Pyrex With Bex

The Mid-Century Maximalists

Episode Summary

Host Bex Scott welcomes guest Danielle of The Mid-Century Maximalists on Instagram to the show for Bex’s very first interview episode. Bex and Danielle talk about all things Pyrex, why Danielle started collecting, her amazing ceramics collection, and the joy of being a vintage collector in a modern world.

Episode Notes

Host Bex Scott welcomes guest Danielle of The Mid-Century Maximalists on Instagram to the show for Bex’s very first interview episode. Bex and Danielle talk about all things Pyrex, why Danielle started collecting, her amazing ceramics collection, and the joy of being a vintage collector in a modern world.

In a similar story to Bex’s, Danielle came to her love of vintage and Pyrex through her grandparents. She inherited several sets of Pyrex, including the Friendship and Butterprint patterns, and many of those pieces that hold sentimental value remain on display in Danielle’s house. She explains to Bex that many of her thrifted or purchased pieces, however, she uses on a daily basis. Danielle describes the eclectic maximalist decor she prefers, some of the many ceramics pieces her grandmother and great-grandmother handmade, and trades stories about favorite Pyrex and vintage items with Bex. This episode sheds light on why collectors love the hunt of collecting, the value of the pieces that goes beyond financial, and how to decorate with vintage finds.

Resources discussed in this episode:

Contact Rebecca Scott | Pyrex With Bex: 

Transcript

Bex Scott: [00:00:02] Hey everybody, it's Bex Scott and welcome to the Pyrex With Bex podcast, where, you guessed it, I talk about vintage Pyrex, but also all things vintage housewares. I'll take you on my latest thrifting adventures, talk about reselling, chat with other enthusiasts about their collections, and learn about a bunch of really awesome items from the past. Subscribe now on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you love listening to podcasts so you don't miss a beat.

 

Bex Scott: [00:00:30] Hey everyone, this is Bex Scott and you're listening to the Pyrex with Bex podcast. In today's episode, I'm joined by Danielle, the Mid-Century Maximalists on Instagram. We chat about why she started collecting Pyrex and vintage, her awesome ceramic collection, and what it's like being a vintage lover. Okay, so hey everyone, I'm super excited for today's episode because I'm here with my very first guest and I'd like to welcome Danielle to the show. Thanks so much for being here.

 

Danielle: [00:00:58] Thanks for having me.

 

Bex Scott: [00:00:59] And you can find Danielle on Instagram at the Mid-Century Maximalists. And it was actually on Instagram that we met. And I was impressed right away by your amazing Pyrex collection. And then I read your first post all about why you started collecting and why it's so important to you. And I'd love to start off with that story here today.

 

Danielle: [00:01:20] So my entire life I've always been a bit eclectic, and I spent a lot of my childhood at my grandmother's house. Wasn't one that wanted to just go out and party or anything like that. I just loved spending time with my grandmother, and her entire house was decked out in 70s garb, a lot of Merry Mushroom, a lot of Pyrex that has been handed down. And so it's things that I was familiar with my entire childhood. And then about three years ago, I lost my grandparents within two weeks of each other due to Covid. And since then, it's just kind of spiraled, collecting things that remind me of them because it makes me feel close to them. So it's been a hobby that kind of hit me out of nowhere, but it's fun.

 

Bex Scott: [00:02:12] Definitely. And I love stories like that, where it's more than just going out and finding things that you like. It's some kind of memory that's brought up when you find things or when they're passed down to you, and it's a great way to keep people in your life, even after they're not with us anymore. And that's kind of similar to my story. I got into it because of my grandparents, but it was more that we were cleaning out my granny and grandpa's garage, and we found some of my great aunt's Pyrex in a Rubbermaid bin. And that's kind of what set things off for me. And it spiraled into an addiction as well.

 

Danielle: [00:02:50] What pattern was it?

 

Bex Scott: [00:02:52] It wasn't anything super exciting. It was the lime green lasagna pan. And then I had some primary bowls. But after I found the primary bowls, that was my very first pattern or set that I collected. And I think I ended up with about 5 or 6 full primary sets. Way too many. You don't need that many ever. But I ended up selling them eventually, and I think I kept two and then a reverse primary. So I have those ones still. But yeah, it's easy to get swept up in it.

 

Danielle: [00:03:24] It really is. Every antique store you go to.

 

Bex Scott: [00:03:28] Yeah. Yeah.

 

Danielle: [00:03:29] It's the thrill of the hunt, though.

