Tag: thrifted

“New” Vintage Pyrex Casserole Dishes

I know I’ve been posting so many pics lately of my “new” vintage pieces that I’m preparing for the upcoming market season, but I’m so hyped! I’ve found so many cool things that I can’t wait to share with you all. For example:

I’ve featured the Daisy pattern (1969-1970) on my blog before, but this is the first time I’ve had a casserole with the clear lid. It was also printed in the same pattern on a white lid during the same run.

The Early American pattern (1962-1971) was also called Early Canadian; the pattern is the same, but it was named differently for the different markets. It came in multiple colourways, and all of featured designs printed in 22-karat gold. Since microwave ovens only started to become affordable for home use in the early 1970’s, and common beginning in the 1980’s, the company wasn’t able to foresee the issues surrounding metal decoration for dishes. Therefore, as with all Pyrex dishes with gold designs, this one isn’t microwave safe — but it is still good for fridge, freezer, and oven.

The Wheat pattern, from 1978, is a little more versatile than its fancier brethren, since the non-metallic screen-printed design is microwave-safe.

Last but not least, I found two versions of the Market Garden print (1971-1982), which remains as colourful and detailed as the day they were printed. These dishes were labelled as JAJ pyrex, which means they were made before 1973, since Pyrex made in England was only labelled as such between 1921 and 1973; after that it would have been labelled Pyrex England, when the company changed hands. I do find that there is quite a stylistic difference between the dishes made by the American and English subsidiaries of the company. Overall, the ones with American or shared designs tend to be plainer and simpler. However, many of the ones released solely in England are much more complicated, often with multiple colours, finer lines, and designs that are closer to photos than line drawings. Which one is better is entirely a matter of personal preference, though; functionally, they all work just as well.

“New” Vintage Tupperware

I just received the email confirming that I’ve been accepted to the 613flea on March 9th — only three Saturdays away. Sadly, this means I’ll be missing the market this coming Saturday, February 23rd, as I have schedule conflicts that day. Even so, I’m really exited, and I have so many “new” items that I can’t wait to show!

A perennial favourite is the Tuperware Pick-A-Deli; it’s so popular that they still make them new (although the colours have changed over the years). I believe that they started making this design as early as the late 1960’s, although I’ve had a hard time finding a firm date on that one. It’s really great for storing pickles in vinegar, fruit in juice or syrup, pickled eggs in brine, carrot or celery sticks in water — just about any solid food that you’d generally store in a liquid, really. The trick is the strainer with the handle, which lets you lift the solids out of the liquids easily without making a mess.

Tupperware pitchers (or, as we called them in our household, juice jugs) are also very popular, and they’ve come in many shapes and sizes over the years. Variations on this look are still available new as well! For people of my generation, there’s something about the older styles that conjures childhood memories of Kool-Aid or frozen juices from concentrate, served in matching tumblers in the summertime.

This last one, now, made me laugh when I found it. I never knew that Tupperware paired up with Blockbuster to make popcorn bowls. I’d guess that this happened sometime in the 90’s, when now-defunct Blockbuster was at its most popular. Apparently this kind of promotion ran more than once, since now that I’ve known what to Google, I discovered that they also came with a “Blockbuster Music” logo. It’s essentially a 26-cup Fix-N-Mix bowl with different branding, which was originally intended to throw your salad fixings inside, add some dressing, and then close the lid to mix it all together. It could still be used for the same, but I have a feeling that the Blockbuster version was marketed to put popcorn in, add butter, salt, and/or other seasonings, and then close and shake to mix. How else were you supposed to use a large plastic mixing bowl to “make it a Blockbuster night”?

“New” Vintage Pyrex

I’m so looking forward to the 2019 market season! For me that won’t start until the March 9th edition of 613flea, which means that until then I’ll be working on leveling the collection I have to share. Even though I have to have patience until my next market, I have to admit, I’ve been taking a great deal of joy in some of the “new” (well, new to me) Pyrex items I’ve found.

One of the things that has been holding me back when it comes to posting about my latest finds is that, frankly, I didn’t have enough room to photograph them decently. My workspace had become cluttered and messy, and my light box was just too small for the larger items. I have an absolutely lovely fold-up light tent that has worked for me for years (it’s so convenient!) and I’d eventually love one in the same style in a larger size, but right now I needed something quick and easy. So I got some large pieces of poster board and made something very akin to what you’d find in this tutorial. I think the results were pretty grand!

I absolutely love these Cinderella mixing bowls in the Colonial Mist pattern, which was originally sold from 1983 to 1986. One great thing about this style of bowl is that they’re also ovenware, so they do double duty as casserole dishes.

This set of three mixing bowls in the Homestead pattern (1976 to 1980) is a more standard shape, but also be used in the oven or microwave as well.

I was especially happy to find this Pink Daisy casserole, even though it’s a bit worse for wear and without its lid, because pink is a highly sought after colour. This particular pattern ran from 1956 to 1962, so this dish is between 57 and 63 years old, which adds to its rarity.

These Pyrex England stacking casseroles in the Emily or Spring Garden pattern aren’t quite as vintage, but since they’re from 1986 that means they’re still 33 years old — and they’re imported.

