Thrifting Finds #35: Recycled finds!

Well kids, it was not a pretty week for your old Uncle Veg.  On Wednesday, I came down with some kind of weird uber cold that knocked me on my kiester.  Monday and Tuesday, I felt like I was coming down with something but it didn't happen.  That is, until Wednesday morning when it hit me in the face.  I went in to work for a little while to take care of some things and then I hightailed it right back home, where I spent the next three days just sitting on the couch doing nothing.

I realize it was just a cold, but I just hate being sick. It's so damned inconvenient.  Here I was, with an unplanned vacation and I didn't feel up to doing anything.  Oh, I set up the Christmas tree and got the cards done, but that was all I accomplished in three days.

On the other hand, it was kind of nice to just sit around and do nothing.  For instance, on Thursday it rained hard all day and for a good part of it, I just sat on the couch under the big yellow blanket with Honey on my lap listening to the rain and thinking how awesome it was.

Honey loves it when I pull out the big yellow blanket.  It's a great blanket to be sick under, if you know what I mean.  And it's kind of amazing that it's older than I am--Mom got it for her wedding shower back in 1957, and it's still nice and soft and fluffy.

By Saturday, I was feeling well enough to do the weekly marketing, etc., so Hubs and I set out to do that and hit our Saturday Thrifts.  Unfortunately, we found nothing worth buying.

They were calling for bad weather on Sunday, so Hubs and I made a pre-emptive decision to just stay home and do Christmasy things.  That was a good decision, given how things looked at 11:00:

I don't know if you can see how hard it's snowing, but it's pretty hard.  Don't forget that this is Maryland, where people panic at the first snowflake, despite the fact that we get snow every single year.

By 2:00, the snow had pretty much stopped and the snowplows came through:

But then it spent the rest of the day sleeting and freezing raining, which was just nasty.

So Hubs and I did our Christmas decorating!  Stay with me here, because there is a connection to thrifted finds, no matter how tenuous ;)

weiner dogs!

1.  Our mantle!  Mmm, nothing vintage here, though the porcelain and the Staffordshire dogs are antiques.  We used to have a much nicer garland but a couple of years ago the lights gave out and no matter what I did, I couldn't get them lit again.

Too Gay?

2.  Christmas tree!  I know it looks really pink here, but it's not.  Hubs and I went out last year just before Christmas and I saw these trees reduced from $45.00 to $19.00.  Now, Hubs has always wanted a white tree and I was certainly open to the idea, particularly one with multi-colored lights (I don't care for white lights.), and how was I supposed to say no to like, a  60% discount?  We had it in our front hall last year and decided we would alternate between the white and the green as our "main" tree.  If you look closely, you will see some of the Shiny Brite ornaments I got way back in June.

3.  More Shiny Brites!  During the same shopping trip that I got the white tree, I saw these glass urns and thought they would look nice filled with Christmas ornaments.  Unfortunately, there was no way I was going to spend 15 bucks for one.  Well, just a few weeks after Christmas, I came across this in the Goodwill, filled with a candle and seashells and sand and a bunch of other crapola.  I liked the price--five bucks--and immediately emptied the contents into the nearest trash receptacle. Those balls with the net on them are more Shiny Brites I got in March.

See?  Connection to thrifted finds?

4.  My wreath!  Yes kids, your ham-handed Uncle Veg made this his very own self a couple of years ago.  Most of the ornaments are not vintage because A) I'm not crafty at all and wasn't sure if I could pull this off and B) I lose interest easily and wasn't sure if I would see it through to the end.  If you look very closely, the small, fancy balls near the middle are thrifted finds from a Goodwill.  I'm pretty sure they weren't Shiny Brites, though.  And the pink balls around the outside are Martha Stewart ornaments I got at the Salvation Army, probably 10 years ago.  I would like to make another wreath using actual vintage ornaments but at the rate I'm going, it'll take me 50 years to come up with enough.

