know about you, but vintage cookbooks and especially cooking/homemaking booklets are very hard for me to pass up.  I think it's more tempting that I've found them very inexpensive....and at yard sales, often FREE.  I thought I'd share with you some of my favorites.



This one is from England, which I love.  It's full of pictures and this sweet Anne Anson writes, "Please go on writing to me about your successes and your worries; I shall always be glad to help you with your problems."  Can't you just hear her English accent.  The Dear Abby of cake decorating.

Amazon $2.00

 

Then there is this silver guide for the bride.  What intrigued me about this one is it's age and mint condition.  It's from 1926.  It amazes me that something like this survived in perfect condition. 

This poem is included in the pages, along with many tips on being a wife, (who uses Oneida silver of course).

 

"My wedding silver!  Every dream

Of our new home is in its gleam -

New hopes, new happiness together

And love in every kind of weather.

My wedding silver!  All my dreams

Of our new life are in its gleams!"

.50 cents thrifted

 

I just love the look of the Italian grandma on this cover.  She is throughout the booklet.

                       .10 cents Yard Sale

Who can resist Jack, Mary and Jello.  This was an amazing find from 1937.  It's so much fun.  I can't believe people used to put fish in lime jello!

        

                                                     Thrifted .25 cents
















   The Knox recipe booklet from 1943 is full of graphics and photos that I love.

Thrifted $1.00

 

The American Dairy association also has such fun ads and booklets from the 50's. 

Thrifted .25 cents

 

This 1938 General Foods booklet on cooking with marshmallows is one of my absolute favorites.  The graphics are all the way through...(I have a thing for food with faces). 

Free at an Estate Sale

 

This one just cracks me up.  The 1960  National Dairy Council booklet on being the good wife.

"He was young and admiring.

He'd enjoyed his dinner and the conversation.

So had their guests, obviously.

He was felling content with his world...and

not a little proud of his young wife, as he

cleared the table while she served dessert."

Thrifted .10 cents

I used to think I was about done finding vintage treasures.  Who am I kidding.  The thrill of the hunt and the fun of having a piece of history from an era of family and home is to tempting....especially went hunting for these cooking booklets!

Vintage Recipe Boxes: Love of Food and Family

These little tin treasures are one of my favorites to collect, and very inexpensive!  There is something very home-y and beautiful about the recipe box.  My love of them started with my Mother's.  I remember playing with it as a kid and looking through all the recipes as I got older.

Here is my mother's box.  She purchased it for Home EC. in the 7th grade and had it all while I was growing up.  She's now 74...so it's seen alot of cooking!

This box was full of international recipes, alphabetized by country.  I found it for 1/2 price at a local thrift !1.25

 

I love that recipe boxes are a way to pass down treasured recipes to the next generation.  In fact, I've found several with the whole recipe collection intact and can't imagine someone just giving all that history away.  I need to start trying some of the recipes found in the boxes I've rescued.

I can remember taking out those well-love recipes from my Mom's box.  The edges always held a little smudge of chocolate or batter.  My favorite cookies were called "Chocolate Snapper" and I actually created my gluten free Chocolate Scones after that beloved cookie!

Found this Fall recipe box at Goodwill for 69 cents

 

There is just something about the recipe box and the love of making delicious meals for those you love, family, tradition....all things I treasure today.  I don't have a recipe box, but I do have a binder.  Just doesn't seem the same.  I might have to write down the favorite recipes of each kid, search for the perfect vintage box, and make a recipe box to pass on to them. 

This is my favorite recipe box find.  It's just so cute and cheerful.  And it appears that it belonged to a teacher.  The students Mom's loving copied down their favorite recipes and gifted them to the teacher.  I found this at a yard sale full of "modern" stuff.  It was 50 cents.

 

Whether or not you collect the recipe boxes that once stored a family history of sorts, I hope that you will keep the traditions they represent alive.  A mother, taking the time to cook a much-loved meal and sharing it with her family at the dinner table.  That's something that just can't be replaced with a new trend.  It's something to be preserved and passed down...just like a recipe box.

Ah, how I love plaid.  69 cents at Goodwill

Just a Little Vintage

So I went out and did errands and hit my favorite thrift and the antique store I sell at.  I found a fun milk glass (Fire King) mug at the thrift...and though I didn't sell much (just some Pyrex lids I'd promised earlier)...it was enough to get this tin I've been eyeing forever (for my tea) and the adorable Valentines for my "Food with Faces" collection.  Happy Thrifting!