Today was another "first" for me! I went to the Michigan Depression Glass Show in Dearborn. I've seen ads for this show for years, but have never gone because, 1. I thought it was just a "show", and 2. I thought it wouldn't be my kind of thing.
I'm glad I went, because it's NOT just a "show", most of everything I saw was for sale, and the prices weren't anywhere near as bad as I thought they might be, and there were a LOT of my kind of things there! I was pleasantly surprised by the amount of Jadeite, Pyrex, Hazel Atlas,& Fire King mixed in with all of the gorgeous depression glass.
I got a kick out of people watching at the show. Some people were literally running up to the Jadeite tables, and people were doing some serious blocking at the Pyrex tables. I overheard people telling other people things like, "oh, that's Fire King", and the other person agreeing with them, when the item was definitely Hazel Atlas. I overheard a couple of people getting snarky with each other, not over any particular item...I just think they were dealers looking for a deal, but the other one beat them in to the show...or something like that.
One of the dealers that I bought something from was surprised at the interest in Pyrex. She said she was new to it, and when she was talking to a fellow dealer at the show about it, the other dealer said she refused to have it in her booth, because it is "basement glass". I'll bet that dealer will regret not having any Pyrex, because from what I could see, it was flying off the shelves!!
There were four of us for today's adventure. It was short and sweet! Just enough time to see everything, buy some fun things and still get home in time to have the whole afternoon to do something else!
Here are some pics of what I saw and what I bought...
Waiting in line for the doors to open. The first 200 people got Pyrex pins! We got a front row parking spot too and we were only about 14 minutes early.
The big Pyrex display!
The little red atomic dot bowl was priced separately and it was the same price as the entire set!
I'd really like to find the three smaller sizes in this pattern to complete a set.
I love amethyst Blenko!
I've never seen this before...does anyone know what it is??
I've never seen this Pyrex platter before either-have you??
These weren't for sale, they were some rare items on display by Michael Barber who was there selling his book Pyrex Passion.
This was their selfie station, where you could take a selfie with your treasure and their sign.
It was a beautiful day and in a beautiful building. Look at that sky!!!
I bought the book, and got it signed!!
It's official! I'm an "Authorized Pyrex Shopper!"
Cute little pixie that I found for $10 less than any other dealer at the show.
I added another space saver to my stack...I think I need some black snowflakes to mix up the stack a little!
My antique, curved glass, oak china cabinet is way over-stuffed! I need to clear some of it out (mostly the really heavy Fiesta so my shelves don't collapse under all the weight!) and I am not sure what I should leave, or how to arrange or display it...anyone have any suggestions? I am O.K. with removing most or all of the Fiesta, and I do have pink and green depression glass or Fostoria American I could put in its place.
I really want to keep the blue pitcher and glass set (it belonged to my grandma on my dad's side and she is no longer with us). The rest can move or stay.
There are too many possibilities!! I could set it all up with just chartreuse, just plum, no Fiesta, and all depression glass...all amethyst glass...see what I mean!?!?!?
Since I’ve been out and about for the past several weekends, I am staying in this weekend (except for volleyball Saturday night, and church Sunday morning). I had so much fun digging through my buffet cabinet the other day when we had a snow day, I decided to take a look around at what else I could find…
I headed downstairs to our family room, which has been taken over by teenage boys. I very rarely go down there any more, which is a shame, because it is a nice room that has a walk-out and a large window. You don’t really feel like you are in a basement when you are down there. I have a china cabinet, my Grandpa’s childhood school desk, Kevin’s grandparents old crank phone (that at some point they decided to turn it into a radio-I’m guessing in the 60’s or 70’s), and a curio cabinet that was a gift many years ago from my parents for Christmas.
The best things down there (besides the boys & treasures), are the oak pub height game table with 8 Mission Style bar stools, the Mission style oak table, and the oak corner 3 piece desk that Kevin made (some of it from oak that was once trees on my grandparents property in Luzerne, that was milled into lumber).
This belonged to Kevin's grandparents. I'm sure the value has been reduced by the modifications they made to turn it into a radio several years ago.
This was my Grandpa's desk when he was a school boy. He will be 88 in May.
