Tag: thrifting

Thrifting treasures

~ Maggie ~ 4 Comments

I needed a little break from my thoughts, my grocery shopping and my todo list, so on my way from one supermarket to the other, I decided to stop at the thrift store. You know, just to look around and maybe pick up a book or something small.

Ahem. Six books? Yeah… Couldn’t help myself. I already picked up Gulliver’s Travels at the supermarket (they have a free library), but I couldn’t resist a novel by Nora Roberts that I haven’t read yet (Sanctuary in English). And I discovered Corina Bomann last year. I love all her books and I’ve been binge reading every one included in my ebook subscription, so finding two I haven’t read yet was a treat. The other three books are non-fiction, about hunger, food and changing habits. Because that is what I need to work on. If I could only get myself to actually read books like that… I have a few more in my TBR piles.

Anyway, here’s the rest of the stuff I found. Those wooden leaves… I don’t know. They look like the broke off something, but I just like them very much. I’m sure I will find somewhere to put them. The orange/red bowl is from Pyrex and it’s dirty (still soaking at this point), but in good condition. I usually don’t pick up colors like that, but… I don’t know… I just wanted it.

The little basket had a broken handle, so I took the other one off too. Which was harder than I thought it would be, but I got it done. This will be perfect for drying herbs, or just for decoration. Isn’t that spiral lovely?

When we moved here, I discovered baskets are hard to find here, especially thrifted. I never expected that, given the mountains of baskets I was used to see in thriftstores in The Netherlands, but I tried to accept it as part of living in the tropics. But the past year, I’ve gotten lucky and I have a nice collection now. They are all meant to be used, but they also look great as decoration, I think.

Out of all the linens they had I picked up this cotton tea towel. I don’t know what I’ll use this for, but I really like the sunflowers.

My favorite find is this little glass pitcher (the right one is the one I bought this time)… I try to stay away from collecting things, but I have to be careful with these. I know, two isn’t a collection yet, but I looked at another one in the shop and I would have bought it if it hadn’t been chipped…
To be honest, I don’t know what I could use them for, but gosh, they’re so cute. I do wonder what they are meant to be used for though. Oil and vinegar (which means the corks are missing)? Sauce? Milk?

Oh well, I like them. And since I paid 13 guilders (about 7 dollar) for the whole lot, I’ll just consider it cheap therapy.

A little thrift haul

~ Maggie ~ 2 Comments

Nope, not a knitting update. I don’t want to be whining about that constantly, so let’s pretend I never promised. I do have a little thrift haul to show you.

Let’s get this one out of the way first My husband is a smoker, and yes, I know, and he knows too. And that’s all I’m gonna say about it. I just wanted to explain that we need ashtrays. I was really pleased with myself about this one. Not only is it really beautiful (the colors), it’s quite heavy. So it won’t blow off the table when it gets windy (we have a lot of wind here – if we’re lucky, because that cools things down a bit). It took me a while to realize that people don’t use ash trays like this one around here, because the ashes and butts will blow out. Oops. Fail. I think this one needs to go back to the thrift store, unless I can find some other use for it. I do wish I could find plates, bowls or cups in those colors…

This one is silly, but there’s a reason for it. When this slogan was all the rage, I really liked it, but I couldn’t afford any of the merchandise. I eventually bought a post card, but that was it and it didn’t survive the move here. So yeah, this one needed to come home with me. But now I don’t really know what to do with it. Oh well, I’ll find a place for it.

Isn’t this little egg tray fun? My usual breakfast is two boiled eggs, so I imagine using this instead of the little glass bowl I’ve been using for years now.

Of course I didn’t leave without some fun glass. I really love this little apple. It even has a little leave engraved. I don’t know what to use it for. I think it’s meant for apple sauce or apple compote, but we don’t eat that. And fall decor isn’t a thing here (we don’t have fall). But I do like it.

This book is called: “Why we are always short in time and other irrational behavior”. I like reading books that teach me how the human mind (and more specifically my own mind) works.

