Backyard Boutique

 My beautiful friends Elizabeth and Kaley came up with a great idea:  they love garage sales and thrift stores and would always find more great things than they needed or could use, so they thought they would give their friends an opportunity to get in on the goods.  Ingenious.  

 There were even some yummy snacks to munch as I enjoyed catching up with my friends and meeting a few new ones.

They made these cute little bidding paddles.

 Looking through the racks of goodies.

 Look at how well organized it all is.  The table in this picture was "buy it now." I liked how they mixed methods of silent auction, buy it now and bidding; it kept things moving.

We browsed the tables of items that would later be auctioned (I had my eye on the straw bag).

 The clothes on the lines all had cards which we could write our paddle number and our bid on.  At the end we all went over to see the things we bid on and find out if we got to take them home.

I bid on this cute vintage dress!

 The bidding was fun and went quickly.  Everyone had a great attitude and there was even some friendly competition.

Look at my great new outfit!  Thanks ladies--can't wait for the next one!

Thrifted: Silk Skirt and Sketches

                                                 
  Recently I was out shopping at some local thrift stores.  I was on my way to the Goodwill when I passed by another thrift store that I had pretty much forgotten about.  Against my daughter's wishes, I made the right hand turn into the parking lot and we went inside.  Our first stop was the counter up front, where I immediately spotted some old jewelry that I knew I needed.  I found two bracelets: one a silver bangle with bows and the other a gold chain with green beads.  I also found a black and white bead necklace which actually turned out to be two individual necklaces twisted together.  For all of the pieces I paid $5.  Instant gratification! I knew it would be a good idea to duck into this store, even though Alli was against it. 

      Next we looked at the house wares, where I was lucky again.  I scored four really cool cityscape sketches.  They were $6.99 each, which I thought was a little high, but I really liked them, so I grabbed all four.  The cheap black frames need to be changed out, but after they rang up at only $3.50 each, I figured that changing the frames is totally doable.      

     Next up, we looked at the clothes.  This place is usually only good for costume pieces, but I found this beautiful pleated silk skirt for only $2.99.  I haven't decided how I am going to style the skirt yet; I'm thinking another shopping trip might be in order.  Usually I try to buy pieces like this only when I already have something in my closet that will go with it, but I figured I couldn't pass it up for that price.  I have all these dangerous little things I tell myself to justify purchases like this.  In this case, I basically figured it would be a crime not to buy it.  It's 100% silk, after all.  I'll keep you posted when I figure out what to pair with my pretty little bargain.  All in all, this was a pretty successful little side trip.   

    

 

~Lori