HUNT and FIND

Yesterday, Anna mentioned all the great finds we piled up at the best. small. town. thrift. store. EVER. No exaggeration.

When Terra suggested it, I had my doubts. I’d never been wowed by a thrift store before. And after 5 minutes in this store, I still wasn’t sure it was worth the hour-and-a-half drive. True, they had STACKS of stuff. But what I first saw was mostly housewares – lots of coffee pots, melamine serving trays, tchotchkes and knick-knacks and doohickeys. Nothing that was jumping out at me.

I turned down the second aisle past the door and found two adorable milk glass dishes staring me in the face. {I’m putting you all on notice right now: I am obsessed with milk glass. However, I am not obsessed with the fortune that most places ask for milk glass. So I don’t have a large collection. And I didn’t get my hopes up about these dishes because I was sure they would be pricey.} I picked up one and snuck a look at the price tag. One dollar and twenty-five cents. Seriously?! The two of them were in my shopping basket quicker than you could say “steal of a deal.”

Check out the milk glass dishes with the berries in them, 

above, at K’s 4th birthday party

I could see there was still a lot left to explore in the store but I stayed on my path, moving slowly to make sure I didn’t miss anything. Terra and Anna toured on to quickly scope out the whole place before settling into the hunt. I had only made it another 5 feet down the second aisle of housewares when Terra came up beside me, grabbed my arm and said, “You have to come see this. Now.” I could tell there was no arguing with her, and I quickly left the salt & pepper shaker section behind to follow her. She pulled me through a couple of rooms and up a rickety set of stairs that was lined with framed pictures and other wall décor. I was pretty sure we were headed into “Employees Only” territory.

She opened a door at the top of the stairs, and a wave of cold air hit me. Were we going outside? I walked through the door and stopped in my tracks. Anna said it: “Jackpot”

At the end of the day, I walked out of that shop with a life jacket in near perfect condition ($5), a glass cloche to replace one that I had broken a few weeks earlier* ($3 – unfortunately this one has also since met its demise), my two milk glass dishes ($2.50), some vintage Tupperware toys ($2?) and . . . the PERFECT headboard for my little girl’s room. Curvy and tailored in all the right ways, all it needed was a quick wipe-down (easy, because it’s covered in textured vinyl) and a new home at the head of K’s bed. I owe that find to Terra because she found it first and would have quickly snatched it up but fortunately for me, it was the wrong size for her daughter’s bed. 

Oh – did I mention how much that headboard cost me? SIX DOLLARS.

And I think it was meant to be in K’s room, don’t you agree?

*the cloche can be seen in the first picture in this post, on the cake plate with the princess crown inside.