Thrifty Thursday

Although I've been trying to organize and purge the craft room this week, I still hit up the thrift stores and estate sales. WHAT WAS I THINKING!? (And, I've already hauled a few more things home. sigh.) Here's a peek at some of my treasures.

These were from a local charity shop that's often hit-or-miss. 

Speaking of hit-or-miss, Goodwill has been a little bare lately. But, I did stumble on these containers that needed to come home with me. That glass jar is already mostly full of buttons.

On my FIRST trip to the estate sale of a fiber/quilt artist, I picked up these few things.

This is what I brought home after my second trip to her house. There were lots fewer people and a better chance to look around (hence the reason I went back two days later.)

Here's a better look at the buttons I got from her craft room. The jar of buttons was the most expensive thing I bought. I'm pretty sure it was worth it. 

There was at least one other haul I didn't include a picture of, so you may want to watch my Thrifty Thursday Haul Video to get a better look at everything. 

Let me apologize for having two thrifty posts in a row. I've been busy cleaning and working on a new mixed media challenge (of my own design) that will begin on Monday along with handling household responsibilities. I'm trying to balance it all, but I don't think it's working out so great for me. Hopefully, I can get back into the groove of blogging and find a routine soon. Thank you for taking the time to head over here. 

Have you been thrifting lately?

Thrift Mania (FGF)

I know this should have been posted yesterday as part of a Thrifty Thursday post, but I really did run out of time. I worked and ran errands and grocery shopped and made chicken stock and crafted and cooked dinner and did as much as I could without blogging. I did edit the photos for this post though!

Anyway, I've done quite a bit of thrifting lately and wanted to share all my fabulous finds with you!! Here they are in chronological order.

This first one was a weekend thrifting excursion several weeks ago. I found a ton of little baggies of embroidery floss. The ones pictured are only about 1/8 of what I actually bought. Some was already on cards and others were still new like the above. However, I've already put the rest on cards and into my floss box (until I filled it and can't fit these leftovers.) The stuff on the left is just some miscellaneous items from a 'grab bag' type collection.

1. Thrifty Craft Items, 2. Miscelleanious Thrifted Jewelry Pieces
This one was also several weeks ago. On the bottom is a set of matching vintage pillowcases. On top, a vintage daisy brooch, embossing supplies, cross-stitch pieces still in their small embroidery hoops, and a little bag of jewelry pieces. You can see the jewelry pieces better in the picture on the left.

Below are my favorite AND most expensive finds as they were in an antique store. However, I have to say I feel like they were worth it!!
1. Four Pounds of Ephemera, 2. Vintage Button Cards
On the left is four pounds of paper from an estate sale that they had all bundled together. On the right is a collection of button cards and loose buttons that were in a gallon zip bag.

1. Vintage Sewing Box, 2. Inside Old Sewing Box, 3. Wood Spools Found in Old Sweing Box, 4. Vintage Bufferin Bottle
Here's the best part - a old sewing box with all the notions still in it. My favorites were the wooden spools of thread and the glass bufferin bottle with grommets in it.

1. Sep 23 Thrift Store Finds, 2. Inside Vintage Cookbook/Magazine
The above were my goodies from this week: a collection of vintage McCall's cookbooks/magazines, a small glass jar, and a few jewelry pieces. On the right, you can see a sample of the pictures inside the cookbooks. Too cool!

I do have to tell you my "Tale of Thrifting Woe"
During lunch on Wednesday, I ran to the thrift stores and ended up not buying anything at all. I did spot a few things I considered snagging, but decided that I didn't want to bother with checking out right then. Instead, I would think about it until I got off and if those items were still on my mind, I would come back and get them. On the list were two apothecary jars (one large and one small) and a necklace. Sure enough, when I got off, I wanted to get those item. Most specifically, I longed for the large apothecary jar. Wouldn't you know it - IT WAS GONE!! Someone had purchased MY JAR in the 3 1/2 hours I had been at work. The nerve of that person!! I was distressed, but bought the other items instead (you can see those in that last picture.) A lesson was learned!

As you can tell, most of my thrift store purchases are crafty related. I hope to work some of them into my projects at some point. We'll see how that works out.

Now to distract me from the sadness, here's some "Feel Good Friday"

• Advice from a 90 year old
  
• Kaleidoscope - I just love them and have a few collected. I could just stare and stare at this. Fun stuff.
  
• Kitties can sleep anywhere
  
• If you didn't hear, 8/28/09 was the last day of reading rainbow on PBS (according to what I heard on NPR, they don't have the funding and this is not the best way to get kids to read. It's apparently believed that they should be teaching kids the basics of reading, not reviewing books.) It sucks!! That was one of my favorite shows as a kid. It def spurred my interest in books which continues to this day. But, most of all I LOVE the theme song. Watching this video and hearing this song gives me goosebumps and makes me a little weepy to know the ride is over. Enjoy!
  
• Share a little comfort with Kraft Mac & Cheese- Click the button and Kraft will donate a box of the orange goodness MMMMmmmm, makes ya feel good to give!!

What have you been thrifting lately? If you haven't - go on out there and discover all the wonders that exist in your local thrift store, just don't take the stuff I want!!

Have a fab weekend!!

Thrifty Thursday - Thrift Store E.S.P.

I know this is a late post for "Thrifty Thursday", but I've been busy.See... Yesterday, I was directed to (and darnit if I can't remember from where) to the Art Studio Makeover group in Flickr. Looking at those amazing craft rooms and art studios reminded me of what bad shape my craft room is in. I've been crafting on a card table from a plushy armchair. The chair is about two - three feet lower than the table, making working there difficult. After looking through that Flickr group, I began to envision some of the changes I want to make and was compelled to check and see if Goodwill had any tables and chairs that would be useful. I've been really wanting a high table with a stool. So, as soon as I got off work, I headed to Goodwill. There, in all it's glory was the EXACT set I've been wanting. I will not mention the price (it was a bit steep for Goodwill), but the set is brand new and just what I've been picturing for my creative space. This is a picture of it in my living room. I wasn't able to pick it up until this morning, so I've been antsy all day to get home and get it set up. That's why this post is late, I had to set it up first and foremost before my head exploded. Now, it (and I) are in my craft room, just soaking up the loveliness that is a table and chair that are the right height for each other. Whoopee for thrift store ESP!!

Now if I could only decide what I want my first project to be on it....sigh, decisions, decisions. Oh well, I hope all your thrifty visions came true too!!