Given the colours of the pattern and the brown lids, I would have pegged them as being from the 70’s, but these Pyrex England casseroles in Brown Vine are from 1983 to 1985.

People have asked me why I like vintage Pyrex (and vintage kitchenware in general) so much. Although I really do love that I’m keeping perfectly serviceable items out of a landfill, I there’s more to it than that. I think it boils down to the fact that I like pretty, unusual things, and when I use such things I feel better about whatever I’m working on. Cooking is something that has to be done every single day, and it’s easy for it to become dreary and monotonous. I try to alleviate this by trying new dishes, new styles of cooking, and new techniques, but I think that it also helps to surround yourself with things that make you happy. To me, there is a thrill of the hunt for things that I consider both practical and beautiful, as well as a great deal of satisfaction in using these things once I have them. To paraphrase Marie Kondo, for me, these things spark joy.

Kitchen Gifts

Of course, because my friends and family know that I enjoy spending time in the kitchen, a lot of my Christmas gifts this year centered around that.

One of my friends gifted me with some delicious Chex Party Mix and a lovely loaf of Makivnyk (a Ukrainian style poppy seed tea roll) from the Black Walnut Bakery. Oh, and Thing 1 gave me the Chocolate Chip Cookie Mix In A Jar that she’d made, thus ensuring that she would get to eat some of them too.

I also acquired a number of cookbooks over the holidays, some as gifts, others from thrift stores or as bargain books.

– The Perfect Pie Book by Anne Marshall, 1984 (thrifted)
– Hershey’s 1934 Cookbook, Hershey Chocolate Company, 1971 (thrifted)
– Anita Stewart’s Canada by Anita Stewart, 2008 (thrifted — and I’ve wanted my own copy for quite a while)
– Bread! Simple and Satisfying Recipes for Your Bread Machine by Kathrun Hawkins, 2006 ($4.00 at Dollarama)
– Pumpkin Butternut & Squash by Elsa Petersen-Schepelern, 2000 (gift)

My parents gave me an Instant Pot and a handmade apron, my brother gave me a copy of Jamie Cooks Italy (since I’m a huge Jamie Oliver fan), and a friend gave me a Paderno tamagoyaki pan.

I can’t wait to try out all of my new toys!

613flea Saturday November 17th

We’re getting down to the Christmas crunch, which means more flea markets for me! This coming Saturday is 613flea at Lansdowne Park. It’s not technically the Christmas market (that’s in two weeks on December 1st), but a lot of vendors will be bringing out their holiday wares because people like to shop early — especially if they’re shipping presents to family, or are planning on traveling themselves. Considering that the local Christmas craft fairs started up the Saturday after Halloween, I don’t really think it’s too early.

Once again, I’ve managed to narrow down my social media pictures to two, and I can’t choose between them. Which do you like best, this one:

Or this one:

I mean, they couldn’t be more different, but I like them both. It’s very hard to be objective when each one holds some pretty happy memories for me.

I’m also really excited this week because I have found some absolutely fabulous new pieces that I’ll be including at my booth. Once again I have warm colours:

Versus cool:

I honestly love them all and would be happy to keep them in my kitchen, but if I kept every piece that I like I wouldn’t have anything for my booth.

Hope to see you there!

Heroes & Villains: Strange Magic Edition

This past Saturday I braved the first snowstorm of the year in order to attend the Heroes & Villains Halloween cosplay party that’s held every year at The Bourbon Room. It’s a whole lot of fun! This year’s theme was “strange magic”, and keeping with the theme the hosts were decked out as the house founders from Harry Potter, the DJ was dressed up as a gorgon, the decor featured dragons and floating candles, and the specialty drinks were straight out of Hogwarts.

Of course I had to get my cosplay on! (As captured poorly here with the selfie feature on my camera.) After all of the effort of making five costumes in time for Ottawa ComicCon (of which I still haven’t posted all of my photos, gotta get on that, really), I just thought I’d reuse something I’d worn before. Then I made the mistake of going to the Audrey’s Costume Castle fire sale the prior weekend, where I found a fabulous wig… And, well, I threw together a fairy godmother costume to go with the theme.

I knew that there would be black lights there, so I used some black-light-reactive face paint for highlights. I didn’t realize until after I got there that parts of the wig would light up too. Not truly visible in these shots are the twinkly fiber optic lights that were tucked under my hair, which showed really well in the low light.

One of the great things about this party is that included with admission is a couple of professional shots taken by the fantastic Richard Dufault of Open Shutter Photo! He got some great shots of the costume in better lighting.

I’m never sure how to pose for these things, but I think they turned out okay! Also, I wish I’d noticed that my necklace was tangled in my wig and hanging funny. Ah, well. It was actually a really comfortable costume and I might actually wear it again. As a bonus, there was no sewing this time!

I based the makeup very loosely on Charisma Star’s tutorial, mainly for the shape of the final layers of paint. I went with a totally different colour scheme and I used different products. I rather liked how it turned out, even if you can’t see that the makeup actually goes all the way down over my shoulders and a bit down my chest. If I’d realized that the wig blocked so much of that area, I wouldn’t have put so much effort into it. Live and learn!