Colorado

Things I've learned:
Zion National Park is a mere day-LONG drive from Los Angeles
The Rocky Mountains are humbling
The Salvation Army has the best prices in every state


We were rewarded after a day of some serious truckin' with a day of few but seriously good thrift store deals. Amanda with a great winter coat for $20 and me with the missing link to my Pyrex primary color nesting bowl set for $.50.


As far as we're concerned the day began in Colorado and ended in... Colorado.



Rising early as was possible in Green River, Utah the day began in Grand Junction, Colorado where we hit up four thrift stores, had lunch and continued on our merry way.



The flats of the valley quickly faded as we moved our way into a ravine, wound along the Colorado River and squeezed through the appropriately termed, majestic rocky mountains.


I'm posting this blog from a hotel room in North Platte, Nebraska, night having fallen upon us as we crossed over from Colorado I can imagine the similarities between north-eastern Colorado and Nebraska and though beautiful I can't help but desire to turn around and drive through the Rockies once more. Like a roller coaster ride - again, again!


And so we plan to do it again tomorrow, awaken early with loads of ground to cover all for the sake of a good Chicago Deep Dish Pizza, a beautiful face, gorgeous scenery and adventure. Nebraska being the home of my grandfather's youth we'll have a lot of history to be a-lookin' for.

Barter

Time is a commodity I have a lot more of than money these days, a theme that resides with much of the country, and with time has come the opportunity to put more effort toward discovering new interests. Obviously I have focused some of my time on scouring thrift stores and yard sales, and writing about my discoveries on this blog.

Unfortunately or maybe fortunately for me my interest in design doesn't mean I'm good at creating design, and as mentioned previously my friend Tony and I entered into a barter agreement - he designed the logo you see here and I've been ever so periodically on the hunt for vintage tee's. The enjoyment I find weeding through thrift store bric-brac does not relay over to thrift store clothing but a deal is a deal. Hitting up the racks attempt number one left me empty handed but once again thrift store Mecca paid off, here are the finds, some better than others.

This here is the shirt Tony likes - HALLELUJAH, I found one!

This shirt is cool but looking like it was purchased from a department store within the last couple years isn't all THAT cool. I contemplated it but unsure what I was looking for gave it a go.

This would be great if it wasn't made by the Gap - same issue as above.

Love this shirt. It's not Tony but I think it might be our friend Chris.

What girl doesn't love herself a fire-fighter, really, just wear it.

A Mint Condition

In the previous post I highlighted passes for last week, yes, I'm a bit behind on my posts and as you can see from the passes I was not busy last week therefore... I don't know, the dog ate my homework?

Under normal circumstances I would wait to post about a pass and I'd do it with many more, but I'm finding it difficult to wait on this one because I cannot get it out of my head. I really like this table, on the verge of mint condition it was way worth the $46 The Salvation Army wanted. I'm sure it will be gone when Friday rolls around and I make my way back to the OC but I'll check - should I buy it? Remember, I have to "try" to resell it.

Driving Vintage

Buying vintage is fun but finding vintage that you can't buy due to size constraints is not. Four months ago I was dying for a sports car, specifically the Audi TT, but the stars never aligned and I was stuck driving the wreck of a VW Golf that I'm driving today. This turned out to be a very good thing, I lost my job and would never have been able to afford that car and now I can buy a car that will actually be useful in transporting all kinds of goodies - can you imagine trying to move a baker's rack with an Audi TT, good luck.

Purgatory isn't such a bad place, the VW Golf has decent cargo space, it enabled me to take home that great little desk, but it is entirely not capable of hauling the table I am oh so obsessed with. The one I've already highlighted twice on this very blog and visited again today only to find out that it was not only half off the price tag but an additional 30% on top of that - and still I cannot pack it up and bring it home.

