The Gravy Boat

Hello friends,
     I just about lost it today. I'm definitely not a stranger to embarrassing myself in public, but standing in a breakable dish section at the thrift store is probably not the place to just freak out. It's okay, I managed to keep it together til I got back to my car. Look at what I found today....

The "Butterfly Gold" gravy boat. 

I feel like the universe wants me to continue in this colour scheme direction since I find more and more everyday. Regardless I'm really going to be able to play around decoratively with this pattern and colours alike cause I found this too.....

One of those new but made to look old Kitchen Aid hand mixers. It was 8 bucks, and I'm not sure what they're going for in the stores but I thought it was worth it. It was brand new still in package with the attachments still in a sealed bag, so why not right. And look what colour it was. Hello! Just perfect.

I was so excited about that gravy boat though. I figure, if this gravy boat is here then maybe the butter dish isn't far away. I'm going back tomorrow, fingers crossed!

                              All the way home I couldn't stop thinking about what I was making for dinner. Had to be something with gravy. So roasted chicken with all the fixin's served on my second favourite pattern is what we had. Yummy!

And for dessert, a hot cup of tea and some of those flour less 5 ingredient peanut butter and banana mini muffins. The recipe is all over Pinterest, and they are delicious!

Yes! More Pyrex!

Hey guys,
       So once again I went a junkin', and found some great stuff. 

Now, I said I was just going to focus on strictly Pyrex, only for my lack of cupboard space but I broke guys. It's there, in the store right in front of my face and I just can't help it. I said to myself, " I'm just going to get other brands if they have lids." Well that went right out the window today. I've seen that Fire-King Green Meadow around town a lot lately, all with no lids but there's usually a box of mix matched lids at the thrift stores that I could go through to see if I can find any. That was my reasoning in purchasing that dish. Have I gone loony? 

Next to the Green Meadow is a Candle glow with lid. Really nice dish.

                       I was so excited to see the large and medium Blue Iris from Pyrex England, because if you recall from my other Pyrex posts you would have seen that I had found the small one of that same set, with a lid, now I have a set of something and that makes me happy!

I found the smallest of the "Autumn Harvest" mixing bowls. I really hope I find the rest one day.

(You'll have to pardon the picture quality, I was super excited to get this posted and I didn't have the aid of natural light.)

Lastly I found these solid colour mixing Cinderella bowls. Both Pyrex, but can't seem to find a name. Maybe they're apart of the "Earth Tones"

And just to add even more of a selection to my hording, I introduce you to my first and only JAJ piece.

Isn't she lovely. This is the "Cottage Rose" casserole. 

So that concludes my Pyrex hunt for the week. This has quickly became a huge delight in my life and I can't wait to get cookin'.

Broccoli and chicken bake anyone ;)

Kitchen Table Makeover

 Hello friends,
         This past weekend I finished project number two. My kitchen table. I'm in search of a small round wooden table for my kitchen, being that it's very small and sharp corners aren't very welcoming when trying to put a meal together. Regardless, I have to use what I already have at the moment so I decided to give it a face lift to make it at least match the decor direction that I'm going for, as I make over my entire kitchen. Yes I am still planning to move, eventually, but everything in my house needs a little makeover for it to sell. So this be she,

Just a simple cheap pine apartment sized kitchen table. I purchased this from Jysk when we bought our house because our beautiful maple pedestal table with matching hutch wasn't going to fit in the tiny kitchen. 

So I began by taking off the cushions, which were just screwed in from underneath. Using a varnish remover, I scrapped off all the varnish from the table and the chairs.Then gave it a once over good sanding.

I wasn't sure if I was going to paint the chairs white or not but by the end I decided on staining it the same colour as the top of the table which was going to be a gel stain called Special Walnut. It's my favourite. Then using some left over white paint I had in the cupboard I went ahead and painted the legs and undercarriage of the table. I went with the country farmhouse chic look. After the paint was dry I went over it lightly with sandpaper to give it a worn look. Just a little on the edges, just enough for the wood underneath to poke through.

I haven't found a fabric that stands out to me yet otherwise I would have re-covered the cushions, so I'm just going to keep my eyes open for that and do it at another time. So overall I think the table turned out really nice and fits better with the kitchen.

