What Not to Thrift

I did some heavy thrifting today since I'm afraid the next 3 weeks are going to be a tad on the busy side. We finally found someone to move our horse here from Louisiana so we'll be getting her settled in. It's always tough being the new girl at the barn so she'll probably get picked on at first but she's likely to inflict more injuries than she sustains since she's a "big boned girl".

We have friends coming to stay with us both next weekend and the weekend after. Then the week after that is the Global Leadership Summit. We're going to the satellite location at Copperfield Church this year which should be fun. I just happened to drive past it the other day and was glad to see that it's conveniently located on Highway 6 right between Wings & More and the U-Haul place. That might seem like unusual placement for a church but it makes more sense to me than the location of the Saint Mary & Archangel Michael Coptic Orthodox Church. If you're tooling down Highway 6 in the Copperfield Shopping Center area just look for the gleaming copper domes sticking up behind the Randall's grocery store.

Back to shopping. I took lots of pictures so I'll keep the commentary to a minimum. I got all of these little wooden spools at the MAM Resale Store for $.25. That was $.25 for the all of them, not each. Heck of a deal.

Remember this project? I wanted some way to secure the hand towels and wash cloths to the inside lid of the suitcase.

A brilliant friend suggested using a pair of suspenders. I'm not one to just run to the suspender store and pick some up. No, I must do it the hard way by waiting until fate places the perfect suspenders in the perfect thrift store at the perfect time and the perfect price. Fate came through today and I picked up 2 pairs. I haven't quite worked out the attachment to the lid thing yet but I'll get there. Baby steps. Oh, and I would really like to meet the man who wore those candy striped suspenders.

I like containers of just about any kind but especially boxes. I knew I needed this box as soon as I saw it but I'm not sure exactly what for yet. It was under $2 so I'm not in a huge hurry to give it purpose. Plus, I hate that leaf thing on the front so I'm going to cover that whole flap with some kind of pretty paper.

The Family Thrift Center in Spring Branch is one of my favorites even though I am the only white girl in the place every time I shop there. I have a feeling it might not be in the safest part of town since their shopping carts have those big plastic anti-shoplifting tags attached all over them. When I was in there today a rather homeless looking man came up to me and mumbled something incomprehensible then held out his hand which contained one very dirty penny. I knew he was asking me to add to his penny but the way he held out his hand sort of looked like he might be offering it to me. I was SO tempted to take his penny and thank him for it but that would have required me to touch the penny and I might not be current on all my shots. Instead I gave him the deadly Green Family Stink Eye and waved him away. I don't have a lot of compassion for panhandlers (or anyone else, really) which actually works to my advantage here in Houston.

Anyway, I picked up a couple of packages of skirt hangers since I never have enough of them. Almost all of my purses and tote bags are hanging from skirt hangers as well as my large sheets of exotic papers in my art room. I might actually have a skirt hanging from one somewhere but I really can't remember.

I know, I know. What the heck, right? I just couldn't resist this big funky key. It's heavy brass and I think it might look kinda cool hanging on a wall after I paint and distress it.

The Family Thrift Center has tons of linens which are my favorite things to buy at a thrift store. I picked up a sheet with a little floral pattern on it that I will probably use in a project rather than on a bed. I got a couple more lace window panels and a valance plus 4 tab-top canvas panels to use on a couple more of my 20+ naked windows that are waiting for treatments. All of our windows have mini blinds but still look naked without something to froof them up. I think I bought somebody's wedding veil cuz it's a huge piece of soft tulle with finished edges. I don't have a specific plan for it yet but I can think of a dozen different ways to use it. I also got a couple of pillowcases that are the thickest, softest cotton I've ever felt in my life. My sister will be jealous, she likes pillowcases. Freak.

I picked up a couple of frames because who doesn't need to frame stuff, right? This layered wooden frame has lots of potential.




















I'm pretty sure that either my mother or one of my grandmothers had a frame just like this at one time. It matches my house perfectly.

When I set the two frames aside I stacked them and look what happened.

I think I'll be doing a little alteration to make those two frames become one. I love it when I accidentally get an idea that way.


These two yucky old tennis rackets looked like earring holders to me. They just need to be cleaned up a little and hung on a wall.

I've had Halloween on my mind a lot lately and I'm really going to miss the hundreds of trick-or-treaters we used to get in Lafayette. To get my mind off it I decided I'd just decorate our house for no good reason. We're not having a party because we know like 2 people here and we're not likely to get more than a small handful of trick-or-treaters. It just doesn't seem right to let those little details put a damper on our fun so I've decided to pretty up the house a little in the name of a festive spirit. I wanted to do a whole Day of the Dead theme complete with smiling skulls all over the place but Taylor poo-pooed that idea because of creepiness. Sometimes I swear she was switched at birth.

Plan B is a black and white Halloween with lots of black and white pumpkins. I especially like the idea of using white pumpkins, either real ones of fake ones painted white, and wrapping them with black lace or other sheer fabric. I might also cut out some Victorian silhouettes for the windows and maybe put some fake ravens in the yard. You know...classy Halloween stuff.

The Family Thrift Center had tons of party dresses that had the perfect fabrics on them but I'll have to buy them a few at a time since we have one income now and my full time job is to spend it. Some of the dresses were around $10 which is great for a size 16 that will cover several pumpkins but not so great for a size 2 that won't even fit around one pumpkin. I opted to buy as large as I could.

This dress was probably half way decent at one time. It's covered with black sequins and little fake pearls and will make some very well dressed pumpkins.

This skirt was on the same hanger with the dress even though the two obviously don't go together. I doubt I would have bought the skirt on its own but since it was a gift with purchase I'll use it. It's a size 24 which gives me lots of silver sequin covered silk to use on my pumpkins. Those gold sequin flowers will sleep with the fishes.

This little ensemble is made from the finest polyester satin which I'm sure I will find a use for even though it's not one of the fabrics I was looking for. What caught my eye was the lovely sequin-edged polychiffon (I just made that word up) wrap that came with it. It looked like a pumpkin cover to me. The dress was $9 but I couldn't justify paying that much just because I like the little wrap and was about to put it back on the rack until I lifted the skirt.

There, hiding beneath the lusciously thick and not the least bit breathable polyester satin was a pettitcoat made from yards and yards of stiff black tulle. SCORE!! I can probably cover at least half a dozen large pumpkins with the tulle and then I still have the rest of the dress as a bonus. Suddenly, $9 was a bargain.

I grabbed a few other less interesting things that I won't bore you with but obviously it was a good thrifting day. I will now spend the rest of my week bonding with my seam ripper.