Thrift Store Shenanigans
As usual, my sis Beans and I can’t resist finding ridiculous things at the thrift store. Since she LOVES TIGERS!!! we notice lots of things in that category.
Beans was visibly excited about this find, but fortunately, so decided to leave it behind.
This is Wetherbee. He’s missing both legs, and sadly we couldn’t recover them. Beans started speaking for Wetherbee, using a Scottish accent, and it was hilarious. She even wrote a story about how he lost his legs! Look for it in and upcoming post.
Thrift stores provide hours of entertainment for us.
Deep Clean with a Vengeance
So I bet you thought I gave up on Deep Clean Week, that I was going to simply wuss out and hope you forgot. That was my original plan.
But then I discovered that some people we know are moving to our area, and need a place to stay for a couple months. I offered the guest room and my craft room. Both are soon going to be occupied, so I have been cleaning like a mad woman. My plan now is to pull everything out of the craft room, sort through it diligently, get rid of things, and then store the remainder upstairs in our bedroom.
So far I have learned a few things:
1) It helps to start with “before” pictures. I totally neglected this, and now I only have “during” pictures, which mostly just show boxes and piles of chaos.
2) It’s a lot easier to store boxes in Hubby’s closet while he’s at work.
3) I am taking a hard look at my craft projects, and narrowing down which ones I want to bother completing. If a project starts to feel like homework rather than fun, decide if you want to dedicate your limited time to completing it, or if you’d rather work on something else. Do you even want to own the finished product? I put this half-finished denim quilt on freecycle, and 20 minutes later someone came to my house and got it, along with the denim to complete it.
4) I keep finding things I didn’t even know I had, which means I don’t need them, and won’t miss them.
5) It takes way more trips up and down the stairs than seems humanly possible, and I still don’t have amazing calves. I really should, by now.
6) The sound of cat, dog, and even ferret snores are insulting when you are exhausted from working so hard. You can see Mushroom at the bottom of this picture “helping”.
You can see I’ve made some progress; the closets are mostly empty.
The way all this stuff accumulates just shows that I have too many ideas and not enough time.
I have no idea where I will put all my Batman stuff, or my giant Jack Skellington. I also have several thing I’ve crafted over the years that I feel like I have to keep because I made them, but they’re not necessarily practical or useful anymore. That colorful disc at the bottom of the picture is a table top I decoupaged in college. The table has not been assembled since we moved here, but I can’t decide what to do with it. Let that be a lesson to you all: once you craft something, you maybe stuck with it, so make sure you work on projects you’ll want to keep around.
I found this in some of the yarn my Grandmother gave me, and I thought it was funny.
I also found this! I always wanted a parts price list for a Remington Pump Action Shotgun!
I’m very proud of myself, because this is all the yarn I had, and the container and sack on the left are both going to a better place.
That’s as far as I’ve gotten so far. I have sorted through and discarded fabric, art supplies, construction paper, and scrapbooking stuff. Some of it has gone to friends, a huge pile will go to Goodwill, and a bit may go on eBay. I am exhausted from moving so much stuff, and I just want to chuck a ton of it. We’ve made a lot of progress, but we’re probably only halfway done, if that. Stay tuned for more progress reports, or to watch my descent into madness, whichever comes first.
More Thrift Store Treasures
I admit, I like weird things. For instance, when I saw this neon yellow, blue and pink T-Rex at the thrift store, I had to have it.
As well as a bunch of his friends. They also needed a place of honor in my home, where you couldn’t fail to marvel at them.
So now they are on a little black shelf (also from a thrift store) above the TV. I think the lighting from the lamp next to them makes them look truly terrifying. If I could have a human-sized version of this T-Rex in my living room I would be ecstatic. I am completely enamored of my new collection, and I can’t wait to add to it!
Pants to Scarf Transformation
Yes! Some crafts, finally! I was wandering around the thrift store the other day, despairing of finding anything cool, when I saw this fabric poking out from under a pile of clothes. Hubby and I have both been working on pirate costumes for Halloween/Renaissance Festival/random costume parties our friends have, and we need many more scarves.
Someone had split the whole booty area open, in what had to be a brutally embarrassing moment, but I still saw the potential. The fabric and pattern are also pretty close to historically accurate for the time period, which is always a plus.
