Tuesday's Thrifty Finds

Yesterday I cleaned out all the closets in the house.  I threw away one trash bag full of stuff and donated five huge stuffed bags to Goodwill today.  We don't even have a Goodwill in town, but we do have a Goodwill Donation Only Center not far from my house.  You just drive up and a bell rings like the old gas stations used to do - the door opens, a smiling face opens your car, unloads it, says "Thank you" and you are on your way.  Super easy and super handy.  And, while it is handy, it doesn't give me the "I just got rid of six bags of stuff, so I deserve a trip to the thrift" excuse to go in to the thrift.  Ha.  So, I had to drive across town to the Salvation Army for that fix!  (I don't like donating to the Salvation Army - they put people that are working Community Service out to accept donations and they are not friendly and I've seen them make fun of donations and throw complete bags of clothes into the "Rag Bin".)  

The Salvation Army never used to sell much Holiday Merchandise.  In fact, they hardly used to sell much of anything.  On Saturday's they had a Parking Lot Sale and pretty much put out all the boxes of donations that came in that week.  People would line up an hour early waiting while they unloaded the pallets of boxes.  I went once, years ago.  I filled up three boxes and they only charged me a couple of bucks.  But, it is dirty work and you can get hurt - I spotted a steak knife sticking up in a box of Happy Meal Toys once, just as The Bean went to dig in it.  I decided never to go back to those sales again.  Recently, they got a new manager and she likes to sell things in the store - as many things as she can cram in there.  And, much to my delight, she has them price it fairly inexpensively. 

They have a a big selection of Christmas items this year.  I was eager to have a look and see if I could find anything of neat-o vintage variety, or if it would all be newer junk.  I'm happy to report that I found a couple of jewels!

Three nice vintage handmade felt Stockings - sequins, beads, glitter.......you can't get any better than that!  $1.00 each.  Lovin' that Santa.

Three vintage-y children's Christmas books - Rudolph will get a glittery treatment and the other two will go to the Booth - 30¢ each.

I found this adorable planter in the new "One of a Kind" section that the Salvation Army recently added.  It is full of quirky and weird things - right up my alley!  I love those cute chubby love birds on top.  It will go in my Valentine decorations.  (Always thinking ahead, I am!).  You are already getting a peek at my favorite item......

Twelve mercury glass picks!  Twelve!  I am always on the hunt for these beauties.  I think I only have three so far.  So, I really increased my collection today!  They were stuck on a tree that was for sale.  I spotted one pick, then another, then another, etc.  I walked around and around that tree, until I had them all picked off and I was a bit dizzy.  I was worried that they wouldn't sell them to me since they weren't priced, but the lady didn't bat an eye, and only charged me $2.00 for them all.  

Tomorrow I go decorate the booth for Christmas.  Next week I will take all my vintage kitshcy items in and stock it up for the holidays. 

Speaking of Kitsch - I had an idea this morning and I whipped out my crafty stuff and made my vision.  I am madly in love with it, and hope you will be too.  But, I will save that post for another day.  :D