Thrifty Monday

Hi everyone, happy week before Christmas!?!?!  Are all your presents wrapped under the tree?  Mine certainly are not!

This week I have a couple of finds for you that I have been putting off to show you more exciting finds.  Not that I don't love every piece in my collection equally!

First up this  Barker Bros Primrosa jug.  It goes with the plates I found a while ago, and I thought they needed an extra friend. 

It was pretty dirty when I found it at Spittelfields market, and I really thought that I could clean it up.  Unfortunately, that was not really the case.  As you can see by the stain by the lip of the jug. 

This jug was also pretty chippy, but I think those pieces need extra love.  Or something like that.  It's been so long since I bought this that I can't remember what I paid.  I don't think I would have spent more than a pound or two.

 

Next up is this pretty Jaj Pyrex Chelsea sugar bowl.  I got this one off of eBay a few months ago.  Don't ask what I spent, I can't remember.  

I thought that this piece would benefit from at outdoors photo shoot.  Clearly this was before the demon frost from the depths of  Siberia descended upon the UK.  

Did you find anything good this week?  Will you be buying any of your friends and family thrifty gifts?

I’m going to link up with Magpie Monday at Me and my Shadow, and Thrift Share Monday at Apron Thrift Girl, and Thrifty Love at Cap Creations, and the Thriftasaurus at Sir Thrift A Lot, and Junkin Joe at The Cottage Market..

Conundrum

I was out at the mall with Mr Grumpy and his mom when I got a text from my local charity shop.  They had some cups for me to check out.  Squeal!

Of course, I had to get them out of the mall and back to our neighborhood in under an hour.  Not easy, but I did it.  We can always go to the mall, but we won't always have the chance of getting tea cups!

When I got to the shops the nice woman who works there pulled out these four pretty tea cups. They aren't Pyrex, but Phoenix.

This is where the mystery got deeper.   You see, the back stamp reads: For Phoenix, Made in USA, 321.  Now I hadn't heard of this company, but I thought the cups were pretty, and they did fly all the way over the pond to come and live with me, who also flew all the way over the pond to live with them.  I payed the 4 quid and went home.

Upon doing some more research I found this page, about a company called Phoenix.  However this was a British company, not American.  Ever stranger, I found the yellow rose pattern on the website here.  I'm rather confused.

So what do I have?  Is it a company that I can't find?  Did Phoenix have an American factory?  Do you know?  Have you found anything  good this week, or even better, do you have your own thrifty mystery to share?

I’m going to link up with Magpie Monday at Me and my Shadow, and Thrift Share Monday at Apron Thrift Girl, and Thrifty Love at Cap Creations, and the Thriftasaurus at Sir Thrift A Lot.

A Tale of Two Bowls

Several months ago I found this bowl. It was sad and all alone on the self at the now closed Spittlefields Crypt charity shop.  I took it home, cleaned it up, and introduced it to all of my other Pyrex bowls.

Still, the bowl was lonely.  Once upon a time it had been part of a set and its family had long since gone astray.

Then, one day, I spotted a red bowl on eBay, a bowl that I just knew had to be part of the set that the blue bowl was from.  I bid, and then was almost outbid at the last second, but my reserve bid saved me.  Eventually this little lonely red bowl found its way to my doorstep.

I was right, they were part of a three bowl set and now they have been reunited.  (Cue the playing of At Last in the background)

Now these only sad and lonely bowls are happily reunited.  All they need from me is love, cake batter, and the smallest piece, a yellow bowl.  I'll be keeping my eyes peeled for that one.

What have you found this week?  Now that I've given my collections personalities have I crossed the line from quirky to actually totally insane?

I’m going to link up with Magpie Monday at Me and my Shadow, and Thrift Share Monday at Apron Thrift Girl, and Thrifty Love at Cap Creations, and the Thriftasaurus at Sir Thrift A Lot.

