Treasure Box Wednesday: Treasured Vintage China

It was a slow time for thrifting this past week. So while I don't have any new treasures to share with you, I do have some goodies I've enjoyed for many years.

Perhaps some of you long-time readers of The Thrift Shop Romantic might recall me picking up a few of these individual pieces over the years. But I think items take on a whole new life when you see them displayed together, in their element.

I have been picking up lusterware plates and cups at thrift stores for at least a decade. Same goes for chintz teacups and sandwich dishes I'd carefully chosen from places like TJ Maxx and the now-long-gone Royal Albert outlet at Grove City.

But it was only recently, I finally got the right place to display them: a turn-of-the-century oak china cabinet...
So it was with great joy-- and some really tough decision-making-- that I chose the pieces from my collection I would ultimately keep and display...

It was a little like choosing from favorite children. But, seeing it all together, I was struck by common themes...
Bright aquas and juicy greens... Deep red and pink roses.... Delicate lavenders... And lots of shine...
Teacups were mostly thrift store discoveries, and I'm struck with how cheerful a collection can be, though amassed for just a small amount of money.
I made a home for favorite 1900s whiteware transfer plates, and hand-painted saucers I thrifted for $1...
And I tried to group colors together that went together. Layering chintz and lusterware as if in sets, with only the color palette to really tie them.

Last, I had to include the only real heirloom in the lot, my great-aunt's depression era china, in a pattern called Aquitania...
(Not to mention a stray Fenton carnival glass bowl I "Fleatiqued.")

The china cabinet is my real, and consistent Treasure Box... My glass garden... Something I pass each day and enjoy at different times in new ways, as the daylight in my diningroom changes and transforms it.

I hope the rest of your week is filled with little treasures, too!

Treasure Box Wednesday: Treasured Vintage China

It was a slow time for thrifting this past week. So while I don't have any new treasures to share with you, I do have some goodies I've enjoyed for many years.

Perhaps some of you long-time readers of The Thrift Shop Romantic might recall me picking up a few of these individual pieces over the years. But I think items take on a whole new life when you see them displayed together, in their element.

I have been picking up lusterware plates and cups at thrift stores for at least a decade. Same goes for chintz teacups and sandwich dishes I'd carefully chosen from places like TJ Maxx and the now-long-gone Royal Albert outlet at Grove City.

But it was only recently, I finally got the right place to display them: a turn-of-the-century oak china cabinet...
So it was with great joy-- and some really tough decision-making-- that I chose the pieces from my collection I would ultimately keep and display...

It was a little like choosing from favorite children. But, seeing it all together, I was struck by common themes...
Bright aquas and juicy greens... Deep red and pink roses.... Delicate lavenders... And lots of shine...
Teacups were mostly thrift store discoveries, and I'm struck with how cheerful a collection can be, though amassed for just a small amount of money.
I made a home for favorite 1900s whiteware transfer plates, and hand-painted saucers I thrifted for $1...
And I tried to group colors together that went together. Layering chintz and lusterware as if in sets, with only the color palette to really tie them.

Last, I had to include the only real heirloom in the lot, my great-aunt's depression era china, in a pattern called Aquitania...
(Not to mention a stray Fenton carnival glass bowl I "Fleatiqued.")

The china cabinet is my real, and consistent Treasure Box... My glass garden... Something I pass each day and enjoy at different times in new ways, as the daylight in my diningroom changes and transforms it.

I hope the rest of your week is filled with little treasures, too!

Richard C. Bray Photographer 1929-1993

Kim and David of Rescripted recently wrote to me and asked if I'd ever heard of  Richard C. Bray.

I never had, so  looked him up on their website, and discovered a most fascinating figure.

Born into wealth, he became a biochemist at Columbia University. 

An obsessive traveller with a 'reclusive disposition'. 

Well worth reading more about him.

Anyway, I was very taken with his photos which reveal a New York not completely dissimilar to the one I haunt. The commuters arriving........

The scruffy lower east side......

The languid cat, of course, reminds me of Morocco.

This last is almost certainly Coney Island.

Treasure Box Wednesday: Posies, Pyrex and Presents

Ah, the thrift stores were perfectly packed with pretty purchases, if perchance you paused for a peek.

I won't be saying that five times fast, but I will proceed to the pack of pictures. We'll start with Presents, I think. Yep-- pepper and salt shakers, in the grape milkglass pattern! Perfect for that ever-more-giant basket o' thrifted goodness for my good friend's mom.

I'm delighted that these seem to be in terrific condition, too.