 

Bex Scott: [00:03:31] It is. It's a huge adrenaline rush. And then you have huge boxes and piles, and - at least I do. I have, I think, 60 banker's boxes of vintage items in my basement. Now that's become me having to resell things because I have so much. But it's fun, so it keeps me going.

 

Danielle: [00:03:53] Yeah, I wish I had a basement so that I could hoard some more things, but I unfortunately live in a ranch so I don't have that much for like room for storage. So whenever I cycle things out, I have to purge.

 

Bex Scott: [00:04:09] That's probably a good thing. That's what my husband would prefer, I think, because he's the one who helps me pack everything to ship and then pack it away in the basement, and he's a very patient man. Thank goodness.

 

Danielle: [00:04:22] We love to hear it.

 

Bex Scott: [00:04:23] Yeah. So do you have a specific pattern of Pyrex that was passed down to you that you really love?

 

Danielle: [00:04:31] So my family, I live in Georgia, but my family is originally from Pennsylvania and up there it was really prominent to have Pyrex, so there was a lot of patterns. And predominantly my favorite one that I've gotten is the Friendship pattern, but I've inherited the Friendship, there's several primary sets, there's the Amish Butterprint. There's quite a few that are within my family line. In fact, my mother still uses what she was gifted as a wedding present almost daily. She has this really neat, it's a complete yellow set, and I've been searching for one as I thrift because she won't give it to me. But she has that. And then she has this really cool casserole dish that's like a hunter green, and it has gold detailing on it. So there's quite a bit of Pyrex that I have inherited. My partner actually inherited the Sunflower pattern, so we have that too. So a lot of what we have on display in our cabinets at home are things that we inherited because of how sentimental they are to us.

 

Bex Scott: [00:05:56] That's awesome. And do you guys use them every day as well, or do you display them and keep them there?

 

Danielle: [00:06:02] We don't use the ones that were handed down, but we do use ones we have thrifted and antiqued simply because while they may look the same, it doesn't hold the same sentimental value. So we keep those put up safe. We've got a zoo of animals. You'll probably see a cat or two pop in here at some point. So because of that, we like to keep those types of things safe and away from the animals.

 

Bex Scott: [00:06:34] That's a good idea. My cat has definitely knocked a few knickknacks off of tables and desks before, so it's a dangerous hobby when you have pets.

 

Danielle: [00:06:47] Yeah, and we've got three large breed rescues.

 

Bex Scott: [00:06:51] Oh, wow.

 

Danielle: [00:06:53] A pit/boxer, a lab/hound, and a husky. So they're not well behaved.

 

Bex Scott: [00:07:02] That's okay. They sound very cute.

 

Danielle: [00:07:08] They are.

 

Bex Scott: [00:07:09] Nice. Most of my collection I keep in china cabinets, and then we ended up using the Homestead pattern as our daily Pyrex dishes. So all of those ones, I find that they wash really well, and they just go with pretty much everything in our house. So that ended up being something that we use and my husband likes them.

 

Danielle: [00:07:33] So we use the Corelle dish set, the ones that kind of match all a lot of the Pyrex patterns. So we use those as our everyday dishes, which is fun. That and I've also got my grandmother's, they're the cubist glasses, Indiana glass.

 

Bex Scott: [00:07:53] Okay.

 

Danielle: [00:07:53] I can't think of the name of them, but I've got her set, so we use those as our drinking glasses.

 

Bex Scott: [00:07:59] Nice. I've always wanted to incorporate some vintage glasses or barware into our kitchen, but we have three kids and they're pretty young still, so right now it would be too dangerous, I think.

 

Danielle: [00:08:14] Yeah, we're lucky enough, I guess lucky enough, that we don't have kids yet, so we can dabble in all that type of stuff. Once we have kids, I will have to be a bit more careful with where I place certain things, because I have a lot of ceramics that have been handed down to me, and if a kid hurts them, I will cry.

 

Bex Scott: [00:08:35] Oh, I think I would too. Yeah. And those are the ceramics that, was it your grandmother that made them?

 

Danielle: [00:08:44] My great grandmother and my grandmother.

 

Bex Scott: [00:08:46] Okay. And what kind of ceramics are they?

