Man, it’s been busy around here.…
GOODWILL BINS — JUNE STASH
Racing heartbeat, sweaty palms, fidgety feet. Panic attack?
No, just another score at the Goodwill bins….
BIRTHDAY WEEK BINS STASH – VINTAGE GALORE!
Thrift shopping is like falling in love — if you are trying too hard, maybe it’s not meant to be. But when the stars align, and you are both lucky and attuned to that around you, something beautiful might cross your path. You just have to be ready for it.
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Recent Bin Finds- Charlotte Pan
Scored this beauty of a pan this week at the Goodwill bins.
I remember these spendy pans being sold at Williams-Sonoma (I used to write recipes and copy for them many years ago but still pop in to their stores from time to time in to check out new arrivals and drool). I always thought they were charming but couldn’t justify the price as I had no need for something called a Charlotte Mold.
A Charlotte is a sponge cake or cookie-lined cake in which layers of fruit or custard also play a role, and are either served cold (making it like a trifle) or warm (as in Apple Charlotte). They can be baked or unbaked. Some say it originated in Britain, others in France. Who knows? All I know is I bake all the time, and I even have a daughter named Charlotte so you’d think I would have come around to baking one, but no. And no immediate desire to do so, hence I can’t justify buying a new pan just because it is Valentine’s week and it’s cute as a button.
That doesn’t stop me, however, from enjoying a cute tin-lined steel pan when it crosses my thrifty path. Now I can’t imagine coming home from the market and not having this little French-made cutie to corral my room temperature produce.
Charlotte molds — not just for dessert anymore.
Approximate cost @.89 per pound = .97 cents
Bins Finds – Oatmeal Linen Stash
I’m obsessed with linen. There, I’ve said it.
I especially love it in white, cream, ecru, dove gray, caramel — and oatmeal. Oatmeal linen is the best– it looks sort of French with equal parts rustic and elegant. I love the feel of it, the way it catches the light, and if there was a snowball chance in hell the color looked good on me, I’d probably wear it all the time. It looks amazing with so many colors – aqua, cobalt, pumpkin, fuchsia, sage, lavender, navy, white, even black – but alas I look like death warmed over in it.
That fact, however, didn’t stop me from buying the couch I fell in love with at Restoration Hardware. It is covered in Belgian oatmeal linen, took two months to arrive, and sat for one month in my living room before I felt worthy of a long sit. It’s what I like to think of as a grown-up couch; something you buy with intention, see as an heirloom (unless kids destroy it inadvertently with a Sharpie), and can have your in-laws sit on when they visit. (Darn it! I think I see a foot print on it! I am going to have kick some major a–.)…
Bins Find – Vintage Christmas Stockings
A couple years back I bought one like these from an artist specializing in vintage and repurposed items. She had the top seam finished off with a reprinted vintage Christmas Card, folded over. This week I found a total of five of these empty stockings at the bins, and next Christmas I am going to take that same basic idea and do that with these.
Perhaps I will then fill them with tiny packages of homemade treats — or just with purchased mini treats of a similar theme (nuts? wrapped truffles? breakfast treats?) and then leave the filled stockings on the doorknobs of friends’ front doors.
Wouldn’t that be a wonderful thing to wake up to?
(approximate cost of items: a quarter)