The Intentional Thrifter: Clothes with character, and a book of characters

Half the fun of thrifting is finding things that are slightly different from either your own or everyone else's. But the real winners are the ones that mix well with what you already have. (In clothes, or anything else.)

Two recent clothes finds: a long plaid jacket that is as comfortable as an old flannel shirt.

A pair of tweed trousers. They're a mix of brown and grey, more on the brown side. I like them with the shoes I found earlier (photo below).

And a helpful book. This was originally titled Bunyan Characters--1st Series, and you can read it online here.

Quote for the Day: They can stop sneering now

"Cowper said, forty or fifty years ago, that he dared not name John Bunyan in his verse, for fear of moving a sneer. To our refined forefathers, we suppose, Lord Roscommon’s Essay on Translated Verse, and the Duke of Buckinghamshire’s Essay on Poetry, appeared to be compositions infinitely superior to the allegory of the preaching tinker. We live in better times; and we are not afraid to say, that, though there were many clever men in England during the latter half of the seventeenth century, there were only two minds which possessed the imaginative faculty in a very eminent degree. One of those minds produced the Paradise Lost, the other the Pilgrim’s Progress." ~~ Thomas Babington Macaulay, "The Pilgrim's Progress and John Bunyan"

(It's a great essay. You can read the whole thing at that link--just scroll down and click to view it.) 

Wednesday Hodgepodge: A recipe for contentment

1. When you think about your future what do you fear most? Hope for the most?

"He that is down needs fear no fall,
He that is low no pride;
He that is humble ever shall
Have God to be his guide.

I am content with what I have,
Little be it or much;
And, Lord, contentment still I crave,
Because thou savest such.

Fulness to such a burden is
That go on pilgrimage:
Here little, and hereafter bliss,
Is best from age to age."

~~ John Bunyan, The Pilgrim's Progress (Part II)

2. September is National Chicken Month. How often is chicken on the menu at your house? What's a favorite dish made with chicken? What's something you're a 'chicken' about doing or trying?

We used to have chicken quite often, but lately it's been expensive. Sometimes Mr. Fixit buys a whole small chicken and we do it in the slow cooker, with a little seasoning or maybe barbecue sauce. Lydia had a friend here for dinner on the weekend and I made Ten Napkins Sticky Chicken, something we hadn't had for a long time but that everybody likes.

You could say I am a chicken when it comes to climbing high things or going too close to the edge. Like on apartment balconies, ahem. I prefer to admire the view from inside.

3. What are three things you don't own but wish you did?

That's an interesting question. Here's Mr. Fixit's list:

"A garage with a hoist, and a 1969 Nikko amplifier."

Here's my list:

My Samsung tablet is going to need replacing soon, so that's on my wish list.

If I ever take another more-than-overnight trip, I would like to have one of the newer-style bags with a handle and wheels.

But honestly...there isn't much else. When I went to Toronto last week, I had half an hour to stroll through the big-name stores we don't have here, before heading to the subway station under the mall. When I was younger, going to that mall with my parents was a rare and special treat. Even when I lived in the city as a student, I enjoyed browsing through the shops full of things I couldn't afford.  This time, I left there thinking, "I'm glad I already like my own things." (And that wasn't just because I was heading to the Tiny Wardrobe Tour.)

4. Would you rather be a jack of all trades or a master of one? Elaborate.  If you answered one, which one?

Mr. Fixit says "Master of electronics." Which I think he is already, but he's also handy at other things.

Me...I'm not sure how to answer that. Definitely not all trades, maybe good at a couple.

5. Ketchup or mustard? On what?

Ketchup: mixed with brown sugar, baked under Leanne Ely's Upside-Down Meatloaf.

Mustard: on Oktoberfest sausage on a bun.

6.  Insert your own random thought here.

I just finished re-reading Little Women, the first part. (Like The Pilgrim's Progress, there's a lot of argument over whether you include the second part in the general title.) It wasn't a book I loved when I was growing up, although I think I did plow dutifully through it once, along with Eight Cousins and Jack and Jill. I was more of an Anne fan. This time through, I was looking for different things; and I was surprised at a few details that don't usually make it into filmed versions. The long serious conversations, mostly. The mailbox in their back yard--Alcott seemed to love that kind of detail, and there was a similar setup in Jack and Jill, where they sent "things" (we are not given all the details) in a basket across a clothesline. I also liked the picnic with their British counterparts, where every character contributes the next part of an ad-libbed story. It was a clever way for her to reinforce each one's traits and point of view.  Again, it's the sort of scene that comes up in Jack and Jill (a lengthy play-by-play of their debating society meeting and then a dramatic performance), and in An Old-Fashioned Girl (a detailed description of the conversations at a young working women's lunch). Conversations and long descriptions of what games they played or who did what on stage are the sort of thing abridgers like to axe...too long, don't move the plot...but I think they sometimes show the author at her most relaxed, and they give us some unintended but genuine "peeps" into what people of the time did and thought--when they weren't trying to be too high-minded.

Linked from The Wednesday Hodgepodge at From This Side of the Pond.

From the antiques market

We went to the antiques market, for some fun on Family Day. A lot of the booths had special sales on, so the place was pretty crowded. Ponytails bought records. Lydia found a teacup. Mr. Fixit bought a Polaroid camera. I was searching for one book but didn't find a copy there; but I did bring home a 1940's Pilgrim's Progress, and Herbartian Psychology by John Adams. You can read Herbartian Psychology on archive.org; it's a book that Charlotte Mason quotes in Chapter VII of her Philosophy of Education.

And two of us won free coffees when we "rolled up the rim to win" at Tim Horton's afterward. So all in all it was a worthwhile trip!