Thrifting Finds #32!

Things were a little topsy-turvy here at Fondue Headquarters this weekend.  We lost our interwebz on Wednesday.  An hour on the phone with tech support on Thursday brought a technician out on Friday.  He managed to fix the problem within about 15 minutes.  Friday night, the interwebz went out again, so another hour on the phone on Saturday brought another technician out on Sunday.  This was a bit of an ordeal, as it took him nearly 3 hours to fix the problem. He had to replace our router and modem, and then take everyone in my building down.

I was okay with that.

It was still working this morning when I left for work, so yay.

On to the thrifting!

This weekend was a little more productive than the last few, I'll admit.  I still didn't get anything really fabulous, but I do like what I got.  I was tempted by a couple of things:  a Tupperware chip & dip set and a Corningware pan in a size/shape I had never seen before.  I toyed with getting them, but finally realized that I really didn't actually need either, so left them behind.  Interestingly, the Goodwill had three of the unusual Corningware pans.

Here's what I got:

1.  Magazine rack!  This is kind of mid-centuryish and I definitely need one (the one I had kept collapsing.)  Magazine racks seem to be hard to find around here for some reason.  I should probably polish the "brass" parts and wax the wood handle, but I probably won't do either because I'm lazy.  This was $8.00 at the Goodwill, which I thought kind of pricey, but as you can see, I paid it anyway (I'm kind of rich this week--see below.)

2.  Folding chairs!  I hemmed and hawed over these because the second I walk into a thrift store I become Mr. Indecisive.  We already have folding chairs, but they're from Ikea and not very sturdy.  We need folding chairs often enough to warrant having nice ones, so I'm not sure why I was so hesitant about buying these.  They're sturdy, reasonably comfortable, and they were only $4.00 each, for crying out loud.  As you can see, they did end up coming home with me.  They could do with a little wiping down, but nothing major.

(I actually bought one more thing, but I'm saving that for next week, because I think there will be very little thrifting next weekend.)

In other news:

In reading other people's blogs, I realized there are a couple of things I have never seen in a thrift store:

A) Knee huggers.  I would really like to have a few to put around the house, as I think they're kind of fun and cool.  Have never seen a single one in person.

B) Vintage tablecloths.  Christmas or otherwise.  In fact, I'm not entirely sure I've even seen contemporary tablecloths in any of the thrifts.  People keep finding the most fabulous Christmas linens all over the place, and I'm completely jealous.  I'd probably have better luck at estate sales, but we don't really seem to have those around here.

Hey, remember Creepy Snowflake Girl and the framed photograph of the gun?  Here's a little unsettling news:  they've both been sold.  At any rate, they were both gone from the store, which seems to indicate that someone bought them. *Shiver*

Ebay success!  Remember the Eames coat rack and the free laptop I got a while ago?  Well, I stuck them both up on Ebay last week, and they both sold!  It's been a while since I sold anything on Ebay, so I'm behind the times, but when did they start collecting fees on the amount of postage?  That just seems wrong to me. Between the Ebay fees and the Pay Pal fees, it's seems to be only worth posting something really valuable that you got for a song.

What I Made This Weekend Department

Crock-Pot Meatballs.  No picture because while delicious, the finished product just was not very photogenic!  There really isn't much of a recipe either--just combine a couple of cans of cream of celery soup with a good tablespoonful of beef broth base (not bouillon), Throw a bag of frozen pre-cooked meatballs in the Crock Pot (I used Aldi's Fit & Active turkey meatballs), pour the sauce on top, and cook on low for a couple of hours.  Since everything's already cooked, it really just needs to heat up.  Serve over noodles.

This is the kind of broth base I use, but I'm sure other brands would be just as good.  Just don't try to use bouillon which is super-salty, not to mention nasty.  This stuff is kind of salty too, so be careful.

Barbecue Chicken Pizza.  No picture for this either, because I haven't made it yet!  I'll update tonight, as long as the finished product is presentable.  Not much of a recipe for this one, either:  Unroll and press out a Pillsbury pizza crust.  Spread some barbecue sauce on top.  Throw some diced, cooked chicken on top of that (I love the precooked chicken chunks you get in the meat department.)  I like to put a drained can of tomatoes with chilis on, as well.  Throw on as much cheese as your conscience will allow, and bake according to the directions on the pizza crust tube.

Edit:  Here's the picture

And that's it for this week, kids!  This week I'm linking up with  Sir Thrift A Lot, The Nifty Thrifty, The Remnant and We Call It Junkin 

Thrifting Finds #22!

