Another Installment of Thrift Finds, or Where Am I Going to Put All This Stuff?!

It's been awhile since I've done a post about all the crap I bring home from the thrift store. My basic rule when deciding whether to buy something at the thrift store is that I either have to really need it or really love it. Both is, of course, the ideal. Lately I seem to be running into a few too many things that I really love but don't really need, though. Anyway. Here are my things!

1. Cool old picnic basket. The top of this is cruddy fake wood pressboard stuff, but the rest of it is awesome. I don't what to do with it! (Soon you will appreciate a recurring theme here). Either paint the lid or take it off and then? keep some throws in it next to the couch? Book basket? I've actually been using it to haul stuff around for now. Functional AND pretty!

2. Ship! I'm pretty sure this is going in the sunroom somewhere. But maybe my den could be good, too, once I do something with my poor den.

3. I have the (perhaps utterly misguided) idea that I don't have enough collections in my life. Like, say, a collection of pretty blue glassware.

4. Antlers! I don't really leave ceramic or metal animals behind very often.

5. I meant to post these with my Thanksgiving dishes post. Nothing terribly special, but there are 10 of them, which is exactly how many I need, and they're kind of cool.

6. Glass hound. Oh. I don't leave glass animals behind, either.

7. I am totally in love with the little brass kitty. Right now she's hanging out being friends with the Fancy Lady in the sunroom. And then there's a brass crown! Fun! I hope no one is too attached to the blue thing in the middle, though, because Milo broke the lid the other day. "Milo! How did that happen?" I asked. "I was putting silly putty on the lid," he explained.

8. For Christmas! Or, you know, maybe for all the time.

9. Swan boats print. Needs new frame, but I think I like the mat that's there. Maybe a gold frame? Or paint that one?

10. The other collection I want? Ceramic dogs.

Planning Ahead Pays Off in the Form of Forest Themed Thanksgiving Dinnerware

*Thanks to everyone who entered the coupons.com giveaway for a Home Depot or Amazon gift card. The winner is......The Cape on the Corner! congratulations, and check your e-mail if you haven't already :)

Every year, for the past several years, we've hosted Thanksgiving dinner for Dave's extended family (his parents and aunt and uncle, specifically). And last year, what with our new formal dining room and all, I finally got around to setting a pretty table for the occasion. Well, I thought it was pretty.

My big splurge was the Patch NYC dessert plates from Target. I love them. Then I picked up plain white dinner plates from TJ Maxx and those chargers from, I think, Hobby Lobby.

I'm planning on a very similar table this year....I may switch up the centerpiece some, because I feel like I should, but same plates, same black and white and gold theme.

But one thing that made my table a little less beautiful last year was my lack of coordinating serving dishes. I did have this bowl and platter that my mom picked up for me (again from TJ  Maxx, I believe)

And then I had these salt and pepper shakers from Target:

And when I ordered the plates, I couldn't resist adding in this clearanced serving bowl:

But there's a lot of food floating around at Thanksgiving, so we still had to use some serving dishes that......didn't go! Horrors.

So I've made it my mission to pick up more white serving dishes before this coming Thanksgiving. And I've made great progress. And an interesting trend has developed completely by accident: not only do I have a white/black/gold theme going on, I have a woodland creature/forest theme going on! Which pleases me greatly. Sometimes the universe tells you that you need forest themed fancy dishes by putting them in the thrift stores for you. Message received, universe!

Okay, actually, this first thing is the only thrift find so far:

But do you see what that is?! It's a mushroom sugar and butter dish set! Google has yielded many images of these exact same pieces painted in a startling variety of colors, so I'm gathering this was a popular paint-your-own-pottery set at some point. The ones on Etsy all claim to be from the 70's. Maybe? I don't know. I'm just glad mine is painted white instead of purple and yellow (true story).

Then one day I got a text from my friend Kristi letting me know that Tuesday Morning had octopus pillows on clearance. Of course I got an octopus pillow. But I also spotted these bowls:

Right? So I had to buy those. When one of those owls is wearing a heaping hat of mashed potatoes, I'm going to be very happy indeed.

