A day of thrifting!

Since moving to Portsmouth in September, I've only gone to Savers a couple of times.

But since I only just started working, I haven't had any money to shop until now!

And its a real shame; last week there were some grrrreat items I soooo wanted to buy but just couldn't. Boo, hiss.

Anyway, I went today and was a little disappointed in the housewares section - I have a specific list of things I'm looking for, and had no luck today. I did, however, find a pair of jeans (that I have already in another color; in short length!) for $4.99, a North Face undershirt for $5.99, and an Eastern Mountain Sports quarter-zip pullover for $7.99!

 

 

Feeling dissatisfied with my lack of finds for our house, I decided to do a quick iPhone search to see if there is a Goodwill in Portsmouth. Luckily, I found one just a few minutes away! It was really cluttered and kinda dusty, but there was a lot of good stuff and pretty decent prices!!

 

I found this huge, ceramic bowl made in Portugal for only $5.99! I've been looking for a nice bowl to keep our fruits and veggies in for a while now.

 

 

But I think my best find of the day was this BRAND NEW 2-gallon fishtank for $3.99!!!!

 

 

It was in its original box, with all the parts - an under-gravel filtration system, a pump and airstones, and a hood with a light. The lightbulb doesn't work, but that's easy enough to replace. I've been wanting to get a fish for a while now, so this was a really lucky find!

I went to the pet store right away and spent quite a long time trying to pick just the right fish.

 

You can't tell in this picture, but his sides are actually kind of silvery-teal in the light.

 

 

What should we name him??

Unique Antiques

Here are some more pictures from my excursion to the antique mall yesterday...

First, some stuff I didn't buy:

1. A string-holder //  2. Some cool old photo albums

3. A little purple ceramic kitten //  4. A Show-and-Tell Turntable

And then some stuff I did buy: 

I thought this postcard was too funny to pass up. Dated 1913!

Some scenic black-and-whites.. 

Some lovely geishas...

and a photo of an old cowboy! :)

The ephemera is for my art journal, which, coincidentally, I have made a few pages for today.

Look for a post in a little while!!

And the thrifting gods looked down and smiled.

I went errand-running with my mom this morning. While we were on our way to the Goodwill just to drop off a bag of things, we decided to stop at a little junk shop that never seems to be open. We had stopped last Saturday and they were closed... they apparently have very strange hours. Anyway, we saw that it was actually open as we were driving by, so we turned around and went back to check it out.

And holy crap, I'm so glad we did.

There was a big sign on the door that said "For the month of July, everything 50% off". Well, it is August now, but as soon as we walked in the cute little old woman working there said that she had forgotten to take the sign down, so the sale was still on - it was our lucky day!

Here's my loot (for a grand total of just $8.83):

All of these post earrings were just $1.00! I especially love the little sailboats, the hearts, the oranges, and the little green diamonds - those remind me of 'ear sticks' - does anyone else remember those little stickers you could put on your ears???

This awesome drawstring purse was like $2.50. I'm kind of surprised that I liked this, but for some reason it just grabbed me. I'm thinking it will be perfect for the Rennaissance Faire later this month (yes, I'm a nerd like that).

Oh, and when I got home I found these inside of the drawstring purse! A pair of black lace gloves and a crocheted collar! I felt kind of bad that I hadn't even checked inside in the store, but neither did the woman. Oh well.

Then there's this gorgeous vintage silk blouse. This thing is delicate. It was only $1.00.

And this awesome old hand-tooled leather wallet from Mexico. It looks really old, but it has obviously never been used. The inside looks like it has never been touched; it even has a little mirror in it! $1.00!!

You can't really see it very well in this picture, but I found a beautiful silk scarf with butterflies on it....but one of the kittens decided she'd make a bed out of it. And the bright pink flowery thing behind her is a freakin' sweet 80's dress I got at the Goodwill.

Can you believe that? This place is a serious vintage heaven. They're only open 3 days a week, but I definitely plan on making regular trips there!! I can't believe its been there all this time and I've never been inside!!!

Now I'm off to go check out and hopefully come home with a bicycle! Yay!

From the yellowed pages...

I found the most amazing treasure while antiquing with my parents today...

Normally, a scrap book wouldn't get me too excited, but you see, this is no ordinary scrapbook. There is no owner's name anywhere inside of it, which drives me crazy because I'm so curious to know what kind of a person this used to belong to.

