Category Archives: recessionista

the greatest thrift stores in all of SA

As promised I have composed a list (and map!!) of the best thrift stores we’ve come across in all of our 4 years of living here and knowing each other. I know it has taken me longer than I had planned to write this, but that just means it will be that much better, right?

I made a cute little map (thanks google!) with different colored pins for each thrift/junk/antique store we know and love. Here is a little key for you:

GREEN - super cheap (a chair is $5)
YELLOW – moderately priced (a chair is $20-30)
RED – uber expensive (a chair is $300)
BLUE – these are flea markets

Click here for a larger map

Now I realize these are not all of the thrift stores in SA because A. I haven’t been to ALL of them yet, and B. I purposely left off the ones that (in my opinion) stunk. Like the downtown Goodwill. DO NOT GO THERE, it’s a total waste of your time. All they do is resell surplus Target merchandise for double the price. Awkward.

So now that my little disclaimer is out of the way, let’s get down to business. In alphabetical order..

Assistance League Thrift House

Price: $
What they have: an even mix of nice furniture, housewares, and clothing

I stumbled upon AL Thrift house by accident on my way out of a really lovely Salvation Army. It’s kind of tucked back away from the main street but once you walk inside you would think you’d stepped into a cute little boutique in small town downtown square or something. Everything is so organized and perfectly displayed and oh so cheap. Like cheaper than Goodwill cheap. And the ladies that all work there are so sweet. I’ve actually already written about this place here if you want more info and photos of the inside. Definitely at the top of my list!

Beacon Hill Market Place

Price: $$$
What they have: mostly vintage/antique furniture, housewares, and collectables

Okay so I actually have mixed feelings about this one. She has a TON of stuff. You may have seen their name pop up on Craigslist with every other listing. Like I said, a lot of stuff. But the downside is that I think the owner is actually a hoarder because she has priced everything outrageously. I mean she has more things than she knows what to do with that is just piled and piled from floor to ceiling. But charging $300 for a chair that looks like it was left out in the rain and a mountain lion got ahold of is not cool in my book. She does have a bunch of smaller treasures though that are more moderately priced. And whatever you’re looking for she has it, just be ready to haggle or pay a pretty penny for any treasure you find.

Bussey’s Flea Market

Price: $-$$$
What they have: any and everything, it’s a flea market!

If you haven’t been to Bussey’s you really must go! But be sure to go early because the good stuff goes fast. If you stop at the guy’s booth on the end with all of the old jars and medicine bottles, do not ask him about his Nazi collection. You will throw up or run away crying. Never again! There are a few booths with actual treasure if you get past all of the glowing cell phone cases and beanie babies.

Capitol Antiques

Price: $$-$$$
What they have: furniture ranging from school desks, to Queen Anne chairs, to patio chairs, to grandfather clocks

This place is another case of hoarders anonymous. It is literally room after room after room of piled furniture, and it’s much cleaner than Beacon Hill. But if you want something from a back room under a stack of chairs and filing cabinets, I have no idea how you would ever get it out. My parents and I have almost gotten lost several times at Capitol, it’s just very windy and all of the rooms look the same so it’s easy to lose your bearings. He has some very unique items too and some are expensive but some are moderately priced, he always surprises me!

Community Thrift

Price: $
What they have: an even mix of low end furniture, housewares, and clothing

This is a very interesting place. It’s sort of setup like a warehouse and is a little pricier than Goodwill, but they have lots of sales on different colored dots each day and an additional 20% if you’re a senior! They didn’t have a lot of furniture though, it was like the broken section of Goodwill, but lots of glassware, frames, clothes, things like that.

Goodwill

Price: $
What they have: an even mix of nice furniture, housewares, and clothing

Okay so I know Goodwill seems a little obvious, but lately I haven’t been too impressed with Goodwill. It’s overpriced, inconsistently priced, and a lot of broken or damaged items. So the handful of Goodwills I’ve noted are the creme de la creme in San Antonio. I chose them because they have a huge selection, constantly moving through inventory, are super cheap, and have a lot of furniture or housewares.

