Thrift store Monday!

I am fortunate enough to live in an area with an abundance of thrift stores. One of my favorites has 25% off every Monday. For a while, I was making a weekly visit to the store, but I haven’t been in some time now. Today felt like a good day to get out of the house for a little thrift store adventure. I hoped it would keep my mind of the fact that I am now past my due date. I figure if I can keep myself busy enough during the day, I won’t go crazy waiting for little Ember to arrive.

The store I went to today is huge, like the size of a grocery store. I rarely spend less than an hour looking around. Today I didn’t manage to find any of the items on my list, but I did make a few wonderful finds.

I spent a grand total of $5.75  and this is what I bought: two playsilks, a wooden firetruck and a small wooden basket for Kage’s silks.

The first find was the silks. I was so excited when I found a solid yellow, 100% silk scarf that measures about 30 x 30 inches. It still had the label on it, so I was sure it was 100% silk. I have plans to dye some larger playsilks for Kage at some point, but I am still waiting to get my dyes and blank silks I purchased through a co-op. He really loves playing with his six fairy silkies and I think he is ready for some larger ones.

As I kept looking through the scarves, I found another scarf that looked identical except it was orange. This one did not have a label on it, but it felt just like the yellow one. I spent several minutes debating if it was indeed silk or polyester and decided it was silk. If it isn’t, Kage sure won’t know. And for $1.50 each I couldn’t pass them up.

Next was a small wicker basket I picked up for 50 cents. I bought this basket to hold his silkies since they don’t really have their own home yet. Now they have a place to be stored and the basket is a great size for Kage to easily carry around. As soon as I gave him the basket filled with the silks, he ran to the chair, climbed in and started pulling them out. He really loves how they feel against his skin as you can see.

The last find was in the toy isle which I rarely go down. 99% of the toys there are stuffed animals, commercial cartoon characters, and lots and lots of plastic. None of which appeal to me. It was like a spotlight was shining down on this truck though! I spotted it amidst all the clutter from the far end of the aisle and ran to grab it before some one else did! It is an unfinished, solid wood firetruck that is about 12 inches long. It probably once had some people to sit up front, but will work just fine with out them.

There is no logo or brand marking on it, so I have no idea where it came from. For $2.25, it was a great addition to Kage’s wood toy collection. One of his only plastic toys is a big Tonka dump truck that he just loves. I hope to replace it with a handmade wooden dump truck at some point, maybe for his 2nd birthday. This firetruck is his first wood vehicle. He took to it right away and had fun pushing it all around the house tonight. With his insistence, it even came to bed with us for story time.

I think today was a great success! You never know with thrift store shopping. Some days are a bust, but finding items like we did today makes it worth the effort.