Thrift Store Thursday—9/10

Well, I went waaayyy over my unofficial $10 limit this week. Dixie came Tuesday to visit some of the stores out my way, and I really hit the jackpot that day.

There’s a particularly good consignment shop that I like to visit, and right next door they have an outlet. I assume it’s stuff that spent too much time in the main store. The outlet sells all clothing, shoes, purses and jewelry for $1. Get ready, ’cause here we go. (Advance warning: my bargains are awesome, my photos are not.)

Gap corduroy jacket for fall, $1.

Banana Republic shirt, $1.

Fun crinkly, ruffled shirt, $1.

Black tank w/ lace edging, beaded t-shirt, floral shirt, $1 each.

Anne Taylor LOFT pants, $1 each.

Then we went into the main store.

Bathroom jars, $2.99 each.

Three brand-new 24” white shelves, $5.90 each.

Super-cute rubber boots for Pinkerbelle, $5. Her hand-me-down boyish boots were giving her blisters.

Now that I think of it, I actually got a couple of things last Friday, but I’m not going to bother to dig them out now. Suffice it to say that my weekly total had a growth spurt.

Time to link up! Mcklinky will close Thursday at 11:59 pm.

1. Please link directly to your Thrift Store Thursday post, not your home page.

2. Please mention and link back to my Thrift Store Thursday post.

3. Please put my button in your post, and I'd really love it if you'd use the code to do so :)

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WFMW—Soft Butter

I like to use real butter. I do not like to try to spread it straight from the fridge. The cold butter always wins, the bread loses. My solution: I keep it out on the counter. Call me a rebel.

I first got this idea from my sister. Of course, I was slightly horrified when she told me about it. Butter spoils, right?

Well, in my experience (and hers), no. My stick of butter has never spoiled. Naturally, I do keep the unopened sticks in the fridge, but the one currently in use is in a covered butter dish on the counter.

flickr

In the summer it can sometimes get extremely soft, almost to the point of melting. I usually only put out half a stick at a time, and if the weather is very hot, I may pop it in the fridge over night.

So, there you have it. I may be a rebel. I may take risks. But I always have soft, spreadable butter.

Visit We Are THAT Family for more Works for Me Wednesday tips.

Creating a Collection

I'm joining Amanda's Decorating Dilemmas party. Go on over and see if you can help someone with your ideas!

Last week my friend Dixie bribed me with lunch so I would come over and help her with some shelf arrangements. Over the last year or so she has been collecting white items from thrift stores and wanted to display them.

Her shelves were hung on a wall between her dining room and kitchen. She brought out all her white items and I started playing with the arrangement. This is what we came up with.

She recently painted her kitchen Sherwin Williams Believable Buff. Or Whole Wheat, I can’t remember which. They’re on the same paint strip. Using the white accessories looks clean and fresh, especially against the new color.

After seeing these photos, I suggested that she place a third grapevine ball on the bottom shelf, just to left of the footed bowl. I thought it would help fill in the blank space without filling it up, and use the rule of threes (or odds). She says it looks good. We also discussed the possibility of hanging the round plate on the wall, in its current spot but a couple inches higher.

Dixie said that the thing she likes about her collection is that it’s not all stark white. It’s a mixture of whites and creams. She also likes the variety of textures: the swirled cream and sugar, the cross-hatched finial, an embossed scroll design on the edge of the platter.

I have my own collection of whites, currently in my china cabinet, behind glass doors. I really like it on the open shelves and told Dixie that I fully intend to copy her.

Neither one of us spent too much on our collections—a couple dollars here and there, spread out over a year or more of thrifting. I’ve actually done this a couple times in the past, though, before my obsession with thrift stores. Both times I had a shelf/shelves that I needed to accessorize, and I just went through my cupboards and pulled all the white things I had. Some of them were our regular everyday dishes.

The next time you need a display, keep in mind that anything you have three or more of is a collection.

Cat-astrophe

Some time on Wednesday our cat went missing. Daisy is a totally indoor cat, except for the one other time two or three years ago that she got out and was lost for 48 hours. That time she somehow turned up, meowing, in our garage on the second night.

After that incident, I got her a tag with her name and phone number. A couple of weeks ago, I noticed that her collar was off. The kids take it off from time to time to brush her or whatever, but nobody owned up to it this time, and the collar never turned up and I kind of forgot about it. So, at the time of her disappearance, Daisy was collarless.

Wednesday after school, which was shortly after we discovered she was gone, the children printed up and passed out flyers, and we scoured the neighborhood. Nothing. The past two nights, one or more of my kids have cried themselves to sleep.

Last night at about 4 am, I heard meowing from my third floor window (our house is really just two floors, but we have a walk-out basement, so at the back it’s like three). I don’t know if I was already awake, or if the sound woke me.

