For The Love Of Thrift Stores

For those of you who don't really know me I love to gamble......occasionally. I visit Las Vegas or even once or twice a year go to my local casino here in Florida. I love putting those quarters in the machine, closing my eyes, fingers crossed, wishing and hoping I get a really good payoff. Those darn slot machine always, always disappoint me and gobble up my money.  Once I've had enough I leave very sad, no wins just loses. Now I know you are wondering what the heck does gambling have to do with thrift stores. Well for me it's almost the same thrill, less costly of course.

There is a thrill I get when I find something in a thrift store that I love, that I believe is worth more than it's price, that can become something great, can earn me a few dollars. My fix for thrift store shopping has a greater hold on me than casino gambling (I shop thrift stores once or twice a week) and to be frank I'm a bit more successful at thrift store shopping than gambling coins at the casino.

My latest find is this 8 yards of linen fabric that I got for $1.00 a yard. At first glance I thought I got an $80 pile of fabric for the $8. Jackpot!  but I didn't do that well. The fabric once I got it home was only 45" wide so the $10 a yard estimate didn't hold true. Possible it's really worth about $40 maybe not a jackpot but definitely a win.

This fabric will go on to become........ well, I have plans, plans to dye some of the fabric, plans to make some white crisp pillow cases with lace, possible some ruffles on some pillows. Who knows for sure but it will become something great! (I hope)

I never, ever, ever, leave a thrift store sad, nope I leave happy, excited, thrilled and eager to get to the next thrift store. I love thrift store shopping!

I'm off to another store so keep your fingers crossed I find more gold.

What You Can Find At The Thrift Store

I'm always up for a thrift store run and yesterday I did just that with two of my favorite thrifts right here in Clermont, Fl.

It's always about the hunt and sometimes you hit it big and sometimes it's a bust, yesterday was a good shopping trip.

The first shop I went to is a bit of sloppy type of thrift store but it's here that I get the best bargains.  I found this vintage silver serving tray sitting out just waiting to be bought. It's a very heavy piece and it's stamped on it  FB Rogers Silver Company  My research on Ebay showed me that I'll make a nice profit from this piece.  You can see my listing on Ebay here.

I love to look at the linen section of thrift stores. I might find curtains, or throws, or tablecloths or napkins and think wouldn't this make a nice........  pillow or fabric bag.  My eyes usually just skim the racks to see if anything catches my eye and that's all I do. Yesterday my eyes found these great lookers staring back at me. Two of them resembled bark cloth of days gone by and were made into valances and there was enough fabric in them to make some pretty pillows. All they need is some deconstruction, a good wash, then some thinking on what they should look like.
 

 I also found about a yard of the black and white toile fabric for a great price and I knew right away that the black and white fabric will become the ruffle on a burlap pillow. 

Thrift store shopping accomplishes two things for me. One I get to find something that I can list on Etsy or Ebay and make money on that item. The second thing is I find things that get my design juices going that brings new life to something I find there. My pocketbook is thankful and my creative urges are so appreciative.

What To Do With All This Stuff!

I love thrift store shopping and when I shop, I buy. So, I do a lot of shopping, a lot of buying and a lot of bringing home stuff. But there is just so much stuff I could personally use

So the idea was born, BUY, FIX, SELL, MAKE PROFIT.  (not an original idea of mine)

Last year I had a booth at an antique mall called Knot On Main Street, but because of some conflicts with my other business I shut it down.  Then in June there was a major fire there and the whole mall closed down until repairs could be done.  This past Tuesday they opened half of their 10,000 square foot space and I rented a small portion of that.  

Here's Bob the owner of Knot On Main Street

Out front of the store

Here's my space already painted but bare

My only job to get it ready for customers was to paint the walls an olive branch green and put up some green shutters I already had for architectural interest.  Oh yeah and bring in merchandise of course.

So here are some shots of my booth finished and waiting for shoppers.

Here's a shot of that wreath I made from the men's shirt collars and also a fabric covered magnetic board that I'll be doing a post on soon. 

Those pillows were such a great find, the quality of craftsmanship is really evident. I got those at a church run thrift store and that thrift store is one of my favorites. I can spend hours there.

