A Good Week for Thrifty Finds

I'm excited that I got to visit two places I love to go this week.  And even more excited that I found some great finds.  That's not always the case, believe me!  I've had a very dry spell lately which is why I haven't posted very often.  I love vintage vases, dishes, table linens and too many other things.  I also pick up a few things to sell on Ebay to support my junking habit. 

With fuel costs rising higher and higher, I try to plan my consignment store and Goodwill trips when I have other errands to run in town.  This week I had errands to do, so I stopped there for a look around.  I always head straight for the dishes and linens.  Somehow they end up with a lot of new discontinued patterns of dishes, so I always try to grab those when I can.  Recently I bought a beautiful pattern at TJMaxx.  It looked like Spring, but without all the pinky, green normal Springtime colors.  Red and Black - not usually what you associate with Spring.  I bought all they had which was four plates and four mugs to set an intimate tablescape.  I looked at other places for salad plates but couldn't find any and have since found that they're very expensive on Ebay.  I bought the four cups for $4.99 and the plates for $7.99.  One small salad plate sells on Ebay for $14.99.  The pattern is Coventry Makayla and here it is.

The reason I wanted the salad plates was to create another layer.  So since I couldn't afford four salad plates at $14.99, I went in search for something that may look pretty good with a mix and match pattern.  This is where the Goodwill trip came in handy.  I found four soup bowls, four salad plates and two cups and saucers in this pattern and paid 49 cents for each piece.  The pattern is Mikasa Cocoa Blossom and they were brand new with the stickers still on the bottom of each piece.

Imagine my shock when I got home and found that one saucer sold recently on Ebay for $16.99.   And I had paid less than $6 for twelve pieces.  This is the way I put it together by adding the Mikasa salad plate and saucer to the Coventry.  It's a pretty nice match, don't you think.

But that's not the end of the story.  More thrifty finds were to be found at Goodwill.  When I saw this set laying on the display rack, I quickly gobbled them up.  I had seen this pattern recently on a tablescape blog and fell in love with it.  Could this be the pattern?  There's a lot of fruit patterns in china, so until I turned it over, I wasn't sure.  Yep, this is it!  It's Sonoma Sakura and there were four soup bowls and three dinner plates.  Back home to check on Ebay and once again I nearly fell over on the floor.  One soup bowl recently sold for $11.99 and dinner plates were selling for $12.50 each.  And I had paid less than $3.50 for all seven pieces.  While I was walking around with my buggy full of plates, a lady walked by and handed me some placemats.  She said, "I picked these up to buy but they really don't match my kitchen and I see you have plates in there to match so you can have these if you want."  How sweet!  Of course I wanted them and the cashier rang the four of them up at $1.99.  Here they are:

I absolutely love them.  I had been dreaming about this pattern ever since I saw the tablescape.

OK, is this the end of the story?  Not....  Can I be more blessed?  Yes.  Our favorite Saturday morning adventure is the flea market.  It's been a while since I found much there, but Spring is in the air which is bring more yard sale sellers out with their wares.  There was a sweet little lady there who was downsizing.  I love sweet little ladies who are downsizing.  I should be one of them, but I haven't got the bug yet.  I'm always looking for table linens and I spotted some right away.  Here's what I found.

This adorable Bunny table runner. $2.00

Six fabulous yellow napkins - never used. $2.50

Six beautiful vintage white lacy dinner napkins - spotless. $3.00

And this pretty scarf that is plenty big for my table - so I'm calling it a table scarf. $3.00

$10.50 total for all those lovely things.  Needless to say, it was an exciting week!  Sometimes I get discouraged going to these places and not finding a thing, but perseverance is the key.  There's lots of thrifty things out there, but you have to keep looking.  Have you found any treasures lately?  I would love to hear about them!

Banana, Kiwi Palm Tree Fruit Tray on my flea market platter

I usually write about my flea market finds on this blog, and today is really no exception.  But this time I've added a little something extra to show you on this Pampered Chef platter I found last Fall at the Flea Market for $1.  It's a handy platter and FLAT.  Some platters have curves which wouldn't work with this fruit tray.  It makes a pretty presentation of some of my favorite fruits and since I'm from South Carolina, the Palmetto Tree State, it's especially delightful at parties and events.   I served it for a Valentine's Day Brunch for my two daughters and grandchildren which you can see on my blog As Life Happens  here. 

It's quite easy to make.  The ingredients are simply bananas, lemon juice, Kiwi fruit, and Cutie's / Clementines.  You could use tangerines, but the Clementines are seedless and much easier to eat because of it. 


You can make several of these trays if you're having a bigger event.  There were seven of us and I only made one tray, however, we had so many things to eat, this one tray turned out to be enough.  You can add more Kiwi than I did to make the leaves fuller.


Instructions:  1. Slice a banana in half lengthwise and place it on the plate as shown in my photo at the bottom of this page. Next, score the banana so that it will look similar to the real palm tree trunk shown here.

2. Next, brush on a little lemon juice to keep the bananas from turning brown.  3. Peel and slice the Kiwi and arrange them in slices to represent the palm tree fronds.  I should have used a few more because everyone loves Kiwi and it doesn't hurt the appearance to use more.  4. Then  peel the Clementines and place them at the bottom to represent the sand dunes.  And voila!  Here's the final result.  

 As you can see, you will need a very flat platter for it to look like this.  A curvy one would really play havoc with the presentation.  Try it at your next event - you'll get rave reviews!






Linking up to Nifty Thrifty Sunday on Nifty Thrifty Things Blog today.  Go take a peek - there's lots of nifty thrifty bloggers out there!

 

Vintage Advertising

I recently found some vintage magazines in my attic dating back to 1914.  I've done some fun posts on them on my other blog, As Life Happens.   I titled them Then and Now.   Pop over there if you want to read them.
I loved the old ads in these magazines.  Here's a great one that was in a 1916 copy of The Country Gentleman about a new type of gas stove - apparently a big improvement over wood cooking stoves.  It's titled "This summer I'll cook in comfort".  I love the vision that she is seeing standing in a hot kitchen - inside the little thought bubble.   

and this one of a family driving around in their new Mitchell automobile with 3rd row seats.  It's a convertible!  I had never heard of a Mitchell car.

These old magazine ads give us a glimpse of the past - history in advertising.  I love them!  I would love to have that old car, but I think I'll stick to my modern kitchen stove.


Linking to The ColoradoLady's Vintage Thingy Thursday.  Go take a look for more vintage things.

Flea Market Finds - Vintage Baby Planters

I wanted to share my Flea Market finds from this past weekend.  I just had to have them - they were too cute to pass up at only $2 each.   My friend, Linda collects these cute little vintage planters that at one held floral arrangements that people sent for Mommy and baby in the hospital.  That was back in the day when Mommies actually stayed in the hospital for more than a day!

We always use Linda's collection at baby showers at church to decorate and sometimes fill with mints and nuts.  I've always thought they were adorable - so now I'll have a couple to add.

The one on the left is a little Scotty Dog rocking horse planter.  I didn't realize it until I took the photo how similar the colors are to my vintage bird that I have on the mantle.  They're almost identical in color - I just love the combination of orange and turquoise.  The one on the right is a pair of baby girl shoes, complete with little pink shoestrings.  There's just something so sweet and nostalgic about these little planters.  Don't you agree?

Linking to Katherine's Corner Favorite Things Thursday.  Hop over and take a look