Whoever put this scrapbook together must have been a seriously interesting person. It is filled with little snippets of oddities and just generally weird things. I can't really find any real 'theme' to what this person felt was important to keep (besides a few rather sad articles about a murder-suicide involving a widower, his 'niece-housekeeper-sweetheart', and his 3 little daughters).

As far as I can tell, most of the articles are from around 1934-1935, but the page shown below is dated October 1919. Its a huge spread about palm reading (!!).

The front, back, and a few pages in between are stuffed with more articles that were clipped and never glued-in.
This is one of my favorite bits that I've found so far!

This one is really telling of the times, I think.

It seems like this person lived somewhere close to my town... the article about the murder-suicides said that the 3 little girls' bodies were found in a place that's only about 20 minutes from here! I think the palm reading page came from the Harrisburg Tribune.

I'm going to keep poring through this and posting some pictures from time to time, if anyone is interested!

New things

I've been doing a bit of thrifting here and there lately, in anticipation of our move in a few weeks (and, by the way, we met the landlord and signed the lease last night, yay!). Here are some of the treasures I've found:

This is the coolest, creepiest piece of art that ever did exist. I spotted it a few weeks ago, but fought the urge to buy it. It was still there the other day, so I just had to make it mine. I love the colors (which you can't even discern in my crappy photograph) and because its a redhead. With a rabbit. Perfection.

I spotted this dish set last week and couldn't get it out of my mind. Again, I fought the urge to buy it, but yesterday it was still there, so I sent Teddy a picture message over the phone and asked if he liked it. He loved it, and for only $10 (for a 30-piece set!!), I just had to.

Teddy found this on craigslist last week, for only $40. We named it Bastian.

I'd say I've had a pretty good couple of weeks of thrifting. I love it that there's a big thrift store just about 5 minutes from where we live (and from the new apartment, which is only a few minutes away from where we live now). Its just off-campus, so I like to stop there after school sometimes. Plus it's run by sweet little old Amish ladies.

Today is a dreary, chilly day. My poor plants have to stay on the windowsill today instead of on the porch. I should really be studying for tomorrow's Chem. exam, and working on my poster for the colloquium next Thursday, and... plenty of other things. However, I can't seem to get my behind in gear today. Plus, I have this to do:

That's right, I'm baking some fish bones today. I asked my prof. exactly how I should go about preserving the skull, and he said I should bake it dry, then spray it with a polycrylic varnish. This is going to be fun.

The Thrifting Gods Have Smiled...

Ok, this dress was totally supposed to be for the shop, but.....yeah, I think I'm keeping it. The shoes are absolutely amazing...they're brand spankin' new. Did I mention they were only $6!?
Scarf.
Amazing sweater. Its just perfect for Fall, with embroidered leaves and flowers in bright, warm hues.
The shoestring was broken on one of the shoes, so I replaced them with red/pink twine.
This is the dress I got at Target the other day, but the hat and gloves were thrifted.
Please ignore the shell-shocked look on my face. I just finished my Stats homework, and I'm tired. So there.

A Mostly-Productive Day

Wow. Its only a little after 4 o'clock and I've already had like 3 days' worth of productivity. Today is officially my last day off until about Thanksgiving....well, unless I actually REQUEST off from work, which is very probably not going to be happening, since I was interviewed yesterday for a supervisor position...more on that later.

I got up this morning and watched Penelope, which is officially my new favorite movie.

Seriously. And who doesn't want to marry James McAvoy? Umm...I know I do.

I digress. Anyway. After seeing Penelope's awesome wardrobe (see above), I was reminded that today would probably be my only chance to bring in some of my Fall clothes and put away some Summer clothes, etc, etc. That is really no easy undertaking, considering how extensive my wardrobe is, and how little my clothes-storage space is. But I did it. And I did it relatively quickly. So it is, when you have but one day to do what you need to do.

So I have all of my clothes in order. I always love switching my clothes around for the seasons... its like going shopping, without spending any money! I always find things that I forget that I have. I also put away a lot of other stuff that I need, but don't necessarily need 'out'... like, books I've read but don't want to get rid of, craft supplies that I won't be needing in the immediate future, etc. I like un-cluttering!

I got almost all of my homework for tomorrow done. The only thing left is to read my chapter for Psych, but I think I'm just going to do that tomorrow morning over breakfast. I concentrate better in the morning.

Chris and I ran down to WalMart to pick up an oil filter so my dad could change Chris' oil. We just had to stop at the Goodwill nearby, and I found a few pairs of earrings for myself and some new stuff for the Quiet. I'm especially excited about this E.T. Storybook. How awesome is this?!

This is in the shop, too!