A wall of pictures and also my wreath chair.

Here you get to see those napkin pillows, my bon appetit dish and more pictures. Also my ammo box tops turned farmhouse chic chalkboards.

More pictures, more magnetic fabric covered bulletin boards.

Last but not least my men's shirt pillows.

So everything is priced, displayed and waiting for customers, cause as soon as some of this stuff is sold you know where you'll find me.

Before Blogging What Did I Buy

Before this blog surprisingly I use to shop thrift stores, loved thrift stores but if you've read my posts you know that about me. It's an addiction!

LaxSupermom is having a Before Blogging Throwback Link Party  and I thought I'd write about my before times purchases.

On a very small scale I use to buy and sell. Sold on Ebay and also at a booth I had in Dunedin, Florida. 

This sunflower was purchased during one of my visits to a Salvation Army store in Holiday, Florida.  I believe it was back in April 2010. This quite interesting looking sunflower set me back $1.49

Sunflower made from coconut shells

After a purchase like this I am such a happy camper, it's the thrill of the hunt and then the find! 

BTW I sold this guy for $9.95 at a show.

I Love Love Thrift Store Shopping!

I was on a fast.  A deprivation fast. You know the kind of fast where you are not allowed to have something you love?

Oh this was a fast that would not allow me to visit my local thrift stores until I got thru a majority of projects I designed from previous purchases.

The fast lasted 2 weeks and then I cracked, I just had to go and see and buy and I did. So glad I did cause look what I found.

These lovingly made white crocheted flowers for $2.00. There are 3 flowers and three leaves to each part.  I already had planned on making a black and white fabric rose wreath and oh  I thought wouldn't these look fantastic on the wreath.
 

I separated the flowers and used only two flowers and 2 leaves for this wreath. As you can see I added some little mini buds with coordinating fabric to the center of the flowers.

Black and white flowers look so good up against a burlap wrapped wreath.  Fabric roses are so much fun to make. Do a google search for tutorials on fabric roses if you haven't  made these yet.

This wreath was made to hang on a wreath chair which will be an addition to an entry way. Right now the wreath is just sitting in the seat of the chair. Chair is missing it's wreath hook. (I'm working on that)

So glad I gave into my urges to shop and found these so very pretty flowers. It actually made my day.

Deconstructing A Man's Shirt!

I read in a magazine not too long ago how you could make pillows from men's shirts and I just loved the idea. At the time though I had my soap business and there was just no way I could fit that into my schedule.

Once the business was sold this was one of the firsts things I set out to do. I hunted all over town for the perfect men's shirts for the projects I had in mind. I think I was successful and purchased 18 shirts for $25.00 with a total visit to three different thrift stores.

So today I'll be showing you the deconstructed shirt and my plans for each piece with some follow up blog posts about the individual projects. 

THE COLLAR:  I'll be using these guys once I've collected enough with colors that really work well together and create some fabric roses for some wreaths. I've actually made one already done up in shades of blue and will do a post about that in the next few days.

THE CUFFS:  Right now my plan for these guys is to make some cuff bracelets. I haven't tried this yet but hope to in the very near future. But I have to tell you I'm a bit unsure about that idea so I have these cuffs  sitting out in plain site so that they will sort of speak to me.

THE FRONT & BACK:   Both the front and back of the shirts will be used for pillows. I'll be making the pillows so that the buttons and pockets will be on the front and using the back of the shirt for the back of the pillow.  I plan on doing a 16" square pillow which will take up most of the fabric leaving some for a men's shirt patchwork pillow to also be done in the future. Also some of  the men's shirts have some nice designer labels that I'll be using on the pillows, like Clairborne etc.

THE SLEEVES: Lots of valuable fabric here that could be used for different projects. My original plan was to cut the fabric into strips and create those fabric wrapped styrofoam balls, but we'll see if that is what I'll do. I also liked the idea of creating a men's sachet with a really nice fragrant fill. I love the part of the sleeve that has that little button down the end and will definitely incorporate that into whatever project it becomes.

Okay I'm off to make some pillows and I'll get back with you to show you the wreath I made with the collar fabric roses.