It's still week one!
Check my series of thrift shop doors. I felt funny taking every one of these photos and tried to pretend I was texting my friends instead of snapping shots on exit, but I persevered in the interest of inner excavation.
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| Saint Paul's is a hit-and-miss experience. |
Saint Paul's Thrift Store, Eau Gallie. It has the best door - look at that color! The patina! Inside, you'll find old church ladies talking to each other behind the cash-only register, and if you're lucky they might forget you're around. Apparently one old lady's now-dead husband didn't like sweets much, you know, because of the alcohol. Alcoholics don't like sweets. Did you know that? Another old lady's husband likes cake, but will only eat one slice, leaving the rest to you-know-who. Oh yeah. We know who, now!
The prices are all over the place in this place, but don't try to steal anything, because "God Is Watching." I know this because of the variety of signs within that say so. I once bought a set of Hull brown drip dishes for $12. The bowls are awesome, but what the hell do you do with a miniature bean pot? Or six? This time, I passed up a tiny gemini-embossed teacup because it was not very useful and overpriced at $3.
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| I bought Tatyana's sewing machine at this Salvation Army. |
Eau Gallie Salvation Army. All Sales Final! No Refunds! That's a foreboding sign, but the people who work here are super nice and there are tons of good clothes inside. In fact, Guayaberas are only three bucks a piece! I bought two! There is a boutique section now, where you can pay three times the dough for the clothes that still have department store hangtags on them. It's the times, people. They're difficult.
I passed up a gorgeous green, 1970s-style, patterned soup tureen (for a small soup) with four very small soup-tureen-with-lid-style bowls because it was $12 (who are they kidding?) and because I could hear Hannah's voice in the back of my head (it lives there) telling me I didn't need another bowl. She's right. But I am still fighting the urge to go back and get it. I did buy a pretty crocheted potholder that matches the green and pale yellow of my kitchen for a quarter. That was overpriced, too, but I didn't complain.
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| My favorite Goodwill |
Goodwill, Melbourne Midtown. If you can see the clothes for the glare through the gigantic front windows, you can find some sweet deals here. Black slips like the ones I wear at home no matter who's around are only $2, and some of them are actually old (you can tell, because the fittings are metal, not plastic). If you find the white dress that I thought I was buying but inadvertently hung back on the go-back rack (the crinkly one with the tube top that I was going to fold down and wear as a long, flab-hiding skirt), let me know. I'll be there in a flash.
I didn't buy either of the two punch bowls that I found here (one was kind of small and not very pretty, but it was only $9, and the other one was footed and actually quite attractive, but was $12 - I must have some sort of subconscious "below $12, but only if it's pretty" limit), but found it quite difficult NOT to buy the ugly $5 Italian ashtray (I don't smoke) with the thick orange glaze and odd impressions in it. Really, I held it in my hand for a good three minutes, pondering.
The absolute score of the day (an excellent thrift store purchase is called a "score") was a nifty glass measuring vessel that would make a nice vase, but which is in fact a urine specimen container. Is someone messing with me? I couldn't pass it up. Should have bought both of them.
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This is where I bought most of my pretty cut-glass champagne coupes. I don't care
if champagne is better in flutes. I serve whiskey punch in them. |
Goodwill, Palm Bay. I'm not sure what was going on in Palm Bay on this particular day, but this store was absolutely jammin'. Not the best place to buy clothes, unless you like ugly ones, you can sometimes find good glasses here. Not today! Better luck next time!
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