Some friends of mine started a fabulous kid’s consignment sale here in Madison a few years ago called Half Pint.  They have children and jobs and husbands and thought hey let’s have a business too! I really don’t know how they do it, but they do and twice a year to boot. It get’s bigger every year and I’m so happy for their success.  And happy to get a bunch of  fantastic kid’s clothes and toys on the cheap.

I’ve had some great finds at Half Pint (pink high tops, green sneakers, red white & blue speedos) but this little rocker takes the cake. It’s called a teeter tot. And though I can’t tell if it’s actually old, or just faking it I love the look of it–much more than the exersaucer at least.  The baby likes it a little (I really need to make a little seat belt so he stops sliding out) and the big kids love it. They sqeeeeeze in and play baby.  While I’d like to think I’ll pass it down to my kid’s kids I’m guessing it will end up back at Half Pint. If you are local and want to find out about their next sale, and other kid’s stuff too, head over to their blog.

That there is some 100 percent of the finest acrylic crocheted up into one spiffy pillow. It’s scratchy as hell, but it’s this fantastic neony pink so it came home with me. I love the old lady thrift store. I also went to the dig and save the other day, but the light these days is crap so I’ll show you some other time. I get sort of paralyzed by the craziness of the dig and save, so never feel like I’m really taking advantage of it’s awesomeness. People have hooks and plastic gloves and determination to Get Shit! for $1/lb, so I mostly just get out of their way.

December can’t just be all black and white on the ol’ blog–it is christmas time after all. These beautiful colors came from my local thrift store and were absolutely free. I have always like the childcraft series and had my eye out for the “make and do” volume, but never could find it. The other day I was dropping some stuff at the thrift shop and spotted the whole series in the donation bin. I was tempted to swipe it, but the dude working there was right in front of me and besides stealing from charity is just bad mojo. So I asked him and he said the lady who gave it away was still there and I could ask her. She gave me a thumbs up and I threw all that awesomeness in my trunk.

It’s the 1964 edition and the illustrations are fantastic. The make and do volume is of course my favorite: the projects are super simple and make me feel like I could do them with my children, unlike when I look at Martha and feel like a second rate mom because I can’t deal with glitter.

There might even be some christmas presents in there for the kids to make, or if nothing else they have given me some quiet while the kids l0ok at all 15 of them on the couch, which is a huuuge christmas present for their mama.

All craft and thrift action these days is geared towards occupying two preschoolers without noisy toys or heaps of sugar (okay there is some sugar, but not much). This cute little typewriter showed up on craigslist at just the right time and thankfully it wasn’t 200 bucks, which it seams most (out of date, pretty much useless, but indie rock stylish) typewriters are going for these days. The ribbon was immediately destroyed–thank you, son number one–but they really don’t know how it is supposed to work anyway, so mostly it’s about finding letters and numbers and making it *ding*.  And really it will always just be a toy for them. The other day, my daughter asked me what this toy was. We’ve had it since she was a baby! And she never knew it was a telephone! To her phones are little clam shell things you carry in your pocket. I am from a totally different world than she it, which reminds me of this list: 100 things your kids may never know about. I’m sure every generation has a list like this, ” back in my day…,” but it’s shocking to suddenly be the person saying, “back in my day…”

Okay, I need to stop now before I make myself feel geriatric. Onto happier things.

It’s starting to feel like fall here and though I haven’t been swearing at the heat all summer (the weather has actually been pleasant this summer, especially for a ginormous pregnant lady) fall is too lovely not to be excited about. So I thought I’d host a fall color week: a picture or two a day that captures a color of the coming season.  The color week thing has been done a thousand times, so I thought I’d use Crayola colors this time, mostly because burnt siena was my favorite (second only to cornflower blue) and because it is the color of fall to me (I’ll decode the colors for all those who grew up crayloa-less). Leave a comment if you want to play along and I’ll list a link to your blog (or flickr) when we start on Monday.

Monday: Brick Red (deep red)

Tuesday:Burnt Siena (a reddy orange, like the rooftops of Siena)

Wednesday: Goldenrod (warm, deep yellow)

Thursday: Chesnut (dark, warm brown)

Friday: Plum (like a plum, duh)

See you Monday!

It’s been quite a while since I posted anything thrift related, so here you go. I found this great matching game at the (smelly) thrift store in my home town. It was pretty much the only good thing in the entire store. I’m sure it’s handmade: just cut paper decoupaged onto little wooden tiles. The box is, I think, made from wood trim.  My super talented friend made a set like this a while ago only it was painted, but they stuck together and got all messed up. I’ve always wanted her to do more (hear that Lily?) because they were so, so beautiful, but I’ll have this little set until she does.  Or rather my kids will.

This is just an ikea lamp, but one I’ve actually wanted for a long time. It’s called Jonisk and shesh! it’s 50 bucks at Ikea (no wonder I never bought it). I got it for 5 at my mom’s thrift store. I didn’t think there was really room for it in my house–these days the word is purge, not hoard–but I made a place for it in the dining room and it works quite nicely, thankyouverymuch. It’s indirect, glowly light and on a dimmer to boot. perfect.

And this is just some awesome faux cross stitch fabric that will be a skirt when I have a waist again.