Town House Homestead Tuesday

Wow! Thanksgiving came and went so fast I hardly had time to think about it. It just fell into place and we had a total of eight for dinner. We had just the basics for our meal and the visit was fun. All three of my grandchildren at the same time. The only new cooking for me this year was home made cranberry sauce. I admit it, I always opened a small can because it doesn't get eaten in large quantities here. I canned the leftovers in eight ounce jars for use throughout the next year.

The week before Thanksgiving I went shopping for a chest freezer. After all the early black Friday  specials and discounts I settled on this 15cf  Whirlpool. It was delivered within three days and looks so wonderful in the newly renovated basement.

We took an afternoon and went to do some thrift shopping. We've been working so hard and hadn't been out to hunt for several long months. 

I never find footwear in my size, never mind new, but on this trip I found three new pair of size eight that came home with me. 

I found a couple of nice sheets, one is 100% cotton and the other is cotton/poly blend that I've added to my sewing fabric for future articles of clothing. I keep promising myself that I'll get to my sewing room. Mine is the third bedroom and the one in the renovated basement is my daughter's.

I enjoy finding vintage jars. I found these two for $1.50 and what makes them unusual is the fact that they are half gallon jars. I've seen plenty of gallon size, but these are short and stubby. I also found a set of eight vintage aluminum bell pans.

The best find was not by me, but I now own them. Emily (our special girl) found them while she was looking for some vintage items for a party she was having. For all you Pyrex lovers out there this is a set of twelve, four piece place settings of vintage Flamingo Pink dishes. The purchase price was $34.99. Our Christmas dinnerware came to us without asking. I have packed six place settings away and put six place settings in the cupboard. Most are in pristine condition. Two plates and two saucers seem to have been well used or the person who owned them may have replaced them at one time. All I know is that they are now ours and we can't wait for Christmas morning to enjoy them. It will be a "handle with care" kind of day with them. 

This is the holiday view out our kitchen window. Santa must be fifteen feet tall for me to see him so well, so far away. It feels so good to be in a home where there's something new every day and it's peaceful. Well, that's some of what's been happening at the new Town House Homestead. Stop by again for an update on our next adventure. Thank you for stopping by and have a great week. 

Town House Homestead Tuesday

So by now everyone knows that my daughter bought her first home which is a 1958 ranch, but as she calls it, her "Mid Century Modern" treasure. It was a foreclosure that a real estate investment company flipped and did what we call the "got by with just enough" work to sell it kind of job. Not bad and it's a solid home and she can go from here and make it hers. Before the former owner passed away he purchased the kitchen cabinets and they didn't really spend a fortune flipping it. Basically they purchased the counter tops and tile, did some work on the bathroom and finished the hardwood floors. The ground work for her to build on. We were also looking for the right piece of land to work with and she considers this perfect.This past weekend we spent more time unpacking.

We unpacked about ten boxes all filled with vintage Pyrex. They were packed well as you can see and nothing broke in the move.

We welcomed Michael Blaine to our home this weekend. He's a former student worker of my daughter's and is finishing up working for his big move to New York City in August. He volunteered to help unpack and settle the Pyrex into it's new home. Thank you so much Michael. It was a pleasure meeting you and making pizza for you. The wall behind the green table will be painted yellow as an accent wall and she would like to find a vintage table, but for now the green one works.

She collects shelves also. Here is what her mid century modern collection looks like in the new kitchen. The old with the new is working even better than I thought it would. She chose to put her Aqua collection on one side of the kitchen and the "Verde" collection on the other.

On the counter and in the lower cupboards are the odds and end pieces that I use on a daily basis to bake and cook with. For the first time in two months since we've been here it actually feels like home. Maybe that's what happens once the kitchen is settled and you can do what you need to do and find what you need to find. 

It wouldn't be her kitchen without a chalkboard. She found a black frame that someone at the college was throwing away and brought it home. She taped off the area  for the chalkboard paint and four coats later it was done. She mounted the frame and there you have it, perfect for over my recipe book shelf. 

We're continuing to reclaim the yard. This is the west side of the garage which is a hill. It's annoying to get the push mower up there and mow it so we had another co-worker of my daughter offer all the day lilies she wanted and we've begun to replant them. They will not only take over and be pretty, but our neighbors will have something besides grass to look at.

