antique shop goodies

Sorry for the big gap is posts, but I was away this week.  I'll post about that this weekend. For now, I'll tell you about some recent finds.

Back when I moved into my first house, I liked to visit antique shops to search for odds and ends to decorate the house. Since we were always broke, that usually meant a lot of inexpensive knick knacks. Over the years most of them broke thanks to the four-legged children of the house. Others I decided to get rid of either because I just didn't want them anymore, or I got tired of cleaning them. Basically, I didn't like them anymore BECAUSE I got tired of cleaning them. I then went through a long period where I didn't want to go to antique stores, didn't want any knick knacks, etc. However, now that I own a very old house, I'm starting to go to antique stores again. I should state, though, that I'm not talking about high-end stores that sell mint-condition upholstered chairs for $2,500.00. I'm talking about stores that sell a large mix of items at reasonable prices. Sure, I'd love to have some original 18th century items, but that's not practical with all the cats I have and I have to think about the finances. So, I buy a couple things here and there that I actually like and will use.

A couple months ago we visited an antique store that was closing the current location and moving one town over. The store was in an old two-story house and every room was jam-packed with stuff. (I don't even want to think about how long it took them to pack all the stuff they didn't sell and move it to the warehouse.)  In the kitchen area there were tons and tons of items. They were stacked on top of each other--sometimes three stacks deep--on the counters, in the upper and lower cabinets, on the table and even on the floor.  Oh,and there was a ton of stuff hanging from the ceiling, too.  It was difficult to really look through it the way I wanted to, but I found a few items that popped out at me and weren't difficult to pull out.

Here are the items I picked up.

Sifter:  This is a Jacob Bromwell 5-cup sifter. Your mom or grandmother may have owned one of these. In fact, the reason I bought it is because my mom had one similar to this and I used to love using it. Easiest way to sift flour ever! Just hold it over the bowl and turn the lever.  No mess, unlike using a sieve, and it doesn't tire your hand out, unlike the ones that have a squeeze handle. To buy this new today (they still make this model!) would be $124.99. If you want to upgrade to stainless steel, add $50.00. I'd say I got a huge bargain at $10.00. The bonus is it comes with a lifetime of use already built in. :) I haven't used it yet, but the holidays are coming!

Serving dishes:  I grabbed these two dishes. The one on the left is a 1.5 quart Pyrex dish and was $15.00. I love that it's divided.  I can picture using this at family dinners and serving two different vegetables from it. One bowl, two veggies.  And who doesn't love the durability of Pyrex? 

The one on the right is a LuRay Pastels platter from 1941, which was $10.00.  Apparently the pastel line was made only from 1938 to 1961.  I love the size of the this dish. Seems like it would be perfect for a dinner for two:  a couple Cornish game hens, a couple steaks, or maybe a small chicken. You could even use it as a large dinner plate. 

Corning Ware baking dish:  I admit I picked this up because I have a set of three shallow Corning Ware baking dishes my mom passed down to me and I want to expand the set. It's very nostalgic to me. Plus, I really like the size.  It's a deeper dish at 2.5 quarts and it came with the lid.