This is one of many platters. When I ran a catering business, I was always on the look-out for clear glass platters and trays to use for serving. I don't even want to know how many I've accumulated over the years! The best part is that I got most of them at garage sales, for between a quarter and a few dollars!
This is a collection of Fostoria American or Cubist...I can never tell them apart! Just when I think I know the differences, I read something new and then I am more confused than before! Does anyone have a fool-proof way to tell the difference?
This isn't old, it looks to be 1970's. It was my first attempt at being crafty and re-purposing a piece of furniture. It used to be an end table with a second level that took up half of the length. I got it really cheap at an estate sale about 8 years ago. It didn't match anything in our house, and I tried to sell it in a garage sale-but no one wanted it. So, Kevin cut the top off for me (he is a very talented woodworker-some day I might show you all of the beautiful furniture he's made for our house), and I turned it into a stool.
This is the china cabinet that matches the buffet that I showed in an earlier post. It has been kind of neglected being in the basement and not being seen very often. Everything is just kind of tossed in-I'll have to fix that!
The bowl and pitcher on top are pretty old, we got them at a garage sale for $4.
This is some more of my Fiesta collection. The white place settings I got on clearance for $8 and thought about reselling them, but my oldest son likes the white Fiesta, and wants them when he moves out. Isn't that pumpkin platter cute!?!?
The large stack of plates came in a box lot at an auction a few years ago. I got the whole box for $5 and there were lots of treasures in it!
A few platters...believe me, this doesn't even scratch the surface of the platters that I have.
This giant platter was only $4. I put a plastic pear in the middle so you could see how big it is! The Ironstone platter belonged to Kevin's grandma. She always had it up on her cabinets in her kitchen. She had the family convinced that it came over on the Mayflower! She called it her Mayflower platter. I think they all still think it is from the Mayflower.
Some pink! Most of this belonged to my Grandma on my Dad's side, with the exception of the middle bowl, which I think is Old Colony. That belonged to my Grandma on my Mom's side.
For a while, I really loved the blue Carnival glass. The oval dish came home with me from a Florida flea market-in my carry on bag on the plane! The candlesticks were my very first auction purchase-I got them for $10 for the pair.
I know it's kind of hard to see what the pattern is on these pieces. They are Anchor Hocking Savannah. They aren't antiques, although the pattern has been discontinued for several years now. I love the whimsical little flowers in this pattern! I have punch bowls, large salad bowls, punch cups, cake pedestals, chip and dip sets, and serving platters (all from my catering days).
This cute little basket used to hold my business cards at the client's home when I was catering, in case any of their guests might want to have my number. There used to be two of them, but one broke right away. It is only about 4" tall and very thin glass.
Here is my curio cabinet. The top and bottom are cut off in this picture.
This is a soup tureen that belonged to my Great, Great Grandmother and was passed down to my Great Grandmother, then to my Grandmother, then to me. It isn't really my taste, but with the family history-I really can't get rid of it!
The platter and cups and saucers are all garage sale finds. The bowl, plate and pitcher are handed down. My Grandpa on my mom's side says he got his cereal in the bowl with the plate and his milk was in the little pitcher every day when he was growing up.
Oh, gee...look! Another platter! The teacup set on the top right was a gift to Kevin (there are actually 2 of them). When he was in the Navy in California, we we at our apartment one evening when there was a lot of screaming and yelling and someone was banging frantically on our door. It turns out a little girl who had a really high fever was choking and convulsing. Kevin cleared her airway and saved her life! The teacup sets were a thank you gift from her parents.
There are actually 3 creamers in the lower left corner-all from my Grandma on my mom's side. The tea cup sets were one of (if not the first) things I collected. They were really cheap at garage sales, and I just loved them.
Nope! Not a platter! A relish tray!
It's fun to look at all of these things again!! I am reminded of some fun times with Kevin hitting the garage sales! He actually found the large pitcher and bowl set before I did, and came over to me quickly at that garage sale and said, "Come here! Come here! You are going to like this!" The same with a lot of the tea cup sets. It was neat to see how excited he got when he saw something I might like! He still does that when we are out garage sale shopping now. I'll have to take a trip out to the barn soon to take pictures of our inadvertent trunk collection from last summer. He was so cute when he found them!
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