Thrifting Thursday (vintage tin measures)

I've kind of started a little collection lately...



...of vintage tin measuring cups and spoons.

I've loved old metal kitchen items for a long time, cast iron and tin are my two favorites. I have a wonderful set of vintage cast iron cookware (skillets and a griddle) that I use all the time. And there are my lovely old tin canisters that Joe got me for Christmas last year...




Not long ago, M and I were volunteering at the thrift store, going through donations getting them ready to set out, I found a couple of vintage tin measuring cups and decided they were going home with me. I'm not sure why I liked them so much... they are a little beat up and nothing special in terms of design, but I loved the look and feel of them (that's them in the top picture).



Since those first two, I've started watching for them and have found more, in different sizes but the same style, and snapped them up.



I've also found some vintage tin measuring spoons that followed me home.




Since starting to collect the tin ones, I've gotten rid of most of my plastic measuring cups and spoons. I love the treasure hunt of looking for the vintage ones.

Eventually I'd like to do something like this with them...



... inside my kitchen cabinet.

Cool, yes?  And I think it would be a big help to R too when she cooks....

So, are you collecting anything these days?

Thrifting Thursday (antique postcard)

We worked at the thrift store today. We really are there to work, not shop, but it's impossible not to be tempted, at least a little, to "rescue" a few little things here and there.

Today I rescued an antique postcard that was destined to be "passed along". (ie: donated to Goodwill, which is what happens to items that aren't nice enough to sell at our store...) The postcard was tied on, with a scrap of ribbon, to the arm of a hideous stuffed rabbit. The rabbit looked like a cross between a rag doll and a bunny, made of flowery fabric, and dressed in a frilly dress. Interestingly, it appeared to have a beard made of some tufts of fluffy faux fur attached just below it's mouth. Glued onto one of it's arm was a tiny basket filled with teeny tiny Christmas ornaments, the postcard was tied onto the other arm.

It's really impossible to accurately describe the strangeness of this stuffed rabbit... it looked like some kind of disturbed mix of Christmas and Easter.

Except for the postcard, which was charming.





The strange rabbit was headed for Goodwill, so I asked for the postcard.... it really seemed to need rescuing.

It has the sweetest verse on the front...



... and an equally nice little note on the back.

It's darkened a bit with age, and has a bit of water damage on one corner, but those things just add to it's character... and, of course, it also has a hole punched in one side where it was tied onto the hideous bunny.




It's dated December, 15, 1926...




... and it's a lovely addition to our postcard collection.

Speaking of postcards, the kids and I are still having a great time with Postcrossing... We've sent out, and received just over 100 postcards since we joined back in the fall of 2013. You can read about our Postcrossing adventures here and here.




Edited to add: Just for fun I looked up the address the postcard was sent to and found this little bungalow:





It was a fairly new home when that card was sent...

Thrifting Thursday (WWII era game set)

I found rescued this little game set a few weeks ago, but never shared it and decided it's too cool to keep to myself.

It came from a thrift store up in Denver, where I found it sitting on a shelf in the toy aisle, partially open, with playing cards spilling out of it.



I could tell the little case was old, but looked inside just briefly before putting it in my cart. I wasn't really even thinking about buying it at that point, but I knew it was old, and wasn't a toy, so I put it in my cart to look at later to try and figure out just what it was.



But then I forgot about it, got to the checkout to pay, and found it again... I saw the price was only $2.00 so I bought it. I figured the little antique suitcase alone was worth that...

When I got home and explored my purchase, I realized I'd found a little gem... I found a short handwritten tucked away in the case telling it's history. Here's what it says:

Brad,

Hope you like this - it's not new, it's about 40 years old. (Pearl Harbor days) - It belonged to a good friend of mine - his wife owns the local antique store - (Dolly's Antiques-) Her husband is ill and was disposing of all his things he had during his younger days. Dolly said Bill had this when he was in the Navy during WWII. I thought you would like to have it - take care and pass it down to your sons - !

Happy Christmas - and hope the Bunny Business picks up! 

                             Love Gran and Grandad xxx



So the letter dates from the 1980's, and the case holds a bit of WWII history... and a sad story of that bit of history somehow ending up on a thrift store toy shelf.



It's a game set made my Rott Games, and dates (as close as I can figure out) from 1939-1940ish.



It includes checkers, backgammon, dominoes, cribbage, dice, a horse race game, two decks of playing cards (one newer, not original), poker chips, and two playing mats... a felt one for the horse race game, and the other... made from an interesting oil-cloth kind of material... for checkers/chess and backgammon.





I'm so glad I rescued it, and I wonder about the man (boy?) who carried this little case with him during his time of service during the horrific WWII years... I think about the games he played with his buddies (cribbage might have been the most popular, the cribbage set is pretty worn) and the stories the case could tell if it could talk.



I do love stumbling upon little bits of history like this...

Thrifting Thursday (1957 pressure cooker)

Despite the "Thrifting Thursday" title of this post, my "new" pressure cooker didn't actually come from a thrift store... it was seriously on it's way to the trash. An old friend of mine has been cleaning out an elderly relative's house, helping him downsize, and I've been helping. We've probably gone through 30 boxes from the relative's basement, including two large boxes full of windsocks (many of them brand new), several sets of holiday dishes... still in boxes... countless silk flower arrangements, and anything else you can imagine... sorting them into keep, trash, and give away piles.

