Thrift Share

I'm trying really hard not to thrift so much until I'm more organized or have fewer items stockpiled, but it's not working so great. I'm a thrift addict for sure. I just need to list, list, list. And organize. But instead, I thrift some more :)

And my buy only one book restriction went out the window worse than ever when I stopped in for a quick peek at the church thrift store my mom and I discovered right before she left me for the beaches of Florida :( A paper bag full of books for $5 sale. How could I not? Plus, I used to bag groceries in high school, so I knew it would be an efficiently packed bag. And it was. Old books, cook books, quilting/needlework books...I will sell a few of them haha.


I have also tried to make my thrift outings harder by looking for more expensive items but I really don't know what to look for yet. I found a Beatles sheet music book I thought might go for a little more, we'll see. And for whatever reason, I decided to buy a few dishes - I usually don't buy breakables because of my lack of desire to package them but I was drawn to them, so I had to haha. I bought two square bubble frames, which I've never seen before. Again, breakables - boo. I might keep them though, so that will solve the packaging problem.



I really am going to concentrate on listing more this week as I'm going on a beach vacation next week! I currently have 49 items listed on Ebay and my goal is to have 50 more by the end of the week. It's also the last week of school, so I'll have to try really hard and work in the early morning more this week as it's semi-hectic with end-of-school events for 3 chillens.


The 3 boys went to Big Bend this weekend, so the girl and I had a quiet one for a change. Floated The Blanco River in Wimberley Saturday with some friends (and then ate at Herberts yay!), cleaned house and watched 3 movies Sunday (what???? Mamma Mia, Anger Management, Alice and Wonderland), and just hung out today. Ended it all with dinner at Pei Wei. Great weekend. Now for some serious listing this week on Ebay...

As always, this is a link-up with Apron Thrift Girl, one of the best thrifting blogs out there.

Thrift Share Monday. On Monday :)

Only 1 1/2 hours for 2 quickie thrift outings this week: one last trip to GRASP with my thrifthelper-Mom who's back in Florida :( until back to Texas thrifting with me in October or November:) She was busy packing for her roadtrip but allowed herself to go out for one hour. Better than nothing, as I found 5 men's shirts for a buck a piece; a giant sized ziplock baggy filled with some cute lil' mini wooden Santas and sledders and such; a bright orange/gold embossed leatherette pen/pencil holder/cup; a box of old dominoes; and a nicely done framed mushroom needlework shadowbox. I also got a bonus of 2 moving boxes full of food from my mom, who has a problem with overstuffing her fridge/freezer AND pantry. Her pantry is still stocked for her return in 6 months...go figure. I like to let my fridge and pantry get a lil' bare sometimes (and certainly never overfilled) - it's fun to have to scrounge around and be creative with what little you may have - just a game I like to play.

keeper :)

vintage leatherette orange & gold embossed pen/pencil can holder

My second thrift outing this week was a 30 minute trip to the Humane Society. I've not gone there too much yet as it's a recent discovery for me but every time I do, I score big. Well, big to me. The $25-$50 range is big to me as I'm used to selling $10 items...moving up haha. My biggest score was an adorable portable wooden stove top for pretend play. The drawer sildes out to reveal storage for enamelware pots and utensils, then converts to/flips up to become the back of the stove top with utensil pegs across. After you're done cooking, you put your pots away in the drawer, close the drawer, tighten the big wooden screws on the sides - now it can be conveniently carried with the utensil holder becoming the carrying handle. Clever design. Quality product.

adorable pretend play wood stove top with enamelware

I also bought a 3 piece plastic vanity set (tag/sticker still attached/readable), made in the USA by Londonware. Tissue cover, cup, and 2-sided magnifying makeup mirror that can mount to the wall as well. "Marble Onyx" is the description on the sticker.

perfect vintage vanity set 'marble onyx' by Londonware

I also am a sucker for pop-up books, so when I found a pop-up book of gnomes, I had to buy it despite my book-buying-restriction I've placed myself on. Gnomes AND pop-up book. A no-brainer. Other finds: a great brooch for fifty cents; pack of vintage 7-up playing cards; a mini black velvet paintings kit (love black velvet paintings and miniatures, so this one made sense as well, if I'm into justifying my purchases); a miniature framed mountainscape made from cut/layered colored paper (keeping, duh); and a framed Japanese oil painting I've had my eye on for the last few visits (down to $1.00, my standard price, so splurged for my man-child's room).

