Thrifting Finds #29!

Once again, it was a rather disappointing weekend for thrifting. Unfortunately, we didn't get to do our usual Sunday rounds.  Instead, we went to hubby's office and worked on a project that needed to get done.  The good thing is that, given the way the thrifts have been lately, it's unlikely we missed out on much!  With any luck, we'll be back to our usual routine next week.

I did find a couple of things, and I have some other stuff to share, which makes me feel better.  Since I really only post once a week, I hate it when we find nothing and I have nothing to post about.

So let's get to it!

1.  Blown glass snifter!  Lately, hubs and I have been hitting the thrifts and hubs makes a quick trip around then goes out to smoke while I look more carefully.  When I saw this on the shelf, I figured he had either seen it and didn't want it or missed it completely.  As soon as I spied this beauty, my little hand shot out and snatched it.  Those who have been paying attention probably realize that I love this color, having in the recent past purchased this:

...and this:

...and this:

So after I bought it, I showed it to hubs, who immediately made an "Oooh!" face and said he must have missed it.  Since he liked it so much, I gave it to him to add to his collection at work.  Also, the price was right:  $0.48!

2.  Cookbooklets!  I love these little booklets, generally put out by food manufacturers, encouraging mid-century housewives to use, say, Crisco, in everything from biscuits to coffee.  The one on the left touts Mirro bakeware, the other one is published by Pet evaporated milk.  Neither one seems to have any outstanding recipes, but I only glanced through.

And here's my rant about these.  Someone gave a buttload of these to one of the Goodwills I frequent.  What the GW has done is painstakingly adhered a non-removable price sticker to each and every one, each with the price of $1.19!!  Really, Goodwill?  A lot of these are like, four pages long, and now they're ruined by having huge price labels on them.  What they should have done was put a fistful of them in a baggie, and sold that for $1.19.  The only reason I bought these two was because it was half-off red tag day.

What I Made This Weekend Department. 

I'm not exactly sure why I took these pictures this weekend, but as long as I did, I thought I'd share 'em.

Dinner!  Last night we had Ritzy Pork Chops with spaetzle and mixed vegetables.  I thought the chop was kind of meh, but hubby liked his.  This is one of those dishes I'll make one more time, changing up the seasoning.  If we don't like it the second time, I won't make it again.

Go check out Heidi's blog, if you can.  She doesn't update regularly, but I've come across a lot of recipes there that I want to try.  

Tonight's dinner!  This is Chicken & Wild Rice soup, that I thought I got from Colorado Lady but when I went to look for it, I couldn't find it.  I have a really bad habit of copying recipes from the Interwebz and not noting where I got them.  We haven't had this yet, so I can't give a review.  I'll update tomorrow and let you know what we thought.  If it's good, I'll share the recipe, too.

Edit:  Hubby approved of the soup (though again, I thought it was kind of meh), so here's the recipe:

Chicken with Wild Rice Soup

1 celery rib, chopped

1 medium carrot, chopped

1/3 cup chopped onion

5 1/2 cups water

1 package (4.3 oz) long grain and wild rice mix

1 envelope chicken noodle soup mix

2 cans condensed cream of chicken soup

1 cup cooked cubed chicken

In a sauce pan saute together the onions, carrots and celery (add a little oil if you want, it's really not necessary)*.

Add the water, rice with contents of seasoning packet and soup mix. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat; cover and simmer for about 10 minutes. Stir in soup and chicken. Cook 10 minutes longer or until the rice and vegetables are tender**.

* I used a little oil because I didn't want it to stick.

**This took more than 10 minutes to cook the rice.

Goop!  That's what hubby calls it, anyway.  Actually, it's homemade moisturizer, courtesy of Colorado Lady.  Hubs and I both get really dry skin in the winter (and I've started already), and I thought I'd give this a try, just to say I did.  It certainly was easy to make!  I've only used it a couple of times and it seems pretty good, but it'll take a couple of weeks of regular use, I think, to really come to any conclusion.  I thought it was going to be too greasy for hand cream but it's not.  Still, if I make this again, I might cut down on the petroleum jelly next time.

