Thrifty

I haven't been thrift store shopping in a very long time. Partially lack of time, partially lack of cash. So yesterday afternoon when evil ducky and I were google chatting and she invited Nico and I to hit a few Goodwills with her this morning, I was eager to go. I had some concerns that I'd used up my bargain shopping mojo for the weekend, because that morning I'd seen this little table out at someone's half-assed yard sale on my parents' block. I circled back to the house for some cash and bought it for $15. It's brand new, the chairs still twist-tied together, with the box and its $40 price tag included.


But I pushed my concerns aside, Nico and I pocketed the last of our consignment profit money, and we headed out this morning. It seems we had a little bit of mojo left after all. We only made it to two stores before MB and his mom got back to town and it was time for lunch, but we made the most of our time. At the first store, I found two Nico shirts:


I pretty much never buy sports shirts, but this one was clever enough to win me over. That's a Pachycephalosaurus head-butting a soccer ball. The text says "Bay Ridge Behemoths Soccer - We use our heads." Come on, now, that is great.


We also had a near-catastrophe when Nico left his blankie on top of a rack of shirts and didn't tell anyone. Thankfully I noticed it was gone before we left and I speed-walked out to the car with panic churning in my stomach before coming back inside and spotting the blankie tucked up on top of the clothes. Crisis averted, holy shitballs.

We really hit it big at the second store. I found this nerdily awesome shirt for N (though it's going to grate on me unceasingly that 'habitat' is spelled wrong at the bottom):

I turned down Nico's request for a (tacky, hot pink, much-too-large) shirt with butterflies on it, but agreed to drop two bucks on this for his playroom wall:


I wish the previous owner had just framed it instead of sticking it on a canvas and decoupaging ribbon onto it, but I liked it enough to overlook the semi-questionable presentation. The vintage, realistic butterfly drawings are neat and I was pleased that Nico seemed to really like them as well.

Evil ducky gets all the credit for the showpiece of the day's shopping, though. She found this kid-sized sleeping bag in a bin of blankets and drapes. It's made of super-soft fabric, looked barely used except for a broken zipper, and the little tires are velcroed on and can be removed / reattached. I paid the princely sum of three dollars for it and my mom has already fixed the zipper. I can't wait to give it to Nico…I don't think I'll wait for our camping trip in September.

Also, I came home to this and nearly died of cute: