I used to like going to Goodwill in Ohio, and occasionally in Ft. Wayne when we were visiting, but Chicago is awesome for the variety it offers. In high school I actually found two of my prom dresses at the Bowling Green Goodwill for $5 a piece, and before 4H camp we would descend on the store for costumes that we would wear at campfire and to meals. In college, I would drive friends and international students to the stores looking for sweaters, flannels, and crazy random things. We’d also do clothing swaps a few times a year with the ladies of Cru, and the leftovers were found for months afterwards at the local thrift store. (Have you ever seen something and thought, I have one just like that! only to realize that IS your old shirt/dress/scarf? It’s a weird feeling.)
After cleaning out my closet this weekend, I wanted to check the local thrift stores for flannels and boots. Most of the stores near me have certain colored tags designated for half-off on different days of the month. There’s a chain, Village Discount Outlet, with at least a dozen locations, a more well-kept store called Unique, and a Salvation Army all in reasonable distance of our apartment. Each location has a slightly different type of stock. The store near my gym has a ton of vintage suits, sweaters, and skirts plus a good amount of wool clothes. The only one with fitting rooms-Unique-has more of your season or two old name brand clothes and some more modern shoes. The Salvation Army is hit-or-miss most days. **As the internet is not always friendly, I want to clarify that I am mentioning the brands of things not because I only wear name-brands but to show the craziness of what you can find/how much you can save by thrifting.**
After about two hours of carrying around all kinds of things, I ended up finding a vintage plaid German wool skirt, a New York and Company blouse that actually fits, an L.L. Bean super soft flannel shirt (in the men’s section, but who cares?), a Banana Republic longer women’s flannel, and a mystery flannel with an embroidery style print on the back. I also found replacement tall boots for the ones I’ve entirely worn through at 10% of what they’d be in the store! I know I’m not the only one who finds more than they were looking for when they go shopping. My other goal was to look for baskets to organize my tea & coffee shelf, but the ones of the right size didn’t have tags & they won’t sell them unmarked.
One of these days when we have all of our pictures hung up and the boxes all dealt with, I’m planning to go back and find some fun decorations. Both my mom & MIL have found me fun wreaths that make the front door look more fun, but my current decoration set up consists of my wedding bouquet, two lanterns, and a ton of mostly-burnt candles. The candles are perfectly usable, but not so pretty to look at right when you come in the door. I also have quite a bit of yarn that I don’t have a project for. I only know a handful of crochet stitches and I can only use/give away so many earwarmers.
In other news, I finally got around to sewing the tears in my leggings that have been waiting a long, long time. Unlike the other ladies of my family, sewing and I just don’t get along. Much like my math skills, I can get things done and understand the concepts, but don’t enjoy it. I also don’t know much about the sewing machine I currently have, which is my excuse for not hemming my jeans. Can you stitch through light-weight denim without an industrial machine? Not wanting to find out the hard way, I decided rolling my jeans will work until I get back to Ohio and my mother’s sewing expertise.
Rather than blogging about each week’s highs & lows, I wanted to try writing about themes & topics. I like fashion & cooking, but I’m not sure whether the audience of this blog would have any interest in either of those. Feel free to comment here or on the Facebook post with opinions or any topics you want to hear about. I plan to also write about the new books I’ve been reading after processing them a bit more.
Life as a Leimkuehler 