Thrifty Thursday: Thrift Store Finds

Well, this week was a good one on the used store/thrift store front.

My husband didn't understand my squeal of excitement when I found the above item.  I held it aloft like it was the most treasured possession in the universe and said, "I FINALLY found one!!!  A fish mold!!!  And it's only two dollars!"

My husband looked at me like I had something a bit off in my head and said, "Uh huh.  I always thought those were sort of ugly."

He didn't understand my excitement at finding the above item, although at least he understood when I explained to him the main reason I have wanted one of these forever is because I have some vintage molded salad (or other recipes) that call to "pour into fish mold", which never had how many cups the recipe made, or anything but THOSE words, so I have been searching for one of these suckers so I could try out some of my vintage recipes that called for said mold.

And really, how many people remember these from kitchens in their youth?  These things were still a regular decor item hanging in many kitchens when I was a child and I know these suckers were hanging in kitchens as far back as the 40's.  So, really, the fish mold is a bit of culinary history you can hang in your kitchen.

And if you husband thinks it's kind of weird that you think it is so cool and thinks they are kind of ugly, you can do what I did which was to impersonate the 80's astronaut character from the Lego movie and continually show your husband the fish mold as you are walking around the thrift store and saying in a highly excited voice, "Fish mold!!!"

Hey, if you can't be a quasi-embarrassment to your spouse once in a while what is 14 years plus of marriage worth?  *Laugh*.

And yes, I did indeed hang the fish mold in my kitchen.  Oddly it looks pretty good hanging on the wall, although it goes against my normal tastes.

Now my husband did get to be excited by one thing this week.  He was able to get the above item.  It's a sand blasting cabinet.  My husband has been wanting one of these for a loonnnnnggg time to sand blast things like tool boxes (my husband is a vintage tool collector) and such, so he was thrilled to get it for 30.00.  It even came with the sand blaster in it still and had blasting material (sand) in it.  So, it was definitely worth the money.

The rest of what I scored at the used stores this week is above.  I was able to score a couple panel projects to sew for Christmas gifts a little later on for 2.00 a piece, a bunch of bias tape and twill tape for .10 to .30 a piece and some gloves for me for 3.00 (that were in brand new condition!).  I also went to Wally World, one of our local thrift stores, to try and find some Tupperware as, surprisingly, I have used up all of my Tupperware containers housing different things in my pantry of late.  I found a pitcher there and a neat vintage plastic tray (which I'm going to use as my "landing pad" on the above trunk for kids drinks once Christmas time gets here).  We then went to Value Village and I spent more than I wanted to getting some Tupperware pieces (they were like 4.00 a piece...ouch), but at least they had a couple of them.  And I was able to find this...

A solid marble checkerboard (this thing is HEAVY!) for 5.00!  I am using this as the "landing pad" for drinks on my living room coffee table now (seen above).  I love it too as now we have a checkerboard to play on whenever we just want to pull checkers out. 

When I picked it up I didn't have checkers.  I figured I'd keep my eye out for a cheap game of checkers to finish up the set.

And loe and behold we went to the last thrift store of the day and I found a checkerboard set for 1.00!  And all the checkers were in it!  That is what you call an awesome set of circumstances :). 

The last thing my husband found and gave me as a gift, so I'm not sure how thrifty it was, but I love it all the same.  He was at a local antique store and texted me asking if I'd like a vintage Corelle bowl for a decently cheap price that had graduated markings for volume on the inside.  I was more than intrigued and the price was right so I told him to pick it up.  As he was checking out the lady there said they had a handle for the bowl???  So he told her to grab it and he'd buy that too.

It turns out that this is a detachable handled Corelle line that came out.  I also found out that the piece was rare in it's markings compared to some other lines with the same cornflower blue pattern on it, so I decided it was going into my china cabinet so I would be less likely to chip it.  Oddly, I never thought I'd ever collect the cornflower blue pattern, but I now own four things with the pattern on it, so I guess I'm collecting that now *laugh*.  I always liked blue on white, so I'm okay with it.

So there you are folks.  My thrifty adventures this week.  How did you do?