These birds hung off the deck at the townhouse. I spray painted the holder, which is an indoor wall hanger for candles, washed up the birds and hung it on the side of the garage above the lilies. A small amount of Gorilla glue holds the birds on. When the heat dies back we'll go out and finish putting the rest of the lilies in the ground. That's the very latest from the new town house homestead and thank you for stopping by. Have a wonderful week. 

Thrift finds

It's been a couple of weeks of quick stops and being very selective with thrifting. We've been looking mostly at small items so it's easy to move and store. 

Here we found two yellow Glasbake soup mugs/bowls, some vintage wooden tree ornaments, and just above the word lemons on the vintage 1978 screen print is the head of an elf. My daughter is giving it new life. The screen print came with a wooden frame.

The cute cat is a bank. It was made in Japan. We found photo corners, vintage Easter cards, a glass sleigh that  is a candle holder, but the vintage stained glass Santa found happiness sitting in his new mode of transportation.

In addition we found a set of six silicone Christmas tree molds that will be used to make holiday lotions or something with beeswax. There was a bright funky two yard piece of fabric, some hand made crochet dresser scarfs and a Christmas print clutch.

Finally we found a couple of cookie cutters, a wooden reindeer ornament, a sweet charity key chain and a white opal Pyrex pie plate. Even though we do not need to bring anything else home we can't stop looking and shopping. Thank you for stopping by and have a wonderful week. Keep on thrifting.

Thrift finds

It was just a random stop on our way to treat ourselves to ice cream. Well deserved for all the hard work we have been putting in. It was also an excuse to use a coupon I received for a buy one get one free offer. While the weather was still pleasant and we didn't need to bundle up we just went.

We were not really looking, but here are a few items. Books, always looking for books and here are three more to check out. The one titled Green Winter by Elise Maclay is a collection of one page shorts about aging. I'm getting a chuckle with some and thinking with others. There is a finance book and another herb book. There was a box of blue Christmas ornaments, a vintage Hallmark holly print metal tray, a package of Ball red checkered lids and rims and best of all a Pyrex bowl. Now this bowl looks like a plain white opal bowl, but it isn't. It was however a vintage white bowl with a gold rim. You can just barely see the gold rim because it is so worn off. It is a 404 that was well loved, but in excellent condition and my daughter is just happy to have another large bowl for her collection.

Other odds and ends we picked up were a vintage Pyrex 1.5 quart lemonade bottle, a bag of Halloween gift bags, a new unopened black ink stamp, the can is a raised floral print and large enough to put a plant in or use for some kind of craft project. Last of all we found the two pilgrim figurines. Now usually we don't even look at these things, but if you notice these figurines are blond and the boy pilgrim is wearing a white hat. They were just odd and different so my daughter got them for our simple holiday. They are not vintage or collectible just one of those things she put in the cart. That's what a random trip for ice cream found us. Thanks for stopping by and I hope you have a wonderful weekend.

Thrift finds

It was a whirlwind weekend here. A three day for us. It started Friday morning. A dear friend was in town from the west coast and it was only a few days before she was heading back, but this was a scheduled event and we wanted it to be fun and relaxing for her. We ate out, thrifted, rode around, gabbed and got caught up on everything. 

We filled the townhouse with two days of fun finds. We found this set of casserole bowls for my younger daughter. She likes the green floral and they were actually quite a deal for $2 each. We later saw them selling for $10 and more in some shops. 

The green Pyrex Cinderella bowl completed a set we were building. The orange dot Pyrex was the most exciting find. My daughter will also be adding these to her collection. I use the small Pyrex clear dishes while baking and never seem to have enough. We found two more mushroom canisters. These are small and one has a small fracture, but is very usable. The mushroom and mice glassware are a salt and pepper set and a jelly jar. They are Japanese and so irresistible. Just love them.

We love to pick up the dishes for lazy Susan's. We mix and match them and have fun with them. There was more Pyrex, an enamel skillet, another set of Japanese mice salt and pepper shakers and the owl in a tree stump planter. I believe it may be a Josef Original.

Saturday brought about another day of thrifting. This time with my sister-in-law who we hadn't seen in a while  and she suspected we had fallen off the face of the earth. Umm...nope, but she doesn't use the Internet so we had catching up to do. The vintage finds were all over for us this past weekend. Here we found three strawberry print drinking glasses, another new in package Humpty Dumpty Avon product bank for the store, a music box baby carriage planter, and the Gemco/corning glass juicer. 

We found some odds and ends that include some notebooks, cookie cutters, an ice cream scoop, birthday candles, linen napkins, books, there's a bagel slicer that the plastic spoons are in and the plastic bag in front is full of small bottles for lip gloss. Looks like we want to be busy.

