This whole not-having-a-camera thing is really killing me, but I'll share anyway! I hit the Salvation Army yesterday for some professional clothes, but found more antiques than clothes. Then my little sister and I headed out for a visit to the flea market this morning but it was closed due to rain. Flood watch...whatever. We were Wicked hungry though so we stopped at a diner and found Nancy Jean's Attick, which ironically was located in the restaurant's Basement. But I digress...
We found more antique-y stuff and got to "scratch" that thrift-shopping itch!
Now I'm setting up to make tomato sauce from 7 lbs of tomatoes we picked up down the road. Seriously. I love getting my food from "the farm down the road."
So, while my tomato sauce cooks down, I'll fill you in...I found an old mixer! It's in about ten different pieces, but otherwise it's just like the one my mom used to have. Then of course, is the Theodore Haviland serving bowl and platter. Couldn't find the name of the pattern, or number, but it was definitely one of the french-made ones. I also found a Maddock tea cup and saucer which I matched up to their stamp used in 1927; a missmatched Royal Albert tea cup and saucer, and a teeny tiny Thomas vase, of Germany; two white divided oval Glassbake bowls; and a bunch of other cool stuff.
now, where to put it all...Sounds like it's time for a yard sale!
Showing posts with label thrifting. Show all posts
Showing posts with label thrifting. Show all posts
Saturday, September 27, 2008
Wednesday, August 27, 2008
Eco-Frugality
Somehow I missed Hot Topic Tuesdays over at a very mary design. It was fantastic what she wrote about and the comments that generated had loads of examples about smart ways to "go green."
Very Mary ended her post by asking "how has the Green movement effected you and yours?"
My Comment:
"I have just begun thinking more about this in the past few months because I felt I was just one person, how much of a difference could I make? But I finally decided to do something about it when I saw how economical greener living could be (when not buying into SOME of the green marketing ploys out there). First I stopped buying new clothes, then it spring boarded from there...we re purpose, recycle, or compost almost all of what we used to consider trash, use hankies and rags instead of Kleenex and paper towels, use a clothesline instead of the dryer, driving the speed limit instead of wasting gas, use fans during the day (while we're not home) instead of running the AC ALL DAY LONG (While We're Not There!!!) and so much more! It's really incredible the different ways you can "go green" when it just makes economical sense!"
But I forgot that I also:
~Make my own household cleaners
~Use reusable grocery bags
~Got my motorcycle licence
~We've used a built-in water filter system for years (no bottled water)
~Planning a veggie garden for next year
~Reuse plastic baggies (unless they had raw meat in them. I know you CAN clean them, but I don't want to take any chances with that!)
~Drive with as little weight in the car/trunk as possible (saves on gas mileage)
~Put two 1-litre bottles of rinse water in the toilet tank (saves 2 liters of water for every flush)
~If/when we have kids, I plan on using cloth diapers and using more old-t-shirt-rags instead of wipes (and forget about the wipe warmer!)
~Unplug the TV, appliances, etc when not in use.
~As a carpenter, my hubby brings home the extra cuttings from the lumber they use and we have a backyard fire almost every weekend with them instead of just tossing it all in a dumpster.
~Since my company shreds confidential documents then piles that shredded paper in the general trash, I take it home instead to use for making my own recycled Christmas Cards.
But I wonder if she was actually asking not "what do you do that's green," but "how is your life different with the changes that you've made?"
I think the biggest change in my life is a total difference in perspective. I blogged awhile ago about how I no longer shop just for clothes, but I shop for clothes with an eye for the fabric.
First of all, I don't shop for new products unless absolutely necessary. I'll search for a used item before I'll break down and buy used.
So when I go to a thrift shop and check out the clothes there, I'm no longer looking for something that fits me, or even a specific color or fabric, I just shop with an eye out for something that catches my interest.
What have I purchased new recently?
