Thrift Haul on a fine Saturday

elizabethprata

February 10

By Elizabeth Prata

It's spring here in Georgia. That means the birds are flying about chirping happily. The trees are aflame with avian song. The first flowers are budding; forsythia gleams yellow amid the other bare branches. It's warming up, enough so that when you stroll around outside people have that goofy smile on their lips of 'ahhh...I'm not freezing.'

I did my taxes and I'm receiving back enough of a refund that I decided to splurge and go thrifting to my favorite estate sale store. I'm talking $20 or so, that's a splurge for me. The day was overcast but warm. That was an improvement on the predicted weather, which was for a cold rain. I'll take it.

My favorite store is just a few miles up the road and it is a pretty drive. I took my time, snapping some pictures of the rural beauty around me. I got to the store only half an hour after it opened but the parking lot was full. She has been advertising her new estate buy-out plus some Easter items so I was glad for her that her store was busy.

I wasn't looking for anything in particular, I just like browsing her store. There are many fine items to look at- from furniture to art to vintage books, ceramics, and, well, you name it. As she says when buying out an estate: anything that is in a house will be part of the estate.

There was a $1 clothing sale and I got 2 shirts. Not pictured. I also found she had created a new crafting section. I like making art. I just don't do it. I don't know why. I decided that on my 'Winter Break" next week, actually a Friday off, I will do crafts and read. I like reading, and that is another activity I just don't do a lot even though I want to. So you heard it here first, next Friday is a Reading and Crafting Day. I also scored in the $5 fill-a-bag room.

Here's my haul from the main store. The watercolor paint set is unused. Art papers, blank cards, large letters, self-adhesive paper shapes. Most of these were $1. The paint set was $8. The art papers are really nice.

From the $5 room, huge rusty temperature gauge which I adore- and it works, a tray with vintage map decoration, which I will place in my Victorian Dark Academia library, a wrought iron stand with green St Patricks' day thingie for my classroom, a small piece of art, a Florentine decorated bookmark, a small unused journal with inlaid pearlescent design, and a pack of index cards. All this for $5. The thermometer is huge. I'm going to put it outside on my patio under the roof overhang.

Below is the story of the index cards.

One Christmas long ago when I was on vacation in Florida, I'd picked up a paint set and a pack of cards at a dollar store. I set myself up on the patio of my hotel room overlooking the palm trees, and I forced myself to paint scenes on the cards without thinking. I overthink. The index card size was small enough not to be intimidating. Here are a few samples of what I did, just letting my hand go and seeing what I came up with:

Ok, so I'm not a Monet... LOL. I will do the same with the index cards next Friday. And some bookbinding or junk journaling with the art papers. And that was my shopping haul. Total, $22.

Here are the scenes I snapped along the way.