Jenyfer Matthews

One of my favorite summer pastimes is haunting the local thrift stores in the town closest to where my father and his wife live. There are two: one only accepts slightly higher quality items and charges accordingly and the other is attached to the local recycling center so you just never know what you might find in there – some times you really have to wonder what people are thinking!

So far this summer I’ve found some real goodies in the recycling center shop: a snuggly pair of fleece pajama pants, a pair of new red leather sandals, a couple of vintage table cloths, and two ceramic tiles from Turkey (marked 1971 on the back) to name a few. All of those items cost me less that $5 together and I get a real warm, fuzzy feeling when I find something that I like for next to nothing. Talk about recycling!

I had a somewhat different experience this past week however. I went in to snoop around, just to see what treasures were there, and came across several bags of afghans. It’s no surprise to see a couple of afghans at a thrift store – you always see them. But this was four bags stuffed full which I could only assume came from the same donation. I started to wonder about the person who made the afghans. I knew an older lady in town who was a crocheting fiend and was always making afghans. Had she died? And if that was the case, did her family think so little of her hobby that they just gave away all of her hard work without a thought? Several of the afghans looked totally unused. There were two or three adorable baby afghans in the bags as well.

I was standing by the afghan bags, wondering what to do. I hated to leave them there but then again, I am not exactly in a position to start adopting afghans when I don’t have a home at present. I ran into a friend and I pointed them out to her. We started to dig and in the process I also found a full sized, handmade quilt. We pulled it out to look at it and another lady paused and shook her head. “That’s why I don’t give my quilts as gifts. If I made a quilt and it ended up in the thrift store for $.35 I would die.”

Happily, my friend agreed with her and she not only selected several pretty afghans but took the quilt as well. She probably paid $2 for all of them.

The incident disturbed me for several days and I couldn’t quite pinpoint why. I’ve often noticed groups of purses that seem similar in style and wondered if they’d been donated because someone died and it hasn’t bothered me the same way. I was simply thrilled if I found one I liked for next to nothing. I think the afghans bothered me because of the hand-crafted nature of these items. I too would die if one of the quilts I’d spent hours, days, months making ended up in a thrift store one day.

I suppose it boils down to a question of appreciation. It doesn’t really matter if the afghans end up in thrift store if they ultimately end up with someone who does appreciate them, even if they do only pay $.35 for them…right?

One thing I have always loved to do is to haunt thrift stores. It is amazing to me what great stuff people give away. I think it is amazing to my family and friends how much pleasure I get from finding something I love in a thrift store. I was nearly giddy last week after getting my daughter two pairs of name-brand jeans for $.37/each.

Given the fact that I still don’t have a very clear idea of where I’ll be living in the near future, I had been trying to restrain myself – to only purchase necessary and useful items of clothing. Then I went to visit a long-time friend who lives in northern Ohio over spring break. She has a collection of colorful vintage water goblets that she used on the table for Easter dinner. It was so pretty and I liked them so much that I decided I’d like to get a few myself. She took me to a local antique mall and here’s what we got:

It looks like a modest start, but I will admit that there are multiples of a couple of these. All in all I ended up with nine.

This second collection is the result of an all day shopping trip I took with the friend that I’ve been staying with – in her 100+ year old house. (See – I never really stood a chance!) It’s funny how now that I’m looking for them, I see these goblets everywhere. Just between you and me, this isn’t even all of them. How could I resist the lone olive green goblet I saw sitting on the shelf at Goodwill for $.50? Or the set of amber goblets I found, with a matching relish tray, at the thrift store for a grand total of $5? The prettier colors are harder to find and cost more of course. My mission now is to try and find a few more in colors I don’t have (dark blue and another purple).

I can only imagine how my grandmother would laugh to see me collecting all the old dishes that she no doubt gladly got rid of.

I went to visit my friend in northern Ohio again this weekend and I could not resist going back to the antique mall, just to look. This time however I was drawn to dishtowels and tablecloths. It’s not a surprise particularly – as a quilter I really am a textile person. And since I have been hand-washing my dishes for the last six years, I deserve some pretty towels to amuse me.

Aren’t these great? Some of them seem to be totally unused – too pretty? Who doesn’t need a dish towel with measures and equivalents printed on it?

This linen apron was obviously well used and yet it is still in fairly good condition. They really don’t make things the way they used to.

I loved this towel the minute I saw it – so wonderfully kitsch. It even has a pocket for a dowel at one end so it can be displayed! Again, it looks unused.

Oh yes, it was a very good year

I won’t bore you with pictures of the tablecloths but they are every bit as much fun. Looking at these items made me start thinking about the evolution of how people dressed a table. My own mother used printed terry cloth tablecloths for a while before she moved to placemats. I suppose people stopped using nice tablecloths when women started working more and didn’t have time for ironing. Dishtowels went out with dishwashers. Kind of a shame really.

I may or may not be able to use the glassware and the linens for their intended purpose in the near future, but if nothing else I can wrap the goblets in the linens for storage and / or transport. See – there is a method to my madness.

