My Latest Thrift Store Finds
Believe it or not, I’ve been shopping – thrift store shopping! And I have some thrift store finds to share with you. There’s really no difference at all between thrift store shopping and regular store shopping for me. 99% of the time the outcome can usually be categorized as one of the following: This store was a complete waste of time. I can’t believe I left my house for this. The store contains all my hopes and dreams and I can’t afford any of it. That last 1% of the time I find something at the intersection of I can’t live without it and I’m willing to pay for it,…
Happy Thrifting: Andover, New Jersey
The fastest way for me to get “alone time” is to ask my family if they want to go hunting for treasure. They know this is code for thrifting and everyone single one of them will say, “no thanks!” Then I pretend to be disappointed while skipping out the door. My latest adventure for the Happy Thrifting series took me to the small town of Andover, New Jersey. Andover is located approximately an hour and fifteen minutes west of New York City. I didn’t get a firm count on the number of antique or thrift shops in the Andover area, but I went into four shops. I’m fairly certain I…
Happy Thrifting: America Designs
I have quite the virtual shopping treat for you today! We recently visited the town of Lambertville, New Jersey. Never heard of it? That’s okay. It is a small town (population approx 4,000) located along the Delaware River and right on the border of Pennsylvania. The Travel Channel recently named Lambertville the “Most Charming Small Town” in New Jersey on it’s list of “America’s 50 Most Charming Small Towns.” That’s quite the endorsement, isn’t it? With a recommendation from The Travel Channel and the town’s self-described label as the “Antiques Capital of New Jersey,” we HAD to check it out. The very first store in Lambertville that we ventured into…
Items I Should Have Bought on Facebook Marketplace, but Didn’t
I thought it would be fun to show you my gallery of thrifting regrets today. Nothing says a “fun read” like the word regret. Ha! Do not even get me started on how much I loathe Facebook, but I do find its Marketplace to be quite useful when I’m thrifting for something in particular. It’s where I found my quirky rattan swivel chair. I still am over-the-moon about that chair, by the way. I like to ‘save’ items I’m interested in buying, but not motivated enough to leave my house that day to collect. Sometimes I watch the items to see if the price drops, but often the items are…
$60 Thrifted Dresser
Sometime last year I crowed about a thrifting haul. I scored multiple thrifted items in the course of one week – something that rarely happens to me. In fact, it hasn’t happened since. But not for lack of trying! One of the items I didn’t tell you about was the $60 thrifted dresser with killer legs. See what I mean? Look at those little wooden wheels… I found this dresser at my local Habitat Restore. It has become my go-to place for inexpensive furniture partly because it’s located only a few miles from my house, but mainly because of the ‘inexpensive’ part. I would have bought the dresser on-the-spot, but…
The Painting I Rescued From the Trash
Here’s some advice to live by: always go for a walk around the neighborhood the night before garbage day. Trust me! You never know what treasures you might find just sitting on the curb waiting for the garbage truck to be discovered. Earlier this fall I took one of these walks. It was late afternoon. The air was crisp. The leaves were still glorious. There wasn’t a soul in sight. That’s when I spotted it. Do you see it? A painting sitting with a pile of trash at the end of someone’s driveway. They’d left it there to be collected by the garbage truck. Or me. Their intent could have gone either…
Happy Thrifting: Antiques on Broadway
I had the opportunity last weekend to visit the town of Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania. You might be thinking “why is a town called Jim Thorpe?” I thought the same thing. Jim Thorpe was the first Native American to win an Olympic gold medal for the United States. He won gold medals in the pentathlon and decathlon in the 1912 Olympics. The town of Mauch Chunk, Pennsylvania, was renamed Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania, because Jim Thorpe is buried there. I’m glossing over a lot of history – some of it controversial and very heated – so if you are interested, I recommend reading more about the town’s name change here. Let’s fast…
3 Thrift Store Finds and 1 Garbage Find
A couple of weeks ago, I was on a thrifting roll. Six new-to-me items came into our home. SIX! I don’t usually have that much luck on a regular shopping trip, let alone while thrifting. That is why I will never make it as a fashion blogger. Here are the items that caused me to open my wallet and one that was garbage and I had to spray with bleach. First up is this brass mantel clock made by Bombay Company. The angels started singing when I saw this beauty, but I walked away from it. I did. I was so strong. I made a loop around the store and…
Makeover: Dresser with Brass Details
My love affair with my local Habitat ReStore is still going strong. In early August I found a small dresser with brass accents at the ReStore. When I spotted those brass accents it was like the heavens opened up and angels began singing. Honestly, I need to have this sort of reaction when I find a piece of used furniture in order to go through the herculean effort to get it home and refinish it. We all have our barometers. Mine is angels singing. Totally normal, right? As you can see, the dresser had a hutch on top that I still do not understand. It has the same brass edging…
Happy Thrifting: The Nest at Farmstead Farmers Market
Ready to go thrifting with me? Virtually speaking, of course. Oh, good! The benefit of these one-sided conversations is that you always say the correct thing. I like that about you. The kids and I were recently driving through Palmyra, Pennsylvania, and decided to stop at an antiques co-op called The Nest at Farmstead Farmers Market. Actually, I decided to stop. My kids just whined, “Hey! Why are we stopping?” Where’s your sense of shopping adventure, kids? If you and I were actually going thrifting together, I think there’d be far less whining. I like that about you too. Enough about my glamorous life. Let’s step inside. My eagle eye spied that…
