Vintage Sesame Street Books

I have always loved Sesame Street, but since my nieces were born, my siblings and I have been sharing our old Sesame Street toys with them and singing songs from the 80s. How can you go wrong with Ernie's la la la song and the Manamanah guys?

I recently came upon a huge throng of vintage Sesame Street books from a combination of a school booksale and Value Village. For 20 cents I picked up a great condition copy of this old colouring book:



I think it's so clever how they have called it the Museum of Monster Art and the drawings inside are hilarious for kids and adults alike.

I really like the idea of Bert being the serious, judgemental fellow while Ernie is such a fun-loving goof.



Speaking of Ernie, I found a "I Can Do It Myself" book in great condition.



But the real thrill for me was when I came upon the old version of the Sesame Street Dictionary... in perfect condition for $1.99!



I understand the book was originally published in 1980, and a reprint was issued with a new cover in 2004 showing the nouveau popular guys, including Elmo. I love how each page is so colourful and has both humour and educational content. The illustrations are great.



I am tempted by the idea of a craft project with featured Letters of the Alphabet. I imagine this as having the Letter Bar across the top and rectangular cutouts of say, 6-8 dictionary terms under that letter. I think if they were neatly arranged under some photo matting and put in a plain frame, it would look great in a kid's room either on the wall or on their door!



This would involve cutting up this great book, so I don't know...

Christmas in May

A couple weekends ago, we had a nice outing at St. George's school "Mayfair". St. George's is an all boys, high end private school in the lush Dunbar neighbourhood in Vancouver. This is no regular school fundraising event. They were selling raffle tickets where the grand prize was a $40,000 BMW Coupe!

The fair includes many components - a midway for kids games, the international food fair, tents dedicated to plant sales, book sales, homemade baked pies, a "fashion mall" with lots of lightly used brand name clothes, and my personal favourites, the Marketplace with art, jewellery, household goods, and toys.

Aside from the delicious Apple Crumble pie that we brought home, we scored some great deals. My favourite find was a bag of wooden Christmas ornaments. Look at the cute faces on the angels!



Now that we are starting our new home together, I am really excited about building up my cachet of ornaments for many Christmases to come. These remind me of ones we hang every year at my parents' house. A bagful of these bells and angels was mine for 50 cents.



Hubby also scored a great find. He and his brother always pined after a slot car set when they were kids, but it was just too expensive. We definitely didn't have that problem at Mayfair, as we spotted a big cardboard box labelled $3 on the side that contained a double loop set with remote controls and a yellow Mustang. We know this is the Artin Wheels of Fire set because we found the exact same set at a Salvation Army store in February with the original box... but no cars... for $10.



So for a total of $13 we have gotten ourselves a set that would have cost a couple hundred dollars brand new. Woohoo!



We also picked up a couple of other knicknacks like some supplies for my edible gardening project. I picked up a little terra cotta pot for 10 cents and it's happily housing my Little Marvel heirloom bush pea seedling. I also got a bright blue melamine tray that is perfect for holding my seedling trays!

Found and Lost in Mexico - Silk Jaeger Scarf

I had a great day thrifting a couple of months ago with a couple of unexpected gems... Diamonds in the rough. The first was a set of vintage orange Tupperware measuring cups. They were so cute and colourful and best of all, in perfect condition. A quick look on etsy tells me that two of the smaller sized cups are missing from this set, but I'm happy with my find.



The funny thing is that these cups were buried in a cluttered plastic basket of not-so-goodies. Ick. I also spotted a yellow plastic grater labelled in lower case: "got-relb made in germany". I have never seen an item like this before and am a bit perplexed on what to do with it. A google search didn't show me much, other than a white-coloured one that some website in German was selling.

As I was paying for my loot at the till, I noticed a little drawer of used scarves. Usually I shy away from clothing items but I noticed a beautiful pattern and couldn't put it down after taking a quick peek. The beautiful floral pattern, soft feel in my hands and great condition drew me to it. I quickly paid for it and left, and when I returned home I noticed a tag that read JAEGER London / Milan / etc. Some googling tells me that Jaeger scarves were sold at Harrods and Harvey Nichols stores back in the day. Huh. Not sure if that's all accurate but it's still a nice scarf.



So fast forward to last week when I was in Cabo San Lucas for a vacation... We went for a walk along the beach - the wind was crazy! At this spot on the tip of the Baja Peninsula, the Sea of Cortes meets with the Pacific Ocean and creates huge waves. I was using my great scarf to protect my neck from sunburns, and it was doing the perfect job keeping me cool and covered. When we were nearing the part of the beach near our hotel, my hubby says, "Hey, what happened to your scarf?" Groan. A light scarf during face-whipping winds could travel a far distance and when we turned around to look it was nowhere to be found.



I wish I had some better photos of the scarf but now it's gone to where the wind has taken it! I suppose the best thing about thrifting is that I spent $2 on a wonderful scarf that did its job. The worst thing is that I likely won't see that nice pattern again.

Corningware Cornflower Casseroles and Teapot

Did everyone who grew up in the 80s have Corningware in their house?



My mom still uses her set for casseroles and the like. You can't beat its ability to go from the stovetop to table to fridge. Now that I'm cooking on my own, I find myself wanting to replicate my mom's recipes to satisfy cravings for home cooking.

I picked up three casserole dishes and a little cute accompaniment from a craigslist seller. I use them regularly, especially since the lids make them so convenient for both leftovers and holding foods as I marinade them.

A couple of people purchased the new French White Corningware sets for us on our wedding day. Much as I am grateful for the presents, I find that they are heavy compared to the vintage versions, so we get less use out of them... And the blue cornflower detail on the "old" set is so charming too.

A recent trip to Value Village scored a nice find to add to my collection - a 6 Cup water kettle that we never had at home. Heats up nice and quick and was in great condition for the $5 price tag.

Linking up to ATG's Collect Share!

Kitchen Colours

One of the best things about having vintage pieces in my kitchen is that it really brightens things up. This is not to say new things can't provide a splash of colour too! One of the staple meals we've been cooking over the winter has been a big pot of chili in our shiny, new, Cobalt Blue Le Creuset dutch oven. I love how easy it is to clean, and I'm glad we are making use of this piece.

I typically make a habit of checking out the housewares section whenever I am shopping at a second-hand store. This paid off yesterday when I spotted a vintage Le Creuset #16 Flame-coloured saucepot!



I opened up the lid expecting it to be horribly discoloured on the inside but surprisingly, the enamel was in quite good shape. When I stumble upon gems like this, I simply can't believe that people throw out perfectly good items. I guess by donating it, they aren't really throwing it out I suppose. Good thing there are thrifters around to give these goodies a second chance. I paid $10 for the pot, and am already thinking of recipes I can prepare in this little guy.



My lucky streak continued when I found a Pyrex Delphite Blue casserole dish the next aisle over. I really debated whether to purchase this item because it was missing its beautiful lid and I couldn't really think of a practical use for it. I picked it up anyway, because it was priced alright at $5. Perhaps it will look good brimming with colourful oranges...



The last item of the day was a vintage avocado green fondue pot. The wood grain on the beautiful handle, and of course the great colour, reeled me in! I combed the shelves for almost an hour, searching in vain for the matching lid. It was a bit depressing when I concluded that no lid would be found. I'm sure it would have had a great matching wood knob handle on it. Again, for $5, I knew I would find a use for it in the kitchen, so I happily scooped it up. The interior of the pot is surprisingly perfect, and I think the shape will lend itself well to little tasks like boiling eggs and heating up soups.



A bountiful day at the thrift store!