Holidays We Don't Celebrate Nearly Enough - Happy National Thrift Shop Day

 

Spare & Share Shoppe, Gridley, Illinois

Also, Brian's least favorite holiday.

Quote of the Day

 

Quote of the Day

 

Vintage Makeovers - A Silk Scarf Blouse from 1947

 

From the "Found Money" series in Woman's Day, June 1947.  Rationing was over, but returning service personnel were bringing back souvenirs from Europe and the Pacific that could be put to good use replenishing your wardrobe.  

The Time Is Always Right, To Do What Is Right

 

Someone Up There Does Not Like Me

 There are two MEGA church rummage sales this weekend and I have injured my right Achilles tendon and can't walk.

Sewing - A Braided Hot Mat from 1941

 

From Let's Make a Gift, by Ruth Wyeth Spears, and I can see this as a use for old t-shirts.  The book can be read at Hathi Trust but if it can be downloaded I have yet to figure out how.

A Small Price To Pay

The Visa bill came Saturday.

Although (as you can see by Wednesday's post) I did buy a fair amount of yarn, the real big-ticket item was a cherry-red, crew-necked cashmere sweater.

Although I planned to visit some thrift shops while I was in Scotland I only made it to a handful, and none in Edinburgh. I just ran out of time.  

And wind.  It wasn't that I did so much walking (not nearly as much as in Italy, for example, where one tour member with a Fitbit clocked us at forty-eight miles in eight days), it's just that in Scotland everything is either at the very top or the very bottom of a hill. 

Crochet - A Table Mat from 1953

From the February, 1953 issue of Workbasket magazine.  Three pages of instructions can be found on my Flickr account, along with instructions on how to take the lettering off of feedsacks,  the Fat Girl's Diet and something that looks like a scold's bridle but promises that Fifteen Minutes a Day Brings Thrilling New Loveliness!

In related news, I was free for a few hours one morning last week and hit a couple of local thrift shops returning with -- among other treasures -- a dozen copies of Workbasket, only one of which I already had (I had to buy the lot).

When one of my fellow trainees heard this, she mentioned that she had all of her aunt's copies and did I want them?

(hell, yes).

Spoils of War

One benefit (although the spousal unit doesn’t think so) of hiyaku-ing off with the Red Cross is that if I do happen to get a day off, and if I can get my hands on a car, I can wile away a hot, humid, rainy afternoon hitting the local thrift stores*.

Proof that the Lord loveth a cheerful shopper, there was a large Goodwill store about six blocks from the DRO.  I came home with a purple barkcloth Hawaiian floweredy shirt, a beautiful leather cross-body satchel, and four bags of sock yarn.

Edited to add:  I of course had a legitimate reason for shopping at Goodwill; I needed a travel coffee mug, as DST (the disaster technology peeps) were getting tired of me knocking over my morning cup of joe in the cardboard cup. 

(*What did people do before the Internet?)

Rings and Things

Well, earrings at any rate.  Revelling in the luxury of a day off (bloated civil servant that I am, I get the day after New Year’s as a holiday) and poring over the combined swag of a recent eBay acquisition and a couple of trips to the neighborhood thrift stores. 

The thrift store visits rarely cost me more than three dollars; the eBay purchase was rather more than that but still cost less than a couple of pizzas (I know the spousal unit reads this and I’m waiting for the roar of thrifty Scots anguish, especially since I went to the dentist and Flora had to be re-aligned this month).

Not shown in the large photo -- the cat must be lying on them -- are two flower brooches made of enamel over some kind of bend-y metal.  I know old books and old fabric, and I even know a little about old furniture, but nothing about vintage jewelry.  Fifties?  There’s no markings on them.  Each is a little smaller than my palm.

The bolo is from the eBay loot and if that thumbnail-sized chunk of turquoise is real it’s probably worth more than what I paid for everything else.  It’s marked on the back, ?PACA? over MEXICO.  There are two more Mexican pins, one a cat-like creature biting himself on the butt, and one inlaid with abalone that has a couple of trademarks and MEXICO over CASADOS.  I guess I’ll have to do some research.  I think all three pins are real silver, they have that heft.  There is a pair of Mexican-looking silver and coral earrings in the batch, as well, and a delicate little necklet of silver tubes and turquoise (colored glass?) beads that’s very pretty.

Only one of the necklaces is plastic – everything else is the real deal, although all those “pearls” are glass beads.  Some of this will be taken apart and restrung into something that actually fits me, as the owner/wearer of several pieces was obviously someone with a delicate and swan-like neck.

The world’s two flashiest brooches are going to be put aside until someone wants me to sew them a Wise Man costume.  Or I meet a particularly needy belly-dancer.

(Apologies for the poor photo quality but the camera died and I had to use my county Blackberry).

A Target-Rich Environment

Because we all love to snark at bad food-company recipes, I decided to pull a few out of this recent acquisition.

