Treasure Hunting

Last week was our kid's Spring Break. We didn't do anything grand. We mostly just hung out at home. It was a good week. But by yesterday when the kids returned to school, I was ready for a little "Me Time."

So I decided to head out for a little treasure hunting at a couple of my favorite haunts. It was a beautiful day to be out. The sun was shining and it was warmer than it has been in a LOooooNG time!

First stop....a local thrift store just around the corner from me. There I found the ironstone sugar bowl you see on the left....for 90 cents. At that store I also found a globe, which I plan to use in a future project.

 

 



Next I headed to the Goodwill Store. I don't know what it is about this store, but I am 3 for 3 at finding ironstone there. I spied a large set of what appeared to be ironstone....a platter, a couple serving bowls, cups and saucers, a creamer and what seemed to be a sugar bowl with lid. They were marked Independence Ironstone Castleton Japan. I don't know a lot about ironstone yet, so I took a chance. I really just wanted the platter and creamer, but I felt badly about breaking up the sugar and creamer even though something just didn't seem right about the pair. It turns out that the sugar bowl may just be a piece by itself and that the sugar bowl that went with the creamer was much more slender with handles that matched the one on the creamer.

I also discovered after a little research at home that this pattern may have been produced as recently as the mid 1960's. So it is actually fairly young....like me! But it is still a very pretty pattern even if it isn't old.

I decided that the sugar bowl from the first store actually suits this sweet little creamer better even though it has a little more heft to it and the pattern isn't exactly the same.

 

 

 

My next stop was Target. I had a bunch of things I need to get there, but I was also hoping to find some clearance goodness. No luck though. I got what I needed and headed to HomeGoods just down the street

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My first reason for going into HomeGoods was to look for inspiration for our Easter table since I will be hosting my family this year. But my second reason was to look for some specific plates. As you've probably seen in many of my photos I have a couple of these black and cream Asiatic Pheasant dishes that I purchased there a while back. I've grown to love their toile-looking beauty. So far, I have just used them decoratively, but I have been hoping to find more dinner plates so that we can actually use them some time.

 

Since I hadn't seen them at HomeGoods for a while, I had even checked Replacements.com and was shocked at the price. I told myself that if I ever spotted them again at HG, I was going to grab them while I could. Well, yesterday was the day! They actually had a good number of them and so I bought eight more to add to my collection. I was a happy girl.

 

 

 

 

My last stop before heading home was the Salvation Army store. I have just recently started stopping in there, but a couple weeks ago I saw a pair of end tables that I had been thinking about ever since. They were an awesome deal at 19.99 for the set. I had huge plans for them. But the day I saw them I just couldn't commit.

 

So yesterday I decided to stop in and see if they were still there.....and of course they weren't. (I was actually surprised to find that all the furniture had turned over since I had been there which surprised me since there were some pretty big pieces, like large sofas and china cabinets.)

 

Anyways, it just wasn't meant to be I guess and I could just kick myself. I left empty handed.



So I feel pretty good about my thrifty finds and I had a fun time doing something I enjoy. Just FYI, I don't have aspirations of having a huge ironstone collection. I mostly find myself drawn to pitchers and little creamers and so I wouldn't mind finding a couple more of those and will have fun hunting.