All This for a Dollar

I believe that I did very well thrift shopping today!

Such treasures in abundance!

A Little Golden book by Eloise Wilkin. I can never pass those up. Not for a quarter.

A Suzy Spafford book! Oh, I like her so very very much! So much so that I once had a dream about all of her cutsy little characters.

"People" by Peter Spier. There is just SO much to see in this book. I have a copy in hardcover also. Presently I cannot see so well, so it's helpful to have more than one copy of this type of book. One for Jonge and Famke to hold between them, and one for me to 'put on my face' as Jonge likes to say, while Famke demonstrates.

I have some sewing shapes, but all of the strings it came with didn't offer much contrast. These brightly colored ones should do the trick nicely.

Not shown, because they just looked boring in the picture, are a baggy of little die which were also a quarter and a nice roll of thin blue ribbon.

Clothes were buy one get one free, so I picked up four cute little boy things.

And spent $5.20.

Creative Thrift

I love the creative thrift of the past.

This is a small table cloth that THGGM's grandmother made.

The applique and embroidery appear on all four corners.

The bowl came as a set of three on the clearance table at Taste of Home.

When the weather, the economy, and my temperamental disposition keep me home on cold, snowy, wintery days, I just start flinging open doors and drawers until I find interesting treasures from the past to look at.

Thrifting for Grandchildren

I did fairly well at the thrift store on Saturday.

I found the puppy puppet for 75 cents.

He is a hand-puppet, but the hands around here are still rather small, and the finger puppets appear to work better.

Puppets do not seem like they could possibly be TOO terribly hard to make. I'm thinking that I'm just not quite ready to prove that idea wrong.

For the homemade variety of puppets I do believe I shall stick with the paper bag or sock kind. For now. Jonge and Famke had a delightful time playing puppet show. And I had a great time watching them. Oh, you can learn A LOT watching a three year old give a puppet show.

I have quite a few of the little finger puppets now. A few I found at a Carter Outlet store. The rest of them came in bags with other little toys for 25 cents.

I'm thinking I should keep a few in my purse so I can entertain myself when I am donating blood plasma.

It's a thought.

Satuday Thrift Shopping

Last Saturday I had the flu and was unable to thrift shop.

This week, I spent FOUR hours attempting to sell my blood plasma. I thought I was going to go insane from all of the waiting. Really. How hard can it be to wait where all that is required is to read a good book until your name is called.

I have problems sitting still. Oh, I can sit and read for loooong periods of time, but I have to move around which is hard to do in an office of other people who are tired of waiting (think THGGM).

So, once we were set free (truly it IS a lovely office) having STILL not donated any blood, I felt the NEED to thrift shop. I stuck to my budget of $5.00 and did pretty well. You can browse at your leisure through the following few posts to see my finds.

But, this little what-not pictured above is what I made while those pictures below were uploaded. Something from the catch-all drawer on my desk in the kitchen.

The 'pink' is the bandage that was wrapped around my arm yesterday after my blood was tested. It reminded me of crape paper. The beauty of it is that it sticks to itself. In the drawer I found a slightly painted peat pot, a drawing of a vintage baby decoupaged onto a wooden disk and a wire from some packaging.

Not sure why I am posting this, except that I love how it looks. Another item to add to my increasingly large pile of things that I have made but have absolutely no idea what to do with.

Books

One of my favorite kinds of children's books is alphabet books. Jonge is starting to ask a lot of questions about words and letters, and he LOVES to follow each word as I read it. Oh, and did you notice that this book has a "Simply Thrift" page? Even more delightful!

"Living with Folk Art" - I almost passed on this one, but then I thought what a good deal it is to find decorating books that never really go out of style. Folk Art, by it's very nature cannot go out of style. Can it? I think not. I spent most of Saturday evening thumbing through this.

Can't pass up a book by Philip Gulley. I'm already several chapters into this one and I'm feeling less depressed about life in general.

Philip Gulley and Christopher deVinck are such good writers about family life from a man's perspective.

I buy both of these authors every chance I get.

They "know things" and share it in ways that help you to understand life better.

Hoodie

This isn't the clearest picture, but it was taken using only natural sunlight. I'm just thrilled to know that the sun is still out there - somewhere...

