Goodwill does NOT rock my world anymore.

I have seen so many things over the years and it almost catches me by surprise to see something I have not seen before.

This was a first for me.

It attaches under the seat and is almost like thick fishing line that is the “tab” to pull up the seat.

I think tab would not also become, uh, contaminated, and impossible to clean.

I doubt there is a Tidy Tab cleaner in the package.

This was a large creepy photo that totally reminded me of an old post-mortem photo.

Creepy baby.

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Gradening Rocks.

Goodwill rocks.

This is a rock, yes, a rock for sale at Goodwill.

$4.99

Goodwill rock.

$1.99

If I had received this rock as a gift, it would have to be surgically removed from the gift giver’s skull.

$1.99 for potential weapon.

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It has been slim pickens at the thrift stores lately.

I stopped going to the local store twice daily ( it is only a mile away) as the prices have gone up and the quality of the merchandise has plummeted.

I used to spend a lot of money there and in turn, make money on the stuff I bought.

It may sound funny to say that the quality of merchandise at a Goodwill store has gone down – but here in the Pacific Northwest, the Goodwill stores have not been like a “thrift store.”

They do not smell.

They are well lit and they are clean and well staffed.

They used to sort out the clothing with rips and stains and missing buttons.

Not any more, now they are crammed on the racks so tightly that it is hard to move one item far enough to see the next.

They used to put out a good amount of vintage items.

Not any more.

Those go to the online store and sell for less quite often than they would in the store.

They used to NOT put out obviously broken item on the shelves.

Not any more.

They used to have thrift store prices on their merchandise.

Often now, the pricing is so oddly arbitrarily high that, as a frequent shopper, I hear people EVERYDAY remarking about the high prices.

So now I go just once a day to my local store and still more than often keep my hard earned dollars in my pocket.

It is not a perfect world.

From my view – there are things I would change.

Does Goodwill Think I am an Idiot?

I don’t understand this.

Here is a big wooden pheasant.

With no beak.

Marked on the tag – “As-is”

(remember, “as-is” in Goodwill language, means non-returnable)

$7.99

Here is a big elk with one antler busted off.

$7.99

But, hey!   They taped the broken part to the midsection of the beast…

I am sometimes out of the loop of current trends, so maybe Martha Stewart has found a way to make broken items more valuable?

Think Martha can do something with this oddly disturbing bunny dish with a broken and poorly glued ear?

Why would any retailer even put these items out for sale?

I just don’t get it.

I certainly don’t buy them.

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At the smelly store today I saw a sight about as disturbing as the bad bunny dish.

Creepy, eh?

They did have an interesting futon…

If you needed something to brighten up a room – then this would do the trick!

I saw it yesterday, and then the store had a storewide 1/2 price sale last night.

This was still there today…

Going in circles and circles and circles

I found those 325 squares of canvas at Goodwill and started painting circles.

Lots and lots of circles.

When I say lots and lots of circles – I mean LOTS of circles.

It has been so fun to paint those circles.

Learning about paint and how paint works.

I even started painting both sides of the canvas.

I have completed many double sided mouse pad-place-mat coasters.

Then I stopped painting the black squares to put my circles in and started painting different colored background squares to paint my circles in.

My next change was to just paint an abstract background on the canvas…

and then paint random circles and smoosh some paint around and scratch horizontal and vertical lines in the canvas.

Then I expanded on that idea even further.

(This is my favorite one so far…)

Today we had our little art club meeting and I think I may have finished my canvas floor cloth.

I painted both sides of that too!

Pics of that later.

Tonight, I am like a crazy woman and I am working on 10, yes TEN canvas squares at one time.

I have no idea what these will look like when I am finished.

I don’t even care.

I am having TOO much fun!

I bought some brushes at an estate sale a few weeks ago of an old gentleman here in town.

He was a nice old guy and when I use the brushes, I get to remember him.

I went to another estate sale of another old guy and bought more brushes.

I am thinking that more brushes are better than less brushes…

I like that all my paints and canvas and brushes are pretty much all used and up-cycled.

Up-cycled.

Interesting word.

The long and winding road and a Hot Destination.

We heard about a flea market about 20 miles from home , so we thought we would check it out today.

Took the backroads to get there.

It has been raining a LOT lately…

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We went to Rose’s restaurant for breakfast.

Rose’s Deli used to be in Portland and it was the ultimate deli.

This place is part of the chain of Rose’s was in a strip mall and it was an awful breakfast.

Kevin, our server, introduced himself.

That should have been a warning.

I ordered corned beef  hash.

I got large diced potatoes with red peppers and onions and ham.

Oh, and the burned toast was cold.

The spouse got the same potatoes – minus the onions and red peppers, but on his plate they were called hashbrowns.

The two eggs over-hard were rubbery and cold.

Oy vey.

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Went to a Goodwill store that I had not been to before – but unfortunately I felt like I HAD been there before –

because I saw many items that were re-tagged from stores that I have already been to recently.

This little handpainted tourist dish has the hint of the green tag from the previous store.

Empty shells for canned snails.

Sounds like the name of a song.

$2.99

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I had been wanting to go Victor’s European Meat Market and today was the day as it was just 1/2 mile from

the flea market that was our destination.

It was a small shop in strip mall.

Victor has the reputation of being like the Soup Nazi from an old Seinfeld show.

I found him to be an OK sort of fellow.

(He even said goodbye to me in Russian…)

I told him I wanted spicy Hungarian Sausage and he said they have 3 kinds.

I told him I wanted 3 pounds of the spiciest!

($5.99 per pound)

Got in the car and ripped open the paper wrap and tried the sausage.

OMG!

SPICY!

OMG!

GREAT!

OMG!

SPICY SPICY SPICY!

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Then we found the flea market.

Icky sort of place.

Nothing special.

Uh,  right….

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Saw a Corvair in the parking lot.

It reminded me of the one my dad had when I was young.

A Corvair Monza Spyder.

My brother tried to teach me to drive a manual transmission in that car.

My first lesson driving the Corvair, we got to the top of a hill that had a stop sign.

That was too overwhelming for me.

I just put the car in neutral – put on the emergency brake and walked home.

(well, “walked” might have been more like “stomped” home.)

It was many many years before I learned to drive a stick shift.

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Home again home again…

I probably should take the moss off the mailbox – but is it just so dang pretty.