Themes

I planned to sleep in this morning because I hadn't gotten much sleep the night before.  And when I say sleep in, I mean way in!  I wasn't going to bother opening my eyes until noon.  But the cute little gray kitty who has taken up residence in my house had other plans.  She let me sleep until about 10:00, but after awhile even Mary Poppins gets impatient, so she let me know that it was definitely time for breakfast.

Mary Poppins, cute enough to wake up "early" for.

Once I got up and fed her, I found texts on my phone from both Mayberrys of my acquaintance to the effect that I was missing out on a sale full of stuff I would get a big kick out of.  And as I have no willpower at all to stay away from sales when even mildly provoked, I hit the shower and headed out the door.  And they were right, this sale had a very clear theme, and I stuck right with it.  Wanna see?:

MUSHROOMS!  They somehow both compete and go perfectly with my wild 70's kid-sized card table, don't they?

A closer look?  Why certainly!

Tossed a couple of tissues in there so you can see the details.  I'm classy like that!

Love polka-dotted ones!  Strangely I've never seen a polka-dotted one in the wild...

The two tiny ones in front are porcelain, apparently intended to hold tiny candles.  The lager, almost-matching one with the flowers painted around its base is wooden, and came with (some of) its own candle.  The little mug is plastic and way too reflective to get a decent picture.  The pitcher has a chip right in its pour-spout, and there's also some chipping to the enamel on the big saucepan, but if I told you what I paid for the whole bunch of stuff, you'd know why I just don't care.  It's all adorable!

The second theme of the day wasn't really dictated by the sale itself, which had lots of other totally unrelated things, but for some reason I was drawn to things that all sort of told the same story:

Vintage desk lamp, address "book", stamp holder/letter scale and bow-tie.

In my head his name is Martin.  He is very meticulous, but not uptight.  His work is something academic that involves lots of correspondence to confer with colleagues around the world.  And these are his things:

Add Love the font and the star-burst, and you gotta know bowties?  Are cool!

It was hard to get a decent close-up, and now you can see I didn't bother dusting it first, but check out the awesome little scale.  You slip your envelope in the little clip to weight it so you'll know what postage to use, and then your roll of stamps is right there handy.  So cool!

A little glamour shot of the lamp.  The perforations in the shade are little Eiffel Tower shapes.

Anyway, I quite like Martin and his lamp and I'm glad his become one of the many fictional residents of my brain ;)


Wanna see what some non-fictional folks came up with, too? Visit these fun link-ups; I am!

Cap Creation's Thrifty Love Link Party, Chic on a Shoestring's Flaunt it Friday and The Thrifty Groove's Thrifty Things Friday

Too late shmart, but right on time for Presidents' Day thrift sales!

I know, three posts in one day.  I'm sure the internet thinks I'm making a nuisance of myself, but it's way too polite to tell me so.

I can't help it though.  Presidents' Day at Value Village meant 50% off!  So obviously after visiting my booth this morning, I toddled along next door for a visit.  And then hit 2 other of their stores up on North St Louis County.  And now I get to show off the spoils, which is almost as fun as hunting them down to begin with!

The cute 70's child's table everything is on, and the
Van Gogh-inspired needlework are not from today's
excursion, but I hadn't showed them off before.

More mushroom-y goodness, and a real, famous, walnut bowl!

Walnut Bowls are a thing.  When I was a kid, all over rural Missouri, on the way to either of my Grandparents' places, or anywhere else, you would see billboards (and faded old painted barns) advertising two things:  Meramec Caverns, and Walnut Bowls.  Apparently Missouri is the home of most of the walnut trees in the country, and some enterprising rural Missourian at some point decided to capitalize on this fact by making a lot of bowls and advertising it.  A Lot.  I don't know why they didn't make walnut anything else, but the phrase "walnut bowls" has been indelibly imprinted on my mind, because apparently that's all they did make.  And now I have one.  A real Missouri Ozark one even!

A pair of cute "Love is" mugs.  Both have a Japan stamp
on the bottom, so I believe they are original.

A cute lemon juice jar and an amber glass hanging pot.

Fun shaped little pitcher.  Bottom has the initials
LS, and 61, which I assume is the year it was made.

Check out the off-colored Mondrian style little afghan throw!

Needlepoint "Peace Prayer"

I've always heard this called just the Prayer of St Anthony before.  I'm not Catholic, but I've always been fascinated with St Anthony.  From what I understand of him, he seems nuts in the best possible way.  My Mom has (I believe it's still there) a plaque with this prayer up in her kitchen, and I memorized it years ago.  In case you can't read it in the picture, here is the text:

Lord make me an instrument of thy peace.

Where there is hatred, let me sew love,

Where there is injury, pardon,

Where there is doubt, faith,

Where there is despair, hope.

Where there is darkness, light.

Where there is sadness, joy.

Oh Divine Master, 

grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled, as to console.

To be understood, as to understand.

To be loved, as to love.

For it is in giving that we receive.

It is in pardoning that we are pardoned.

It is in dying that we are born to eternal life.

I especially love that this shows him preaching to the birds; that's one of my favorite stories about him.  By the way, this beautiful thing, which I've already decided I'm keeping for myself, was marked at $1.81, which means I paid less than a dollar for it.  Hooray for the 50% off sale!

Speckledy cornucopia vase/planter and a mysterious jar
with a very heavy metal rocket-looking thing on top.

I have no idea what the rocket-jar is, but it's old, and it looks like a rocket, and the mechanism (whatever it once did) appears to be broken.  I do not care.  It is nifty; it doesn't have to do anything.

Pair of kid-sized moccasins.  Insoles say Taos.  NM, I assume.

Another bit of needlework, from a different Value Village.
Amish, I guess?  Or Amish-inspired.
And too right!  I'm always too late shmart...

Linking up with Apron Thrift Girl again.  Happy hunting everyone!