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.

Peanut Butter Time

A few weeks ago Mr Grumpy, my mother in law and me headed up to Liverpool for a weekend away.  I'll be posting pictures and thoughts on that soon.  I knew that we would need snacks for the train ride so I made.... peanut butter cookies!

Now, I have a job that requires stupid hours.  Therefore I don't have time, full stop.  I found the recipe, made sure I had the ingredients and forgot about it.  

Now come to Friday night when I walked in my door at 8 pm.  I had laundry to do, bags to pack, a house to tidy and cookies to make.  It was daunting, but the cookies were not going to fall by the wayside.  So I started them first.

I gathered everything I needed. 

• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/2 cup butter, room temperature
• 1/2 cup peanut butter
• 1 egg
• 1 1/4 cup flour
• 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt

Then I beat the butter until it was creamy, added the sugars and beat some more.

Next up I threw in the egg and peanut butter. 

I then mixed the dry ingredients.

And added it all together:

Then I found out that the next step was to leave the dough for 3 hours in the fridge.

Crap!

It was just after 9:30 at this point. 

Instead I stuck the dough in the freezer for an hour.  However, this is a picture of it in the fridge, before the idea dawned on me. 

Then I ran around the house, cleaning things up and taking care of a slightly ill Mr Grumpy.  When the hour was up I got my cookies spread out on baking sheets while the oven warmed up.

To make the pattern I used a fork:

Around midnight I ended up with this and headed off to sleep.

Mr Grumpy and his mom were very appreciative of the home made snack!

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.

eBay Fail #2

A few months ago I posted about my first UK eBay fail here. Now I've had another.  I guess that when you consider how much I buy off of eBay that these types of things are bound to happen on occation.  Still, I find it to be really dissapointing.

A few weeks ago I won an auction for 4 Grindley Tea/Coffee cups, as the seller listed it.  What I recieved was 4 espresso, mini type cups.

Now, these are cute, really cute, and I might have bought them anyway if they had been listed properly.  However, they aren't very useful and this isn't what the seller listed. So I contacted the seller and met a very rude woman.  First she wouldn't let me send them back, then I raised a claim and was able to send them back, then she claimed that they were all broken and that I didn't pack them in anything, besides a box I assume.  Of course they were packed very well, better than when she sent them to me. 

This is just to show you the size difference.

In the end I asked eBay to make the final ruling and I got my money back and left negitive feedback.  Part of me feels like I shouldn't have bothered to go to so  much effort, sometimes I wouldn't bother.  However, I think that its really important for sellers to know when they list things incorrectly.  I think too many people just don't say anything and that makes it more difficult to deal with sellers when things are perfect.  

Anyone have any bad eBay luck recently?

 

As if I Could Stop

I have this problem that I'd like to share.  Often when I go to buy Christmas presents, or maybe just when I'm researching options, or looking for ideas, I end up with a present for myself.  I was picking up something secret for Mr Grumpy and I found this:

A Booths Blue Mist coffee pot.  Now, I don't drink coffee, and I'm not even sure if Booths falls under my allowed utility china umbrella.  However, my Booths jug that I found here and it was getting rather lonley on its own.  Plus, I just love the blue color.  How could I say no to a 99p eBay win?  Well, I couldn't, only someone much stronger and with better budgeting skills than I could have.

My other find was actually something I forgot to add to another post.  It was found along with my massive Johnson Brothers haul a few weeks ago, or maybe a month at this point?  It was in the window of a charity shop and called to me.

I don't know what Fru-Grains are.  All I know is that this tin, at £5 had my name on it.  I think that I'll be using it to hold my wooden spoons.  However, I'm a bit worried if it gets damp.  How do you display your vintage tins?  Do you use them, or are they there to be ornimental?

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

Pink Love

Morning everyone!  I hope that everyone is excited for the start of a new week!  Who am I kidding, now that it’s November the run up to Christmas has begun and we all know that it will be here in a blink of the eye.  What a better way to put it off than to talk about some utility china!

I won this on eBay during my hiatus from my blog.  It wasn’t super expensive, but it wasn’t cheap either.  I think it was partially this object that made me put my speed of acquisition on hold.  This item was pick-up only, but the seller was in London, and, as I later found out, worked around the corner from me.  So one day during lunch I met her in Liverpool Street Station and she handed me two large heavy and breakable bags.  It then spent more than a week bringing it home piece by piece.

What is this mystery object you ask?  Why, it was a Grindley Peach Petal Tea/Coffee set.  

Bliss.

So I am now the proud owner of four tea cups:

A milk jug:

A sugar bowl:

Some type of tray:

And a coffee pot!

All with this backstamp:

This past week while checking out the Thursday antique far in Spittlefields I spotted 3 Grindley Peach Petal serving plates, large, medium and small.  The seller wanted £20 and then proceded to tell me that they were made between 1891 and 1901, as after 1901 Grindley started printing Made in England instead of just England on their backstamp.  I told him that they were post war and not as old as he thought.  He then told me that it was impossible to find anything with this backstamp.  I had to go back on him and say, no its not, I've got a tea set! Needless to say, I didn't buy.  Partially because he wouldn't budge on price and paritially because I didn't think they were in very good shape, in fact, they might not be usable anymore.  When I got back to my office I looked up the backstamp, Peach Petal went into production in 1954.  I can't believe how much he was trying to lie to me.  Buyer always beware

Anyone else ever have a seller try to really do one over on them?

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.