Hildebrand Shops

Price: $-$$
What they have: oodles and oodles of furniture

I’m going to lump all of these together because if you are going to one you may as well go to all of them. And frankly, I can’t tell them apart anymore, so my descriptions would be confusing. There are about 10-15 shops along Blanco and Hildebrand right before you get to San Pedro. I may have skipped a few because there are just so many sprinkled in there, but if they have furniture sitting outside you’re at the right place! This is where Derek and I found our Gunlocke chairs along with a few other treasured pieces, and a few that have slipped between our fingers because we didn’t act fast enough. This stuff goes quick so you better be in a buying mood! Oh and the guys at Junction and Judys love to haggle so be sure to not settled on the sticker price. I also wrote about these shops here if you want more info and pictures of some of their pieces.

Mod Pad

Price: $$$
What they have: lots of consignment mid-century furniture and accessories

So if I had a million dollars I would eat this place up, but alas I usually just go there to oogle the dreamy mid-century finds. This place is two stories and filled with little furniture vignettes, and it’s a great place if you’re looking for some great staple pieces to invest in.

Price: $$$
What they have: lots of mid-century furniture and accessories

Oz is like Mod Pad but better. They usually have a few high end mid-century pieces or replicas. But the replicas tend to still be priced pretty high. They usually have a lot of chairs too, which we love.

Salvation Army

Price: $
What they have: an even mix of furniture, housewares, and clothing

Obviously you know what Salvation Army is, but this location is the best of the best here in SA. It’s right down the street from us and you bet your buttons I walk there every week. It’s absolutely huge and filled with TONS of furniture and housewares and the prices are fantastic! Also we donated everything we didn’t sell from our garage sale to them so that’s always neat to see haha.

Texas Thrift

Price: $
What they have: an even mix of furniture, housewares, and clothing

Okay so Texas Thrift is my favorite ever, but only on holidays. Why? Because every holiday EVERYTHING in the store is half off. No joke! But you have to get there early because the lines get super long. I’ve been there every holiday for wedding stuff which has saved us a ton of money. Plus every Texas Thrift is HUGE. Seriously. They’re like empty Walmarts turned into a thrift store. You can’t beat it.

Thrift Town

Price: $
What they have: an equal amount of furniture, housewares, and clothing

I always forget about this place because it’s kind of far away from my usual stomping grounds, but it’s always filled lots of inexpensive treasures and sometimes really nice furniture items. I usually go here for frames, glassware, fabric, things like that.

Vinny’s Values

Price: $
What they have: lots of furniture, records, accessories, housewares, and a small clothing section

This is my newest thrift store on my list. My parents and I stumbled on it a few months ago but it was closed, and we were finally able to check it out a few weeks ago. It was love at first sight! It’s pretty small but it’s packed full of lots of great furniture, accessories, and they have an entire wall of records for $1. And they have ceramic animals so you know it’s a win for me.

So that’s my list! Do you guys have any places I should add? I love finding out about out new places in the area.

a tale of two chairs

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Wow how is it already Thursday? I don’t know about you but this week has been crazy busy. When I’m not planning a wedding I’m teaching an NCIDQ prep class, which literally wears me out. But I love it nonetheless! Anyway, after last week’s living room update a few of you noticed a pair of chairs we’ve been ~~accidentally~~ hiding that have finally graced the blog with their presence.

These walnut Gunlocke chairs were Derek’s prized contribution to our furniture family. He bought them last summer after a friend of ours texted him with a drool-worthy junk shop photo of these lovelies for a whopping $70 for the pair.

They were both stamped underneath with the Gunlocke name and after some quick googling we quickly learned that these babies retail for $200-800 depending on their condition. So needless to say he snatched those suckers up in a heartbeat. We knew the upholstery was a little soiled, but after bringing them home and scrubbing the heck out of them with some Mrs. Meyers all purpose cleaner, they were looking good as new!