And how about some Pyrex? In two separate thrift store adventures, I came across this pink scroll patterned casserole dish, and this cute hot-air balloon printed bowl...


The hot air balloon Pyrex set, I understand, originally was designed to serve chips, while a small nesting bowl clipped to it for dip...


The pink scroll pattern is one I haven't seen before at the thrift stores, so I was excited to spot this. And yes, I am enabling my Pyrexia.... but LOOK at it! It makes me happy and it's so fun...


At the St. Vincent DePaul Thrift Store in Penn Hills, I found this excellent marble-topped table, with a built-in table lamp for just $7.99!...

It needs some dusting and some sturdying up, but it was just too much my taste to pass up.

Then under the label of Posies, we have this vintage tablecloth...

I could just see this, with its brightly colored flowers-- Poppies, Perhaps?--- on a summer table. And the Salvation Army Thrift Store had this lace tablerunner, which matches my diningroom mantle scarf and window treatment...


Lastly, I found this little fairy centerpiece bowl, which matches two vintage candlesticks I already had. Now I have a whole set!


And before I go, I just thought you might enjoy seeing the bit of mantle messing around I did on Sunday...

You'll see I'm using those tall cherub lamps I'd found for $4 a piece at the Goodwill a few weeks back-- the ones I wasn't sure whether I would paint or not. They look surprisingly good just as-is here. I wasn't quite expecting that. The lampshades were Shabby Chic shades, just $2 a piece at Gabriel Brothers a year or so ago...

Anyway, you never know what you'll be able to use until you start pulling things together and trying it. But I think that's really a part of all the fun!

• If you missed Sunday's post, The Attraction of Carnival Glass, click here.

Otherwise, perhaps you'll pop by for next Sunday's post? Perfect!

Treasure Box Wednesday: Posies, Pyrex and Presents

Ah, the thrift stores were perfectly packed with pretty purchases, if perchance you paused for a peek.

I won't be saying that five times fast, but I will proceed to the pack of pictures. We'll start with Presents, I think. Yep-- pepper and salt shakers, in the grape milkglass pattern! Perfect for that ever-more-giant basket o' thrifted goodness for my good friend's mom.

I'm delighted that these seem to be in terrific condition, too.

And how about some Pyrex? In two separate thrift store adventures, I came across this pink scroll patterned casserole dish, and this cute hot-air balloon printed bowl...


The hot air balloon Pyrex set, I understand, originally was designed to serve chips, while a small nesting bowl clipped to it for dip...


The pink scroll pattern is one I haven't seen before at the thrift stores, so I was excited to spot this. And yes, I am enabling my Pyrexia.... but LOOK at it! It makes me happy and it's so fun...


At the St. Vincent DePaul Thrift Store in Penn Hills, I found this excellent marble-topped table, with a built-in table lamp for just $7.99!...

It needs some dusting and some sturdying up, but it was just too much my taste to pass up.

Then under the label of Posies, we have this vintage tablecloth...

I could just see this, with its brightly colored flowers-- Poppies, Perhaps?--- on a summer table. And the Salvation Army Thrift Store had this lace tablerunner, which matches my diningroom mantle scarf and window treatment...


Lastly, I found this little fairy centerpiece bowl, which matches two vintage candlesticks I already had. Now I have a whole set!


And before I go, I just thought you might enjoy seeing the bit of mantle messing around I did on Sunday...

You'll see I'm using those tall cherub lamps I'd found for $4 a piece at the Goodwill a few weeks back-- the ones I wasn't sure whether I would paint or not. They look surprisingly good just as-is here. I wasn't quite expecting that. The lampshades were Shabby Chic shades, just $2 a piece at Gabriel Brothers a year or so ago...

Anyway, you never know what you'll be able to use until you start pulling things together and trying it. But I think that's really a part of all the fun!

• If you missed Sunday's post, The Attraction of Carnival Glass, click here.

Otherwise, perhaps you'll pop by for next Sunday's post? Perfect!

Aprons and Hankies: Time, Ties and Trends

Aprons and hankies. What is it about these vintage textiles that makes our hearts go pitty-pat like they do?

Is it the memories of our mothers, our grandmothers? I don't know. Grandma was a fan of the housecoat, and my dear mom was more inclined to find flour on her jeans than she was on any apron. And hankies, well, Mom received one each year as a gift from a beloved family friend. These remained squirreled away in a drawer for safe-keeping for a day that would never come. They were too precious to use, she said. Too important to tuck into a sleeve, to dare touch a nose in need. They existed entombed wood and in mothballs, waiting for some curious archaeologist to break them free some day. They belonged in a museum, not in daily life.

