As we usually do when I visit my parents, my mother and I hit the thrift stores in her town when I was there last month.
Thrifters out there will know that there are good days and there are not-so-good for treasure hunting. This particular trip to Value Village, with a side trip to another curated vintage shop, was one of the good days.
I found a lot of things that were great, and of course, when you find lots, you spend a bit more than usual. So this haul cost me $33 in total, including tax. Not bad when you consider that the Corelle bowls alone would have cost me $30 if bought new at retail (Canadian Tire sells them.)
Here are the goods …
(1) Let’s start with the glasses I picked up at the curated vintage store. This was a really nice place with the most friendly of proprietors, with whom I talked about collecting housewares with at length. He had a terrific selection of things in his treasure filled shop, but the first items that caught my eye were these amber coloured glasses, that he had arranged with some other coloured glass in a window (why oh why did I not remember to get pictures inside that cute shop!). These are good quality, heavy and in perfect shape, probably coming from the 60s, which I found to be very reasonably priced at $2 each.
(2) Now onto the Thrift Store finds. First those aforementioned Corelle bowls. These are large bowls meant to be serving pieces. I bought a couple from ebay a while ago and when I say those have been in constant rotation around here I mean it! We eat a lot of soup, chili and pasta, and these are the perfect size for those meals. We use them so often that we frequently end up hand-washing the two we have to use again, rather than wait until they’ve run through a full dishwasher load. We needed more for sure, so when I found these two brand new looking ones, for $3 for both, I snapped them up. They aren’t a particularly pretty pattern, being plain light beige but these were bought for their usefulness rather than their beauty! And they were significantly less expensive than the ones from ebay (or as mentioned bought new at retail).
(3) While we’re on Corelle, we’ll move to the 4 dinner plates next. Looking as though they’d never been used, these vintage plates in the pattern “Woodland Brown” are at least 28 years old, as this pattern was discontinued in 1985. Although the dinner plate stack of our Corelle collection is reaching its limits already, I couldn’t resist them for $1 each.
(4) We use a lot of candles around here, so this pretty tea-light holder was picked up for $1, to add to the tray of candles that we’ll be using in the evenings out on the deck, once the days start getting shorter.
(5) One thing my mother mentioned that she was unable to locate in our home when she was last here cat-sitting our fur baby were paper towels. That’s because we very rarely use them. Of course, we have some, but they’re not left out at our finger tips. Instead, we use cotton napkins. Since it’s usually only the two of us, we reuse them for a while before tossing them in the laundry, so it’s not like we’re constantly washing napkins.
These 4 (at $1 each) are 100% cotton and have never even been washed before. Plus they’re a colour that we don’t already have. Into the cart they went.
(6) While still in the linens department, I found a vintage tea-towel that also had never been used, (again for $1). I collect vintage tea-towels so recognized a ‘real’ one, probably being from the 70s. (I pointed that out because there are tea-towel imposters out there who make new ones that look like they’re old.) And although I save the more special ones in pristine condition, this one has already been run through the wash and is hanging in the kitchen being used as intended as I type.
(7) Moving over to the accessories department, a quick running of my fingers through the scarves had me fall upon a pure silk number. This red, black, gray and cream colour beauty is labelled Lauren by Ralph Lauren and doesn’t have a single snag or hole. Looks like someone may have been given it as a gift and found that it wasn’t their style so they never wore it. Fine with me, ’cause it is my style indeed! It’s a nice big one and the oblong shape I like, measuring 12″ by 54″.
(8) I love long necklaces, so went for this pretty beaded one in nice golden and brown colours. It’s very lightweight, meaning the beads are plastic rather than crystal, but for $2.99 I thought it was nice enough to add to my collection.
(9) And I’m saving the best for last. There was definitely a happy-dance done when I found this vintage black glass (known as Jet) necklace. It is the real-deal in that it is true vintage probably coming from the 1920s. It’s the extra-long ‘flapper’ length at 48 inches in length. I. love. it!
I couldn’t believe I was finding it priced just like all the contemporary costume jewellery on the the rack, also costing me only $2.99. That’s crazy. Crazy good.
Thanks very much for taking a look at my finds!
xo loulou