As you can probably tell from the photos, the wood was a little scuffed up as well. We’ve been meaning to refinish them we just haven’t gotten around to it yet, but now that they’re out in the living room for the whole ~~world~~ blog to see it’s about high time this gets moved up on the todo list. We’ve found some great remedies for buffing out the scratches that we can’t wait to share with you. We’ve also been debating on whether or not to reupholster them, but I’m a little nervous about tackling that one, and I’m kind of loving how the taupy tan looks on our coral wall. But I think I nice ivory herringbone would look lovely.

via

This post reminds me that a lot of you have been asking where my favorite goto thrift/junk shops are in the area and this weekend I plan to put together a full list with details and a map! How’s that for service? ;) I also found two new favorites this weekend while thrifting with my parents. Yes. After my parents drive 6 hours to come see me, we go thrifting. It’s our thing :) Have any of you found a great thrift shop lately? Did you score any mid-centry finds? Do share!

friday finds: garage sale hunter

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You know I love me a good garage sale. But I hate driving around aimlessly trying to find the best ones. I usually just do the creepy slow drive by where I quickly analyze their loot and decide if it’s worth a stop. Which depending on the neighborhood, it usually isn’t. I always tell Derek that they should have some sort of database that lists all of the local garage sales so that we can map them out.

Well guess what? It’s called Gsalr.com and guess what else? They have an App! You just type in your zip code and a map appears with little flags at every garage sale happening that week.

When you click one of the flags, the details about that sale pop up letting you know if it’s an estate sale, things they’re selling, how long they’ll be open, etc.

You can even add each sale to your “Trip Planner” and it will map out your entire route for you starting with your home address. Genius!

Seriously? This is the greatest thing since Padmapper. Unfortunately I need to have a garage sale myself, so I’m not really in the market to actually go garage sale-ing [yet]. But I’m pretty excited that someone has finally come up with a tool to make my little addiction that much easier.

PS: if any of you are A. having a garage sale in SA and will let me sell my things at it, or B. want to buy any of my things let me know, living in an apartment does not allow the luxury of having your own garage sale. Boo.

Happy Weekend! We have a big trip to Ikea planned for Saturday and lots and lots of organizing up ~~our~~ my sleeves.

cocktails anyone?

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This post is definitely long overdue, but for our last Anniversary [we're talking October here people] I did some thrifting to find Derek his very own decanter set.

We’ve both always hated the look of lots of liqueur bottles with misc. labels and whatnot. So I wanted to class it up a bit and find unique and vintage glass decanters. We set a small budget for exchanging gifts, so I knew I’d have to do some hardcore thrifting/craigslisting/garage sale-ing to find exactly what I was looking for. There are a lot of glass decaters out there, but it’s hard to find them with the rubber stoppers [or cork] still intact. So after months and months of hunting I finally found a complete set.

I went with lots of different shapes and sizes so that he wouldn’t be limited to a certain look whenever he needed to add to his collection. This way any decanter we come across in our future thrifting excursions will fit right in. I scored that crocodile tray at HomeGoods for $20. I love the scale of it, and it definitely holds all of the decanters with room to grow.

Overall I spent a total of $45 for the decanters, which proves that thrifting and patience pay off considering one decanter at Pottery Barn $30, and doesn’t have half the character. What’s fun about each of these is some have countries of origin and dates on the bottom of the bottle. I can just imagine someone’s grandfather using these in the 50s while smoking inside and wearing a fabulous suit with a skinny tie. Okay yes, I watch too much Mad Men.

However, right now these babies are taking up some valuable real estate on Derek’s kitchen counter, so I’ve been on the hunt for the perfect bar cart to complete the set. Here are some of my favorites..

We came across a couple on Saturday when we hit up our favorite resale shops, but Derek said they looked like bird cages. I can’t win with this guy sometimes. Needless to say, the search is on! If any of you come across a cool bar cart, let me know :)

Images from apartment therapy, this is glamorous, welcome to heardmont, style redux, belle maison, lifestyle maven, bellissimo style, secretly fancy, name 5 things, and high street market

thrifting for the holidays

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As you all know, whenever my parents come into town we always go thrifting. Well the holidays don’t make this any different! Rather than fighting all of the crazies at the mall we like to head out to all of our favorite thrift/junk shops to find some real deals. In case you’re unaware, Texas Thrift has a 50% off sale every holiday, as in the ENTIRE store is half off! The lines are mega long, but when you find two $25 bags of pillow batting for $6 total.. you wait! Here are some of my fab finds from the past six days of thrifting.