And, finally, my elusive gravy boat! I've never had a real gravy boat before. We've always improvised, and it's never felt very....grown up. So I've been on the hunt for a white gravy boat all year. I was shocked when exactly what I needed turned up a couple of weeks ago....in the Dollar Spot at Target! It was one of the $3 things, not really a dollar, but that's okay. $3 for a perfectly serviceable and attractive ceramic gravy boat (I felt like I needed to make it clear that's it not plastic. But a plastic gravy boat would be really weird, wouldn't it?) is a good deal in my book:

I'll still be keeping my eye open for more between now and Thanksgiving, but I think we're in pretty decent shape now.

Master Bedroom Progress: Cane Chair

The other day I woke up and nudged Dave and pointed to the corner and said, "do you remember what an awesome chair we have now?"

My friend Kristi and I went to yard sales the other day (I keep talking about "my friend Kristi" here, and I also keep trying to get her to write a guest post. Like maybe about her fabulous fireplace makeover. Or her lovely newly finished basement. Kristi?)

We didn't find a whole lot at garage sales. I found a ceramic sea shell. She found a poo poo panda for her three boys:

It poops jelly beans! Brown ones.

But then we went to the thrift store, and I spotted that cane chair (I googled. I think I can call it a "barrel backed cane chair"). It was $40, which isn't nothing, and I thought, "I am not sure where to put that chair. Maybe if it's still there when we leave I'll get it."

Then we were looking at paintings, and Kristi told me a story about how, recently, she was at a thrift store and found a painting of a collie. "Or maybe it was a sheltie," she said, and how she hadn't bought it and now she wished she had.

I meditated on this cautionary tale for a minute.

"I think I'd better go get that chair," I said.

So I did. I brought it home, and I realized that--duh!--I have the PERFECT place for it. In this corner of my bedroom. "We can sit in the chair and put our shoes on," I thought to myself.

I love my chair. I know it's fashionable to paint and reupholster such chairs these days to make them more modern, but mine's staying how it is. Reupholstering and I don't get along, for one thing. And also I love it just the way it is. The green is lovely....more of an emerald-y color than the olive you might expect from a chair of its vintage.

Here's how that side of my bedroom is looking now:

You might notice the boat picture I was so fond of is gone now, replaced by that gold mirror. It didn't really seem to fit in anymore with all the other stuff going on in there. I'm thinking maybe sunroom for the boat picture.I bought the mirror at the same time as the chair, thinking I might paint it and hang it in the foyer. But then I realized I could hang it there, and I wouldn't even need to paint it! Perfect!

Linking with:
Tatertots and Jello's Weekend Wrap-Up
By Stephanie Lynn's Sunday Showcase Party
Tuesday's Treasures at My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia

A Successful Thrifting Expedition

On Tuesdays Milo and Gus do a lego robotics thing at a friend's house, so Abe and Ari and I have a couple of hours to kill. Today we killed them by finding awesome things at the thrift store. We picked up my friend (and college roommate) Suzanne, and headed to a new Goodwill. And I found so many incredible things that I had to take pictures of them all and blog about it.

Suzanne spotted these mugs (I turned them funny so that it's hard to tell, but they have handles) and thought I might like them. And I did! So I bought them. I did check on ebay to make sure they're not worth a million dollars or anything, because I don't love them so much that I won't part with them for the right price. But they're not. So they're mine! We got our crazy dog Lucy at Niagara Falls (she was being fostered somewhere in Canada, and we were in Boston, so we met halfway), so it has sentimental value to us as a place where our lives suddenly become complicated and full of expensive dog trainers. Probably these should not go in the dishwasher. Dave hates it when we get dishes that shouldn't go in the dishwasher. But he'll have to forgive me, because I bought him these!

That's right: those are Transformer pajama pants. I don't think I need to say anything else. Suzanne found these, too. Thanks, Suzanne!

I'm going to paint this owl so that it's not so....luminous.

This is not so exciting. It's just a onsie. But it's a onsie with elephants and alligators AND monkeys on it.

And THIS is a tiny chair. What am I going to do with this tiny chair? I have no idea. There were two. Suzanne bought one, and she was like, "I'm going to give this to [her friend's child] to put her Barbies in." And I was like, "I'm going to buy this other one because....TINY CHAIR!"  Maybe I need a Barbie.

Ari spotted this (I didn't find anything myself, apparently; I just picked the right shopping companions). It is the best diaper bag EVER. I love it. I have another thrift store diaper bag, but it doesn't have a shoulder strap, so I hate it and I leave it in the car whenever I can get away with it. But this one is exactly what I want. Yay!

