thrifty sunday: hot fudge

Winter means extra expenses around here. Wood for the fire. Early sunset, early lamplight. Space heaters. Old houses have some great aspects (character, nice floors, weird nooks and crannies, history) and some truly terrible ones (drafty windows, knob and tube wiring, secret fuse boxes we have yet to find). We pile on the blankets and put on socks (though I am loathe to do so -- socks are the worst punishment for living in the cold North, by my estimation) but it still costs money to keep warm and illuminated through the 14+ hour long nights, these months. That means no or very little fun money, and whatever, really, because the holidays have just passed and we are generally unfit for public consumption, anyway. The visibly ill make others so uncomfortable despite all the well rehearsed wing-coughing-into, even when conventional wisdom and WedMD say we aren't contagious. 

Two things from the other day, when I got ambitious. 

Clothing brands, especially kids' clothes, from the 70s and 80s are so funny sometimes. Hot Fudge? Okay, sure. Mister Persnickety liked the aprés ski vibe and I did too, so we bought it for $2.99

There he is posing with the bottle of Elderberry syrup that has done us no good, because this cold is apparently karmic retribution for everything we've ever done wrong in our lives and homeopathic medicine is not the traditional cure for that, I guess.

Ikea doll bed, $4.99. Zelda, baby enthusiast that she is, immediately put her babies, Donna, Gob and Huzzah, to bed and then tried to get in with them. There is very little in this world funnier or cuter than a one year-old trying to cram herself between the head and footboards of a doll bed so that she may lie with her babies. For Valentine's Day I made her a blanket, but I also kind of like the glamping aspect of the bare wood/play silk situation. 

Value Village is having their yearly Presidents' Day sale tomorrow, so maybe there are some bargains in store (literally)! Have you scored recently?

thrifty sunday: long time, no see

I mentioned that we moved, right? To a whole different city, with different places to shop. A new co-op, which, incidentally, is about a thousand times more amazing than the Bellingham co-op; a new farmer's market that we explored for the first time this weekend; and, of course, a new set of thrift stores. While I appreciate the old standbys -- Value Village and Goodwill -- much like I appreciate familiar chain grocery stores, I dearly love finding new weirdo charity shops because they're usually cheaper and stocked with older stuff. 

Another change: one of us is gainfully employed! And it isn't me! Yeah, I just spend the money. Which is what I did to celebrate. 

1. Saucony "baseball shoes" in George's size, $3.99. He spotted these amid an unfortunate sea of Disney princess slippers and bizarrely inflexible dress shoes and said, "Those fit me!" He was right, and we're nearing the end of Crocs season so it was positively providential.

2. Three books, $1.99 each. How To Talk So Kids Will Listen... has been on my reading list forever, Positive Discipline in the Classroom seemed a helpful choice for a high school-cum-new middle school teacher such as Nathan, and Wonder Play (a book of stuff to do with the under-three set) is put out by the 92nd St Y, so was an easy sell.

3. Seattle Mariners shirt, $.99. What better time to wear a Mariners shirt?

4. Seemingly unworn Hanna Andersson clogs, $9.99. Pricey for a thrift store purchase, no doubt, but seriously: brand new! Purple clogs! 

5. Painting of a lady, $1. Signed "Don '54." It was a dollar! My heart hurts a little anytime I see someone's artwork languishing in a thrift store. Also, I love portraiture. Poor Don. Poor Lady. She's filthy, but she'll have a good home here.

6. Guatemalan dress, $1.99. Perfect for Zelda's fall wardrobe, with some wooly tights and a homemade cardigan, and plenty of room for the giant diaper bum. 

6.5. Again, the clogs!

thrifty sunday: in which we actually go shopping

Nathan got paid and we promptly went out to lunch and to Goodwill. The goodwill trip was technically an attempt at getting Zelda to sleep before we went in to the restaurant, in the hopes that I'd be able to eat a meal two-handed (thanks, Boba). Walking around usually puts her right out, and it worked! But not before we found some treasures.

I'd long been looking for a rainbow granny square afghan that's joined in white. I could make one myself, but big crochet projects don't usually work out for me; my attention span isn't long enough. I finally found one, and it's a nice little lap/toddler size, and in good shape. Hooray! Dream afghan: $4.99

George has plenty of interests that I don't share. Soccer (and every other sport), Blue's Clues, eating peas. But one interest that I'm extremely happy to share with him is space. He can name some heavenly bodies and identify them in the night sky (Moon, Venus and Jupiter), and knows which planet we inhabit. I, of course, believe this to be evidence that he's a genius. Spacey shirt: $1.99

I am what you might call a Kennedy enthusiast. I stop short of commemorative spoons, but I'm a sucker for pretty much all things Camelot, and as though the nice people at Goodwill knew I was coming, they priced this ridiculously high. Nevermind; we're rollin' in dough (rent and bills having not yet been paid), so we pretended like we were those richies who shop at thrift stores for the kitch value and splurged on this painting because it would've haunted me for the rest of my life if we'd left it on the shelf. JFK/RFK painting: $9.99

Yard sale season is almost upon us (and IS upon some of us, who don't live in the dank, dark woods). Have you scored any gems lately?

thrifty sunday: boring

I'm still alive. Sometimes barely, as this baby keeps me awake all night with punching, kicking, somersaulting and various other acrobatic moves we can only guess about. George was never so active. I mean, he kicked and wiggled and everything, but as memory serves, it was pretty tame in comparison. Added to the sleepiness is the fact that it gets dark before 5pm, and every day seems a little shorter...because it is. By the time the solstice rolls around, it'll be dusk at 3:30 and I'll never change out of pajamas. 