~Bound Index Cards which will stay bound, I'm making them into a book (and they were made from recycled materials)
~An outlet timer. (I think that's what it's called. People often use them when they go on vacation so their lights will come on and go off at different times of the day, making it look like they are still home. I didn't want to take any chances on a faulty timer, so I bought new.)
~Flash Drive (not taking any chances with polluting my laptop!)
~Memory Card for my camera (ditto the above for my camera!)
I also find myself getting the motivations of "Eco-friendly" and "frugality" mixed up in my mind a lot. I am motivated first to be frugal, then to be Eco-friendly. Then I get immersed in the whole concept of being Eco-friendly, and I think of other ways to save money (yes, switching back again) because so many of the ideas for being Eco-friendly are also frugal!
It's a wonderful spiraling train of thought and I'm just so psyched to be making such wise choices and changes in my life!
Other changes I've made that are more frugal than Eco-friendly (not to say that they aren't Eco-friendly though!):
~Making most meals from scratch
~bringing coffee & lunches to work instead of "fast-fooding"
~Stash Month - I haven't bought a single sewing or craft item for all of August!
~First limited my yard saling to the city I live in, then restricted all yard saling activity for a month. (Lot's of gas being used driving all over "tarnation"; and money spend on yard sales is the same as money spend at another "sale", albeit less expensively...but still...)
And Eco-Frugal things I do:
~taking the 30+mpg car instead of the 20-mpg truck unless absolutely necessary (for moving things or camping with lots of cargo)
~adding uncooked pasta to cold water then boiling, shutting off the stove and letting it sit for 10 minutes
~eating more raw veggies and fruits (Eco-Frugal and healthy too, oh my!)
~bought the outlet timer (above) so I can use my old crockpot that doesn't have an automatic shut off instead of going out and buying a third crockpot!!! (Which I really really wanted to do!)
So what do you do that's Eco-Frugal?
Very Mary ended her post by asking "how has the Green movement effected you and yours?"
My Comment:
"I have just begun thinking more about this in the past few months because I felt I was just one person, how much of a difference could I make? But I finally decided to do something about it when I saw how economical greener living could be (when not buying into SOME of the green marketing ploys out there). First I stopped buying new clothes, then it spring boarded from there...we re purpose, recycle, or compost almost all of what we used to consider trash, use hankies and rags instead of Kleenex and paper towels, use a clothesline instead of the dryer, driving the speed limit instead of wasting gas, use fans during the day (while we're not home) instead of running the AC ALL DAY LONG (While We're Not There!!!) and so much more! It's really incredible the different ways you can "go green" when it just makes economical sense!"
But I forgot that I also:
~Make my own household cleaners
~Use reusable grocery bags
~Got my motorcycle licence
~We've used a built-in water filter system for years (no bottled water)
~Planning a veggie garden for next year
~Reuse plastic baggies (unless they had raw meat in them. I know you CAN clean them, but I don't want to take any chances with that!)
~Drive with as little weight in the car/trunk as possible (saves on gas mileage)
~Put two 1-litre bottles of rinse water in the toilet tank (saves 2 liters of water for every flush)
~If/when we have kids, I plan on using cloth diapers and using more old-t-shirt-rags instead of wipes (and forget about the wipe warmer!)
~Unplug the TV, appliances, etc when not in use.
~As a carpenter, my hubby brings home the extra cuttings from the lumber they use and we have a backyard fire almost every weekend with them instead of just tossing it all in a dumpster.
~Since my company shreds confidential documents then piles that shredded paper in the general trash, I take it home instead to use for making my own recycled Christmas Cards.
But I wonder if she was actually asking not "what do you do that's green," but "how is your life different with the changes that you've made?"
I think the biggest change in my life is a total difference in perspective. I blogged awhile ago about how I no longer shop just for clothes, but I shop for clothes with an eye for the fabric.
First of all, I don't shop for new products unless absolutely necessary. I'll search for a used item before I'll break down and buy used.
So when I go to a thrift shop and check out the clothes there, I'm no longer looking for something that fits me, or even a specific color or fabric, I just shop with an eye out for something that catches my interest.