I'll finish this week with this funny fabric panel. My grandchildren have two English bulldogs and we could not pass on this piece of fabric. We couldn't stop laughing when we saw it. I think it will become a giant pillow or center panel for a quilt. This is only about half of what we found. Some still needs some cleaning up and I need to move some on to the store. Being in a small space we have to shuffle things around to work. Sunday was not quite so busy, but we caught back up with our friend from the west coast because on her adventure with us she found some view master discs, but no view master. It turned out my younger daughter found one and she dropped it off so it could take a long plane trip back to California. Then it was back to getting ready for the new week ahead and some sitting back. Thank you for stopping by and I hope everyone has as much fun as we do with friends and family thrift shopping and junking. 

Thrift finds.

So my daughter's time off from work for her stay cation became a thrift-cation. We had to get out because our townhouse neighbors thought we should live in a boom box. It wasn't very relaxing until we called the complex office. Hours upon hours of loud music and slamming doors and yelling and screaming were more than enough reason to get out and thrift. We were frustrated, but still selective with what we purchased.

My favorite phrase lately while out riding around is "came upon". We came upon a large yard sale and found these pieces of fabric and holly plate. Great score. All items $4.

At a shop we hadn't visited since before the holidays last year we found a new with the tags flour sifter, a vintage coffee mug that's already been traded on line, a large crochet hook and the most darling glass jar shaped like a honey bee. She will use this for her first batch of harvested honey when she has her own hive.

We planned a trip to a larger flea market and she found the metal shelf, a book, a yellow Pyrex fridge bowl with cover, a partial set of green Pyrex mixing bowls and a blue enamel cooking pot. Our favorite item was the set of Josef Original Santa salt and pepper shakers.

At another "came upon" yard sale we found a Vera scarf, three pint size canning jars and a vintage Avon camper bottle. Total $1.75. Another score. 

This was the most talked about fun find and it is behind locked glass. It is an industrial donut cutter rolling pin. The price...$200, but we figured at that price we could make enough donuts in an hour to recoup the price. Way too much work for me and way too many donuts, but quite an item. No, we did not buy it. Those were all the purchases we made. Some for her future home, some for her collections, some for the store. We did find time for a meal out and another trip for ice cream. We tried a few new things like making cheese and trying new herbs. The week went fast, but we made the best of the time and after the call to the office we didn't get much more than retaliating door slamming and the intimidation team has now become their threat. Believe me we are not threatened, we are motivated to keep going and for some strange reason every time they act the way they do we get many sales on the store. The universe in action. These are the select items from last week. Thank you for stopping by and have a great weekend. 

Thrift finds.

This is going to be the shortest thrift post I probably will ever do. We were taking plastic bottles to a bottle return facility and just half a block down the road was an antique mall. We enjoy this venue, but hadn't visited in a while and we decided since we were that close we'd get some exercise and walk around for a bit. So much beauty. We walked and looked and got ideas and only found three items, but good items to us.

Well here it is. Our big shopping trip. The skein of baby blue yarn was $3 dollars, but it is a vintage seven ounce skein which I'm sure will produce three pairs of knitted socks. I may have to make one pair with a white cuff, but that's okay by me. The vintage salt and pepper shakers are plastic and so adorable. We just couldn't resist. The pink Pyrex pie plate is in mint condition and my daughter's first piece of pink. The price of this item was $3.75 because the booth we got it from was having a sale. Original price was $3.99. She's added it to her collection. That's what a walk through an antique mall yielded. Thank you for stopping by for a visit and we hope all of you finds as fun as ours. 

Thrift Finds

Life has been a bit busy growing the store and sewing and doing those things that we want to do. At this point there is never enough time to do what we "want" to do, but we did get out for a donation run because we are always purging and then took a quick jog through the thrift store. 

We found a vintage daisy floral sheet, a Vera scarf, a Vera napkin with the lady bug insignia, a hand embroidered linen for a future sewing project and for $1.99 we got six sets of double pointed knitting needles. Best bargain ever!

We got one canning jar, but the price was right, a bundle of mini embroidery hoops, a pair of Tiki vases, a doily, a white bowl that is not vintage or anything. It was used by florists and it fit in with a few other white pieces my daughter has collected and the final item was a vintage Pyrex baking loaf pan. Not bad for the few minutes we hunted.

