Friday Finds

Today at Goodwill we found a great lot of random Legos. It cost me less than $3 and came in the cool red "Lego" case. I hadn't ever seen those before. There were tons of neat pieces in there including a horse and at least 15-20 Lego guys (space men, fireman, etc). The boys played for over an hour with them when we got home and probably would have played longer if we weren't getting ready to leave again. I found the lamp at Goodwill. It was a little over $1. I plan to paint it black. Little bench is going to get painted also. Found the enamelware type thing at a garage sale. Will probably hang it on the wall and put some sort of flowers in it. Also picked up some workbooks for school at a garage sale.

This was $1 and was marked "planter". It has a metal insert. I'm going to paint this also.

My last two finds came from the spring trash pick up. :) People were out in droves today driving around and picking things up. First up is this office chair. I can't seem to find anything wrong with it and it seems very solid. Ethan said to me "I hope dad doesn't kill you". Ha ha.

Second find is another enamelware type bowl/pot. Inside it has some zinc lids for canning jars, just like the ones I paid for several months ago. I should have waited. God knows the desires of our hearts and will often give them to us if we are just patient!

Winter Thrifting

Today Tim had the day off, so we loaded up the boys this morning and headed to Denny's for breakfast. I had the brilliant idea to take some pictures of those gorgeous winter trees and asked Tim to pull off onto a side road on our way there. Well, he pulled off, a little too far (and it was my fault- you know, because I wanted to take pictures!) and we ended up partially stuck on the side of the road. Not a minute later, a guy came along and offered to help, but it didn't appear that pushing the van was going to get it unstuck. So the man offered to go get one of the local Mennonites and his tractor to pull us out. While he was gone, Tim and I managed to get the van out of the snow and back onto the middle of the road. We found the guy who helped us and let him know and then went on our merry way.

After breakfast we went to Home Depot where I got the lovely flowers pictured below. Only 87 cents each. Then on to a couple of other stores. We ended the day at Goodwill. I mean, after all, a visit to Goodwill is what DEFINES a good day (at least in my mind)! I hit the jackpot and actually had to put a couple of things back due to lack of funds. Overall though, I felt it was a very successful trip!

The pillow is one that I had admired somewhere in blog land and I was thrilled to find this one. Don't fret, those little drawers are going to get painted and have new knobs put on them!

The wooden bowls on the left are also going to get painted. I love the wooden box w/ "Blessings" painted on it. It is mass produced primitive decor, but I still like it! :) The little pitcher on the right says "Homer Loughlin" on the bottom. I thought I remembered that as possibly being valuable, but couldn't remember. Anyways, when I got home I looked it up and that is the company that makes Fiesta ware now. I doubt that it is worth anything, but I will keep it for now.

The boys napped when we got home. Tim and I dined on chips and dip and sour gummy worms. All in all, a pretty fun day.

Thrift Store Finds

The boys and I found these treasures the other day at the Goodwill. We spent $12 and some odd change. The boys favorite find was the Buzz Lightyear space rocket for 1.69. I was pleasantly surprised to find a stack of misc. plates that match ours. (We were down to three large and three small.) The plates were 2.59. Six cloth napkins with stitched flowers were 1.99. Wine rack was 2.29 or so.

This is how I intend to use the wine rack. I saw the idea online and really liked it.

I also found this really cute mug. I saw the "eye" side first and thought that it would be a neat gift for the eye Dr. that I work with. Then I turned the mug around and fell in love with this side.

I'm not sure what it is, but I just really like it. It is pottery and right now I have a fondness for it. It is Pennsbury Pottery which I knew nothing about, but now know is no longer made. I have since seen some other Pennsbury Pottery pieces online that I wouldn't mind having.

The poor economy has apparently affected Goodwill. A couple of weeks ago in the paper they had an ad stating they really needed donations. When we go into the stores, the shelves are half empty and that is so unusual!

God is so Good

I have a neat story that I thought I would share. Sometimes God's provisions for us are not so clear (or maybe they are and just go unnoticed). Whichever the case, this past week provided me with two glimpses of how He cares for his children and their every need, not just the big ones.

While I was at work the other day, I started to have some indigestion. Since I work in a health care facility, it would have been pretty easy to get some Tums from one of the nurses. I didn't do that though (not sure why). I sat there and was thinking about going shopping after work. I thought, "maybe I can find a coupon and get some free or very cheap Tums at the drugstore". I'm always trying to figure out how to get things like that for free or very little money. The crazy thing about all of it is that I had several containers of antacids at home. A lot of good they did me there!

Fast forward to my weekly stop at CVS that evening. I was in and there is a machine that prints coupons when you swipe your Extra Care Card. It usually prints 3-5 coupons for various items in the store. This time, my card only generated one coupon. Do you know what it was for? "One free CVS 3 pk. of antacids up to 1.99". Is God good or what?? I bought the other Tums because I had a coupon that made them really cheap. The second time that God provided this week was on a trip the boys and I took to Goodwill. I was dropping off some things to donate and thought we would look around. I told the boys that we could look for a pair of boots for Tyler. The other two boys are needing to move up into their brother's boots, and Tyler has the biggest feet. I told them that there probably wouldn't be any because "it's the middle of winter", "they are kids boots", "the economy is bad" (OK, I don't think I actually gave them the reasons, but I didn't want them to get their hopes up. I was trying to be realistic about the situation). As we walk back to the children's clothing section I see one pair of boots. The only pair of boots in the whole store. Yep, they were Tyler's size.

Some other fun finds at the Goodwill. I love the "My first Little House" books and found one I didn't have yet. I also got a crossword puzzle dictionary for a friend at work. The kaleidoscope is a liquid one, much like one I asked for this past Christmas and couldn't find anywhere!

Goodwill Goodies

This past Sunday I ran into the Goodwill for a quick look around. I ended up coming home with some treasures. Even though we are heading out of fall, I kind of liked this wreath. I really love the little lamp (I just tried it and it works!). It shouldn't be too hard to find little shade for it. I was going to paint it all black, but I may just leave it the way it is. I do plan to paint the 1/2 birdhouse black and I was thinking of putting an ivy plant in it and hanging it in the bedroom. The Aztec pot is a gift and I think it will look very nice with some plants/herbs in it. The little frog candle holder will look cute somewhere in Amanda's new house, possibly on the kitchen windowsill? Each item was only $2-3. However, when I got to the register, my whole order rang up for 50% off! I'm not sure if this is a Sunday thing or a special sale they had going on (they are doing some remodeling). My total ended up being $6.55. Not a bad deal at all! I have really been in the mood to thrift shop lately and this is not going to help matters.