Category Archives: thrifted vintage love

thrifted: an iffy dress

Posted on May 2, 2011 | 8 Comments

I have two goals, fashiony-wise, for summer: to get a really low haircut, as close to a shaved head as I can handle, and to wear only dresses and skirts. I figure that if I go through with the former, then the latter will be necessary to offset mannishness. I’ve been stocking up on girly items at the thrift store lately and this dress is one of my favorite new finds. I love everything about it but the neckline. It’s too high and it feels like I am wearing a clerical collar. So I’m thinking of cutting it into a deep v-neck.

I’m wondering if I’ll be able to handle sewing in a hem where I cut my vee, so it’s a good thing that this dress cost a dollar. Wish me luck.

Related Posts
Vintage Shopping in Pilsen
Mama’s Skirt
Thrifted: The Skirts Edition
Not-Thrifted: The Clothing Edition
Thrifted: The Spring & Summer Dresses Edition

→ 8 Comments

Posted in fashion, thrifted vintage love

weekend scores: trays, jars & planters

Posted on April 25, 2011 | 1 Comment

DSC_0473

Trays were not on my list this weekend but I’ll take ‘em. Perfect for back porch gatherings this summer. Here’s a similar teak tray on Etsy for $24 and the exact same tin tray for $8.

DSC_0480

DSC_0474

Glass jars were on my list. Six old school mason jars ran me thirty cents apiece. I’ve never seen this type of lid on a mason jar before. Some internet browsing tells me they are zinc lids and may date back to the 1800s! That doesn’t sound right to me, but the history of mason jars on Canning Pantry explains that the first mason jars in the 1850s did have this type of lid. A lot of two are going for about $18 on eBay.

DSC_0468

I can’t resist this style of bowl. I’ve been known to use them as planters, which were also on my list. $2 each. You can purchase a larger one on Etsy for $16.

Not bad for a quick dash into one shop, huh? The Mister even got a few shirts, and I picked out a handful of dresses. Our grand total was around $20, thanks to Village Discount Outlet’s half-off Easter sale. How about you? Any good finds this weekend?

Related Posts
All Wood Everything
Weekend Scores
Thrifted, 9.21.10
Rummaged: Weekend Scores

→ 1 Comment

Posted in thrifted vintage love

Tagged , , , , , , ,

thrift wish list

Posted on April 23, 2011 | 4 Comments

More glass jars, please.

It feels like spring today! Finally, right?

I’m stuck at the house– on the porch to be exact– as painters are currently going to work on the baseboards and moldings in our front room. Sure, we could have DIY’d it and sure, you may be surprised to find that we decided not to; this is on our dear Mr. Landlord’s tab and I’m learning to let others do the work I don’t find any joy in. Painting the bathroom? Fun. Baseboards? Not so much.

Since I am housebound for the foreseeable future I am compiling a list of wants for my visit to the thrifts later on today (I hope).

  • Linens for the guest room.  Yes, I happily buy linens at thrift stores.  They key to avoiding bed bugs and other creepy germy crawlers is to leave the sealed bag of goods in your car for 24-48 hours, and then wash as normal.  Knock on wood, I have been safe so far and I use this method for everything from dresses to hand towels.
  • Wood.  Old pieces of wood, a door, or anything I can break down to use for a raised bed in the backyard.
  • Curtains.  Enough said.
  • A credenza to use as a TV stand.  Still on the hunt for this.  I’m losing faith.
  • Pots and other vessels for plants.  The back porch is shaping up but I know I’ll need more come May.
  • Art.  Our bedroom needs a major overhaul and some nice pieces for the wall will go a long way.
  • Clear glass jars or vases.  As you can see from the photo above, I’ve been doing some propagating.  There’s always room for more and I like watching the roots grow from the glass as opposed to a milk glass vase.

Great. After compiling this list I am itching to get out there. Couple more hours… What’re you looking for? Happy Saturday!

→ 4 Comments

Posted in thrifted vintage love

putting it into the universe

Posted on March 26, 2011 | 8 Comments

I am… sipping my large, whole milk, four-shot, one pump of fig vanilla black pepper syrup latte. Yeah, I’m one of those long-order-having-girls. The folks at my local cafe don’t even make me speak it anymore; I just nod sleepily when they acknowledge my presence and tip every time to thank them from saving me the embarrassment. This particular drink has been serving me well since I was 17 year-old barista and the addition of the Jo Snow syrup instead of regular vanilla just pushes it over the edge. You should order it sometime.

