...even though I ain't been postin'.
I already had
one of these lovely little boat dishes in my cupboard and was elated to find two more several weeks ago. They are from a set of dishes that features a
simpering blue cornflower on the plates and bowls and whose name escapes me. Needless to say, undesirable. The serving piece, however, are much more modern than the rest and fit well with many of my other things. I always hate to break up a set, but in this case I made an exception.
David was in town a couple of weeks ago when I found this lovely owl at Next-to-New (They're moving up the street a couple of blocks, to a larger space they have purchased. Thrift store doing pretty well, I would say). She now sits atop our china cabinet and guards over the entire room. They still have the amazing set of
Noritake fine china (It's simply white with a grey stripe on the edge and silver rim), but where would I put them? I guess it will just languish there on the shelf.
To assuage the grief of not buying the Noritake, I went ahead and bought this set of fourteen glasses at Savers. (bottom shelf, middle) They're very tall, with heavy glass bottoms and appropriate for an array of icy coctails:
Mojitos, Pimm's cup and the like.
I found the silver-plated lotus dish on the left
a while back and it cleaned up pretty nicely. After Eric and Becca's wedding in Ardmore,OK I drover to Norman, OK and spent the night with Stephanie. On Monday she had class, so I hit the Salvation Army (an old haunt) before we headed back to Austin. I found the second lotus set and candlesticks, which are pretty tarnished, but will be very nice if they clean up. Unfortunately, SA had priced each element individually: the bowl, the plate, and each candlestick. Who prices candlesticks individually? I complained to the poor, innocent checker and she offered to give me the warehouse number so that I could tell them myself. I told her she could just pass on my comment, as the white stickers were all fifty percent off and I ended up paying what I had originally planned.
I also found this cute little owl napkin holder at the Norman SA and gave it to April who has a passion for all things owl-ish. It still has the originall J.C. Penny's price sticker on it.
While Stephanie was in town we hit all the Austin high points:
Central Market,
Amy's Ice Cream,
Sunflower Vietnamese Food, bats at the Congress Ave bridge,
Swad Veggiefood and
Frank Black (lead singer of the Pixie's) in an amazing concert opened by
Kentucky Prophet. We also worked in a little shopping included St. David's Next-to-New and Bethesda Thrift which is next door. Stephanie found this lovely compote in mint condition (not even a chip on the delicate flowers) for a steal of price. After much consideration, we decided it shouldn't go back on the plane and will be have to be delivered by hand at some point in the future.
I found this set of six smoke-colored stems. My preference is always service for eight (or twenty-four if we are really going to be honest and I think I know you pretty well so I'm going to go ahead and say what I really prefer is service for twenty-four.), but I bought them anyway. Hopefully I'll be able to use them a couple of times before they become service for five. Or service for four. My eyes moisten at the thought! Let us speak of it no more and live in the present which contains a set of lovely smoke-colored stems for eight.
I thought the glasses would go well with both of my sets of dishes, so of course I had to get them out of the cabinet to see for myself. The service above combines Canonsburg's Temporama (with blue, grey and tan colored atomic-like motif on the plates) with the new stems and a contrasting blue water glass. The blue shell bowl to the left of the place setting is from
West Elm and was a gift from David Earl. The dragonfly chopstick rests (service for eight) are from
Sur la Table and the silver Chinese soup spoons and black melamine chopsticks from the Asian market in Wichita. (Not THE Asian market, but the Asian market. Friends in Wichita will get this it, but it wouldn't be funny to the rest of you even if I tried to explain it.) The end result? An interesting combination of vintage and modern pieces that is startling and unique, if I say so myself. And I did.
