Thrifting Lately

Some of my favorite hobbies include:

• Blogging
• Going to the thrift store
• Eating breakfast from Chick-fil-A

So how appropriate is it that I’m currently in the Chick-fil-A drive-thru, and I’m blogging about what I’ve recently bought at the thrift store?

Trifecta!

(There seems to be some sort of chicken hold up as we are at a standstill and have been for quite some time).

(Hence… blogging in the Chick-fil-A drive-thru).

So, the thrift store… I enjoy a good find. One thing I love about buying secondhand items is that I can use them for a short while, and if I don’t want them anymore, I can re-thrift them with no guilt. 

The danger of thrift store shopping, and any shopping really, is that it’s easy to end up with way too much stuff. I used to have a problem in that area, but I’ve overcome it the past few years. I'm a lot more careful about what I buy these days.

For the past few weeks, I’ve been going to the thrift store about once a week. I’m in the market for some make shift trellises for my garden. I’ve always let our plants vine on the ground, but this year I want to try moving a few things vertical and see how that goes. It would make the garden much easier to navigate. I looked online at trellis ideas and found a lot of people have used things like old bed frames or cribs to make trellises. THAT is something I can accomplish! So I’ve popped into DI a few times on the lookout. 

Here are some fun non-garden things I’ve found whilst looking for garden things:

Sunglasses - I felt like I hit the jackpot! They were $1 each, and I found four acceptable pairs (plus a few more, but I cut it down to four). I am notorious for losing sunglasses, so I don’t like to spend much money on them. Also, it’s really hard to find sunglasses that fit my large head. So the fact that I found four in one place at one time is simply miraculous. 

Settlers of Catan - we’ve been playing Settlers for about 17 years. We still have the original game, but our Seafarers expansion is the updated version, so we’ve been playing with mixed artwork. I found a completely in tact (save for one building costs card) copy of Settlers for $4. I was able to swap out our original game so now all of our artwork matches! 

Old Settlers

New Settlers

I have to admit, it was hard to get rid of the old version, though. I felt like I was throwing out a family heirloom.

A table for the family room - I got this awesome drop leaf table for our family room. I’ve toyed around with the idea of having a table downstairs but haven’t wanted to buy one. We’ve just kept a small folding table down there for when we’ve needed it. But this table? It is perfect! We can put the leaves up or down depending on what we need, and the able has some shelves under it for storage. 

I’m currently using it for a puzzle, and I love being able to put the puzzle box down below. 

Speaking of puzzles…

Puzzles - I used to be adamantly against buying puzzles from the thrift store (unless they were very clearly unopened) because nothing made me angrier than a missing puzzle piece! I’ve had a change of heart, though, because I’ve purchased so many puzzles new and STILL had pieces missing (I’ll forever praise the puzzle companies that have a replacement policy). 

I recently found this fun Melissa & Doug floor puzzle:

And I also found a 4th of July puzzle (never opened) which is what I’m currently working on on the “new” table.

I bought two other puzzles as well, but they have been opened, so whether they are missing any pieces is yet to be determined.

(At the thrift store, I need adequate time to peruse, and my kids are always bored before I'm done looking - even though they like the thrift store, too; they just aren't interested in as many things as I am. Any time I buy a puzzle, I always joke, "We can go in a minute, I just need to hurry and count these puzzle pieces to make sure they're all there." And my kids about die. I think I'm hilarious).

As for gardening things, I have found the following:

First, a table-y, shelf-y thing with the shelves missing. This I'm attempting to use as a cage for my cherry tomatoes. We'll see what happens. 

And then this nameless ladder-y item.

It was wrapped in green plastic, and it has four hooks in it. I have no idea what it is or why someone went through the effort to wrap it up.

I'm going to try and get the cucumber vines to climb it. 

For now, I just have it leaning against the fence. I'm not sure if I want to reinforce it, or leave it as is. I've got a while before it will need to host vines. Someday I'd really like to try getting our melons off the ground. I'm not sure if that will be this year or some other time. They'll require something extra sturdy. 

I’ve got a bit of a thrifting bug right now. It comes and goes, but currently, I’m enjoying the nibbles.