All That Trash

The funny thing about being a trashy girl is I bring home so much stuff that it all starts to blur into one giant memory of dollar-saving sweetness.

 

For example, today I went out to pick a few grapefruits off my tree, but only the fruit on the highest branches are left.  I looked around the yard and found a ladder.  When did I get it?  Yard sale?  Thrift store?  Really, it’s all a blur.

Same thing with this coffee mug I’m using.  I make a wicked sugar-free hot chocolate sweetened with stevia.  I reached for a mug on the top shelf of my kitchen cabinet and was happy to find a stone-wear mug.  “Where did I get this,” I think to myself, knowing all to well it was purchased at some yard sale in years past.

When Reef came out of his bedroom today wearing a pair of flip-flops I’d never seen before, I had the same expression.  Somewhere between surprise and shock and I was happy he had a pair of matching shoes that fit him.  I probably purchased the shoes for him last summer and now it’s finally warm enough for him to wear them.

The counselor is always happy when I bring him home something special like the Banana Republic turtle tie he wore to church on Sunday.  “Wow,” I said, “I love your tie.”  He reminded me I gave it to him for Christmas and then I remembered very faintly finding it at Goodwill or maybe it was a yard sale.  Either way, I think I paid around $1.00 for it. 

I’ve spent so many years in that non-size clothing.  You know, pregnant/not-pregnant, pre-paring for pregnancy, than just waiting to lose wait stage that I have clothes ranging in about five different sizes.  When I’m nursing, I don’t like to wear dresses so I set my favorite aside for another day.  When I reached in my closet and found a beautiful dress to wear on my recent trip to Tucson I was taken back.  “Sweet,” I thought knowing I probably found it on dollar day at Goodwill. 

This little red wagon has been used time and time again.  I shop so many different thrift stores.  Which one did I get it at?

 

This large painting has an amazing frame, but I think the question to ask myself is not where did I get it but why did I get it?  I must have been in my hippie retro mood when I brought this home.  And yet, I still love it! I would buy it again.

A frame hanging on the wall holding my family photo, a glass cake pan that I bake a cake in to take to a sick friend, Eden’s handmade tutu all a glitter with pink lace ruffles; all pieces of trash that I purchased at neighbor’s yard sales or my local thrift store that now bless my eclectic life.  What will I find this weekend?  I can’t wait.