Obsessed

I love him. I found him for $4.50 in Wyoming at a "flea market" (i.e. thrift store/antique store). the bf thinks I'm obsessed (especially when I took the photo of his backside, but how cute is that little tail?!). He's pretty much right.

Relegated to the Outside

I've been focusing my attention on things for the out-of-doors due to the lack of space we have inside for knickknacks. I need to put up a few shelves. Or, better yet, I have my eye out for a mid-century hutch that I think we can squeeze into the upstairs of our place. (I'm fairly certain the boyfriend would disagree, which could be a problem when I'm counting on him to help me move whatever I find.) Ideally, I want one that I can refinish White Attic-style. Until then, I've been keeping my eye out for great terrarium containers. Here are couple of the greatest finds thus far, newly planted, but still awaiting the perfect figurines:





And a couple of other finds for my stairs out back: a plastic scalloped-edged pot, a white milk glass thingy-ma-bob, and an etched glass other thingy-ma-bob-made-into-a-plant-holder.





Unfortunately, I kill even succulents (sad, but true), so we'll see how long these last.

Go for a little photography, stay for a little thrift

I just got back from a weekend workshop with the Rocky Mountain School of Photography. It was great! My brain is about to explode, but I'll be posting more on that on my other blog. Before hitting the road to come home, I stopped by a small thrift store somewhere around here, unnamed except for the "Thrift Store" sign. Who knows who I just gave my money to -maybe the Mormons. Maybe worse. However, I picked up a few cute things, which were each $1.00.






The bird I'll need to figure out what to do with (I guess put it on a branch), but the little guys are going in my terrariums.

The Goodwill Outlet Experience

This weekend I decided to visit the Goodwill Outlet. I drove past it on MLK Day while my co-worker and I were visiting our teams doing service at local schools. I saw it and couldn't believe it existed. It looked hoppin'. However, it also looked like just a bunch of bins. I didn't understand how this could actually work. I needed a closer look, so I drove there this weekend to investigate. I wish I had my camera. I walked in and sorta freaked out. It was a bunch of bins with tons of people hunched over picking things up from one and throwing them in the other. This was the process for "shopping" here. Workers would roll in new bins, dump and leave again to get more. I thought of leaving. I may have even started hyperventilating a little. It was very overwhelming and a little sad to me, actually. Then, I thought to myself, "When in Rome" and dug in. Just when I thought I adjusted, I was taken aback. Something was wet. In fact, a lot of things were wet. I did not like this. I moved to the other side of the store. Here, I found more broken, useless, and very dirty things. After about 10 - 15 minutes, though, I was pretty into this place. And, these are two of the four items I walked away with for $4.00 (most items go by weight). FOUR DOLLARS! FOR EVERYTHING!

I'm getting into spray painting plastic things, like these birds on a basket. This was a cream color. Now it's an amazing shade of bright-freakin'-yellow and I love it.

This light is old, pink, gold and black and...awesome. According to the label on the bottom, it was made in Chicago, close to where Tim grew up in Beverly. Tim hates this lamp. In fact, he hates most of my vintage lamps, but I assured him it's going to the office.

But, I just couldn't end the weekend with a bad thrifting day...

Sunday I wanted to check out a thrift store near Arden Mall that I had not yet visited. It's called Weave Thrift . It benefits survivors of domestic violence and I wanted to love it. However, it kinda sucked. I was there 3 minutes and decided I needed to quickly make my way to the fabulous Goodwill nearby.

The first thing I found was this awesome Russel Wright casserole dish. It was expensive, but I've been reading up on this stuff and thought that even at $13.00 it was a pretty good deal. Plus, it's nice to look at.




Recently, I went to visit Tim's brother and his wife. They had a nicely organized kitchen, including old candy jar-type containers for their flour and other powdery goods. I was on the hunt for something similar. I found the exact thing they had. However, I decided I wanted something slightly more narrow for our flour to fit in-between our awesome breadbox (which I found at the same Goodwill) and the canvas box of food we have on our open shelves. A few moments later, I turned around and saw this 80s (or 70s?) delight:

Weird. Certainly, this was thrifting fate.


I also found a few other things I had to take home:

I've been checking out the clothing section again. It's been some time since I searched for clothing, and I really shouldn't but...

I've been looking for plates I love that come in more than one. I found these:

The green flowered one is vintage Mikasa (got 3 of these). The other is Franciscan Earthenware (found 2 of these) for about $1.99 each They are not worth a lot, but I like 'em! (Although apparently Tim prefers our boring white Crate and Barrel plates.)

Next weekend is the Sacramento Antique Faire that is every 2nd Sunday. Last time I found some great stuff that I'll photograph and post on my photo scroll soon. Hopefully it won't rain this weekend and I can get Tim to accompany me by bribing him with coffee and breakfast. Tim?