Life of Val

Restraint

A nice, quiet, low-key weekend usually gives me the chance to do some garage sale hunting, or at least make a trip to the farmer’s market. Well this was the perfect weekend for some bargain shopping. Not only has the weather up here been amazing, but I have a very willing husband who helped watch the babe and even accompanied me on a few of my ventures.

Garage sale-ing Saturday AM, for a grand total of $6, I found: 2 pairs of pants, a bat costume  and a space heater (all for C Monster).

I had to keep my lips tightly sealed at one point. Having hosted a few garage sales myself, I like to think I have some experience on the other side of the fanny pack. One of the hostesses at the sale where I found C’s pants was frugal beyond compromise. There was a man there trying to buy  a bag of clothes for his daughter and this saleswoman demanded he pay $35! Her argument was “Do you know how much I payed for my daughter’s clothes?” Ridiculous.

Next, we took a break from bargain hunting and went out to lunch. I have been craving sweet potato fries for about a month (BTW-I’m pregnant!). I found a restaurant near my preschool called The Filling Station that has a nice outdoor patio and SPFs. It was wonderful. It reminded me a lot of Cafe’ Gardens, back home (RIP).

The Filling Station is in this cute downtown-ish area of Winston-Salem called West End. Right around the corner is my new favorite consignment shop, Re-tale. I could let the owner of this place decorate my house. I really think, if I had the money I would have walked out of there with every household/furniture item that was for sale. Instead, with the $30 I did have, I bought a hamper to contain all the sporting equipment floating around our house and 2 cute candlesticks.

Here comes the best part…

On a thrifty kick, I decided to head to Goodwill and look for a shower curtain. That’s right. After 5 months of living here, we still don’t have a real shower curtain. I didn’t find what I was looking for, BUT, I did find a vase/bowl that I had just been eyeing at Re-tale for $2 (it was for sale at Re-tale for $8). I was so excited. I also found a Pyrex lemonade pitcher and a small wooden lamp base that one might find on Apartment-Therapy .

So I didn’t clean or grocery shop like I had intended. But, hey, when I do dust those shelves, now there will be a lot of cute items to decorate them with.