Thrift store junkies

Friday was day of vacation for me. And what a great day it was. Enlisting my friend Karen in my search of great glass pieces for making pedestal cake stands was definitely a smart move. That girl knows her thrift stores. Karen is a Goodwill Junkie. It is not unusual to hear her say something like, "Look at my new shoes! Brand new (fill in an impressive brand name) for $3.00 at Goodwill. They are even in my size!" From shoes to clothing to home decorating, Karen finds amazing deals at Goodwill. And some junk. But mostly pretty good stuff. And like most people who are truly dedicated to a purpose, Karen spreads the word and creates converts...like me.

We started our day at the Stevens Point Goodwill where I found a beautiful little bowl (not glass and not on my list, but too cute to leave there) for 99-cents and a lovely silver plate cake server (definitely on my list). A good start. Karen offered a run down to St Vinnie's in Plover, but since I had already been there twice during the week a third time didn't seem necessary. It was off to Waupaca, which is always one of our favorite destinations. We usually do a spring and fall Waupaca trip. It is one of the few communities around that still has a thriving downtown scattered with great little gift shops and boutiques -- and a dynamite yarn shop. Our first stop was Goodwill where I hit the motherlode of good glass staff. Three plates and several pedestal possibilities were more than I had amassed at any one place so far in my search of glassware. The Goodwill and St Vinnie's in Marshfield last weekend were good, but this one was great. In addition to some interesting glass pieces, I found a black ceramic basket that will now live as our fruit bowl and a beautiful little blue glass vase.

Heady with the thrill of my finds, I waited impatiently while Karen found a really cute summer top and gloated over her obvious success at my conversion to Goodwill shopping. After a quilt shop stop that garnered the backing fabric for last week's adventure in patchwork, our next stop was the downtown thrift shop. Not much for glassware there, but I did find two blue Ball quart jars. Also on my list of acquisitions, this was another successful stop. We did our usual main street wanderings where we spotted a ceramic basket like the beautiful black one I just bought for $47! Mine was $6. We also spotted a funky-chic plant stand made entirely of cast off glass pieces and Karen finally had a clear vision of my goal in the great March glass hunt of 2010. Now she was as excited as I in the success of my finds. Naturally, we headed back to Goodwill. There was a lovely cake stand that I know wasn't there an hour or two earlier. Scooping that up brought downright giddiness at the success of our day. The back seat was piled with great glass finds and a few other treasures.

The drive home covered furniture. Explaining my long term search for a nice little side chair inspired me to head back to St Vinnie's where I had spotted a chair earlier in the week. I thought I'd check it out one more time. I did indeed check it out and managed to fit it in the backseat of my car and then drove directly to the upholsterer who declared it a very sound buy. Fabric sample books now took the chair's place in the car and I headed home with enough cash left to buy fish sticks for supper.

While supper was in the oven, I started washing my wares. Goodwill is very considerate in having price tags that float off easily after a few-minute soak. Some of the glassware, however, needed a little ammonia boost. The lovely little blue knobby vase, in particular, needed a longer soak to bring back its sheen. After giving it what I considered a reasonable amount of time, I lifted it from the water to see it's flared little neck glistening in the late day light. Lifting it entirely out of the water exposed the reason it was so darned cheap as the water arced out of the holes where three of those little blue knobs were supposed to be; my lovely little blue knobby vase will either make a nice little fountain or a great donation to Goodwill.