So, that's pretty much what I've done today. I still need to come up with something for my youngest sister's birthday tomorrow. She's turning 16! Unbelievable. I have absolutely no idea what to get her... I was fully planning on taking her to the bigger, better Goodwill in Greencastle; but she's out with her boyfriend and won't be home until later this evening, so..... I really don't know what to do. She's really hard to buy for. She has a very similar style to mine, but she already has tons of clothes/shoes/makeup/purses/things...... so Goodwill was really my best bet. She loves the Goodwill anyway. I guess I'll just make her an I.O.U. for a trip to the Goodwill some other time. Hmm.

Oh, and my mom made Apple Streusel Cupcakes for Krista's birthday (we're celebrating tonight instead of tomorrow). She was so proud of herself because she made them with soymilk so I could have some, but then she remembered - oh yeah, there are eggs in them; and I checked the ingredients on the box, and...yeah. There's already milk in there. Mom's still not used to the whole 'vegan' thing. Haha.

First day of school!

Well, its official - today is the first day of school! My little sister is already on campus for her first day of college, how cute. She already called me and asked what she should be doing between classes...haha. I suggested she go to the computer lab, or the library, or Starbucks..... she decided to call a new guy-friend to see if he wanted to go to the mall. Ha!

My first class doesn't start until 3:30 on Mondays and Wednesdays (although Monday nights I will be on campus until 9:15, yuck), so that's cool. I'm completely ready to go already, though! Haha! I'm so excited, just like a little kid!

Here's my outfit:

My favorite top:

With matching red shoes, of course!
I'm so mad about this planner I bought. Its the exact same one that I had last year, except in a different color. So I assumed it would be exactly the same on the inside. NO. This one didn't have a place to write in your class schedule, so I had to draw out my own and tape it to the inside. How ghetto is that?!
And this is completely un-related, but I wanted to share it anyway. My mama found this for me at a yard sale this weekend. Isn't it the cutest thing ever?!

Now I'm pretty much just sitting here, twiddling my thumbs until its time to leave. I need to go a little early today so I can stop at the police building to buy a parking permit and.....go to Starbucks! Hahaha!

Humpty Dumpty

Yesterday after work, I stopped in to the Goodwill really quickly; as I haven't been there in ages. I wasn't in the mood for browsing, so I hit the high points - shoes, purses, dresses, and knick-knacks. After coming up with nothing (except I did find an excellent slip-nightgown thing to incorporate with my Renn. Faire outfit....more on that later!), I was heading out the door when I spied this:

Ok, its supposed to be for little kids, but seriously - who would pass this up?! Is he not the cutest thing you've ever seen?!?

I have yet to experience the desire to have children. I just don't want any. Never have; probably never will. But, just in case..... my child could have this. If I don't ever have children (a real possibility), then....its all miiiiine! Hehehehe. Or I could pass it on to a niece or nephew, or a friends' baby. But probably I'm keepin it all to myself. I've found a nice little niche for him in the corner by the bookshelf, where he can catch clothes, or more likely, jewelry that I would otherwise throw on the floor. I'm bad like that.

Anyway, I'm having a lazy, lazy day. I was mulling over the idea of going to campus to pick up a parking permit and maybe a small meal plan, but I have yet to even change out of pajamas, and its 12:30. So...... yeah, that's probably not going to happen today. I have to be at work at 4:30 this evening, bleh. Those short evening shifts just suck the life out of me, even if its only 4 1/2 hours. I feel like I can't do anything all day because I have to get ready for work, blah blah blah. The most I've done today was watch the Today Show (while simultaneously developing a HUGE crush on Phil Dalhausser, yum!) and some laundry. Wow.

Tall, skinny, and bald...just the way I like 'em! ;D

So that's my day so far. Does anyone have interesting plans, or any plans at all, for this lovely Friday? I'd love to hear what other people are doing today. Perhaps that would motivate me to leave my Bat Cave..... leave me some comments and motivation!

xoxo

Saturday things

Today is going to be a great day.

I'm getting ready to go to a few yard sales, and then I'm meeting up with a very dear friend of mine, whom I haven't seen in months, to go to the 26th Annual Arts & Crafts Fair at Caledonia (which, everyone should know by now, is my most favorite park ever). I'm so excited to see Lauren; we talked on the phone last night for 2 1/2 hours. It was really good to catch up with her.