And that's it from Fondue Headquarters!  I'm keeping my fingers crossed that next week I'll have all sorts of really nifty bargains to show you!

Linking up this week at Sir Thrift A Lot, The Nifty Thrifty, and We Call It Junkin 

WTF Weekend!

Greetings, everyone!  (I did a little re-reading of past posts, and discovered that about 95% of the time, I start off with the word "Well."  Not sure why I do that, but I thought I'd try something a little different this time!)

Okay, so it was another disappointing weekend at the thrifts.  Hubs and I even stopped at a yard sale, something we never do because around here they're usually all about children's clothes and Little Tikes toys.  I almost bought an old reel-to-reel tape recorder but reined myself in at the last minute.

We did, however, come across a bumper crop of WTF this weekend, though. It seemed everywhere I looked, I screwed up my face into that WTF expression, which is doing my crow's feet no good whatsoever!  I took a few pictures to share, but first, here's my sole purchase of the weekend:

Click to embiggen

1,  Hot buns!  Well, a bun warmer, anyway.  I already have one but it's not very practical, so I got this to replace it.  It has the original box, which I love, but the wrong cord was inside.  Luckily, I have the correct one, so everything works out.  I'll need this for Thanksgiving and Christmas, so it's a purely practical purchase, even though it's vintage and cool.  Plus, the people on the box are pretty groovy.  $3.99 at Savers.

In totally unrelated news, I discovered this coffee maker on ebay the other day, and I think it's something I need to own:

Awesome, no?  I sent this picture off to the hubs and asked what he thought.  His reply?  "I think this belongs in our kitchen!"  I'm waiting until I find one at a price that I like, though.  If anyone comes across one of these in their travels for five bucks, keep me in mind, won't you?

Okay, on the the weird stuff.  Bear in mind that this is only a selection of the stuff I found this weekend.  There was more.  Much more!

Click to embiggen and enjoy its creepiness

A.  Whaaaat???  What is this?  I don't even know.  It's playing some kind of instrument, I think.  This is super-creepy in real life.  The stuff of nightmares.

Click to enjoy some serious boobage

B.  Boobies!  Dirty boobies, to be exact--Native American woman really should have had a bath before being donated.  But my goodness, that's some cleavage, no?  When I saw it, all I could think of was "motorboat!!"

And that makes me want to rant think:  why do people donate filthy stuff to the Goodwill, etc?  There was a cookie sheet at Savers this week that still had the grease spots from the last batch of cookies!  Come on, people, wash your stuff.  Donating dirty stuff is just nasty.

Don't click or you'll be sorry

C.  Obligatory Creepy Clown!  Yeah, the face is bad enough on this one, but there was something about the distended belly that kind of made me hurk a little.  It's like he, I don't know, has some kind of disease or something.  Ew.

Click to enjoy embiggen

D.  What.  The.  F-word!  This is a framed photograph.  Of a gun.  And bullets.  WTF people, WTF?  The frame was actually kind of nice, but that picture of a gun just gave me the willies.  Who does that?  Who frames--and presumably displays in their home--a picture of a gun?

If I were not the wonderful, kind person that I am, all of these items would have been purchased as Christmas gifts for friends and relatives.  And let me tell you, I was tempted!

Linking up with all the fun at Sir Thrift A Lot, The Nifty Thrifty, and We Call It Junkin 

Thrifting Find #27!

Please note the title of this post--Thrifting Find.  Singular.  Because I only found one thing this week.  Which I guess I shouldn't complain about, especially considering how bad my luck has been lately.  Oddly, I did come across another coffee table with two (count 'em!) drawers, but the top was in less than lovely condition, so I think I might break down and order the one I posted last week from Overstock.com.

