Thrift Finds

1. Fire King Blue Heaven Plate. How cool would it be to have a whole set of these plates? pretty awesome right? I don’t find this pattern much, but I love it and it’s my second piece with this pattern.

2. Assorted Early American Pyrex Fridge’s. I never have luck finding fridges even though I think they’re soo cute! I went to the Salvation army a few weeks ago and found these bad boys. The big one is the only one with a lid but I can always look for lids. I’m pretty neutral about this pattern but I like it enough, I have a small mixing bowl in the pattern and the price was right. So I got them.

the little ones even have kitties on them!

3. Light Blue Pyrex Fridge. I found this at the same salvation army as the early American fridges above. It doesn’t have a lid but I loved the color so I had to get it.

4. 50’s Made in Japan Poodle Card and Pen Holder. I’m always looking for cute made in Japan ceramic figurines, so when I saw this I kind of had to get it. I had no idea what it was when I got it, but I looked it up and it’s a pen and card holder. I think there used to be an eraser on the dogs head, you can put cards/letters in the spring-y part and pens in the back.

5. Relco Asian Ceramic Figurines. I found these at Savers a couple weeks ago when they were having a 50% off sale. Of course they weren’t on sale, but I got them anyway. I think they’re supposed to be bookends but there not heavy enough to actually be bookends. So they’re more decorative than anything.

6. Haeger Nursery Planter. I don’t have a baby boy and I’m not pregnant but I loved this planter too much to leave without it. I love the sort of art deco style of the animals and it’s just super cute.

** This week I’m linking up with Her Library Adventures’ Flea Market Finds again, so go and check out the cool stuff other bloggers found!

Taliesin Trip Day 2 part 2 and Day 3

     After Taliesin we drove around a little bit and ate Lunch. Then we went back into Richland Center to go to a few thrift stores. One of the few perks of having a hotel in Richland Center instead of Spring Green was that our hotel was near a Goodwill. The Richland Center goodwill was actually a pretty good store. Here’s what I got:

1. Donkey/mule/ Horse (?) planter

2. Vintage Floral Print

       After that we went to another Thrift store in downtown Richland Center which was pretty good too but I’m pretty sure they only took cash and I didn’t find anything I was willing to try and find a cash machine for. When we were on the way to the downtown Richland Center thrift store we saw a sign for a historic site that my mom remembered was supposed to be kind of cool. so we drove around Richland Center trying to find this warehouse building and gawking at old houses. When we finally decided to turn around a go back to where we saw the sign first we happened upon the building.

       The Building is the A.D. Germen (pronounced Jarmon) warehouse. My mom was convinced it was a Wright building so we took out the Frank Lloyd Wright and Prairie style in Wisconsin Book and it was. Wright was notorious for having money problems and owed German money. Instead of taking money. Germen agreed to have Wright design him a new Warehouse.

close up of the Mayan inspired concrete blocks.

This was the first building in which Wright utilized his Mayan Revival concrete design. Wright has a bunch of Mayan Revival houses in California that are really cool, they’re some of my favorites of his designs. It was a pretty cool building and it was cool to see the beginning of Wrights Mayan Revival designs.

 The building is not currently in use, It seems like it used to be open to tours but no longer is. It is also in a bit of ill repair, though that kind of makes it cooler. It would be kind of interesting to do some urban or I guess rural exploring in there. Hopefully someday soon someone will buy it or use it for something.

        After we gawked at the warehouse we decided to go to La Crosse. We hadn’t really planned what to do after Taliesin, but since it was only tuesday and I didn’t have to be back to work until Thursday we decided to go to La Crosse, stay there for the night, explore the city Wednesday morning and then go home. So, we drove on a very scenic highway to La Crosse where we searched for a cute motel to stay in. My mom and I are always attracted to old 50’s motels so we searched around a bit and decided on a cute motel. It looked cute on the outside but the inside wasn’t as cool and retro as we had hoped. It was nice and clean though so we decided to stay.  This hotel proved to contain a few comedies of error. First we had a little mishap with the air conditioning . The first room we stayed in the air conditioner didn’t work at all and this was during a very hot and humid heatwave where air conditioning was necessary. So we changed rooms and the second rooms air worked but it didn’t get real cold like a good air conditioner. By then we were too tired to complain and it was working well enough that we just lived with it. The hotel had been remodeled but it seemed like it had been remodeled cheaply. You could tell the shower had been glued over the previous one and when my mom tried to adjust the shower head it fell off, which wasn’t great for my shower after hers.  Anyway despite all that the guy at the front desk was at least friendly and nice. I guess the motel used to be super retro with pink bathrooms and the like but the bathrooms were in such illrepair that they had to re-do them.

