Woman in Real Life

Happy St. Patrick's Day! Even though I'm half Irish, I have no plans to celebrate. But at least my photo today has some green in it. That's something, right?

I have a couple of thrifty finds to share, including this "Strawberry Patch" fabric. I found it at the thrift shop and thought it would be perfect for little sewing projects with the kids.

While staying with my parents this weekend, my little girl and I went to the last day of the local library's summer book sale. You could fill a bag with books for only $2. I didn't find many books I wanted, but I did fill a bag with movies on VHS. I thought my son would enjoy watching films from the Star Wars and Indiana Jones series.

We don't generally watch movies on VHS at home, but I like the nostalgia of watching them at the cottage. Unfortunately, when we returned to the cottage with my bag of VHS movies, my husband informed me that neither one of my parents' VCRs was working. Now I have a bag of VHS tapes to add to my collection at home.

Somehow I manage to sneak in thrift store visits at the most unexpected times. I even went to a couple stores while we were in Cape Cod. I didn't find anything though.

On Saturday, we drove straight from Cape Cod to my sister's house in St. Catharines, Ontario. By the time we stopped at Wegmans for some grocery items and the Duty Free for some (very cheap) booze, we arrived at my sister's at about 11:00 p.m.

On Sunday afternoon, my sister (and partner in crime) suggested we go to a nearby Goodwill store. The Bibles for Missions thrift store that I had so enjoyed with her on our last visit is closed on Sundays.

The Goodwill has much higher prices than that store, but I found a few bargains nevertheless.

The first treasure we spotted was this Alfred Sung teapot, above, for $2. I decided to give it to my sister because she liked it too, but I snapped a quick photo of it at her house.



I bought this decanter for $2. What I like about it is the shot glass built into the lid. I also got the scarf it is sitting on (for $1.99).


I purchased this rather strange wooden jar. My sister suggested putting cotton balls in it, but we were surprised to find that it has a very shallow interior.


I got this cute watering can, which is actually plastic inside, as well as two of these colourful doilies. I have no idea where I am going to use the doilies, but I couldn't resist their upbeat cheer.


I guess I couldn't quite leave the beach behind, because I snapped up these shower curtain rings.


I then found this bathroom mat at a discount store next to Goodwill.



In keeping with the beachy/shell theme, I used a previous thrift store find to display some shells we picked up on a beach in Cape Cod.

How is your summer going? Are you making time to shop?

All of the chain thrift stores, like Goodwill, Value Village and the Salvation Army, seem to be having sales of one kind or another this week.

My daughter and I managed to hit only one thrift store this week, on the way to an appointment in another town.

She picked out a blue and white wool sweater (yes, with the temperature reaching 30°C/86°F), as well as a Webkinz kangaroo. (Awesome—another stuffed animal to end up on her bedroom floor.)