What have I purchased new recently?
~Bound Index Cards which will stay bound, I'm making them into a book (and they were made from recycled materials)
~An outlet timer. (I think that's what it's called. People often use them when they go on vacation so their lights will come on and go off at different times of the day, making it look like they are still home. I didn't want to take any chances on a faulty timer, so I bought new.)
~Flash Drive (not taking any chances with polluting my laptop!)
~Memory Card for my camera (ditto the above for my camera!)
I also find myself getting the motivations of "Eco-friendly" and "frugality" mixed up in my mind a lot. I am motivated first to be frugal, then to be Eco-friendly. Then I get immersed in the whole concept of being Eco-friendly, and I think of other ways to save money (yes, switching back again) because so many of the ideas for being Eco-friendly are also frugal!
It's a wonderful spiraling train of thought and I'm just so psyched to be making such wise choices and changes in my life!
Other changes I've made that are more frugal than Eco-friendly (not to say that they aren't Eco-friendly though!):
~Making most meals from scratch
~bringing coffee & lunches to work instead of "fast-fooding"
~Stash Month - I haven't bought a single sewing or craft item for all of August!
~First limited my yard saling to the city I live in, then restricted all yard saling activity for a month. (Lot's of gas being used driving all over "tarnation"; and money spend on yard sales is the same as money spend at another "sale", albeit less expensively...but still...)
And Eco-Frugal things I do:
~taking the 30+mpg car instead of the 20-mpg truck unless absolutely necessary (for moving things or camping with lots of cargo)
~adding uncooked pasta to cold water then boiling, shutting off the stove and letting it sit for 10 minutes
~eating more raw veggies and fruits (Eco-Frugal and healthy too, oh my!)
~bought the outlet timer (above) so I can use my old crockpot that doesn't have an automatic shut off instead of going out and buying a third crockpot!!! (Which I really really wanted to do!)
So what do you do that's Eco-Frugal?
Saturday, July 19, 2008
Yard Sale and Thrifting finds
Today I gave myself a $40 limit and found some great stuff!
I only went to two yard sales, then went out to the country to a friend's house and HAD to stop at a thrift shop along the way. It's not often that I get away from the city and I'm always up for a trip to a new thrift shop.
I'm so glad I stopped because I found a few great treasures! My total for the day was $30 exactly! And this is what I found...
Two pairs of pants, two pair of shorts and a bandanna. This pair of pants has already been turned into a pair of shorts! My first successful refashion!!
Two gorgeous silver trays...
...an antique top... I asked the woman if she made it and she said she found it at an antique shop. I was just getting it for the beads but now I'm not so sure I want to take it apart!
I'm not sure what I'm going to do with this skirt but I I love the material and it was only $1!
I have a growing collection of pitchers and absolutely love handmade pottery. I lucked out finding two such pieces today!
Handmade by DD in 1975.
Handmade by Kitty in 1960.
I only went to two yard sales, then went out to the country to a friend's house and HAD to stop at a thrift shop along the way. It's not often that I get away from the city and I'm always up for a trip to a new thrift shop.
I'm so glad I stopped because I found a few great treasures! My total for the day was $30 exactly! And this is what I found...
Two pairs of pants, two pair of shorts and a bandanna. This pair of pants has already been turned into a pair of shorts! My first successful refashion!!
Two gorgeous silver trays...
...an antique top... I asked the woman if she made it and she said she found it at an antique shop. I was just getting it for the beads but now I'm not so sure I want to take it apart!
I'm not sure what I'm going to do with this skirt but I I love the material and it was only $1!
I have a growing collection of pitchers and absolutely love handmade pottery. I lucked out finding two such pieces today!
Handmade by DD in 1975.
Handmade by Kitty in 1960.
I really did buy this for the buttons! Well, if it fits, the buttons can stay where they are. But if not, the buttons are totally being used elsewhere!