The thrifts open in about ten minutes and I am toe-tapping and ready to go. I figured I would make a short list and put my desires out there to see what would happen; maybe I’ll get lucky. What are you looking for this weekend?

→ 8 Comments

Posted in thrifted vintage love

the four-dollar floor lamp

Posted on March 20, 2011 | 6 Comments

I thrifted for the first time in almost a month yesterday. It was a beautiful, sun-filled, fifty-degree plus Chicago afternoon; as I type, gray has blanketed the city, the forecast calls for rain until this evening, and snow next weekend. Will we ever see spring?

Lucky for me, a $4 lamp is here to brighten the day.

Village Discount Outlet is having their fifty-percent off winter clearance sale. I spied this bad boy the minute we walked in and commenced to carrying it around the huge warehouse of a store. Originally priced at $8, I got it for $4 and eagerly plugged it in this morning: it works! I’d been looking for a floor lamp for a dark corner of our living room for eons. It’ll take a little re-arranging for the lamp to fit in the space but if you’ve read this blog for any amount of time you know that this particular room is the bane of my existence and moving stuff around always makes me feel better about its state, no matter that I can’t seem to ever get it right. Maybe the lamp will save me.

Since the grayness has turned our apartment into a dark cave, I shot this in the front room. If we end up getting sun this week I’ll update with the lamp in it’s new home.

I picked up some lotus bowls, too. I have an affinity for these guys but until now, only owned the smaller version. Now I have five big ones, purchased at $1/each. Not bad for my first day back on the hunt.

→ 6 Comments

Posted in thrifted vintage love

Tagged , , , , , ,

thrifted: the skirts edition

Posted on February 23, 2011 | 9 Comments

Village Discount Outlet on Milwaukee proved itself worthy this past weekend for a spring-is-on-the-way pick-me-up: skirts. Just what I needed as I’m headed to Costa Rica for some much needed R & R this Saturday. I plan to wear skirts, dresses and bathing suits. Maybe one pair of shorts.

(See that cowlick on the back of my head in the photo above? I can’t get rid of it. Suggestions other than wetting my hand and pressing the hair down are welcome in the comments.)

I edited the mess out of the photo above and it still looks wonky; blame it on the weird facial expression. Auto-photography is totally not my strong suit. But, the reason for posting it: can you make out the little pink price tag sitting below my right (your left) hip? Yeah. That baby reads $3.80.

The necklace was a gift from my wonderful mother-in-law’s friend from Brazil. It makes a fantastically loud sound when I walk and as I was snapping photos with my Nikon perched on its expensive tripod, I worried the neighbors might hear me flitting around.

Here’s the thing about thrifting. I tend towards the same five colors most times I shop: black, brown, gray, navy and white. Sometimes I toss a bit of red in, but it has to be a muted tone of the shade. When I thrift, I tend to step out of my comfort zone once I see the price. For instance, I would never wear stripes, even in my colors of choice, right? But– striped skirt for $2.80, well of course I’ll take a look. Who wouldn’t?

So, I step in front of the communal dressing mirror (no rooms at this thrift shop), gingerly take off one boot to get one leg into the skirt, place that foot back into the boot and repeat the same motion with the other leg until it’s over my jeans and fits like a glove. Striped skirt I would never wear goes into the cart.

Then I sit myself at the altar of my front room and offer you a thrifted teak bowl of nothing because I am tired of trying to pose all cute and whatnot and I end up getting silly.

Silly or not, stripes or not, I got three skirts and two plain tank tops for around $13 this weekend. I’m looking forward to posting pics of these skirts on a beach in Costa Rica next week.

[As I said the last time we traveled: My best friend will be at our house. She is mean. And my dog bites. Hard. Don't test.]

→ 9 Comments

Posted in fashion, thrifted vintage love

Tagged , , , ,

thrifted: clothing edition

Posted on January 17, 2011 | 13 Comments

saturday

I hit my weight loss goal. Twenty pounds down since the beginning of September and not a lick of exercise was involved; I simply counted every single calorie I put into my body, started eating breakfast, drank a ton of water and cut down immensely on ordering out. We haven’t used GrubHub since the fall (we were averaging three delivered meals a week), and instead only eat high calorie meals when we’re with friends or for celebratory occasions. That equals about two or three cheat meals every seven days and we still hit our goals earlier than expected. Proud.

