A Plethora of Plates

Wow, I can't believe it's been so long! I've been missing this blog an awful lot. It's one of my creative outlets and when I wasn't able to check in on it, I was definitely out of sorts. I'm rather embarrassed to confess this, but I'm not the most tech-savvy person and for reasons I'm unable to determine, I've been unable to create a new post. So glad I got a bee up my bonnet and tried again today one last time before giving up for good. And today was a good time to try because I have some fresh new finds to share.

I was able to pop into two shops today and in the first one I found a small stash of vintage grey Harkerware plates in the Chesterton Grey pattern.

I'm feeling like this is my pattern du jour because when I was briefly in Philadelphia earlier this month, I found the matching salt and pepper shakers....however, sadly, I left them in my friend's car. We shall judge just how good a friend she is by seeing how long it takes before she sends them back to me! HINT, HINT!

In addition to the salt and pepper shakers, I already had the gravy boat in this color. I also have a number of pieces of Harkerware in a very similar deep teal green pattern called Corinthian, which I absolutely love, but I'm really digging this rich dove grey right now!

Speaking of Harkerware, my friend Lynn came up my way over the summer and brought me quite literally a trunkload of Harkerware! Her generosity astounds me, what a lovely gift and I will treasure these pieces. As I believe I've mentioned on the blog before, my collection began so modestly and unexpectedly when I inherited an old Cameoware bowl from my mother, who inherited it from her mother. It used to sit on our dining room table and quite frankly, I didn't think too much of it when I was younger! I felt it had seen better days and indeed it has. Ironically, it is the bowl's "well-loved" appearance that warms my heart now, and I began to pick up a piece here and there in antique stores. This was before I cut out the middle man and began to hunt for these things in thrift stores. Over the years, I collected maybe ten pieces. And then I met Lynn! She has her own interesting story of how she ended up with a basement full of Harkerware, but suffice it to say, she is generous and thoughtful and when she found out how much I love Harkerware, she passed along the bulk of her collection to me. Here is a just a sample of what she gave me this summer--get a load of that awesome deco canister!

But back to today, when the china gods were smiling on me and I also found a couple of other pieces from patterns I collect. Here is a slightly worn plate in the Mar-Crest Daisy Dot pattern. I have many service pieces in this pattern but have never come across a plate before. The store actually had two, but the other one was even more tired looking and had a large repaired crack. This one will be fine for display behind some of my other pieces to fill out my collection.

And this platter might look somewhat familiar to my long time followers. I have bushels of this Taylor Smith Taylor pattern (beautifully named Ever Yours Boutonniere) in the turquoise color way, and actually never knew it came in the less common yellow as well until a couple of years ago when I found a couple of small bowls. The yellow pattern is called "Golden Button." I wavered on whether I should bring this home, but my son decided he really liked it and said I should so I did. I am pretty easy to convince!

And that about wraps it up for today. I will try to jump back in and get you caught up on some of the wonderful finds I've collected over the summer. Until then, happy hunting!

Nothing Beats a New Thrifting Buddy

I'd have to say most of my friends just don't get my "thing" for vintage. In fact, I'd go so far as to say most of my friends probably whisper behind my back about my thing for vintage! But then I have those precious friends who not only get it, but they share my great love for it.

I'm lucky that I have several dear friends who totally get it and love to go on treasure hunting trips with me. Unfortunately, most of these friends live back in my old neck of the woods so getting together isn't quite as easy or frequent as it once was. Which makes finding a new thrifting pal a thing to celebrate! Over lunch last month, my friend Elizabeth expressed an interest in tagging along with me sometime, and I jumped at the chance to show her the ropes. I think our day long excursion was a success--we both found some cool things--and I hope this was just the first of many outings that we can share.

But on to the finds! First up is a large oval platter in the Ever Yours Boutonniere pattern by Taylor Smith Taylor to add to my Ever-Growing collection. I love, love, love this pattern and especially adore this platter. I had this platter once upon a time but it was crushed by our movers (insert tears). I try not to shed too many tears when disaster strikes because I always have hope that I will find another, and although it took three and a half years, I did.