Parhaps the buttons will be donated to this shirt! I definitely didn't buy this for the buttons. And it's not quite my style right now, but I have a vision of some changes. I think I like the color most.
One of my most exciting finds! At 25 cents each, I found a circa 1994 pattern, ...
circa 1966...
and a crochet instruction book circa 1974! 
Plus these two old scissors at 50 cents each.
Plus I found a small shelf to display my shells and a men's bike in perfectly good shape for $10!
I think I did well!
So to recap...
Yard 1: 2 pair pants, bandana, small shelf, two silver trays, men's bike in perfectly good condition: $18
Yard 2: skirt, vintage beaded tank style top, handmade pitcher, cookie jar: $6
Thrift Shop: 2 vintage patterns, 1 vintage crochet booklet, two tops, handmade pitcher, 3 pairs of scissors: $6
Tuesday, July 8, 2008
A Whole New World
While I was out thrift shopping yesterday, I was seeing clothes in a whole new way. I no longer looked at size or shape, I was basically shopping for material! It was a unique experience, and one I'm eager to repeat.
Cue obsessive behavior!! I found out the thrift shop has dollar days once a week and I was all set, ready to go back later in the week for more material!
But recall that this weekend I organized my new craft corner. What do you suppose I found by doing so? I fille a large drawer plus a large basket of raw material. That is - yards of material uncut. Plus remnants, some I've used parts of, some still in their original rolls. This is not even counting all the clothes that I don't fit into or I don't like...I'm not counting them because I haven't even sorted through my drawers and closets yet! (yes closetS, but there are only two of them and they are the small type.)
So...I'm thinking maybe I have enough stash to last me awhile before I need any new/used material for refashioning!
Therefore I'm implementing a craft budget. I've already started a tally of any wardrobe related purchases, just to keep me aware of what I'm doing. Now I'm going to implement a budget of $50 a month. I only say $50 because I've almost purchased that already! Really, going forward I shouldn't even need to do that. Maybe $10/month would do...for thread, embroidery floss, etc. I have so much! My hubby even asked if I'd like a pantry-style cabinet for the space. I am fitting everything in under the table, but I imagine he sees that might get annoying...but I'm thinking that's where I'll put all the clothes that need refashioning, never mind what I'm hiding under the table skirt!! (he remodels and installs kitchens among many other things, so often takes out old kitchens and can score old cabinets for free if the homeowner doesn't care to keep them.)
Besides limiting myself to what I already have, plus $10/month on craft-related spending, I'm taking a serious look at my house. I had a counseling session today and "Bill" knows me so well! He said he imagines if he came to our house, he'd see lots of "stuff" around...otherwise known as clutter. He challenged me to go through the house and shed with a notebook and just jot down what dominates the space in each room. I'm so looking forward to it!
We had a free yard "sale" this past weekend and got rid of a bunch of hand-me-down exercise equipment, baskets, books, decorative things. But there is so much more that I'd like to get rid of! I was going to have a yard sale, but it's a lot of work on the front end, pricing everything, sorting it all, storing it all until the sale...I fizzled out and just put a free sign out there. It was great, we only had to bring two bags of books and some assorted decorations back in. But there is so much more that I can purge from the house!
So another goal I currently have is to do the inventory, as "Bill" suggested, and also to start putting price stickers on things I want to sell. I think if I do it as I go along, it will make it easy to just bring it out the day of the real yard sale so I don't wimp out again! No worries on the tacky aspect of pricing the house furnishings! We hardly ever have guests, and I'll probably begin boxes to put on the 3 season porch to put all the small stuff anyway.
Cue obsessive behavior!! I found out the thrift shop has dollar days once a week and I was all set, ready to go back later in the week for more material!
But recall that this weekend I organized my new craft corner. What do you suppose I found by doing so? I fille a large drawer plus a large basket of raw material. That is - yards of material uncut. Plus remnants, some I've used parts of, some still in their original rolls. This is not even counting all the clothes that I don't fit into or I don't like...I'm not counting them because I haven't even sorted through my drawers and closets yet! (yes closetS, but there are only two of them and they are the small type.)
