Thrifting Inspires Crafting

It was 50% off all tops at Talize yesterday, so I hit up the Kitchener store!

I got some school clothes for my nephew. ($9.50 for all)

...some sweaters for my husband ($21.50 total...all are like new...one even still had tags).  Now I'll need to think of something more original to buy him for Christmas, because usually he gets sweaters. ;)

Here's where the crafting part starts!  This pieced quilted pillowcase was $1.99.  I have plans to turn it into 2 pillows.

Also $1.99 was one metre of this kewpie doll fabric with some kind of English-Japanese (?) hybrid text on it.  Big plants for it too...thinking little bags for baby things...should make a great shower gift.

No need to turn it into tote bags, however, because I found a few of those too! New and handmade.

All of this stuff is in the washer right now, getting ready for a craft party (of one) tonight!

Thrift Haul and Thrifting Tips - Kitchener Value Village

Today's adventure began as a mistake. I thought it was 40% off kidswear today at Value Village.  Turns out it was two days ago.  Oops!  Selection was a bit limited, but the store was nice and quiet.  Orson and I found some great stuff.

Thrift Shop Tip #1: Shop one season ahead.  Selection is better for long-sleeved shirts and long pants right now while everyone is wearing shorts and tees. You'll find some quality items to start building a wardrobe.

Orrie's Fall Wardrobe Finds:

Osh Kosh Joggers: $1.99

Like-new Levi's: $4.49

Like-new H&M navy long-sleeve tee: $1.49

Grey waffle long-sleeve tee (Old Navy): $0.99

Yellow long-sleeved Woodland Tee: $1.99

Old Navy Flannel button-down: $1.99

Thrift Shop Tip #2: Stick to a mix-and-match palette. Because I thrift 90% of Orson's clothes, I try to shop with a few colours in mind.  For fall, I'm buying mostly blue, grey and yellow (and bits of red), because then everything matches.

My Fall Wardrobe Finds:

Navy/Grey/Taupe floral ASOS dress - New with tags - $14.99
Navy/Taupe/Pink floral blouse - $10.99

Thrift Shop Tip #3: Look for items that are worn less frequently.  Pants, shoes, etc. tend to be worn out or at least worn-in (i.e., stretched/softened in weird ways to fit someone else's unique body shape.  (I always skip the pyjamas, activewear, etc. too. Not worth it.)  This doesn't really apply to kidswear, however, since often the stuff is hardly worn.

Local thrift shopping at Thrift On Kent in Kitchener

Here's how great $20 worth of thrifting can look.  I find I have the best luck shopping one season ahead.  Yesterday at Thrift on Kent I found these fall wardrobe items:

-2 pairs of jeans

-2 pairs of soft-waist pants

-1 pair of jorts (ok, so these aren't necessarily fall attire, but they're super cute, right?)

-a long-sleeves Henley tee ($1.00)

-a new-with-tags sweater from Baby Gap. ($5.00 - can you just picture the pumpkin patch photos with this on?)

-a pair of PJs with a bonus pair of PJ pants ($1.00 for each piece) and ...

-for me, a houndstooth cardigan in a silk-cotton blend ($5.00)

Also, a few books may have come home with me, too.  All but the top one are for my classroom library:

What I'm Working On

Summer's here!  Time to get my cro-jo going.  I'm turning these...

...into these...

...and planning to join them all together into a panel afghan. 

I'm keeping my made-up pattern simple so that I can work on it anywhere without having to refer to notes. So far, so good.

I'm pinning some panel afghan inspiration so when the panels are done I'll have some ideas of what I'll do next.

Thrift Shopping in Tilbury, Ontario

We just got back from a week at a cottage on Lake Erie. It was a nice, relaxing week, with lots of time by the water, and a few jaunts into nearby towns.

My "thrifty splurge:" a 1960s cake/pie cover.  I plan to use it as a yarn cover because our cats love yarn as much as I do. It has just the right amount of wear and tear to make it the perfect piece.  I found this treasure at an antique store for $15.00.

"

There are no prices like Tilbury thrift shop prices! I got 2 quilting magazines for 25 cents a piece and the paperback novels were 2 for 25 cents. But the best deal was the "Soups of France" cookbook.  It had an $88.00 price tag on it...and it was also 25 cents!  In case your mental math is rusty, that's a grand total of  $1.25 for everything in this photo:

Next door to that thift store, there was another one. (I wish I could remember the names!)  There, Dan found...

...enough Mega Blocks to fill the dishwasher. (Can you think of a better way to clean toys?)  This was $3.

I found this amazing drinking glass with the first 100 years of Prime Ministers on it.  The tag said 75 cents, but the store owner told us it was on sale for 25 cents. (Deal!)

All told, $19.50 for some great finds.

Also, not thrift store related at all, but look!  We have houseplants now. They seem to love our kitchen window.  The cute little pots are from IKEA.

Gallery Wall

One of my March Break projects was to turn these...

...into something a little prettier.

These photo ledges were a garage sale find.  I think we paid $12 for all 5 of them.  They looked like unfinished wood, but when I tried to spray paint them last fall, this happened:

Where the paint didn't bubble and lift, it peeled. Major disappointment.  We chucked them into the garage and forgot about them for the winter.

I was still really stuck on the idea of photo ledges for a repositionsable photo gallery, though.  So on Saturday, Dan hauled the ledges out of exile. I bought a few bottles of acrylic paint and some inexpensive brushes from Michaels and tried some sparse dry brushing.

I liked the wood-grainy, weathered look I got, so I kept going....

...and 15 minutes later they looked like this!

Then I used painter's tape to plot out their approximate placements on the family room wall...

...and Dan helped to mount them.

It was pretty dark by this point, but we collected all of our black photo frames from various places in the house (and some empty ones from the basement) and got a pretty good feel for how the easily-changeable gallery wall is going to work!

I'm very pleased with how this turned out. :). And the price tag is nice, too:

Shelves - $12

Spray paint - $6

Acrylic Paint - $1.19

Paint brushes -$4.19

---————————

$22.38

March Break Goals

March Break is here!  Here are my plans and ambitions in photo form.

1.  Finish reading/re-read these:

2.  Work on this:

3.  Finish this:

4.  Turn this catch-all back into the crafting/yoga haven I had originally envisioned:

5. Deal with this:

Once upon a time it was an office.  Don't let the panoramic photo deceive you.  It's about 70 square feel and I'm planning to remove about 70% of its contents.

Also 6: finish the gallery wall in our family room that I started in the fall.  No photo, but just imagine a big grey wall and you've got the before shot.

Time to begin!