Collecting Pyrex

           Another day, another dollar...spent. I have been stopping by the thrift stores quite a bit after the last haul but came out empty handed. I've been noticing others looking at the bottoms of (what I can now spot far across a room) dishes for the word Pyrex. Competition is healthy. That's what I keep telling myself. Just when I thought the loot dried up, I see a shelf completely covered in that beautiful milky glass and I fiercely made my way to it. Turns out it was a bunch of Fire King, which is still just as nice and something I would like to collect but I have to draw the line somewhere, for now. So out of all those (I wish I had the space for dishes), I found another cute Pyrex England casserole.

As well as 6 old town blue mugs. Over the last few days I also decided to own the matching Corelle plates to match all the other dishes so that maybe one day I can play around with the designs and serve based on the season or the meal, I just want to own it all damn it! The spring blossom and butterfly gold seem to be the easiest to find where I am, but my eyes are peeled for others. I figure 6-8 of each would be enough, I don't want to be greedy ;) 

I'm trying to focus on finding pieces that complete what I already own but lets face it I'm grabbing what I can find. I don't live in a large area so I can only snatch up what trickles in and now with others looking for the same...I can't complain. So I had put together what I did own in the small sad groups that I hope to expand.

So this is what I own in the "butterfly gold" would love to find the sugar bowl to go with that creamer as well as the second sized plates.

These are my "Festive Harvest"  amber mixing bowls. 

This is what I have of the "Spring blossom" I would love to find the butter dish, and casseroles in this print since I want to use these the most.

I love these. "Summer Impressions"

The "Colonial mist" Cinderella bowls from my mother, and the mixing bowl I found after.

One of each. 

I would love to find some saucers or dessert plates in this " old town blue".

Just a few Pyrex England, "blue iris", "market garden" and the other one I have no idea the name.

I would also like to find a gravy boat in any design, and a platter. Like I said before, it would be nice to have one of everything in every design. I cannot wait to have more space to display these. I'm using everything and loving every minute of it. I had set the table tonight for dinner and laughed when my youngest daughter asked me why everything looks so fancy. Which brings me to my first meal in a old but new to me dish. Another Pyrex England "brown vine". ( I'd call it old town brown, but apparently not)

Classic Sheppard's pie. See how I need matching everything. It's kinda off, but it still taste good!

Thrift Shopping pick-ups/ #thriftyfinds

Hello friends,
     Normally on a Saturday I kick around the house in my pj's and catch up on my reading or Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, but today my oldest daughter had a birthday party to go to so I took the opportunity to check out two of my favourite thrift stores, since they were in the neighbourhood. First stop was Value Village, or VV Land as we call it, and took my time just wandering. I saw right away that there wasn't a piece of Pyrex to be seen ...booo, but I did stumble upon something really cute that I can use with my decor. Thinking it can hold dish towels or something.

     I also found this pretty table cloth.

I'm not sure what I'm going to do with it but as Spring approaches I'm sure I'll come up with a solution.
    Then on to my second favourite thrift store called The Post, and guess what. Pyrex!

Pyrex England Blue Iris casserole, to be exact. Very pretty. I have a few pieces from the England collection. I think that has something to do with living so close to the Army base and having a whole lot of British families living here, which is a super great thing for me. All those wives wanting to be so modern and end up getting rid of their mothers hand me downs. So score for this gal!
                      So that was my big adventure today. Looking forward to my pj day tomorrow before the start of a new week. Monday is the super saver sale at VV Land so I may be trying to come up with an excuse to head into town ;)
Take care ya'll

Electric Fireplace Makeover

              So here is the first project on my list. Hubby and I bought this little electric fireplace not long after we bought our first house many years ago. We needed something to hang our Xmas stockings on and this house didn't come with a fireplace, so a little trip to Canadian Tire and voila, a solution!

