Life as we go it

I've been a long time fan of thrift stores. 

When I was younger, like as in grade school, I occasionally went to one with my mom or grandma. We usually looked at clothes and knick knacks. 

In high school my artsy friend Connie and I started taking evening 'trips' to thrift stores in different towns (whoa) in search of retro shirts & dresses. We went through a phase where we thought wearing old patterned polyester men's shirts in art class was super cool!

Then when Matt and I lived in Florida we started going to every thrift store we could find (no kids! tons of free time!) in search of awesome vinyl records and mid century/vintage type furniture. It was a fun pastime for us. We'd go to the beach, stop at a beach bar for a drink, check out a thrift store, and head home to peace and quiet. So rough it was!

When we moved back to Wisconsin I'd say the thrift store trips got put on hold a bit. We worked on our home, had two kids and now we're pretty darn busy. But lately I've been sneaking out to some thrift stores with Chloe, while Liam is at 3K, in search of some long lost treasures.

I truly believe that one person's 'trash' can become another person's 'treasure.'

I thought I'd share with you the few & very inexpensive 'treasures' that Chloe and I found earlier this week at our local St. Vincent de Paul store.

So I saw this little minty deer and fell instantly in love! He had a broken neck at some point (poor little guy) but he's mended and I just love his vintage vibe. He will look great somewhere in  my kitchen.

And he's multi purpose! He can be used as a little planter. He was .99 cents. 

A cute new hat for Chloe. Only .50 cents. And guess what? We already lost the hat while out for a stroller walk today! So it goes to show you that it's worth getting a cheap brand new hat at a thrift store for your kid, because more than likely they'll lose it the next day anyways :)

I'm trying to think ahead this year a bit in terms of shopping for the kiddos for Christmas. The store had an entire book shelf dedicated to kids' holiday books. So I found a few that were basically brand new and they'll probably be getting them from us St. Nicholas. This one was .79 cents (instead of $9.99 brand new).

This one was .39 cents. Chloe will love it.

 This one was .99 cents (instead of $13.99). Liam will love it.

And these were a total of $1.47. These kept Chloe busy in the shopping cart while at the store.