 

Danielle: [00:08:50] Oh, I've got some for every holiday. So right now I've got a little village out that has a tree with a vulture on it, and kids trick or treating, a ghost popping out of a casket, a little graveyard. It's super neat. Then I've also got a ceramic pumpkin that she, my grandmother, painted, made and painted, so that's pretty cool. And then I have a couple different ghost ceramics, a black cat ceramic, a house that's very similar to the village, but it's set up inside of a house. Things that I've never seen other people have, which is pretty cool. I've also got a turkey and a pilgrim and an Indian, which probably isn't kosher anymore, but my grandmother made them, so I hold on to them. And then for Christmas, I've got all sorts of things. But you name a holiday - Valentine's Day, Easter - I've got ceramics for it.

 

Bex Scott: [00:09:58] That's awesome. I would love to decorate my house for every season with ceramics like that, and I think I saw them in the little highlight on your Instagram story.

 

Danielle: [00:10:08] Those were the ones that I most recently was able to convince my mother to let me steal. Yeah, that's the little graveyard and the house. I've never seen anybody else have anything like that. So they're super special to me because I can remember just being little and thinking they were the neatest things and playing with them and then getting yelled at for playing with them. Rightfully so. So, yeah.

 

Bex Scott: [00:10:37] Yeah, I think I crushed some little reindeer figurines that my granny had when I was little, and my dad always brings it up when we're at family functions. And he reminds me that he told me just for looking, not for touching. And then I took them in my hand and I squished them. And so...

 

Danielle: [00:11:00] Oh boy.

 

Bex Scott: [00:11:00] Hopefully my kids don't do that with any of, I have a whole bunch of little bluebirds that I collect because my great grandma collected those as well. So I have to make sure the kids stay away from those.

 

Danielle: [00:11:12] Keep them up high.

 

Bex Scott: [00:11:13] Yeah. So what's the thrifting like where you live? Is it pretty good, or...?

 

Danielle: [00:11:21] I'm right outside of Atlanta. So unfortunately the market's kind of like saturated around here. It just doesn't seem like as many antiques. There wasn't as much Pyrex down here. There wasn't a whole lot of ceramics down here. So you do, like, bump into those things from time to time. But that just doesn't seem to be what people's ancestors down here had. So anything that is down here pretty much migrated with someone from the North. I find that when we travel, we have better luck. We went to Louisville to visit my partner's uncle and I found a ceramic wall hanging Christmas tree, and I was really pumped about that, like found it at Goodwill. That type of stuff does not happen down here. Unfortunately, our Goodwills are dumbly overpriced, like 20 bucks for a pair of pants and they're picked over and they're just not that great here. But we've got family all over, so we've got to travel quite a few times throughout the year. So we hit those places up. So like Florida and Pennsylvania and Ohio and Kentucky, just not, it's just not booming around here. I guess maybe too many resellers.

 

Bex Scott: [00:12:43] Yeah, that's like my area as well. Everybody seems to be getting into reselling and collecting. And I'm in a small town between two large cities, and there's a nice little pocket of Salvation Army and a few other Value Village stores that are really nice for finding things. But the further out you get, the harder it is to find good deals, like you said, and especially with Pyrex, the price seems to be going up where they'll have a dishwasher damaged bowl for $20. And it's just, it's kind of ridiculous and it makes it not as fun in that sense. You have to start looking online for things that you want to add to your collection, but that's okay. It's all part of it.

 

Danielle: [00:13:28] Yeah. I mean, I still enjoy the hunt. I still go to the antique stores. I've paid some stupid prices for things that I just wanted.

 

Bex Scott: [00:13:37] Yeah. Me too.

 

Danielle: [00:13:38] You don't see them every day, so, like, you know what?

 

Bex Scott: [00:13:42] Yeah, it's worth it at that point.

 

Danielle: [00:13:43] I'll take it. But whenever I try and purge things around here, like, I don't try and do that. Like, I'm not in it for the money. I just want to kind of get out maybe what I put into it or part of what I put into it. So I don't full blown re, like I wouldn't call myself a reseller. I just have to purge from time to time because I can't hoard everything. I know that I'm a maximalist, but, at some point...

 

Bex Scott: [00:14:14] Yeah. What's the best piece of Pyrex you found thrifting? If there is one that you can think of.

 

Danielle: [00:14:22] At an actual thrift store, I don't think I've ever actually found Pyrex, at least none that wasn't dishwasher damage, because I find, I find that kind of stuff all the time. I did find a pretty neat Corelle dish thrifting one time, but as far as like antiquing goes, the coolest one that I found, I'm trying to think, I've got several unique pieces, that I think the Pueblo pattern is the coolest one I've found out and about. It's probably my favorite piece in there.

