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.

Salinas Thrift

Tim and I took a trip down to Monterey, CA. Check out other trip photos here. We took a couple hours upon arrival to check out a couple of thrift stores: Goodwill, Salvation Army and some random one in a strip mall. I nearly peed my pants when I saw Goodwill wanted to charge over $20.00 for a vintage Izod dress. I found better deals at the Salvation Army and walked away with some nice skirts (to be blogged about at a later date). I also found the following item for $1.60:



The lady at the counter couldn't believe I was buying it, but I couldn't see how I could possibly pass it up.

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.

A Few Goodies

And, hello. Happy New Year.

I've recently checked out a few new thrift stores. One was down the street from my one of my favorite Goodwill store. It was called Thrift Center and it was pretty gross. However, I found a few linens I thought were nice. I'm especially in love with the little hand-embroidered mushrooms on the napkins. I just couldn't pass up all the handiwork of these pieces.





The other day I forgot to post this little ceramic bell/wind chime from Japan. I loved her little face. However, I realized once I brought it home, when you hang it, it kinda looks like she's being hung by a noose. Ew. The slight tilt of her head adds to that effect. I'm debating putting this one up, for sure. Perhaps I'll add beads to the string to reduce that effect!

After going to the gross thrift store, Thrift Center (which, I should mention, gives you 1/2 off purchases when you bring in your receipt from the day before), I went to the crazy Goodwill. This is the Goodwill where my hands have a tendency to get the dirtiest. Literally. I was looking for a couple little figurines to place in my terrariums I will be making. I found these cuties:


They were a few dollars each, but I think worth it. They are so sweet and will look awesome in my terrariums once I find a receptacle of appropriate size. So far, I've only found jars (below) that will make great tiny terrariums, but nothing large enough to house these guys.




I made a deal with Tim that if I drove down to Benicia for a friend's party, he would go to a couple Goodwill stores with me on the way. We only got to one because we were running a little late, but it was a good one. It was the Goodwill in West Sacramento. It was 1/2 off day!!! This was very exciting. I spent $27.00. I will post those purchases soon. I need to remember what they were...

Yesterday, I purchased my biggest second-hand purchase ever (besides my condo): my new car! After learning way too much about cars to ensure I would feel good about any purchase I made, I finally bit the bullet! I'm excited about it. Now, I will now have to go about the task of selling my little red Civic hatchback, Floyd. (He's named after the hurricane that came through South Carolina a couple weeks after I got him when I was living there. Luckily the hurricane didn't do any significant damage and my little guy was unharmed entirely.) He's been so good to me. We've been through a lot together. I'll be sad to let him go, but I know it's time.

First "Estate Sale" Experience

I thought I set my alarm for 7:30am to get there early. Apparently, I didn't but I still think Tim turned it off. In fact, now that I think about it, maybe he did that on purpose...

The "estate sale" was not really an estate sale. It was an open warehouse with a bunch of leftovers from this person's antique business. Mostly run down pieces of furniture. However, I did find a set of folksy, hand-painted coasters for $1.00.


I then moved on to a thrift store nearby: Thrift Town! I'd been there once before and found a couple of cool things. Once I arrived, there was an announcement that everything with pink tags was 1/2 off. I thought I got a few pink tags, but apparently they were lavender. I spent a total of about $18.00. I forgot to pick up my awesome necklace at the counter. Boo:(



That print in the picture was found a while back at the Thrift Store Outlet in Woodland, CA. (Yep, outlet) for a couple of dollars. It has an awesome bamboo-style frame.

I'm pretty sure this is mid-century glass. Let me know if you know for sure. It caught my eye at the last minute and I spent a whopping $5.99 on it. I thought it was half off, otherwise I may not have made the purchase. I'm using it to put our remote controls in, atop our Lucite coffee tables Tim found in the garbage a long time ago.

I was hoping the painting I got was from some famous person. It was dated 1955 and framed in Michigan, and painted in Chicago so who knows its story. Turns out, it's not worth a million, but I still like it. I oiled the frame with a little olive oil. I've discovered that works nicely to clean up, smooth out and pretty-up vintage wood pieces I find.

You can find a few other photos of my purchases in the slideshow on the right-hand side of the blog.

Additionally, I purchased Tim an vintage pink t-shirt with kittens on it. I'll post it when he wears it. It should be pretty great. I like a man that's secure enough with his sexuality to wear such a shirt, even if he doesn't like my thrifting problem.