Category Archives: Thrifting

Thanksgiving DIY Project

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Finished DIY project - spray painted silver plated casserole holders.

Finished DIY project – spray painted silver plated casserole holders.

I’m staring down the face of a majorly crazy week so what do I do?  I embark on a DIY project!  Who doesn’t do that, right?  I mean, when I’m heading out-of-town on a trip, that’s when I think I can tackle a room renovation.  What’s up with that?  Whatever the reason, I tackled the project.  It wasn’t that difficult and I love the finished product!

When I was visiting my sister in North Carolina, we spent a lot of time thrift store shopping.  It’s safe to say its our favorite pastime and doing this together made it even more special. We are both drawn to different things and we both find the potential and the beauty in these “things” too.  In my case, I’ve grown to appreciate silver plated dish and casserole holders.  I especially love the painted ones we found at an antique/thrift store one day.  Such bright and cheery colors!

When I got home from North Carolina, I thought it would be fun to find a few of these silver plated pieces and do a little painted DIY project myself.  Of course, now that I was looking for them they were nowhere to be found!  Eventually I found a small one and then a week later, a round one.  This weekend I headed to Michaels for some Krylon spray paint.  I was a bit overwhelmed with all the colors available!  I settled on a shimmer metallic called candy corn.  I thought this color would be a terrific accent to my Thanksgiving table for both these pieces.

So this morning I washed the pieces, let them dry and then took them outside to spray paint.  I decided to spray paint the handle of the round piece first.  As the color went on I thought this wasn’t exactly what I thought it would look like.  I mean, the picture on the can had the color much darker!  But as I continued spraying, I really liked what I was seeing.  My daughter, Anna Marie was home this weekend and she commented that it was the “in” color for things these days.  She really liked the way they both turned out!  Actually, I did too!  They are more of a shimmer bronze than candy corn!

Krylon Candy Corn shimmer metallic spray paint. It turned out different than I expected but I'm pleased with it nonetheless!

Krylon Candy Corn shimmer metallic spray paint. It turned out different than I expected but I’m pleased with it nonetheless!

I’d have to say that this DIY project was a success!  I hope I can find a long casserole holder this week and make it “three” silver plated candy corn dishes!  We shall see!

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Mexican Tin Ornaments and Thrift Store Scores!

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A treasure trove of Mexican tin ornaments my mother found for me recently during a thrifting adventure!

Mexican tin art is a mainstay on my Mexican Christmas tree every year.  I love the shapes and colors of these lightweight ornaments.  I’ve collected them since the 1990s and always look for stores that carry the ornaments in particular.  My last big haul was last year when I visited Austin, Texas at a cool store called Tesoros.  They had quite a selection to choose from and wish I could have come away with more but honestly…I had to leave some for the other shoppers too, right?!

Last week my mother paid a visit to my favorite thrift store – The Salvation Army in Hoover.  She confessed she went in only for a few moment and now two hours later she was still roaming around and finding all sorts of goodies!  After a few trips around the knick knacks, she spotted a sandwich bag with something shiny and colorful.  Turned out to be a baggie with 10 Mexican tin ornaments!  For one dollar!!!!!  She brought them to me that very evening and while they look a little worn, they are still so beautiful to me.  I think the wearing of the tin and the color gives them a certain antique character.  And I also think I might need a bigger Mexican Christmas tree this year with all these new ornaments!

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The red color on this ornament is brilliant and this is one design that I didn’t have – happy to add to my collection!

Meanwhile, this past weekend I went to the grand reopening of another favorite thrift store – the Salvation Army store in Homewood, AL.  The place was a madhouse!  I found a few items but nothing that I couldn’t live without, especially with the length of the checkout line!  Then I went to the jewelry counter – which was also packed – and gave it a look.  Loads of beautiful things…still that growing line was a concern.  I turned to walk toward the door when I spotted a long table filled with Christmas pins!  Wow!  I felt like I hit the mother-load of pins – something else I love to collect.    I spotted one vintage Christmas tree pin and then another…and a lady holding one handed hers to me when she saw my interest.  I thought that was nice!  Then a saleslady showed up and said, “let’s put these in a baggie with your name on it and it will be ready for you when you check out.”  I thought – “ok, let’s do this!”  Then the saleslady started suggested pins and earrings to me to help me fill my bag.  It was rather amusing.  I’d say – “sure, put it in the bag!”  And she would!

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Such a unique necklace! This Mexican tin piece is adorned with a nativity scene!

The most unusual item I found in this sea of pins was a necklace.  I wasn’t sure what it was at first all clustered together on the table, but it was made of Mexican tin – I knew that for sure!  The saleslady picked it up and said it was a nativity scene and she thought it was beautiful.  I agreed but then again, the necklace had me at “Mexican tin” and so I told her to add it to the bag!

Well, the line to check out got even longer while I was browsing these pins, earrings and the necklace.  I figured I would leave the store to run some of my errands and come back before 7 p.m. to pick up the jewelry.  Unfortunately, I didn’t make it back and figured it was just as well.  Wasn’t meant to be and all that.  Still, I kept thinking of that Mexican tin necklace and how unique it was…

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So Monday at lunch I decided to take a ride over to the store and look around minus the 250 people who were there on Saturday!  I went right to the jewelry counter and much to my surprise there were no Christmas pins anywhere!  That was puzzling with all that they had on Saturday.  Had someone come in and bought the entire table of pins?  I checked the other jewelry counter and but found nothing there either.  Then I saw several baggies of jewelry on the back of the counter.  Mine was still there!  SCORE!!!  Was I excited?  You bet!  Couldn’t believe my good fortune!