 

Bex Scott: [00:14:57] Yeah, that one's beautiful. And then I noticed you have the Kim Chee as well.

 

Danielle: [00:15:03] I do have the Kim Chee.

 

Bex Scott: [00:15:04] And then the Navajo.

 

Danielle: [00:15:06] So the Navajo, fun story, we pretty much were given that one when we were in Ohio by someone we met. It was their grandmother's, and they made us swear up and down that we were gonna take care of it. Like absolutely! Brand new. Never used. And I was like, of course I will take care of this. It's in good hands. So I was pretty pumped about that one.

 

Bex Scott: [00:15:32] Those are definitely ones that you would never find out in the wild here. That would be, maybe not even in an antique store. I don't think I've ever found any of those patterns.

 

Danielle: [00:15:43] All three of those come from Ohio.

 

Bex Scott: [00:15:46] Okay, I need to go to Ohio.

 

Danielle: [00:15:50] My partner's father lives up there, and every single time we go up we make him take us to all of the antique stores. And he moans and groans while we have the time of our lives. Um, but good prices on them, too. The Pueblo we paid like 40 bucks for, it's pristine, was definitely never used. So we typically have really good luck when we go up there. So definitely hit up Ohio sometime.

 

Bex Scott: [00:16:20] Yeah, I've never been. It's on my list now. We went to Portland, Maine just this past summer, and my aunt took me around to a bunch of different shops, and there was one, I still have regrets that I didn't buy way more at the store, but they had a whole bunch of the Pyrex Christmas mugs that were given to staff every year as gifts. And I only bought one, and this one mug was $54 US, which was way more because of the Canadian dollar. Our dollar is terrible right now, but I should have bought all five of them and I still have nightmares about it.

 

Danielle: [00:17:05] Yeah, we have a pretty unique one that must have been only in-house, like Pyrex only gave it to their employees, but it has like beakers across it and it says it says Pyrex on one side, and then it says Corning on the other, which I thought was pretty cool.

 

Bex Scott: [00:17:27] That is cool. I don't think I've ever seen that.

 

Danielle: [00:17:30] I'll have to message you a picture of it.

 

Bex Scott: [00:17:33] Yeah. That's awesome. Very cool. So do you have a specific style that you like to decorate your house in, or is it kind of just eclectic from the things that you've collected or...?

 

Danielle: [00:17:46] It's very 70s. So the room I'm sitting in right now, obviously I've got this old Afghan, um, but we have a record cabinet, lots of vintage records, and our main living room is painted like a 70s bright orange, and it's all 70s garb. So pretty much anything that my grandmother would have had in her house, we have here, minus a couple things, because there were some things, like the Ivy dishes, that just never tickled my fancy. But we love cross-stitch. We have it all over our walls. Love ceramics, obviously love stained glass, love Pyrex, love... You name it, we probably have it.

 

Bex Scott: [00:18:41] That's awesome. It sounds like I'd love your house.

 

Danielle: [00:18:45] You'll have to come out sometime.

 

Bex Scott: [00:18:49] My one room, my office that I'm in right now, is the one that I decorate. And the rest of the house is just... my husband doesn't have the same style as me, so we've kind of come to some kind of middle ground with decor. As long as I don't put brass in the house because he really doesn't like brass, which kills me because I keep finding some amazing brass pieces.

 

Danielle: [00:19:12] Luckily, my partner and I have the same style. We both really caught on to certain things because of our grandmothers. So I mean, we've, I see you've got the Merry Mushroom canisters behind you, but we use ours.

 

Bex Scott: [00:19:29] That's awesome.

 

Danielle: [00:19:32] A lot of the things that we do collect, we try and make functional. If we can. Not everything, like some of the Pyrex obviously we don't want to touch, but yeah.

 

Bex Scott: [00:19:49] If you had one, I guess, Pyrex pattern or dish and one just random vintage piece, what would you want? Like what's your unicorn or your holy grail piece of vintage? And then Pyrex?

 

Danielle: [00:20:05] I'm going to stick with my Friendship dishes simply because those were passed down through my family. Like there was other ones, but for some reason I'm just stuck on those Friendship ones. I can remember, like my grandmother having them, I can remember my great grandmother having them. So it's one of those things that that would definitely be my Pyrex dish. As far as things that are hanging on the wall, I'm trying to think because there's several good things. Oh, I know what my other one would be. My cast iron cat that my partner hates.