Original Thrift

Morning everyone!  How goes it in the land of thrift?  I've had a pretty good week myself.  

First up is this beautiful tin!  It joins its cake equivalent that I bought off of eBay ages ago. I found this in a junk/vintage shop called This Shop Rocks on Brick Lane.  A lot of the items are rather pricey, but this was only £3. I try to get there at least once a week and was thrilled to find this beautiful tin.

This Schott Mainz - Jenaer Glass bowl took all of my bargining powers to get.  I found it at Spittlfields Market and the seller wanted £9.  I felt like that was nuts so I put it down and walked away.  I couldn't stop thinking about it though and after picking up my lunch I headed back.  I managed to get him down to £5.  He said no at first, but I pointed out that the decoration had a bit of damage and he caved.  At first I thought that Schott Mainz was the German version of Pyrex, but after a bit of research I learned that its the company that invented the type of glass Pyrex is made of.  I think this is so pretty and was an amazing addition to my collection.

So, what did you find this week?  Do you have any tried and true bargining tips?


I’m going to link up with Magpie Monday at Me and my Shadow, and Thrift Share Monday at Apron Thrift Girl, and Thrifty Love at Cap Creations.

Its Raining Pyrex

About a month ago I was sick, really sick.  I had a terrible double ear infection and it felt like I was living in a tunnel. Because of this I was home from work on a weekday.  A rare occurence indeed.  I soon discovered that I needed milk, or some other staple that I wanted enough to leave the house.  This is when I discovered a new charity shop, just a two minute walk away.  It didn't have a sign yet, so I would have never known it was there.  The place was packed with vintage stuff in really good condition.  Somehow, I just knew that eventually I would find something there. 

This past Saturday I ran down there while Mr Gumpy took him Mom home.  I was not disapointed!

Piled on top of each other I found these pieces:

A June Rose Jaj Pyrex bowl!

A Jaj Pyrex Snowflake bowl with..... with a lid!

And, drumroll please....this Jaj Pyrex dish with a mystery pattern!

Anyone know the name?

On top of my amazing finds, the staff at this show was amazing.  They took my phone number and promised to give me a call whenever they get Pyrex and Utiltiy China in!  I feel really lucky to have such a great shop so close by!

I’m going to link up with Magpie Monday at Me and my Shadow, and Thrift Share Monday at Apron Thrift Girl, and Thrifty Love at Cap Creations.

Bit of a Baking Fail

My mom is an amazing cook and baker and she often sends me recipes that she thinks/knows that I’d like.  This is one that she sent me a while ago and I just got around to trying out, and sort of failing at. We're calling these Bordey Bars. 

First I gathered the ingredients:

- 2 sticks of butter (1 cup)

- 2 cups of firmly packed brown sugar 

- 2 tsp of baking powder

-1/4 tsp salt

- 1 tsp vanila extract

- 2 cups all purpose flour

- 2 large eggs

 

Pre-heat the oven to 350F, or about 180C.  Grease a 9x13 inch pan and put aside.  

Melt the butter and then mix with the brown sugar until totally mixed.

Add the baking powder, salt and vanilla and mix well.

Gradually add the flour and mix, this should make the dough very stiff.

Wisk the eggs in a seperate bowl and then add slowly, mixing well.

Spread the batter in the pan you prepared earlier and bake for about 30 minutes.  The edges should be golden brown and the middle still soft. 

Let it cool completly and then cut into squares and enjoy!

Mine tasted fine, but as you can see they were a bit on the burnt side.  What went wrong?  I think that part of it was that I halved the recipe.  I really think that the first time you bake something you should do it by the book.  I don't think this was my biggest problem though, I think it was the pan size.  I should have used my very functional, but slightly dull clear Pyrex dish.  The dough was just too thick to cook properly and it took ages, hense the burnt edges and top.

Mr Grumpy didn't dislike these bars, but he prefers some of the other things I make so I don't know if this will be on my to bake list again.  

