Silver Sunday and Mosaic/Metamorphosis Monday...or...Goodwill Hunting Trophies!

The new Goodwill Store near me had its grand opening Thursday…more about that in a moment…and here are some of my trophies! I scored an assortment of grapey, roostery, frenchy things…all the things I love! And…I am the last person on the planet to finally get one of those plates that you can write on! Bonjour!

My favorites? These two! The Triple Play Plus! French is a really interesting computer program for teaching French that uses cute drawings and games. It even has a microphone that allows you to practices your pronunciation and tells you if you are correct! I must report that my nine-year-old grandson loves it…yaay! He is working on learning to speak French for a trip that we have planned in a year or so. But best of all, it was only $3.50…brand new, still in the wrapper! Price online? $242…yes, that’s two hundred forty two dollars! Woo hoo! Bargain of the day!

I also love my Larousse Gastronomique It’s is a first American edition (1961) of a very well-known French food and wine encyclopedia and is without doubt one of the most interesting books I have ever picked up! It not only defines every food and cooking term that you can imagine (plus a multitude that I have never heard of), it also gives the history of many dishes, mini-biographies of famous historical figures associated with food and needless to say, includes recipes for oodles of French dishes. The list of hors d’oeuvres alone take up 40 pages of this 1000 page book. Plus it has wonderful illustrations! If you want to know how to filet a fish or how to tell where a wine comes from just by the shape of the bottle, this book is for you! Oh, I have not even scratched the surface! This will be a fun book! The cost?…$2.50!

Some silvery finds…a cute baby cup for 99 cents, a deer head candle snuffer and a nice, big sugar shaker. I’ve been wanting one of those for my cinnamon sugar and needed a candle snuffer to keep me from getting wax everywhere! As for the baby cup…well, I’ve got a new little grandson on the way who will make use of it!

I also found these old volumes of American Educator Encyclopedia from 1956. Aren’t they pretty? They are serving as stands for my new rooster lamp thrifting find. More about lamps in another post!

And finally, these wonderful little picture frames were also thrifting finds…$1.50 each…with professionally done double mats! I have been keeping my eye out for something like these for a little project I’ve had in mind ever since I saw the framed antique French documents at the Madison, Georgia Christmas Tour of Homes.

Sooo…I got out my Le London stamp from Hobby Lobby and stamped a sheet of drawing paper…a little thicker than most kinds of paper...using waterproof ink. Next I used my left-over teabag….might as well recycle!…to stain it. I placed the paper under the glass that came with the frame and placed a heavy book on it while it dried. Then, I took a key (also from Hobby Lobby) and marked two little dots on either side where the key would be placed. (I have moved the key to the side so you can see.) I used a large needle and pliers to punch a hole through the paper and the cardboard backing so that I could wire the key in place.

And…voilà! The key is actually held in place by the two wires. I didn’t reuse the glass, but left the frame open instead. Now all I have to do is finish the other one and decide where to hang them!

As for the Goodwill Store grand opening…can you say craziness? This is the view of the checkout line…and it got worse…much worse! There were three police cars directing traffic! Hey!…how did all these people find out about my GW? lol I was one of the goofballs waiting out in the freezing temps for the doors to open! And inside, I managed to find my new bloggy friend Babs scoping out the household goods like me! Later, my fellow blogger, CC Catherine from Catherine de Thé Cups, joined me for more Goodwill hunting and lunch! What a fun day!

Thanks so much for stopping by! Please head on over to Mary’s at Little Red House for Mosaic Monday to see one of her beautiful mosaics and to find a list of this week’s participants. You will be treated to some wonderful photos from some very talented people!

Next, be sure to visit Susan at Between Naps on the Porch for Metamorphosis Monday where you can get a peek at her gorgeous home and see what sorts of changes she is making, as well as find out who else is playing along! I can’t wait to see what everyone has going on!

I’m also joining Beth at Gypsy Fish Journal for Silver Sunday! It’s a new blog party and what a great idea! It will be fun to see the wonderful ideas our fellow bloggers have for using Grandma’s old silver in some new ways!

See you next time! A la prochaine!