The Intentional Thrifter (and Yardsaler): Baskets and Brooches

Yesterday we stopped at one yard sale. I found two lidded baskets for a couple of dollars.

I cleaned them up a bit, and Mr. Fixit wrangled the bigger one back into shape (it was just warped enough not to close nicely).

The little one is keeping our fake-fall-flowers company.

And the big one is holding bread.

I found the brooch on the left at the same sale, for a dollar. The one on the right was thrifted awhile ago. I don't often pin a brooch on clothes, but I like stringing one on a chain as a necklace.

Consignment store find: one of those sweaters that doesn't look too exciting on the hanger, but which immediately makes itself at home in the closet like it's always been there.

It's already made friends with my flannel shirt and a necklace. (Still too hot for that here, but I'll put it on hold.)

Also this one, from the thrift store. Neither of the sweaters are lifetime-quality materials, but I'm hoping that if I treat them kindly they'll last for awhile.

(Thrifted scarf.)

Fall is coming!

The Intentional Thrifter (and Yardsaler)

I found this jersey dress at the thrift store. It wasn't an absolute need, although I loved the colour and the twist-knotted waist. It's a fancier style than the other dresses I have for the summer, so not as likely to be worn much (since I don't dress for an office job).

 
But...I  discovered a way to double its wear. As with so many knit-fabric dresses, it can easily be hiked up to wear as a tunic or top. Now I feel much more intentional.

I also found a really great book about the sculptor Alexander Calder, who pioneered mobiles as an art form.

We haven't been to many yard sales this year--the weather's been too cold and rainy, and they're often not what they used to be. But we did stop at a couple of sales this morning, and I found three new-in-the-package "snack bags," or washable waterproof-lined zipper pouches. I don't care that they're baby-animal fabric, I'll use them for something.

I also bought a zippered travel case for jewelry. Not that I travel much, but when I do it would be very nice to be able to keep earrings together and necklaces detangled. I will use it at home in the meantime.

That's all!

The intentional thrifter (yardsaler)

Mr. Fixit and I went to some yard sales this morning. I was a bit low on cash, so I was looking only for rock-bottom deals. The sales at houses didn't offer much, but at the end we lucked out at a church sale. Mr. Fixit bought an electronics item for five dollars, and I found these things for even less than that.

Lightweight grey and navy striped sweater: my two favourite neutrals.

Cookbook and a pack of re-usable plastic party skewers. I had a copy of this book when we were first married, so it's just for nostalgia. The skewers will probably get used at summer birthdays.

Teapot. Well-used, but still nice.

Frugal finds and fixes: Yard sales, wind storms, and earthquakes

Fixes: People in southern Ontario are starting off this weekend with lots of unexpected fixing ahead, after strong winds crashed through yesterday (up to 122 km/hr where we live). Trees blew down behind our apartment building, and we could see shingles flying off roofs in the neighbourhood. In Toronto, balcony furniture was seen flying through the air, and the roof blew off a school (there were also fatalities because of downed power lines). We had similar tree damage a couple of times at our old house, and it's not easy or cheap to deal with.

The only thing we had damaged here was one of the car ramps we had stored on our balcony (used for oil changes, not on the balcony). It fell over when the winds started up, and a piece broke off, but Mr. Fixit was able to re-glue it. That's pretty minor compared to what others are dealing with after the storm (and in other situations like flooding in New Brunswick and volcanoes in Hawaii). 

Finds: Street sales are starting, and in spite of the mess left everywhere this morning, there were lots of people out enjoying the warm weather. I found a Daytimer the same size as my planner (so the Bible cover can go back on my Bible), and a pair of earrings. The Daytimer was two dollars, and I actually bought it just for the paper and dividers inside it. Half-size filler paper is hard to find here, unless you go to the expensive office-supply store. Walmart used to carry it, but I haven't seen any there for awhile. Anyway, I cleaned up the cover and then decided that I like it as is; so I got more than I expected for my two dollars.

Finds: The one thing I'm not interested in right now at yard sales is books. I see enough of those at the thrift store. Here's one that came home recently: The Invention of Clouds, by Richard Hamblyn. It's about Luke Howard, the amateur meteorologist who gave the clouds all their Latin names.