 Because I wasn't really thinking about it, I snapped these pictures with my cell phone so the true colour doesn't appear to well, but it was a really nice redwood colour. It didn't go with any of the other woods in the room so it always stood out, and I didn't even realise it was real wood till the day I was wiping it down and noticed that there was a ring of oil that rubbed off the finish so I thought ...cool, I can work with this.
             So the first thing I did was take all the doors and hinges off and taped up the glass. I'm using my husband's garage which was a total disaster area and can't wait for the day I get to have my own shop! 

Then using some saw horses I clamped the doors down so that I could cut out the already trimmed squares in the doors to create window holes using a jig saw. I did this to all 3 doors.

Then came the fun part of sanding. Especially the cut outs. I was going for a very rustic, rough looking look so I left uneven pieces inside the cutouts, just to add a bit of character.

I used Heirloom heavy body paint and varnish remover, gel formula, from Home Depot, with a cheap paintbrush to remove the redwood finish. Then continued to sand down to bare wood. As you can see I left a little of what it was before, knowing it would make the new applied stain look like it had deeper tones, again this was because I wanted to have a rustic look outcome. I didn't read how to do any of this I just attacked it with my own ideas. Not a professional here people, just a crazy housewife.

Before I started to stain, I wanted to add something like chicken wire to the new holes I put in the doors. I had some screening material in the garden shed and decided I would try it out. I cut out a rough size of it for each door and applied it by using a heavy duty staple gun.

Now, to make this easier I could have waited to put the screen on after I had it all stained and ready to be put back together but noooo, not this girl, I needed to see if I liked the look of the screen first, so I had to staple on the screens, cut off left over material and put the doors back on before staining. I don't recommend that. I had to be extra careful not to slop the stain all over the screens, what a pain in the arse!

Any who, I came out with the exact result that I was looking for and could not have been happier or more impressed with myself. I used a gel stain called Special Walnut, and it's just perfect for that rustic look. I liked it so much I redid our kitchen cupboards in it and its just perfect! A job well done I'd say. In our new house, another check point will be that it must have wood stove or fireplace, so I won't really be needing this in a living space so maybe I can put this little beauty in a spare bedroom or something, how lovely it would be for our guests who spend the weekend, especially over the winter months!

Pyrex, Pyrex, Pyrex

Hello Friends,
       A show of hands, how many of you are obsessed with your Pyrex ware? I know I'm not the only one. Most of you, like me have seen our mother ,and our mother's mother use those beautiful kitchen delights to mix and serve the best tasting meals you've ever eaten. I'm proud to be among those women still making food taste like love, that's straight from the heart. I swear that using a used vintage Pyrex dish makes every meal and dessert taste better!
Here's what I started with, two Colonial Mist Cinderella bowls.

My mother gave them to me when I left home. I use them for most of my baking. I had recently asked her if she had the other two bowls to complete the set ....  reply pending, but that's fine. These are what sparked it all. I've been in search of a new adventure, one game of what we all call, searching. I did this once with owning movies. I had to own every childhood favorite before they became discontinued, even then I would patiently wait and wait till an awesome garage sale popped up and AHAA!! There it would be and it was all mine! I miss that heart skipping moment of craziness happy you get when the world feels like it's on your side. I still enjoy movies very much and with thousands in my collection I always have something to watch but the excitement has dwindled since everything now is new and in no way important enough to get at that moment, so now to move on. A new prey. I love to cook and bake, and I love old vintage things, stuff I grew up with, just trying to keep it all alive, hang on to the memories, and hope my children have the same fuzzy warm moments that they can look back on and reminisce over. Does anyone remember seeing the wooden hangers in their grandparents kitchen that said "MUGS" with little green and white or mustard and white mugs hanging from it?

I loved that little set up so much. I don't plan to go crazy with this..I mean who plans to go crazy am I right, I just want a few things in every colour, that's not asking for too much is it? The kitchen in my house right now is in no way large enough for me to start this but very soon my family and I will be moving and I have made it a check point for the new house to have a large enough kitchen or at least a dining room to house a large china cabinet, something found, used and old of course that I will make beautiful with my own two hands. On that china cabinet I will decorate with all my beautiful vintage Pyrex that I will have collected.

I just can't wait! I want to take my time with this. I don't want the excitement to end. The hunt is the best part, next to deciding what the first meal or dessert will be in a new found piece!