Pyrex as a Learning Tool -- Start Them Young!

We have one cabinet in the kitchen with glass doors where I keep all a little of my Pyrex, Coronation & kitchen glass collection.   Ever since my granddaugher (now 13 months) was old enough to hold her head up and look around at things, I've carried her over there and shown her the all the goodies inside. At about 6 months, she started really paying attention, but I didn't realize until this past week how closely she'd been watching.

I open the cabinet and say 'Pyrex!' and then start on the primary set first (don't all Pyrex collectors?)... 'Yellow, green, red, blue  (then, moving to the right) -- turquoise, pink and Flamingo pink!'  I take out the 'There'll Always be an England' glasses and the Coronation glass and the little flamingo on the bottom shelf and show them to her.  If I forget to go back to the little maple leaf cream and sugar on the bottom shelf and say 'yellow', she points to them to remind me.  I think it's a good way to teach colors (though her parents think it's pretty funny that I've been teaching their baby turquoise and flamingo pink).

So, last week, Mr. KV was holding her in another part of the kitchen and I said something about Pyrex and she turned around, looked right at the cabinet and started grinning!  If you ask her 'Where's the Pyrex?', she immediately looks at it and gets excited.  Only 13 months, just starting to walk and talk and she already knows the good stuff -- that's smart!

I can see a great time treasure hunting with my little buddy in the future -- I'd better save a granny cart for her!

Picking Things Up Along the Way

As I said in my last post, I've been really trying to avoid sales for a few months to try to 'destash' the basement as I sell in the booth and on Etsy.  That was SO hard to do, though!  If a sale was really close by (within 10 miles -- and that doesn't happen often) or if I was driving by the local thrift store, I'd stop by to see what was around.

Here are a few things I picked up along the way.  Not as much fun as a fill-the-car prince of a sale, but good stuff nonetheless...

1960s sewing chair -- has a torn place, so I think I'll recover it in barkcloth and add big buttons.  I think it will look awesome!

It opens up to store your sewing supplies

1934 Brookfield Zoo souvenir pennant

A really realistic looking lacquerware turtle box

A Wolverine toy kitchen cabinet

I LOVE this breadbox -- it just screams 1950s to me!

It's hard to see how nice this picture is -- I got it at the local thrift.

A totally kitschy tin Christmas tray

1959 wedding cake topper -- so cool!

A mirrored tissue box cover.  This looks like Hollywood glam to me!

Faux french provincial jewelry box -- not my style, but cool, nonetheless

I have to tell you about these next little gems... I always search for Queen Elizabeth II and King George VI on Etsy and the third glass from the left came up a few weeks ago.  The seller was in Michigan and said she'd be happy to let me pick it up.  Then she asked if I'd like to see all the OTHER royals' glasses that she had?  Do you think so?  Absolutely!  In the end I bought NINE of them...I only left two behind because I didn't like the graphics on them.

I was going to resell the extras in the booth, but as I started pricing them, I just kept keeping them back one at a time.  The only one that went into the booth was the coronation procession glass, because that was a double for me.

The first three are souvenirs from King George VI's reign -- his coronation and then two from his visit with Queen Elizabeth, Princess Elizabeth & Princess Margaret to Canada.  The last is from Queen Elizabeth II's coronation

Four coronation glasses -- Queen Elizabeth II & her father King George VI

One glass that's not pictured is a green printed 'God Bless Our King' for King George VI -- I liked that one so much it immediately went into the kitchen display cabinet.

The last great thing I bought was a waterfall wardrobe.  It's out in the barn and I keep meaning to take a picture of it, but forget when I go out to put the chickens in bed.  One of these nights I will and then I'll add it here.

So, those are a few of the things I picked up while I wasn't shopping.  Gee, I hope Mr. KV doesn't read this post and see them all!

The Queen's Diamond Jubilee!

Today, June 2, 2012, is Queen Elizabeth II's jubilee -- marking 60 years on the throne.  I know that all my UK followers are well aware of the big celebrations planned, but doubt that many here in the US even noticed.

I think I've mentioned before (a few times, at least) that I love all things British, but especially the Queen!  I've been collecting Royal Family 'souvenirs' for many years, and most particularly Coronation items.  Mr KV laughs that every time a package arrives at our house, the Queen's picture is somewhere on it (I think he exaggerates...)   I have lots of tins -- between biscuit tins and tea tins, there is just such a variety available.  I have lots of other interesting things, though, too. 

I thought, in honor of the Queen's jubilee, that I'd share some of them with you.

This might be my favorite piece -- a teapot with red & blue bakelite handles. 

A hinged tin

Another tin (I always try to turn Prince Philip to the wall)

Lots of tins, a tray and some other, more unusual things:

A spoon with a bakelite handle (the bowl is embossed with the ERII)

A Coronation souvenir penknife

A Welsh lady salt or pepper (with the Coronation date on the back)  I've never been able to locate the other shaker -- I don't even know what it would look like

The London Coronation highlights is a very cool little souvenir pamphlet. 

The tin has the princesses on it.  The snapshot postcard is one of my favorite pieces -- it looks just like a family snap, with the Queen, Princess Anne, her horse and the Corgis

A Coronation plate -- a present from my friend Bargain Hunter (she gave me Christmas cookies on it)

Another favorite -- a home-made, hand colored and embroidered pillow

A Coronation Book of Common Prayer and box.  It has a hard patent leather cover embossed with ER 1953

Several books -- I especially like 'Princess Elizabeth, Wife and Mother' and 'Princess Elizabeth's Wedding Day'

An unusual changeable date desk calendar

Coronation paper dolls & coloring book -- uncut and uncolored!