E-book reading: I had to wait awhile to be next in line for Goodbye, Things: The New Japanese Minimalism, by Fumio Sasaki. I wasn't sure how much relevance to expect from a lifestyle book written by a single male thirtysomething, and translated from Japanese.  However, it was one of the better short books I've read recently on what we expect our stuff to do for us, and why we keep chasing down more of it. The author referred several times to the Great East Japan Earthquake in 2011, and how that affected his own and others' attitude toward possessions. (He points out that his previously large book and camera collections could have been dangerous in such an earthquake.) In comparison, I recently read a twenty-year-old (thrifted) book about the simplicity journey, and I could barely get through it--too preachy. (So you know I don't recommend every minimalism book that comes along.)

Finds, again: I have been very lucky lately, finding summer clothes at the thrift store. I am putting a Project 333 list together, to be posted near Victoria Day. (In a couple of weeks.)

In the meantime, this is my happy find for this week: a chambray shirtdress, that was even more of a bargain than it might have been, because it was tagged as a shirt instead of a dress, and priced accordingly. It's a short shirtdress, okay? Anyway, this one also has sort of a patience-pays-off moral attached. I had been wanting a dress like this for awhile, because they're so useful: you can wear them closed, open, layered, whatever. The discount store next to our building has shirtdresses for about twenty dollars, and I looked at them a couple of times when I was over there getting milk, but I never got around to trying one on. They looked sort of flimsy, and I kept thinking about people sewing those dresses overseas. Please note that I have bought shoes, hats, and other things there, and even the occasional t-shirt or sweater over the years, so I'm not trying to get all sustainable-purist about it; but something about those particular dresses just didn't seem right, and I didn't feel right about buying one. 

And then this one, a better brand, turned up at the thrift store for a quarter of even the discount-store price. Plus it has a pretty floral pattern (hard to see in the photo, you have to look close). 

So, worth the wait.

Saturday rummage saling

It's church rummage sale season again, and one of our favourite annual sales was this morning. This year they did not price the items but asked for a small donation instead.

I brought home two vintage Christmas magazines, fourteen French-Impressionist postcards, and two craft kits which, to me, are just a good source of embroidery floss, fabric, and other odds and ends. It looks like quite a haul when you spread it out.

The 1977 Christmas Helps magazine contains the usual frightening array of weird '70's crafts and fashion. "Dear Aunt Bessie, thank you for sewing me that lovely jumper made like a giant ladybug." However, it's set up in a countdown-to-Christmas style that I'm thinking might inspire some blog posts here in the weeks to come. Stay tuned.

Beginning to look a bit like Christmas (Do-Vember #22)

Do-Vember

For most of the past many years, my holiday decorating rule has been to leave it all as late as possible. There were good reasons for this. We tried to keep Advent separate from Christmas, and it didn't help if we had too many Christmas things out too early. Later on, some years, we also put out decorations just before Christmas, but that was because people were busy or partly out of town, and we had to wait for everyone who wanted to help.

Today I put out a few holiday things. I think it's the earliest I've ever done this much decorating, ever. Again, there are reasons for this. We don't have too-excited small children anymore, but we do have adult children who have flown the nest and who will be in and out at various times over the next month. It just seemed like it would be nice to have a few warming-up-for-Christmas things around the house.

Decoration we bought at Ponytails' school craft sale, a few years ago (made by one of the students)

A basket of vintage Christmas carol books

Working on decorating the front hall. I made the candle jar decoration out of scavenged odds and ends, and put some bits of fake evergreen in the white goblets. I'm going to add some mini red balls or berries to the goblets, when I find some.

A basket of old favourite Christmas books, in a basket that was formerly a six-sectioned wine basket (posted about that here). After not using the basket since finding it in August, because I couldn't think of anything to put in the six sections, I removed the divider and now have a perfectly good plain basket.

Dewey and Chippie relaxing in front of the fireplace. (They won't stay there long if it gets too warm.)

Saturday yard saling: All year round

For $5, I picked up a whole bag of craft supplies and holiday stickers: glitter, edging scissors,brushes, pipecleaners, all that. They also threw in the package of bamboo skewers that I was going to buy anyway.

 

I was able to salvage about half the pipe cleaners. I tossed the messed-up ones, along with the pink boondoggle and some of the glitter glue. Mr. Fixit took the foam paintbrush and the other brushes.

Now we are equipped for everything from Valentine's Day to Christmas to Talk Like a Pirate Day.

In recent yard saling

The past two weeks of yard-saling have been minimal for me--there just wasn't much that I was looking for. We were short on time last Saturday, so our stop at a rummage sale had to be a quick one: I found a 1990's crocheting book (did we ever really wear sweaters with Christmas lightbulbs appliqued across the shoulders?), and a big hardcover copy of Things Cooks Love. Not that I'm so adventurous with kitchen gadgets, but it looked like fun.

