the saddest yet greatest thrift store find

My last thrift store experience was probably one of the weirdest for me. Before I tell you about it I must tell you a back story on it.

Every Februrary the school that Seth taught at held an auction to raise money. I was volunteered to make something to sell at the auction last year. I had a hard time coming up with something and became frustrated when I couldn't think of anything I thought someone would want to buy. I browsed patterns online for hours. When I came across this panda pattern on the lion brand website I thought why not? It looked easy and fast.

I started working on it the day before the auction but it ended up taking much longer than I expected. Maybe I'm a super slow crocheter.... I don't know. But I finished him and I wasn't too pleased with the way he came out. He was pretty wonky. He sat funny because I must have not put his little legs on evenly. But after looking at it for awhile I thought it was kind of charming with his imperfections. Surely some kid would fall in love with him, right?

Well the night of the auction I was super excited to see how much he would go for. It seemed as though everything was going pretty high and then I took a look at the bids for my panda... there weren't any for a long time. Finally someone bid on him for a couple dollars. I was relieved he finally got a bid. I was a little bummed he only went for a couple dollars but at least he was going home with someone.

I thought that was the end of that story.

We ended up moving from that town in June & I missed the local thrift store there. Everything goes for super cheap.

This weekend we visited Seth's parents and we were going to go through our old town on the way home so we thought we should stop into our favorite thrift store! I was excited!

I browsed all my favorite aisles and then I got to the electronic aisle. I noticed something that didn't seem to belong in the electronic aisle. I spotted a cute crocheted panda. I thought "hmmm, that's cute. I used that same pattern once" but upon closer inspection I realized that he was much more familiar than that. He sat a little funny... He WAS the panda I made from that pattern.

After realizing that I became super excited about finding it again but then quickly remembered he was supposed to be loved by some kid that has already tired of him.

If you have been reading my blog for a while you may remember the post where I wondered what would happen to my creations when I was gone. Would they end up in thrift stores to be sold for cents or would they be cherished by those who recieved them? I didn't think I would find the answer so soon!

Well I couldn't leave him behind. I ended up buying him back for a dime. He now sits in the kitchen window where he makes me smile when I walk in the room.

crazy yarn

I spent the weekend with my grandparents & they took me to goodwill to shop. I found a scarf for $2 made from a really pretty and soft yarn. I wanted it just for the yarn so I undid the scarf and rolled the yarn into a ball for a new use.

I took some crazy green handspun yarn that I had spun when I was first learning to spin so it has all kinds of crazy slubs & plied it with the recycled yarn from the thriftstore scarf and came out with this really crazy and fun art yarn. I don't know what to do with it now but I think the yarn itself is just fun to look at! I'll make something from it when the inspiration hits. :)

I plied it with a few other yarns I had laying around but the green one is definitely my favorite!

new coffee table

I have been searching craigslist for awhile for a simple coffee table for our living room. I thought what I was wanting was going to be simple to find. I didn't want anything fancy, no glass inserts, & it had to be cheap! After countless times browsing the site I gave up and decided to just not try to hard and if it comes along I will go for it.

On Saturday we went to a local flea market and I found this shelf thingy. It looked like someone took 2 small tables and just placed them on top of each other to make a shelf. So I asked Seth if he thought he could take them apart without destroying them. He looked at it closer and saw that they were just nailed together. They were exactly what I was looking for. Small, simple & for only $6.50 it was the perfect price!

The bottom of the feet were kind of rough so I wanted to put something on the bottom to keep from scratching the floor. I couldn't find my felt so I crocheted some tiny circles and glued them onto the feet. Works just as well! :)

This works a whole lot better than the basket I was using in place of a coffee table! And I have 2 of them... even better!

i love lucy

Seth & I realized how much TV we were watching and how much more we could be doing instead so we got rid of our cable & sold our bigger TV. We still have our smaller one set up in the living room but all we can use it for are DVDs & netflix. So when we don't feel like watching movies it has challenged us to find new ways of entertaining ourselves in the evenings. I have realized once the television is gone, I don't really miss it. I feel more creative & I feel like there are more hours in the day!

Last night we were rummaging through the craft room and found a puzzle I had bought for a quarter at a garage sale last summer and forgot about. I hadn't done a puzzle in years! So we decided to see if we could finish it in one night. So right after dinner we put on some good tunes and started working on it. We finished around 11:30. It was a nice relaxing way to spend an evening with the husband. It was a real challenge on my attention span though but I stuck with it the whole time! :)

brooch

I found this brooch a year and half ago in an antique store in Springfield, MO and it had been sitting in my jewelry box since then. I love it but I always forgot about it. I found it the other day when I was digging through my jewelry box and today I crocheted this doily to pin it to.