During the Halloween season, George was really into "spoosy" -- or spooky -- stuff. When it was rainy but we felt cabin-feverish, an easy outing was strolling the local, newly-moved-into-a-huge-building Value Village. They had aisles of masks, wigs, hats, sparkly wings, and clothes being sold as costumes that I would usually buy to wear as normal parts of my wardrobe. I am somewhat shameless in my appreciation of thrift stores' ramp-up to Halloween policy of gathering everything I like into one section -- 70s prairie dresses, fur vests, 60s minis and sequined formalwear -- and I try to ignore the stigma. This year our budget didn't allow for much and I don't fit into anything without at least 10% spandex, so George and I roamed the store with mostly empty pockets as he begged to see more "spoosy stuff." Here are the things I decided we couldn't live without:

A sweater-romper-thing with oranges on it! $2.99 - The thought of leaving this on the rack was unbearable. The cinched waist is a little hilarious given six to nine month-old babies' chubbiness. 

A teeny little velveteen and eyelet dress, $1.99 - For a baby born circa Valentine's Day.

A fancy-ish wintertime dress for a little lady who's moving to a colder clime. San Diego doesn't have much use for long sleeves or high necks or things that go nicely with wooly tights, but no Pacific Northwestern six year-old should be without a few calico statement pieces. A belated birthday present still waiting to be sent. 

Awesome coloring book, untouched by crayons, $.069! Another present, as George is still too little to appreciate creative prompts like the ones found here. No outlines of cartoon characters or funny-looking animals, just open-ended ideas bound in a book. I think its intended recipient will love it, as she has a newly-found interest in art. One holiday gift down.

A new shirt for George, $1.99 - Poor George is kind of low on clothes. He has t-shirts and leggings but not many long sleeved tops or regular pants, and with his opinions on daily outfits growing stronger I want to give him realistic options that don't leave him looking like a clown when put together. Not that there's anything wrong with a toddler dressing like a clown. 

You've undoubtedly noticed the weird, shady quality of these photos. There's no daylight indoors and I hope you'll excuse me for not standing outside in the wind and hail(!) to snap some pictures of my meager thrift store finds. Have you gotten anything good lately?

thrifty sunday: monday

Everyone knows that the Sunday preceding Labor Day is actually a bonus Saturday, and Labor Day is the official Sunday. Right? Then, we all just collectively agree to skip Monday which nobody likes anyway and move right on to Tuesday: homely but pleasant-enough. GREAT. In that case, I am not late in posting these recent thrift store scores. 

LEGWARMERS! $1.99 and so, so long and toasty. Am I a fool for purchasing leg warmers when it's in the 70s and the weather is finally nice enough to wear tanktops? No, because the Bellingham summer is cruel and will turn on us before we know it, leaving our shins chilly and our spirits (and everything else) dampened. Or, I should say, YOUR shins will be left chilly, because I bought these legwarmers. 

A matching hat! $1.99. All wool and oh, that pom! It's almost as big as my head. Long winter hair begs for a tight little cap with a giant pom pom, and about the time this hat becomes useful I'll need something to compete with my belly for roundness. I'm into anything aprés ski, though in fairness, in the context of my life, it would be...avant ski? Because I don't ski. 

A yard of totally awesome knit fabric! $4.99. I'm not sure why this was so expensive, but they must've known some sucker would come along with visions of torturing her children à la the Von Trapp family or these people (who are lovely, I'm sure, and certainly have adorable kids). Nevermind the cat hair.

A teensy little get-up, $1.99. The embroidered train, the ingenious zipper crotch, the miraculously soft acrylic knit, the matching bonnet-y hat from way back when people didn't think bonnets were too girly and babies still looked like babies and weren't squeezed into size 0-3 month jeans: I love it all. A girl will wear this if we have one, because if she follows the precedent set by her brother, everyone will think she's a boy anyway for the first year of her life. (People: "What's her name?" Me: "George." People: "Girl George?" Me: "Really? That's the most plausible conclusion?")

Also, this weekend, we bought a television. For the living room. I swore I'd never do it, but here we are, living the American dream. It was decidedly un-thrifty, so I'll spare you the price, but now we can have Oscars parties (first: start watching the Oscars. Or any major motion pictures.) and my kid can turn into one of those I previously scoffed at when, at places like the aquarium, they can only liken what they see to Finding Nemo. Happy Labor Day!