Some of my new favorite things

This seems to happen to me frequently: I am having a bad day (or in this case, a bad couple of weeks), decide on the fly to drop by one of my favorite thrifts, and lo and behold, rare and wonderful treasures magically appear on the shelves and cheer me up beyond measure. Thrift therapy is so much cheaper than the "real" kind, probably more effective (at least for me), and definitely much healthier for me than my usual stand-bys of red wine and chocolate. Not that I haven't felt the need to indulge a little in those two mood enhancers as well...but, I digress. I am supposed to be talking about my new-found treasures.

So let's get to it. You know how I love collecting glassware and china, and you may have heard me grumble lately about not finding a lot of it in the shops recently. Well, check this out:

 

A lovely punch bowl with graceful glass ladle. Punch bowl sets are a dime a dozen in thrift stores, but most of them are a little fussy for my taste, and I was willing to wait until this elegant, streamlined version appeared.

The set came with twelve beautiful punch glasses, and the whole thing was quite reasonable. I am very excited for this set to make it's debut at my daughter's French themed birthday celebration later this spring.

I also found a pretty trifle bowl, which I had also been wanting, especially since a friend made a beautiful and delicious trifle for our New Year's Eve dinner. I can't believe I didn't already own one!

Another sure sign that things are looking up was that on another shelf I spotted a set of Harkerware dishes! They turned out to be a nearly complete cake set, in the teal Sur Pate Sur Cameo pattern. Originally, I believe this set came with 8 plates, a cake serving plate, and a ceramic cake server, but my set seems complete enough with the cake plate and six individual plates. Best of all is this teal color perfectly matches the Harkerware Corinthian dishes that I found a few months ago!

I also found this unique strawberry hard-sided handbag. Isn't the handle wonderful? And the clasp is amazing. I just love the cheeriness of the pattern, and the velvet lining in a rich crimson.

This Skyway train case caught my attention with its cute tasseled zipper pulls (that unfortunately are not visible in this photograph) and monogrammed initials that also spell out "etc." It is in very good condition and would be a great little storage piece for doll clothes or other trinkets.

The last find I can share is this fun oversized vintage mug. I thought it would be a super cute pencil holder for a donut lover, of whom I know several!

The Easter Bunny also found a few treasures to tuck inside some deserving children's baskets, and picked up a set of egg dyeing cups, which will certainly come in handy in a couple of days when we decorate our eggs. But most importantly, I managed to get my mind off my worries and focus on happier things. A very successful trip indeed.