Retail Therapy

What can cure the blues faster than anything?

A sweet find at the local thrift, eh? Hooray!

Tiger Toes and i went to the library today to collect some more books on zebras, since that is the first animal she will be studying. Then we headed to the new Goodwill that just opened up in an old grocery down the street from us.

Lots of stuff there...and it's a brand-spankin' new store, so everything is so clean and orderly (can't last forever though, eh?) It's an annoying store, mainly because of our area, in that there are many different cultures here and not all get along. The store will be sharing space with a Hispanic grocer, so it's rather on the smallish side for a Goodwill--i've seen bigger Starbucks.

Tension in a thrift store is never a good thing either. We have many Asian cultures and Hispanics in the area that like to buy everything in sight to send to friends and family back home. Each person shopping in the respective families has a cart, most are filled to the brim with junk. This means you have to fight for a spot in the aisles and if you find a set of something, you have to grab it all right away, or they could rush in and grab the rest. Our area is mostly low to low-middle income earners so as you can imagine, nothing is really of any value at our chain thrifts--those pricey items getting shipped up to Bellevue or some Eastside community where people will pay over $$ for glasswares or etc or sold to a collector or an antique agent. The saving grace is that there are a few of the older families in the area that still have their cool wares from when they moved their families into Normandy Park or Des Moines (little waterside communities in neighbouring us.) And most Hispanic or Asian families aren't big collectors of Fire King or Pyrex. They tend to go for the flashy, modern stuff! :o)

Today, thankfully we had hit the book aisle first thing and Ri had found some Magic Tree house books she didn't have yet that would keep her occupied while i waited and looked...and waited--and after waiting my turn for 5 minutes in an aisle where two Hispanic ladies blocking the glassware aisle with their carts and debating to purchase a 2 dollar film camera or not, Ri and i were able to scour the shelves. I found a couple of Pyrex dishes that i will wait to debut here at another time, namely because i can't find them on any of my Pyrex info sites (i've called in the big guns though, and once i get the collector's guide from the lib, i will take a picture and share.)

We tried to get a good look down the plates and dishes aisle, but there were too many stalwarts holding their ground, digging through seemingly nothing but 99 cent dishes. After excusing ourselves past someone who made a comment about the store being too crowded (imagine that, on grand opening day! Huh?) and some colorful coloquille Spanish cursing, we hit a pocket of "ladies" that were just unkind. A couple gentleman tried coming down the aisle and these women scared them off. Ri and i waited & tried standing our ground as politely as possible, asking if we might squeeze in to try to find any of my coveted Franciscan Desert Rose plates--these were the type of biddies (wink, wink) that knew what they were looking for too. Only to them, it's not a crap shoot whether they find something or not, to them failure to procure is not an option and i was a pest! Oy! After getting the whale eye from these gals and a whole hearted "These aisles just aren't big enough for rude and impatient people," (yeah, i agree, and they aren't big enough for 3 bossy cows to be taking up precious sq. footage with their 3 shopping carts, "laying claim" to the aisles like they were staking out a homestead, but i still waited politely for 3 minutes before i asked to sneak a peek as i scrunched by.) Trying to squeeze Ri, our arm load of books, and Pyrex dishes past them, we rounded the corner of the aisle where Lo! and behold Thee awesome find today was an eight piece set of the 1950's Fire King Mother's Oats milk glass cup n saucer set in the Bonnie Blue (aka Bachelor Button) pattern. I couldn't help but gasp and a whispered "Fire King" was allowed to escape my filter between my brain and mouth. I think i gave those ladies whiplash. Ha! Anything Fire King i love, especially since my acquisition of a couple of the tulip patterned milk glass cups and saucers. While i was scooping them up, another lady came over to me and asked if she could see one. "Good glass and plate, huh? Not so pretty, huh?" Sly! But, sorry, too late! Even better, i didn't have to pay antique store prices for this set--only $2 each cup/saucer pair! And you can imagine my surprise when i got home to research and found a complete set like this goes for 4x as much as i paid for it. Yee haw!! I'm also very excited because i found a really useful Fire King site for you, incase you have pieces that you need help dating.

The blue flowers will look swell with the Blue Orchard Noritake plates i got for our tea set earlier this year.

At the library, i found the beautiful pattern underneath the cup in the picture above--it's for a quilted floral tablecloth, backed with cotton flannel from the Feb '09 issue of Crafts n Things. I can't wait to make it, however it's going to take some time just to acquire all the fabric. 2 "sets" of fabric, one of 13 different styles of green and blue backed florals, and one of 13 different styles of pink and red backed florals!! Then a different one for the border! Sheesh! It will all be worth it though.