         Wednesday morning we checked out, got some breakfast and drove around a bit. With the Frank Lloyd Wright in Wisconsin book we located a few of his houses in La Crosse and looked at them. Then we went to a big antique store that was nice and had some cool stuff. My problem with antique stores is that unless they’re very well priced or I find something I’m absolutely in love with (and it’s in my price range) I can rarely pull the trigger and buy something. I usually look at all that stuff and think I could get a better price if I found it in a thrift store and then just get overwhelmed by all the stuff in the store. It’s almost too much. Anyway after that we did a little thrifting at a salvation army we had passed the day before. That Salvation army was pretty good too. Here’s what I got:

1. Siesta Ware Tiki Mugs. I thought these were pretty cool, I like the colors and the Hawaiian-esque details.

2. Fire King Blue Heaven cinderella bowl. For vintage dishes I generally go with pattern & color than brand. I’d seen this pattern before online and knew it wasn’t Pyrex but I love it anyway and think it’s really cool. So I got it.

3.  Blue Pyrex Divided Dish. My Pyrex/ vintage kitchen wares search has cooled off in recent months, but this divided dish was in such good shape and had such a bold color I had to get it.

         La Crosse was actually a really cute town. It has retained a lot of it’s older buildings and is definitely a place I’d go back to. Anyway after thrifting we decided it was time to go home and we drove off into a thunder storm. We got about halfway home before it started to really rain and we had to pull over. Thankfully the rain stopped after awhile and we finally got home. So that was the end of our Taliesin Roadtrip. I’ll probably post a couple outfits from the trip on Saturday so watch out for those and have a great weekend!

EPIC Thrift Haul!!

So I had kind of an epic thrifting day last Thursday. Even though the Savers I visited has been open since like October I hadn’t visited until last Thursday. It wasn’t for a lack of want, just that it’s a bit far away from my usual thrift haunts and my house. Anyway after reading positive reviews on yelp I knew I had to go and give it a shot. Since both my mom and I were off last Thursday it seemed the perfect day to check it out. I wasn’t really expecting to find anything and spent most of my time looking through the clothes. Towards the end of my visit I was browsing quickly through housewares to see if there were any cool Pyrex dishes or something and there they were, two Cathrineholm pots! I had seen the pattern before, most recently on Rachel from Smile and Wave’s post about her thrifting trip to the Ozarks,  and knew they were cool and vintage. So I giddily took the biggest one and rushed to my mom to show her my bounty. Surprisingly she had no idea about Cathrineholm enamel ware, but I knew I was going to get it so I made her guard it while I tried on the small pile of clothes I was hanging onto. Later that night I went on ebay to look up the dish and found it selling online for $50-75.00, I paid $8.00. I had no idea they were so expensive. Immediately I lamented leaving the other pot. Sometimes I think too practically, ” I don’t really need two” etc.  I knew I had to go back Friday and see if the smaller pot was still there, and it was! Anyway it was a pretty epic find in my book and I’m pretty sure I’m gonna start collecting Cathrineholm from now on. I’ve seen a ton of cool ways people decorate with them on pinterest and I’m sold.

Anyway aside from the Cathrineholm I also found this large Pyrex mixing bowl. I’ve kind of started collecting Pyrex but I’m trying to limit it only to patterns and colors I like. I don’t want to become a crazy pyrex hoarder, I don’t have room/money for that.

And this cute made in Japan ceramic deer.

This haul was a bit out of the ordinary for me because I’m usually thrifting clothes and accessories, I rarely if ever get home accessories. I’ve been making a more concerted effort though to look through the home goods aisles more frequently and with a more discerning eye. I read some thrift blogs and people find amazing stuff in the home goods sections so I knew I needed to browse those more and branch out from just clothing. Guess all that “hard work” has finally paid off. In any case I’ll definitely be paying the cathrineholm Savers another visit soon, on the list it goes.

Sorry for the lack of outfit posts. I did wear clothes last week but nothing especially interesting. It’s been unseasonably warm around here (yay) but I hadn’t really put together any good warm weather outfits and couldn’t for the life of me think of any good outfits before I went thrifting. It seems in a pinch I’m not especially creative with outfits, but making lists of outfits and having them at my disposal when I just can’t think of a good outfit seems to help.  So a couple days ago I made a list of a some good warm weather outfits so I should have more outfits to post soon.