The Mister and I decided to leave our cave and take advantage of his extended vacation by making a quick trip to the thrift store. To be honest, this was my first trip that did not involve horribly out of fashion clothing for a themed dress up day in school. The Mister, as we all know, is in and out of these places all the time. That is the only way I can explain why the stench of shattered dreams and lost hope didn’t slap him six ways from Sunday when we walked in the front door. The assault on my senses was especially bad walking through the appliance section. If every object has a story, then the refrigerator Mikey opened when I wasn’t paying attention all but gasped nobody knows the trouble I’ve seen.
I also have a terrible eye, or at least one that ignores things without spotlights, soft music, and Madison Avenue marketing plans. I walked by every single piece of awesome furniture the Mister later found like a suburban prospector. It’s like his eyes are set with mid century cross hairs, and mine? I don’t know. Maybe Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups. Certainly something food related, because everything I found interesting was in the housewares section.
If this sweet Corningware casserole dish still had it’s lid, I would have snapped her right up, The floral pattern reminded my of my friend, Nicole.
These aqua numbers immediately reminded me of my other friend, Tristan, except for the fact that OH MY WORD I know this is the Salvation Army but could the original owners taken the trouble to give the dishes a quick rinse before they tossed them in the donate pile? Is that scrambled egg on the third cup from the top? Disgusting. It’s called a kitchen sink, and it’s not just for flicking your cigarettes.
The compartments in this dinner platter appealed to my rigid, uncompromising side. It is also a very happy yellow color, which personifies me perfectly. I’m anal retentive and chipper. There’s a difference.
If Dairy Queen is my dessert, popcorn is my dinner. This is actually one of a set of four, and they are cute, except they are not, really. They’re kind of ugly and the font looks like olives, and I can’t eat popcorn when I feel like I should be eating something stuffed with a pimento. Also, sized as they are to hold no more than 1 cup of popcorn, they are, shall we say, a waste of my time.
The only person who lucked out on this trip was Mikey, who was thrilled to discover a birdhouse ready for him to paint. He has been obsessed with the idea of building and painting a birdhouse for at least a month, and because Mikey doesn’t just decide to do something willy-nilly, he already had the design concept fleshed out. His birdhouse was going to have bright colors, mainly red and green, and lots of polka-dots. All birds LOVE polka-dots (duh,) so a birdhouse without polka-dots really isn’t a birdhouse at all. Maybe a birdrental, but not a birdhouse. We didn’t have the heart to tell him his birdhouse was actually a tissue dispenser, so we are currently sketching out blueprints for the birdhouse remodel. We might also just buy a real birdhouse.
“Waste of my time” –HA!! I feel the same about popcorn, but I also have no qualms about using a smaller bowl and then going for seconds. I rarely go thrifting and when I do, don’t have much luck. . I just don’t have the eye, or maybe in LA proper they aren’t much good, ie, junk calling itself antiques (and pricing itself accordingly?
Ha- you are so funny. I love the part about popcorn- at our house we eat popcorn out of HUGE bowls. A little bowl would be a waste of time.
(P.S. I just read your reply to my comment about the wallet- Yes, I do think you should buy the wallet. It gets cuter every time I look at it. And thank you very much for the compliment about my picture for my blog. It makes me smile. It is me and my grandpa at our summer cabin in MN a few years ago.)
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The Corningware is DELIGHTFUL!
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My grandmother used to take my siblings and I to the Salvation Army and Goodwill every weekend! I loved treasure hunting, and I always felt so lucky to be able to get something. Years later it became “popular” to go thrift shop hopping by my high school friends, but I was always way ahead of them when it came to looking for a bargain :)
Mikey’s bird house is adorable :)
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The look on Mikey’s face is PRICELESS. You, my dear, are the mother of a thrifter-in-training. He reminds me of what I think my husband must’ve looked like in the stories he tells me about being a 12 year old going to garage sales with his one pocket stuffed with one $5 bill and the other one with ones so that he could bargain (will you take $5? It’s all I have.) for cameras and comic books.