Well, maybe it's the texture. The soft, gentle feel of a handkerchief against the cheek. The starched, crispness of a crepey apron.


Perhaps it the color. Vibrant shades that call to mind the joy of culinary exploration. Of the smart reuse in a casserole. Of the order and art of a Jell-O mold.

Or maybe it's the patterns. A garden of flowers abound, and a year of holidays is celebrated, all in this fabric of the past.


But most likely, it's all of these, and more. As the years have passed, aprons and hankies have become symbols-- not of our oppression as wives, mothers, and career women and home-makers-- but of a gentler time. Of some idealized place in our minds and hearts where there's always something baking in the kitchen, and where good manners still exist, inviting you in to have a seat and a cup of tea. In a world that may feel cold, harsh and entirely too busy, aprons and hankies are tangible representations of the little niceties that bring comfort and stability, femininity and love.

It's probably a place that never really quite existed. The standards are just too high.



I still see Mom with the flour on her jeans, a box of Puffs in the kitchen. But as I make her Crock-pot potroast this morning, to simmer all day, the scent wafting through the house the way I did the home in which I grew up three decades ago, the aprons and hankies still somehow say what needs to be said. Here's me, cooking in my pajamas, of all things. Not bothering to style my hair first. To put on heels. To tie that apron to my waist. But the hankies adorn a table top. An apron might serve as a valance.

They make me happy to see because they say the niceties are still here. With us. Ready to make home a place worth coming back to. They're just a little bit different now.

Well, that's all for today. If you missed my Wednesday feature "Good Books and New Blogs" you might want to click here to check that out. That has a fun little tag, as well as an announcement about new bloggy goodness. And maybe I'll see you THIS Wednesday as we have another "Treasure Box" feature which showcases some finds uncovered in the South Hills. (Yes, I actually wasn't snowed on and made it out to the thrifts this week!) Take care, my nice invisible friends. Thanks for being there.

Aprons and Hankies: Time, Ties and Trends

Aprons and hankies. What is it about these vintage textiles that makes our hearts go pitty-pat like they do?

Is it the memories of our mothers, our grandmothers? I don't know. Grandma was a fan of the housecoat, and my dear mom was more inclined to find flour on her jeans than she was on any apron. And hankies, well, Mom received one each year as a gift from a beloved family friend. These remained squirreled away in a drawer for safe-keeping for a day that would never come. They were too precious to use, she said. Too important to tuck into a sleeve, to dare touch a nose in need. They existed entombed wood and in mothballs, waiting for some curious archaeologist to break them free some day. They belonged in a museum, not in daily life.

Well, maybe it's the texture. The soft, gentle feel of a handkerchief against the cheek. The starched, crispness of a crepey apron.


Perhaps it the color. Vibrant shades that call to mind the joy of culinary exploration. Of the smart reuse in a casserole. Of the order and art of a Jell-O mold.

Or maybe it's the patterns. A garden of flowers abound, and a year of holidays is celebrated, all in this fabric of the past.


But most likely, it's all of these, and more. As the years have passed, aprons and hankies have become symbols-- not of our oppression as wives, mothers, and career women and home-makers-- but of a gentler time. Of some idealized place in our minds and hearts where there's always something baking in the kitchen, and where good manners still exist, inviting you in to have a seat and a cup of tea. In a world that may feel cold, harsh and entirely too busy, aprons and hankies are tangible representations of the little niceties that bring comfort and stability, femininity and love.

It's probably a place that never really quite existed. The standards are just too high.



I still see Mom with the flour on her jeans, a box of Puffs in the kitchen. But as I make her Crock-pot potroast this morning, to simmer all day, the scent wafting through the house the way I did the home in which I grew up three decades ago, the aprons and hankies still somehow say what needs to be said. Here's me, cooking in my pajamas, of all things. Not bothering to style my hair first. To put on heels. To tie that apron to my waist. But the hankies adorn a table top. An apron might serve as a valance.

They make me happy to see because they say the niceties are still here. With us. Ready to make home a place worth coming back to. They're just a little bit different now.

Well, that's all for today. If you missed my Wednesday feature "Good Books and New Blogs" you might want to click here to check that out. That has a fun little tag, as well as an announcement about new bloggy goodness. And maybe I'll see you THIS Wednesday as we have another "Treasure Box" feature which showcases some finds uncovered in the South Hills. (Yes, I actually wasn't snowed on and made it out to the thrifts this week!) Take care, my nice invisible friends. Thanks for being there.