Wow.  It feels like it was a really busy weekend, when in fact it wasn't.  Maybe I'm just getting old.  Okay, definitely getting old, but you know what I mean.

We managed to cover almost all of our usual stops this weekend.  Didn't get to go to the Salvation Army because it was closed for Labor Day.  I kind of don't like shopping there because of their politics, but apparently, I'll sell out completely for a bargain.  Don't judge.

Yesterday was Half Price day at one of our Goodwills.  Gloriosky, I hope I never walk into that scene again!  The store was mobbed, every single customer had an overflowing cart full of crap, and people were just plain rude.  It was kind of like a summertime version of Black Friday.  Yikes.

Anyway, while I didn't get much at the thrifts, i did manage to pick up a couple of things that made me quite happy.  On with the show.

1.  Tupperware!  Okay, is anyone really surprised here?  I already have this size in lovely Avocado, but I'm really digging this orange.  I'm trying to up my consumption of vegetables and lower my consumption of potato chips at lunch, so I'm using this to tote a buttload of crudites to work.  Why?  Because I'm huge.  Hopefully, there's a wedding in my future, and I'd prefer not to look like a heifer.  Plus, it was only a buck at the Rescue Mission Thrift.  As an aside, this same canister in yellow was $3.00 at the Goodwill just down the street.

2.  Lampshades!  Can you believe it?  I thought I had used up our lampshade mojo, so you can imagine my surprise when I ran across these in the GW on Sunday.  I looked up on the top shelf where the lampshades are and saw what I thought would be a perfect shade for our new lamps.  Too bad there was only one.  Wait a second--it's really two shades stacked together!  I threw my keys at Hubby, said "Hold these" and scaled the display fixture.  Yeah, I have no shame.

Oops.  Wrong picture.  Let me just Photoshop in the other shade:

There.  Better.  Anyway, they were in great shape and only $4.00 each!  There may or may not have been a little happy dance; I'll never tell.  GW staff, in their wisdom, chose to mark the price on these in black indelible marker.  Does nobody have any common sense any more?  Luckily, the base of the shades is plastic and I was able to almost completely remove the price with some acetone.  Sheesh.  Of course, the harps that came with the lamps were far too small so I had to pick up some new ones.  Here's what it looks like in finished form:

You like?  I like.  I also added inline switches to make turning the lamps on and off easier.  So I think I'm done with lamps for a while.  I hope so, anyway.

That's actually it for thrift finds, but I have a couple of other purchases I want to mention.

3.  Slide Projector!  This was actually an eBay purchase.  I had been toying with the possibility of buying some of the slides I keep seeing at the thrifts and basically snooping into other peoples' lives.  Unfortunately, I didn't own a slide projector.  So I was reading the 1961 volume of Consumer Reports (don't judge) and saw the Crestline Model C was highly rated.  I really liked the name "Crestline" so I searched for it on ebay, saw this and won it for my bid of $5.00.  It works beautifully, came in its original box with all paperwork (see the hang tag still attached to the handle?), and even had a tray of slides with it.  Okay, they were kind of boring, but it's a start.

Naturally, I found NO slides at the thrifts this week!  I have a movie projector too, but I don't think I've ever seen home movies at the Goodwill.

4.  Free laptop!  So here's the story behind this.  A while ago, there was a Class Action Suit against EMachines, the computer company.  Something about the floppy drive; I can't remember the details.  Well, I joined the suit, as I had owned an EMachine that was included.  When it finally got settled, they sent people a voucher for $365.00 worth of stuff from a certain website (tablets, laptops, PCs and monitors, mostly refurbs); you could also convert the voucher to cash--$62.50.  So I saw this Gateway laptop on the site, factory refurbished, decent specs and only $300.00.  When I went to order it, I got the notice that any unspent balance on the voucher was forfeited.  Hmm.  That left $65 bucks for me to do something with.  I couldn't find anything around that price.  Bummer.  So I went ahead with the order and when it asked how I wanted it shipped, I automatically checked the cheapest method.  Then I saw that overnight delivery was $38.00, so I figured Sure, why not? So I got my free laptop the next day!  I've only fired it up to make sure it works.  I already have a laptop and a netbook and don't need another one.  I haven't decided whether to save this in case one of the kids needs a computer or to flip it on ebay.  Thoughts?

P.S.  Still haven't put the Eames coat rack on ebay yet because I can't find a box big enough to ship it in!

Linking up with all the deliciousness at Sir Thrift A Lot and The Nifty Thrifty,