The only other thing that came home lately (other than a few finds for Mr. Fixit) was a set of queen-size sheets for our bed, by accident. We were at a clearing-out-a-house sale, and I saw some dark green sheets that I thought might work either as Christmas tablecloths or just for fabric. I bought two sheets (there weren't any pillowcases) for three dollars, not worrying about what size they were. When I got them home and washed them, they turned out to be queen size and in quite decent shape, except for a stain in the middle of the top sheet, where you wouldn't want it for a tablecloth but also where you'd  never see it on the bed when it's covered with a blanket. So there you go.

Yard saling with a plan (great things to look for)

(This advice also applies to thrift shops and rummage sales.)

Do you brake for yard sales?

Do church basements filled with tables get you excited?

Is the best part of dropping things off at the thrift store the chance to go inside?

If you answered no to all those questions, congratulations. You have no hunting-gathering tendencies, and that's good. You probably also have a clean house, unless your shopaholic tendencies manifest themselves elsewhere, like at the mall. Besides, yard saling and its relatives take time, and that's not something in large supply, for some of us. It's not a required activity.

But it's also a less pointless one than some would have us believe. Yard saling doesn't have to be about packrattiness, excess and coming home with other people's silly rejects. It can be part of a reasonable plan for living on less, re-using, re-cycling, re-sponsibling.

Some people come home from yard sales with trunkfuls of good finds. Others are lucky if they find an occasional CD they like. If you go to yard sales but don't find much, here are a few things to watch for.

This stacking rack folds flat--good for small spaces.

1. Kitchen stuff for your changing seasons of life. There's always a push to define the most essential kitchen items (like the best books and the ten-item classic French wardrobe). But the cooking needs of a single person are not the same as those of someone who cooks for a mob every day. And mobs have a way of, eventually, dwindling.

I used to have more large-sized casserole dishes, but a couple of years ago I started picking up small-to-mini sized pieces when I saw them at yard sales. I now use those much more often than I do the big ones. We also have a half-sized slow cooker (yard-saled) that is just the right size for a two-to-three-person meal.

2. Knives. People get knives given to them, and then they don't want them. We have knives too, but when I saw a brand-new set of them last year at a yard sale, I happily picked them up to replace some of our worn ones. (If you're lucky, you might get a cutting board too.)

3. Baskets and boxes. I know, that's not exactly news, but when people put baskets out at a yard sale, they want them to sell. If you do basket gifts, or like using baskets in your bathroom or kitchen or bedroom or office, look for used ones first.

4. Other kinds of organizers. Until recently, I had never been in one of those stores that sell nothing but things to put things in. But I get it: they're there to make you feel organized. Having been not only a homemaker but a homeschooling parent for all those years, I understand the need to corral stuff. And I've been to a few plastic-kitchenware parties in my time too (although the sticker shock meant I hardly ever bought anything). These are my thoughts (the yard sale part is coming):

a) A lot of smart people point out that if you have fewer things in the first place, you will need fewer thing-holders. Instead of a whole closet organizer system, for instance, you may be able to get away with a rod and a shelf.

b) You can improvise a lot of thing-holders, when you do need them. I've used all kinds of cardboard boxes as drawer organizers, magazine files, and so on.

c) The reason that a lot of thing-holders end up at yard sales (or rummage sales, or thrift shops) is that someone bought them for a purpose, they didn't work well for that purpose or for that person, and so they are discarded. The multiple uses of pocket shoe bags and plastic shoe boxes are legendary, but the same applies to other kinds of bags, racks, keepers, and sorters.. After I bought two Kangaroo Keepers earlier this year, I agreed that the advertising was overblown on the supposed usefulness of all those little pockets. But as I said in that post, I ended up using the large one as a cosmetics and hairbrush holder in a drawer (practical for me because I don't have a lot of that stuff), and the small one  in my pocket-lacking purse (without stuffing anything in the pockets).

As another example, two years ago (how can it be that long ago?), I bought a whole lot of brand-new little jars at a yard sale. I never liked those traditional tall thin spice jars, so even when I had some, I never remembered to put anything into them. It was easier to keep herbs and spices in their plastic bags, or in the Ziploc system I tried for awhile. But since I had an available drawer, and because these squatty little jars were easier to fill than the tall ones, I figured that they would work in our kitchen, and they do. I even manage to keep them alphabetized, more or less.

