Thrift store haul, ya'll!

Hi everybody! ("Hi, Dr. Nick!" Does anyone else miss The Simpsons? Is that still on?)

Another weekend, another wonderful day of thrift shopping. While I was out running on Saturday morning my Aunt Beth called me and wanted to know if I was up for a quick trip to the thrift store. I immediately obliged.

By the way, I'm brainstorming another post on how to choose and be the ideal thrifting partner. It's not easy, people. My Aunt Beth is super fun to shop with, and the right balance of open-minded and honest, so I don't end up dragging some flea-infested footstool home because it was cheap and "I could reupholster it!"

Anyway, we met up and accidentally spent something like three hours thrift shopping. It can do that to a person. Our local St. Vincent de Paul store had some really cool mid-century modern furniture (a buffet and a hutch in particular caught my eye), but the buffet was sold and the hutch was too expensive for the work I would've had to invest, so I contented myself with some accessories for the house instead.

First up, I found this glamorous picture frame in pristine condition:

It has the coolest mix of metal finishes - copper, gunmetal and brass. I already know what photo I want to put in it, but I'm lazy and haven't done it yet. Also, I don't know how to work our printer. But the frame was worth every bit of the $0.98 I spent on it. 

Next up is this mirror to go over the dresser in the guest room. I wish I'd taken a "before" photo - it was a truly heinous faux wood brown finish. But it was $5 and exactly the right dimensions and I liked the shape, so it came home with me. So far it's gotten a coat of primer and one coat of Rustoleum gloss white oil-based enamel, which we're applying with a brush in the guest room. The basement is still too cold to spray paint. 

Wow. That is a really stunning photo. I am definitely going to be winning some awards for that one. Do you like my janky crack den vinyl shades you can spy in the reflection? That was a Pinterest experiment gone awry. Heads up: if you're going to try the painted roller shades thing, DO NOT CHEAP OUT ON YOUR PAINTERS TAPE. Instead of having nice crisp lines you will have horrible paint bleeds everywhere and it will just make you so mad. 

More on the guest room window treatments in a bit.

Next up are a couple of things I picked up at the basement thrift store on 13th Street. While there I also saw a chair that made my heart stop. It was an acrylic Louis chair, that elusive creature of every shelter blog and magazine in existence  Sadly, it was filthy and beyond scratched up, but I was willing to deal with that if it was $10. They wanted $25. No way, Jose. 

(I know what you're thinking, by the way. "Just save up for a bit and cough up the $125 for the nice new chair that doesn't have scratches and dried gum on it!" But then what happens when I inevitably tire of having a trendy, uncomfortable chair in my living room? I have to sell the damn thing on Craigslist for 10% of what I paid for it. Boo.)

Sooo, where was I? Oh yes, the scary thrift store that I will never go to alone because the owner is a wee creepy. I ended up getting this pretty vintage bowl to hold bananas:

It was $3 and just the right size to replace the slightly wimpier bowl I was shoving bananas into previously. That is a first world problem right there, folks. I needed a bigger bowl for my bananas. 

Here's a shot of some of the pretty detail on the side:

I also got this soap bottle for $2, which is about twice what I should have paid, but I'm such a sucker for the bright colors and fun, almost Swedish pattern. It was a bottle of Avon hand lotion and still had the lotion in it from 1937 or whenever it was made. Freaking nasty. I dumped it out (obviously) and thoroughly cleaned the bottle before filling it with hand soap. It has a happy new home by the kitchen sink.

And because I've learned how to use the macro function on our camera, a close-up shot:

Who could resist that happy bird? Not me.

Hey, speaking of other weird junk you can't resist, I bought this little vintage picnic basket at a vintage store in Kansas City when I was visiting my sister a few weeks ago:

I mean, that's hilarious! And so true. And in case you ever wondered if picnic baskets could be racist:

Yup. Those would be Native Americans hiding in the tree, waiting to pounce on the nattily dressed white lady with the fabulous hat.

Lastly, Saturday's trip also yielded this colorful plastic tray:

I wanted something to corral all of Pete's lotions and potions and colognes so I wouldn't have to move each individual flipping thing every time I dust, and this was $0.50 and so cute. Also, it was stamped "made in Italy" on the bottom, so you know it's fancy.  

Okay, I promise I'm wrapping this up, but before I do, here's a sample of the fabric I'm thinking of buying to make window treatments for the guest room. It's the same pattern as the background in my blog header. I love it that much, but I'm not sure the colors work:

The walls in the guest room are a bright, true yellow but in that bottom photo the color takes on a green tinge. It's not, I promise. And hey, thanks fabric merchant for sending me a sample that contains almost none of the colors and is in fact NOT 4x8 but more like 3x6. You guys are winners. 

That's about it for now, kiddies. I hope everyone had a fantastic weekend. There will probably be no thrifting for this girl on Saturday because we have my niece's first birthday party. I can't wait to see her in her little outfit. My sister really went all out and it's going to be so fun! 

Til next time, 

Leigh