Treasure Hunting Success

 Yesterday I woke up to everything covered with snow.  Not a lot of snow, but just enough to make it known that Mother Nature was 1 up on the weather forecasters.  It was enough that we had to scrape it off our cars and windshields though.   Today, I headed into a nearby town to go to the thrift store there.   There were off lake snow squalls, but they looked light enough, so I didn't worry.   It wasn't bad to start with.  About half way there, the roads started getting wet and slushy.  Then there were blown over and drifted areas on the roads, in areas with few trees or hedge rows by the sides of the road.   The snow got heavier  and then poof, I turned onto the highway, and it was suddenly sunny.   All the rest of the way there was lovely.   I got out of the store with my few treasures, and the snow was coming down heavily, with more than a little wind.  It got worse on the highway.  Thankfully it was a short drive to my turn off.   The next turn I needed to take, I thought I might miss because there was near zero visibility.  It eased off just before I needed to turn.   The roads were snow covered and sloppy.  Then halfway home, the roads dried up, the snow stopped and it was sunny.   What a weird weather day!

I did get a few treasures though.  I was sent out to get whatever "junk" I wanted.  I disagreed with that description, but none the less, I continued.   These are treasures for sure!  The melon mould is almost a replacement for the damaged one I lost.   It's longer than the one I really liked.  This one has a small dent in it, but it was $1.50.   I can live with the dent for that price.   The cup and saucer was $4, which was a reasonable price for it.  The little lustreware pickle dish though, was $1.   I couldn't leave it there for that price!  It's a weird purple, though it shows up as blue in the photo.  It's simply labelled Japan.  I don't know how old it is, but it's pretty and the price was a bargain.

I also found this old canning jar.  I've been looking for one of these for quite a while but they are always out of my price range.   I've seen them in the $30 to $65 range and I've only seen 2, maybe 3 over the years.   This one was sitting on the shelf, waiting for me and priced at a grand total of $3! 

 In all, I spent $17.50, which included $8 for an older apple peeler.   I have a modern one, but the suction clamp is broken and the slicing blade rusted and became dangerous.   Now it only peels and you have to hold it down.  The new to me one, has a screw clamp for the table and all the parts are clean and not rusty.  It's quite heavy too, compared to the modern one, despite the modern one being metal.   I'll have to get some apples to see if it works.  It's pretty though, and I love the red colour!

There were a few other things I would have liked to get, like a set of old ceramic mixing bowls, some enamel pots and even an old Foley type food mill.   However I didn't really have space for any of those items, except maybe the food mill, which I have been looking for, mainly to strain seedy berries for jam.  However, it was a bit wobbly and had some black discolouration, so I left it there for the moment.

Transferware - reproduction and original

 A week and a half ago I had a morning appointment.  Hubby took the day off, so we made a day of it.  He suggested going to browse at an antique mall.   The one he suggested was in the same city as my appointment.  When we drove by it though, it had moved into a swanky, glittery new building.   We both looked at each other and said nope.  Instead we drove home, ate our picnic in the park watching the geese and ducks on the mostly frozen waterway.   Then we headed to a local antique mall, in an old factory building. 

  I was being very good.  I ignored the oil lamps, although there were a couple which caught my eye.  I ignored the old sewing machines, but that wasn't difficult as there was only one and it was way over priced.   Instead I was after transfer ware.  Reproduction transfer ware to be exact.  I wanted some crockery to display my historic recipe experiments more appropriately.   There were a lot of blue willow pattern dishes out there, nicely made and definitely newer.  The bonus is that they weren't horribly expensive.  While I love blue and white ware,  and I like the pattern, there are other colours of the willow pattern that I like even more.  This pattern also came in green, brown, pink and red, although the pink and red may just be the same colour.  I found one solitary red bowl.   I also picked up 2 pieces of transferware from the 1930's, a purple Johnsons Brothers plate which was $2, and a blue transferware serving plate by Masons, which was $12, a bit more than I'd normally pay for a plate, but I was taken by it's shape and charm.

I also found a blue pyrex pie plate.   I'd seen one in the autumn when we'd done a quick pass through the antique mall, priced at $20, but passed it by.   When I got  home I'd regretted not purchasing it.   Way back when, I picked up a green glass pie plate.  It was more than I'd pay for one, and money was tight, but I love coloured glass, so I splurged.  I used it extensively, still do in fact.   A few years later they came out with a red glass pie plate, which I wanted to buy but couldn't justify the expense at the time.  Then the cobalt blue one came out.  I so much wanted to buy it, but again, the original glass pie plate was still in great condition and I couldn't justify buying it.   But while we were out browsing that day, there was another cobalt one which had been reduced from $32, to $20, so I grabbed it.   I'm still happy about it.  It's so pretty.