Anyway.  Here's what I bought:

Click to embiggen, 'cause it's really pretty

1.  Blue bowl!  Eagle-eyed readers of this blog remember that I've been looking for a big cast aluminum bowl for my dining room table.  And maybe I still am, but I couldn't pass this up.  Or actually, I could, since I saw this in the GW last week and decided six bucks was too much to spend.  After I left the store, I immediately regretted my cheapskateitude.  Luckily though, it was still there when we went back on Sunday, so I snapped it up.  It's coming up greenish on my monitor, but it's pure blue in real life, a really gorgeous color.  I know nothing about it.  There's no maker's mark on it, and I'm pretty sure it's not old but it's a great color and a great swoopy shape (it's swoopier if you look at it from a different angle; the front (or back) is actually higher than the back (or front.)  Goodwill, $6.00

By the way, those are Ikora non-tarnish candle holders I got from GW a while ago ($2.00) with Ronson butane candles.

Something I didn't get:

Pyrex Casserole!  I guess this is a promotional pattern, though I don't know the name.  It looked to be in very nice shape and was only 8 bucks for the whole thing but once again, it's not a pattern I collect and I don't have room to keep stuff I can't use.  In the same store, I also found a pink gooseberry on white Cinderella bowl.  It was slightly scratched, not too bad, and only $2.25, which seemed a good price to me.  Again, it's not a pattern I collect, so...

Linking up with all the fun at Sir Thrift A Lot, The Nifty Thrifty, and We Call It Junkin 

Curses--Failed again!

What is it around here?  It's like absolutely nothing good is showing up at the thrifts.  Nothing, at least, that I want to buy.

The Rescue Mission had a really nice selection of Tupperware this week, but nothing in a size or shape that I could actually use.  Goodwill had a coffee table with a drawer (more on that later) that was acceptable in size and style, but it was wobbly.  I found a nice Pyrex fridgie in the big square size, but it was the Early American pattern which I don't want.

Not that the weekend was totally without purchases, you understand.  Just not anything spectacular. I did find a small folding table for my neighbors.  I put it outside their door to put the newspaper on in the morning.  My neighbors are elderly and they have a hard time bending down, so that should make things easier.  And I got Hubs a purple (his favorite color) travel mug to replace the one that the Girl Child made off with when she went back home to New York.

And I got this:

Don't bother clicking to embiggen--the picture is lousy.

What's Golden Fluffo, you ask?  Let's have Mike Wallace explain:

"This yellow Fluffo is such a short shortening..."  LOL I don't even know what that means.

I haven't really looked through it yet, but it's copyright 1956 and published by Procter & Gamble, so I'm confident that it's going to be a good one.  There's a chapter on salads though, and I'm looking forward to seeing how the Registered Home Economists in P&G's sparkling test kitchens incorporate shortening into, say, coleslaw.  This is 1956, remember, so they'll do it.

Okay now, coffee tables.  I've been on the lookout for one that has a drawer for keeping remotes and stuff in.  I really hate having crap on top of the coffee table and so far, we have three remotes (which we hardly ever use) and once I change out the ceiling fan in the den, there will be another one.  Not to mention the folders for our FIOS internet, TV, and phone that require periodic reference.

Naturally, I've been on the lookout for a suitable table at the thrifts but have been coming up with nothing.  So I decided to take a peek at Overstock.com and found this one:

It's certainly the right style and as a bonus, it has two drawers.  Plus, it's reasonably cheap ($104.05) and the right size. 

So, asking for your opinions--should I get this or wait to see if I can find something in the thrifts?  Post in the comments or email me--for some reason, people like to email me rather than posting comments.  That's fine, I just don't know why people do that.

Linking up with all the fabulousness at Sir Thrift A Lot, The Nifty Thrifty, and We Call It Junkin though I kind of feel bad about it.

Thrifting Finds #25: Son of Fail!

Yeah, so it hasn't been all fun 'n games at the thrifts lately.  For the second week in a row I have found absolutely nothing that I liked/wanted/needed.  Nothing.  Zip.  Nada.

The Optimist in me is hoping that this is just a brief dry spell leading up to a period of fantastic finds.

The Pessimist in me knows better.

