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.

The Return of the Intentional Thrifter

I'm feeling both lucky and blessed about the things that have come my way lately. I've said no a lot (it's inevitable), but the yeses make the search worthwhile.

Sorry about the poor lighting/colours of these photos: the sunlight has not been co-operating over the past couple of days. In this apartment, you either get flooded with natural light, or walled in with clouds and fog. But I did my best with the lightbulbs.

An education textbook, Tools for Teaching, and another book that just looked interesting: On Purpose: How We Create the Meaning of Life

I finally replaced our copy of Watership Down.

Free M.C.C. volunteer t-shirt!

These look like slippers, but they're actually shoes with stretchy tops from Arcopedico. Good for wearing around the apartment.

I'm really happy about these Naot shoes! Shoe shopping is not my forte, new or used. I  brought home a pair of burgundy pumps last week, because in the store I was sure that they fit. I got them home and they were too small here, too big there. However, that pair did fit Lydia! Today I browsed the shoe racks very cautiously, and these sort-of-Oxfords popped up, just my size and shape. If at first you don't succeed...

I have been looking for a belt like this all fall, and for a dollar you can't lose. I especially like those little chevron inserts. The photo makes it look black, but it's dark grey.

I bought this skirt today, not the top, but I couldn't get a photo of the skirt by itself that looked like anything but a random wad of fabric. It's a dark grey stretchy pencil skirt, brand new with tags. I've bought a couple of skirts recently, mostly to try out different styles, and I think this is the keeper. (It works with the belt!)

For those who like capsule wardrobes: the official new Project 333 season will start in January, and I'll have a new page up then too.

Two thrifted finds and fixes

Found at the thrift store: one wine-coloured rayon maxi skirt, size 14, for two dollars.

The problem: size 14 is about three sizes too big for me. The skirt had an elastic waist, side slits, and pockets. What would it take to make it wearable? Would I have to take in the sides, or hem the bottom? Would the pockets and/or the rayon fabric make it too complicated for my basic skills?

The simplest solution turned out to be the best. I unpicked a bit of the waistband seam, cut the elastic, pinned my own waist-length of new 1-inch elastic (minus two inches for stretch) to one of the ends, and pulled it through the casing, discarding the old piece along the way. There was no extra stitching to interfere. I hand-stitched the ends of the elastic together and re-sewed the waistband.

That's all. Now it fits!

My other find: strap shoes with not-too-high heels. My size this time, luckily.

Frugal Finds and Fixes: All You Really Need

Fixing: Mr. Fixit is fixing a vintage electric watch. It was apparently never used, but it doesn't run, so he's doing some diagnostics to find out why. Making it work may be a lost cause; the little mechanism that moves the balance wheel is jammed, and the watch is so small that it's "brain surgery on a beaver"; but it was worth a try.

Frugal: We closed out our storage unit, to save the cost of the rent. The Christmas tree and some decorations went to the thrift store; the rest of the decorations, we were able to fit into a bin in our apartment storage room/pantry. Everything else was also assimilated into our space here. To make a bit of extra space, we have been digitizing old snapshots; and it turned out that we had doubles or triples of many of them (from the good old days when you sent your photos off to be processed).

Economical, if not frugal: The common-area barbecues at our building are now stored for the season. Mr. Fixit did a little searching, and found out that we're allowed to have a small electric grill on the balcony. So we bought one. It doesn't look much bigger than a waffle iron, but it's enough to cook a couple of burgers or some chicken. It's also easy to clean and store, which is good (I wouldn't like to be dumping ashes off the balcony).

More frugal than the alternatives: I wanted to bake some egg-free, dairy-free cupcakes, but most of the recipes I found called for alternative milks and egg replacers, none of which I had. Even our favourite Small Chocolate Cake calls for an egg, and I'm not sure it would work to leave it out. Then I found this vinegar-oil version (like Wacky Cake), and made a panful of those. Ignore the occasional negative reviews there: I just followed the recipe, and they turned out fine.

Fun: Lydia was playing around with Duolingo, so I got a free account and started brushing up old languages.

Frugal: I had been looking at thrift stores for a pair of flat shoes, with no success. I need something with a lot of toe, so ballet flats don't work. Last weekend, we found ourselves near a shoe outlet and decided to look there. Someone pointed us to the back of the store, where the last-pairs and other oddments were priced even lower than the rest. Miraculously, there was one pair, in a colour and size and style I liked. I showed them to an offspring, who said "um hmm, Sensible Shoes." But they do look better on, and they're comfortable.

Frugal: In the past couple of weeks, I have thrifted a shirt, a dressy dress, a belt, a card-making kit, some notepaper, and an animal-print scarf. I'm looking for a farmhouse-style tiered tray, for a holiday decoration, but haven't found one yet.

Fun: So, you want to know why I've been hanging out at the thrift store so much? I have been sorting books there, two mornings a week, and I usually take a quick look around the store before I leave. Notice that I have not been buying books.

The finer things in life: The children at church on Sunday were asked what things people need most to live. The five-year-old said clothes, food, air. The three-year-old said "salad dressing."

And that's it for this round.

Saturday thrift shopping: teal heels and more

No yard sales now, but we did stop by the thrift store this morning. Mr. Fixit was smitten with a vintage armchair (the kind our grandparents had with prickly upholstery), and an equally vintage (and large) television set that needed repairs.  The chair was a great price, but it had some hard metal things in it that would poke you in the back, so he decided to pass on it. The T.V. was a silent-auction item, so he's thinking about going back later to make a bid on that. Lydia found a very very good deal on a name-brand purse for herself (she notices these things).

I was looking at clothes today more by colour than by function, and I found a couple of things that matched what I had in mind. These tops were all $2 or $2.50 apiece:

I am a terrible shoe shopper. I tend to stick to practical colours (other than my purple sneakers); I'm happy just to find something that fits. And you would think that there would be even less chance of finding nice shoes that fit at the thrift store, but I've actually gotten lucky with that several times. So who honestly needs a pair of teal pumps in their closet? Me, me, me.

Books were a dollar apiece this week. You can't see what these all are from the covers, but the red one is a paperback copy of Barbara Leonie Picard's retelling of The Iliad (used not so many years ago in Mrs. Norton's PNEU school); and the others, counter-clockwise, are the Faber Book of Modern Verse, which has a lovely vintage 1930's look to it, and includes several poems by T.S. Eliot; a history of Bruce County in Ontario, along Lake Huron; and The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared.

Overall, a very successful thrifting trip. (Can I sleep with the shoes under my pillow?)

Lucky at the thrift store, again

On my wish list for fall: short boots. We dropped off a load of stuff at the thrift store this morning, and I found a pair in my size.

But since it's over 30 degrees here this week (about ninety if you're American), I probably won't be wearing them for awhile yet.