 

Bex Scott: [00:20:50] That's awesome.

 

Danielle: [00:20:54] Yeah, I have, um, I have old vintage ceramic and cast iron cats almost in every single room. And my partner says they're creepy.

 

Bex Scott: [00:21:05] Cats are great, and there's luckily a lot of vintage out there with cats.

 

Danielle: [00:21:10] I actually just found a mug this past weekend, not this past weekend, two weekends ago, and it's an old piece of pottery and it has like cats painted on it. And my mom was like, oh God, please, no. And I was like, how much? And they were like $0.50. And I was like, done.

 

Bex Scott: [00:21:28] Sold.

 

Danielle: [00:21:29] Um, so yeah, no, I definitely would need to keep one of my cast iron cats. But that was also one of the things that my family members always had them. I have a great aunt, in Pennsylvania, and she's got quite a few of them. And I hate to break it to my partner, but they're all coming here.

 

Bex Scott: [00:21:56] You can just start hiding things around the house. They'll just start appearing.

 

Danielle: [00:22:01] She's tried to create, like a one item per room rule, that I can only specifically pick one item because I try and pick the most eclectic things.

 

Bex Scott: [00:22:16] That makes it fun.

 

Danielle: [00:22:17] If there's if there's a Bigfoot statue, definitely putting that in my house. So my partner has her opinions, but sometimes I get the veto.

 

Bex Scott: [00:22:29] Yeah. And we have a running joke in the house right now. I have a horse cross stitch, it's huge, I don't know who made it, but it's in a massive wood frame and it keeps moving around our house. It started above our bed and then I think now it's above our toilet and I have no idea where it's going to end up next. But I have it listed for sale. But until it sells, we just keep moving it around because none of us like it. So.

 

Danielle: [00:22:59] That's hilarious.

 

Bex Scott: [00:23:03] Nice.

 

Danielle: [00:23:03] Is that the only cross that you have?

 

Bex Scott: [00:23:06] I have a ton of flowers and they're all listed for sale. I want to keep all of them because my goal was to make a big cross stitch, cruel needlepoint wall behind me at my desk here. But I have trouble committing to a certain style and a certain type of...

 

Danielle: [00:23:26] You just got to throw them up like, turn mine, like ours doesn't match.

 

Bex Scott: [00:23:34] Oh, that looks great. Yeah. I love that.

 

Danielle: [00:23:35] But that we find things and we just throw it on the wall.

 

Bex Scott: [00:23:39] Yeah. My hope is to find a mushroom needlepoint or cross stitch that will go with my theme that I have going on with the Merry Mushroom.

 

Danielle: [00:23:48] That would be really cool. You could make one.

 

Bex Scott: [00:23:51] That's true. I have to learn how to.

 

Danielle: [00:23:53] My partner cross stitches.

 

Bex Scott: [00:23:54] Oh, really?

 

Danielle: [00:23:56] She loves it.

 

Bex Scott: [00:23:58] Maybe she'll have to do one for me.

 

Danielle: [00:24:01] I mean she would. She also sews.

 

Bex Scott: [00:24:03] Oh, I'll hire her. She's hired.

 

Danielle: [00:24:06] She's a jack of all trades.

 

Bex Scott: [00:24:08] Nice. Yeah. I haven't gotten into the cross stitch yet, but I even have a bunch of kits that I could start. That might be my...

 

Danielle: [00:24:15] We have a bunch of kits, too.

 

Bex Scott: [00:24:19] Yeah, those ones are easy to collect as well.

 

Danielle: [00:24:22] They are. You find them out and about quite frequently. At least I do around here, because I guess people will clean out their grandparents houses and they think that nobody knows how to do that type of stuff anymore. But like, there's plenty of people that do. Plus, it's pretty easy to like pick up if you put your mind to it. If you don't have ADHD like me because I started one and just haven't gone back to it. But maybe one day.

 

Bex Scott: [00:24:56] It'll be there when you're ready.

 

Danielle: [00:24:59] Yeah, it's how most of my projects go. I get about halfway and then I'm like, on to the next one.

 

Bex Scott: [00:25:06] Yeah, next thing. Well, I picked up a bunch of Christmas cross stitch kits in an estate sale a couple of days ago, so maybe I'll do one for Christmas.

 

Danielle: [00:25:17] That'd be awesome. You could also crochet some snowflakes to put on your Christmas tree.

 

Bex Scott: [00:25:22] Yeah, I think I have some of those from my grandma. Those are nice.

