Thai temple rubbing found on a recent thrift store visit.

If you followed my previous Tales from the Thrift posts – part 1 and part 2 – I talked about trying to be a little more deliberate in the things I choose to bring home this year.  In July, my husband and I started the process of repainting three of our four bedrooms after our son Charlie moved out and our daughter Emily was set to move back home from Tuscaloosa.  Things around our house were quite a wreck for several weeks but as you know, it’s a process when you are redecorating and reorganizing.  And I worked hard to maintain my sanity because I am a bit of an organization freak!!!

I had quite a few things I wanted to use in the new rooms – some family related and others were thrift store finds.  I took my son’s room as my “she shack” – more about this in a later post.  Emily took our married daughter Anna Marie’s room and Emily’s room became the guest room.  Yay!  We finally have a guest room again!  Anyway, it felt great finally putting things back together and trying out “things” in the rooms.

One of my finds a few months ago was this Thai temple rubbing.  I rounded a corner and there it was…I was flabbergasted to say the least!  My parents have a set of five very large temple rubbings that they got when we lived in Thailand.  I was born there so they have a special significance to me.  Typically they are done on rice paper so they are very fragile.  I’ve learned through some research that rubbings at the temples are rather limited these days but you can find them online…and apparently you can find them in a thrift store!  I snapped the frame up and declared it mine…all for $4.99!  When I showed it to my mother, she had the very same reaction that I did to it.  Our new bedroom color is a blue-gray so this framed piece is perfect for our guest room.

When you find things with the original price tags and somewhat wrapped at the thrift store, it always catches my attention.  In this case, I walked in and made my way through the furniture section as I always do.  And there it was…a mirrored end table with the tag and with the drawer pull still wrapped.  It was brand new and beautiful and just what I needed for my She Shack!  I pulled the price tag off that end table and carried it with me until I checked out.  I also googled similar tables at close to $200.  I’ve seen them too at places like Z Gallery and always thought they added a special something to a room.  I paid $60 for this one!

Mirrored end table – brand new – perfect for my She Shack and found at the thrift!

A note on why I pulled the tag…a few years ago I found a farm style table for $75 at this store.  I had never bought furniture so wasn’t sure what to do.  Do you get someone to stand next to it?  How do you buy it when a store is so busy and you might have someone else walk up and want it too?  Well Stanley, who works at the store saw me standing there, said I needed to take off the bottom half of the tag and keep it with me.  He said, you could be standing there with your hand on the table and if someone else walks up and grabs that tag, you’ve lost the table!  That was my education on buying furniture at this particular store!  Plus, it was my introduction to this nice gentleman who always looks out for me when I shop there.  From that point on, when I would walk in he always asks me if I needed a buggy?  I generally say “no, I’m good!”  Next thing you know, I’m walking around juggling a bunch of items and he sees me struggling and walks up with a buggy.  That has become our banter when I walk into that store now.

One more item I found that I’m loving right now is this glass jewelry box.  I noticed the filigree detail around it from across the store and quickly made my way over to check it out.  When I turned it over it was a Pottery Barn item and the thrift store price was $4.99.  I looked it up on the Pottery Barn website and found the original price was $79!  The inside had to be cleaned up a bit.  It was a little dusty…but now I use it in my She Shack for a few collectibles.

Pottery Barn jewelry box for $4.99 at the thrift store! Retails for $79!

My thrifting finds are limited to household items.  I’ve also run across quite a few great clothing pieces too!  I’ll save those for a future post because this one is getting a little long!