First, I used my seam ripper to get the pants down to their basic components.
I then trimmed down the sides to make rectangles. I also trimmed off the torn booty area. Keep in mind, this is for a costume, and a pirate at that, so I just basically eyeballed everything.
I wanted it to be a bit longer, so I took some of the other scraps, cut them to size, and pinned everything together. I hand-sewed everything together. The fairly busy pattern of this fabric hides the fact that several bits of fabric form the whole scarf. I wouldn’t necessarily try this same method with a quieter pattern, unless it’s for a gypsy or pirate costume. Gypsies and pirates are supposed to look patched up, so it adds to the authenticity.
Once the bits were assembled, I laid it out, and rolled the sides over to be hemmed. The edges were not straight, so I just folded the extra cloth under to even it out. I pinned the edges down, and hand-sewed everything again.
Here’s the finished product! The ends were already machine-hemmed, since they were the ankles of the pants, so that saved me some work. In the picture, it looks like that end flairs out terribly, but that’s just the way I laid it down to take the picture. The scarf is now complete, and either Hubby or I can wear it for our costumes. I also have some extra fabric from this project, so it may reappear someday. Overall, it only took me a few days, even hand-sewing everything. With a sewing machine, it could have been done in an hour, easily.
Yes, even more skulls!!
I guess you guys have figured out by this point, that I’m a little obsessed with skulls (as you can see here, and here, and here, oh and here, here, and here). I could wear a different skull t-shirt everyday for a week, and now, I can also accessorize with skulls! When Beans and I went to the thrift store, we found a tangled pile of mardi gras beads with skull and crossbones on them. Of COURSE I brought them home.
I simply cut the skulls loose from the rest of the beads, and threw those away. Yes, they are shiny silver, but that’s nothing some matte white spray paint can’t fix! A few of them, like those in the picture, were missing a bone or two. Hubby snapped the extras off for me, and sanded down the sides.
I decided Day of the Dead was the way to go with these (especially appropriate for Cinco de Mayo). I pulled out my paints and tiny brushes and went nuts! Here’s a mid-way through work picture:
And a couple of finished ones:
I used a fine point sharpee to do the detail work. The one with blood pouring out of its eye sockets is my favorite!
I just mixed small amounts of the colors I wanted, and went from skull to skull adding flowers, leaves, hearts, and other details. I just googled images of Day of the Dead to get inspiration. I can’t wait to do more stuff like this!
Several of these will be for sale at the Rockin’ Mama’s Day Celebration this Saturday, May 7, to benefit SafePlace. I hope to see you there!
Fun with Blocks
I had too much fun with Beans at the thrift store. I got some baby blocks, and I’ve been tormenting the pets for my own amusement.
Having a limited set of letters forced me to think creatively, and I think these are hilarious, but I have a weird sense of humor.
Thrifty Fun
Beans and I had too much fun thrifting the other day. This whole post is just me bragging about what we found.
If only I could fit into size 5!
Beans and I freaking loved this. We named him Steve. He’s a funny guy, and my new night light. YEAR ROUND.
It’s DEATH NUN!! You may recognize her from such posts as Thrift Store Treasures. At the Goodwill I found this nativity that looked like Death Nun was part of it, even though she’s not. I just thought they looked super cool together. I love finding bizarre things, and contemplating who originally created this, who then thought it was a good enough idea to mass produce, and who would then subsequently purchase these things? That’s why thrifting with friends, and Beans in particular is fun. We laugh our asses off the entire time.
Thrift Store Treasure
The other day when my sis Beans was in town, we went thrifting. I don’t mean stop-in-at-a-goodwill thrifting, I mean hardcore, forget-to-eat-all-day thrifting. We stumbled across this plastic candle holder that I instantly loved. I was painted a spatter blue, which was okay, but not ideal. It was also starting to chip. I got Hubby to spray paint it with white primer for me, but I forgot to take a “before” picture. Once I whined and moaned enough to get him to do it for me, I didn’t want to interrupt him for the pic.
So this is after the white primer is on there. I’m hoping that will allow my glorious paint to stick much better than the previous. I actually washed it before he painted it also. I had some gorgeous blue paint around from when we redid our coffee table and a small shelf, so I decided to use that. I know it will match, plus having small amounts of the same color around the room makes it look like I actually PLANNED the design. Try not to laugh too hard, it’s possible. I could plan stuff.