 

Pyrex Pyrex and More Pyrex

Morning!  I hope everyone had a wonderful week in thrifting.  I still haven't been buying the quantity that I would like to.  Most of my recent finds are Pyrex, and while I do love it, I am yearning for some more Utility China.

This lovely and wintery Pyrex dish was found for £2.99 in my neighboring town.  I feel that you can never have enough bowls, which is good, because I collect them.  I don't think Mr Grumpy feels the same, however, I often catch him using them, so I think he likes them secretly. 

 

This bowl has some age/brown/usage marks that I can't seem to get rid of, any suggestions?  This bowl also has a mini me, that I found months ago here.

 

This is another local find and it made me squeal with glee.  I have seen pictures of these split casserole dishes on other blogs, and I must admit, I coveted them.  On eBay they seem to be far more than I'm willing to pay for them so I always passed.  I couldn't believe when I found this for £2.99.  I grabbed it and payed before they could change there minds! 

And a closeup:

The lighting right now is really bad, I think the top picture is a little bit more true to color.  I so hope that I find the other versions of this!

Anyone else have luck this week?

I’m going to link up with Magpie Monday at Me and my Shadow, and Thrift Share Monday at Apron Thrift Girl.

I'm Back!

Oh my goodness, it’s been ages and I’ve missed you.  This is has been a crazy summer.  Mr Grumpy and I have done a lot of travelling and my hours at work have been CRAZY.  On top of that, I haven’t been buying as much.  I feel like recently the price of Utility China on eBay has sky rocketed.  Believe me, I know how lovely this stuff is, but there is a point where it’s just not worth the money.  Amber over at Fashion Police wrote a really interesting post about people paying stupid prices for clothing and shoes on eBay here.  I totally agree with her.  Therefore my buying capacity has really diminished. Hopefully this is a fad that will end sooner than later.

So, here are my finds of late:

I convinced Mr Grumpy (promised him lunch) to take me over to the neighbouring town to do a bit of thrifting one Saturday.  I came away with a few books and this pretty butter dish, unfortunately it was missing a lid, but at about 25p (it was marked down) I couldn’t have cared less.

A few weeks later we took a weekend break to Ilforcombe and explored some of the other towns in the area.  This matching bowl was found in Tiverton, I think.  I must have walked into 10 or 15 different charity shops in almost as many small towns and this is all I came out with.  It definitely made the trip worthwhile, especially at £1.49!

Last weekend Mr Grumpy and I were killing time in our little London satellite town before getting haircuts and he found this matching gravy boat!  Considering that I already own 3.5 Utility China gravy boats, I almost didn’t buy it, but had to in the end.

Here’s the collection all together!

Does anyone know the name of this pattern or where there’s an online catalogue, like Pyrex Love in the US, where I might be able to research it?

It’s great to be back!

I’m going to link up with Magpie Monday at Me and my Shadow, Thrift Share Monday at Apron Thrift Girl.

Thrifty Monday

Hi there thrifty folks!  How are you?

I've been lucky and found some bits that didn't have to arrive in the mail.  I found this Pyrex Cinderella dish at the only charity shop near my office.  It was my first find there and I was happy to hand over my £3 and make off with it.  I hope that I find many more things there.  Its nice when your money goes towards something you want and to a good cause.  However, buying off of eBay doesn't really bother me. 

Next up at Spittalfields I found  a massive pile of Woods Ware Jasmine plates.  Now, I've got loads of plates and if I buy any more Mr. Grumpy will divorce me.  Therefore I left the plates and just asked to buy these two bowls.  I have a couple of Beryl bowls in the same size, so these were a good addition.  I paid £5 for these, more than I would in a charity shop, but less than I would on eBay so I was happy with the purchase.

I’m going to link up with Her Library Adventures and Flea Market finds, Magpie Monday at Me and my Shadow, Thrift Share Monday at Apron Thrift Girl and Thrifty Love over at Cap Creations.