Skip to main content

Thrifted Trio

For saving him a lot of time and headaches with the floor repair project (I found sitting under the stove two tiles that match the ones that broke during the buckling), my guy took me out for lunch. Across from the restaurant was a Goodwill store I'd never visited, so I asked him if we could stop in to see if they had a few things I needed.

I didn't find the to-be-recycled item I wanted for this year's thrift flip project, but I did find another pretty hat box in pristine condition and no bad smells for $4.99. I'll still going to detox it, but very happy to have this one as my special embroidery thread tin is packed to overflowing lately.

Because I'm nice I swapped with my guy my arm support pillow for his head pillow, as his had become pancaked and was uncomfortable for him to sleep on (it's probably ten years old.) Unfortunately his pillow hasn't been supporting my arm all that well, either. When I spotted this new hypoallergenic standard pillow for $3.99 I grabbed it, and it appeared unused and smelled perfectly clean (I'll still wash it anyway.) I know they're a little cheaper at our Wal-Mart, but they're always out of stock of all hypoallergenic pillows.

This 100% cotton Threshold brand queen-size flat sheet was the real steal of the trip. It's in like-new condition, and Target sells them new for anywhere between $16.00 - $34.00. But the reason I paid $3.99 for this sheet is because queen size flat sheets usually measure about 96" X 102" -- which makes it wide enough to serve as quilt backing fabric (which retails from $10.00 to $20.00 a yard for 108" wide fabric.)

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Gifts

This is a story that starts out very sadly, so if you're depressed by the holidays you might want to skip the first part. As far back as I can remember I've dreaded the holidays. Being poor, having constant family troubles and belonging to a strict religion made that time of year always pretty unhappy. I just hunkered down and hoped to get through without being yelled at or punished because I didn't do something I was expected to do, like sit in church for hours without moving or making a sound while a priest spoke mass in Latin. Gifts were uniformly disappointing, too. My mother usually gave me dolls or socks or underwear for Christmas. I understand now as an adult that she was doing the best she could, and trying to save money at the same time, but as a kid I'd been told good children got what they wanted for Christmas. I was a pretty good kid, but while my friends received new bikes and cool toys and lots of treats from Santa, I didn't. I thought San

We Have Backsplash!

Yesterday my guy and I decided to chose this natural stone as the backsplash tiles for our new kitchen counters (which will be in the same quartz I'm holding at the bottom of the photo.) Since all the bids for installing the backsplash came in very high my guy is going to put it in himself; he's done a bit of tile work in the past, too. I swear there is nothing this guy can't do. :)

Detoxing Results

For twenty-four hours I left these five vintage cigar boxes sit with detoxing agents (baking soda, coffee grinds, dryer sheets, vinegar and Febreze) inside them to see which worked best to remove the tobacco/storage odors that came with them. I then removed the agents and did a sniff test. Before we get into the results, a reminder: none of what I do is ever meant to be expert advice, as I am certainly not an expert at anything. Follow my methods at your own risk, and please first consult an actual antique expert conservator or restorer to detox items that have value for you. Okay, let's see how my experiment worked. Baking soda (left) did nothing to remove the odors. I think if I let it sit for a longer period of time it might have done something, but for a 24-hour test it was a complete fail. Coffee grinds (right) removed 100% of the odors, and left behind definite coffee scent. I like that and think it goes very well with wood, but if you don't like the smel