I did one coat of paint, let dry completely, and then did another coat of paint. I let it dry overnight, then had Hubby spray it with a clear coat:
You probably can’t read it there, but the important part to me is that it says “Non-Yellowing”. Many of the other products I’ve found say on the label that they cause things to yellow, and I hate that. I went through all the work of painting this a specific color, not a slightly yellower shade. So Hubby did one coat, then let it dry overnight, then I braved the can and did a second coat today, and let it dry completely.
Now it’s hung up with another thrift store find:
I’m calling her Death Nun. I was so excited when I found her, I snatched her off the shelf and looked around to make sure I wasn’t going to have to fight for her. I know she looks like just regular Death, but when you see the back it looks much more like a nun’s habit, or whatever Virgin Mary is always wearing. Plus Death Nun sounds cooler.
You can see a tiny bit of the ticky tac I used to secure her on there. Meh, I’ll get Hubby to fix it when he gets home. I just love the shapes of the candle holder, and I think Death Nun has a lot more visual impact than a boring candle would have. Oh yeah, and Death Nun was a dollar. The candle holder probably about the same (it was from the $1.39 per pound thrift store).
I LOVE THIS THING!!
How to go Thrifting
I know that I tend to type on and on about thrift stores. I can’t help it! I freaking love them! But I also know many people have never been thrifting (it’s okay, breath, we’ll get through this). I want all of you to know the joy I feel every time I go thrifting. The thrill of hunting for treasures in mounds of stuff from the 80′s, and buying your treasure for a teensy price. Plus, I LOVE when people compliment me on something and I can say “It’s from a thrift store!”
The first step, is scouting out thrift stores in your area, via the interwebs. Salvation Army and Goodwill are pretty much nationwide, and Savers are good, if there’s one near you. There are also probably some local ones. If you are fairly nervous about going to a thrift store, maybe drive past once to “case the joint”. There’s no reason you should be nervous, but I know back in the day, I had a certain amount of trepidation, not knowing what to expect.
Once you get in there, there will probably be tons of clothes on racks, some furniture, and small household items. Most places have the clothes divided up by men’s, women’s, and kid’s at least, and some even divide by size and type.
Every thrift store I’ve been to has things pretty well labeled as to location of merchandise, and prices. Goodwill tends to have one large label per rack, like “Women’s Blouses $5″ or something like that, while Texas Thrift puts a price tag on each item. Certain stores, like the Goodwill Outlets sell by the pound, such as $1.49 per pound of whatever you want, and items over 4 pounds are priced separately.
Keep your eye out for gems like this. My sis Beans is obviously super excited about it!
Most of these places take credit and debit cards these days, and they should have those pictures by the front door letting you know which ones they take.
I worked at a thrift store for over a year, so I’m going to tell you a bit about behind the scenes.
1) They do not wash any of the clothes. There is no giant laundromat in back. If things come in dirty, they are probably just trashed, but most things are donated fresh from the dryer.
2) They can sell tons of stuff, from sporting equipment, to fabric, so you can donate and/or find almost anything.
3) Things do not stay on the shelf forever. With the clothes, we would pull everything that had been out for over a month, bag it up, and it was sold, by the pound, to another company that recycled the fabric into other things, like mattress and teddy bear stuffing.
4) This is not a garage sale. Do not try to bargain with the employees. I have never been to one where anyone was given that kind of authority by the company. You are at a THRIFT STORE. If the shirt you want is missing a button, or has a tiny tear, it’s probably because someone else already wore it a lot.
5) I have never been to one that allowed returns, but there are almost always dressing rooms.
I just loved this bizarre unicorn, with what appears to be a pool cue coming out of its head, having recently eaten lots of jalapenos.
I generally approach a rack, and start flipping through very quickly, to see if there’s anything interesting. Sometimes I have a small list of items to look out for, or sometimes I just look for fun. Many places have a color tag system, where tags of a specific color will be on sale for half off for a week. There is usually a big sign at the front of the store to let you know this.
Over the years, I have found supplies for costumes, stuff for around the house, and antiques for dirt cheap. I love thrifting, and I hope anyone who has never gone will try it, at least once.