5. Fancy stuff from stationery aisles. Things I hardly ever buy new: themed sticky notes, note cards, gift wrap, gift tags. (Anything that's outdated but otherwise pretty, like an artistic address book, usually gets cut into gift tags.)

6. Less-fancy office supplies My three-ring Daytimer came from a fill-a-bag rummage sale. I haven't been looking for binders lately, but there are lots of them out there. If you hit the right sale, you can even find packages of things like binder dividers or page protectors, because somebody bought too many of them.

7. Small fashion accessories.  Some people shuck their least-favourites at the thrift store, others go to the trouble of putting them out for a yard sale. Scarves are what I usually look for (because they don't get worn hard, or they might just need hand-washing); but you can also do well on purses (depending on condition), wallets, belts, and so on. .

8. Things you can spray paint, or otherwise-paint. This can apply, these days, to just about anything. (Can you say Pinterest?) From the worst and ugliest yard sale kitsch, to just something that needs a little freshening, everything seems to look better when it's another colour. When Mr. Fixit restores vintage radios, he usually tries to keep the original finish or colour intact; but sometimes older plastic cases are just too discoloured, and then he gives them a few coats of  fun colour. (Those ones usually get snapped right up.) (The photo above was a father-daughter project.)

9. Mr. Fixit's contribution:  Golf clubs. And other sports and exercise gear.

10. You were waiting for me to say books, weren't you? Well, of course. But it helps if you can narrow down what you want. Like cookbooks, or guitar music books, or how-to-fix-things books. When you find a book in your area, it's even better than something completely random.

A little random is fine; it's the spice of yard saling. But having a plan makes it make more sense.

Saturday yard saling: rummage sale season starts

Winter is a good time for church rummage sales, but there's also a bit of time for them between summer and Christmas bazaars. Today we visited two such annual events, and everyone scored something useful. Lydia found a suitcase to accompany her on an upcoming school trip; Mr. Fixit found a speaker, an 8-track player, and a couple of other fixity items.

I just found books, but a hardcover copy of Gilead and two Madeleine L'Engle memoirs seemed like pretty good rummage sale treasure.

Saturday yard saling: transformations

We stopped at just one yard sale this morning--holiday weekends are usually short on sales. This one had a lot of costume jewelry, including two bead necklaces with big floss tassels on them. I bought them for two dollars apiece. Lydia was horrified. "You aren't really going to wear those..."  I wasn't making any promises.

When I got them home and inspected them, the tassels seemed a bit, I don't know, shopworn; they were fluffed out too many ways. And neither of them really seemed to go with their respective necklaces. Having had three daughters who have all had their turn at making bead jewelry,  I'm not at all squeamish about necklace dissections. It turned out that both necklaces were just beads strung on elastic cord, with the tassel findings strung on near the knot in the cord. (I think maybe somebody made them with beads from a craft store.) I knew that when I snipped the cord, I'd lose a few beads from each one, but that was okay; they were a little heavy anyway. I just retied the cords tightly without the tassels.

This is the silver-coloured necklace, without its tassel. (The other one is a mix of glass beads.)

I have a couple of vintage 1980's silver-coloured scarf rings. Here's one of them, clipped to a space between the beads. (This is the one I like best.)

Here's another one, also clipped between the beads. (The advantages of stretchy elastic cord.) Not quite as nice as the rose, but workable.

Finally I fastened a brooch in the same spot.

I don't know if I'd bother clipping anything onto the glass beads; they're enough on their own.

So: one yard sale, minus two ugly necklaces, plus five better ones, for four dollars. By my math that's okay.

Fresh hankies

Eight man-size cotton handkerchiefs, made from two yard-saled pillowcases. (Yes, it took me three months to get around to it. I know. It's awful. But I did have the excuse of having the sewing machine packed away for part of that time.)

Saturday yard saling: baskets and roosters

Today's yard saling finds: a basket divided into sections (maybe good for napkins or towels)...

And a set of three wooden canisters with roosters.

I already have some rooster things: china measuring cups, and a spoon holder. The spoon holder came from my great-grandmother's house.

I put the canisters and a couple of the china pieces on the back of the stove.

One person's excess is another person's rooster collection.

P.S.: I know, stoves, fire safety, all that. I will probably move the canisters somewhere else tomorrow, but for now I just liked the way they lined up.