Thrift Storing!

One of our favorite things to do is go thrift storing. Much like yard saleing, only less catch-as-catch-can, especially if you are after a particular item.

Today we went in search of a few things--a cheap wedding gown and dress form/mannequin for our Halloween yard display and bits of technology or mechanical devices for N. to take apart. She has recently developed a fascination for digging into the innards of machines, and if we don't provide her harmless subjects for dissection, she's apt to find her own lying around the house. When we advised her against this, she confidently declared, in her little, piping 6 year old voice, "That's OK, I can put them back together and fix them!" Oh, dear.

Unfortunately and a bit surprisingly, today's trip didn't yield any victims. The stuff we found was mostly irons, phones--boring, one-step, take-the-back-off-and-your-done stuff like that. We were hoping to find something more mechanical with more interesting bits, like an old clock. We did see one groovy '70's clock, but it was priced well above today's budget.

But--! As J. was digging through the used cameras he came across no less than 4 of them that still had film in them. He was able to get the film out of two of them, we plan on taking it in to get developed out of curiosity, then submit anything worthwile to found.com. He seems to think we'll find something creepy, I think it'll be more along the lines of grandma's 80th birthday party or something.

We also found a cool toy remote control cobra, minus the remote but we think we can find one. If not he'll be a toy as-is, or fodder for the child and her screwdriver. Another cool find was a Revere Ware copper bottomed saucepan in great condition and a 1960's toy with Peter Max-type graphics involving little spring loaded birds that ring metal bells tuned to the musical scale. We also picked up one of those inflatable mylar Hoverdisc toys for $1.99, them promptly took it home and filled it with the last of the helium from last year's birthday party. We had to take it to the park to play with it properly, as it flew WILDY about with the slightest toss and floated quite well. :) As we were leaving the park and driving down the street, we had to stop and rescue a tiny, fuzzy headed starling nestling that was waddling across the road. WAY too early to be out of the nest and no parents around as nightime came on, so he's now residing in a birdcage in the kitchen. He's our third baby bird rescue so far this year, the other two (a sparrow and another starling) being released as soon as they were big enough to manage on their own. We get these every year...

Still, the wedding dresses were priced too high for thrift store aged, stained and torn gowns...they are having a 50% off sale on Memorial Day so I plan on picking one up then. Also, our town is having it's annual city-wide yard sale this weekend, so we can tool around tomorrow and check for wedding dresses and fodder for N.'s curiosity.

I'm dying to see what's on that film, though... :)