Op Shopping = Jigsaw Puzzling?

For Ms Meeps' birthday earlier this year, I gave her a set of vintage china I found at our local Salvation Army store. I nearly didn't buy it because it was not complete - I think there was a teacup or saucer, or both, missing from what was supposed to be a set of six. And a side plate that looked similar but didn't match the other five.

I know, I know. I can't expect such an old set of well-used fragile things to have survived all these years and still have all parts intact. But I'm the kind of op shopper who wouldn't take an amazing vintage dress home, no matter how cheap or rare, if I find rips and tears that I can't fix or stains that I'm not sure I can remove. I am pathetically pedantic like that.

The chatty op shop manager, sensing my hesitation, said that hunting down the missing/matching pieces is part of the joy of collecting old china and knick-knacks. I never saw it that way. I mean, how lucky and patient do you have to be to find pieces with most-probably-discontinued patterns from a few decades ago? And in all my op shop/flea market/secondhand shop-scouring years, I don't think I've ever come across china with the same pattern twice. I bought the set anyway because it was so pretty and I knew that Meeps likes things mismatched "gypsy"-style.

Now, you must be wondering what this little tale is leading up to. Did I find the missing pieces? Where are the pictures? No, I didn't but I did find parts to other old "jigsaw puzzles" recently! When I wasn't really looking to so you can imagine the excited squealing that went with it.

Some time ago, my pal Ms J gave me this set of six colourful vintage glasses that used to belong to her late mother.

A few weekends ago, on one of our op shop-trawling trips, I found a single green one! And the green glass from the original set is the one that I'm most worried about breaking because I love green! What luck, huh?!

It's just slightly different from the rest with one less gold trim at the rim but I didn't really care!

And this cute little Pyrex-esque pudding bowl was the surprise find last weekend!

Coincidentally, it's for Ms Meeps again. Tee hee hee. That girl loves "things" but she doesn't have the patience to shop so Ms Carpet and I are her "personal shoppers". If you are like her, we would be happy to extend our services to you too. Serious. We are good.

A few months ago, I "personal-shopped" a set of five of these mini bowls (how cute is the old-school fruity print?!) for Ms Meeps (and for all the baked desserts she'll be making) in our local Salvos.

Five, I thought, is such an odd number, if you're throwing a dinner party, but Meeps didn't care. "Five is better than none," she said, having just moved into a new apartment. Now she has a decent number of them! Six! YAY!!!!! If they had more at that suburban op shop, I would have grabbed them all for her.

So, my op shop manager pal could be right afterall. It is quite a high finding pieces to complete or to add to an old set of things. When you least expect to. More so for a non-believer like me. Haha. But I think I've now been converted. I'm going to take a picture of Ms Meeps china pattern with me to every op shop I go to from now on!