All in all, a productive 1 1/2 hours of thrifting for the week. Still getting a little better at posting new items..a little :)

This a weekly thrifters link-up post with Apron Thrift Girl...:)

ReSeller's Listing Challenge: April Results/May Goals

Had to look back and find my April post stating my ReSeller's Listing Challenge goals for the month due to memory lapse. As it turns out, I only made one goal, so as not to be too hard on myself, as I try to amp it up a bit in the reselling world. My goal was to list 50 new items on Ebay. I listed 31. Sold 18. I think for May, I will try a daily goal instead, so maybe I'll remember I have a goal, haha. My new listing goal is to list 5 new items per day on Ebay.

Yet something else I learned from reading Apron Thrift Girl blog posts is that the Buy-It-Now/Best Offer format is kinda cool. And effective. I started listing with higher prices as buy-it-now and then added the best offer. I sold 8 items using this format this month and because I'm usually happy with a $10 sale, the higher sales have been nice (and motivating so far as purchasing more vintage items instead of clothes).

I've been doing Ebay for quite a number of years and just recently learned if you list an item in the Collectibles category, all of your pictures are free (versus the usual first picture free, each additional picture .15). Not sure about other categories as I usually sell clothes but since I've started buying/listing more vintage items, I'm posting lots in Collectibles and taking advantage of mulitple pictures of each item. Yay for free pictures! Yay for learning something new!

Thrift Share Monday. On Monday :)

One more week until my mom leaves for Florida for 6 months=one more thrift outing with her this week, then I'm on my own til' Thanksgiving :( We went out last week and I really didn't feel like buying anything, so we went to the local Habitat Store that has a small 'garage sale' area. A lil' messy and not much there, but I always seem to luck into something...for resell on Ebay: Tommy Bahama men's silk shorts, hot pink Betsey Johnson lacy dress, and two 1950 Military Retirement Books I thought might sell, who knows. Broke my one book restriction but I rationalized it to my 'helper' by saying I'd sell them together, so it really only counts as one, ha.

A great hand painted wooden Santa incense burner, made in Germany, thrifted from Goodwill. I've never seen one of these before my purchase and didn't know what it was - I thought his pipe was missing from his mouth and had no clue why his body lifted off - my dad let me in on what it was so I didn't have to do any research :) Incense cone goes inside body in metal holder and smoke comes out Santa's mouth. Love it but am willing to part with it due to my already huge collection of Christmas goodies.

Hand painted, wooden Santa Incense Burner, Made in Germany.




The cutest Finel hand painted enamel/tin coffee cup, Made in Finland.

Green and Gold Leatherette Desk Basket, Made in the U.S.A.

I'm going on a road trip to Austin one day this week to check out the Goodwill Outlet, since my lame city hasn't one. Shame, shame. Lame, lame. But on the bright side, I LOVE AUSTIN, so it's ok. Might even go check out Edie Brickell in May so I can take another road trip to Austin. And I will be taking a June road trip to Austin to see Adele :) And maybe I'll find the Goodwill appealing, so I'll have to take a monthly trip to the Goodwill in Austin. Yeah, that's a good one...

As always, this post is a link up with Apron Thrift Girl :)

Thrift Share Monday on a Tuesday.

I only went thrifting once this week, only to find one of my favorite thrift stores has jacked up their prices!? Went for the purpose of finding more tooled leather belts to weave the rocker seat and back, but only found 3. I even forked over $6 for one of them - more than I usually pay but it had painted flowers and was chunkier than usual, so I had to. A few Christmas goodies, a Versace tie for the hubster, and only one children's book. Seems I've too many books and until I start listing some of them, I must put myself on book-buying-restriction. My mom leaves for Florida in a couple of weeks, so we'll do a couple of thrift-outings before she leaves.




