Another Pyrex Find! - Black and White

While out pickin' (I'm still trying to get used to that word.  It sounds like I'm doing something crude.) yesterday, I found what turned out to be a fairly rare set of Pyrex. It was in a pattern I haven't seen and with a separate handle I've never seen.  Even my friend, Nicole, queen of all thing vintage kitchen, hadn't seen that handle before.  So, I was eager to find out more.

I came across a wonderful post on The Pyrex Collective, by Linda of A La Carte, telling me just what I needed to know!  She said this dish is "a promotional item from Christmas 1959.  It is a snack server with a handle.  Again no official pattern name, but it is refereed to as Compass."

Linda also included some fabulous photos, much better than my hokey photo, of her black and white Pyrex dishes.

Her other dish is "a Fall Promotional Gift item in 1958.  It doesn't have an official name but is called Barbed Wire."  Ooohhhh.  I'd love to find that one!  Don't these look great for Halloween!

Black and White Pyrex is very pretty and quite showy in a group.  I came across this wonderful photo collage by meetmeatmikes on Flickr.

It makes you want to start a collection, doesn't it!?!?!

Ebay has a fairly decent selection of black and white Pyrex, but I prefer to find mine while treasure hunting. That sounds better than pickin'.

Score! Vintage Pyrex

While out pickin' last week, I came across quite a collection of vintage Pyrex dishes.  Naturally, I showed no restraint - I bought it all.  It wasn't exactly a fabulous deal in terms of cost.  Just medium.  But the pieces are colorful and fun.  Most of them will be guests at my house for a while.  Some may move in permanently. 

Of course, one of the first things I wanted to do was to look up the pieces.  I wanted to see how old they might be, the name of the pattern and piece... whatever I could find.  This is what slows me down when it comes to getting things in my booth to sell.  I probably won't get much faster because I really enjoy learning about these treasures. 

As I researched, I often ended up on two particular blogs devoted to collecting Pyrex - Pyrex Love and The Pyrex Collective.  Wow!  What a treasure trove of information!  I could lose myself in those blogs for weeks!  One of my favorite pages on Pyrex Love is the Frequently Asked Questions page.

The Pyrex Files has a great page showing a slew of Pyrex patterns, their names and when they came out.  Very helpful!!!

I also read that Paula Deen is an avid collector and often talks about it on her blog.  I'll have to check that out.

Pyrex Love has a group pool on Flickr, too.  It has thousands of Pyrex photos!

I also found out that Pyrex was featured in the May issue of Country Living.  I think I remember it.  Do I still have that issue around here somewhere?

Photo Disclaimer - I didn't want my photos to have a distracting background so I put the dishes on a white quilted background.  I'm too cheap to buy a light box and too lazy to make one.  The results aren't great, but are a little better than taking the shot on my counter like I usually do.

I bought a yellow 503 refrigerator dish with a clear lid.  One benefit of Pyrex over Corning are the lids.  They are flat, which makes refrigerator storage very efficient.  On the other hand, without the knob, the lids require two hands to lift off.  I'm going to play around with these for a while and see which ones I truly prefer. This was probably made in the 1960's or beyond.

Speaking of refrigerator dishes, I came across this little post singing the praises of the mini refrigerator dishes and how great they are for dieters.  I might need to be on the lookout for the minis!

I came home with a large, heavy plate.  It turned out to be the 795 underplate to go with the Friendship Promotional Cinderella Round Casserole Set. The Friendship pattern came out in 1971.  This plate got me thinking.  I am not completely loving my Fiesta Ware dishes.  I like having more color, but I may have gone too far.  I need to think on my plate situation a bit more.  I had a swoon reaction to this little red and white plate and I can picture something similar looking just right in my kitchen.  Oh, how fickle I am!  It's a very good thing that I have a booth. On another page, Pyrex Love said, It is a bit more difficult to find this alternate Friendship promo casserole, and even more difficult to find it with the underplate. Woo-Hoo!  I have a hard-to-find piece!

The most exciting (and most expensive) find was a 1 1/2 qt orange 043 Friendship Casserole and Lid 943C34.   The dish on the right is a 1 qt casserole in the Town and Country pattern.  I need to find a lid for it.

A whole page was devoted to the Friendship pattern in the May Country Living issue!

These casseroles are both turquoise and white in the snowflake pattern.  The divided dish is a #10, the other is a #17.

I found another similar oval baker set in Blue Ivy.  The dishes with the decorated lids always catch my eye, but when you put them in a cabinet, you don't see the pattern.  Hmmmm.... I need to find some inspiration photos for displaying Pyrex.

And finally, I bought two pie plates in flamingo pink and Lime green.  These colors are really fun.

All in all, I'd say it was a good find.  It certainly gave me a thrill!

A New Member of the Pack - Cocoa

Oh my. It seems my hubby is now the official alpha dog to a pack of fun and crazy pooches.  We have only had Sadie and Annabelle a few months.  They are so much fun and the house is much livelier thanks to them.  And now, it seems, we have another.  We've named her Cocoa, for obvious reasons. 

We are still learning Cocoa's personality and making guesses about her story. We know that she's extremely smart.  She uses her "smarts" for both good and bad.  The bad generally involves food.  She wants Cindy Lou's prescription cat food very badly and will go to great lengths to get it.

Hubby thinks she was tossed out by someone.  She was a little thin, but not too much.  She also may have run off - she can jump a fence with no problem.  There are no Lost Dog signs or calls to the vet or posts in the newspaper.

In the photo above, she has a very serious look on her face.  That's how she looks most of the time.  She needs to be by the side of one of us.  If I'm home, it's me.  Most of the dogs prefer hubby. He's more fun.  Cocoa and Buddy for some reason, are closest to me. 

She is playful when we go for walks.  She loves to swim and is often the first in the water.  That's only because she's a tad faster than Sadie and Annabelle.  In fact, she's faster than any of our dogs.  She beats them all at any game of chase. The gazillions of squirrels who lived on our property seem to have realized that things have changed.  Most of them have packed their bags and moved to the woods across the street.

She loves to play chase and fetch sticks and balls.  The photo above is wild looking.  She was really having a good time when I snapped that one.

Mostly, she is very serious about staying close to us. Cocoa may be worried about being left.  She wants to be where she can see one of us at all times.  She hit the jackpot when she came to our house.  We'll spoil her and love on her the rest of her life... as long as she doesn't jump the fence and leave us.  So far she's only done that once.  She came back and has chosen to stay.  The only worry is that she may jump the fence trying to follow us when we leave.  We left her in the house when we both had to leave yesterday.  That was a risk, but luckily she was good as gold while we were gone. 

Cocoa, welcome to the family.

Inspired By...

I have just a few pretty photos today.  The first photo spoke to me because I am looking forward to fall weather so much.  Summer in Georgia is just too hot and dry.  We've had just a few cool mornings in the last week.  We were able to open up the house for an hour or two.  There's nothing like a change of season to make you want to do a little bit of redecorating.

As seen on Caught in Grace

I have saved many pictures the last few years of pretty table runners made with burlap or burlap-look linen.  Here's another to remind me I still haven't made one.  Isn't this one pretty?

As seen on The Charm of Home

I love, love, love this room designed by Cassity and Roeshel.  I spent ages studying the photos to see why this room was so appealing. The more I look, the more ideas I see.  They are asking for votes for their room for a contest sponsored by Shaw Carpets.  Voters can win, too.  I am happy to give them my vote!    As usual, my favorite rooms are an inviting eclectic mix of styles and colors.  This one is perfection.

As seen on Remodelaholic