As well as hanging out on the beach and watching the sunsets, I am keeping myself occupied at Seaside in Oregon as its nowhere near as hot as the heat wave hitting the UK right now (jealous). These are a few finds from the last couple of days…
Leather jacket $5
Red vintage dress $4
Frames $2 each
These are some of the pendants I have been collecting to make jewellery when I return to the UK. I am slowly getting better at twisting wire around gems and hope they will be perfect enough to sell soon. I love the stamps at a craft store I found (50% off coupon in the paper, whoop!) I plan to use them for my tags/bags, hopefully it will make it feel more personal. My great aunt also gave me a load of US army/police badges of her husbands so I want to do something really special with them when I have time.
Jars at 69cent each
A couple of nights ago we spent the night in Salem, Oregon. There was literally nothing around where we were except horrible fast food places and an enormous thrift store called ‘Value Village.’ Going in I was sceptical but there was tonnes of clothes and a big book and bric-a-brac selection. Unfortunately the clothes were uneven/high priced. In the end I came out with nothing except these two old jars which I will make cocktails with when I am back… I seem to have quite the collection of glasses now, not sure how I will get them home but oh well.
Horse Racer shoes $4
Luckily my great aunt Susan who we are staying with also loves thrift shopping so we go together (which I think John is secretly happy that he no longer gets dragged in). I found some amazing horse racer pattern shoes for $4 in a Goodwill in Milwaukee. Unfortunately having worn them the next day black stuff was all over my feet, so will have to wear them with tights when I get back to the UK. We also found some amazing Kiss vans but john would not buy them, someone snagged them as soon as we put them down… In fairness as I always say when it comes to thrift shopping ‘you snooze you loose.’
Susan and I hit 3 thrift stores in one morning including a surprisingly cute mormon one. Needless to say we were exhausted by the time we got home. The Salvation Army’s in America are 50% off on Wednesdays but because of this are busy and you need to get there early. Luckily I find I am looking for different things to what other Americans are, unless the thrift store is in a city and are rinsed of anything good by the cool kids or are completely over priced or BOTH. The Goodwill in Haight Ashbury San Fran comes immediately to mind (don’t even bother).
Mormon thrift store finds, total $4.75
Salvation Army, Milwaukee Market Place
Vintage Levi’s 501s $4, which I plan to cut to make some shorts
Cat t-shirt $1
Deseret Industries, 10330 SE 82nd Ave (another Salvation Army is directly behind it)
Navy leather shoulder bag $2
Black Nine West leather backpack $2
American flag head scarf 50cent
Clip purse 25cent
lucys tea party 