A thrifting adventure!

Last week, I went on a little thrifting adventure after work, and wanted to share! Milwaukee is a wealth of little shops here and there, some quality, some not so much. Then, you have the big-box thrift stores like Goodwill, where sometimes you’ll score on clothes, but not much else. When I thrift, I am usually looking for something to add to my religious art collection, craft supplies like embroidery hoops, or keeping an open mind (and open eyes!) for other fun, unexpected finds. I wanted to write this post and share a couple of my favorite thrift shops with you guys – as well as last week’s buys!

Likely my favorite shop in Milwaukee (at least the one I go to the most), is located in Hales Corners, a suburb, but is just a short drive down Highway 100. It is a Bethesda Thrift Shop, and there are twelve in Wisconsin, but this is the only one in the Milwaukee area. I love it for a couple of simple reasons: I always find something great, the items are always priced well, and the store is absolutely immaculate! There is nothing better than that when you’re out thrifting. I found a couple of great wall hangings featuring handpainted style kitties! So kitschy, but I couldn’t turn them down. I also found an old spice rack that I plan to repurpose for an upcoming How-To Tuesday!

A second favorite is also located on Highway 100! While it doesn’t donate to a particular cause and is for all intensive purposes a for-profit thrift shop, there’s something a little bit different about it…

There are Barbie dolls everywhere! On the walls, lining shelves, everywhere. There’s no rhyme or reason to it, they’re just there. 

I don’t typically have great luck here, but still like going in to poke around all the same. On last week’s trip, I found this adorable Enesco cookie jar with squirrels on it from the 1970’s! It was in great shape – best part about the buy was I couldn’t find the price (they typically write on the items with a grease pencil), so the store’s manager priced it at $6.50, and we eventually found the price, and it was initially marked $10! Such a cute, great find. 

If you are in the Milwaukee area and looking to check out a couple of different thrift shops, these are definitely a couple to look for!

Have you gone thrifting lately? What have you found?

Sunday, Crafty Sunday: Thrifted frame rehab!

I am typically my craftiest on Sundays. Whether that's because sometimes I'm hungover (sometimes) or because I tend to sleep in the most on Sundays, I always just want to wake up and want to knit everything in my house together, or turn on the hot glue gun and glue my cats together. That's never happened, but you know what I mean. I also enjoy eating at Cici's Pizza Buffet every Sunday for lunch. This week it didn't happen, and last week I went so late it was like a Chuck E Cheese's, but perhaps I'll keep it going next Sunday.

A couple of weeks ago, I woke up on Sunday morning and decided to go out to the thrift stores I like, since I'd taken a day off of work and gone up to my hometown of Green Bay, spending an entire day with my mother going to garage sales and church rummage sales. I had the fever! At the first shop, I found a beer glass from one of my favorite Milwaukee bars, the spy-themed Safe House. I'm sure this won't be the last time I talk about this thrift shop, but let it be known that the USA Thrift Shop on Highway 100 in Milwaukee is plastered in Barbie dolls stapled, nailed, and affixed to the wall everywhere. I know that I have a photo, just can't find it.

Anywho, I went to my second shop - a Bethesda Thrift Shop, run by a local church - and struck gold! I am always on the hunt for two things: religious iconography (usually wall hangings depicting Jesus, Mary, or anything of that sort), and ornate frames to use for my finished cross stitch projects. I even had a couple of them finished at home that were just aching for an awesome frame. Even better, the shop was running a special with everything 50% off, so what should have been a $17 total wound up being closer to $9. Struck oil! In total, I got 7 frames for cross stitch projects, and 1 Last Supper image in a cool oval frame. When I found them, I of course headed straight to the craft store for acrylic paint, and the hardware store for spray paint.

my thrift and craft store finds!

My first order of business was to remove the random photos and dried flowers from the frames, as well as clean the glass. It seemed a lot more difficult than it actually wound up being!

After this step came my combined most/least favorite part of this entire project, and that was COMPLETELY violating my lease by turning my bathroom into a spray paint booth. Don't do it. I just do it because I don't have anywhere outside to spray, and I do wear a respirator when I remember. This, of course, being so I don't wind up passed out dead with my cats eating what's left of my muscles and skin from my bones when they run out of food. So, Russian landlords, if you're reading this, please don't evict and/or chop any of my fingers off. It's all for the love of crafting!

For primer, I used a gray spray primer that's good for wood, metal, or plastic. I picked it up at Menards, but I'm sure a Home Depot, Lowes, Ace Hardware or something similar would have it as well. Once that part was done, I was finished with most of the frames, spare two of them, which I had finished pieces for. Those two, I decided to paint using acrylic craft paints from Jo Ann's. It took about a million coats, and it wasn't much fun. Once that paint dried completely, I sprayed a clear coat over them and called 'em done.

Danzig skull and PBR stitches, ready to go!

Since I was ready to frame finished stitch projects, I got out my craft iron (AKA my mom's old iron from the 70s/80s), ironed both pieces flat, and took to putting them in their new frames.

And there they are! Come back next Sunday and see what else I've got up my sleeve!