Thrift Shoppers Anonymous?

A friend pointed out to me yesterday that I hadn't posted in a while.  When I looked at the date of my last post, I could hardly believe it!  June 14 -- more than 2 weeks ago! 

I've been so busy, but have really missed writing here (and catching up on all of your  posts).   I took a week off of work because our vacation year ends on June 30 and I still had 6 days left (they'd be gone if I didn't take them).   The most wonderful part was that I stayed home and tackled several projects I'd been putting off. 

I got so much work done!  One day I reorganized my booth (with some very valuable advice from my friend Sandy -- the Booth Whisperer).  It needed an major overhaul, so I brought some things home, took some new stuff in and seriously rearranged.  I'd gotten tired of looking at the items that weren't selling and if I'm sick of them, I'm sure the shoppers are, too.  The mall was getting ready to have their 10 year anniversary sale and I gave 20% off just to move some things out.  Sandy encouraged me to bring in a metal cabinet and put it in the middle (I never would have thought of that), as well as a really cool industrial cart I had at home.   Here's what the booth looked like when we were finished:

  I spent a day and a half ironing -- do you believe it?  I ironed 20-25 dish towels, 4 sets of cloth napkins, at least 20 aprons and about 15 tablecloths.   Then I took a little suitcase I'd bought for display and the industrial cart and filled them with dish towels and tablecloths. 

I love this little Knickerbocker bear from the 50s and the way he looks with the dishtowels

  I really need to get a hanging rack to display the aprons.  A friend who lives in Minnesota is going to cut out the base for me (as soon as I draw up the plans and send them to him).  He's a great woodworker and does such careful, beautiful work that I'm sure my hanging rack will be the Sistine Chapel of display-ware!

I haven't been shopping much at all, as working on my 'storage' space (that's a fancy term for piles of stuff) has allowed me to see all the great things I'd bought but forgotten about.  So, other than a few trips to the local thrift and some stops at garage sales, which were almost not worth the gas, I've been keeping my money in my wallet.

At the sales last week I picked up this nice enamel farm table and Santa with one reindeer:

I think Santa needs some work -- like all good Christmas things, he's 'some assembly required'

It's hard to slow down on shopping!   I've finally realized that being a thrift shopper is like being a compulsive gambler:  you're always sure that the next great bargain is at the next sale!  I think there needs to be a Thrift Shoppers Anonymous, because finding great stuff is addictive.   Now I've got to close...my estatesales.net and auctionzip emails just hit my inbox...