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thrifty thursday: bowls

It’s been a long time since my last Thrifty Thursday post. It might be because my partner in thrift moved away to California. She came back for a visit last month and it was just like old times! I found a few things that I’m planning to transform, but I want show you these little bowls first.

thrifty thursday

I was so excited to find them. They match our plates nicely and are perfect for a side bowl of dal. When we have an Indian dinner, we use a soup or cereal bowl for our dal. Considering how much I love all kinds of beans, that’s not a problem for me. Now the rest of the family can have a proper-sized bowl on the side.

thrifty: I scored 10 Oneida china bowls at 65 cents each.

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thrifty thursday: denim edition

denim jeans

I haven’t done a Thrifty Thursday post in awhile. I haven’t done a lot of thrifting either. It might be because it’s too darn hot for garage sailing. It might be because my best thrifting buddy up and moved to California. (Hi Kelly!) Whatever the reason, I decided to remedy my situation last week at the 99 cent sale. My daughter was at camp and I spent the whole morning finding some pretty awesome deals.

I came home with six pairs of jeans, one brand new with the tags still on. The new pair is for me, the others are for my daughter. They are size seven. She’ll be the first to tell you that she’s only a size six. She doesn’t need size seven clothes. She’s not the only one in denial. I can’t believe my baby girl will be wearing size seven soon, either. But that’s what comes after six and I’m sure I’ll be happy to have these when she pops up another inch or two this winter.

Thrifting is a serious hit or miss adventure. Many times I go and come home empty handed. Maybe that’s the real reason I haven’t been hitting the stores lately. But then some days the stars are aligned just right and I score some great stuff. If the weather would just cool off a bit, I might just rediscover my thrifty spirit.

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thrifty find: green sweater

Finally! The thrifty find I missed last week. This isn’t actually my find. I guess when you regularly blog about recycling, reusing and refashioning, you get a reputation. A few weeks ago, my friend Kelly texted me this:

fixing green sweater

Kelly: Knit emergency: think you could repair this? Hanger damage on an Eileen Fisher sweater.
Me: I think so. It looks like a lot of dropped stitches, but the yarn seems intact. Are any of the strands cut?
Kelly: Nothing cut as far as I can tell. It’s a *huge* discount, and I’ll buy no matter what, but having it repaired would be an excellent bonus, you know?
Me: We’ll make it work.

Actually, I thought this would be a simple pick-up-the-stitches job, but too long on the hanger had pulled the neighboring stitches too tight. I got out a tiny crochet hook and gently started pulling on loops. I tightened up the loose stitches and tried to evenly distribute the yarn across the others. It wasn’t the most exciting task. (For the quilters out there, it made my eyes cross like endless stitching in the ditch.) It was worth it though. Except for three or four stitches that just won’t behave, everything else looks good.

fixing green sweater

Of course, my “dedication” to perfection comes into question again. This area is mostly covered by the long, cowl-like collar. No one will ever see my work. Kind of crazy? Well, at least I know it looks good.

There’s another thrifty find to this story. When Kelly gave me the sweater to fix, she also gave me a pair of very nice, dark denim J. Crew jeans that she found thrifting. They fit awesome and I love them. Thanks again, Kelly!

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thrifty thursday

thrifty thursday

I skipped the Thursday garage sales today because I’m planning on checking out Goodwill’s 99 cent day tomorrow. There’s nothing like some good 99 cent retail therapy and I haven’t been to the sale in a few months.

Since I didn’t have anything thrifty to report today, I took a look around my creative space, which is filled with thrifty goodness, and noticed a theme. Some may say that Nebraska has infected my taste in colors or I could be subconsciously planning for the holidays. I think maybe I spend too much time looking at cabbage roses and vintage French linen.

There’s a story behind the fabric. When one of my readers realized that we both live in Lincoln, she emailed me about a big box and big bag of fabric that she no longer wanted. Was there anything I could do with it? I picked it up that evening (small world: she practically lives in my neighborhood!) and started spreading the word.

First I met two friends for coffee and they left with almost half of it! Then I took what was left to knitting group to give to my friend who helps out with Sewing for Babies. I kind of feel sorry for those babies, because the knitters went to town on what was left. However, I’m happy that we kept a lot of fabric out of the landfill and bypassed the thrift store grab bags.* Everyone left with something they really wanted and the rest is going to a good cause.

Of course I picked out a few little pieces for myself. Right now I’m spending more time with yarn, so I can’t overdo it on my stash.

thrifting: The buttons and ribbon are thrifted from all over the place: Goodwill, church sales and garage sales.

* Don’t you hate it when you find one or two things you love at the thrift store and they’re packaged in a “grab bag” with a bunch of things you don’t want? Have you ever just bought the bag, taken out what you want and then immediately donated back the rest? Me, too.

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thrifty thursday

I was all ready to post about something else when this sweater literally came over to my house and never left. My friend Tana is destashing some of her hand knit sweaters. I told her I’d be interested in the cardigans and she stopped by this afternoon with them. There were a couple of pullovers in the bag, but I’m constantly hot/cold/hot/cold/etc. and don’t wear them much anymore.

blue sweater unravel

I couldn’t stop looking at this one, though. It was such a lovely color blue. I loved the gray accent. I didn’t think I’d ever wear it, but Tana said I could do what ever I wanted with it, so you know what happened next, right?

blue sweater unravel

I’ve abandoned that silly vintage wool for now and have started making the Chromium Star blanket out of this yarn instead. It is already turning out much better than I had even imagined. Thanks for the two fabulous cardigans and this wonderful yarn, Tana!

reuse: Hand knit sweaters are such a joy to unravel. They are always seamed together with such care. I wish all sweaters unraveled this nicely. I didn’t lose one bit of yarn!

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thrifty thursday: father’s day edition

I could have posted this last Thursday, when I actually found it, but that would have ruined my Father’s Day surprise. There are very few surprises around our house where gifts are concerned, so here it is a week late.

A few weeks ago my husband was looking for some shoe polish and I told him to check the pink wicker basket in the linen closet. Yeah, I know. A pink wicker basket doesn’t seem appropriate for black, brown and cordovan polish, wooden brushes and buffing rags. Then last week, while I was wandering around a church sale not really looking for anything in particular I saw this:

ronson roto shine

Now that’s proper shoe supply storage! I checked it over briefly. It looked ok from the outside. The inside appeared to be filled with old polish tins. I figured I’d throw them out and clean it up later. When I got home and had a closer look, guess what I found!

ronson roto shine

Not only was everything there, but it worked! I was pretty excited. I think for once I actually surprised my husband and he seems to really like it. Now the question is: how well does it work?

church sales: This year church sales have been mostly a bust for me. Usually they are filled with garage sale leftovers. I don’t know if people are holding on to things longer or they are selling more at their sales. I still go to them because they’re inside and it’s much easier to keep an eye on my daughter while I look around. Plus, there’s always such a wide assortment of things that get donated. You never know what you’ll find!