Thrift Store Thursdays- Girl stuff

I love looking at little girl's toys at the local Toys R Us store. They have everything. And my favorite section is where they have the items to "play house": food, aprons, irons, appliances. Just about anything you can think of, only in miniature size. But have you looked at those price tags? Yikes! So I was quite happy to run across this Little Tikes play kitchen (with sound effects no less) at a Goodwill store for $4.99. And since my daughter has tons of play food (I'm not even sure where it all came from), it will hopefully (the food, that is) have a place to reside, instead of being spread out on the living room floor.

If you'd like to join in on Thrift Store Thursdays, drop by Minimalist Mommy's blog and leave your link.

Thrift Store Thursdays- Home Decorations

While I am blessed to have quite a few thrift stores available in the surrounding areas, I wouldn't say that they are all neccessarily the usual ideal of a thrift store- somewhere where you can get things cheap. GoodWill in particular (we have about 3 within reasonable driving distance) has raised it's prices quite a bit in the last year or so. However, I'm still willing to pay more in some cases: a $5. pair of boys blue jeans is still alot cheaper than spending $20. for the same pair at Sears, especially at the rate my boys wear them out!

However, when it comes to nice decorating items for the home, they have really gotten expensive. I continually pass up things I would love to decorate my home with, but can't in good conscience buy on my tight budget. Anyway, here are a few treasures I have been able to find in spite of that...it just took a little extra digging!

The picture at the top of this post is a Spring-themed tapestry hanging I picked up last week for .99 cents.

My kitchen is done in a fruit theme, so I bought this large candle ring for $1.99 to use as a centerpiece for my table.
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I picked up this set of pictures for $3. They are kind of old-fashioned as pictures go, but I love them, and have them hanging in the hallway outside my kid's bedrooms.



Some of the rooms in my house do not have overhead lighting (the living room for example) so I am always looking for ways to brighten up these rooms. I paid $8. for this standing lamp; it's about 5 feet tall and made out of brass (you can't really tell from the picture). I priced a similar one at the store for $40!

So, for a total of $14. I was able to add a few new touches to our home, well worth the digging.

About 4 months ago I decided I wanted to redecorate my boy's bedroom, so I've been collecting things ever since. I'm hoping to have it finally put together for next weeks Thrift Store Thursdays...I still have to sew the curtains though!

Also, if you would like to join in for Thrift Store Thursdays, drop by Minimalist Mommy's blog and link up.

And while you're there, check out her new ORGANIZING BLOG (I just love the sound of that!).

Thrift Store Thursdays

I'm joining Minimalist Mommy in her Thrift Store Thursdays posts. If you'd like to do the same, just drop by her blog and link up.

Thrift Store shopping is one of my few addictions. It's just amazing the deals you can find if you can get beyond your inner snob. Sorry, I just had to say that. I recently visited a site that discussed fashion and recommended, if all else failed, going to a thrift or resale store (if you could get beyond your inner snob). Well, that's no problem for me.

Being a stay-at-home mom, I don't dress fancy most the time. But for church, or a date night with hubby, I like to put on the ritz a little bit. So I keep my eye open for pieces that have a dressy-casual look. And one of the things I like to wear is a feminine leather jacket (hopefully no one is imagining me wearing a harley).

So I was at my favorite local thrift store and came across a lovely brushed leather jacket marked $15. That's a decent deal at that price. But this happened to be a yellow ticket item that was 75% off that day...so I started to look for the defect. You see, this store gets an incredible volume of people; a jacket this nice, at that price, would never normally stick around to make it to the markdown. I suspected it was brand-new, the little squishy gel packs were still in the pockets. Would you have walked around with those in your pockets for a year or two? Never mind... don't answer that.

Sure enough, I found the defect. The jacket was perfect, except for where the snaps went down the front. The snaps were actually hidden underneath, but when they inserted one of them, it had damaged a spot on the front leaving a worn circle about 1/2 inch in diameter. And something like that sticks out like a flashing beacon on a leather jacket, especially on the front.

Still, at $3.75 , I just couldn't pass it up (it really is a lovely brownish color). But what to do about that spot? I'm going to reveal my amazing technique that made this jacket as good as new:

I went home and colored the spot with a medium brown crayon! Just like it was a coloring book page...but I stayed inside the faded circle:) Hubby couldn't find the spot when I asked him to try. He thinks I'm pretty smart...we'll let him keep thinking that for a while.

But don't leave yet- I have one more great deal. Last week, I went into a local retail store to grab a few things. A clearance stand caught my eye, so I checked it out. And that is where I got these lovely cashmere-lined leather gloves for .99 cents. The retail price on the tag: $24.99!

And they're brown (of course). I quess they thought no one would want to buy them in March, despite the fact that it snowed the very weekend after I bought them.

And I wouldn't have gotten them if I hadn't needed them for warmth (right...).

So those are my treasures...isn't this fun?

I plan to post some home-decorating finds next week- see you then!