Alabama Thrift Store | Southern Señora

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!

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!)