thriving on birthday thrifting!

 Life gets in the way of keeping my resolution of blogging every day. As you know, Roxie and I are birthday twins. We had postponed our celebration until after the wedding, so finally on Thursday, we and Anne set out to celebrate in Pensacola with some good ole secondhand snooping! We were on our way too early to stop at Dixie's since they open at 10. Next stop was "Miles of Art" which is in the old Miles Furniture store across from La-Z-Boy on Bayou Blvd. We had to wait on them to open too! Such a strange feeling for me to experience... But once we got inside, it was well worth the wait!!! That place is a HUGE treasure land! Booth after booth of unique novelties, gorgeous art, and expensive antiques kept us enthralled for almost 2 hours! The most beautiful painting I have ever seen hung there; a monstrous 6' x 4' canvas of green dappled sea water with a vivid sea turtle swimming by. I want to go back to just stand and gaze again at all of its beautiful $2,100 self. But for now, I am thrilled with my $4 juice box purse similar to the one pictured below that I ended up with! Daniel does NOT appreciate its recycled beauty and has forbidden me to carry it in his presence, so I will happily go green when I am without him!

  We dined at "The Cactus Flower Café." It was raining a good drizzle by then, definitely a "Seattle" day. I was wishing I was wearing cute rain boots! We had a good girly lunch; Anne and Roxie both had the special which was a sandwich and a cup of tortilla soup. I had a mango shrimp salad and a different kind of soup that I can't remember the name of. Next on the agenda was the Teen Challenge thrift store on 9th Ave. I found a beautiful hardcover copy of "Marley and Me" for $1.00, a paperback "Shopaholic Takes Manhattan" for $.59, and a frosted stemmed sundae cup for $1.00  that exactly matches the one I had broken! Now I have a set of 12 again! The Miracle Box thrift store on Davis really made me smile! I found an almost new pair of black Gianni Bini leather wedges for $4.99!! They are a touch too narrow but I've been reading some great tutorials on how to stretch them. I also fell in love with a British flag coffee mug that was only $.49. After a quick Target run, we were back to business at the Goodwill on 9 Mile Rd. I spied a green leather La-Z-Boy chair for only $34.99 but it appeared to have a broken back. {Later, after discussing this chair with Daniel and Dad, I realized that it probably just wasn't hooked properly on one side in the back. Wade and Rhonda checked it out on Saturday, confirmed my suspicion, and purchased it for us! Yay!} I did make Daniel smile with the rolling office chair I found for $3.99 that will enable him to sit in style in his deer stand. The Teen Challenge next door was our last secondhand shop of the day. I netted a Richard Peck book "The Preacher's Funeral," a turquoise measuring cup set, and a tomato red coffee mug all for FREE! This happened because the lady ahead of me in line only wanted to purchase one item for $1.83 which didn't meet the $5 minimum for using a credit card. She told me to add my stuff to hers since she had to pay $5 anyway!  "Thank-you, Ma'am!" I will pay this favor forward some day! On the way home, we savored piled high Burger King cones along with fun and friendship! Twas a thrifty day with friends that was totally a thrill!

TIP OF THE DAY: Even if you don't have an umbrella handy and it's pouring rain, it's not a good idea to put a plastic bag over your head to keep dry because the temporary blindness could result in a nasty bonk on the head from the vehicular door frame. Just sayin'. Not that I would know or anything, but I do have a really sore lump on my head for some reason...