Another man's treasure...

Doesn't every body dream of finding some hole in the wall thrift store that no one goes to and yet it holds complete treasures? I thought stores like that were things of the past because of ebay and dealers but I've found one! I had driven past it a million times. It's this junky little place with bars on the windows with a tiny parking lot in front. I finally ventured in and struck gold. I've only gone 5 or 6 times since and every time I find something amazing. If you are looking for mid-century furniture, retro typewriters, books, toys, etc. you are in luck! And the best part is that there are no price tags so you bring something up to the front and in your most nonchalant voice possible say, "How much are these?" and every time they look at what your getting like it's complete junk and say, "A dollar." Or for this cool sofa I got, "Five dollars?" like, would you pay that for this sofa?...and I try to remain calm and say very quickly, "I'll take it!" If I were to add up the value of the few things I've gotten there in the past three months it would be in the hundreds for sure but I don't care - I'm not selling them. They are all for me.

Another time I found one of these - in near perfect condition. I honestly had seen this toy and wished I could get it for my kids but it was soo expensive I knew it didn't make sense. Well, when I found it at the store they gave it to me for $5 bucks! See how much it usually costs?!
And it happened again today...

A couple of years ago I went to a used book store to find some cool old books that I could put in my boys room as decoration and also for use. You know, like real simple or Martha Stewart always has the coolest stack of books in all of their rooms? Well, I found some perfect ones and finally got the lady to give them to me for about $4.00/each. I couldn't afford many for that price so I picked out my favorite six depending on color/subject. Well, I've loved those books. They have been the inspiration for my entire boy's room. And they love them too because they are all about science. Well today at my fav store I first found a really big fish bowl and immediately picked that up. It doesn't look big but if you see Andrew's hand in the back you can see better it's size. Then I wandered over to the book section just to look real quick and happened upon all of these, from the same series I had gotten before: I starting breathing quickly and looking around to see if anyone was watching. At other thrift stores it seems the minute you look interested you get a crowd around you to see what you are looking at in case you put it down or look away. Well, the only other lady in the store was not interested in the slightest so I ran up to the front and asked for help getting them down. I had no idea what they would cost but there were 34 of them, they were in beautiful shape, and I wasn't going to let them go. I took them up to the front and the girl looked at them and started typing on her calculator. I was thinking maybe she'd charge me $50 bucks and I was willing to pay that. She turned around and said, "If they are a quarter a piece that makes it $8.50, that ok?" I about died and said, "YES! That's great." and the fish tank was another $.75 cents I think. So here were are. We went to the pet store and picked up the fish, named Arthur, and the stuff for the tank.

And we are all very happy with our days conquests.