We keep our house cool in the winter, so I'm always looking for things to keep here so that Famke stays warm.

She has the most perfect complexion for pinks and browns, so this Oshkosh hoodie was a must have. She will love it. Because she is only 17 months old and still thinks that anything anyone gives her is fabulous.

I shall take full advantage of this for as long as it will last.

Non-vintage Baby

There isn't anything vintage about these baby items. I found them at the thrift store yesterday.

Two handmade burp clothes and a Disney brand receiving blanket.

The burp clothes make easy to handle blankets for Famke's dollies and can be called into play in June when her new sibling makes an appearance.

And, I cannot imagine not having a large stack of receiving blankets on hand. They are wonderful for just about anything having to do with small children and dolls. Smalls stains or holes? Just cut around them to make soft toys or bibs.

Vintage Baby

I haven't been out to thrift shop in what seems like a very long time.

But, I've been poking into corners around my house and finding more of my favorite thrift finds!

This mobile being one of them.

And, since the sun was shining so nicely through the window I thought I'd try to get a few pictures.

I paid four dollars for this. It is in near perfect condition. The music box plays Brahm's Lullaby and the box.., oh.., I would have paid four dollars just for the graphics on the box.

I just might have to go in search of more of my favorite vintage baby things!

Do These Not Scream "Grandma"?

They do. They scream grandma.

My grandchildren do not call me 'beppe' for nothing.

The era of this house lends itself so well to vintage thrifty finds.

Maybe it's just because when we first came through it, the kitchen was filled with Delft.

THGGM also did well thrift shopping today.

He found two old metal-framed oriental pictures. They are lovely and will find a place of honor in our basement, which he is presently painting. He also found three Ralph Lauren shirts - they were buy one get two free. We threw our budget to the wind today, as we had Christmas money to spend.

More of my purchases appear in the posts below. It was a good day for thrifting.

Thrifting at Michaels Craft Store

I was not going to go to Michael's, I really truly was not.

But, I did.

I found some clearance packages of bottle brush trees and two cardboard houses.

Two packages of trees.

Two cardboard houses.

That was all. Almost. Some photo cards with envelopes. I shared those. Because I'm nice.

Tins

I quit buying tins.

Once.

I guess I'm buying them again.

At least when they cost 50 cents.

Droste tins are my favorite.

At least today they are.

Fun Finds for Famke

I cannot deny it.

I have a weakness for all things pink and girly - for Famke anyway.

The Sock Monkey bathrobe was too cute to pass up, even though she will have to grow a bit. Time tells that little girls do grow. This was two dollars. I wish they had one in my size.

I also found this Oshgosh one-button pink sweater. This should fit her now. It too was only two dollars. Since I am one of those people who likes to have her house cool in the winter, having sweaters on hand is necessary. When 'necessary' is also cute, well.., this grandma buys it.

Thrifty Bathroom

It is really hard to get a good picture inside of a teeny tiny half-bath.

I'm not sure if we have upgraded this bathroom, or downgraded it.

We took off perfectly good shimmery/glossy butterfly wallpaper (it only took us a year) and finally finished painting it - today!

The color is called 'cornmeal' and I love it.

The valance at the window is a small Shabby Chic piece I found for a dollar. I thought it would make cute doll slips. Someday, it still may.

Today I made the flowered valance and the sink skirt. For that I used an old piece of material that I thrifted years ago. It has been many different things around here.

It's last purpose was a cushion cover on an old chair.

The three small pictures THGGM bought off the wall in a bathroom at an antique mall. Can't remember where the shelf came from, it's been around a loooong time.

The room also had a perfectly good, yet ugly, medicine cabinet. THGGM ripped it out of the wall and added this thrifted piece. We left the old lights. I think they are kind of cool. My collection of cobalt glass odds and ends are in the hole left by the inset from the old medicine cabinet and are also perched on top of it. I cannot get far enough back to get a decent picture of it.

The sink skirt is my favorite addition. It nicely hides the wastepaper basket and a bench.

Please do not look closely at my sewing. I broke every rule. I DO now iron when I sew, but I didn't use any pins. Pins hurt. THGGM added the pleat. My plan was to have it be all bunchy, but he is opinionated - and often right. Often. Not always.