Thrift: Story Books

A few weeks ago Mason's parents sent a ton of old books home with us. They are old, some more used than others, and they have that old book smell.

This is our favourite so far:

It has pages and pages and pages of silly nonsense.

Antiquing With Mom

Last weekend Gavin and I made the trip to Regina for Ben's birthday. Gavin always does the rounds while we're there, so when he was with Mason's parents, Mom and I went to the Antique Mall. It was on a total whim and we got lucky to catch them open on a Sunday, but I couldn't have thought of a better way to spend a Sunday afternoon. 

I don't know if anyone other than my mom would have happily browsed three huge floors of antiques with me for hours. 

She loved the more antique stuff (before her time), I loved it all. Every now and then she would quiz me on the purpose of something for fun. 

 Then we found their collection of vintage hats. They were amazing! I wish that was my collection. We had a hilarious time trying them on. Mom looked amazing in this red velvet hat (I thought mine was pretty silly). 

And of course, we found some very quirky pieces that were worth taking a photo of...

in case you can't read the writing, the tag says:

1960s Exerciser

Yes I Work

I am more fun than a Maytag rinse cycle

Thrift: Vintage Score! (or the best $12 I ever spent)

Let me start off by saying that I have the best partner ever because first, he was in a thrift store with me and second, he didn't even hesitate to agree to this purchase. 

Anyways, Mason and I were out searching thrift stores for an awesome outfit for his family's 80s themed golf tournament when I saw this gem. 

And we just happened to be lacking an awesome place to store our record collection...

And this just happens to have a cupboard meant for that purpose...

It was a match made in vintage-heaven.... or the Salvation Army Thrift Store... whichever. 

It may get a nice new coat of paint someday, but for now I love it in it's yellowy-orangey-wood glory.

Thrift: Fishing Rod

I took Gavin to the thrift store with me the other day and he found this cute little treasure:

He was so excited about it, so we bought it for $3, took it home, cleaned it up, and added a pipe cleaner hook. Then hopped on his "boat" (the couch) and went fishing.

Thrifty Boy

I have something to confess....


Even though I have bought, worn and loved clothing from the thrift store, I just never did it for Gavin. I didn't ever think about it, but I always steered clear of the kids clothing section at the back of the store. It was as if I unconsciously thought my boy was better than that, or something. But for some reason I got over myself the other day and went back there and found three awesome shirts for him and spent a total of two dollars and ninety seven cents. 


I don't know why it takes me so long to get these things! But I'm glad to say I'm officially over the "my son can't wear second-hand clothing" thing. Here he is showing off the awesome finds! (the first one is huge, but it will fit him eventually! It was Gymboree, I couldn't pass it up)

Easel Makeover Complete!

Remember when I showed you the easel I brought home from the thrift store the other week? I finished it yesterday!

I'm not the best at spray painting so it took a little longer than planned, but that's ok. I used spray primer then spray paint on it, so in the end the total cost of the easel was about $18. That also includes chalkboard spray paint to redo the chalkboard... it needed it. The original one sells for $25 or so at ikea and I like the colour of this one better, so that is pretty awesome. Gavin actually picked the satin grey paint, and it was an awesome choice (who would expect a 2 year old boy to pick grey?).

I also bought a large chip clip from Walmart for $2 so we can clip paper on for even more artistic options!

Thrift

I found this set of hand carved teak salad bowls at the thrift store the other day for $3.50! My mom used to have a set like this and I loved them. They weren't in perfect shape, so I searched online for the best way to give them a little TLC. The answer: oil. I rubbed them with olive oil, let them sit for half and hour, gave them a little scrub down and washed them. They look almost brand new!

Thrift

Another awesome thing for my 23rd year? Awesome thrift store finds! Like this:

This easel sells at Ikea for $25. I bought it for $3!

I know, I know, it definitely doesn't look great. But after a scrub down (thank you, Magic Eraser!), it looks like this:

The only stuff the magic eraser couldn't get off was the shadow of the red and blue marker:

And the dents, obviously. It could use a coat of chalkboard paint on the blackboard side, but I think that will have to wait, it's just not that noticeable right now.

I picked up a little wood filler and some spray paint... The finished product coming soon!

Thrift: Owls

On a visit to the thrift store the other day I found these two owl ornaments. They were the most hideous brown with orange rhinestones sloppily glued in the centre of their eyes (one was missing on the small owl), but they had potential. I had seen this post on Ohdeedoh and have been inspired by all the spray painting vintage items that I've seen on other blogs over the past few months so I decided these would be good to experiment with. If I failed miserably, it would only be a couple bucks lost.

The painting went really well, but you could see the glue remnants in the eyes still, so I used my silhouette to cut some vinyl for the eyes. I stuck those on and gave them a couple more coats of paint. I really liked how they turned out!

They found a nice little home on this weird tree shelf Mason bought me a year ago! Now I just need something to go on top...

Thrift

I am a bit of a thrift store lover. I like to go there and stare at all the furniture and think about all the things I could do if I had the time, space, or money. I love old housewares too... everything has so much character. Every now and then I'll buy something that really catches my eye. This time when I was there I found this:

I don't know anything about it, including what I'm going to use it for, but it was too cool to leave behind. It's pretty large too, the mouth is about 6 inches in diameter.

Have you ever seen anything like this before?