As I keep shopping I find that more additions are making more collections. I like a few pressed glass candy plates and now I have a collection. A few more biscuit jars and again I have a collection. I grab onto a blue water pitcher a few years ago and now I have fourteen. This is so highly contagious, however, the good news is the shopping here in Wyoming is not nearly as dangerous as that in Clark County Washington. The four Goodwills there with a population of 450,000 have a lot of donations from families who basically don’t want Grandma’s old glass.
I am going to share a few pictures of the Clark County purchases and then I am going to start sharing my finds here and add to this page on a regular basis. What is amazing as I look around, is that we are only in Clark County for two years. I decide if we stay in Clark County then I will start to resell items; however, that is not the case. Our two families move here to Wyoming and here my hubby and I are in our ‘forever home’. Don’t forget to open the photo with your mouse to enlarge it.
Check out the “Most Recent” section below. I will literally keep adding the most recent purchases to the top of this section. Now I have to go to my favorite local ‘haunt’ Goodwill once a week in order to add character to this article!!!
The Start for Glass Collecting
All of this glass hunting starts with my original collection of green glass when I am eleven years old. We get a tiny beach place and then blue is our new theme. We move back to Clark County and crystal is real prevalent along with the blue. I have about 15 platters now because they tend to be big and beautiful. How about deviled egg plates? I have kept seven and given several away! I definitely make more deviled eggs just for the sheer joy of using these plates. This is a great example of when adding more additions make more collections to the overall large collection in this home with limited space!
Vancouver Shopping
Here’s a few samples of the blue pieces. Some I purchase at the coast, but this is a location with a small population and one Goodwill. Clark County is the honey hole for collecting. Wyoming is the wasteland, and our pocket book appreciates it. I still wish I am focused on crystal while we are in Clark County. Now I am super addicted and it just isn’t here very much. This desire has actually morphed into pressed glass. As a little dish becomes available I snatch it up and give many of them away at Christmas time filled with candies. Another justification for my addiction!
Wyoming Shopping
I fall in love with my pieces because of the mystery behind them. An example is the pressed glass many times is made to look like cut crystal, basically the poor man’s crystal. Some of these pieces are appreciated and loved far more than the high end originals. I have a $4 pedestal cake platter I just pick up this week and the poor thing is all chipped on the underside of the saw tooth edge. She is upside down in a cabinet and really gets hit a lot. I do not buy pieces with chips, well, unless they need a new home to be appreciated. This piece is starting to purple so she is going outside this coming summer.
This blue bowl is a recent piece I purchase this winter. As soon as this baby is clean, bananas immediately are in it and she’s on the kitchen peninsula. This is only the third blue piece of glass I find here. I also get a cobalt blue bud vase that is hand blown and gorgeous. For both pieces I pay $4. Now the cobalt blue glass in making more collections.
Also this winter I get these amber glass snack plates with the accompanying cups. The cups are really small and I figure they are good for salsa or ranch dressing. The set is with five, which works out perfect for us now with the five of us living here in town. I am just starting to get some amber since I find a really beautiful bowl the month before and put it on the collectibles shelf.
The Most Recent Additions: This is the section with the most recent purchases. Let’s see what will develop when more additions are making more collections. This is going to become a very long section of this page as time goes on.
April/2024
More lead crystal for the month of April. My granddaughter last weekend complains to me that we have not been to Goodwill lately. Gee, why didn’t I think of that! So we go and she spots the candle holders and I spot whatever these glasses/candy bowls are. They are finished so nice that I look for makers’ marks on them. They seem too big for cocktails, but I can envision them having M & M’s. The candle sticks are $2 each and the glasses are $1 each.
I am on a mission now to change my Goodwill visit to twice a month. Time to cut way back on the visits. I am aware however that when I bought the really classy cobalt handblown vase, that a new collection is starting. Blue is an absolute favorite color, and why there is no cobalt glass in the vast collection is a mystery! Well, now the more additions are making more collections are in action with the second piece. This is a lovely primitive hand blown pitcher. There are little chucks of debris in the glass. The size is wonderful at 10 1/2′ tall and it’s priced at $5.
March/2024
This week, March 21, my granddaughter and I visit Goodwill again after I pick her up for early release. This store is in the ‘Wild West’, and there is not a lot of colored glass. What we get is vintage Pressed Glass with varied qualities. These two square bowls are top notch at $1 each. They are fairly thick too, which is rare from what I have been collecting. Here is a picture of the underside for you to see the thickness, and the polish job is excellent too. The oval pressed glass dish is $2. All of these very collectible bowls are perfect for future Christmas gifts filled with goodies.
During this week I make two visits to our Goodwill in March 2024. I always check the glasses, and these beautiful lead crystal wine glasses are perfect. For $1.00 each who can resist. We’re eventually going to remodel our kitchen and there will be two 36″ wide cabinets with glass doors. These babies are going in one of them and they will be used.
The second purchase catches my eye because of the beautiful ruby red glass. These are the ‘has been’ kitchen glasses with the funky shape we have all seen. But the color is magnificent, and they cost $.50 each. I get to the car to leave before I can justify buying them and go back to the store to get them. Our guest room has red accents and we have a college student who visits, so they are going to be loaded with paper clips and that sort of thing in the school supply area of the room!
February/2024
On 2/25/24 I take my granddaughter to our favorite spot to have a ‘look see’ before taking her home. She spotted this Mikasa leaded crystal tea candle holder, which I buy for $5. The $4 canister is a fun discovery because I have one from a few months ago. I haven’t seen this pattern before. Now I have two, and while looking at the internet, I can’t find this particular one, and I’ve seen well over 100. The item I get the most joy out of is the Gourd. Another surprise, it even has the store card inside where it was purchased in Utah. This is not something I saw on the radar. It is priced at $3 and there isn’t even any dust on it. Let’s hope this gourd isn’t making more collections!
Not quite Glass or a Collectible
Since I am showing the amber and the pedestal plate dish already, I am sharing a purchase (1/8/24) which is not a collectible but a gift to a loved one of mine. This Cuisinart bread machine is filthy dirty on the outside and has never once been used. I love buying really dirty items and cleaning them up. This baby is going to the mountains, in Colorado to my sister’s for her birthday. Also, I need to buy the instruction book online for it. The Goodwill bread machine price is $10. Let’s see what the booklet is ($17 online purchase)!
Making More Collections
Come back and visit this page for the latest and greatest purchases becoming part of the continuing (almost but not quite out of control) collection!
Response Magic