This sign says “Nobody gets a program of the concert of life”. My grandparents had one like this and a little while ago I was thinking I needed to look for one when we are in the Netherlands, because I could need a reminder of that. Not of my grandparents, though that’s a nice bonus, but of the truth in these words. No one can predict what will happen, that’s just not how it works, but I struggle with that a lot.

I have to admit I was a bit influenced with this one. I have been watching way too many thrift hauls videos and the girls that find the kind of stuff I’m into are always really excited about boxes. Because these are the witchy girls that have crystals and candles and tarotcards to put in those boxes. I don’t have any (or many – in the case of crystals) of those, but when I saw this at the checkout my mind told me: “A box! A beautiful box! We need that!” So I snatched it up. And now I don’t know what to put in it. Sewing stuff, pens, tea…? We’ll see. I do really like it.

I actually went to the store because I saw they had this on their facebook page. It’s a stool, that turns into a little step ladder when you fold out the steps. It’s missing a step and it needs some work, but it’s sturdy. As soon as the temperatures go down a bit I’m going to paint it, replace the seat and the steps with something nice and it will be beautiful. I’ve always wanted one of these (I think my grandmother had one), so I’m very happy with it.

I know, it’s a weird little collection. But that’s what I got. What’s your favorite?

Thrift store treasures

~ Maggie ~ 5 Comments

The most fun about going thrift store shopping is that you never never know what you’ll find. I do have a list of things I’m looking for in the back of my head, but I learned to keep an open mind for anything else. If I just look for the things on my list, it will be frustrating if I can’t find them and that takes all the fun away.

So, while I went searching for a butcher’s block or a side table or something else at counter height that I can use as a cutting table for sewing and a work table for herbal crafting, I was acutally quite pleased to come home with some completely different things.

I’ve always loved copper and iron things for decorating in the kitchen, but in our former houses we didn’t really have the wall space for that. Here, we do, but these objects are really hard to find. So yay for both an iron plate that I love and a beautiful copper bowl. I bought them in a shop that has the better stuff, but they are rather expensive, so they were quite pricy (42 guilders, about 27 dollars). I decided it was worth it.

The other thrift store I went to is the one where you really have to dig deep to find treasures hidden under all the rubbish they sell there. Yet, when the lady said; “I’m happy to see you found something”, I could sincerely answer that I always do.

How fun is that fabric? I don’t have a clue what to do with it, but I love it. The white napkin on top is linen, the other one cotton (I think – I’m not an expert in determining these things). The little spoon has some really nice decoration (but you can’t reall see that in this picture) and the vase is pretty too. I paid 5 guilders (about 3 dollars) for that little haul.

You know what’s the best thing about not being able to find what I was looking for? I get to go again soon!

Real furniture

~ Maggie ~ 5 Comments

We’ve been living in this house for about half a year now and while there are days when I feel completely at home, it sometimes still feels so new and temporary.
Last week I finally realized why: we still hardly have any real furniture! Well, we do have a bed, of course, but no real closets (the cloth ones we bought are falling apart). We do have that beautiful cupboard in the kitchen and a table, but my “pantry” is still a bit make-shift (shelves on concrete blocks).
And on the porch, where we spent most of our days, we still had plastic chairs and a foldable side table.
It’s about time to change that. But… you know. That tight budget. And the fact that cheap chipboard will disintegrate within a year.
Luckily we do know a thrift store on the island and we have a car that can actually hold a bit of furniture. So we decided I’d start doing what I did in Holland too and visit that thrift store when I was out for groceries anyway.
Of course, I didn’t have to get groceries that week. But we did drive to town (a lot, actually) to do some paperwork and at one point we were very, very close to the thrift shop. So I hinted to T. that we might as well take a quick look. Much to my surprise (we were quite tired of all the driving around), he agreed.
“What do we need?” he asked. And I listed: “Coffee tables (multiple because we move around with the shadow), maybe some chairs or a couch, a bookcase, a sewing table and something we could use to store clothes and linens.”
He didn’t even blink.  That man is used to the way my brain works, I guess.
They were a bit short on the bigger stuff, but on the third floor, we found two matching coffee tables. Really dated, brown, seventies style. But sturdy, real oak and kind of beautiful in their own ugly way. Oh, and cheap.
So we took them home. I cleaned them and rubbed some oil on that neglected wood. And then we put the small one between our chairs on the front porch (where we spent mornings and early afternoons) and the bigger one between the beds on the new porch (that will get a real roof someday, but we do sit/lie the rest of the day there because at that point the front porch is way too hot).
It’s kind of goofy, I know, but these silly tables bring a smile to our face every time we see them. “It’s finally starting to feel like a real house”, T. said. And I couldn’t agree more.
Now if only the rest of my list would magically appear in the thrift store… (but isn’t it great to know T. has the same bad taste as I do? – I actually rather like this type of furniture).

