March at the Thrift Store

I’m so happy to welcome you back to the Blog after this week of transitioning from one platform to another. It was a bit more complicated than I anticipated but hopefully things will go smoothly from now on.

Lots of march finds to share with you today. Welcome to the Blog, Friends, because today I’m visiting the Thrift Store and sharing with you some March finds. The first is in the picture above. Look at these lovely faux blooms.

Here’s another picture of them with a few more blooms inserted. I found these faux flowers this past week. They are all silk flowers and had the original tags still attached. Between the lavendar grasses and the flowers there are about 20 stems. They didn’t look like much as they were flattened and scrunched together. I got all of these for $4. I was so excited. You know how expensive silk flowers are at the retail store and these are real beauties.

Next are these lovely red balloon glasses by Mikasa. You can clearly see the manufacturer’s mark at the bottom of the stem. I love the individual patterning of these glasses and the balloon shape is wonderful for wine. Ruby red glass is pricey so I was happy to find these without blemishes. Something to note: Mikasa has only been marking the stems with their name in the past few years. Older patterns are unmarked and you have to look them up.

Also, in the crystal department, are these lovely candlesticks by Orrefors. They are Gabriel Crystal Art Glass. They were absolutely filthy in the Goodwill and why I think they had been overlooked. You can see how well they cleaned up. I love the modern feel these have. The shape is simple but elegant.

I found this faux bridal arrangement for about $3. In the picture above I was using pieces of it to complete several projects. This is a lot more cost effective way to complete floral projects than buying individual stems.

I was “tickled pink” LOL to find these really pretty chintz dishes by Johnson Bros. of England. They are a bit newer so are dish washer and microwave safe. The pretty flower border is trimmed in an outline of pink around the outer rim of the dishes. They were about 85 cents a piece. Got the whole set for under $20. I was dancing out the door.

Another find was the pottery barn dishes pictured above. Very simple with a simple black border around the rim. These are large pasta bowls but, in a pinch, could be very shallow dinner plates. I like the black and white color scheme.

A couple of days later we went to just two Thrift Stores and found everything in the picture above. Seems to be feast or famine at the Thrift Store these days and this was definitely a feast.

I’ll start with this very sweet sachet that is still in the original packaging. I love sachets for placing in drawers.

Next we have this cage that is actually a butterfly house. It is used for raising butterflies from the chrysalis to the adult butterfly. This one has instructions for the Monarch Butterfly and my Hubby thought we could give that a try. You can order butterfly chrysalis online and then hatch them at home for release into the wild. I’ll let you know how that goes.

Found some great ribbon reels for under $1. I’ll add these to my ribbon stash. Love to find ribbon at these low prices.

I’m always on the lookout for great crystal glasses and this set was on the shelf at my local Thrift Store. I mentioned earlier that Mikasa recently started labeling their glasses on the stem of the glass. This is also a Mikasa pattern but a bit older so no labels. You just really have to research the pattern online.

I knew when I picked up the first glass that this was good crystal. It had some weight to it, was not molded glass and the crystal was good quality. It turned out to be one of Mikasa’s most popular patterns called, “Panache Clear”. The bowl of the glass is square which gives it a contemporary more modern feel. I was able to find is champagnes and 7 wine glasses in perfect condition. They sell for $40 and $46 respectively online. These particular glasses were priced as miscellaneous glassware. Yay! I have to say that they were also filthy and that was probably one reason they had not been snatched up. The first thing I did when I got home was wash them and you can see how sparkly they are after a good cleaning.

These great napkin rings made from wrapped metal were added to the items making their way home with me. I loved the organic feel these have.

Finally, this set of silver-plate was found at Goodwill. This picture was taken after the silverware was polished and the box cleaned. It is 16 place settings of 5 pieces each plus the serving pieces. It was missing a dessert fork and a regular fork. It took a couple of hours of polishing to bring back the shine for this set. Well worth the effort. The maker is F. B. Rogers and the pattern is, I think, American Chippendale.

I was happy with all these finds and very happy that I found a place to put them when I got home. I can tell it’s time to clean out and recycle some of the older items to make way for the newer finds. Wishing you all good luck in your thrifting adventures this week. Thanks for stopping by.