So...I'm thinking maybe I have enough stash to last me awhile before I need any new/used material for refashioning!
Therefore I'm implementing a craft budget. I've already started a tally of any wardrobe related purchases, just to keep me aware of what I'm doing. Now I'm going to implement a budget of $50 a month. I only say $50 because I've almost purchased that already! Really, going forward I shouldn't even need to do that. Maybe $10/month would do...for thread, embroidery floss, etc. I have so much! My hubby even asked if I'd like a pantry-style cabinet for the space. I am fitting everything in under the table, but I imagine he sees that might get annoying...but I'm thinking that's where I'll put all the clothes that need refashioning, never mind what I'm hiding under the table skirt!! (he remodels and installs kitchens among many other things, so often takes out old kitchens and can score old cabinets for free if the homeowner doesn't care to keep them.)
Besides limiting myself to what I already have, plus $10/month on craft-related spending, I'm taking a serious look at my house. I had a counseling session today and "Bill" knows me so well! He said he imagines if he came to our house, he'd see lots of "stuff" around...otherwise known as clutter. He challenged me to go through the house and shed with a notebook and just jot down what dominates the space in each room. I'm so looking forward to it!
We had a free yard "sale" this past weekend and got rid of a bunch of hand-me-down exercise equipment, baskets, books, decorative things. But there is so much more that I'd like to get rid of! I was going to have a yard sale, but it's a lot of work on the front end, pricing everything, sorting it all, storing it all until the sale...I fizzled out and just put a free sign out there. It was great, we only had to bring two bags of books and some assorted decorations back in. But there is so much more that I can purge from the house!
So another goal I currently have is to do the inventory, as "Bill" suggested, and also to start putting price stickers on things I want to sell. I think if I do it as I go along, it will make it easy to just bring it out the day of the real yard sale so I don't wimp out again! No worries on the tacky aspect of pricing the house furnishings! We hardly ever have guests, and I'll probably begin boxes to put on the 3 season porch to put all the small stuff anyway.
So once more, I'll leave you with today's lunchcapades.
Monday, July 7, 2008
Lunchcapades
I had a great thrifting trip on today's lunch break, but not many pictures taken. There's lots of new projects and ideas for refashioning! I got 13 items for $33.88. Most of them were 1/2 off too! (Half off thrift prices = 1 happy thrifter!)
On my way back to work, I stopped at Dairy Queen and sprung for a French Silk Pie Blizzard. Mmmm...
Uhhh...yeah, still in transition!
JUST SOME of my beads!
What could I do with this? Actually, I've been looking through my books and mags again and have all kinds of ideas...but which one do I want to do?
Just a little peek under my *table*skirt!
On my way back to work, I stopped at Dairy Queen and sprung for a French Silk Pie Blizzard. Mmmm...
My new bag, a yard sale find from a couple weeks ago. LOVE it! (I should really clean the price sticker goo off it though!!)
THE BIG BAG 'o thrift finds! Off the top of my head, I got a jean jumper...clearly even I would be too small for the thing, but LOTS of great material! Wool button-up sweater that's way too long and wide for me, but I'll be able to make appropriate adjustments. A Pantsuit/jumper with an attached vest. It's black with white cording detail on the vest. Sounds funny, but it's very elegant. And very much too small for me, but will be good material for something and the detail on the vest will dress something up very nicely. A handful of t-shirts, some plain, some with cool logos or designs. One with a parrot scheme I'll use in a reverse applique for something for my dad - huge parrot head!!
All in all, a good break! Here's some more pics from my craft organizing project from this weekend...
Uhhh...yeah, still in transition!
JUST SOME of my beads!
What could I do with this? Actually, I've been looking through my books and mags again and have all kinds of ideas...but which one do I want to do?
Just a little peek under my *table*skirt!
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