And even though my chair didn't make the top 10 in the Green is Universal/Etsy contest, I'm still caught up in the excitement of my chair sale to Green is Universal...I watched the Today Show yesterday and saw it in the window (in the background, across the street, to the left of Matt Lauer's head, see it!?) during the Water for Elephants interview. Water for Elephants is one of my favorite books ironically. Here's a photo I took of the tv when the chair spotting occurred haha...


I also asked for pictures from them and last night, one of the gals was nice enough to email a few pictures from her phone; she said they'd send better photos when they pull them from their 'team' camera. The chair was in the window for the weekend and yesterday and will be on the floor in the Experience Store through Friday - if you're in NYC/Rockefeller Plaza, stop by and see it :) Who knows, maybe Martha will still spot it...


The sale also motivated me to finish the ladder back and start the rocker. But with the chair excitement, Fiesta in San Antonio (2 parades is all I could handle this year), Aunt and Uncle visiting from Florida...birthday celebrations, end of year school functions, blah blah blah I haven't done any listing. Thought since Ebay starts their free auction listings today, this would be a great day to start listing again.

Great signage as well!

Must go work now! And I just found out there's a 50% sale at my local Thrift Town. ruhroh. Happy thrifting!

This is a link-up post via Apron Thrift Girl btw. Awesome blogger/inspiration.

Earl. Recycled/Upcycled Ladder Back Chair with Woven Belt Seat...

I finished another vintage belt chair, yay! And even better, I listed it immediately in my Etsy shop, yay!

Meet Earl...

One of my grandmother's ladder backs, repainted tomato red and tattered rush/cane seating removed. Seat rewoven with thrifted Guatamalan, western (one "Earl") & tooled leather belts.

Up next. Thrifted heavy-duty wood rocker rewoven with ???? chunkier, tooled leather belts????

I'm linking up this (newbie to Make Share) post with Apron Thrift Girl and her Make Share fun.

Exciting News on a Thrift Share Monday!

This is a combo Thrift Share Monday post...My super-exciting news of the week:

I was contacted by Etsy and Green is Universal/NBC scouts to ask if they could use my Vintage Upcycled Western Belt Lawn Chair in an Earth Week window display in their New York City store at 30 Rock!!! Whaaaat??? I shipped the chair to NYC Saturday! How exciting is that? It's been 4 days and I'm still soooooo excited! I'm going to watch the Today Show this week and see if you ever get a glimpse of the store when they're shooting outside...maybe you'll see my chair on the Today Show during Earth Week (17-24 Apr is when it's on display). I feel so lucky/thankful about now. And did I mention excited!?


I decided to enter my chair in The Art of Re-Use Contest that Etsy and Green is Universal are sponsoring as well. There are not too many entries and the public votes in each of the categories; top 10 entries with the highest fetching votes are to be judged by a celebrity panel, including Martha Stewart! Perhaps she'll see my chair in the window display and think it's a 'good thing' haha. I wish I lived in NYC so I could see the window in person but hopefully I'll catch a glimpse on the Today show when they're outside. I think I'm going to ask the NBC Marketing person who contacted me if she would take photo for me and email to me? Is that too weird? Think she would?

If anyone feels inclined to vote for my chair it's on page 6 of the Home Decor category. People have been complaining about the voting process because you have to sign up with Green is Universal first (email + password is all), then they send you a confirmation email. Sign in, go to the item you want to vote for (one vote per category), scroll down to the bottom of the page and you'll see the vote button. There's also a facebook like at the top right of each page and people were thinking that was the vote tally but it's not. So far my dad is the only one I know of that has voted for me (except for me) and I still only have my one facebook like that I put in. Oh well. My chair is going to be in the Universal Store window display in NYC/30 Rock and that's TOTALLY good enough for me!!!! But if you feel inclined to give my chair a vote, feel free and much appreciated!

I'm finishing 2 more chairs with belts - a bright red ladderback and the other and an old, heavy-duty rocking chair. I'm going to use a few Guatamalan belts in the ladderback, mixed in with plain vintage leather belts instead of western. Not sure about the rocker yet. I'm thinking it would probably be wise of me to finish these pronto and get them listed in my Etsy store before the 17th (they will credit my name and my Etsy store, kikithespunkymunky, in the display, so I'm hoping to get an increase in traffic in my store...). I also need to list, list, list in Etsy this week. Good sales on Ebay for me recently, so I need to keep up the new lists but I have to focus on Etsy this week!