5.  Hubs' creche!  We have a horizontal surface on which we display either my Christmas Story buildings or Hubs' creche.  We take turns, and this year, it was Hubs' turn.  This is his childhood creche, so it's fairly old.  The figures are paper mache and as Hubs says "Grubby from three little boys playing with them."  Still, it's sweet and dear, and I love having things from Hubby's past around.

And that's really all for the thrifted finds department.  More bad weather is on the way tomorrow and I'm not sure what the weekend will hold, so who knows if we'll get to do any thrifting at all next week.

What I Made This Weekend Department:

A.  One-pot (if you're lucky) Macaroni and Cheese!  I didn't take a picture because you've seen it before.  Here's the recipe if you want to review.  The picture above is from the same post.

B.  Pork Chops!  Yeah, this picture is a retread too, but how many pictures of pork chops can you look at, you know?  Sub mashies for the spaetzle in this picture and you pretty much have a picture of what dinner was last night.  Also, I went back to using the Weis version of Shake & Bake which we like much better than the real stuff.

You can see that I didn't put too much effort into cooking this week because I also made

C.  An insane number of cookies!  These are my world-famous M&M cookies that I make for my brother.  Geez, I think I've been making them for him for at least the last 30 years.  I hate making cookies, but if I didn't make these, I truly think he would cry.  That's 11 dozen up there, by the way, but some of them are for us.  Turns out Hubs loves them too, so now I make a triple batch and spend a day cursing in the kitchen.

Okay, to be honest, it wasn't so bad this year.  The problem I have with making cookies is that there's a lot of standing around time, but it's never enough to actually go off and do something.  If you hate making cookies as much as I do, here are a couple of tips to help keep your sunny disposition.

1. Get  yourself a bigass mixer.  I finally got to put my Kenmore to its intended use (making these cookies) and it sped up the process immeasurably.  I still had to mix in two batches, but it was a lot better than doing it by hand, or borrowing my friend's Kitchenaid.

2.  Use a cookie scoop.  Get a good one, because the cheap ones are more frustrating than useful.  Makes the cookies much more uniform than trying to use a teaspoon.

3.  Have lots of baking sheets.  At least four, which is what I used.  That way you can have a batch ready to go into the oven as soon as you take one out.

4.  Have a distraction.  I often use this time to watch Christmas movies on my portable DVD player.  This year, I used my little bits of free time to make the macaroni and to wash up all the bowls and things I used in the process.

And that's pretty much all I have.  Which is fine, since this post is long enough, considering how little content it has...

Linking up with the fabulousness at  Sir Thrift A Lot, The Nifty Thrifty, Thrifter/Maker/Fixer/Farm and We Call It Junkin 

Thrifting Finds #12!

Well, we were only slightly thwarted this weekend.  We managed to hit all of our stops with the exception of one Goodwill:  As we approached, someone (another customer, I guess), told us that the store wasn't open because the manager hadn't shown up with the key yet.  We didn't wait around to see if the manager ever made it.

We didn't get too awful much, but I really like both of the things I got.  So here goes:

1.  Shiny Brites!  I was pleasantly surprised to find these among the Dollar Store Christmas Crap on the shelves at Goodwill.  They also had a box of red balls and one of blue balls, but they were just plain ones.  I really like these indents and other fancies.  But wait a second.  Let's dolly in for a closer look at that price tag...

One dollar.  I know!  This was definitely my Buy O' the Month.