Collections Day 2 - Vintage Cameras

Continuing onto day two of Lindsay's Collection Challenge, I have some old cameras that we like to collect. We have absolutely no knowledge on these cameras. Seth won a box of old cameras at an auction once and we tend to pick a new one up everytime we go thrifting.

These 3 cameras were also in the box Seth won. I believe they are video cameras.

This made me laugh. While I was gathering all the cameras up to take a picture of them, I realized we had FIVE of these land cameras. Oops! :)

Smile big!

Collections Day 1 - Vintage Chalkware Banks

This week Lindsay of Pixies & Bears is sharing one collection of hers a day. She asked everyone to join in with their collections. It actually started yesterday but it totally slipped my mind yesterday but that is ok. I am starting today. Today I am going to share our vintage chalkware bank collection. It is pretty small but I love it! We don't buy just any chalkware bank. It has to be crazy, kitschy, or weird looking. It has to make us laugh!

We keep all the change we accumulate when we use cash in these. We saved all the change we had for about 6 months and saved up 30 extra dollars for spending cash on vacation! Saving is more fun with these banks!

This is the bank that started this collection. I saw this bank at an auction and begged Seth to buy it. It reminded me of Alice in Wonderland.


I'm not sure where we found Gramps. Probably the thrift store. Seth found this one.

This is my favorite. Look at those eyes! We keep the change that Seth finds with his metal detector in this one.

This is our newest bank. We found this one at a flea market on our way home from vacation. I love how it looks like a kid's old dirty sneaker. :)

Want to know which one is Seth's favorite?

of course!!

What do you collect?

Thirfting Day

Today I went out to a couple thrift shops here in town. I didn't score a lot but I did find a couple cute things! My favorite find of the day is an owl candle holder that I had been looking for for awhile now. I got it for $2!

Then this evening we went to the weekly auction we have attended a few times. I got this Pepsi case that I will use as a shelf. As soon as I brought it home I set it on the floor and Kizzy immediately decided it was hers. She is too adorable!

I also got a litte owl plaque to put in my shop. You will have to wait until my next shop update to see him but trust me he is a little cutie! I also bought a bunch of t-shirts to make more t-shirt yarn so that will be in the next update as well! I will let you all know when I do my next update so you can be sure to check it out!

Weekend Thrifting

This weekend we got some neat thrift finds. I apologize for the crappy quality of photos but it's night and I didn't want to wait until tomorrow to post about them. Yesterday we found an apron for $1 that I am hoping to add some embellishment to it to make it cute! We found a cute rooster wall decoration for $1, a doily for $1, and 3 cameras. The 2 white ones were $1 each and the brown one was $2. And today after church we found this lamp for $5. I love it! I am going to put it on my night stand. I am hoping to find another one similar to this one for Seth's side.

Does anybody know anything about these cameras? I've never used a polaroid before and I don't know if these work.

Learning New Things

When I learn something new I feel so giddy. Today after picking Seth up from work we stopped at the thrift store. It was a great trip. I found some butterfly wall decoration I want to paint and put up as a little cluster on the wall, a little wall shelf for tiny treasures I find, and I FINALLY found a clock I can use for a style school project! Then I picked up a few shirts to try out t-shirt yarn. This is my first ball of t-shirt yarn. I can't wait to crochet something with it!

I also found a roll of green fabric for $2 so I decided to try making a rag rug with it. I think it is turning out cute already. Can't wait to use it in my kitchen!

And when I got home my business cards that I ordered from Moo.com came in! I LOVE how they turned out! I uploaded a picture of Erin Sunday's gloves that I made her for her birthday & one of my granny square necklaces to be printed on the front. I really love them!

$1 Thrift Store Find

Tuesday after picking up Seth from work we went to the thrift store and I found this indian bead loom in the craft section for a dollar. The kit was gone but the loom was left and I picked it up to see if I could find anything online about how to do it. I found a couple videos but I really just guessed. I am probably doing it all wrong and probably using the wrong materials but I had fun and I would love to learn more about it! If anybody knows how to do this and would like to teach me I would LOVE that! Hopefully I can find some place locally that would be able to teach me. We'll see.