Here is another find that will go on immediate display:

In case you don't recognize it, it is a Marcrest Daisy Dot lidded crock. I have several of these, in varying sizes. I just love the warm brown glaze.

It must have been a good day for china finds, because I also scored a gorgeous blue and white Harkerware gravy boat in the beautiful Chesterton pattern.

Among my other finds were a cartful of vintage books, some of which are tagged for use in an exciting project that I will be working on soon, some for my kids, and even a couple for me. And this cute little storage container that I can use to organize smaller pieces of jewelry for my Etsy shop. It is always nice when I can repurpose things to use for my shop rather than buying new.

But quite possibly the best find of the day was my new thrifting buddy! :)

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.

Harkerware Jackpot

I used to find Harkerware in the thrifts pretty frequently. Not every outing, for sure, and not always in patterns that I wanted, but at least monthly, I would find a piece or often more at a shop. Lately, however, it has become a rarer sight. And I hadn't seen a single piece in at least the last four months.

But last week, my luck changed. I had a very successful shopping trip to my current favorite thrift store, and scored a number of pieces in one of my favorite Harker patterns, the teal green Corinthian. Just look at all this!

Four dinner plates, two dessert plates, two bowls, and a serving platter. All in good to excellent condition. There is a small discoloration on one of the rims of the dinner plates and the dessert plates are a little worn so I thought about leaving them behind but I'm very glad I didn't. The prices were very reasonable, too, which is notable because this particular thrift has been overpricing their china and glassware for quite some time.

I also lucked out and found this matching covered dish on the next aisle over.

Lately, I've been collecting so much white china it is nice to spice things up a little with some color. And definitely something a little bolder than my usual turquoise. These dishes would actually be very pretty around Christmastime.

I hope you have had some luck finding some pretty treasures lately, too!

Harkerware Heaven

I am feeling a little spoiled right now. I just received one of the nicest gifts ever! Diamonds, you ask? Pearls? No, no, no, don't be silly now, you know me better than that. (Not that I would protest a shiny bauble or two...) But truly, this gift is amazing--a whole box of various patterns of china from the Harker Pottery Company!

As is the case with most of my collections, my modest cache of Harker pottery began with a single sentimental piece. My maternal grandmother was a great lover of china, and my mother inherited a number of miscellaneous bowls, plates, salt and pepper shakers and other pieces over the years. One of these pieces was a blue Cameoware mixing bowl by the Harker Pottery Company. For a time during my childhood, it held fruit on our dining room table. After my mother died, I ended up with it. Since it reminds me of both my mother and grandmother, I have always treasured this bowl. The blue color is beautiful, and the cheerful floral pattern is very representative of one of my favorite time periods in American history, the 1930s.

Even so, I didn't set out to start a collection of Harker Cameoware. It just happened. One day, I saw a shallow serving bowl in an antique store and I had to have it. But I stopped there, not adding anything to my collection for years. Harkerware in antique stores can be pricey, and back in those days I wasn't haunting thrifts the way I do now. So I pretty much forgot about the bowl, although I never would have dreamed of getting rid of it.

Then a couple of years ago, I found a Cameoware teapot in a thrift store. It has a teeny chip on the spout, but as I don't actually use it for serving tea, I don't mind. Then I found a sugar bowl. Then a creamer. Then a salt shaker. Then a pepper shaker. And that was it. Enough to display on a shelf and make me very happy. But then something wonderful happened. A friend learned of my love of Harkerware and told me that she had a box in her garage that she had inherited. It is not her style (she is way cooler than me and collects mid-century modern pieces) and she offered it to me. The other day, she brought it over.

And like the title of this post states, I was in Harkerware Heaven! I couldn't believe her generosity. There were these lovely little floral saucers with matching teacups:

And a unique sugar bowl (sadly the lid is cracked but I can fix that):

But that wasn't all! There were several luncheon plates in a similar pattern, in a more turquoisey shade of blue:

And then this teal green Cameoware bowl:

And last, but not least, this AMAZING pitcher. I thought it was my Cameoware pattern, but once I got it home, I learned it is the same color but a slightly different pattern called White Rose Carv-Kraft. I love it so much!

What an amazing collection I have now! Many, many thanks to my friend Lynn for this wonderful and generous gift. I will truly cherish it!