Thrift Shop bargains

I've been away, buried amidst mounds of second-hand clothes and other things in the school's gym for the last four days. It was wonderful to take the scenic route home from church on my bike this morning with blue skies above and to see colourful flowers bursting forth all over the place. Truly a lovely sight after being in that dusty gym for four days!
I continue to be told that people love to see my posts about some of our acquisitions from Thrift Shop. Tomorrow I might have my head together enough to write a more reflective post. So here goes:


This boy, our youngest, is a genius at finding amazing things at Thrift Shop, especially brand name clothes (he's the only one of our three that has picked up that there are such things). The first photos are of some of his (better) finds.

Traditionally the middle school youth group that meets on Sunday afternoons has a "Thrift Shop find" costume competition the day after Thrift Shop. This Luiji costume is almost too small, but it did the trick.

A decorative boat (not one of his best finds) and some stretchy,  reusable textbook covers (they are required to cover the textbooks they borrow from the school).

He found an Under Armour jacket (and a t-shirt too), plus a sports bag to carry his gear for meets.

Another t-shirt. Up until recently our youngest is the only one who's been interested in clothes shopping.

This is a multi-game that he also found. I put my slipper next to it so you can see the scale. There are plastic inserts so that you can play nine other games, such as basketball, air hockey, darts. Both our youngest have been enjoying this.

More water bottles, also good sporting gear.

Our eldest surprised us this time by being keen to buy clothes, especially clothes that he's avoided in the past: jeans and button up shirts. He worked hard to find jeans. Not easy, as his figure around the waist isn't quite as skinny as many young men his age because of six years of wrestling.

Here are some shirts he found.

And the first of purchases that herald a boy who will move to Australia next year.

And books, his standard Thrift Shop purchase.

I found this book for the philosopher of the family, our middle son. The one who is always asking difficult questions.

Of course there is always food purchased at Thrift Shop. These are some kind of sweet cinnamon-flavoured roll. Not looking so pretty, but were tasty enough.

There were freebies: acquired during the free shopping time after the shop closed and prior to cleaning the gym out yesterday afternoon. New Ikea Christmas decorations and more tinsel for our sizeable Thrift Shop tree.

I found a new lunch box for our youngest son who is very hard wearing on lunch boxes. I thought the Gekko was a nice touch.

Two DVDs also found during free shopping time.

I've got a few bags of wool collecting in my crafting corner, gathering from my earlier enthusiasm to try out crochet. I'm no longer really pursuing crochet and wondering what to do with the wool. Here's one idea, try weaving. But looms are very expensive. This was a cheap plastic one for kids that I found and can try out.

Our camping trips has fuelled an interest in me in Japanese geography, especially learning different prefectures and places. So I'd been thinking for a while that a kids puzzle with Japanese prefectures would be a good learning tool. Now I'll need to learn to recognise the kanji (complicated characters) to go with the prefectures.

A fun jigsaw for holidays.

I found some books for me too, this is one of my favourite authors.

Thrift Shop is a fun place to pick up cheap jewellery. Here are some earrings I bought for about 60 cents. I'm not sure I'll wear all of them. The colour of this photo isn't good

A covering for an umbrella handle to help prevent your umbrella being mistaken for someone elses (a common problem at school). I'm not sure that anyone wants it, though.

More jewellery, Christmas earrings, gold chain earrings, and a green necklace, that I've already worn.

This was my most unexpected purchase. This amazing obi cost—the wide sash worn around the waist of a kimono. My flash of inspiration was to decorate my house with this, perhaps by hanging it in our entry.

It is quite long, though, four metres! And 1.2kg. Those elaborate kimonos aren't light. And it only cost 350 yen (AU$4.25).