My Latest Thrift Shopping Finds

Awesome thrift shopping finds are one of my all-time favorite things! So it’s hardly a shocker that I’m back to buying secondhand things now that I’m on my own again.

I gave up far too much of myself in order to suit him. I did it willingly, but it’s relief to be able to live according to my values again and to surround myself with things I love, many of which will be thrift shopping finds.

For nearly four years… ok, can we just look at the ridiculousness of this for a minute? In less than four years, I was engaged, married, and divorced. That’s absurd, and now I’m even too thin to fit into that gorgeous blue Gucci wedding dress! I’m not humble bragging, I’m just saying that this divorce did a number on me and I didn’t even get that fabulous dress out of it!

As I was saying… for nearly four years, I didn’t set foot in a thrift shop. We’d bought some mid-century modern furniture, but I’m talking about actual charity-run thrift shops where you decide to pop in spur of the moment and happen to come across the most perfectly patinaed thrift shopping finds for ridiculous prices, like this poncho, change purse, work bag, shoes, ’60s electric curlers, vintage camera, vintage vanity set, toaster, ’60s dress, more shoes, Spanish bowls, or velvet sofa. You get the idea :)

I’m totally back to my thrift shopping ways and I wanted to share three recent thrift shopping finds that I picked up for my new-to-me vintage apartment. I’m falling a little bit more in love with this place every day!

A Vintage Tea Kettle

Buying new things leaves me with too many choices. I spent hours browsing online and agonizing over which tea kettle to buy and still hadn’t decided, but 5 minutes in a thrift shop settled it… and for like 10% of what I was going pay for a shiny new one that I would’ve always second-guessed. I love leaving things up to chance!

Aside from a bathtub, a gas cooktop is one of the things I’ve missed most since moving to Denmark. I’ve tried to like induction for its energy efficiency, but in addition to being nearly impossible to control temperature-wise, only certain types of metal will conduct and as it turns out, none of the prettiest tea kettles are induction-friendly. Now, after nearly eight years, not only do I have a gas cooktop, but I’ve got this pretty vintage tea kettle to go on it :)

A Vintage Oil Painting

Spoiler alert: If you follow me on Facebook  you might’ve seen that I was testing paint colors over the weekend… here you can see which color I chose. I’m waiting for my seat cushion covers to be delivered, then I’ll give you a proper look :)

Anyway, I love vintage artwork, like this piece I had in my first Danish apartment. So I was psyched to find this oil painting from 1962 for 55 kr. (about $9)! It’s not exactly a masterpiece, but the person who painted it was probably pretty proud of it and I think it’s unfortunate that it showed up in a thrift store with no one to love it.

It’s a happy coincidence that the mat under the flowers is a slightly brighter version of the color of my kitchen walls. I like that it’s one of the first things I see when I walk in the front door.

A Secondhand Ironing Board

Admittedly, this is the least interesting of my three treasures. I used to have an ironing board with a really cool vintage flower power cover, but his lordship deemed it too big for his apartment when we merged households so I had to re-donate it. Since then, I’d been making do with his half-assed tabletop ironing board, which sucks for sewing projects. I’m happy to say that I found this one, which is almost as cool for 65 kr. (about $11).

Okay, it’s not nearly almost as cool as the vintage flower power one, but it beats buying a new ironing board from IKEA and it’s hard not to like something that’s predominantly shades of pink with cupcakes on it.

My Other Thrift Shopping Finds

I also found a black feather boa for 15 kr. (about $2.50). I have no clue what I’m ever going to do with it, but I’ve always wanted a feather boa, so it obviously had to come home with me!

When my sister came to visit a few weeks ago, we went to the secondhand stores in the town where I used to live. They still have a stack of vintage bone china dishes that I donated because “we didn’t have space for them.” I would’ve bought them back, but the matching teacups and saucers had been sold. I’ve felt sad about that ever since :(

On a happier note, here are a couple of photos of Opie, who will be 15 next month and whose hyperthyroid condition is successfully managed thanks to my wonderful vet!

He’s still my shadow after all these years! My sister kept commenting on how she’s never seen a bond between a cat and their human like the one between Opie and me. He follows me everywhere, sleeps on my pillow, chews on my hair, and even holds my hand! He’s the best companion I could hope for and regardless of how busy I am with work I always have time for a cuddle, if he asks…