And then look! A footstool! A corduroy footstool. The legs fold up for some reason. I don't know where I'm going to put this either (I wonder if it would look good in the nursery? Or if it should stay in the sunroom? Or if I should decorate my entire den around it?), but I know that I needed it.

And then there was this, the find that got away:

Not for me, actually, although I would have liked it to use for a TV stand. My brother has been looking for one of these to somehow....umm, with computers...turn into a modern stereo type thing. I don't understand. Anyway, I texted a picture to him, and he was like, "yep--that's what I want!" and I was going to pay for it so they'd hold it for him, but then some other lady came along and bought it before I could. Blast it all!

Also, Abe rode in a shopping cart for the first time:

He really enjoyed it....for about 30 seconds.

Dining room: acquisitions and musings

So, when we last left off, we were hoping to make the dining/schoolroom a little less traditional, a little more fun/whimsical/quirky/etc. Part of this plan involved globes. So look what I found at the thrift store today!

Okay, it is not the quirkiest globe in the world. It is, in fact, pretty....traditional. But I think when he gets together with all his other globe friends, it will be a fun globe party. Also, it was $12.99! Googling suggests it probably cost at least a couple hundred dollars new, so I'm pleased. You can spin it around OR upside down! 

I also picked up two maps, one of the world and one of Georgia. I need to paint the frames before I hang them, though.

And look who learned to make a prettier mood board! It still doesn't have links or captions or anything, because I made it on Olioboard, and apparently I'd need to pay $8.99 a month for fanciness like that. I don't think my mood board needs are great enough to justify that. So I'll go with left to right, top to bottom again. Also, I'm aware that Young House Love did a similarly themed mood board a few days ago--and, yeah, I totally snagged the ceramic airplane from there--but I really, honest to goodness, already had the whole vintage classroom-y thing floating around in my head before that. (See: globes!) So here you go: my whimsify the dining room plan.

This one's better than the last one, because some of the pictures are tilted!

1. Card catalog-esque cabinet from Target:  remember how I was thinking of moving the Old Lady Cabinet out to the foyer? This is what I want in its place. I'd rather have a real one, but I called up my mom (of A Classy Flea fame), and she tells me she doesn't come across them very often. And a quick perusal of Craiglist turned up a few, but all of them above my budget (cheapest one was well over $300, and most of them were closer to $1000). The Target one is $217. I'm not sure what I'll keep in it. It's supposed to be for CDs or DVDs, so maybe I'll actually keep some of those in there. And/or school supplies, little kitchen stuff that needs a home, ?????

2. Ceramic "paper" airplanes from Target: yes, these are the ones that were posted on YHL the other day, and I fell in love instantly. I envisioned a fleet of maybe 3 of them flying in one corner, suspended from the ceiling. But I don't really see anywhere where I could attach a wire. So maybe they could just hang out on top of my card catalog instead? $7.99 each

3. Pull-down map: $129.28 on Amazon. I like the idea of a pull-down map, just like old times, but I'm not sure I like it $129 worth. The regular old maps in frames I bought today were just $5 and $6. But maybe!

4.Free printable vintage alphabet art from Rook No. 17: I'm thinking twine strung across one wall, near the ceiling, with vintage flashcards attached with clothespins (we did this with all math flashcards in Ari's old room, and it always made me happy). Maybe even get a few different sets and swap them out periodically. And FREE printables sounds good, right? Look at that elephant--doesn't get any more whimsical than that! I've also thought about making my own with free clip art. And Etsy always has a bunch of cool ones for sale.

5. Classroom clock: $17.44 on Amazon. It's good to know what time it is.

6. Schoolhouse Electric pendant light fixture: wonder if I could sell the fancy chandelier for enough on Craigslist to pay for this light fixture ($239 plus another $70 for the rainbow shades)? Or close? Or half?

7. Vintage globe on Etsy: there are a gazillion of these for sale on there. I don't really plan on buying any of them, because I or my mother will find them cheaper at yard sales or thrift stores if we are patient. But I like this one because it has a random deer next to it. Maybe I need a forest of random animals hanging out with my globes.

And as for the displaced Old Lady Cabinet....Gus and I want a dollhouse. I think the top of the Old Lady Cabinet, first thing you see when you come in the house, would be a great place for that to live. And the foyer is right next to the dining/schoolroom, so plenty convenient for having all that school stuff inside it still.