Visit her at poetcharms.etsy.com

There is a sale going on at my daughter's on line store. Pleases feel free to stop by and check it out. There are many vintage items, fabric and hand made items. Hope you feel like looking. Thank you for stopping by and reading my blog. I wish everyone a wonderful week.

Thrift finds

With all the wonderful weather we had this past weekend it was very hard not to get out and enjoy it. Sunday morning at 6:45 we were up and out the door to run errands, have some breakfast and head to a couple of flea markets. 

It was a wonderful trip and the Pyrex treasures were awesome. The four red pieces were only $10. The large Cinderella bowl is in the worst shape, but the square bowl and refrigerator dish are decent and usable. The set of three green casseroles with covers we got for a steal at $16. She is going to keep these and I don't blame her. They are in pristine condition.

There were many great finds and the prices on these ranged from $.50 to $1 including the Pyrex white opal casserole bowls. The fruit print clear relish dishes are Georges Briard. We couldn't believe the deals we found.

I dickered for the box of Christmas ornaments. The box had a few missing and odd colors so I got them for $1. The vintage towels were $.50 each. They had all the dust included from 1968 and 1975 to now, but the prints were still amazing.

My daughter also found a Wilhold sewing box, a Vera scarf, a vintage flower maker dickered down to $.50 and a few Tupperware items for her lunch box and straws for a travel cup.

My younger daughter walked for a few hours through a very large neighborhood sale that went on and on and on and brought me a few treasures this past weekend. Poly-fil is always welcome and I had been looking for a first aid book to have on hand. The new old stock canning jar rims and lids will be put to use this week when I put up my chicken soup.

Monday was a day out too. After an appointment we went to a Goodwill store just because it was on the way home. The finds were awesome. There is a set of Strawberry Shortcake sheets that will be used for cutter fabric, a Pyrex oval cover, an angel figurine that was made in France and matches a statue of Mary we already had, made by the same artist and I got very excited to find a new Tupperware strainer that I knew I could resell at a decent profit. Then the find of all finds was the Catherine Holm enamel bowl. I turned my head and said to myself I know that pattern and with a good football toss I took it off the shelf and passed it to my daughter the great teacher. It was priced at $1.99 and it was going home with us. After checking out and getting to the car she immediately researched to find that this enamel bowl was rare and one was listed on Etsy for $245 dollars and they were selling on eBay for no less that $87 auction price. However, this is a keeper for her. I'm glad because it washed up nicely and matches her green Pyrex collection. So, that's what our weekend thrift finds yielded and all I can say is WOW! It was a great.

Thrift finds and thrift economics.

To start this blog out I'm going first to thrift economics. I received a pressure caner for Christmas and it has earned it's keep already and it's only April. However, it did not come with a second shelf so that I can stack jars. The manufacturer says that it's okay to put the jars directly on top of each other, but that wasn't pleasing to me and I wasn't spending $12 plus shipping to get one. I searched high and low at all the thrift stores we went to and kept hoping I'd find something that would work even if it was a small pizza pan that needed holes drilled in it. Well everything was too large or too small until...

some imaginative sorter at a VOA thrift store put this wire rack together with a Pyrex pie plate. It was the correct diameter, but I only wanted the rack, but for $4 I took them both home and rushed to see if it would fit the caner. Needless to say it did. The rack has a one inch rail on one side and a half inch rail on the other. I used it in the caner with the one inch up and could put 7 wide mouth pints on top. One short but that was okay. I now had my extra rack, a holder for the pie plate and when I took the jars out of the caner I reversed it so I had a cooling rack one inch off the counter for my jars. I think I got my $2 out of the rack and imagine using it with vintage glass for a table centerpiece. Now about the pie plate. Yes it's Pyrex, yes it's vintage and I didn't really want it, but it happens to be an 11 inch pie plate. The retail value on line runs between $8 and $24 dollars. I'd say that this was a great find and I am keeping the pie plate.

After a great early Saturday breakfast out we headed off to spend the day thrifting and having fun. The findings included some doilies, plastic Easter egg rabbits, a stacking doll, vintage snowman and the most important find was the wooden shelf. It's been on the list for months. My daughter wanted something heavy duty enough to hold her essential oils and there it was. For $2.99 and with a little spray paint it will do the job. We also found a vintage red bed cover a very large yellow bath towel and a bright floral bed sheet. The color scheme here is yellow, orange, green and aqua. Can you tell?

We found a few books. The "Putting Food By" book I already owned, but it was 50% off and a big update from my version. We found wooden pant hangers, zippers, iron on patches and knitting needles and that bright flowered scarf. 

