Shake, Rattle and Roll at the Legion

Just got back from the Legion's yard sale. It's been so long! Last year, I discovered creepy curiosities such as boxes of maxi pads from the eighties. This year, it was more of a straight forward affair: lot's of elderly people standing around smoking and odds and ends priced to sell. Woo-hoo!

On my first walk around, I missed this unremarkable bashed box. When I came back, I caught a better look.
Awwww yeah, it's a seventies cocktail shaker, unused and still in the original box dated 1976 - the beginning of the golden era of ABBA.
Which one would be inside? Please be the orange one, please be the orange one...
Oh fiddlesticks, it's not the orange one, but it's still a beautiful shaker with groovy seventies artistic embellishments and some handy cocktail recipes. Who's ever heard of the Rob Roy? I can just imagine some party scene with women in big floppy floor-length skirts. "I asked for a William Wallace, not a Rob Roy!"

The best part? It cost .50! That's good cocktail value for money.

I fell in love with this slightly tattered house box. It's signed on the inside by the person who made it.
It only cost $1.00. I think I'll keep extra pencils in it for my students next year.
In a clear, produce bag, I noticed some Christmas decorations. For .50 I got this funky reindeer on a heavy chain...
and these two awesome Mexican folk art Christmas tree decorations. I collect Mexican folk art. What are the chances of this happing?

Hope you enjoyed and hope you're having fun thrifting today.

Erin

Pyrex and a Coffee "Break"

Before I get to my thrifted goodies, I thought I'd share a picture of this unusual house down Coxwell Avenue (near Dundas). It's not too far from where we live. I pass it every time I cycle down to the lake and I've always meant to take a picture of it. Last night I got my chance.
I popped into Value Village on Danforth today. I'm always buying books for Duncan and/or my class. I got these three books for .99 each.
I'm going to share this book on amazing Depression-era photographer Dorothea Lang, with my students next year.
I love the way the author and publisher didn't shy away from creating a children's book on Lang. In the picture above and below, kids can see the before and after effects of the stock market crash of 1929.

Lang, pictured above.

I find Lang's pictures, especially her portraits of children to be heartbreaking and beautiful all at once. It's hard not to become emotional looking at these photographs.
Onto a very different subject: Pyrex. I saw this bowl and had to have it for $2.99.

So elegant and practical.

Just before the end of the school year, my beloved Bodum, which was a gift from my parents, was accidentally broken in my classroom. A student went behind my desk (which he wasn't supposed to without asking), ironically to get the broom and dustpan. The broom caught on my Bodum and "crash" it went. The student felt very guilty as did I for having something breakable in the classroom. I guessed my guilt cancelled out his.

I got this chi-chi Italian coffee press for $4.99. It doesn't even look like it's been used. Sweet!

See? $4.99 - I wasn't making that up.

Here's a cute little cup I got at Goodwill last week but forgot to photograph. It's covered in sixties-style cartoony houses and it was made in Germany - so you know it's gotta be good.
I also bought this pretty bird pillowslip for .99. It looks like two hankies sewn together.

It's Raining English Thrift Blogs

Hello,

I feel like I'm one lucky blogger and blog reader. The awesome Jumbles and Pompoms (don't you love that name?) began following Yard Sale Snoop this week. I'd never heard of Jumbles and Pompoms before, so I checked out her blog and thought it was terrific. I left a comment and noticed numerous comments with links for other thrifty house and home English blogs. They're all great.

I love the fact that people all over the world - from big cities to small towns - are united in their desire to find beautiful things at thrift stores and garage sales (or boot sales if you please).

Here are the links to a bunch of swell English blogs as well as another terrific American thrift blog which I wish I'd know about a long time ago: Bounty Huntress. That doesn't sound English at all - does it? Bounty Huntress is from Texas and has a thriftastic blog too. Do check it out. Thanks to my new followers Jumbles and Pompoms and Thriftstore Dolls. Welcome aboard!

Jumbles and Pompoms http://jumblesandpompoms.blogspot.com

Country Bliss http://blisscountrylife.blogspot.com/

KC's Court http://kcscourt.blogspot.com

Bella's Country http://bellascountry.blogspot.com

Gorgeous Things http://theoldvillagehall.blogspot.com

Vintage, Pretty & Shabby http://prettyshabby.blogspot.com/

Sylvie's Garden http://sylviesgarden.blogspot.com/

Bounty Huntress http://angemalbountyhuntress.blogspot.com

Bella's Country has a comprehensive of blogs many of which are English with a thrifting or crafters angle. do check them out. I'll be adding more of these wonderful blogs on my links as and when I have free time.

All the best,

Erin

Here's my homegirl Kate singing just for the thriftacular English bloggers. Who knew I was such a romantic?

