I don't really need it . . .

Every week or so I get an announcement from Replacements Ltd. telling me they have GREAT PRICES on my good china.

The only problem is, we have different definitions on what's a great price. Great price for me is CHEAP. Great price for them is "your order could buy me a new Mercedes!"

My china is Royal Albert's Silver Maple design, which has been discontinued for years.  Many years ago, my grandmother gave my mother a tea set of the pattern and the truth is my mother wasn't exactly thrilled.  But I loved it from the day I saw it and I was thrilled when Mum gave it to me after I got married.

But it was only a tea set.  Cups, saucers, cake plates.  So one year, with my work bonus, I bought eight place settings.  Not the additional serving pieces, just the dinner plates, cups saucers and yet again cake plates.  Since then I've bought a few odd pieces--and I do mean odd.  I now have a bon-bon dish, a sugar and creamer, 1 salt shaker, 1 egg cup, and 2 small platters.

For all the years I have been receiving those emails, I've longed to get a teapot that would go with my good dishes.  The fact that I only use the dishes once a year (because I'm not putting them in the dishwasher, and during a big family dinner, I don't have the time or room (in my tiny kitchen) to stack and hand wash them.  So once a year it is.

And no teapot.

Oh, but I want that teapot.  I dream about it. I visualize how I would rearrange my entire china cabinet just to accommodate it.

Then I look at the price list and say:  $189 (plus shipping) for a teapot you will never use?
Get real, girl!

Somewhere there's a spendthrift inside me just aching to bust loose.  But until that teapot comes down in price (or hell freezes over), that isn't going to happen.

What frivolous thing  have you been denying yourself?

Happy Anniversary To You!

The yard sales weren't quite as good this week, but as the junking season starts to wane your faithful correspondent and her chums (who seem more interested in coffee and doughnuts than the thrill of the hunt) went forth to forage and once again triumphed.

The first score was this darling little petal dish . . . or is it a shell?  And is it a soapdish or is it a condiment dish?  Who knows.  I just know it's CUTE!  It's post-war Made-In-Japan.

At the same sale, I found these steak knives.  Actually she had four packages of them, and I scored two.  They're made in Japan, too, so you know they're probably 20 or more years old, but in mint condition.

And then I got this 25th Anniversary bone-china (made in England) tea cup.  The truth is, we'd been to this sale at least twice before.  The last time I was there I decided not to get the cup, but as it was still there I figured it was meant to be.  And since it was only a dollar -- why not? 

I figure if I turn it around, no one has to know that it's a 25th Anniversary cup. And if I hold onto it long enough, I'll have been married that long anyway.

I also bought myself a little ivy rubber stamp for a quarter.  It's terribly cute and for a quarter, how could I miss?

So what do you think of this week's treasures?

Greetings! Cards a Plenty!

As I mentioned earlier this week, the sales last week were terrific! I got all those lovely dishes ... but I also bought a HUGE box of old greeting cards.

I am a SUCKER for memorabilia from the 1950s and early 1960s, and these cards sure fit the bill.  The entire box (and it was a BIG ONE) sold for only $3.  I swear there must have been several hundred cards in the box.  Not all of them were keepers.  But I sorted through them and made three piles.  Those I wanted to keep, those I'd be willing to sell, and those that would go in my next (catch-and-release program, if I may borrow the phrase from the Yardsalebloodbath blog) yard sale.

Inside the big box were many smaller boxes of greeting cards.  One of them was totally devoted to welcome-to-the-world baby cards.

Isn't the above card darling?  Sadly, the ribbon didn't scan as pretty as the rest of the card.  Or how about this one?

Don't you just want to pick up that baby and kiss it?  And what about this next one?

Wouldn't you want to be this person's secret pal?

Or how about this . . . ?

There must have been at least 10 "thinking of you" cards.  Isn't this doggy card sweet?

This house card was die-cut, so that the roof and chimney are part of the card, but the pink skyline isn't.

There were a whole series of these thinking-of-you cards with the gingham background. And there were a whole box of "satin"card like the one below, printed on some kind of pseudo-satin fabric.  Lovely. Just lovely.

The scanner just couldn't do the following birthday card justice.  The "front" side" of the card (the right side) has lovely sparkles, but I scanned the backside as well because ... well, you just don't get cards like this nowadays.

And these are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the cards in that box.  There must have been over 500 cards--most of which are not that remarkable.  But the ones that are (about 100-150)  are exquisite

Or, at least I think so.  Maybe you would, too.

Big-time Yard Sale Scores!

It's been wayyyyyy too long since I blogged about my yard sale scores.  The reason?  THERE HAVEN'T BEEN ANY!

Along with the long weather drought, there's been a long yard-sale drought.  The pickings have been small to nothing for weeks on end.  If it wasn't for the doughnuts and coffee at the Alton Coffee Cup, my two junking pals and I would have had no joy at all on our recent junking forays.  All that changed this week.

First of all, there was a big car show in Wolcott (NY) this weekend. What a load of pretty vintage cars. (And did I have my camera with me?  That would be a very big NO!)  But part of the celebration was a community yard sale.  Yes!  Lots and lots of sales.

My first score was at a former bed and breakfast.  I got two (count 'em) bone china sugar and creamer set for the insanely low price of a buck each.

These were from a sales promotion from the old A&P grocery store in the early 1960s (or so an antiques dealer once told me).  I already have the same set (along with 6 cups and saucers and luncheon plates), but how can you pass up that kind of a deal?

This is the other sugar and creamer set, which was marked Ansley Bone China England.  Not sure what the pattern is.

At another sale, I found these sweet rose plates -- three of them -- for yet another outrageously low price.  (Can you say less than a buck?)  I do think they would have been prettier without all that gilding, but they are nice nonetheless.

My last score in the china department was from the Wolcott Historical Society.  They were practically giving this cup away, and I didn't dispute the price.  Isn't it darling?

And here's its pedigree.

Of course, that wasn't the end to the scores for the weekend, but that's enough for this post.  Check back later in the week!