Thrift Finds

Last week I had my tax appointment and it all turned out great.  We paid in too much.  What a blessing.  I pay estimates so it’s always a crap shoot on guessing how much I should be paying in.

I got done with my appointment in record time.  Kalissa was finishing out my childcare day by watching the kids so I decided to take advantage and go get groceries so I didn’t have to do that over the weekend…and sneak in a stop at the thrift shop.

We have something in our family we call “Goodwill Karma”.  It’s silly but we believe that if we intentionally start looking for something while thrifting, the items will just show up.  I TOTALLY believe in it….(actually I believe it’s God lending a hand)…Whatever the case, it truly happens.

Here’s what I found….a great frame.  I have a larger cross stitch project coming up and this frame will get cut down for it…$2.

I don’t need super fancy frames…just something tasteful.
Over nap time I had been on the computer, this very day, and I saw a cute craft done with streamers for the childcare kids.  I had made a note to myself to start collecting streamers.  They always have them at the thrift store…but NEVER do they have all of the colors in one stop.

I had also been looking for a way to introduce my two year olds to another shape.  We’d been working on hearts with Valentines Day…I think stars will be up next.  I’m not sure what project we’ll do with these foam sticker stars…something though.  25 cents for these!Kelli and I had looked for yardage of plaid fabric last time we were at JoAnn’s.  We found some but didn’t buy any as we hoped we might find a sheet or something thrifting….this day I found 100% cotton shower curtain….PERFECT! I also decided to look for some cotton shirts to cut up but was only going to get shirts that were not typical.  I found two grays! This fabric will go in the box for the church quilter ladies.  Then there was a treat for me….a scrap bag for $1.50.  Check it out….
[Read more…] about Good will Karma

I had a doctor’s appointment this week…Yep, you guessed it right.  I’m still not better.  She ended up treating me for walking pneumonia.  UGH.  No fun.  With the meds I am feeling some better which is a huge relief.

I go to the doctor in Calmar.  It’s about 20 minutes from here.  It is a small clinic with no means for testing so if I need any testing, I have to to go 10 minutes further to the “bigger” town, Decorah.  Well my doctor saw me on the list of people to be seen and had her nurse call me and requested that I go get a chest xray in Decorah before my appointment.  That’s what I did.

The time between the x-ray and the actual appointment left me with time I had to kill so I stopped at the thrift store.  I ended up finding a few things that I rarely see….

Quilts that are done but not bound….

This is put together with a backing and quilted but not bound…..

Here’s the backing…a nice soft flannel.
It was $5.  I stood there and debated and then ended up getting them for the charity quilt project.  There are volunteer binders out there.  I’m sure someone would be willing to bind these.

There was another one too.  Check it out…. [Read more…] about Thrifty Surprises!

My shoulder problems have been requiring me to go to physical therapy twice a week.  It’s in Decorah and that town is a half hour away.  It’s a pain going but in reality that’s about the closest place I around here here to go to get therapy in a schedule like mine.  I’ve been going to Team Rehab.  I went to one of the other places in the area and wasn’t really impressed.  Team Rehab has been AWESOME!!  I highly recommend them to anyone in the area who needs use these services.  They are friendly, nice and very professional.  Best of all…they have appointments that start at 5pm.  For me, that’s golden.

With childcare it’s so hard to get away.  Anytime I can’t be here I either have to coordinate with one of my kids to be my sub, or I have to close.  Parents hate when I have to close so, this 5pm appointment means the kids have to be picked up shortly before 4:30 and for all of the families that’s do-able.  It’s hardest on Kalissa if she has to work…but as I said, it’s do-able with the least conflicts.

Another great thing about Team Rehab, it’s located in the same strip mall as one of my thrift stores.  So now that I’m going to physical therapy every week I’m also getting to the thrift store every week.  That can be dangerous….

Thankfully the fabric is all cheap.  Here’s what I found.

These are all 1-2 yard pieces….  50 cents each.  Yes, the blue is a batik.  All of these fabrics are something I would definitely consider is shopping in town for fabric.  The bicycles…so cute!!

How could I resist tractor fabric?  I’m not sure what I’m going to do with it…something, someday, I’m sure.

Can you believe these two pieces?  Both are big enough for backing.  One is six years…the other five yards.  Yahoo.  $2 each.  That was a steal!! [Read more…] about Stash Report

Early this summer I was on a thrifting trip and saw these boxes.  I thought they were kind of cute and considered buying them thinking they would be great to use for wrapping a gift.  Then I opened them up and read the tag.  It said, “$3 Box and Thread”.  Box and thread?  I opened it up and took a look.

I opened one and saw tags that said “Weeks Dye Works”.  WHAT????  It was packed full of thread.  I opened the other box and saw tags that said “Gentle Arts”.  Oh my oh my.  I grabbed up both boxes and put them in my cart.  These were coming home with me for sure!

For those of you who don’t cross stitch or do needle work, this was the find of the century for any stitcher.  Threads like these are about $2.40 per skein.  When I started cross stitching again I had wanted to start using Weeks Dye Works thread but it was so expensive.  I decided to go with DMC instead.  I’m a cheapo and I didn’t want to spend that much money.

Before I looked at the boxes to really see how full they were I rummaged and roamed through the craft section to see if there was anything else cross stitch related that I would like….nothing.  Hmmm.  That surprised me.  Typically when a person cleans out their goodies, there are lots of related items put out on the shelf.  This time, just the thread.  That’s okay.  This was still the find of the century.

The boxes were not my favorite way of organizing the threads.  The threads were suppose to be bagged and then a hanger attached to the bag.  Then the hangers were suppose to hang on hooks inside the box.  The problem, when I bumped the box the hangers came free.  UGH.

I ended up deciding to eliminate the hangers and clip them in a big binder clip like I have done with my DMC floss.  When I tried to remove the hangers, the bags ripped and didn’t work so I bought bags and reorganized the whole lot.  I love doing that putzy stuff.

This is what I ended up with….. [Read more…] about Thrifty Thread Find