 

Danielle: [00:25:27] My partner's been on the hunt for a pink Christmas tree.

 

Bex Scott: [00:25:31] Ooh, that would be amazing. Then would you do vintage decorations?

 

Danielle: [00:25:35] We already have vintage decorations on one of our trees. We have a white one and then just a regular one. And I think, I think last year we put the vintage on the white Christmas tree. I can't remember, but we do have like vintage shatterproof ornaments. I actually have a bunch of ornaments my great grandmother handmade, but I'm too afraid with all of the animals that they'll get broken and they're kind of not replaceable. Our cats like to climb the trees and eat the trees, so we haven't found a way to stop them. We've tried all sorts of things to get them out, but because of that, I just keep them away safe.

 

Bex Scott: [00:26:27] That's a good idea.

 

Danielle: [00:26:31] Have you noticed any of your kids getting into, like, collecting?

 

Bex Scott: [00:26:35] That's a good question. I've tried. My oldest son, he's 13, and he comes to Value Village and Goodwill and all the garage sales with me. He doesn't love anything vintage, really, but he likes coming and looking for things with me. And it's, I think it's the thrill of the hunt for him as well. And then when I go out and I come back home, he'll say, Oh, are those more bowls in that box, or Did you buy more bowls today? I definitely did, and then I threaten, we have a nine year old son as well, I threaten them that this will be their inheritance one day, that they're going to have all of these bowls and Pyrex bowls to give to whoever they want, and they can sell it if they want, but it's all coming to them. We have an 11 month old as well and I'm hoping that she'll be the one that kind of turns into the Pyrex vintage lover. So starting off early.

 

Danielle: [00:27:33] I'm sure. Yeah, I'm sure as they get older they'll get into it because it's something I never appreciated when I was younger. I was always like, why don't you, like, redo everything? Because this is kind of outdated.

 

Bex Scott: [00:27:47] Yeah, yeah. And then you end up falling in love with the vintage items, and then you reverse time and then you don't go with the new, updated, renovated house stuff. It's like a blast from the past, which I really like.

 

Danielle: [00:28:01] Yeah. My friends will come in the house and be like, whoa, these are some bright colors. And I'm like, you can go home to your agreeable gray walls anytime you want.

 

Bex Scott: [00:28:13] Yeah, go home and stare at your white walls.

 

Danielle: [00:28:18] Exactly. So, I mean, to each their own, I guess.

 

Bex Scott: [00:28:22] Exactly.

 

Danielle: [00:28:27] What's your favorite piece in your room?

 

Bex Scott: [00:28:30] Oh. Good question. I have a cabinet on my right here that's full of all my pink Pyrex and my pink Gooseberry. So I'd say probably the pink Gooseberry. And then I have the glasses that go with the Duchess set. I think they're the Libby glasses. The Duchess casserole is my number one need to find one day Pyrex dish, so I'm always on the lookout for that. I found it online, but it's so expensive.

 

Danielle: [00:29:02] Yeah, that one is rather expensive.

 

Bex Scott: [00:29:04] Yeah, yeah. So maybe, maybe one day when I win the lottery, that'll be my next big collectible.

 

Danielle: [00:29:15] When did you kind of get into collecting?

 

Bex Scott: [00:29:18] I got into collecting at the beginning of the pandemic. So before that, I didn't really know anything about Pyrex. It was always just like the measuring cup that my mom had that I don't think was even very old. It just said Pyrex on it. And that's kind of what I thought it was. And then after we cleaned out my grandparents garage, that's when I realized that there was this whole world of vintage Pyrex out there, and it kind of just spiraled after that. And that's been fun collecting everything and finding new pieces. And at the beginning, when I first started collecting, I would essentially buy everything that I found, even if it was dishwasher damaged or it was way overpriced. So I was spending all of this money on things that probably weren't even in good condition or worth it. Now I'm way more selective, but it was, yeah, it's so easy to do when you're learning and trying to figure out what patterns are and what things might be worth, and if they're even Pyrex at all. So.

 

Danielle: [00:30:25] Yeah, it really is, because, I mean there's some things that aren't even like marked Pyrex. I have one, I'm getting rid of it, but I have one that's I think it's from England.

 

Bex Scott: [00:30:36] Oh yeah. The JAJ.

