Thrifty Thursday

I am getting behind here. I better catch up!

We have this wonderful friend named Vicky who lives down in the Fond du Lac area. We became friends through the Wisconsin Sheltie Rescue and since then we've enjoyed keeping in touch even though we moved up to Oconto. 

We both really enjoy thrifting and set aside one day to get together where we hit all of our favorite thrift shops in the Calumet County and Fond du Lac areas. We meet up at the first one and we hit six or seven of them in a route, and see what kind of bargains we can find. 

Last year when we met for our thrifting we had made a stop at the local A&W for the chicken dinner. So that's what we chose to do again. Vicky even had coupons. It was nice enough out that we could even sit on the picnic tables and eat outdoors. Otherwise this A&W is the old fashioned Drive-In kind with the car hop and you sit in your vehicle to eat.  This was more fun to sit outside. 

Last year we had crawled up in this chair together. This year we were running out of time and had to get moving. So we convinced some little boys to take our cell phone and take pictures of a standing in front of the big chair.

Do we look Thrifty? 

Vicky also loaded me up with some quilting supplies from her mother who passed away.  These great quilt kits will keep my busy all winter long! They are complete with the fabrics and the patterns for each one.  I am going to make the most favorite one up for Vicky, in memory of her mom.  It has an assortment of cardinals and is a nice wall hanging quilt.  I will do the quilting parts and she will complete with the stitching of the embroidered leaves and blanket stitching around the appliqued birds.  So it will be a two-person project. 

One of the most spectacular bargains I found was this rolling Sullivan craft table for TEN DOLLARS! I saw it in the back corner of a thrift shop and I knew I had to have it. I had missed out on one on Facebook Marketplace last month for $25  and knew exactly where I wanted to keep it

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They sell over $200 new at Jo-Ann's. Every once in awhile you can find them on sale for about $130 or use a coupon. So for a mere $10, it came home with me! It seemed to have been put together incorrectly and it was a little tilted at the main center section where it meets the frame. But Steve looked at it and said we could correct that at home. He nicely loaded it up in the back of the Saturn and rearranged everything else to make it fit.

We sure found a bunch of other wonderful bargains, didn't spend much, but we covered a lot of miles and had a lot of laughs.  Steve followed us around while I rode in Vicky's car with her.  It was a great way to spend a day.

After we headed on home, Steve unloaded it all in the house. I piled things up on the ottoman until I figured out what goes where. We have a deal when we bring something IN the house, we have to take something OUT! So there were other things that I've been putting in a box to donate to the thrift stores. Making things even-steven. But we sure did make a haul didn't we?  I needed a small casserole dish for the motorhome, got some boxed christmas cards, extra craft supplies, story books, and a hand crocheted Home Sweet Home in a frame. I even found a skein of wool sock yarn.

Steve found a pair of jeans, and a new windshield wiper for the Saturn.  We even found this great set of solar powered patio lights. They were brand new in the box and we checked them, and yes they work. The original price tag was $39.95! We got them for $4.99.  The string is only 9 ft long and we need closer to 18 ft for the awning on the motorhome. I went online and found the exact same box on Amazon for $20. So I ordered that and it should be here next week. Now we have a complete set for the entire length of the awning.  Nice! 

The white milk glass bowl with the lacy edge is for a project. We had seen on Pinterest where you make it into a pin cushion and the little scallops around the edges can hold scissors and other various sewing tools. 

We had kept our eye open at 5 or 6 different thrift shops looking for this type of bowl. We each wanted to make one. But we didn't see any! As we walked into the 7th Thrift Shop I mentioned to Vicky:  "Oh my, we still haven't seen those white milk glass bowls" And what do we do, we looked up on the very next shelf and there were four of them!  I also bought the tree made of wine corks for a craft idea for Xmas.

I thought these boxes were really cool. They're called Bob's Boxes. They are decorative nesting boxes that are very sturdy and heavy cardboard. I am going to organize them with a variety of my sewing things to stack up in the corner of the She Shed. A pretty way to store items instead of just using plastic totes.

When I got home, I found a box sitting at the front steps. It was from my friend Linda down in Tennessee! I had lamented about how my favorite cookies that are no longer available at our local Aldi store. They had been there a couple weeks ago and I bought one box. I had wished I had bought more.

 

They are very rich and creamy made with real maple syrup from Canada. They are so rich you can only eat one cookie at a time so a box lasts quite a while. But our Aldi was out and said they didn't know if they would get more, it's "seasonal" item.  I was feeling sad that I couldn't find them again. Well, that stinker friend Linda found four more boxes at her Aldi in Tennessee and mailed them to me! It cost her more to mail them than what the cookies cost!

Steve wheeled in my new-to-me craft table. After a little bit of adjusting on the bottom and he unbent two of the hinges. It was back in perfect working order. What a great bargain for $10!

Here it is all stretched out with my biggest rotary cutting mat.  Maybe I will need to buy another mat or two yet? LOL  I can also set my big ironing plank board on top of it for more space too. 

This is a great addition to my She Shed.  I can fold out only half of it, if it's all I need for space on a smaller project. When it's in the closed position it makes kind of a closed off cubicle out of my sewing desk area.  (and blocks off the view of the clutter on the sewing desk!) 

    

It works perfect to stretch out and lay out to piece the quilt blocks together instead of having me crawling around on my hands and knees on the floor.   Here is my newest quilt, and I am lining up blocks to pin together in a certain order, making sure no two same colors touch each other. 

We can even use it for extra buffet 

or dining table seating space 

for family gatherings. 

In the next blog I will catch up a little bit about our Saturday house project and then our Sunday family gathering for Halloween and my birthday!