Better Than a Thrift Store

I've been looking for some plastic milk crates to replace the canvas boxes we have in our kitchen holding miscellaneous food items. I really don't like the clutter of having all those items out in the open, and the canvas was falling apart and getting marked with flour and such. This weekend, I found something even better in my garage at the house I grew up in: olde tyme crates!

Check out my before and afters:

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.