Another coloring book -- also uncolored

Lastly, another favorite -- a scrapbook put together by a little girl in Surrey.  It looks like it may have been a school project

 Thanks for looking at my collection!
(If any of my British friends want to pick up a little jubilee souvenir to add to the collection I'll HAPPILY reimburse you for your cost and shipping!   I hope you got to celebrate today!)

God Save the Queen!

Finishing Up an Odd Job

I don't know how things are at your house, but there's nothing like the impending visit of houseguests to get me moving on finishing up odd jobs.  Things I've been happy to let slide for months weeks suddenly take on a new importance.

We're having family visit after Christmas, and I FINALLY hung up a great 1950s wall box that I'd gotten at an estate sale.  I've had this sitting on the cabinet that it's hanging over (now) for almost a year.  It had been there so long that, when I showed Mr. KV what I'd done, he said  "Oh, that hangs on the wall? I thought it was supposed to sit on the cabinet!"

The cabinet was my aunt's, the Christmas tree stand was given to me by my mother-in-law.  It was her great-grandmother's and is from the 1800s -- it winds up and plays 'Silent Night' and 'Kling, Glockchen'.  The cream colored felt tree skirt is from the 1960s, I think -- I picked it up a few years ago.

Like all odd jobs done close to the arrival of company, completing one leads to another.  Once I'd hung up the box, I had to figure out what to put in it.

It turned out to be easier to fill the box than I'd expected...  I added a few vintage Christmas items -- a bottle brush wreath, Gurley Santa candle & a pair of Lefton angels.  The tin is a souvenir from King George's coronation in 1937 (no, I wasn't there to get it in person...) The three English money boxes are from King Edward's & King George's reigns.  The loving cup is one that my Aunt Gene won in tennis in her youth in the 1940s and the Scottie with the Haggis is a gift from her -- she's very proud of our Scottish heritage!  Since the cabinet below the box used to belong to her, it seems only fitting that some of her favorite things are displayed above it, along with some of mine.

Treasures from a Successful Sale

Yesterday I showed you the Harry Houdini-like job of packing a huge amount of stuff into a tiny car.  Now I'll show you some of the great stuff that I got at the sale...

A box lot of red-ware and asian cups plus some cool frosted glasses (the dealer threw in the 7 undecorated ones for just $1 more).  Of course, I had to buy the coronation plate, too!

A pyrex percolator, vintage toaster with a neat red cord, Hall Cactus ball pitcher (which I think MIGHT actually be worth something) and a lucite ice bucket.

An assortment of Christmas things -- you can't see them well, but there are a bunch of plastic snowflakes next to the ball of garland.  I think the pygmy cow that's smaller than baby Jesus is funny!

4 old photo albums (one had to instantly go onto the back porch because it was so moldy -- probably not my best buy).  I had one of the workers get the birdseed tin down from the garage ceiling -- I think it's interesting.  I also got two glass lamps with flowers etched on them.  I'm not sure they're vanity lamps -- they're so tall, they could almost go on a sideboard.

A large fruit picture in a nice frame

A picture of a girl looking at a bird.  I'd seen this in several other places, but could never afford it.  THIS is what I stood in front of and waited to grab. 

An old yellow card table and a large white picture frame

3 little bird pictures -- there were 4, but I gave one to Crit.  I also got a white framed Grandma Moses snow scene and a funny baby picture (look below)

No more kissing, 'cause you slobbers!

A wooden inlaid card table.  I've restored 1/2 of it so you could see the before and after

   This brings me to something I wanted to share about restoring old wood furniture.  I've worked on the right side of the table and left the other side alone so you could see the difference.  All I did was use a wood finish restoring product that we sell at the antique mall, but which you can get at most hardware stores.  It's called Restore-a-Finish and it's some of the best stuff around!  You choose a shade similar to what you have -- I've bought Dark Walnut (for really dark finishes) and Walnut (which I used on the table above).

You can see how it covered the scratches and dried out areas on the  right, as opposed to the left.  After it had soaked in for a while, I wiped off the excess and let it dry.  Then I used Howard's 'Feed and Wax' on it to add a final finish.  This is great stuff (I think they should put me on their payroll)!

This is all that I got from 3 sales that I went to Friday morning -- real frogs!  The butterfly apron was a sympathy-buy.  I was just looking at it and saw how stained it was and that it couldn't be laundered because of the flocking and glitter AND I saw that the ties were almost completely gone, when a little old lady (who looked like she was 90+) said, "Oh!  You found my apron!  Good for you!  I wore that for so many years!"  I had to buy it after that -- I couldn't tell her it wasn't good enough for me!

The flocked & glittered butterflies...

 Zootsuitmama asked yesterday about oilcloth and where I get it.  I buy mine at an fabric store in Royal Oak, Michigan.  It's good to find a local outlet for it so that you can really see what you're buying.   You can buy it online, too, at oilclothbytheyard.com.  They're one of my favorite online sources for it, since they have a really good selection and their prices per yard are the same as any fabric store.  You have to realize, though, that oilcloth is pretty wide (so you don't need as much if you aren't doing a tablecloth) and fairly heavy -- keep that in mind if you're having it shipped.  

 Thanks for looking at my junk treasures!  I'm going to share one of them tomorrow linking to 'Would You Buy it Wednesday' at Junkernewbie's blog.  The one I'll blog about is the one that caused the most discussion at my house when I brought it all home.  Do you think you can you guess which piece it is (Crit, you're not allowed to answer!)?