February 2010
51 posts
1 tag
Day to evening
My not-so-distant past life involved a lot of retail drone work in a variety of different places, most inexplicably at Ann Taylor Loft. In contrast to the store’s overwhelmingly blah aesthetic, ATL had a very complicated selling strategy that every new employee was forced to be trained on at length. One of the tricks I learned from the hours of instructional videos that I digested while...
January 2010
13 posts
3 tags
Terrifying letters from ebay sellers
One of the weirdest emails I’ve ever received was from an ebay seller who was a month late in sending me an Amazing Vintage Sea Green Disco Dress. Paypal eventually reimbursed me for the money I spent but I only got store credit for the emotional baggage.
Hi Valerie,
I truly don’t deserve all the patience and kindness you’ve given me with this transaction. Last time I...
1 tag
Digression! Digression!
According to wikipedia, J.D. Salinger used to drink his own urine for medicinal purposes. Wow, I didn’t know that until today.
2 tags
Hummingbirds are the new owls
I’m pretty proud of myself. This lovely set of cross stitch hummingbirds coasters: I MADE THEM. Or, more correctly, I followed patterns in a kit (purchased at, what else, a thrift store). I’m not particularly crafty but for some reason I’ve acquired a ton of craft kits over the years, mostly of the fleeting 70s trend variety (string art, latch hook, macrame). I finally...
2 tags
Going rogue
There are a lot of things I like about this 70s secretary dress: the pretty rust color, the flattering knee length, the matching belt. One thing I don’t like is the tendency of that middle button to pop open at the most inopportune moments. A flash of a bra is really not a cute look for a staff meeting.
1 tag
The red shoes
Ah, the “granny pixie ankle boot”, you elusive creature! I swear I have bid in dozens of different ebay auctions trying to get a suitable pair of these adorable little shoes. Some sneaky ebay sneak would always shut me out at the last minute and I would be left shaking my fist at the computer screen, bootieless.
That’s why I was so surprised to find these while I was...
3 tags
Double trouble
Why would anyone toss their VCR when they can go to any neighborhood thrift store and score a comedy gem like this for only 25 cents? Screw picture quality. I want my laughs for cheap!
I never actually saw Big Business in the 80s but I adore Lily Tomlin and Bette Midler (the first ladies of laughter, as the box proclaims) so I’ve been meaning to check this flick out for ages. It was...
2 tags
Waterlogged
When my dollar store umbrella gave up the ghost today in the middle of a torrential downpour, the chic factor of my pretty Mad Men-era dress got racheted down a few points by the resulting hat hair. Luckily, my workhorse of a bullet bra was there to save the silhouette.
1 tag
When I came home, there was a man in my house
Sometimes I feel like Tommy Lee Jones in The Fugitive but instead of ordering a hard target search of every gas station, residence, warehouse, farmhouse, henhouse, outhouse and doghouse in the area I’m checking every ebay auction, antique mall, flea market, thrift store, yard sale, garage sale, and stoop sale for neat stuff to clutter up my already cluttered house. I only wish at the end of...
2 tags
Speaking of creepy
These guys were sold separately but I couldn’t break up the act.
3 tags
Bear hug
My friend Eem shares my affinity for thrift store goodies and we often gift each other with our weirdest finds. She gave me this bizarre cookie tin for my birthday some years back and I have never ceased being creeped out by it. The top image, which can only be described as an Awkward Family Photo for stuffed animals, is surprisingly not the most unsettling part of the tin. On the side, in...
3 tags
Governing body
I’ve really had to work hard to break myself of my habit of buying silly/awesome, but ultimately unflattering, clothing at the thrift store. This Jesse Ventura t-shirt is a perfect example. It was only 50 cents, so therefore I HAD to buy it because the very concept of the shirt was worth the asking price alone. Besides the amazing rendering of Jesse Ventura pounding his fist on his own...
1 tag
Welcome wagon
Hi. I’m Val and this is my tumblr. On it I will talk about my favorite thrift store finds, because I’m totally the girl who responds to offhand compliments with an annoying gleeful, “You like it? It only cost 5 bucks!”