At least once a month I forget to bring my lunch and have to walk the three blocks to the hole in the wall Chinese place that, oddly enough, is just around the corner from ye olde Neighborhood Thrift Shoppe. Between their dazzling display of costume jewelry and their second-hand book selection, it's probably a good thing I don't have these absent-minded episodes more often. This week's lapse cost me a whole two and a half dollars and I got a copy of Catton's "Terrible Swift Sword" and a 20-inch gold chain along with it.

According to the inside blurb, this little book was popular enough to warrant four re-issues between 1969 and 1977, the year my copy was published. One can only wonder why. The competition was stiff but here are two of the worst -- recipes that make absolutely no culinary sense whatsoever (the runners-up include a recipe for Bearnaise made with condensed cream of celery soup. No wonder the French hate us).

Tropical Fruit Soup

1 can condensed cream of chicken soup
1 soup can milk
1 teaspoon lime juice
1/2 cup mashed ripe banana
1/2 cup seedless graes, halved
grated lime rind
grated nutmeg

In saucepan blend soup, milk, and lime juice. Heat; stir occasionally. Chill 6 hours or more Just before serving, bend in banana; stir in grapes. Garnish with rind and nutmeg. Makes about 3 cups.

Bologna Bundles

1 can condensed bean with bacon soup
1/3 cup choped dill pickle
1 tablespoon grated onion
1 pound bologna, cut into 1/4 inch thick slices
1/2 cup shredded Cheddar Cheese
paprika

Combine soup, pickle, and onion; place equal amounts soup mixture on each slice bologna. Fold over; fasten with toothpicks or skewers. Arrange in shallow baking dish (12x8x2 inches). Bake at 350F for 20 minutes. Sprinkle with cheese and paprika, bake 10 minutes more. 4 servings.

The Hostess With The Mostest

I returned from the Mennonite thrift shop with (among other things*) a 1970 copy of Betty Crocker’s Dinner Parties, a lovely nostalgic wallow in the days when entertaining guests called for the kind of advance logistical planning normally associated with invasions. Here is a fairly simple one, targeting the busy homemaker or working wife who needed to feed guests with a minimal amount of cooking. Note that they even provide a timeline and a market list. The cookbook authors call it “Deli Dinner in Disguise.”

Menu:

Barbecued Deli Chicken
Hot Spiced Fruit ‘n Melon
Onion Rolls
Garden Patch Coleslaw
Wine with Cheese and Crackers
Demitasse with Chocolate Mints.

Market List:

1 can (17 oz) fruit for salad
1 jar (10 oz) watermelon pickles
1 bottle dessert wine
Instant espresso
Onion rolls
Crackers
4 oz each Gourmandise and blue cheese
8 oz round Gouda cheese
1 pkg (10 oz) frozen peas
Chocolate mints
2 ready to serve barbecued chickens
1 pt coleslaw

Timetable:

20 minutes before serving:
Place chicken in oven
Set table
Arrange cheese tray

10 minutes before:
Slice and wrap rolls, heat
Prepare Hot Spiced Fruit ‘n Melon
Make Garden Patch Coleslaw

Garden Patch Coleslaw

1 package frozen green peas
2 T bottled Italian salad dressing
1 pint coleslaw (from delicatessen)

Place frozen peas in colander or sieve; run cold water over peas just until thawed, about ½ minute. Drain peas; place in bowl. Drizzle salad dressing over peas and toss until coated. Place coleslaw in serving dish, making a large indentation in center. Pour peas in center of coleslaw. 4 servings.

Hot Spiced Fruit ‘N Melon

1 can fruits for salad
1 jar watermelon pickles
¼ t. allspice

Combine fruits for salad (with syrup), pickles (with syrup) and allspice in saucepan; heat to boiling, stirring occasionally. Serve hot. 4 servings.

(*a wonderfully kitschy pottery planter, a Gunne Sax jacket, and a 1954 paperback western with a cheesy cover that’s going to wind up on this blog, too).

Found Objects

Silver chain, one dollar at the thrift store plus orphan earring, fifty cents at the thrift store plus five minutes with the jewelry pliers. I like it.

Bling

I managed to leave my lunch on the counter this morning and remembered it when I was halfway to work. This of course forced me to walk over to a hole-in-the-wall Chinese place about three blocks from my office which also forced me to walk past the Main Street Thrift Store. The owners mostly sell used furniture, but their junk jewelry offerings rival the Mission's.


These four and a twisted silver chain set me back three dollars. None of the pins have any markings. The safety pin brooch is of course new. The two silver pins are pretty hefty and my guess is that they are 1950's-1960's (if I buy any more circle pins I'm soon going to be able to create my own chain mail). The little gold circlet is not flimsy, but it's not heavy enough to be real gold, either. I have no clue how old it might be.


I didn't get this pin, even though I'm a big fan of Dolores.


