Thrift Store Score!

So, my sister calls me up and says that she was looking for free boxes on Craigslist and that she ran across a listing for a thrift store that was going out of business and was GIVING everything away. Yeah, you read that right. Well, I was still putzing around the house and she gave me exactly 20 minutes to get ready… Do I need to tell you that I was showered, dressed, and ready when she got here?

Anyway, we drive to the Renton Highlands and it’s two store fronts away from a St. Vincent De Paul (which are my favorite thrift stores on earth) and one away from a smallish JoAnn Fabrics (my favorite fabric and craft store in earth) but I digress…

When we got there half the store had been cleared out but my sis was able to get two carts full of clothes for her and her three youngest kids, including enough name brand and designer jeans for my eleven year old niece to be able to render her recent mall purchase obsolete.

I was not doing as well… I scored a few pairs of shoes and two handfuls of CDs (including HS fave Bros., Recoil, Cesaria Evora, Underworld, 808state, Erasure, Tom Petty & The Heart breakers, The Verve, and Handel’s Messiah) but I wasn’t finding something that said TAKE ME HOME! Until…

This retails for $205 on Artaissance… and I got it for FREE!

I was wandering in the very back of the store and saw a print pinned up to the wall. It was from Artaissance. It said that it was Breakfast Treats II by Carolyn Biggio. It was absolutely gorgeous, vibrant, large (at least 2’x3′), and… FREE! So, I snagged it.

Then, I found this silver or pewter bowl-y thing with a hole in the center. It has Hotel Sorrento engraved into the outside surface. Maybe it was a dome to go over a plate and it’s missing a piece or something? I don’t know. I just think it’ll look good on my desk.

Pretty sure I’d found all that I was going to at the going out of business place, I stepped over to St. Vincent De Paul while my sister shopped for more stuff at the first place and found this:

Found at St. Vincent de Paul: a $5 lamp. You can’t beat that!

Isn’t it sweet? I couldn’t pass up the texture and color. I’m not sure where it will go yet as I kind of love the brown lamp (that still hasn’t been projected) on my desk but I’m thinking that it may end up on the desk at some point. We’ll see!

So, overall today ended up being kind of a good day for me on the thrifting front. I mean I spent five bucks! It doesn’t get much better than that… unless you count the time that I got a vintage Henredon sofa for $35. But that’s another story!

Until next time…

Coldplay: Parachutes

Sometimes the best things aren’t the new, new, bleeding edge thing. Sometimes it’s that old, familiar thing that gets shoved to the back of closet and becomes a victim of “out of sight, out if mind”.

I moved to Charlotte in mid-January. A total leap of faith move; I left everything in Seattle and brought only myself and my clothes. That meant that my collection of 600+ CDs stayed in storage and hied myself over here without the benefit of my comfortable, comforting stack of go-to bands and music. Not a good place to be in when you’re a hardcore music lover like myself.

So yesterday I decided to check out the $5 MP3 downloads at Amazon. Every month they feature 100 albums that are only $5 each. Sometimes they’re themed but mostly it’s a good mix of old, new, and a different genres. It was a FEAST for me! This month features quite a few of my favorite artists, some of it was even the latest albums by those artists… but I chose to go with a favorite and classic album: Parachutes by Coldplay.

What can I say about this record that hasn’t been said before? Probably nothing. I will say this: it’s hard to find a record that is as perfect from the first to the last track than this. My favorites are High Speed, Spies, Shiver, and We Never Change but I love the while record. If you’ve never heard it or only heard the singles, I encourage you to give it a whirl this month  while you can get the whole thing for $5.

I hope your Monday goes like a Friday!  Have an awesome week!

Reading Room: Water For Elephants

My sis wanted me to get this book for her when I was working at the book distributor but we literally ran out the day she asked me. I was disappointed, she was disappointed and our plan to read the book together was foiled.

In the meantime I moved to Charlotte. She moved from an apartment to a house… and we still hadn’t laid hands on copies of the book.

Until last week.

My crazy, wonderful sister bought me a copy to (along with the Vanity Fair with RPattz on the cover…) and mailed it to me along with some other goodies (Kings of Leon, Paramore, and NKOTB discs). We’re going to read a 142 pages a week for three weeks, discussing as we read via text, twitter and phone calls. Then when the movie comes out later this month, we’ll see that (in our respective cities) as well.

Yesterday she suggested that we reread The Three Musketeers, which we read to each other when we were roommates and she was preggers with my now 15 year old (!) nephew. I think it’s a good idea. And there is a new movie for that one too.

I think I’m going to call this the Sisters Long Distance Book Club… or not.