Lobster Dishes and Dessert Dishes

I never have much luck at Value Village on the weekend -  not much new merchandise seems to be brought out, not when I'm ever there anyway!  I ran in quickly yesterday and actually came out with three items - according to the tags, all three have been sitting on the shelves for a few days.  I don't really know why anybody would have passed by these dessert or sherbet dishes(whatever you want to call them)  - they're in perfect shape - made by Federal glass -what a great deal -  the price was $2.99 for 4 - I just saw an avocado set of 4 online  for $29. 

The seafood theme took over on my other two purchases - got this great old tin tray with not a scratch - also for $2.99 - it's made in Hong Kong - which means it's not new at all!  This other cute little dish is just the right size for odds and ends - it comes from my homeland - Canada's East Coast - made in England - paid $1.99. 

Join everyone at Her Library Adventures for more tales of thrifting.

My Own Blueberry Pie

Last week I bought a blueberry pie from a Mennonite market - it was about the worst blueberry pie I've ever had!   I expected a fresh tasting blueberry pie made out of local blueberries, not the case, it was a gooey mess of pie filling and hardly a blueberry to be seen!  It ended up in the garbage

I picked blueberries this week - even though I used a frozen pie shell, this pie looks WAY better than the one I bought - it looks and smells like a blueberry pie should.  There is no top crust - it'll be good with a dollop of vanilla ice cream.  I used my Mom's old Pyrex Flavor Saver pie plate.

This is the fourth pie I've made out of Taste of Home Pies Recipe Cards mini digest - these little magazines have great recipes - each one I've made has turned out perfectly.  If you're interested,here's the recipe .

                                                                       My Pie

Sea Glass

Beaches change every day with the tides - every day is a new day for a sea glass hunter.  I caught the sea glass bug when I was in Prince Edward Island on my last visit - but I didn't start collecting until the last week so you can be sure I'll be out every day next time I'm there.  When I was a little girl, we used to gather it on the shore  - probably just for something to do and because it was pretty - I remember using itas a game piece to play hopscotch.    People that love the ocean can relate to a shiny piece of sea glass  - it makes you wonder how long has that piece been tumbling around in the ocean, where it came from and what item it came from...

 This is the sea glass that I found in Prince Edward Island and a few pieces that I found on Lake Huron, not too bad of a selection for just starting.  White, green and brown are the easiest to find - orange, red, turquoise, yellow, darkest green known as "black glass", teal and gray are the most rare.  Blue is hard to find too - but I did manage to find a few pieces - remember the old Noxzema jars, Vicks and Milk of Magnesia - that's where all that blue sea glass comes from...

I displayed some more in these vintage Pyrex salt and pepper shakers.

I found this piece of red sea glass on Lake Huron the other weekend - it's a beautiful piece - not really sure what it came from....

I also bought some sea glass items when I was in Prince Edward Island -

Necklaces from Red Sand Cottage

Earrings from Wild Fire Jewellery & Gifts in Souris

Earrings by Edna in Murray Harbour

I had a little ocean themed shelf in the downstairs bathroom - but my new picture made out of sea glass really adds to it.  I found this, by chance, in Beach Point - Brenda makes these wonderful pictures - it is just so cute - I love it!!   I ended up walking out of her little shop with three pictures -  which I gave to my son and daughter.

I will be back to the ocean again soon - people all over the world are collecting sea glass - I can count myself one of them....

Strawberry Jam, Raspberry Jam, Blueberry Jam

It's berry season and that means jam making time!!  Making jam is so easy and it tastes so much better than that store bought kind.  Matter of fact, it's so easy - this year my husband made two batches of strawberry jam - I was away for 6 weeks  - he didn't want to miss out on strawberry jam - so he just decided to do it himself - our son's girlfriend picked him a basket of berries, then he was ready to start jam making - it turned out just perfect!!  I think that is pretty impressive - he did a great job!!

Last week I went picking raspberries - this is only the second year I've made raspberry and I think it might be our new favorite!!  It's just so fresh and good!!

I've been out picking blueberries this week - in preparation for the blueberry jam 

Crushing the berries

Cooked berries

The finished product!

I would really like to try peach jam but it seems like you would have to buy a lot of peaches for a batch, the peaches I've had so far are so small...

I like to have a good stock of  jam on hand to share and give out at Christmas - who doesn't like to get something homemade that tastes just so delicious?

My Old Toys

My parents saved a lot of things - a lot of neat things - including some of my old toys, but I'm no different, I've saved quite a few toys that my children had too - you just have to do that!!!!

I don't remember the tin top or the duck which was for the bath but I do remember the electric iron, I imagine I liked ironing way more back than than I do now!