And so the hunt continues, not for vintage but for a car, a car capable of hauling vintage, that is fuel efficient, and stylish. Let me just say that the search for a car is not nearly as fun as scouring thrift stores for cute bric-brac, in fact it's quite nauseating. I have a budget, I have expectations and nothing seems to meet my expectations and so I keep looking, and looking. So far I've narrowed it down to a few roomy, and one not as roomy (hey, it's cute) and for what they are, they kind of like the environment too.

This could be my favorite of the four. It has good ratings and reviews, I think the only bad review was the ergonomics of the driver and passenger seat. Mitsubishi Outlander:



Next up we have the Saturn Vue, I really like the body style but reviews - comme ci comme ca:



I've owned a VW for almost six years, at first I loved it, and still I'll tell you the engine is quality but dang the rest of it just falls apart! With that said, I'm considering another, the Jetta wagon:



And finally the Subaru WRX wagon, so cute! I've always loved this car but it's proving to be quite difficult to find one in my price range, and honestly I wonder about the cargo space:



So there it is, four semi-affordable vehicles that will get me what I need and want. I'm actually quite excited to get a new car, it's the leg work that drives me nuts.

Finds from the week.

It's been a busy week scouring thrift stores and Craigslist, and more thrift stores - determined to find more than one go to. I'm ruling out the west side, though I will give it another go in the coming weeks, and I'm prepared to say that the Valley rocks, yes that is right, The Valley has a haven of thrift store finds. But enough talk it's time for some pictures of the goodies I picked up this week.

THRIFT STORE FINDS:


I actually picked up two of this cute little container last week at a thrift store in the OC. The thrift store turned out to be a real dud considering it's size but this find made it was worth sifting through the junk. One at home, the other at the station - $20.




A sturdy little suitcase, my guess is circa sometime in the 70's. I've yet to decide if I'll sell this or the pretty blue one below which was bought off Ivett when she moved to Spain.




I actually use this suitcase and the wear is beginning to show - it may be better at a home where it's only use is as decoration.




LOVE!




I may just hang on to these little beauties for a while but if I keep this up there won't be much for the already empty booth.




Walking around and around the UCLA Thrift Store with nothing much to look at I debated these surfboard coasters for a bit, it turns out I'm pretty happy with the purchase. Maybe I can make $15 or $20 off of them, we'll know soon enough.



YARD SALES:


Considering this was a yard sale find it was way overpriced, I was able to talk them down to $10, it's crystal, very pretty and came in the original Joseph Magnin black and white checkered box - cute!




The booth needs more clutter and this was practically free.




It's a nightlight!




I still can't decide, is there anything special about this wine rack?





MY OWN COLLECTION:



There are four of these pinkies, I love love love them but I'm running out of room since I decided to part with the table to make room for the dog crate. The question is whether to let them all go or only two with the preference leaning toward two - sad.

All of these goodies are going into the booth next week. It's going to be exciting to see if anything sold - yikes!

This weeks pass.

What to buy is never a sure bet, either the price tag makes me question the likely hood of a profit or I'm not 100% about the item all together, sometimes it's a question of both, and every now and then size really matters. Although I am working on some ideas about how to overcome the storage obstacle, I've yet to figure out the pricing obstacle, which I imagine will come in due time.

I've decided to post a weekly blog highlighting items I've passed on, but due to the fact that I only decided this yesterday this weeks blog is going to be a bit slim. I'll do my best to take pictures and remember the cost, but every now and then I'll probably slip up - it's what I do. And I would love to hear your thoughts - tell me, do you agree with my decision or are you in love, should I have jumped?

The first item here you saw highlighted on yesterday's blog, this is a white Formica (I think, I'm no expert) table that seats four with two additional leafs to seat six or eight, the number of pretty blue chairs it comes with. One chair had a big gauge in the middle, another had a small one on the side, and the third was taped with green duct tape where it was coming apart on the bottom near the seat. All of which could be covered with a little creativity. Asking price - $125.



Here we have a hanging wine rack - $10 at the Salvation Army.