 

Danielle: [00:30:37] It's their version, I can't remember what it says on the bottom, but it's their version of Pyrex. So like I have that and that's pretty cool. But I would have known nothing about it before I started getting into this. I would have been like, oh, that's not Pyrex, and just like, moved on from it. So the more you learn. My partner actually bought this really neat book off of Amazon, and it goes through like the history of each pattern and details it. We use that as a guideline at all times, because it tells you so much about different promotional pieces and stuff like that.

 

Bex Scott: [00:31:20] Is that the Pyrex passion book?

 

Danielle: [00:31:22] I think it is. Yeah.

 

Bex Scott: [00:31:23] This one.

 

Danielle: [00:31:25] Yeah, yeah, yeah, that is our Bible.

 

Bex Scott: [00:31:30] Yeah, I have it on my iPad. And then I went and bought the the paperback version. And then there's a second one that came out as well that has even more in it. So that one's great.

 

Danielle: [00:31:41] I do laugh at their like suggested prices because I'm like, yeah, try and tell, try and tell most people that. Like they're not, I think I was looking and it had like the Butter print as like the entire set for like $75. And I'm like yeah, okay.

 

Bex Scott: [00:32:01] Yeah.

 

Danielle: [00:32:03] Tell me where you can find that for that.

 

Bex Scott: [00:32:05] That would be great. But yeah.

 

Danielle: [00:32:07] That's what I'm saying. So I do find the prices they list comical.

 

Bex Scott: [00:32:14] Yeah. Pricing is one thing that's always very controversial, I find. I'm part of a bunch of Pyrex groups on Facebook, and there's a lot of them that just flat out say you're not allowed to ask if you did good buying this, because if you like it, it's worth it. And we can't tell you if the price is good or not.

 

Danielle: [00:32:36] I am not a part of them on Facebook because I don't really have Facebook, but I am a part of a couple Pyrex groups on Reddit and some of the finds they post on there are insane.

 

Bex Scott: [00:32:52] I haven't looked at Reddit for Pyrex groups. That's a good suggestion.

 

Danielle: [00:32:58] On Pyrex groups and Animal Crossing groups. Gotta love it. Yeah, my partner actually named her Animal Crossing Island Pyrexia.

 

Bex Scott: [00:33:11] That's great.

 

Danielle: [00:33:13] Is there anything else that you collect other than, like, the mushrooms and the Pyrex?

 

Bex Scott: [00:33:17] Mushrooms, Pyrex, little bluebirds. What else do I collect? Secretly, I collect brass. It's in a box that my husband can't, well, he found it the other day, but there's a bunch of - I thought he couldn't find it, but it was in a cereal box, I talk about this in one of my other episodes, but it was packed away in a cereal box in our basement, and he found it and opened it, and he said, What is this? I said, oh, that's just my brass. I'm selling it. Don't worry, it's going on Marketplace. But I do like brass.

 

Danielle: [00:33:51] That's funny. I don't think we have much brass around here.

 

Bex Scott: [00:33:55] It's heavy and it takes up space.

 

Danielle: [00:33:58] Yeah, it does, it does. And we don't have, with all my ceramics we don't have that much like shelving. I know you said you had that horse. Do you have any other ones?

 

Bex Scott: [00:34:14] No, none that I've really kept. I have one that's a little girl on a toilet reading a book, and it says something really funny. I think it's like a potty training needlepoint or cross-stitch or something.

 

Danielle: [00:34:31] I have a cross-stitch. I have a cross-stitch in my bathroom that says, please don't do coke in the bathroom.

 

Bex Scott: [00:34:38] That's awesome.

 

Danielle: [00:34:42] And everybody always is like, did someone do coke? And I'm like, no, no, no, not to my knowledge, but...

 

Bex Scott: [00:34:49] Yeah.

 

Danielle: [00:34:50] It's a warning. Like please don't.

 

Bex Scott: [00:34:53] And they won't now because that's up there.

 

Danielle: [00:34:55] Yeah. I asked nicely.

 

Bex Scott: [00:35:02] I'm trying to avoid getting into all the art glass and like the vases, and that's another thing that I really can't do because I don't have space.

 

Danielle: [00:35:15] I think we have one swing base, but I haven't gotten a whole lot into that. But we do have quite the collection of nesting hens.

 

Bex Scott: [00:35:29] Oh, I love those.

 

Danielle: [00:35:32] And my partner insists on putting candy in every single one of them.

 

Bex Scott: [00:35:36] That's great. Do you have a favorite one or a favorite color?

