cha-ching

...I have been thrifting in Portland. Why did I think this would not be a good idea? I have scored! I have vintage tablecloths to boot. A vintage toy printing press! A working Canon AE1! Cameo earrings! A brand new T-shirt for Steve from an Alaskan brewery. I cannot wait to show you my treasures.

Hope all of you had a beautiful Christmas! I have no idea if we are still in the thick of the 12 days of Christmas, but if we are, I am happy about that.

More thrifting seems likely today...believe it or not!

The same still goes for the New Year: cheers + be safe my darlings.

I miss it here!

*sob*

---break---

I am really happy with the progress of my new blog.

That said, I will be sad to neglect Solid Cherry for the next coming weeks while I'm on holiday in Portland. I will not be actively thrifting while I'm there. 1) It is competitive!, and 2) thrifting in Florida is better (lots of old folks live in Palm Beach County - this is good for thrifting, but not for driving). Besides, my favorite thrift store, the St. Vincent de Paul store formerly on the corner of SE Holgate and 82nd AVE in Portland is no longer (hasn't been for some time now).

But I do have some non-photograph posts in mind if I have the patience to battle dial-up, so keep coming back! Or if you would rather wait, I will see you next year!

Cheers + be safe!

edit 12/18: get your thrifting fix at foolish girl

< $1

I don't know the technical term for these glass domes, but I love them. Usually they come with wooden plates (that I assume are for cheese), but I don't know what one calls the complete set. Enlighten me.

I, however, prefer the glass dome on its own; I only have one of these domes so far, but they're always at the Goodwill. I thought about collecting them in various shapes/sizes; I have only seen them in the size and shape identical to the one I have - not that I couldn't have more, but I like variety.

What to use them for? I'm not sure; the glass is so beautifully thick and heavy...

Anyway, something to collect. And use.

$0

Take it from me: never go thrifting on a Sunday!

The experience is too crowded.

$20

Before:

After:


The bookshelf we thrifted appears to be homemade, but made really well with attention to detail. While I liked the color it was previously (khaki), I painted it an "antique white" with oil-based paint to clean it up (lots of scuffs) and give it some durability. It stands tall - 7'?

Yet another place to display all of my junk.

Bonus: Painting these shelves offered a lot of meditation for me; Steve was out of town and I kept myself occupied with a project while he was off taking pictures in the snow. My family of pets gathered round, we listened to good music, had some spirits and I quietly painted these shelves.

< $1

What do you get when you're thrifting for a radio but you do not find one?

A .69 glass for spirits (NWT), made in France, that's what!

$3

Last week, at my other blog, I posted a strong desire for this plate collection. My lovely commenters suggested I take the idea of twelve plates on the wall in my own thrifty direction. And when people comment, I listen!

I am going to take the idea of hanging twelve *somewhat* related plates on my kitchen wall. The only thing that will relate them, however, is that they have to be pink or brown (I will be happy to throw in any other pleasing color in the mix) and made in England. I found my first two plates at the Veteran's last week. Should be kind of challenging, but I am up for the thrill of the hunt.

When they're up and hanging, I will be sure to share.

$20

You might remember this from my other blog, but I wanted to repost here, from another angle. In fact, it's not the only thing thrifted in this picture; the basket was thrifted ($3.95) and the chair in the upper right corner was from an E-bay auction ($15.00).

This rug was thrifted via craigslist - and it was such a positive experience. Each time I am sitting in the living room I say "I love you, rug." I do. It is horrible to be attached to things, but this is just such a treasure to me (and Steve would agree).

Backstory: The rug was in a family for decades; it was purchased in Spain by the owner's parents, and the owner was moving and updating her look. She originally wanted $80, but discussed it over with her mom and lowered the price significantly. We didn't even ask her to do that; we approached her early in the week with interest, and when we revisited the idea of buying it, we asked again if it was still available. Oh, yes. And for $60 less!

Bonus: There are absolutely NO stains - it even has a piece of protective padding underneath it (included with purchase of the rug), in excellent condition.

For fun: A woman telling her true age is like a buyer confiding his final price to an Armenian rug dealer. - Mignon McLaughlin, Chicago Tribune 13 Sep 64. (Bartleby)

$4.95

Thrifting window treatments is not for everybody. It was not for Steve. I bought these curtains at the Veteran's for $4.95. These are very Madge - I like little florals. I am completely aware that they scream "Yo, Grandma Madge! You smell like cats." It was my original thought that we could put them in the front room where we have wood paneling; they would have been a nice complement to the honey color of the wood. As it is, there are two windows in that front room and the curtains only covered one window. Oh, well. Steve's power of veto won out: he thought they smelled and looked like Grandma Death no matter what. I stashed them away for my craft room.

Here they are up close and personal - but the colors are so pretty, no?:

$22

These 2 chairs were far too nostalgic to leave at the Goodwill. I love them. My great-grandparents had two kitchen sets in this kind of style - when they passed, the dining sets made it to the family's beach house in Oregon. So they remind me of breakfasts, lunches and dinners at the beach house...even though there was no Formica table to match, just to have the chairs was good enough for me. They're in excellent condition, save some age...

Also, does anyone know what this design motif is called? It reminds me of the MS screensaver, Beziers...

$0

Sometimes you can go thrifting without ever leaving your house.

Steve and I were desperate to thrift the perfect dresser for our clothes; we spent a lot of time looking for a piece of furniture that was both functional and quality and with deep enough drawers to fit two people's clothes - we didn't necessarily want a thousand drawers, just deep ones.

We never found that perfect dresser. Anyone that donates a dresser to the Goodwill expunges it from their home for good reason: it is really, horribly ugly and made of cheap-ola materials.

The people that used to live in the house we rent were both disgusting and stupid. It is for those two reasons that we got incredibly awesome rent and a dresser. Their nastiness is a better suited tale for my other blog. But their stupidness belongs right here at the Solid Cherry.

They too must have needed drawer space. In the closets, they spaced the pine boards you see in this picture with cinder blocks, creating the function of shelves and the wobbliness of master idiots. One night, when I was watching CSI Miami or something (David Caruso creeps me out like a train wreck), Steve had the idea to take these boards and use them to make a bookshelf. When he finished, he said something like, "Wow. What do you think if we used this for a dresser?"

Voila! We now have a dresser of sorts.
It is bolted to the wall - extra sturdy-like.

Also, will you please compliment my folding skills? Can you tell I used to work in retail for seven years? And please notice the extravagant number of T-shirts - they are collected from my two years as a full-time volunteer (Solid Cherry tip! If you are poor and need T-shirts, consider volunteering at race events, city/county/state environmental clean-ups, and other community events in your area - they're always good for free T-shirts) and my days of running 5Ks.