Vintage of the Day: Last Pair of Ball Jar Salt & Pepper Shakers

Well, if last week wasn't a total "Vintage of the Day" fail. It was.

Jeff (my business partner, not to be confused with my life partner, Kyle) and I recently accepted a really big project with foodandwine.com. We'll be doing recipe development and photography. We both do the recipe developing, I do the styling, and Jeff takes the pictures.

It's exciting and pretty amazing, but also time consuming. We're doing 100 recipes a month! So, I'm adjusting to this new schedule (and a new space, right behind the new house... more on that later) and really dropped the ball on my Etsy store last week.

It's pretty amazing that as soon as I stopped adding an item a day, I stopped selling an item a day. So I'm back to it. This time, I'm parting with the last of this lot of tiny Ball jar salt and pepper shakers. I've bumped up the price a bit, because these have been my best sellers by far. I hope to get my hands on another lot and relist them soon.

Tiny Ball jar salt-and-pepper shakers: $12. 

[pyrexandpennies.etsy.com]

Follow my blog with BlogLovin' or keep up with me on Facebook

Introducing the Pryex & Pennies Vintage Etsy Shop

After talking about it for ages, then opening and quickly closing a not-so-successful booth at a nearby shop, I have finally started my very own vintage Etsy housewares shop, Pyrex & Pennies (of course).

I won't say I was forced into it, but the fact that I was quickly learning the difference between revenue and income lit a fire under my ass. Money is tighter than I hoped it would be right now (though once the freelance checks start rolling in, I should be just fine). And it got scary for a minute. After going through our bills and accounts a few weeks ago, I was just about to hit the pavement to look for a serving job when Kyle asked, "Don't you have anything of value you can sell? You have all of this vintage stuff you claim is so great."

My vintage stuff is great. So I am selling it. At least some of it.

I'm even slowly and somewhat painfully parting with bits and pieces of my vintage Pyrex collection. Not my most loved or rare pieces, or anything that I've been gifted by someone I love. But I'm ready to part with the pieces I picked up along the way just because I was collecting vintage Pyrex. And I'm acquiring "new" vintage Pyrex pieces to list, too. I must admit, though, I'm having the most fun finding and sharing all kinds of other great vintage housewares, like this amazing cocktail set, and these robin's-egg-blue TWA in-flight service trays.

I launched the Pyrex & Pennies vintage shop August 26, but really only populated it late last week. Since then, I've made three sales. My very first one — a set of tiny Ball jar salt-and-pepper shakers — was the most exciting $9 I've ever made in my life. This week, I've sold two vintage cake stands.

To stay relevant in search results and actually have the potential to make some real money, I've decided to list new items every day. I'm sure some days it will feel like a drag, but I am still Emily Farris, so this also gives me an excuse to shop regularly... and responsibly. My total bill for this morning's quick trip to the thrift store was the same amount as the cake plate I sold yesterday. Listing daily also keeps me from having to hide out for a week or so every month to photograph and measure everything. (Though I'd be lying if I said this whole thing wasn't a time suck. It is, but I love all of it.)

The best part? I'll be posting to this blog daily, because I want to post the day's vintage finds for everyone, but I promise it won't be the only thing I post. Pinky swear to the Flying Spaghetti Monster.

For now, though, I hope you'll go browse the Pyrex & Pennies Vintage Etsy shop, and maybe even follow the example of Old Emily and spend, spend, spend!

I'm off to do what I am perhaps worst at: mail stuff on time.