Craig ran outside and spotted her across the street in the neighbor’s yard. But instead of running to him, she ran away, behind the houses into the thick brush.

For the next hour and a half or more, Craig, Firstborn, and I (but mostly them) climbed through bush and branch, catching a sight of her here and hearing her meow there. However, she eluded us them. (She still has her front claws, so thankfully, she is not defenseless.)

Now, I should explain that she is not an affectionate cat. She spends most of her day sleeping on the hamper. She hisses at strangers. She doesn’t particularly like to be petted. She doesn’t really like any kind of cat toys, even catnip. I’m kind of wondering if she really wants to come home.

The kids love her, though, and at night she sleeps on Pinkerbelle's bed. We looked again this morning and found nothing. I guess we’ll go back out after dark when her nocturnal instincts have kicked into gear. We know she’s out there. Stubborn cat.

Thrift Store Thursday—9/3

Last Friday I had a doctor’s appt in another part of town, so I scoped out some thrift stores in that area. I had been to one of them once before and hadn’t found anything, but on that day I found these three items.

The cheese dome, to make a mini cakestand, was $1.81. I regularly see these at Goodwill for $3-4, so that was a good deal. The covered jar was also $1.81 (I'm not planning to keep the red things in it), and the little thing was $.40. I don’t know what the thing is, but I thought it could be used like a tiny cloche--when I find something tiny to display under it.

When I pulled out of the parking lot, there, directly across the street, was another United Volunteers (the other UV is my favorite thrift store, and the closest to home).

There, I found the footed glass thing for $.80. I’m planning to use it with a vase filler, but now I’m wondering if it’s really a some kind of drinking vessel. **I have been informed that it is actually a hurricane from Southern Living at Home...score! Now I love it!

The little jar (about half the size of the first one) was $.60, the basket was $2.40, and the dominoes were $1.41. I was specifically looking for more dominoes to finish filling a jar.

A quick trip to Goodwill on Tuesday yielded an identical jar (the small one), and yet another cheese dome (sans the wooden board), for $1 each.

My total thus far being $11.23, I had decided that I was done thrifting for the week. I kind of had it in my head to keep it to around $10/wk, unless I found something really great that I’ve got on my list that would naturally cost more, like a coffee table.

But Wednesday is 25% off day at my United Volunteers, and since I was out, I decided to just pop in. And I popped out with this.

It’s hard to tell from this photo, but it is actually a bedskirt. I just laid it on top of Pinkerbelle’s bed to take the picture. Look at the cute ball fringe!

Unfortunately, Pink’s mattress is full-size, while the bedskirt is only a twin. But don’t worry, I have other plans for it. Oh, and I paid $7.45 for it, so that makes my weekly total $18.67. Things really do add up, don’t they?

Please feel free to join the party! I have been using Mcklinky, and it works well, no kinks so far. I set it to close the list to new links at 11:59 pm Thursday evening, just to keep things easy and clean for me.

1. Please link directly to your Thrift Store Thursday post, not your home page.

2. Please mention and link back to my Thrift Store Thursday post.

3. Please put my button in your post, and I'd really love it if you'd use the code to do so :)

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A Little Bit of Not Much

We have had unseasonably cool weather for the last couple of weeks in August. Pleasantly cool, like 75*, so I’m not complaining, except that it just made it seem like summer was over that much quicker.

With that realization, I thought I would show you my chair planter that I did back in May, before we get a frost. Here it is three months ago.

Today it looks like this:

The thing I like about impatiens is how easy they are. They bloom continually until the frost, and you don’t have to dead-head them. They prefer shade; I thought that because the front of the house only gets morning sun it would be okay, but as it turned out that was still too much for them. I had to water a lot to keep them from totally wilting. Next year I’ll try something more tolerant of sun and heat.

One more quick thing: I used my little thrift store tray to recreate something I saw in a catalog this weekend.

A couple of candles that I already had and some dollar store rocks (also repurposed) created a pretty little display. Easy peasy.

Oh. My. Goodness.

Do you like coffee? How about Starbucks coffee? I know you like ice cream. Well, this, my friend, is going to rock your world!

Starbucks Caramel Macchiato ice cream. I guess this stuff is pretty new. It was on sale at Walgreens this week and I had some coupons, so I got a couple pints, cheap (relatively speaking).

This is rich, full-fat ice cream. It’s made with real cream and real Starbucks coffee. The caramel swirl is made with butter and sweetened condensed milk. That right there ought to tell you something.

It’s the gustatorial equivalent of velvet.

At my Wags they only had the plain Coffee flavor and the Caramel Macchiato, but a look on the website shows that it also comes in Mocha Frappaccino and Java Chip Frappaccino. Oh my. Must. Find. Some. Java. Chip.

I’ll have to hit another Walgreens tomorrow. BTW, there’s a printable coupon on the website.

Joining Hooked on Fridays, for obvious reasons.