Blogtoberfest Day 21: Thrifting Week in Review

When I was a school-age child in the 1970's and early 1980's, Friday night was a pizza in front of the t.v. evening where we ate home-made pizza and watched our local PBS station's line-up: Crockett's Victory Garden, Washington Week in Review, Wall Street Journal and Masterpiece Theatre (which was also on Sunday night but my parents judged it too late to stay up for a school night). I remember being fairly attentive for the gardening show and Masterpiece Theatre but less so for the two programmes in the middle of the line-up but I am sure that I had a much better understanding of the oil embargo, the Iran hostages, crazy gold prices and rising interest rates than all of my school peers. It is possible that all that exposure prepared me for the economic world of today and embracing the thrifting life. Tonight we had home-made pizza but not in front of the t.v. because my husband had a concert so, instead, I will review some extra thrifting finds that I have not already posted. The rose patterned tea towel is at the back and was not actually thrifted but found at HomeSense at $2 for a set of two. At a thrift store price, I could not resist these towels, a Roy Kirkham rosy design that was made in Portugal. It did get me thinking about our changing buying habits and the success of discount stores like HomeSense (part of the TJMaax chain) and our appetite for a deal! I wonder if we, as consumers, have some responsibility with the decline in quality of almost all consumer goods. Collectively, we are unwilling to pay for the materials and labour involved in making something to last. As thrifters we are responding in two ways: we often seek out vintage, or simply second hand, items that were made before this retail business thinking was prevalent and we are channeling our desire for a 'good deal' towards pricing that represents, although somewhat arbitrarily, what society believes is the actual value of an item. I also believe that thrifters are more likely to value hand-made goods and recognize truly well made products. Whether it is enough to change the trend of cheaper and cheaply made products remains to be seen.

The clothing items seen here are: Gap boys pyjama pants and two pairs of Talbot's tailored, wool pants. The pyjama pants where around $4 dollars with no signs of being worn and the wool pants were both on the 99 cent rack. The ones at the front are flattering while the other pair I will re-work into something else. The two lampshades are Laura Ashley which was my go-to store in the nineties. I carefully purchased fabrics and clothes on my limited budget and waited for the very reduced prices at their semi-annual sales. I still have many of those clothes and household items that I made with the fabric which I believe attests to the quality of the company at that time. As Laura Ashley no longer has stores in Canada, and I only briefly looked in England last summer, I am not sure it is still the same.


Here are two cups that I also found this past week for 49 cents each! Both of them are in my favourite vintage shade of blue and go with things I already have. The cup of the left is made by Melitta and would have been sold with a coffee or tea set in the 1950's. The Melitta method is my favourite way of making coffee and this cup would not hold enough for me but I know that I will be able to put it to good use. The cup on the right is vintage Grindley which is the colour and pottery that started me collecting Utility China. I like a thin wall for my tea so this will also be repurposed in my kitchen.

This Friday, I am joining the party at the Thrifty Groove: 'Thrifty Things Fridays' as I love seeing what other bloggers have found almost as much as finding my own treasures.