thrift store addict

Thanks for your comments on the last post!! I'm glad you liked my wooden photo collage as much as I did :)

 

I love snatching up a good deal. In fact, at risk of sounding like an 80s kid I had an awesome day thrifting today!! (which I will share in upcoming thrifty thursdays)

You will often hear me squeal with happiness in the middle of a thrift store when I find a super great deal or something that I've been looking for for a long time (like in the last post). Aside from the flea markets, thrift stores, & garage sales, you'll also always find me paroosing the clearance racks at department stores. I often buy the kids' clothes the season before when it's on clearance. You can find some great deals that way! I was saving money way before it was the "trendy" thing to do.

But you have to be willing to wait. That's the hardest part for me. I waited a long time to find my daughter's bed (which I'll be sharing soon). I waited months to find that tray in my previous post. Our motto: you never know what kind of treasures you're gonna find. And it's true! Sometimes we go to garage sales & flea markets & don't find much at all. Then other times the back of my van looks like this:

After my thrifting today I needed 2 vehicles...had to run home and grab the truck cause my van looked like this:

Shhhh...don't tell my husband! hehe I think my thrifting is starting to get on his nerves worry him a bit. But he did say to me the other day "at least you don't want to go out and spend $5K on a new set of furniture" Very true!

But it's so much fun when you find something!! I love it. I'm officially addicted. And I think my daughter's already addicted, too :) Btw, The Nester had a great post the other day about yard sales. A lot of it pertains to thrifting/flea marketing, too. Go check it out here.

And since I don't think I've done a layout about my new thrifty trips, here's one!

 Everything for this layout is from the latest Studio Calico kit.

thrifty finds

I mentioned that I went thrift shopping last week. My friend Kellie hipped me to the fact that there's a new thrift market in town that just opened 10 days ago. Woo to the hoo!!!

So off to do some thrifty shopping we went!

Kellie was snagging up some super goodies almost immediately. Cause you know, she's new to this "flea market/thrift shopping" thing! hehe And then....I saw it

This dresser and hutch was calling my name. Without all the junk on it of course. And it was a super deal. And I could picture it painted blue (kinda like what the Nester used for her armoire). In fact, that was our "motto" the entire time we were there. Every time we saw a piece of furniture that was cute but not quite right in the color it was, we'd say "I could see it in turquoise!" It needs a good sanding and a few fixes and it'll be good as new. Problem is deciding where to put it...cause I originally bought it for my daughter's room but the bottom part looks really good in my foyer.

I himmed and hawwed (how in the world do you spell that??) But then I thought "well, if I change my mind I could always come back and resell it" Cause, you know, I rented a booth there to unload some of my useless crap priceless heirlooms. Oh, didn't I mention that?? hehe Yep, I did :)

I also found a couple other treasures there

I also got a cute little shelf with baskets but I didn't get a pic of that.

My van was a bit full when I left. My kids got in the car after school and said "what is all THAT??".

Then the next day I went out for more and headed over to Gina's

Such a neat place. Although for some reason I can't get this out of my head when I drive up

You're humming the song now, aren't ya! hehe Here's a treasures I found there. Not sure what this wooden thing is but I already know what I'm going to do with it...and it involves paint (in multiple colors), photos, paper & some embellishments.

Vintage sewing patterns circa 1962/1963. So cool.

And another medicine jar to go in my little cabinet in the bathroom. Don't know why I'm so in love with these little jars but I am!

My son is done with baseball so I'm hoping to head over to the big flea market in AL next weekend and see what else I can find before it gets too hot!!

flea market finds

Last Saturday we braved the pollen and headed out to the flea market over in AL. It was the only Saturday til the end of May that my son didn't have a baseball game so it was the perfect weekend to do it. I managed to snag up a few good finds and so did the kids.

Here's a few of the goodies I came home with

Pepsi crate...I've been looking for a Coke crate forEVAH and finally settled for this one when I saw it. Maybe one day I'll paint it red...

I just thought this wooden butter crate was cute

Not sure what I'm going to do with these canisters but I loved the color of them and they'll look great in my kitchen. 

And flowers, I just can't resist flowers.

It should've dawned on me that there'd be people there selling plants. Next year I'm gonna hit the flea market before Lowes & Home Depot. Good deals to be had!

And the best part of the flea market for the kids (aside from finding a few awesomely priced video games, jewelry & books)...

