monday goings-on and thrifty stuff

 Hello friends, how was your weekend? Mine was busy. We've been looking

for a car for Tim and you know how that goes. Car shopping is stressful. The

very old Honda Tim had been driving finally bit the dust. Non-repairable. I'm almost

glad, in a way. We all had poured way too much money into that car to keep it

maintained. Seemed something else was wrong with it every week. There's a

local, privately-owned used car dealer that we've been working with. We like

 to support small, local shops if we can. These people have been residents of

our town for many years and they've had a reputable business for many years,

too. Tim bought his first vehicle (a pick-up truck) from them years ago. Their

pricing is very fair. We test-drove a couple of cars in a snowstorm on Saturday

and we're test-driving a couple more cars later this week.

I found a little time for thrifting this weekend, too. I really love this decorative

piece that was originally from HomeGoods ($20 price tag on the bottom - I got

it for $2.99). It was filled with autumn decor...that bowl-filler stuff with pine

cones and seed pods. I put those in a separate bag and stored away with

my fall decor things. I don't know what I'm going to do with this yet; I'll have to

play with it. But I can picture a small plant or bird's nest and a bird for spring.

I also found a bag of seven little vintage books for $1.99. I love sweet little

vintage books like this...the artwork in them is lovely and they contain

beautiful poems and sayings. They also look pretty stacked on a shelf

or used in a vignette.

Have you ever heard of this magazine? One is from 2004 and the other 2005.

I don't remember this publication. I thumbed through them and it looked like

there were some good decorating ideas and articles. For 29 cents each, I

figured I couldn't go wrong.

 

I love bracelets. This colorful wooden beaded one was only 99 cents.

 

 I'm always on the lookout for inexpensive, pretty, ceramic planters. They're

so expensive in retail stores! I love the color and the flowers on this one.

Speaking of plants, I stopped at Home Depot today, hoping to buy a couple of

tiny succulents. I have a few deeper milk glass pieces that I wanted to use as

planters. But Home Depot didn't have any succulents - nary a one! I was 

surprised. They used to carry a nice selection. I did find a couple of house 

plants on clearance though, simply because one was in a Christmas container

and the other in a football-shaped pot. More on that in another post! 

Happy Monday, everyone.