I always wanted a doll house - why did Santa bring me this barn???  I liked it well enough, with the plastic animals but I wanted that dollhouse!!!

If anybody was over at night, I had to get out my Disney movie projector - it's still all intact - you don't see these anymore....

My cash register came with cardboard coins - I got tired of that and starting using real coins  and then it would jam up!

Remember the little cards that came in Red Rose Tea?  You'd send away to get the book - I have a whole stack of them - animals, birds, etc...

I think this was my most favorite game that I had - it's the neatest game, it even has little tin cars - I've never seen another one of these.  I loved the Nancy Drew books - I remember saving up and sending away to the Sears catalogue for the first three books in the series - hardcovers back then.  I saved them and my daughter got the same enjoyment out of them as I did.   I can remember having Hands Down and Tip It - but this Nancy Drew game is special.

Of course, I also had Barbies - I saved up for my first Barbie too and sent away to the catalogue for that too.  I had no shortage of Barbie clothing - Mom used to sew and knit them for me - Barbie was pretty fashionable!!   Those were passed down to my daughter too - I might have had a couple - she had about twenty!!! 

Do you have a favorite old toy???

PEI Pyrex

Six weeks away from blogging is a long time - but I'm back - I came back to Ontario with lots of goodies - lots of Pyrex goodies.  You know it's not a good situation when you have to buy an extra bag to carry on your Pyrex bounty.

This was full of Pyrex, I had more in my suitcase and more in another carry on bag - good thing I had these two extra bags, because my suitcase was 7 lbs over - that's the first time I ever had to rearrange my suitcase - in the airport - but got it down to exactly 50 lbs!!  And I only had to leave one thing behind - two Spice of Life canisters - found at Value Village - $2.50 for both pieces. I'm glad I left them there - the glass is pretty fragile on them, they would have broken for sure.

I've never even seen these before!!

Just after I arrived there, I saw an ad in the newspaper for a half price off everything sale at Robin's Nest - I made the trek - I'm glad I did  - it was a really cute little shop - lots of neat stuff.  These were the most reasonably priced pieces, I paid $15 for the two.

My first piece of Daisy - and it's in perfect shape.

Snowflake Garland - divided dish, love it!!

In my little fishing village there is a shop called Blue Moon Treasures - it's nice to have a collectible shop within walking distance but very dangerous - I think I went there three times - they had quite a bit of Pyrex - here's a piece that I didn't buy - I wanted it - but  wouldn't pay $30 for one piece of Pyrex - wonder if it'll still be sitting there next time I go..

I took this picture in the shop - I didn't buy it the first day - I didn't realize it was a promotional dish called Compass - it was sitting on a stand.  I don't know if that stand an original to the dish or not.  I paid $8 for it which I thought was reasonable for a collectible shop.

My favorite purchase was this lime green baking pan - I've used it already for a batch of Rice Krispie Squares - just the right size pan.   I have the lime green square pan and pie plate - now I'm on the lookout for a loaf pan.

I bought this Spice of Life cream and sugar at the same shop - they were priced individually which is kind of silly, the clerk didn't notice until it was too late so she gave them to me for $2.75 - good price!!!

Gooseberry in two colors - how lucky was that!!  The 442 bowl was $8 - they must like that price at Blue Moon!  The 474 casserole is a great size - this is so pretty!  I bought it at a huge indoor yard sale which advertised over 150 vendors, I don't think so - I don't know if there were 50.  And, I think this piece was the only Pyrex in the place - price of that was $10 - I had to bargain for that price!

I didn't even really take stock of this casserole -it didn't look like Pyrex - but it is , another promotional called Floral, the  price, once again, $8. 

The color on this sure didn't turn out very good but it is Delphite, blue top and bottom, made in Canada.  I was talking Pyrex to my mother's friend-she got up and presented me with this fridgie.  I couldn't believe it!  You never know who might have hidden Pyrex - you should always bring it up in conversation!

That's it for my PEI Pyrex - I have other treasures to blog about, I'll leave that for another day....

Still in Prince Edward Island

I am still in PEI - never expected to be here so long but one added bonus was getting to see William and Kate last week - we were in the front row and got some great pictures.  I've been  taking a lot of neat pics so will have some great ideas for blogging when I get home.  I haven't been spending all my time at the hospital with my Mom, I've been out and about - finding some great treasures - including Pyrex  - this must be Gooseberry country, I've found two nice pieces.  But, why is some of the Pyrex priced so high, I found a promotional casserole, priced at $30 - way too expensive and I told her so!!  I better soon get back to Ontario - if I keep finding great things - how am I going to get them all  home???