Shaved ice! This time around it was blue bubble gum...can you tell??

flea market bust

We headed out to the flea market again this morning. This time we left early to try and beat at least some of the heat. We were more prepared this time (notice Olivia's hat!) but didn't manage to find a thing. Nothing. Nadda. I was bummed, my guy with the vintage crates & bottles wasn't there. I thought it was pretty rude that he stood me up. Oh well, maybe next time.

But we did stop at a Rooms To Go outlet store on the way home just to see what they had. We moved our computer from my scrap room into the living room and for the last week it's been on a 4ft banquet table. Very stylish, lemme tell ya. Anyway, we happened upon this desk that was over 50% off. Woo hoo!! It had a few scratches & bumps but who cares...it adds character, right?

Of course, I will be painting it. Not the top, but that ugly yellowy cream color that does not match my living room (or any other room for that matter). I'll probably paint it white. Ooh, but wouldn't it look cute with that blue color that the Nester used for her entertainment center?? And those drawer pulls have to go. But I really liked it and for the price it was a good deal considering the Walmart desk I was looking at was the same price only not solid wood. So even though the flea market was a bust, we still ended up with a good find.

Hopefully the hubster will be home shortly with a DVD rental so we can have some relaxing movie time this afternoon. After all the running around we did this morning my kids are still bouncing off the walls. I swear nothing wears them out!!

I'll leave you with a layout I did yesterday. Finally got to play with the Noel Mignon kit from last month.

I added a vintage dictionary page (how perfect was it that "school" was at the top of that page??) & the "2" was cut from a vintage flash card.

turkeys & bunnies & chickens, oh my! (and other flea market finds)

WARNING ~ lots of pictures ahead!

animal pictures taken by Olivia ;)

We headed out to the flea market again, this time it was just me & Olivia. We got there early, although not as early as I'd hoped. And was it packed. And I mean packed!! I had no idea this flea market was this big since the time I drove by it before was in the afternoon when most sellers were gone. It was super hot. In fact, I got burnt. But it's all good. I managed to come home with some goodies and we had fun, too :)

Seriously people, we're talking HOT outside!

And here's some of our finds for the day...

hehe, Holly Hobbie Christmas glasses!!! I think I might have let out a girly squeal or 2 when I saw these :) The guy had the old McDonald's glasses, too. It was like taking a stroll down memory lane...

Seriously, these were too cute to pass up. Then I found someone I was hoping to find...vintage bottles.

The guy had 2 huge bins full of them. May have to go visit him again. I think the brown one was a medicine bottle. Notice the Listerine bottle on the right? Did you know Listerine bottles used to have a cork? I didn't. Too bad this one didn't still have it. But that cute skinny one did.

Some old music books from the 1920's and a children's book. I really liked that children's books for the pictures...perfect for scrapbooking.

And, of course, Olivia managed to find some treasures of her own:

2 books for a buck each and that Littlest Pet Shop toy for 2 bucks!!

Got this for free (just cause the guy was packing up and overheard Olivia say it was cute!)

And finally, I found this for Ben. A light that hooks onto a baseball cap. It's supposed to be for hunting or fishing (go figure) but I knew he'd have fun with it.

And all of that stuff set me back $14. Not too shabby. Oh, and one more thing about the flea market (and I don't know why this surprised me) but there were many people selling chickens, turkeys, puppies, bunnies, whatever (hence that first picture). Now you know you're at a flea market in east AL when the lady selling bunnies says "if I don't sell 'em today they're goin' on the grill" eeek!! Thankfully Olivia didn't hear that one! Or if she did, I don't think she understood. hehe oh how I love the south ;)

Since we were already in AL and only about 20 min from Opelika, we figured we'd head over to World Market. Ok, I talked Olivia into it by getting her McDonalds and telling her it was a 20 minute air conditioned ride. I could seriously do some damage to the pocketbook in that store!! But I was good...did a lot of looking but very little buying (less than 5 bucks to be exact). But here are some of my faves.

For some reason, I always gravitate towards this stuff:

Oh how I wish I could have just one of each! I was good, only bought one jar. (3rd row up from the bottom, all the way on the right with the cork stopper in it)

And these cuties, oh my

Glasses with a chalkboard on the front. How clever!

And I thought these would be so fun for those popcorn gift pouches and gift sets I sometimes make for teachers

I think the big ones were like $7 for 6 of them. How fun would that be to fill for a "movie night" gift set. Hmmm....

And I must have one of these

Christmas gift maybe???? Couldn't you see using these on Christmas Eve? Don't forget the matching shakers.

So that's it. Hope I didn't bore you with all of my findings today :) Make it a great weekend everyone!!