Today when I was out and about I decided to skip on this cute little lamp shade that was going for $3 at the UCLA Thrift Store.



I also passed on a pair of 70's style sugar and flour containers, white with a brown floral pattern ($5), a rough piece of desk with great form that had seen better days ($10), and due to transportation and fear of breaking glass I had to let the sweet little vanity that I probably would've kept go ($150). But I did get this adorable scallop chair that fit it perfectly.



More to come on the things I actually did buy tomorrow.

The piece that got away

It's almost been a week since I started to blog, and I've found that it can be a tough business coming up with something worth putting to text on a daily basis. Fortunately, a day hasn't gone by that I haven't visited a thrift store and so those nights that I've gone to bed wondering what I could possibly blog about again the following night have easily been put to rest.

Today was no different, I headed to the valley to pick up some free hooch that was sent to my boyfriend's old place of business and thought I'd hit up some new thrift stores before floral class. The hooch happened to be on Victory three long blocks from Sepulveda where my all time favorite Salvation Army is, naturally I stopped by for a visit, and by-the-way tomorrow (Friday) is 50% off day. I left with some Bric-Brac and a couple of skirts and I found that I really prefer it on Tuesday when the entire store is 30% off, and even more on the first and last Friday of the month when the entire store is 50% off.

It's a semi-tragic experience to find a piece of furniture that makes your head spin it's so good and to come to the conclusion that you simply cannot buy it. This happened today 30 seconds after I walked into SAVN. There it sat, a long, white table with eight perfect floral print blue chairs gathered around it, looking like the only table I want to sip champagne at during afternoon brunch, and yet I could not buy it. This has nothing to do with money, although if it had then money may have been a problem, and it has nothing to do with size, I would've made the two trips it would've taken to get it home, it has to do with... size. There is no way I could fit that pretty piece in my little 8x8 booth, just no way. So I took a picture to share with you and maybe find out what you would've done - would you make it work?

I thought I could store the piece, in fact, maybe I could store a couple of pieces and keep a book in my stall with photos, that way if anyone were interested they could just give a call and set an appointment. Maybe I'll work on that. Maybe I'll head back tomorrow when the store is 50% off and buy the dang thing - I'll let you know.

Salvation Army

I realize that what I'm buying I am significantly marking up, but as with any art (yes, I consider a good eye an art) there are those times that you just may not make a dime, today was not one of those days. Today I hit up the Van Nuys Salvation Army and let me tell you, it kicked ass. I left with a bag, a big bag, full of goodies and a pretty blue, round lamp for $20.08.

It's safe to say that if you're looking to turn a buck thrift stores are not the way to go - wake up early to hit the yard sales, head to a flea market, or as referenced in last nights blog scour the free section of Craigslist, but as a friend who's been doing this for years told me "thrift stores SUCK". That is except for the Salvation Army - the Van Nuys Salvation Army.

The most expensive thing I bought today other than the mid-century style desk with lock and key in-tact for $28 from the gold mine that is VNSA, was the retro cup holder pictured above - it was $8.40 and it came from a not as great Salvation Army in Canoga Park. Please note that it came from the "collection" section, a different cash register, a different room, displaying over-priced items. Fortunately this little treat was discounted 30%, the entire store was discounted 30%, in fact both Salvation Army's were discounted 30% - it was senior day and apparently I'm a senior!

I should probably explain that I did in fact leave thrift store heaven with a big bag and a round lamp, during which time I kept asking myself if I should return for the desk. Return for the desk I did. After much questioning, after sending a picture to my good friend and vintage connoisseur Julie Gollins and deliberating with her via text I decided I could throw the $28 down to see what comes of it. So far, no regret.

Tonight the desk sits where Josh left it, in my car, waiting for miss muscles here to make it magically appear in my stall. Tomorrow is it, I pack up and head to The OC with my VW treasure chest loaded to the gill, and then I wait.