Continue reading →

→ 13 Comments

Posted in fashion, thrifted vintage love

Tagged , , , , , ,

all wood everything

Posted on January 11, 2011 | 3 Comments

cold chicago evening @ our house

I’ve been on a serious wood kick lately; I can’t get enough of the stuff. Teak, birch, cherry, bamboo, maple. I scoop up mostly bowls from thrift store for less than a buck a piece and gave some of the nicer ones for Christmas this year.

tis the season

This was to be a gift for Evan B, our favorite woodworker, but it never reached his hands. Here’s a tip: don’t plant anything in wood unless it’s specially treated to handle the moisture. I didn’t realize that it would be a problem until I came home and found this bowl completely halved and dirt all over my desk. I wish I had kept a camera on it so I could see how it broke so cleanly.

all wood everything

all wood everything

These are really abundant in any thrift shop. And if you don’t feel like digging, hunting, searching, of course Etsy comes to the rescue. They’ll be quite a bit pricier: $42 for a set of four here, $35 for some similar to the pair I got for $1 in the top photo, and $26 for a match with the one directly above. Happy thrifting!

→ 3 Comments

Posted in thrifted vintage love

Tagged , ,

sisterly thrifting

Posted on November 22, 2010 | 9 Comments

throwback sisterly pic, 2005

My sister Bridie and I went thrifting in Milwaukee– a post I wrote way back in the day about my favorite Miwaukee thrift haunts is here– this weekend. We stopped at at least five stores and still managed to fit in a super-indulgent Mexican lunch that left us both needing naps. We only ended up making purchases at one. Well, two if you count a glass I broke at Clinton St Antiques that Bridie was going to buy before I sent it smashing to the ground. Oops.

I L-O-V-E spending time with my sister. Did you catch that article that said people who have sisters are generally more happy in life? After a day spent laughing, bickering and talking plainly with Brides it’s not hard to see why. It’s so damn easy to be me around her.

Bridie and I have always been thrifters, gals out looking for a deal. With a dad who buys all of his clothing at Value Village, this should be a given. We found quite a few things for ourselves and for those on our Christmas list… Maybe one of these is for you?

thrifted 11.20.10

We begin with plates. I am so predictable!

thrifted 11.20.10

thrifted 11.20.10

thrifted 11.20.10

This deal of the day will probably live at my house. Twenty-five cents.

thrifted 11.20.10

I have a dozen of these in orange and white. A certain someone has always admired them and I figure it’s high time they got their own! Hoping to find more before my shopping time runs out.

thrifted 11.20.10

I’m not sure if these are placemats or napkins but I loved the pattern and texture. Surely they’ll make a great gift.

How about you all? Any thrifting scores this weekend?

→ 9 Comments

Posted in thrifted vintage love

Tagged , , ,

the gift of thrift: secondhand holidays

Posted on November 16, 2010 | 13 Comments

thrifted

In years past, I forced myself to make personalized holiday gifts by hand no matter the time or monetary cost of doing so. I sewed my little hands silly last December and ya know what? I’m not doing it this year.

First, I’m not very good at it. Second, I don’t feel like dealing with fabric selections for a dozen different tastes. Third, I check out people’s houses when I visit; I look for my gifts, I see who has them out and in use. AND YOU PEOPLE STUFF THEM IN DRAWERS. Yes, even you, Gram. I saw my pretty pink apron in a drawer. If my own grandmother isn’t in love with my handmade wares then it’s safe to say not many people are.

So. I decided to purchase everything second hand for the holidays. Thrifting is a million times more fun than sewing and my house is overflowing with awesome finds; why not spread it around, have someone get some use out of these beauties?

I’ll be posting some gifts throughout the next few weeks. If you’re on my list this year please act surprised when you open them.

thrifted

thrifted

thrifted

thrifted

thrifted

The theme of this weekend’s thrifting excursion seemed to, once again, be dishes. They just call me! I can’t help but buy! It’s becoming a serious addiction. I mean, who doesn’t always need plates? Maybe one of these is for you?

What do you think about giving or receiving second hand gifts for the holidays? Anyone completely against it? Anyone thrilled with my brilliance and planning to do the same?

→ 13 Comments

Posted in thrifted vintage love

Tagged , , , , , , ,