Thrifty finds this week

I rarely stop by Goodwill or the Mission thrift store these days. However, I was out running errands recently so I made certain to visit both stores on my way to pick up a prescription. My timing was perfect!

I wanted to share these items to show how one can have lovely items for serving meals, pretty tea time "girly stuff", and good books at a very low price. Everything shown cost between 49 cents and $1.99. :)

I've been wanting to read Mitten Strings For God for awhile so I was so happy to find it.

I also found a Barbara Pym book I'd never read. If you enjoy British novels, you might like Barbara Pym. I have read two of her books and enjoyed them very much, Excellent Women and Quartet In Autumn.

She is often compared to Jane Austen as she is a great observer of people and her writings show an understanding of human nature in an often humorous manner.

This is called her "darker" novel so I must admit to wondering what it will be like. It was cheap enough I could take the chance to see if it is good. If not, I'll donate it to the library sale.

The silver and crystal carafe was my most "expensive" find at $1.99. I thought it added depth and height to my tea tray... even if I never use it to serve anything, it is pretty.

By the way, the teapot was a garage sale find from long ago.

I really don't need any more serving dishes but these were pretty and cheap. I could think of all kinds of things to serve in them.

It's hard to tell but the round platter is much larger than it looks. Hmmmm... crudites and dip?

I found the tea cozy at the Mission thrift store, on the shelf where they keep all the tablecloths and such. It is very well insulated and the brocade is even prettier in person.

The little old lady at the cash register had no clue what it was and as it had no price, she asked if a dollar would be fine. Of course, my answer was yes!

Even after I told her it was a tea cozy, she looked at me with a blank expression. Obviously not one who has been to enough tea parties... how sad.

Panera and thrifting... does it get any better?

I dropped Christopher off for his four hour work day (he is leaving for a youth retreat in the Southern part of the state this afternoon). Rather than drive all the way home, I decided to have a lovely quiet time at Panera, to also stop by my doctor's office to pick up my blood glucose monitor, and mosey on through Goodwill and my favorite thrift store.

Before leaving, I taped a few pretty vintage decorating and gardening pictures onto pages in my scrapbook journal (very easy to do since I now have everything organized... will share it another day). I clipped a pen with purple ink onto the journal and tucked the Reformed Study Bible on top... ready for Panera.

What a lovely time, sipping half-hazelnut and half-decaf coffee (real cream!) and nibbling on a bagel. It is not possible to do this often... rather expensive in money and high in carbs. However, once in awhile it is such a perfect getaway. I opened the Bible to Romans, where I'm currently reading. I've been using the Study Bible for its' excellent notes.

After awhile, I took out my scrapbook journal and made some new lists as well as checking off past "to do" items... always a good thing. This really is my favorite place for study and pondering. Even though there are conversations going on all around me, the light classical music (sometimes a light jazz) seems to make it easier to concentrate. The only thing better would be to have my daughter with me to chat with. :)

I left there for the thrift store, the one where treasures are hidden. I found a stack of vintage Christmas napkins but only two were in a condition I'd buy them, even if they were only a dime each. I use them as liners for baskets, anyway. I found one vintage dish cloth for fifteen cents. My best buy? They were clearancing out all their coats and I found a very nice trench coat for my son for only a few dollars. He tried it on and it fits perfectly. I also found Beth Moore's book about the life of David and a beautifully bound volume that has With Christ in the School of Prayer combined with The Practice of the Presence of God.

From there, it was only a three or four minute drive to the clinic, where I now see a doctor. I had to give up my specialist when I lost all insurance. I like this new doctor very much, though, even better than the specialist. He listens to his patients. A great advantage of going to the clinic is they are used to working with uninsured people (and my former specialist was not). They helped me get the new bg meter and enough test strips for a year (testing twice a day)... FREE.

By this time I still had over an hour before I picked up Christopher from work so I decided to look through Goodwill... having time to actually look carefully through the clothes. I found a pretty Talbot's skirt half-price ($1.99) and a Talbot's black pullover top that will be perfect with most of my other skirts for $3.99. That was well worth the trip, too.

This youth retreat will be good for him since he's been so busy and stressed with school and work. (Even if it IS suppose to turn cold.) We didn't get the severe weather, it stayed in the southern part of the state. Thankfully, it will all be cleared by the time he gets there. The snow flurries are still in the forecast but we're to return to 70 next week. Such is spring in the Midwest.

All in all... a good morning.

Picture: Morning Glory Coffee Shop; allposters.com

Decorating with a few dollars

Above are the silk sunflowers I found at the first garage sale I went to this spring. They were a whopping $3.00 (but still had the $29.99 price tag on them).


I stopped by another garage sale this past Saturday and purchased the lovely cut glass lamp for $2.00. The silk flowers were a 99 cent find at Goodwill about a month ago.