Thriftacular Road Trip: There Will Be Pyrex

This weekend, we took an overnight trip to Owen Sound. We tootled around the bottom of the Bruce Peninsula today and touched down in Wiarton, home of Canada's most famous groundhog, Wiarton Willie. Stay tuned on my other blog Five Ways to Disappear to see photos from this magical part of Ontario.

Here's a sneak ahead: top of Inglis Falls. It's impossible to take a bad picture here.
Duncan with my long-suffering husband who drove his buns off.
Duncan and yours truly ignoring the fact that 10,000 mosquitos were sucking our blood while we waited for the photo to be taken. Now on with the thrift!
In Owen Sound, I found this humongous thrift store called New Beginnings. Although the store sounds a bit like some social welfare agency perhaps for pregnant teens, it's actually a fabulous shop. It was here I found these perfectly cool egg cups which I got for $1.00. Ken said they had the exact (or is that eggsact?) same ones when he was growing up in suburban London.

What do we have here? Take it off! Take it all off!

Oh baby, it's groovy Pyrex. The big casserole was $5.00 and the smaller size was $3.00. The kicker was that the cashier said there was a larger casserole that went with them, but some uncaring guy who could care less about Pyrex, but needed any old casserole dish bought it. My heart will go on.


Here's my orange Pyrex together with some other orange pieces I got at the Salvation Army thrift store in Owen Sound which you'll see below.
This Sally Ann was one of the best thrift stores I've ever been in: rock bottom prices, neat, well-organized, and helpful people working there. I'd give it a 9/10. It lost a point for not having any Pyrex. I got this compartmentalized candy dish for $1.50.
Medieval Times inspired magnetic activity board. Cost: $2.50. This will go in my class next year.

Unicef puzzle blocks in a cute carrying case. Cost: $1.50.

Ginormous frog beanbag cost me $1.50. I think that's their default price.
Rusty but lovely nesting tins cost - you guessed it, $1.50. I may take the lids off and use them for ruler/pencil storage in my classroom next year.
This was my second most expensive purchase. This pheasant biscuit tin was 1/2 off the original $7.00 price tag. I guess they saw the vintage worth of it, but no shoppers were willing to drop the big bucks.
Pretty handmade vase cost .75 - hard to believe. I'm always looking for tall vases around the house and never have the right size.

Large fishbowl that cost $4.00 will be turned into a classroom terrarium.

That's all. If you live in Ontario, or you're looking for a beautiful trip, do head up to the Bruce Peninsula. You won't regret it.

Erin

Oh England, My Leotard

Alright,

I'm sure no one reading this will find this clip as funny as I do. It's the Kate Bush parody in full. I've posted an inferior quality version in the past and now some genius with way too much time on their hands (like me) has uploaded a pristine copy of Pamela Stevenson's KB parody from Not the Nine O'Clock News onto YouTube. Bless. Here it is. P.S. I love Kate Bush!

Now, here's one of many KB videos that inspired the parody. I love her Medieval Times hard rock look.

Thanks for still sharing the art rock love,

Erin

Basket 'O Bargains + Fine China Made in Japan

Here's what $11.63 bought me at Goodwill's 50% off sale. I can't believe I would have spent close to $25.00 otherwise. Spend, spend, spend.

The City of Toronto's on a mission to get people weened off plastic shopping bags. We're actually charged five cents per bag by the store and the money goes to greening the city - at least I think so. The cashier happily packed everything up in my basket and off I went like Little Red Riding Hood.
I already have a similar Peruvian wall hanging. This cost .99 with the discount. It will go in my new Primary classroom in the fall. There's so much going on in this wall hanging. If it had been hanging in my classroom when I was a kid, I would have found myself looking at it and touching it all the time.

Men and women doing fan dances on the dance floor.

The audience sits in the balcony enjoying every moment.

With the discount this brand new "how to make paper" kit cost $1.49.
Sorry about the washed out look. The sky wasn't cooperating. More books for the class. Can you tell I'm a nature nut and ecologist? Paperback books were reduced to .49 and hardcover books were a dollar each.
A pile of Chickadee mags for next to nothing. I'm going to create a cozy reading nook in my classroom including a coffee table for magazines.
Sometimes you just have to love a great basket. This was priced down to $1.49. I'll use it in the classroom. I'm not sure what will go in it yet. Maybe food and bedding for the class pets.
This book of Robert Louis Stevenson's garden verses for children was a real find.

Below you'll find an antipasto dish I bought earlier in the afternoon at the run-down Vincent de Paul's Value Shoppe on Broadview. The woman running the store was really nice, but seemed incapable of dealing with the mountain of donations in the tiny little shop. She sold me this dish for a quarter. I love that it says "Fine China Made in Japan" on the back. I'm really drawn to Made in Japan crockery from the sixties. My mom told me that giving someone a mass manufactured household item made in Japan back in the fifties or sixties, was considered the height of cheapness. Now these pieces are collectable. I wonder if all the Made in China dollar store stuff we have nowadays will one day be sought after.
That's it for now. Stay thrifty.