Oddly, this past weekend was so full of Pyrex I couldn't believe it.  Unfortunately, all of it was in terrible shape.  I found Butterprint and Early American and the squarish yellow casserole and a bunch of 401-403s, and some patterns whose name escapes me.  All of it (except the Early American fridgies, natch.) scratched and dishwashered to within an inch of its life.

So.  Rather than go a second week without posting anything, I thought I'd share a few pictures of some of my Vintage Hair Care products.  Ready?

Click to embiggen

1.  The Famous Pyramid O' Perms!  Here's a nice little selection of both home and professional perms.  I particularly like the Smooth 'n Sleek Toni, which is The Uncurly Permanent!  Apparently, you needed to curl your hair if you wanted it to be straight.  Wait, what?  I'm not sure whose idea it was to name a perm "Affaire" and then illustrate the box with a picture of a reluctant looking woman leaning on a man's shoulder.  Am I the only one who thinks that's kind of skeevy?

Also of interest in this picture is the Summer Blonde box.  If you look closely, that's supposedly Nick Nolte on the front.  I can neither confirm nor deny this as I am terrible with faces.  And how many of you knew that Dippity Do made a lotion?  I sure didn't, which is why I snapped up the bottle as soon as I found it.

Here's a commercial for the Richard Hudnut Quick perm, featuring lovely Julia Meade:

Click to embiggen

2.  Random products!  My favorite in this picture is the Clairol U.N.C.U.R.L. ("Unbeatable new conditioner for uncurling and relaxing locks")  Someone was working overtime at Clairol to come up with that, lemme tell you.  I also really like the Ipana with Hexa-Fluoride.  Back in those days, they put hexachlorophene in everything, including, apparently, toothpaste.  Remember Bucky Beaver?

"Brusha brusha brusha, get the new Ipana..."
And the gel version of Dippity Do that we all know and love:

3.  More random products!  Tried & True was a short-lived permanent hair color by Max Factor. I cannot for the life of me remember the name of the Revlon hair rinse in the blue bottle!  I do know that the color is described as "pink beige."  Huh?  Was that a thing?  New Dawn was Alberto-Culver's entry into the permanent hair color market.  I think they still make White Rain shampoo, but I'm pretty sure it's no longer made by Toni.  Here--here's a commercial for it:

   

"Use White Rain shampoo tonight and tomorrow your hair will be sunshine bright!"

Okay, so that's all I've got for today.  If anyone wants more of this sort of thing, I've got plenty.  Really, these three pictures don't even scratch the surface.

Linking up with all the fabulousness at Sir Thrift A Lot, and The Nifty Thrifty,

Thrifting Finds #24!

Whew.  It was a busy week here at Fondue Headquarters and frankly, I'm pooped.

It was the Hubster's birthday last week, so I surprised him by importing The Girl Child for a visit.  I tried surprising him on his birthday a few years back and it turned into an absolutely hideous nightmare, so you can imagine my surprise when I managed to pull this one off.

There was a lot of eating.  On Thursday, we drove up to PA to have lunch with some friends,  Delicious food, and lots of it.  Now, hubs and I generally only have one meal on the weekends or when we're not at work, but The Girl Child was having none of that.  So I had kind of a bad idea that we carried through.  Dinner Thursday consisted of hot fudge brownie sundaes.

Yeah, I told you it was a bad idea.

But see, we didn't get to have dessert with lunch, so we just kind of had it later.  So that makes up for it, right?  Right?

Side note:  Betty Crocker gluten-free brownies are pretty good, but they don't keep well.  Despite being tightly sealed, by last night they were brown concrete.

Friday was a big day because we got to meet The Boyfriend at lunch.  He's still kind of new on the scene, but we liked him immediately.  More important, he is officially Weiner Dog Approved.  Lunch was delicious and large, but that didn't stop us from going out to dinner on Friday night.  This was the hubster's official birthday dinner.  It was another lovely meal, and more calories than I care to admit to.

Saturday, we got to do our usual marketing and thrifting, as the GC was visiting some other family at the time.  We also got to make the rounds on Sunday, as the GC and Boyfriend weren't due for dinner until late.

Too much background?

