Category: thrifting.

Every so often my friend Meggan, the thrift doctor, and I get together on a Thursday evening for what we call Thrifty Thursday.

This tends to be a winter activity for us.  Meggan and her family have a cabin up north that they spend time at in the summer (one of these days I’m hoping she’ll write a guest blog post for us about her cabin, hint, hint Meggan), and I tend to do more garage saling rather than thrifting in the summer.  We hadn’t gotten together for a Thrifty Thursday since some time last winter!  Instead of ‘fair weather friends’ I think it would be more fitting to call us ‘foul weather friends.’  When the weather isn’t suitable for anything else, we go thrifting.

So last Thursday, which was chilly and rainy, Meggan picked me up and we headed to our local thrift store.

We always manage to come home with at least a few goodies.  Meggan has three outdoorsy boys at home and she always finds gear for them at bargain prices, but both she and I are on the lookout for fun vintage decor pieces too.

I always dig through the racks of hangers looking for any with old advertising on them.  I only found one this time …

But I also grabbed several plain vintage wooden hangers.

I thought it would be fun to see if I could add a little faux ‘advertising’ to them.  I started with some old 7 Gypsies rub-on’s that I had in my stash.

These are all from their set called Nomenclature and they ended up being perfect for these narrow hangers.

I pulled out some of the Prima Marketing knob transfers to use on the other two hangers I purchased.

I keep finding fun new ways to use these transfers.  They have just the right vintage vibe for the hangers don’t you think?

While I was digging around in my stash of Prima Marketing transfers I came across one that was a perfect fit for the enamelware refrigerator box that I also found while thrifting.

This is the bottom portion of the smaller sized Seeds transfer.  I’d used the rest of it on a chair recently and this bit was left over.

This box is the perfect size for storing all of my Prima Marketing waxes and chalk pastes.

That reminds me that I never did share that chair here on the blog.  It’s one that I painted, photographed, and then took to Reclaiming Beautiful to sell.  I didn’t get around to looking at the photos until after I’d taken the chair away.  In the end I had taken only one photo that was blog worthy, so I never blogged about it.

So now you know, I only share the cream of the crop here on the blog 😉

Speaking of which, I painted three pieces of furniture last weekend but we’ve had nothing but dreary weather unsuitable for photography since then.  Hopefully the sun will come out again soon.  Sometime before next spring would be nice.  Otherwise Meggan and I will have no choice but to continue thrifting every Thursday.

Linking up with the Vintage Charm Party at My Thrift Store Addiction.

Many moons ago I took you all on a tour of my friend Meggan’s house.  I once said that I consider Meggan to be a master thrifter.  Now that I know her a bit better, I think it would be more accurate to say she has her doctorate in thrifting.  I’m not sure what her doctoral thesis was, possibly the guest post she wrote for us last year about packaging Christmas gifts in vintage suitcases.

I’m sure she could quite easily defend that thesis before a panel of thrifting experts!

Time flies, and we both have busy lives, but Meggan and I try to get together every now and then for a thrifty Thursday.  Meggan’s favorite thrift shop is just down the street from me, so she swings by to pick me up and we spend the evening thrifting.

Historically our thrifty Thursdays have always fallen on bitterly cold winter days.  As in below-zero sorts of days.  But we got lucky this time and last Thursday was a balmy 40+.

Not only did we get lucky with the weather, but we also got lucky with some great finds.

Ironically, I didn’t buy a single Christmas item.  Which isn’t to say they didn’t have plenty to choose from.  We did get a laugh or two out of making fun of some of the tackier items.  And I have to say, if you collect a Christmas village you should be heading to your local thrift store.  There were lots of village pieces including several pieces from the various Dept 56 villages.

I keep eyeing up those little houses because I absolutely loved the way Amy displayed some in her house last year on a pile of giant books.

Looking at that photo makes me think I should head back to the thrift store and buy Ebenezer Scrooge’s house after all!  Amy’s display proves that you don’t need an entire village, just a few choice pieces can create an adorable vignette.

Although I didn’t find any fabulous Christmas items to purchase, I did find a couple of vintage wooden advertising hangers.

It pays to dig through the rack of plastic and wooden hangers to look for a couple of gems like these.  I was pretty excited to score not just one, but two!  Looking at the one that says “U.S.A., Hawaii, Canada & …” makes me wonder if it pre-dates 1959 when Hawaii officially became our 50th state.  What do you think?

I also found a thrift store unicorn.

Usually the luggage aisle at the thrift store is pretty dismal, but every once in a while, in a cloud of magical pixie dust, I find a nice vintage suitcase.

Meggan talked me into this little rocking chair.

I was going to pass it by.  I’ve got a bit of a back log of chairs to paint, and chairs are not my favorite.  They are putzy to paint and they don’t sell for much.  But Meggan pointed out how adorable this one is, and suggested I paint it pink.  I’m not sure I’ll paint it pink, but it definitely will get a paint job of some kind!

Meggan also talked me into this plaid blanket.  She thought the colors were perfect for my guest bed.

And she was right, the combination of pink, coral and yellow is perfect on my Jenny Lind bed.

At just $3.49, why not?  I can use it for now until I find bedding I like better, and then I can just donate it back to the thrift store!

I purchased a few other odds and ends that didn’t make the cut for a ‘before’ photo, including the shelving board that I used to make the Christmas Tree sign for my sister.

It wasn’t until we were headed up to the checkout counter that I spotted the find of the day.

A pair of library chairs!

I’ve painted a few of these in the past.  I think my favorite was this one, painted in Fusion’s Brook.

Meggan says she can picture them painted black though.  How about you?  What color would you choose?

 

My friend Meggan and I don’t often find the time to get together, but we’ve found that Thursdays sometimes work well for both of us.  When we both have one free (about twice a year, and always on the coldest days) we head over to a local thrift store for a thrifty Thursday.  I’ve officially given Meggan the designation of “master thrifter”.  It’s sort of like being a master gardener, but without a test.  Although I’m sure if there was a thrifting test of some kind, Meggan would ace it.  So I’m always happy to follow her lead while thrifting.

Last Thursday we headed out in sub-zero weather.  I expected the thrift store to be dead, after all only slightly crazy people and master thrifters are going to venture out in the ridiculous cold for some bargains, right?  Wrong.  The store was hopping.

The Christmas stuff was displayed front and center and I found some fun vintage holiday gear.  The milk glass Tom & Jerry bowl is so festive!

I chose a couple of items just because their vintage packaging was so awesome, like the tree stand and the cranberry set.

I don’t often find good vintage tablecloths at the thrift store, so this Christmas one was a fun find.

I forgot to include these adorable little house ornaments in my original photos so I had to go back and get a photo of them.  Aren’t they sweet?

In addition to the Christmas finds, I also came home with a few other small items.

I love the shape of that coffee pot.  I am picturing it with a plant in it next summer.

The ironstone casserole dish was missing it’s lid, but for $3.49 I knew it would work perfectly to add to the stack I have in my Welsh cupboard …

I also added another vintage silver plated salt & pepper set to my non-collection.

I’m using that non-collection in a holiday centerpiece on my table this season.

You never know what you might find at the thrift shop, but you really have to take your time to look.  Sometimes there’s a stash of knobs tucked in with a bunch of hardware.  I almost missed these.  I think they’ll work well on a future black dresser.

This little kid sized chair had a bad spray paint job, but I have already brought it into my workshop (a.k.a. on top of my grand piano) to give it a makeover.

Stayed tuned because you’ll be seeing it again soon.