After combining it with the Temporama, I thought "If it looks that good with the blue and white, I wonder what it will look like with the Metlox Shore Line." For those of you who have been reading MTSS for a while, you will remember that the original set of Metlox Shore Line (color, Wet Sand) was a
gift from the actress
Helena Hale who was visiting Wichita, KS to perform her one-woman play about Georgia O'Keeffe. Of course, I added to the original purchase and have a large collection with plenty of serving pieces. The color may be strange, but I believe just about any type of food looks great on it. Whites, reds, greens. You name it. Likewise, it combines well with some blue salad plates I bought, white bowls,
you name it. Anyway, in the setting above I combined the smoke stem with a darker smoke tumbler from
IKEA and accented the Metlox with a orange Gingko leaf-shaped dish from West Elm (another gift from David. Service for six, but I won't go down that road again.). The flatware is just some modern stainless from
Target, but again the combination of reddish-tan, smoke and orange looks pretty darn good. The chair is an
Eames design and was part of the bargain of the last century.
Another trip to Next-to-New this past weekend yielded a couple of other treasures including this large ceramic shell-shaped planter which has a lovely pink interior. It goes well with the growing faux-shell collection that is in the front room. Actually, it is the new queen of the collection with its large size and exquisite detail.
I also found volumes one and two of
Meta Given's The Modern Encyclopedia of Cooking, both with the dust jackets in relatively good shape. A month or so ago, I had found volume one and was very excited to find a complete set. My mother received these as a wedding present and has always sworn by them, so I was happy to find a couple for myself. Especially since hers are so used they are....used.
Happy shopping!
....my fabulous, thrifty friend Jennie! She is as obsessed (if not more) with thrift shopping as I am, but we never really shop together. Today, we both happened to have a short day at work, so we met for lunch and then headed into Next-to-New to see what we could find. This mirror looks fancy (and Jennie looks lovely in it) but the frame is actually very thin plastic.
This double boiler is made from Pyrex glass, but not that strange stuff they tried to get everyone to cook on in the 80s. It was kind of amber colored? I can't remember what they called it, but my Mam-ma would always talk about how 'during the war' you couldn't buy metal cookware, so they had a lot of glass. Possibly like this? I didn't buy it, but considered it strongly.
Jennie almost bought this blue ceramic bowl, but it was obviously missing the lid. Cute, kind of Pennsylvannia Dutch modern?
She did pick up this lovely porcelain butterfly, with designs to use it to hold jewelry. Delicate and whimsical, it has a happy feeling. Plus, she can hang it on the wall if she wanted.
Jennie and I oohed and ahed over this set of thirteen Asian teacups decorated with delicate images of birds and bright pink peonies. Thirteen seemed like a lot, even though my usual goal is service for twenty-four. Jennie suggested we split then and I was so happy that I hugged her. The other shoppers looked at us like we were crazy, which we are. They have a thick wall and are perfect in the hand. I served tea in then that very evening, during a Project Runway screening.
Next-to-New had a huge collection of Hall's Jewel Tea pattern. This was one of my Mam-ma's favorites and at one point she had a large collection she eventually sold off. It was one of those things she was obsessed with, almost as much as that Anchor Hocking Star of David crystal. I have a single pitcher from her Jewel Tea collection that reminds of her and seeing this large selection made me gush. Her birthday is January 19 and she would have been 89.
This Dallas Junior League cookbook is haunting me. I almost bought another copy with a similar design actually imprinted onto the cover of the book last week when I was in Houston. I didn't buy either, because I really don't imagine getting anything interesting from the Dallas Junior League recipes. I'm sure there is a section of how to achieve big hair. Maybe another on dressing for lunch? I'm sure each recipe begins, "Ask your maid to prepare this recipe the next time you are having friends over for bridge."
There were eight of these RED Sango bowls, so I snatched them up. They're low and very modern, with color on the exterior and white inside. I imagine using them with the Georges Briard Asian plate and Metlox Shore Line. I love to mix different styles and colors up on the table. But, you, dear reader, already knew that. I emphasize that the bowls are red, because they were labeled orange by the store and there was much discussion on the color between Jennie and other guests at the house the evening after they were purchased. Red, red....RED!
They look lovely, combined as mentioned above and topped with an olive green lotus bowl.
Like moi, Jennie was born to (THRIFT) shop.