This Saturday (Three Things)

~ Maggie ~ 6 Comments

This Saturday T. will be off the island for a day (for work). I’ll have to bring him to the airport early in the morning and pick him up in the evening. And then I have the whole day for myself.
There are so many things I could do. Sleep all day for instance. I’ve been a bit under the weather this week, so if I need to, that’s what I’ll do. But there are three other things I’m planning to do and I’m really looking forward to that.

1. Visit thrift shops. We’ve got three of them on the island. One of them is only open on Tuesday afternoons and on the last Saturday of the month. We’ve never been there because it’s on the other side of the island. But I figure I’m already halfway there when I’m at the airport, so I’m really looking forward to going. I heard it’s mostly books, but books are good. I also really want to visit the one in Otrobanda, because that’s a real one. You know, furniture, books, clothes, houseware, the lot. I will sort of pass that one on my way back, so it’s only logical to go there, don’t you think? I’m not sure I’ll go to the third one though, it’s rather expensive and far from the other two. We’ll see.
It’s not that T. doesn’t like thrift shops, by the way. He does. But he’s mostly looking at the bigger stuff and then he’s done, while I like browsing everything. And he hates when I look for clothes in thrift shops, but I want to see what they have here. In Holland, I found a lot of good things in the clothing sections.

2. Visit craft shops. Again, he doesn’t mind to go with me if I ask him to make a stop there (since we live out in the country, we tend to make lists of errands and run them all on the same day), but well, you know. Men don’t browse. Men want you to decide and go on. I want to think things through before I buy anything. But I “need” more yarn if I want to make everyone hats for Christmas and I really need some sewing stuff. Pattern paper, interfacing, things like that. There’s a shop I’ve never visited that advertised on Instagram that they have quilting cotton now. Oh my, I think I need to establish a budget before I go there!

3. And then, after a morning of fun shopping, I want to get my sewing machine out and sew. I need to hem some pants and curtains, but I really hope that I’ll also get to making something fun. A bag maybe.

There may not be enough hours in that day…

Linking up with Carole’s Three on Thursday

(unrelated picture – can’t have a blog post without a picture 😉 )

Adding to the stash

~ Maggie ~ Leave a comment

Because my time, budget and storage are limited, I have this rule for myself that I can’t go (thrift) shopping for yarn unless I’m completely out of it.
I’m not, obviously.
But this morning I was in a few thrift shops, searching for something else and I happened to run into some yarn. So I decided my rule didn’t apply here. I mean, my time wasn’t wasted, since I was already there. The basket can handle just a little bit more yarn (I hope) and for a total of Euro 4,50, it wasn’t exactly a big chunk out of my budget.