Not much thrifting this week but I did do better on listing the first part of the week (and before the window display news!). AND my Campbell's Soup Can bag sold!

I started doing a few buy-it-now with best offer listings (which I learned about from Selena's blog at Apron Thrift Girl) and have had a few decent sales with this format - thanks Selena!) I still post a lot of thrifted clothes on eBay in the $10 range but have branched out with listing some of my vintage items from my Etsy store, kikithespunkymunky, and trying to list for a little more than I usually do. I've had some success with this and it really has motivated me to list more vintage items along with the clothing. Had another best offer just this morning!

Kind of a long-winded post due to my excitement with the window display! Did a lot of packaging this morning, so now I must go to the Post Office and finish those new chairs!!!! And list some more!!!! Have a great week!

Thrift Share Monday (on a Wednesday)

Next week I predict I will post on the proper day haha.

I've discovered 2 new thrift stores recently whilst on outings with my mom, who now lives 10 minutes away from me for 6 months out of the year - yay!!! Such a good lil' thrifter she is. Never gets mad at me for taking so long (like some other people I know), tries her hardest to find things for me to resell, and will never let me pay for lunch dangit! I finally convinced her to let me pay for our next Roasted Poblano Burger and Sweet Potato French Fries at EZ's. Deee-lish. I don't eat too many burgers but when I do, I usually head to EZ's.

So far I only thrift at stores. No garage sales or estate sales yet. I already have too much and I like to thrift during the week versus the weekends. I go to several different Goodwill stores; Thrift Town; a giant store I always forget the name!? of and The Humane Society Thrift Store (smart idea!). The 2 new stores had a great selection of books, which I have a weakness for, and really good pricing. Yay! Some day I will go to estate sales because I like the idea of seeing where the item 'lived' and a glimpse of that owner's life. Also seems sweet because of collections you come across. And jewelry. And artwork. And antiques. And kitchenware. And just about everything I collect and/or like. Gotta lose some inventory before I go there.

Here's a few treasures I found whilst thrifting with my mom (in addition all the books I bought - about 15 children's and 15 adult).

cutest lil' Christmas pixie Elves (ornaments)
wanted to keep but forced myself to post on eBay

sweet vintage WEE WALKERS infant SADDLE SHOES crib shoes, listed on eBay

just plain cute set of MINI MONK FIGURINES to be listed today

vintage nylon RICHMAN BROTHERS equestrian print SHIRT on eBay

vintage WESTCLOX electric alarm CLOCK & retro BIG BEN alarm CLOCK to be listed soon

Thanks again to Selena at Apron Thrift Girl for the inspiration to participate in Thrift Share Monday (even though I still don't post til Wednesday!) This is getting fun...and I love the fact I learned how to link to other websites in my blog. Small accomplishment but big for me. Have fun thrifting!!

Re-Sellers Listing Challenge

I don't feel particularly ready for the Re-Sellers Listing Challenge explained in Apron Thrift Girl but perhaps it would help me to set a few re-selling goals, even if they're small, to try to help me along in my edumacation about thrifting and re-selling. I've got a pretty good handle on the thrifting part, still taking baby steps with the re-selling part. Blogging/networking part is coming along, albeit kinda slow. Ebay seems particularly dead right now but I've found as soon as I post something new, something will sell, even an item that's been there for a while. So my biggest goal should be to simply focus more on listing. Soooooo....My April Re-Seller's Listing Challenge goal for April is listing 50 new items. I've gotten lamer and lamer with my new listings and usually only have around 25 :(

If you are a thrifter/re-seller, I have found the blog Apron Thrift Girl immensely helpful as well as inspirational. Great tips, challenges, links to other thrifters/re-sellers, thrifting resources, and much more. This is by far my favorite thrifting/re-selling blog. Thanks for all the help and inspiration Apron Thrift Girl!