By the time my friend opened the large box containing multiple Tupperware carrot stick holders (new) and this old beauty...



... she was ready to be done with the sorting and just throw everything away.

So she pulled the pot out of the box, and put it directly into the trash bag...


.... and I just as quickly pulled it out of the trash bag and told her I'd take it.



When I checked the numbers on the bottom of the pot, I knew it was meant to be... This pot and I are almost exactly the same age!



So I cleaned it up well (it was in surprisingly good shape, it had been wrapped in plastic before going into the box) and ordered a new gasket, safety fuse and vent tube for it and it will be my new bean pot.

I even found an owners manual online for the 1958 Mirro-Matic Pressure Cooker, which is only one year newer, so should work for this pot.

I'll test it as soon as the new parts come, but I'm hoping it will be good as new and ready to make a new batch of beans.

Thrifting Thursday (butcher block table redo)

I've always loved the look of a thick, heavy, old butcher block in the kitchen, I love the richness of the oiled wood, and the practicality of having a handy place to set a hot pot or quickly chop an onion. (I baby our granite countertops... no chopping, no extreme heat.)

So when this ugly, wobbly table came into the thrift store not long ago, I immediately decided it had possibilities.



It was homemade from solid oak, and had casters (one broken) on the bottom and a drawer (also broken) on top. It was the most awkward, top heavy, piece of furniture I think I'd ever seen...



... but the top was made from old, 2" thick, butcher block. So I happily paid $5. for the table and stuffed it into the back of the van.



Whoever built this table built it to last... it was seriously overbuilt and a BEAR to take apart. I anticipated bringing the table home, flipping it upside down and unscrewing the butcher block from the base, and that would be that.

Except the butcher block was glued on... apparently with bullet proof glue... because I tried every trick I knew to soften the glue, and nothing worked.

I finally gave up and after I'd disassembled the table as much as I could, Joe broke the last of the base off with a sledge hammer.

The base is now scrap wood (I'll save it and use the wood for something someday... it's oak, after all!), but the butcher block survived quite nicely and I started sanding.



It looked as though the butcher block did not have a finish (varnish, shellac) on it,which was wonderful... it was mostly just dirty and dried out.



It didn't take long to sand, and once it was done I started wiping it down with butcher block oil. It was amazing to watch the wood waking up; returning to it's natural beauty...



I'm not sure what I'm going to do with the pile of oak down in the garage.... but the butcher block has found a home on my kitchen counter.



 I'm wiping it down with a little oil each day for now, until the wood gets to the point of not drying out so quickly... and each day the wood looks richer and deeper.





It was nice to have a quick, easy, inside project to work on... and I do love having it in the kitchen. (Yes, it's already been used... several times!)

Thrifting Thursday

It's been awhile since I've done a "Thrifting Thursday" post... but that doesn't mean I haven't been finding some treasures at the thrift store.

I thought I'd take a break from talking about chickens and secret projects, and post about some thrift store finds I've brought home over the past few weeks...

How about a pair of antique ladder back chairs for .99 each?



They were marked $12.99 each (which I would have paid) but had yellow tags, and yellow tags were .99 that day. The timing was perfect as a dowel in one of our regular dining room chairs broke and I'm going to have to take the chair apart (and redo the rush seat) to fix it... While it's waiting repair, I have a couple of spares to take it's place!

I'm always drawn to old books and when a whole box of them came into the thrift store where we volunteer each week, I knew I was going to take a couple home.






Aren't the little illustrations charming?



This one is my favorite though...



It's also copyright 1889 and it's in almost perfect condition... I especially love the embossed illustrations on the red leather cover.



These also came into the thrift store while we were working, and are kind of a mystery. There were about 30 prints of antique photos mounted on mat board and covered with some kind of tracing paper. They had obviously been stored a long time... there were cobwebs and debris in the box, and the tracing paper was brittle.



As I lifted each piece of tracing paper and saw the photos I was in love... and asked if I could bring the set home so I could leisurely enjoy the photos before they were sold.

After spending the next week studying the photos there were a few I fell in love with, and just had to buy.

Here are a few of the eight photos I kept:










I think I'm going to make a display with them, matting and framing them very simply, and hanging them in a grid pattern on the wall.

What treasure have you found lately while thrifting? Any crazy deals on chairs... or anything else?

Thrifting Thursday (vintage fisher-price)

Finally!

I've been looking for a vintage Fisher Price little people dollhouse for awhile now and I finally found one at Goodwill... for $3.99.



I've had the vintage little people barn and some of the animals for awhile now...



They came into the thrift store M works at and I snapped them up immediately. I think the barn kind of looks like ours...






Complete with barn art and bird's nests!






But I couldn't find a house to go with it.

Until now...



Of course, this is the second time I've purchased both these items... Our "big kids" had the house, barn, garage, and village little people sets (also purchased from thrift stores) back when they were tiny. As they outgrew them, and I wanted the space all those toys took up for other things, I got rid of them. (a definite lack of foresight)

I always liked those old little people sets though... I love the cool little furniture, and various expressions on the people's faces, and the neat way everything fit together to store away.



My "new" house could use a little more furniture (I'll keep watching thrift stores) but otherwise I'm set... I have no desire to collect them... I'm happy with just the house and the barn.

Despite the fact that my "babies" are now 21 and 17, the house just looks more like a home with a few toys here and there....