At the same garage sale, I purchased the lovely violet "jewelry" for a silver candlestick. There are actually two of them but I thought they added just the right sparkle to this scene so I used one and stored the second. Perhaps I'll use them on my other matching silver candlesticks someday ($1.00 at a garage sale because the lady was tired of polishing the silver).

The silk lavender and vase came from a garage sale last summer (hmmm... either $1.00 or $2.00), as did the little birdie thingy. The sewing machine which I absolutely love... a piece of domestic sculpture... was free. It belonged to my mother-in-law. Since it could not be repaired, I cut it out of the cabinet in which it originally belonged and it has found a new home sitting here ever since.


Last... but certainly not least... I took everything out of my "winter" purse (my favorite black leather shoulder bag, also from a garage sale) and put it in my spring/summer bag... a $1.99 real Vera Bradley from Goodwill.

Other than the fact Sasha is waiting for me to stop taking pictures so she can snooze again... life is good. :)

One doesn't have to have money to have beauty.

All pictures appear larger if you click on them.

Necessity is the mother of invention

Regarding the teacups in the drawer, I can clearly remember the decision to place them in there. I had already placed my "display" cups in the corner cabinet...

when I knew I had to find a place for the rest of my teacup collection... which is not easy to do when one lives in a small house.

The drawer came to mind and it has worked out great. It does keep them dust free and safe from two rather tall males with big feet (who are wonderful people but do not always mix well with dainty china).

My granddaughters think they are very pretty but it is my grandson, David, who kept asking for me to open the drawer so he could look at them. I think he has his mother's eye for good design, even if he is only four!

When I first began collecting tea cups about fifteen years ago, I would purchase any that were cheap and pretty. Now I only purchase those that are basically English very fine china or something quite unique... but still cheap.

I have a small collection of sturdy china cups from my early days of collecting, carefully wrapped and stored in a box, which can come out when little ones are here. They are also the cups I'll pull out and place in a gift basket since they are quite pretty but do not require careful handling. I let the little ones take one home with them if they like.

The hutch was in my mother-in-law's dining room/home office area (along with the corner china cabinet). She used that drawer as an extension of her desk. I believe it was originally intended for holding silver ware and linens. Whatever works! Teacups in drawers... as Martha would say... that is a good thing. :)

I'll have to try using salt to clean the teacups, Heather. One thing I found (quite by accident) that works great are the Mr. Clean Magic Erasers... they do work like magic!

A chilly and "thrifty" day

I had a ton of errands to run today, between dropping Christopher off at the Community College before 8:00 AM and picking him up at 2:00 PM. As it was, I had to have him wait for me a few minutes since the stop by my doctor's office to fill out a form took FAR longer than I had anticipated.

However, since I was on "that side of town" this morning, I stopped at the Goodwill near the College and found quite a few goodies. I've wanted one of those Ball jar dispensers with a metal lid to pump my dish washing liquid for a long time. There was one for only 99 cents (far less than the $20.00 in the catalogs). I also found an adorable Christmas present for my five year old granddaughter, and a nice basket with handles for taking cookies to pot lucks and such.

On my way to the doctor's office later in the day, I stopped by a favorite mission thrift store where I found a gorgeous tablecloth that fits my table when it is fully expanded... a champagne color with that beautiful soft feel of expensive linen but it is a cotton poly blend... for $4.00. This is one of those true thrift stores where you have to look through lots of junk to find the jewels but they are often to be found. I purchased another cute basket there for $1.00 that will be perfect as a container for a gift of food goodies at Christmas. I spent more for our late lunch on the way home than I did at the two stores.

Tomorrow will be a "stay at home" day to get caught up on housework and (hopefully) do some baking for the freezer. It is certainly cold enough to have many kitchen days with our high temperature today around 35 degrees less than Monday! If you live anywhere in the vicinity of the Midwest, you may have reached for the Excedrin today, too. One of the libraries in our area is having a book sale this weekend. I need to be chipper and rested up to go elbow to elbow with the other bibliophiles in the area. :)

Isn't that just the cutest baby in the picture above? That is the same baby we were waiting for back in April during "Baby Watch". He is now almost six months old and just the cutest little guy, even with the goofy hat. He completely melted his Grammie's heart as an "almost newborn" when they were here in June.

Now, I must begin working on dinner before this cold weather sends me to the sofa with an afghan and a book. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE the change in weather. I just didn't expect the seasons to change completely within twenty-four hours.

I'm glad you liked the magazine recommendations. I appreciate finding out about a magazine before purchasing it, too. They are so expensive these days that I rarely purchase them. These two were just WAY too good to pass up. I'm planning on making some of the goodies from Paula's magazine for my Christmas gifts this year.