Or maybe I’m just making up excuses now. Anyway, I’m happy with it. The shiny yarn on the left is really beautiful and I think I can make a shawl with it (it’s two skeins). The rest will probably end up as hats, though I’m also thinking I have so many shades of grey* now, that I could make an ombre shawl or maybe even a blanket.
I do love that about having a bigger stash. Dreaming up projects, making plans.
Good thing I didn’t find what I’m looking for, so I’ll have to visit a few more thrift shops soon…

*nope, no reference to that book. I didn’t even read it

Three things making me happy today

~ Maggie ~ Leave a comment

1. My yarn stash. I know it’s not that much, but it’s enough for me right now (with a move to the other side of the world still in the works). I love being able to browse through it and choose what to use for the next hat.

2. Rain! Oh, I’m sure I won’t be that happy about it in a few weeks. Or months. Because this is actually normal around here most of the year. But it’s been unusually dry around for two months. My garden (or in fact the whole country) really needed a few rainy days.

3. This leather backpack I found at the thrift store yesterday. It needs a bit of love (it was completely dried out and stiff, I’m working on cleaning and greasing the leather), but it’s still in very good condition. I’m really looking forward to using it.

Linking up with Carole Knits’ Three on Thursday

I'll be right here *

~ Maggie ~ Leave a comment

*title of this post stolen from Soulemama

Yesterday I went on an epic thrift store search.
I was in need of a better chair. The one I had was fun to look at, but I got back aches from sitting in it too long. And since we’ve stored our desks and office chairs away while we’re working on renovating and finishing that room, I do a lot of sitting in that chair in the living room.
I visited three stores in the morning, but came up with nothing. The chairs I found that didn’t make my back hurt even more were either very ugly or too big. So after lunch, I went at it again. Visited three more stores. I hesitated about a darling little chair that was labeled ‘granny’s reading chair’, but I knew I wouldn’t be able to spend a day of work on it. So off I went, to the seventh store on my list.
And there it was. The chair of my dreams.
I’ve always loved rocking chairs, but the time was never right. I had small homes and very accident prone children.  In my (overactive, I have to admit) mind could see them tumbling over and breaking their necks while playing in my chair. Not that they would be allowed to, but hey, I do understand the attraction of it.
So I bought none of the rocking chairs I passed in thrift stores in those days. When Amanda found hers (oh my, how can that be almost ten years ago already?!?)  the dream became alive again and since my children were bigger by then, I started keeping an eye out for rocking chairs. But of course, in those days I never found an affordable rocking chair. That’s how it goes.
But now? I’m in chair heaven. My back started singing when I sat down to test it in the store and it’s even better with pillows. It’s great for working on my laptop, for knitting, for reading, for talking. I love, love, love it.
I was still doubting whether or not to ship our belongings to Curaçao when we move there forever, but now I’m sure. There’s no way I’ll leave this chair behind. Nope, no matter where we’ll live, I’ll be here. In my rocking chair.

Thrift store treasures (2)

~ Maggie ~ 2 Comments

Yesterday really was my lucky thrifting day. Besides the things I showed you yesterday I found The Chair.

I have been searching for The Chair for over a year now, to replace the Everybody-Has-One-of-These-Ikea-Chair. But I had a few requirements. It had to be small, sturdy (my family is not easy on chairs, they like to sit in ways that were not intended by the designers), antique or at least retro looking and cheap (since the other chair was still going strong it felt like unnecessary spending).

Yeah. Well. Not an easy list. I found sturdy, antique chairs that were way too big for our tiny living room. I found smaller, lighter chairs that wouldn’t survive long (I tried one of those a few years ago) and I found perfect chairs that cost way too much.
So the Everybody-Has-One-of-These-Ikea-Chair and I learned to live with each other. It is rather sturdy after all (though we have to put the frame back together every once in a while), and the cover can easily be washed to remove all the coffee stains we make. It is too big, but the girls love sitting in it. I don’t like that everyone seems to have this chair and I’m not really a big fan of Ikea, but it did the job.

Still, I kept looking for The Chair. And yesterday I found it. It looks retro, it’s small, but comfy, sturdy and heavy, can survive sitting (and hanging) in every possible way and it was cheap. So I bought it.
I didn’t see the label on the bottom until after I brought it home.
It’s from Ikea.
Oh well. I still like it.