Anyway, here's what I found this weekend:

1.  Tupperware!  Sorry the picture came out so pale.  This is my first Wonderlier bowl.  Despite the millions of these that were made, they're really scarce, at least around here.  My goal, of course, is to collect them in all the sizes and colors available.  There was also a slightly smaller blue one, but it had the wrong lid and I decided long ago that I wouldn't buy any Tupperware without the proper lid. $1.25.

2.  More Tupperware!  I don't know why these are displaying as red, because they're really orange.  These are pretty small. holding maybe a couple of ounces?  I got them to carry salad dressing to work and they're the perfect size for that.  $.50 each.

3.  King Arthur's trash can!  Again, I'm not sure why this is showing up the wrong color.  It looks pretty green in the picture but in real life, it's definitely brown.  I've been looking for a wastepaper basket to keep next to my desk that would sort of blend in, and this fit the bill perfectly.  Yeah, I know it's kind of sketchy to buy a used trash can, but this was nice and clean.  Oddly, they had another one exactly like this, but that one was really green.  Doesn't it look like something they'd have at Camelot?  $3.00

This was kind of a good week for Pyrex collectors, too.  In our travels, we spotted two of the big Cinderella bowls, one in pink Gooseberry (I'm pretty sure; the memory is the first to go...), the other in turquoise.  I don't know what the pattern is called, but it's the one with the hot-air balloons on it.

Linking up with all the fabulousness at Sir Thrift A Lot, and The Nifty Thrifty,

Thrifting Finds #23: FAIL edition!

The Fail Boat

Soon will be making another run!

The Fail Boat

Promises nothing for anyone!

So, yeah.  In summary, Hubs and I took a lovely cruise on the Fail Boat this weekend, thriftily speaking.  We went to all of our usual stops, and even went to a smallish flea market as well.  Getting out of the car at the flea market, I remarked to Hubs "Geez, I hope it isn't a bunch of Avon stuff and baby clothes."

Here's what we found at the flea market:

1.  Avon stuff.

2.  Baby clothes.

Maybe in the future I'll learn to keep my big yap shut.

I was really hoping to find some old slides now that I have that keen slide projector, but nothing.  There was ONE piece of Tupperware I wanted (I'd never seen it in navy blue before) that would be perfect for keeping my flour in, but it looked like it was used as a sandbox toy, or led some otherwise difficult existence, so I left it there.

There were a couple of other amusing items that I also didn't buy, so I thought I'd share those with you.  Because that's the kind of guy I am.

You really need to click Ami to embiggen the pic

1.  Ami!  Ami looks to be a friend of Barbie, but I can't be certain.  This is the first fashion doll I've seen dressed as an operating-room nurse (I guess?  Maybe?)  Also, she's compliant!  (Click the picture for proof.)  She's also comfortable, well-protected, and energetic.

Plus, she's got a great personality.  Just watch out when you take the mask off...

2.  Weird creature!  Don't adjust your monitor--he/she/it really is that color.  Why?  I do not know.  I just take the pictures.

To be honest, I'm not sure what this is supposed to be.  To me, it looks like nothing more than the offspring of a human and a hedgehog.

I should totally start buying these things and leave them lying around the house.

3. Bad nose-job bobblehead!  This has so much fail I don't even know where to start.  There's that nose, for one.  It's pretty big even with part of it broken off.  How big was it originally???  And that smile.  I don't even...  Who is this supposed to be?  Why does it even exist?

I wanted to buy this and label it "Smile, darn ya, smile!" (extra Internet Points to anyone who gets the reference.)

In order not to leave you with a bad taste in your mouth, I present you with the following totally-unrelated-to-anything-else video.  This is now my all-time favorite commercial.  I can't figure out who I like best;  Janette?  Her customer? The bored husband and grandchild?  The two gals under the dryers?  The sandwich itself?

If anyone out there lives near a Pals, please go there and get one of these and report back.

Click for the video I can't seem to embed  (seriously, you need to click this link!)

Linking up with all the fabulousness at Sir Thrift A Lot, The Remnant and The Nifty Thrifty,