2.  Tupperware!  It just wouldn't be a worthwhile trip if I didn't come home with at least one piece of Tupperware.  I had planned on getting a deviled egg plate (because the Girl Child will be visiting and she likes them), but when I saw this official Tupperware Deviled Egg Keeper, I had to get it.  Now I can make them and they won't stink up my fridge (side note:  I don't think I've ever made deviled eggs before.  Wish me luck!)  Goodwill, $1.50

And that's it, really.  As a Public Service, I'd like to also show a couple of things that I didn't get.  To wit:

A:  Pyrex!  This set was in darn fine condition, and I don't think the price was too bad ($4, $6, and $8, top to bottom), but I don't collect this pattern and I really have no need for these casseroles.  But this set (and a promotional casserole I saw a while ago) brings up a question:  Even if I don't collect a particular Pyrex pattern, should I be buying these things if they're reasonably priced and in good condition?  I hate to leave them behind if there's someone out there in Blogland who wants them, but I just don't know.  Thoughts?

Click to embiggen.  No, really. Do it.  

B: Pissed-off skater girl!  This is one of those things I had to take a picture of and send to the Girl Child.  Her response?  "She's actually kind of fabulous with that blush and those highlights!"

Aaannnddd that's pretty much it for this week.  Linking up with the goodness at Sir Thrift A Lot, The Nifty Thrifty, and The Remnant

Thrifted finds!

I often lament the fact that I hardly ever find anything at the Goodwill.  Maybe every 20th trip or so I'll find something that's worth buying.  I can't complain too much, though, because space in my house is limited and I have definite hoarder tendencies anyway, so I'm probably better off with things the way they are.
So what changed this weekend?  I found several things at a couple of different Goodwills, something that never happens.  Sorry for the varying quality of pictures; sometimes my phone takes really good pictures, other times not so much.

First up:

Shiny Brites!  Can you believe it?  First sighting in a GW ever.  There's a nice purple one in the group (Hubby's fave color) so I think I'm going to keep these rather than resell 'em.  Not sure how I feel about the netting, but I think it'll be okay.  $3.00

Kromex!  This little covered bowl fits the middle of a lazy susan I already have (also thrifted) that I actually use for entertaining, so I'm keeping it.  $3.00

Pyrex!  Made two huge mistakes with these suckers.  First, I went out to the car to get my $5.00 coupon and while doing that, some old guy beat me to the biggest container of the set.  Lesson learned:  grab first.  Later, I looked at a Pyrex book and the author said (and this is almost a direct quote)  "Nobody collects this pattern because nobody likes it."  Yikes.  Well, I guess I'll eventually throw 'em up on ebay unless I hear from someone who wants them.  Kind of a shame really.  Though they're really not my style, wouldn't they have looked great in Betty Draper's knotty pine kitchen?  $2.00 each for the small ones, $3.00 for the big one.

Floorbuster!  Wow, this picture came out really bad, and I'm not sure why.  Anyhoo, this baby was absolutely immaculate, which is why I bought it; the thought of using someone else's grungy old vacuum kinda skeeves me out.  I'm guessing it was a wedding gift used once to try it out, then tucked away. We had one of these years ago and it was really handy; Mom used it when lugging out the big vacuum got to be too much for her.  It's got a beater brush so it does a decent job on carpets if you just want to give them a quick once-over.  Came with two sets of batteries and a charger, but I fear the batteries are no good.  I'll have to buy some replacements but I don't mind because Black & Decker discontinued this some time ago and you can't get it any more.  $15.00, but I used my $5.00 coupon on it.

Jewelry box!  I have been looking forever for a plain, simple jewelry box that isn't A) ugly or B) girly.  It's been a longer quest that you'd think.  I came across this beauty in one of the carts of stuff that hadn't been put on shelves yet. The lady in front of me at checkout said that if she had seen it first, she'd have pounced on it.  It's beautiful burled wood (elm?) with a simple inlaid border.  It's way bigger than I need, but I couldn't pass it up.  Like almost everything I picked up this weekend, it looks to be unused.  $8.00.

Hoping I can talk the hub into going thrifting again this weekend, as we have a couple new places to try. There's a Savers opening up in the area (the first one) and it's right on our regular thrifting route.  Also, while we were doing the marketing, our favorite checker at Weis told us about a mission thrift store that I never knew about, so we're going to hit that one, too.