Thrifty Thursdays

I'm sure you all know by now, that I love thrift stores...and it really doesn't help that I work at one. LOL. Oh well, you win some and loose some, right? Hehe. Anyway, I may be biased, but I think ours has the best prices in town. You can check out the fb page here. 

And if you're in the PDX area, it's on 31st & Sandy BLVD. And, when you buy from Teen Challenge Thrift Store, you are helping put some great young men through a Christian program to help them get off drugs and alcohol. So, it a win-win! 

I have an obsession with jars lately, The jar with the cork, I actually bout at an estate sale for $1.50, the rest I got at TC for $.99 each.

I also picked up this great, really old looking coach pin for $1.99

And this random fox tail for $1.99...which I don't know what I'm going to do with yet. Haha.

I also got this great heat box thing, that has great velvet lining for $.99. I think it's supposed to be for a ring maybe...not that I plan on proposing to anyone in the near or distant future, but it's cute.

I picked up this napkin for $.59 Again, no plans for it, but I liked all this cool gold and gray flowers.

I also got this wad of necklaces for $2.99. You can't see it from this picture, but I really wanted the wishbone charm that's on it.

Here's a strip of lace ($.59), and a pillow case ($.99). I have no plans for the lace yet, but I'm going to try to turn the pillowcase into a scarf. I've really been wanting a leopard print scarf...and what better way!

I also got this OPI nail polish. I forgot the color. But I got it for $1.99. It's a great bright reddish orange!

Awesome Ebay Finds

So, I ran into this ebay shop called Gone With the Wind. And being my favorite movie, naturally I was curious. Of course... I don't understand the correlation with the title, but whatevs. It has great and cheap  costume jewelry. 

You can find the store here. 

I got all four of the items pictured below for under $15 with free shipping. And..it came to me in a week, which was really surprising since it's all from China. 

Anyway, just thought I'd share!

Homemade Vanilla

Scroll to bottom for recipe.

As we all know, pure vanilla extract is super expensive...but if you make it yourself it doesn't have to be! And you can make a lot at a time.

All you need is, a glass bottle, three vanilla beans, and some alcohol (either vodka, rum, or bourbon)

(for those of you are freaking out right now because of the alcohol, don't worry because you are using this in really small doses, just like you would regular vanilla extract, and they alcohol content will cook out of your recipe anyway.)

Anyway, I purchased a vial of three madagascar vanilla beans for $8.99 at Penzey's spices here in Clackamas...however I'm sure you can get them at more places. Online would probably also be a great place to get them. As for the alcohol, you can pretty much use whatever you want because you won't taste that much of it anyway.

You'll need to take the vanilla beans and slit them all the way down with a knife, that way the flavor will infuse the alcohol. Then pour in your alcohol, and that's pretty much it. It will need to sit for at least three weeks, giving it a good shake every few days.

The vanilla beans will be good for approximately one year, so you can keep pouring in more alcohol up until that time, waiting about two weeks each time you use it again.

I hope you all enjoyed this!

Gift Idea

So sometimes I have a hard time deciding on what to get people for birthdays and holidays, etc. I came across a really cool photography blog and this girl made books for her relatives...so I thought it was worth a shot! It seems like it was pretty decently priced too. 

The website is called blurb, ie www.blurb.com 

I know that you can also make books through shutterfly...however I've never compared the two of them before. 

Anyway here are the results of my book. I got a 20 page 8x10" paperback book.

Some Random Jewelry of Mine

Okay, so here's a collection of some jewelry I have...most of which I did not make. If you like to see what I make, and see you can find it here at Bittersweet Bling. Or you can shop here.

These I got at forever 21 a couple of years ago for about $2.80

Last summer I was obsessed with watching biggest loser, and one of the contestants, was wearing earrings VERY similar to these. Unfortunately, the website is no longer open;-(

I found these at Powell's Bookstore on Hawthorne. I think they were around $10. But they're so adorable, little tiny origami paper cranes.

I found these lovely coconut earrings (which are a pain to put on) at a place down on Hawthorne ST called "The Gold Door". They were $5.

I found these when I worked at Goodwill, but I can see on the back they are Joan Rivers brand, which I think you might still be able to get from QVC.

Here's some of my favorite studs. The yellow rosette studs you can still get for $3.80 here at Forever 21. The come in yellow, black, and pink.

The red rhinestone cluster studs were also from forever 21, however I don't see that they are available still. But here are some that are quite similar. Or you can probably do a google search for "rhinestone cluster stud earrings"

The blue daisys I got on sale at Fred Meyer, however since they have a really crappy website, you can't buy them online. (I'm pretty sure they are Great Northwest brand)

The glitter, button, and saftey pin earrings were all made by me!

I picked up these great feather earrings on sale at Target.

These also came from Powell's on Hawthorne. They come in all different shapes, sizes and colors. I really want the ones that are a bicycle, and a lotus flower.

These are also from Fred Meyer, Great Northwest brand. I think I paid $6 for them.

Of course they don't have these on the website, but I got these at walmart. They were around $3.50

I love this pocket watch necklace. I think I paid $20 at the Powell's on Hawthrone.

I got these lovely gold tassle earrings at Forever 21 for about $2.80

And if $265 isn't pocket change to you, then you probably won't be getting yourself a Marc Jacobs rose gold watch either. This one I got on sale at Target for $12.99

This came from Forever 21 for $7.80. It's comfortable and stretchy. It's also available in black, blue, and yellow.

I got this set of bangles from walmart. It was $5.50 for the set of 18 of them. I got the gold set, but they have silver too!

Nathaniel and His Ball