(That beautiful ring above is one that I'd had my eye on at the Goodwill for a few weeks now. I finally broke down and bought it the other day; and no, it is not going in the shop! Its mine, mine, mine! ;)

***

I'm so excited - I've had quite the little flurry of sales in both Crack the Sky and Quiet, Quiet over the past few days! So far, the new shop seems to be gathering some interest. This is very good, indeed.

***

I also just found out the a very sweet girl that I work with has just opened her own Etsy shop (and, I'm proud to say, I am the one who told her about Etsy, after she had asked me where I got my raincloud earrings last year! Haha!). She has some really pretty notecards featuring photos she has taken. Swing by her shop and have a look!

Moonlight

I got this cute, comfy nightgown (Victoria's Secret!) at the Goodwill today for $3. And my mom laughed at me for getting this, but I think its awesome - its a vintage cheerleading (or perhaps a majorette?) outfit! Its in great condition, and it actually looks cute on me! I have perfect white boots and a little red cardigan that I think will look adorable. Laugh all you want, Mom, I like it! :P

That was pretty much my whole day. I went over to Chris' house and we watched Atonement. I had seen it in the theatre when it first came out. He hadn't seen it yet. I cried. Again.

In money-spending news, I just ordered a back-issue of Herbivore magazine, which I only discovered today. What can I say? It was only $3.

Mirror, Mirror

I scored this awesome mirror at the Goodwill last week for $6. I've been searching for picture frames similar to this, with no luck. But I never dreamed I'd find a mirror like this, especially for that price! The only problem was that it was hideously painted - gold with black painted over it. Very 80's. So I got out the ol' white spray paint, and voila - most perfect mirror ever.

Before

After

Thrift Store Heaven

Oh man. I found some treasures today!

First of all, the picture does this little guy no justice. He's a glass panda lamp/nightlight. The tag on the bottom says Saturday Knight, Japan; and he looks fairly old. I love him so so so much! And guess what. He only cost $4!!

And what could this be? Could it possible be a most-awesome-ever, one of a kind, weird-doll-fabric DRESS?! Perhaps it is...... I'll take some pictures of it in action tomorrow; but now I'm too tired. You'll just have to wait!
And this is a fabulous hand-painted (and signed!) wooden plaque-thing to hang on the future-walls of my future-kitchen in my some-day-house. Anyway, I like birds. So for now its hanging on my bedroom wall. I like it.

I also got a brand new, with tags, navy blue American Eagle jumper dress (very cute!) and a pretty-darn-new American Eagle skirt with little blue flowers on it. Its funny because I normally hate American Eagle, but everything I picked up at the Goodwill today was from there. Go figure.

We also went to a local (Amish? Mennonite?) farmer's market today. I had never been there before, but my grandma said she gets good cereal from there..... anyway, I was super-impressed. AMAZING prices on awesome food. They had a great selection of organic and gluten-free, too, which I thought was really great. I think the Amish lady who was working there was giving us funny looks though....they probably don't get a lot of customers with tattoos and facial piercings coming in there. But they were still very nice, and the cashier told us to have a "blessed day", which I thought was very cute. I picked up some whole wheat pretzels without salt; and Chris got some Gummy Hats, a Sasparilla soda, and some peppermint sticks. They also have an AMAZING selection of sprinkles there (*hint hint, Heidi!*)

Umm....oh yeah, so then this evening I went to my sisters' high school Jazz Band concert. That's always nice and full of nostalgia for me since I was in the jazz band for 7 years. *sigh* The concert was very nice; everyone did a great job. It makes me miss my jazz band days.

After the concert, I went back to Chris' house to watch The Orphanage. It was good, but it reminded me too much of a bunch of other movies. Good, but unoriginal, I guess is what I mean. I'd still recommend it if you want to be a little creeped out and have an excuse to clutch your boyfriend's arm.

So that was my action-packed day today. I think tomorrow we're going to try to go to Renfrew, if the weather cooperates. And now, it is time to go to bed. Goodnight!

Puddleduck

This is what it looks like outside my window today. No wonder I slept late! Oh well, at least its not snow (like it will be the rest of the week).

This is one of the presents my mom got me at the thrift store the other day! Actually....she didn't buy the duck basket for me. She bought it for her classroom because she's teaching a lesson about farm animals this week. But I loved it so much, she said I could have it. I'm going to paint him white and give him prettier eyes (as soon as I get a free minute).

These were actually my real present from my mom's thrifting adventures. I love these little buckets. I have a few watering cans that match, too. I don't know, I just think they're adorable. Just the right size to transfer my little herbs too in the Spring!

And now, I'm off to school, to tramp around in puddles all day! *Note to self: get some galoshes!!