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First time here..I always wondered about the name..very cute
I don’t know how I found your blog but I did and I really enjoy it. Like you I have young kids and it is indeed a struggle to “make it all work”. LOVED your descriptions of Salvation Army. We only really go there for Halloween costumes and if I am really lucky I have conned another mom into taking my kids there as part of her “extended” family to shop for their items. The smell is the same as that smell you get punched in the face with at Kmart or Woolworths.
Adored the picture of your son with his masterpiece. Pure joy at its best!
Jules – welcome to the thrift shopping world! Once a month my girlfriend and I plan an “outing” to a local thrift shop. We spend about 2 hours going over everything in the store – picking things up, examing, sometimes wondering WHAT they are. :-) Sometimes we come home with treasures (cashmere sweaters for $12, antique wooden ribbon spools, nike shorts for the boy) and sometimes we don’t. We then finish it up with lunch somewhere – BUT only somewhere where we have a “buy one/get one free” coupon. Even better if the lunch entree is big and I can save half for dinner. It’s a game for us and the thrill of the hunt; we have a blast. I always look for little pretty dessert plates – love to collect them. A big bargain this winter was ski boots for my son – $5.00. Yes, you read that right. Embrace it Jules – make a game out of it – it’s FUN!
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Jean and Taryn–Popcorn should be served in a vat. No exceptions. :)
Jean, you’ll need to tell me how you cook your popcorn in the microwave. I tried your bag trick (or how I imagined it should go) and I almost burned the house down.
CherryTreeLane–isn’t that pattern sweet? I loved the colors.
Jen–then he gets it from the Mister, because I could have walked past the hope diamond and would have missed it.
Tamstyles–Thanks! I’m committing myself to finishing my about page very soon, and then I will explain the name again (I did in the first couple of posts about a year ago). I bet a lot of people think I write about food. I kind of do, actually.
Amy–That’s a great idea! I kindof already do that with the Mister. When he brings stuff home it’s pretty and new, and doesn’t have that thing film of despair when it’s still in the store.
Julie–Wow! You make it sound fun. Maybe I should start going with just the Mister or girlfriends?
Love the aqua number! They had me at “Hello” even with the months-old leftover crud stuck to the third cup.
Jules-don’t give up. When you are “thrifting” (ie garage sales, thrift stores, etc) you have good days and bad days. And you know, you have a kitchen sink too. ;) You could wash the “aqua number”. LOL Some days I go into a thrift store and smell and see crap…other times I find the BEST stuff!! But as always you made me laugh–love the reason for your rejection of the popcorn bowls…
Ok, you are hilarious. I enjoyed this post.
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That bird house is awesome! If I was a bird I would insist on polka dots. I now have the overwhelming urge to visit the Salvation Army store by my house.
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“Anal retentive yet chipper,” thank you for giving me the perfect phrase to explain my optimistically OCD tendencies. And I love a man/boy who understands the importance of polka dots. You’ve raised him well.
oh man, i hope i haven’t ruined thrifting out in our area – you know I really don’t have enough readers to do that ; )
you will have to dish on some stores I’ve overlooked…I’m always on the hunt for new stores. My Mister hates thrift stores like you, he thinks they smell of desperation – I think they smell of VICTORY. That salvation army is always the best for housewares for some reason – oh and ceramics!
xoxo – Morgan (the brick house)
This post made me so happy (thank you for the mention) but to see Mikey’s proud face and ‘the bird rental’ and it being a tissue holder ! You nearly killed me on this one toots!
Cathe–the dishes are cute, but the second I laid eyes on that food particle, visions of ecoli danced in my head.
Cara–I am willing to keep trying. The Mister swears it is fun. :)
Thanks, Brooke!
Toi–if you are anything like me, bring lysol and gloves. ;)
Hannah, so glad I could help. I’ve been trying to get the Mister to appreciate the dichotomy for years, but he’s not buying it.
Morgan–if you’re getting routine mentions on Apartment Therapy, then you are doing ok in terms of readers. ;) I’m emailing you!
Miss B, xoxo.
I sure do wish my double spaces worked in the comment section.
http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=32376302
Here is that corning ware dish WITH A LID!