And in case you were wondering, Mother’s Day was very satisfying as well. I got flowers, presents, plants, and cards plus a waffle breakfast.

Looking at the world news headlines this morning, maybe my decision about whether or not to go back to Egypt in the fall isn’t as difficult as I thought. Protests were planned again in Egypt today against the military regime for “not being more transparent in their decision making processes” and because they had not prosecuted Mubarak for all of his various transgressions. I’m surprised it took this long frankly – the military regime is the same old beast with a different face (or no face depending on how you look at it). Between Egypt, Syria, Libya, Bahrain, and Yemen it may be better to just give up any thoughts of going back to that region, even for a short time.

Thinking about all of that was fairly depressing so after I dropped my kids at school, my friend and I went to a local diner for a greasy breakfast and then on to an antique mall. I love going to both thrift stores and antique malls – you just never know what you are going to find.

Earlier in the week I found a soft-as-butter black leather jacket with enough metal zipper details to make my inner biker chick very happy. Best part? It was only $5.99 and it fits me perfectly.

Today I was all about kitchenware – particularly mixing bowls and utensils. Since I don’t currently have a kitchen to furnish I resisted all the beautiful retro mixing bowls I saw. I did however find one treasure.

My mother had one of these measuring cups when I was a child. It’s great – filled to the top it is one cup, and the lid has a one tablespoon measure.

I can quite clearly remember my mother using it when she made gravy. She’d put flour and water in it and shake it up before pouring it into the meat drippings. I don’t tend to make gravy myself, but it cost little enough that I couldn’t resist buying it.

After we left the antique mall, we stopped by Jungle Jim’s. How can I describe it? It’s like Trader Joe’s but much, much, much bigger. It’s a spectacular place to just wander. We wandered through the liquor section, looking for sales. I couldn’t resist getting this bottle of wine, based purely on the label alone.

There would definitely be upsides to staying in the US…

One of my favorite things to do is haunt thrift / consignment shops – 1) because I love a good deal, and 2) because you just never know what you’ll find. It’s just lucky that even the tiny little town that my mother lives in has two thrift stores.

I didn’t have as much time to browse as I would have ideally liked and I had to keep my limited remaining packing space in mind, but I still managed to find some fun things. Unpacking was that much more fun for gloating over my goodies.

One of the thrift stores is attached to the local recycling center and it isn’t very particular about what people donate, but since it is conveniently located they are always getting new things. Because of the never ending donations, things are priced to sell. I found:

A “vintage” Corning stainless steel pie spatula with serrated edge – $0.35 (made in the USA so you know it’s old!)
A girls tennis trophy – $0.35
A pair of denim shorts for my son – $0.50
A pair of stone colored chinos for my son – $0.50

Limited Too reversible windbreaker my son chose
St. John’s Bay cotton blouse with 3/4 sleeves in scarlet (me)
a wine purple cotton blouse from The Gap (me)
an Adidas tshirt in lime for my daughter
a pumpkin orange Cherokee golf shirt for my son
ALL OF THE ABOVE FOR $3 on “bag day”

A linen skirt in variegated red / purple tones (me)
A pair of red leather NEW Aerosole sandals (me)
Sponge Bob t-shirt for my son
Underarmor sport shirt in coral for my daughter
A big, floppy stuffed dog for my son
ALL OF THE ABOVE FOR $1 on “bag day”

I love the red sandals because they are comfortable and fun, but even more because they only cost me $0.20! Who could not love a deal like that??

And I can’t wait to use my new pie spatula

It’s been a productive week – in terms of unpacking that is. I didn’t get as much done as I would have liked, but then I think that sometimes I have unrealistic expectations of how much I’ll get done in any given time frame!

Putting everything away has been a monumental task, but I’ve tried to find pleasure in the process where I can. It makes me happy to see all my quilting fabric unloaded and stacked by color in its new home – TWO big cupboards at the top of the stairs. I’ve found useful items like empty notebooks that I had tucked away and forgotten about. I’ve tossed things that never should have been moved in the first place.

I’ve also rediscovered items that I’d forgotten I had, like this vintage purse. I found this purse at a thrift store in little Minnesota town my mother lives in and paid no more than a $1 for it several summers ago.

I don’t know enough about fashion eras to know exactly what period this purse is from (50s? 60s? earlier?) but it’s in such good condition that I suspect it was someone’s special occasion purse. I’ve treated it that way myself (before I lost track of it completely, that is) But I took it out with me to a friend’s birthday party last night, and it was a lot of fun to use. It has a sturdiness of construction that most modern purses (in my price range!) lack and a true personality that makes it a stand out accessory in the way my other purses aren’t. This purse doesn’t end up hanging off the back of a chair – it displays itself on a table like a piece of art.

My purse was a hit at the party. My friends were astonished when I told them where I’d found it – and they all want to come thrift store shopping with me now!

ETA: the inner lining has the label “Etra” written above the brass zippered pocket. Some quick research has made me lust after more vintage purses…