I always wanted to be able to sigh over a nice pair of shoes, but I didn't want to go into debt (my first roommate had creditors calling the house night and day), I was always more into...books. :-)
I love the look of books.
I love the smell of books. Can the Kindle or Ipad give me that nice book smell?
I love the promise of bringing home something new.
For years, I bought TONS of self-help books, convinced that if I could just find that ONE book with the ONE piece of advice that I needed, life would be amazing.
The great news is that I found that book. It's called The Bible. :-)
Anyway, I never really got the shopping bug until I wandered into a vintage store a few years ago and fell for a leopard-print coat from the 1950s. I posed in front of the mirror like I was Ava Gardner, and made up a whole story of how she could have worn the coat on a date with Frank Sinatra back in the day. Btw, I don't recommend wearing a leopard-print coat when you are nine (really ten!) months pregnant, as I attempted to do last fall.
I now pretty much exclusively shop at thrift, and sometimes vintage, stores. In fact, 90% of what Dallas and I wear is "gently used." I have finally been bitten by the shopping bug. To know that I can go crazy and grab purses and shoes and sunglasses, and then be rung up to the tune of $34.99 for ten things, is sweet music to my ears.
But I also love the idea of giving an unwanted piece of clothing another chance. Did I mention that I was fostering 9 cats and had a special-needs dog when I met my hubby? :-) For so much of my life, I looked at myself as damaged goods...unwanted, alone, rejected, unworthy of anything good...that I have a soft spot for anything or anyone that might be deemed "not good enough." And I talk a lot on the radio about how no one is so far gone that the love of Christ cannot reach them. God is all about second chances (Exhibit A: Rahab, in the book of Joshua), and it was a wonderful surprise to me when I dug into the Bible and discovered all these flawed people that were used by Him. Before I actually read the Bible for myself, I thought that to be a Christian you had to be perfectly dressed, have parents that were still married, and never have made a mistake.
Okay, back to shopping. :-) Dallas (who is starting to look a little like a linebacker--what's in that whole-grain oatmeal baby cereal?!) is sporting a cool vintage t-shirt in the above pic that I got for $2.
And I"ve started checking out books from the library, instead of buying new ones. Did you know they still have storytime for the kids? For some reason, that is so sweet it makes me cry. :-)
Do you "thrift?" Where do you love to go? Where do you find great deals on items for your family?