This little guy was $1 at Texas Thrift. It was the first thing I picked up and I told myself that I had to find at least two more items to make it worth standing in line. So I also grabbed two bags of pillow batting for $6 total, and these two pillows..

Don’t be scared. I know that they are ugly, but they are filled with 100% down feather inserts. So I plan to remove the striped covers and use the inserts for my next pillow making project. They were only $2 each. I mean $2 for down inserts? Sold!

I actually found this lamp about a month ago at HomeGoods and it had a matching mate, both of which were $30 each. The shades were super damaged and coming unglued so I passed on them. I’ve been kicking myself ever since because I knew I could easily repair the shades and that price was crazy cheap. So when I saw that one was still left when I popped into HomeGoods this weekend I had to have it! When I saw that it was marked down to only $15 AND it came with a lightbulb I grabbed it and held it like a baby as I walked around the rest of the store. Am I the only one who does this? I felt like if I didn’t hold on tight enough someone would steal it from me.

These little guys were only $1 a pop at Crate & Barrel outlet and they look smashing on my Christmas tree!

So I saw this pattern on some china from Villeroy & Boch outlet which retails for about $45/plate and $75/cup. I loved the colors and whimsy of the birds, but I knew that I could never pay that much for dishes. The next day we went to Texas Thrift on the 50% off day and I snagged the whole set [4 plates + 4 cups] for $7. I just about screamed.

So these Calvin Klein frames weren’t actually scored this weekend, but they were such a deal and I can’t believe I hadn’t shared them with you yet! I found them at the HomeGoods in Rockwall when I went to see my parents [the same weekend Derek asked for their permission to marry me apparently!] And you can’t tell from these photos but the larger one was originally $90 and I got it for $10, and the smaller one was originally $70 and I got it for $5. They’re super heavy and look like concrete or something, and I love that texture!

I scored these pillows with down inserts from HomeGoods for $16 a pop and they’re going to look really cool with the other pillows I’m in the process of making.

I found this lamp at Goodwill for $10. The cord was still wrapped and protected so I assumed it was brand new, and I knew that it was currently $50 at Target. So I figured $10 without a shade was a deal! Plus I have several extra shades at home [surprise surprise] which I plan on covering with fabric soon.

I found these pillow covers buried in the clearance pile at West Elm outlet for $7 each. It’s hard to tell but they’re a great metallic textured cover with a buttoned canvas fabric on the reverse side. I think I’m going to use them on my bed. They’re the same size as my flower pillows I found so I can also switch them around when I get tired of one or the other. You can honestly never have enough pillows.. right?

These are also an old find, but I kept forgetting to share it with you guys. And I honestly think they’re the best deal I’ve ever found. I was in San Marcos on Columbus Day weekend so of course I had to pop into West Elm outlet just in case, and I’m SO glad I did! They had a .97 cent table, and anything on the table was.. you guessed it .97 cents. It was covered in these little shelves that were originally $50 each. I found this way too good to be true, but I grabbed three just in case and headed to the register to confirm. They rang them up and said that they were actually a set of three so all three of them were .97 cents TOTAL. What? I saved $149. Craziness. They’re hanging out in my bathroom for the time being. I’m not sure if I should let them just be little shelves, or put something on each of them.. but what?

We also headed to Half Price Books, because that’s also a Stevens tradition. I wanted to find some Wedding planning books because I’m a tad bit overwhelmed at the moment and I found exactly what I was looking for, which hardly ever happens at that place. I usually just buy a bunch of things I wasn’t looking for at all. Anyway, I really wanted a book on etiquette and I found the mecca. Emily Post’s Complete Book of Wedding Etiquette for $7. Bam! Guess who knows how to formally address an invitation for a guest who has been remarried, and his spouse kept her last name? THIS GIRL!

I mean seriously! Aren’t these deals awesome? Okay okay, there are a few large retail stores mixed in there but they were such a deal I couldn’t pass them up. I honestly can’t remember the last time I paid full price for anything. What’s the point? Have you guys found any steals lately?