I left the store Monday with a baggie full of vintage pins, the Mexican tin necklace and also a talavera pottery piece that I spotted right before check out!  The colors on this talavera piece are perfect for my kitchen.  It will be a nice addition to the Zuniga-Odom talavera collection!  This is why I love thrift store shopping so much – you never know what you’ll find!

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A Quick Stop at the Thrift Store…

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Grab bag of ornaments from New Mexico - plus one Hallmark ornament from the thrift store!

Grab bag of ornaments from New Mexico – plus one Hallmark ornament from the thrift store!

Just like the title of this post…every time I make a “quick” stop at a thrift store, I always come away with some fabulous finds!

My baby sister, Kanista, is to blame for my obsession with thrift store shopping.  She lives in North Carolina and has a Saturday routine of breakfast and then waiting at her favorite thrift store for the doors to open.  I went with her a few years ago and saw very quickly that she had a definite system for going through the racks of clothes and the shelves of tchotchkes.  We left that store with two large bags of great finds!  I was officially OBSESSED!

Back in Alabama, I developed my own “system” when stopping by certain thrift stores that I now frequent.  A few of my favorites include the Salvation Army stores – both in Hoover and on Green Springs highway, Lovelady Thrift and 55th Place in Woodlawn.  Alabama Thrift in Alabaster is another good one but I don’t get out there as often.

This past Saturday though, I decided to make the trip to Alabaster and see what I could find.  I was running errands in the area so I allotted about 30 minutes before I needed to get back to Hoover.  First I started through the knickknacks.  They had SO much Christmas stuff out already and Christmas music was blaring through the store.  Honestly, I was a little annoyed and not quite wanting to hear Christmas music yet.  I walked through the dishes and platters and low and behold, I found a Mexican pottery dish in green and bright yellow!  Beautiful!  And it was sectioned like a lazy susan.  I turned it over and the price was $3.99.  Score!

Mexican pottery piece found at Alabama Thrift store for $3.99!

Mexican pottery piece found at Alabama Thrift store for $3.99!

I next went through the clothes and found an Anne Klein pea-coat for $4.99 and an Eileen Fisher Italian yarn pink sweater for $4.99.  Not bad!  I was running out of time so I went through the knickknacks one more time and as I was rounding one of the aisles saw a bunch of “grab bag” Christmas items.  Now, these grab bags don’t generally get my attention.  Usually they are “like” items bunched together for a quick sale.  But one of the bags got my attention…

I saw a round clay ornament with the words – New Mexico – on it.  I picked up the bag and noticed several other clay ornaments – a kokopelli, a lizard, prairie dog, mission church and two tepees.  There was also a 1997 Hallmark ornament – a mouse in a Mexican sombrero!  Now, I have collected Hallmark ornaments since they first came out in the 1970s so this was right up my alley!  The price tag for all of these items… $2.99!!!  Cannot WAIT to add these to my Mexican Christmas tree this year!  They are going to be perfect!  (Stay tuned to a future post!)

Hallmark "Feliz Navidad" ornament from 1997 - part of the grab bag items.

Hallmark “Feliz Navidad” ornament from 1997 – part of the grab bag items.

So I walked away from Alabama Thrift with all these items just under $20!  I DO love a bargain!!!

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Thrifting Treasures

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No matter where I go, I look for thrift stores and these little treasures were waiting for me at a thrift store in Denver, Colorado this past June!

You know the saying…one man’s (or woman’s) trash is another’s treasure…well, it’s just amazing what you can find when you go on the thrift store hunt!

My sister Kanista, who lives in North Carolina, really got me hooked on thrift store shopping.  Her normal Saturday routine is to hit her local thrift stores and she definitely has an eye for vintage and unique!  When I visited her last year, she took me to her favorite places and we had a blast loading up on great clothing pieces and a few household items.  Her home is filled with beautiful finds.  Now, since I’ve started my own Saturday morning hunts, we text each other with photos of our latest finds!

In Birmingham, there are a few thrift stores that I frequent.  The two Salvation Army stores – one on Green Springs and one on Highway 150 in Hoover – are two of my favorites.  I especially love hitting them on Wednesdays when everything is 25% off.  On other days, they have a color system and clothing is 50% off.  Either way, you get a great bargain!  Another favorite is Lovelady Thrift store and I never fail to walk out of this store with something special.  I’ve been lucky enough to find a few Groupons too for $40 worth of merchandise for $20!

What I’ve been most surprised about lately is how much Mexican pottery I’ve been finding at these stores.  From a previous post, you know about my love of Talavera pottery – well, I’ve been adding to my collection with several smaller items.  I also keep an eye out for Fiesta dishes and my latest find was a large yellow platter from around the 1960s.  Couldn’t believe my eyes when I stumbled upon it at Lovelady a few months ago!

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IMG_7548Another place I love is a little place in Pelham called Treasures.  I bought a mink coat there last year – but that’s another story for another post…  Meanwhile, I found a really interesting Talavera piece there recently.  I wasn’t quite sure what it was until I got home and took a good look at it.  Turns out…it’s a soap dish!  I placed in my powder room which has quite a few Talavera pieces adorning it.

Some other items I’ve found are Mexican serape blankets that I’ve used quite often at Fiesta events.  I found one huge and colorful one at Alabama’s Thrift in Center Point last year.  It’s been quite useful for Fiesta promotion events to cover a table and set the scene for TV promos and other media events.

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This is the first time I’ve found a Mexican blanket like this one. Usually they are just striped and very colorful.

These plates were found at Alabama’s Thrift in Alabaster.  I couldn’t believe my luck when I found not one plate, but three!  Very beautiful and the perfect addition to my family room coffee table.  A quick note about the Alabama Thrift Stores…they also have a color discount system and so it makes “the hunt’ all the more fun.

Meanwhile…tomorrow is Saturday and I’m itching to get out and see what I can find…so stay tuned!!!

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