 

Danielle: [00:35:42] So blue is my favorite color. Oddly enough, since most of the house is done in like yellow, orange, green, but we have a cobalt blue that has like the oil slick on it, almost like carnival glass. And it is my favorite. And it just so happened to be given to us by my partner's grandmother, which just makes it that much more special.

 

Bex Scott: [00:36:11] Yeah, those are beautiful, I love them. I've had a few of them in the past, and it's always hard to tell if they're actually vintage or not. That's my biggest struggle is what year they were from and who made them. So I do a lot of research when I find them, and I think there's even some jadeite ones too that I've seen that are really pretty.

 

Danielle: [00:36:34] Yeah, we have a small jadeite one, but we have quite a few. They're all over the house.

 

Bex Scott: [00:36:41] What's the biggest one that you have?

 

Danielle: [00:36:45] A turkey.

 

Bex Scott: [00:36:47] Amazing.

 

Danielle: [00:36:48] Yeah, it's a nesting turkey. And it's like orange and yellow and... It's pretty cool. I mean, I just think it's so funny, you go into most people's houses that are, you know, around our ages, and it's minimalist and boring and gray. Like, there's just not a whole lot of personality.

 

Bex Scott: [00:37:17] Mhm.

 

Danielle: [00:37:18] So, you know what? If I'm a hoarder, so be it.

 

Bex Scott: [00:37:23] Yeah I agree, it's great for people coming over and starting conversations and especially like with our kids growing up, I'd rather them live in a house with memories and things to look at and ask questions about. Where is this from, and What year was this from, then see everything from, I don't know, we have, I don't know if you guys have HomeSense where you are. It's like a mass produced store or home decor store where people get just the run of the mill stuff, but I'd rather have all of the memories and the fun items.

 

Danielle: [00:37:59] Yeah, I mean, I think, I think that's a lot of what the newer generations are missing out on. Like they're not going to have the things that have been handed down generation after generation because so many people get rid of them. They're like, oh, this is ugly so I don't want it. But it's like, I don't know, these are my family's ceramics. So there might be some that I don't love. But my grandmother made it, and for some reason that means I can't get rid of it.

 

Bex Scott: [00:38:33] Yeah. I'm the same. Yeah. All of the things that I keep, even if I don't like them, I keep them because they came from somewhere special.

 

Danielle: [00:38:40] Yeah. So I just think that this next generation is going to be missing out on a lot of that.

 

Bex Scott: [00:38:48] Yeah, I agree, and that makes it even more fun to hunt for items and just love vintage.

 

Danielle: [00:38:57] It definitely does. It's definitely something that I want to be able to pass down. My brother doesn't have quite the same enthusiasm as I have about certain things, but he has asked for a couple of different things we have. Like my great great grandmother, we have her cookie cutters, which is probably weird because they have just been passed down. When I went down, I split the bucket with him and he has, like my grandfathers and my great grandfather's vices, which is like, I don't know if you do much woodworking, but he has that out in his garage, which is really neat because my brother does some really amazing woodworking, creates a lot of custom pieces. So it's pretty cool that he's able to incorporate my relatives vices into his work, which he definitely wouldn't have to. Like, he has other other ones, but when he was able to get those, he retired the other ones that he was using and just put those away so that he could keep using our family's. So I know that he doesn't have quite the same love for the ceramics as me. But, you know, hopefully one day when my niece and nephew are a bit older, I'm able to teach them about this kind of stuff and maybe they'll have an interest in a piece or two.

 

Bex Scott: [00:40:34] Yeah, yeah, that would be great. Same with my family. My brother's not into all of the the same kind of things that I like. And he's more into the tools that our family had for woodworking and construction and that kind of thing. So that's his stuff. And then I've taken all of the the other stuff, so it's nice that way.

 

Danielle: [00:40:58] That's been the divide for us. My brother's biggest one is like my father currently has a pool table that's been passed down. Why we have such, like, random things that get found in my family I don't know, but my brother is insistent on the pool table and the light that hangs above it that those are his. And I'm like, I don't even have space for them, so go for it. But it's just funny the things that you kind of get attached to.

 

Bex Scott: [00:41:33] Mhm. Perfect. Thank you so much for coming on the episode today and for chatting about vintage. It's really great to be able to talk to somebody else that loves similar things and understand what it's like to be a hoarder.

 

Danielle: [00:41:52] Yeah, it was great jumping on and getting to chat with you. Yeah, it's definitely nice to talk to people that are like-minded.

 

Bex Scott: [00:42:00] Yeah.