We came home with four dozen more canning jars. Here some have been washed, others in the box to be cleaned and as of yesterday and today twenty of them have been used. 

My favorite find was the heavy duty aluminum colander. It was $2 and now I have something to strain large amounts of food instead of a little at a time. There's the pie plate and rack under that wonderful Pyrex Butterfly Gold divided dish with a cover and we found another set of vintage lazy Susan pieces.

And look at the wonderful score of other Pyrex pieces. Cinderella bowls, regular bowls, another cover, and refrigerator bowls. I think it was an awesome day out and I think we found a well rounded assortment of goodies. Thank you for stopping by to visit and I hope all your thrift finds are good too.

Townhouse Homestead Tuesday

We had a very quiet Easter here at the townhouse. Caught up with a few people we hadn't heard from in a while and just relaxed. Dinner was peaceful and it was prepared a bit ahead of time so it too was not time consuming and flowed smoothly. To brighten up our Easter dinner table we used some of the Pyrex collection and my daughter loves to collect misfit lazy Susan pieces. With the vintage table cloth that is by no means in perfect condition it made a setting for a lovely early Spring/Easter dinner.

This townhouse homesteader is trying to create a meal planner and build a stock so it is easier to combine the work schedule and have the best meals we can. This week the only addition we made to that stock up was onion rice mix. I made this with my home made onion soup mix and while I was putting it together I decided that this will be a side for roast pork. The fragrance spoke pork.

I put this up in 8 ounce jars. With just two of us one cup of rice is a lot so we can get four servings from each jar and of course they are vacuum sealed for a healthy shelf life. That's all that's new as far as the homesteading side of the townhouse for last week. We've done plenty more and have plenty more we can do. Thank you for stopping by and have a wonderful week. 

Recipes here:

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/461970874252980526/

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/461970874249489880/

Thrift finds, freebie economics, trying something new and the simple things.

On a recent adventure to do errands my daughter and a dear friend and I stopped at a thrift store. One we hadn't visited for quite a while. We have cut back on our trips to hunt because we've set a new goal for moving in a year and have been thinking and learning about what we would like to have as far as living quarters. This stop however was quite a great one and we got to pick and choose a few good things.

The best find was a large green Pyrex Cinderella bowl. This is a keeper and the price was $2.99. We found a bright floral table cloth and a double yellow daisy sheet and some vintage blue Christmas ornaments.

We found some other odds and ends that are always on our list. Canning jars at 49 cents, another small Pyrex Cinderella bowl, a terra cotta plant saucer, a basket for a gift basket and a pattern for a men's tie. The most exciting find for my daughter was a new with tags Holly Hobby doll. We left behind a lot of Pyrex that was not in good condition and some with bad chips but it was wonderful to find and be able to choose what was good. 

On our adventure to try something new the girls made honey oatmeal soap. I stayed out of the way for this one, but it seemed to be a simple procedure and look at the results. It's curing and will be ready for use soon.

Now getting to the freebie economics for the week. It wouldn't be a good week without candy and this week was a free York peppermint. I accumulated $34 in Staples rewards and cards over the past month and had my daughter take me to pick out a few items. We had no idea what we'd get. Our printer died and we didn't need ink so until we can get a new one I couldn't let this money go to waste. I purchased a 20 roll package of Scott bathroom tissue, two large containers of coffee and a three roll package of tape. In the end the total was $3.23. I had to split the order in two because I couldn't use them altogether on one order and that was fine. I think I did well. Then on the way into the thrift store I found a wrinkled up dollar bill on the ground and felt even better. Since I have little to no income at this time my daughter covers the overages for me and the dollar went straight to her piggy bank.

The most exciting thing for me this week was the blossom on this Christmas cactus. Three years ago my sister-in-law gave me a cutting. She was sure it was from her white cactus plant. I loved and watered and tended to this plant with such care and was rewarded with the proof that it sure is white. When I was working at The Home Depot a few years back I had seen one and didn't get off work in time to make it mine and had wanted one. The universe gives gifts in such special ways. This plant is named Junior. You see I have a larger pink Christmas cactus plant she also gave me as a cutting many years ago and on one of it's bad years I salvaged a cutting from it and got it to come back to all it's glory. In my small room on a very small table I have three plants. There is Senior, the larger pink cactus that made a miraculous come back, Junior the white cactus and "the third" which is the salvaged cutting from Senior. My happiness is in the simple things.

Thank you for stopping by and have a wonderful week everyone.