The spousal unit got lucky. I really wanted to buy this, and the matching chair.

What Shall I Do With Her?

Her name is (of course) Petunia; I found her in a local thrift store and she is about the size of the Drama Queen. The question is which houseplant will do justice to her coy porcine loveliness? Suggestions welcomed.

Lucky Dip

They had a basket full of junk jewelry displayed at the Mission thrift shop the other day. I picked up a few pieces, some quite nice.


Where I really hit the mother lode, however, was in a sandwich baggie full of orphan earrings. There are flowers and leaves;


There are seashells;


Gemstones of breathtaking fauxity;


Pearls;


Hoops;


Dangles (at what era in American fashion was it trendy to wear red plastic Louisville sluggers in one's ears, I wonder);


A couple of bold and not unbecoming pieces in Art Deco style;


And some very odd odds and ends.


A couple had mates; pity the pretty green ones are plastic.


And finally the pieces de la resistance; the Jellyfish earrings!


I really couldn't get a better picture although I tried several times. I think the camera kept flinching. And no, I have no idea what I'm going to do with them. But for a dollar ninety-nine for the whole bag, how could I pass them up?

(Reserve Cat says why you buy joolry, Ma? Why you not buy more pritty string for me to knock under da bed?)

Buffet Bounty

Because I am basically lazy, buffet suppers are my preferred form of entertainment. I think the last time I gave a planned sit-down supper for guests—as opposed to people who showed up at mealtime and needed to be fed—was ten years ago. When you want to get lots of people together for good food and good talk, a buffet is logistically the best way to do it.

It also allows for a liberal mixing of guests, for example the parish priest from St. Joe's across the street and a sweet but dippy friend of mine who just announced her conversion to Buddhism. N.B. I like Father Carl and would not do this to him if I didn't think him more than capable of discussing theology with a woman who changes her religion almost as often as she does her underwear.


I found this cookbook at the Mission Mart last week for fifty-nine cents. The height of homemaking glory, circa 1963, it assures the hostess that all her guests will be begging for her recipes, and is an interesting mixture of new-fangled convenience and old-fashioned kitchen goodness. For example, all of the food on this buffet except the slaw and the frosting comes from a box or a can.


But the angel-food cake here is still made from scratch. As Sisiggy asked a few days ago, what on earth do you do with all those leftover egg yolks?


Even if at least half the recipes contradict some of my most deeply-held culinary beliefs (their instructions for Shrimp deJonghe tell you to bake pre-cooked shrimp for an additional twenty minutes at 350º and to me that means really chewy shrimp) it’s a fun read. And although I think I’ll leave the Duchess Franks and Avocado Fruit Squares alone, I have to try the Spiced Orange Mold. Plenty swank!

Getting My Kicks

I had to travel to a couple of the small farm towns north of Cornfedton last week and decided I would skip the Interstate and drive Route 66.

I must be living right. I pulled into a roadside thrift store that I have passed at least half a dozen times before and hit the jackpot.

Five food company cooking leaflets (including one from Post cereals circa 1943) and ten vintage sewing patterns. One of the apron patterns is cut from a newspaper, complete with a shoe ad and an article about Adlai Stevenson on the back.

(I thought of Lidian when I saw the “Too Tired To Cook” booklet from Veg-all but neither the recipes nor the artwork were tempting enough to shell out the quarter it cost).

The patterns were ten cents apiece. I tactfully pointed out the church ladies running the shop that the three patterns from the 1930’s would sell on eBay for five dollars each, minimum (and the monogram for probably a lot more). It took some convincing but they reluctantly agreed to let me pay them ten dollars for the entire haul; patterns, booklets, and a cone of ice blue synthetic mohair. If I were a truly unscrupulous person I would have walked off with the entire shelf-ful of Little Golden books they were selling for a buck and a quarter.

And in one of life’s little mysteries, in the rear of the store, on a rack full of polyester caftans, was a beautiful eyelet peignor with a “Pierre Balmain Paris” label. How it wound up in a church thrift shop in a town of 1100 in the middle of the cornfields is anyone’s guess.

"Creative Hands"

This was the view from my front porch yesterday but I drove into Cornfedton anyway. I had to get a shot and purchase some groceries not carried by the tiny store in Myvillage; serendipitously, my favorite thrift shop was having a half off sale which is how I got twenty one volumes of the Creative Hands needlework guide at fifty cents each.

(Plus MFK Fisher's/Time-Life book on provincial French cooking and two Aunt Whatsername's pillow embroidery transfers).



This particular store is run by the Ladies' Auxiliary of the Mennonite hospital in Cornfedton. On any given day I can walk out of there with a handful of silk scarves and a bag of tatting thread. Once I arrived just after they had laid out the lifetime accumulation of home-stitched dresser scarves that some lady's heirs had donated instead of throwing out, may they live long and prosper.