Scrappy Portland Adventures!
1) My sister and I roped our friend Lise into playing hooky, specifically on an adventure to the SCRAP Creative ReUse store and Goodwill.
In a cartoon this chalked messaging would work to lead either of these women into danger.
Lise and my sister are both artists/teachers and this store is their Mecca. So much so that I ended up having to repeatedly add extra time onto the parking app to avoid getting a ticket.
Scrap is an amazing store, selling just about anything and everything in the name of reducing waste and sparking creativity. My sister picked up two packs of these excessively produced corporate playing cards. It made me wonder how many companies just throw away the swag after they're not able to give them away at conferences.
I'll admit that I was tempted to grab a 50¢ Planet Money canvas tote bag, but my household is at the perfect level of tote-age at the moment.
They really do have everything, which is all perfectly and satisfyingly organized.
You could spent all day just looking through the slides.
What did I buy? This Goodr brand soft sunglasses pouch, as I lost the case that came with my free Red Cross sunglasses and had been keeping an eye for something similar. I've been using a hard sunglasses case, but don't like how much weight/bulk it adds to my purse.
I paid 50¢.
We then drove five minutes over to the main Goodwill, where I bought the ceramic base wine glass you see in the bottom left hand corner. I was tempted to buy this graphic tray, but it was too scratched up for my high falutin taste.
Super cute though.
I keep an eye out for these specific wine glasses when thrifting, which are made by a specific artisan at the Portland Saturday Market. My husband and I received a pair of them as a wedding gift back in 1993 and they've been my go to ever since.
I paid $1.99.
Please note that my "high falutin taste" includes Pokémon jelly jars.
I didn't buy this ceramic doctor figurine who looks like you should should pull a string on his back and he'd say "Have you tried losing weight?" Big fat hard no.
Now your turn, what frugal things have you been up to?
Katy Wolk-Stanley
"Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without."
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The elephant tray could have been refurbished. Paint, decoupage, custom art? Possibilities. But no. No doctor. He is creepy.
Very cool wineglasses.
I have been working on getting stains out of a shirt I found on the street. It's a very nice men's shirt, otherwise in good condition, but the stains are proving difficult. Right now it's soaking in a bucket, and it's going to stay there a while.
I noticed that the cupboard doors under the kitchen sink were looking grungy, so I applied a super frugal cleaner -- elbow grease and hot water -- and got them looking better.
I'm reading Founding Mother, a fictional biography of Abigail Adams. It's interesting to me, because my grandmother was an Adams, and she believed she was descended from John and Abigail. (Ancestry.com says no.) Anyway, her belief got me reading about John years ago, but I've never read anything from Abigail's perspective. It's a good book if you like historical fiction about real people.
One of my smoke alarms started talking to me this morning, which was rather startling, but of course it was only saying "Change my battery." My ceilings are rather high, so I very carefully climbed a step stool to get it down, and luckily I had the right batteries on hand. I will let my son do the honors of putting it back up. I was going to ask him to come help me get ready for the window washers next week, anyway, removing screens and taking out the AC units.
I tested the batteries I took out, and while they were somewhat low, they were not out of juice, so I'm saving them for less important jobs.
Have we ever seen a pic of the famous Lise?? I pictured her as a blondie. 🙂
The "May" figurine below and to the doctor's right caught my eye---I have a similar "March" one on my (inherited 1950's) dresser right now! That store looks fascinating. I would definitely get a parking ticket!!!