Weekly Thrift Feed: 16 Oct 2011

(Vintage MIJ Squirrel #2 found this year!)

Small report this week due to time, technical issues and other trivial reasons not worth delving into for the moment. This week, a decision was made by me to curb my thrifting for a small while. I am busy purging which means I really don't need to bring new things home. Also, I am busy saving for a major project and this means I need to find thrifty, not thrifting, things to do with my free time for a few weeks. In the end, the project (a refi on a rental) will be better for the pocketbook, but the bank wants to see assets (blah, blah, blah).

So, like the Made in Japan squirrel, I am gathering my pennies and hoping to get myself organized in more ways than one this fall. This is the second vintage, life-size squirrel I have found this year. I love them!

I also found this sweet (badly photographed) autograph booklet at a thrift store that is closing its doors (boo hoo!) in Lexington. I loved the store (great prices, lots of vintage crap, even vintage clothing which is really hard to come by now). The lady gave it to me for $1 (and threw in a bunch of free vintage tally cards which I will photograph and put up another day). They still have another location in Lex which I did not even know existed.

OK, this is it for this week's Thrift Feed. Internet not cooperating with me today and I have to get ready for my return trip to KY. Check out other linky, thrifty wonderfulness:

Her Library Adventures

Apron Thrift Girl

Weeks Fly By Unslowly

Tomorrow is Sunday. Since September, Sundays have had a different meaning to me: They mean it is time to head back to the south. This week, Sunday is especially hard because my week home has made me sad, made me think that maybe taking the job was not such a great idea. We knew it was going to be a hard year, but still...

Yes, Sunday I will be heading back to KY. No detours, no deviations, just a long four hour roadtrip back across the O-hi-o and into lovely Louisville. O, how I wish my kids and hubby were coming too. Five days without them is a long time, yet overall time is just flying by into oblivion.

Actually, even if they were coming back with me, I would not see them for I am heading to Chicago for work this week. I won't be home until Friday and home will be back with them again in IN. I have to keep this perspective to make the next months bearable. June will be here before we all know it, right?

So, today I packed away the Xmas decor and de-ornamented the tree (still in house with lights as I feel like I barely was able to enjoy it). I remembered I wanted to show you the vintage, homemade card baskets I thrifted in November in West Virginia. I filled them full of Shiny Brights for a quick display. I think I paid $1 for them both.

A couple of weeks ago I was in Cleveland for work and down the road from my hotel was an Anthropologie store. I drool over the items in the catalogs they send me (not so much over the prices or the anorexic-looking models), but have never ventured into one of the stores. Much to my surprise, I found Christmas card baskets just like mine (only not really vintage and slightly bigger). They wanted much more than a $1 for their version (I couldn't find a link on their website!) and the graphics were not nearly as gorgeous as the ones on the WV treasures! So, there you have it: Proof that Thrifting not only yields the same thing as big money retail, but something more authentic as well!

Want to make some for yourself? Here is a tutorial.