Sugardaddies, Fine China and Concrete Slippers

A brief summary of Halloween - Cher wanted to be a Lionhead bunny just like the ones we have as pets so I tricked her out with some fur:

And that about sums it up. When you can dress your two year old as a fluffy pink Lionhead bunny, what's not to love? Halloween was good.

And my mobster from the last post? Frank has turned out to be quite the fun friend. We had him over for dinner last week and found out he moved from Staten Island to Vegas for "health reasons." I guess it's not very healthy to find yourself at the bottom of the Hudson River wearing concrete slippers.

But the real highlight of the week was from the day I spent about 8 hours hitting up thrift stores in my area for mismatched china. You really get a good idea of who is in your community when you spend a day bottomfeeding.

Stop One: Goodwill

I was paying for some items. My girls were with me and we saw a woman in the store (think Roseanne Barr) with a tiny chihuahua snuggled into a bed of blankets in the child seat portion of her shopping cart. Of course, my girls ran up to her and asked if they could pet her tiny yapping dog. She sneered at them and pushed the cart aside. "No. This is a service dog." I looked at the cashier and raised my eyebrows skeptically. The cashier rolled her eyes and scowled. I'm guessing this wasn't the first time someone had tried to cheat the system by passing off a luxury pet as a disability crutch.
Stop Two: The Charleston Outlet Thrift Store

This particular store lacked a certain credibility with their storefront signage. On my way in, I noticed an official sign that read, "Please do no leave your children unattended in our store. Any parents not attending to their children in this store will be reported to Clark County Child Protective Services." I called their bluff and asked the cashier if they had ever really reported a parent to CPS before. "No," she said, "but we're supposed to..." Yeah right. But you can bet your bootie I kept my two girls glued to my side in that place.


Stop Three: A Second Chance Thrift Store:

This place had some really upscale items, mostly from estate sales, at jaw-droppingly low prices. After spending way too much time looking around a picking up some great vintage items, I went to check out. Ahead of me in line was a young black man. He was engaged in sincere conversation with the store proprietor. The proprietor, another black gentleman was saying in a very calm voice, "just remember that once you walk out that door today, I don't ever want you coming back."

"Man, I wouldn't steal from you! I don't steal from my own people!"

"All I'm saying is that you are not welcome in this store."

"You think I'm stealing from you? I never steal from you."

"I don't want to get into that. Just walk out that door and don't come back in here ever."

"You're my people, man! I wouldn't steal from my people!"

"Next please," said the proprietor with a warm smile. I sheepishly laid my items on the counter while the young man sulked off towards the door.


Stop Four: Martin's Mart Thrift Store

This place only had one teacup I wanted. I brought it to the counter and asked the price. "Thirty five cents," said the cashier. I reached for my wallet to get the money but just then an older man walked into the store, carrying a large trash bag and looking like the definition of homeless.

"I got it," he said with a grin and flipped a couple coins on the counter. At that moment, he was Daddy Warbucks. The girls and I thanked him up and down and left the store with a light heart. Everybody loves a sugardaddy.


And in case you're wondering what I'm doing looking for odd bits of china, here's the project I've been working on this week:
Teacup candles. You can get really beautiful pieces of china for pennies if the rest of the set is missing. And for some reason I've decided to try my hand at soapmaking and bath bomb making as well. It's been a craft week for me. Check out my first batch of soap I made:

So yeah, it's been a fun week. Sorry for the long, rambly post. There's been a lot of good stuff going on.

Comments

chattypatra said…
Were the teacup candles your idea or did you find it on a website? I ask, because that is brilliant! I love it.

If I ever decide I can splurge on a shopping spree for pretty things, I'll contact you for inside info on the best places.

Oh, and the soaps are very cute. Thanks for posting about it. Have a great weekend!
Sarah said…
Thanks for the comment, Chatty!

I thought the teacups were an original idea, but then I told my friend and she said she'd done it too. And I guess Martha Stewart has as well. Turns out there are no more original ideas out there.

You can get misc. china like my teacups at Goodwill 3/buck. It's the wax/wicks/dye/scent that ends up being the expensive part.
I love to thrift store shop... however I don't always like the people that I encounter. It makes me feel a little snobby to say that. I've actually found some great deals in thrift stores lately. I like to take my best friend or sister with me, they are both lucky charms!
LOVE the teacup candles and soap!! I always wanted to try those kinds of things, but I don't think I'm that talented! Those will make for some adorable gifts!
Oh, and I was oh so very glad to see you blogging again...your posts always crack me up!
chattypatra said…
If I ever get out from this tiny apartment, I'll tackle projects like that. I think most women wish they could channel their inner Martha. She may have a temper (according to her ex), but the woman is fabulous!

Speaking of china, when I moved I brought with me the fine china my mother had bought for my hope chest. It's almost 50 years old - the real stuff - and I love it, but I have no place to display it.

Oh, well, hope springs eternal! ;)
Nancy Sabina said…
LOVE the teacup candles. I should make some and give them to a certain woman you and I know who collects teapots and such.
Lacey said…
Love the candles. Will you be selling them? I just barely started sewing cute tote/ grocery bags and finished my first craft fair today.
Sarah said…
Thanks so much, Christina - I'm going to try not to totally self-combust this time and take the blog down in flames.

Lacey, if you give me your email address, you may regret it, but you may not. I'd love to talk to you about local craft fairs. I saw one today at Town Square that got me in the mood to start doing them again. Were you there? Anywho, if you want to chat local stuff, fill out the webform in my sidebar and give me you contact info. I'd love to get some insider scoop on the local crafters.

I didn't make the candles to sell them, but after all the costs, I'm thinking I should probably try to sell a few to justify all my costs. I see a few people sell them on Etsy, but have no idea how well they do. They'd be fun to test run at a fair. Let's tawlk.
The Editor said…
Well let me just tell you right now that here in Kanjipuram, we'd give anything for those teacup candles! And the soap! Oh the soap is so cute. I wanna come make soap with the Flakes!
Hi. Your candles project is great. I love candles and there are hundreds of them in our house but actually I've never heard about teacup candles. Brilliant idea. Have you already tried to light them up? I would like to know how long they burn.

Take care,
Julie
Unknown said…
That's a great idea! I think I'll make some teacup candles. I have a lot of teacups that don't have mates, lol. One thing, you used the word bath b***. Be very, very careful using the "b" word on the internet. The government has spiders that look for certain keywords and that is one of them. You might just get some very unwelcome visitors to your blog, lol. I said that word once and everybody warned me against using it. I just thought I'd pass that along.
If I could get that many things done in a month I wouldn't know what to do with myself. Good job!
J-Rod said…
Rachel used to hit up all the thrift stores in Ann Arbor for mismatched china, only that was for us to actually use for "fancy" meals. I was hoping someone else was into the shabby chic dinnerware. When we moved to Texas I finally broke down and bought her "real" dishwasher-safe china from the outlet mall.
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