Thrifting, Part 1

If you've been reading my blog for awhile, you probably know I love to visit thrift stores, but since I've been off work for my carpal tunnel problems, I just haven't had the urge to thrift. I'm not exactly sure why except that at first, when both my hands were painful, the idea of buying things and bringing them home and putting them away or deciding how to decorate with them seemed altogether too bothersome, and by the time I was physically up to thrift shopping again, I'd just gotten out of the habit, I think. And, of course, for awhile my main thrift store target was wool garments, and at that point, I had all the wool I could imagine needing. So I stopped.

As I mentioned yesterday, because I signed up for Gran's daughter-in-law's apron class, I needed to head to the thrift store to search for men's shirts for that project, and once I stepped into the first Goodwill store, it all came back to me. Yep, I'm hooked again.

So what treasures did I find? Well, I've now been to five or six thrift shops in the last few days, and I've found several items that are treasures to me. I thought I'd break this into two posts so it's not overwhelming. I hope you'll enjoy seeing what I've found.

On the first day, at the first shop, I found the Sidewinder I showed yesterday, along with a Cabbage Rose quilt book, and that pretty lace napkin. I thought the napkin would make a good background for an embroidery project, although I have no idea what I'll embroider yet. Still, isn't that the fun of thrift store shopping? All the dreams and planning involved in the purchases?

I have a small collection of teapots, and I tend to like the simple ones that have a nice shape and a lovely colored glaze. But my collection was missing a red tea pot--until now!

Another category of treasures I've been searching for are refrigerator containers--remember the days before Tupperware? Although I'd still love to find some colored, lidded glass containers, I was tickled to find this clear Westinghouse meatloaf dish with the lid and no chips or dings. One of the most fun things about thrifting is finding affordable vintage items. I think this dish was $3.99.

And books. I always check out the books and sometimes I find really great ones. Since I LOVE Mary Engelbreit AND crafting, I was thrilled to find these. There are TONS of fun ideas in these books to get my creative juices flowing and my mind thinking about repurposing some of the things I've found thrifting. In fact, a couple of the projects I found here are responsible for the last couple thrifting excursions. I hope to have a few handmade things to show you before too long.

Finally, don't you love these cups? While they aren't really MY thrift finds, I had to share them with you anyway. Gran found these at a thrift store and gifted them to me for my birthday (along with a few other things). Really, what could be better than Christmas cups from Starbucks that have peppermints and red candy decorations? Gran knows me well, doesn't she?!

I need to go out tomorrow and run a couple of errands, and I'm pretty sure a thrift store or two will be added to the errand list. If you haven't been thrifting for awhile (or ever--yikes!), I highly recommend it! Unless you live in the Sacramento area--in which case, hold off for a few days until I've had time to get to all of them first, okay?