TToF: A bundle of cute

It's Friday night! Time for another exciting episode of--!

Dun dun dun DUUUUN! :)

Only 2 finds this week, but they were pretty cute, so I was happy with them! First up:

Six (SIX!) Care Bear pillow plushies! I was digging through the stuffed animals and found the Birthday Bear (the yellow one) first...as I continued to dig, I found the others one by one. These are similar to that Strawberry Shortcake cushion I found a while back--originally, they were sold as fabric that you sewed into the pillows yourself. These are actually from the 80s, and even though they're already sewn together, the going rate seems to be around $10 each on eBay. The Goodwill I got these at sells most of their stuffed animals for 49 cents each, so I got all 6 of these for $2.94 plus tax, which isn't too bad! A couple of them have eyes that look kinda funny, but overall I think they're pretty cute. xD

And second: The Heidi Kenny (of MyPaperCrane) designed strawberry donut plush released by Kidrobot! This really surprised me, considering that originally this plush is kind of on the expensive side (retails for about $25!). I've always liked her work (if you've never checked out her website, do it--SO much cute!), so I recognized it instantly. I guess since it was so cute looking, the Goodwill put it with the stuffed animals instead of the pillows; so it, too was only 49 cents! Definitely not something I thought I'd find second hand. It's practically brand new as well--the fabric is super soft! There's a couple of marks on the back, but I think I'll be able to clean that off gently with some soapy water if it's just marker like I think it is.

Grand total this trip: $3.43 + tax
A fun, cute haul this week! And pretty cheap, too, which is always a bonus. What do you guys think?

Til next time!
♥Usamimi

TToF: The Return

(Oooh, sounds creepy for a post made on Friday the 13th, huh?)

Hey, everyone! Sorry I missed posting the last couple of Fridays...I've been a little busy, so I had to put it on hold. But I promise to try to keep up on it again. ;D Soooo, without further adieu!

Whoo!

So April 2nd was my birthday! And for my birthday, I decided to go thrifting in the morning, to see if my birthday got me any extra luck. My boyfriend and I went to 2 different places, and I actually ended up finding some pretty awesome stuff!

From L-R:
--2 old t-shirts to make into more t-shirt bags: top one is The Beatles, the bottom is a "Marvel Girls Rule!" ladies tee with Storm, Phoenix, and The Invisible Woman
--a G3 Cheerilee MLP
--a vintage '84 Care Bear Cousin plus of Gentle Heart Lamb! I was stupidly excited about this because since I started looking for Care Bears while thrifting, 99% of the ones I find are either the 90s or early 00s. So finding this was pretty cool!
--an old copy of "Grimm's Complete Fairy Tales". I honestly have no idea how old this book is because there's surprisingly no date inside (unless I completely overlooked it), but it looked old and the cover was neat, so I snapped it up
--an old 90s promo CD of "Songs from Disney's Fantasia & Other Disney Classics"
--a cute plastic cereal bowl with a strawberry printed on the bottom
--and the most surprising find: the limited edition version of the Complete .Hack//Sign DVD box set...including the pin set! Although one of the pins is apparently missing, but everything else was there! Zack & I were shocked...there was no price, so when we brought it up to the counter, we asked and the woman shrugged & said, "it's DVDs, right? All DVDs are $2.99."
I only ever saw like 3 episodes of this series, but for 3 bucks? Hell yeah, I'll try it out. XD We figured it would be worth more than that, since it's out of print, so I was amused to see that most people want to sell it for between $50-180. Crazy, right?

Not pictured: a couple more books I picked up (nothing as nice as the fairy tale book, lol) and a glass oil/wax warmer (I've been meaning to buy a new one, since I got rid of my old one when I moved--I would've taken a pic of it with the other things, but I already started to use it.)

All for less than $10! I was pretty excited about that. I guess birthdays do give you a little extra good luck, huh? ;D

Til next time!
♥Usamimi

TToF: The 90's edition

Friday night! You know what that means!

AWWWWW YEAH.

I feel old in the respect that some people consider 90's stuff to be "vintage" now. XD But I will admit that there are plenty of 90's stuff that I love and/or remember fondly. And my last few Goodwill finds are prime examples of that.

GIANT CARE BEAR! Haha, I actually have a large Cheer Bear that was a gift from my mother that's about this size. But this one, I've been keeping on my bed, sort of using it as another pillow. XD She's so soft and comfy--and big! (I put a pen next to it so you could get an idea.) I didn't know which Care Bear it was, since it's one of those newer characters they made up more recently...I looked it up and she's apparently Harmony Bear.

This one was $1.99 + tax.

I really couldn't pass this one up--Animaniacs pillow cases! There were two of them, and I knew my boyfriend could use a new one, so I snapped these up. We both used to love the cartoon, so now we're total dorks with Animaniacs pillows on our bed. TOTALLY HIGH CLASS, right? Right. XD

$1.99 for the set of two + tax.

I've been wanting to try out a tutorial I found for making reusable t-shirt tote/grocery bags...and I thought this was a cool print that could work well for something like that. (Once I try it out, I'll be sure to post here about it.) Definitely makes me think of the 90's.

$1.49 (on sale!) + tax.













And last, but not least:

High top sneakers! (Can't get more 90's than that, can you?) Seriously, I was excited to find these, because I usually never find shoes my size in thrift stores (I have big feet, sadly ^^; )...these were like new, and fit me perfectly! I had never heard of the shoe company before ("Pastry"), so I looked them up, and they actually have some pretty cute shoes! And apparently, I got a pretty good deal on them...brand new it looks like the cheapest sneakers they have are around $30. I got these for $3.49. The photos don't do the pink trim justice, either--the metallic trim is a pink with swirls of green and gold, giving it a pearly sort of tint. It looks really neat close up.

This week's total: About $8.96 + tax


Bonus photo! What do you get for the person who has everything? A custom-made, wooden yo-yo holder, of course.

(Someone actually bought this since I took the picture, if you can believe that. XD)

Until next time!
♥Usamimi

TToF: The Belated Edition

Oops....so, I forgot to update yesterday for "Thrifting Thursdays on Friday". Sorry about that, guys! So without further ado~

I'm beginning to think that there's someone in this town who's slowly getting rid of a Strawberry Shortcake collection, because this is the 3rd time in several weeks I've found vintage Strawberry Shortcake stuff!

I found this old play-clock at one of the locally owned thrift stores earlier this week. It was actually more than what Goodwill charges for their toys (which is usually between .49-.99 cents) at $1.49, but I thought it was in pretty good shape for it's age, so I picked it up, anyway. It's got a few spots where the paint's been worn off, and someone tried to rip off the sticker on the front there, but otherwise it's actually in pretty good shape. I saw people selling them on Etsy for between $7-15, so I think I got an ok deal on it.

The rest of my haul isn't terribly exciting: a stack of DVDs!

I'm a sucker for DVDs (I have a crap ton of them, it's kind of sad xD), so I always make sure to keep an eye out for good ones, or even ones I can trade into Amazon for decent gift card amounts, heh. I just realized this morning that only 1 of these DVDs isn't a cartoon. Oh, how grown up I am. ;p Anyway, I got all of these for about $6, which isn't too shabby considering even used, The Lion King usually goes for around $7. (And the Robotech one is a 5-disc complete season which usually goes for around $19!)

So this week's haul was about $7.50 + tax. Not too bad!

Bonus: Since I was late posting this week, have a picture of a classy find I saw at Goodwill on Thursday--a John Deere "Tiffany" style lamp.

Is that some high style or WHAT? XD And it can be yours for the low, low price of $12.99, apparently! (And a nice dose of green for your St. Paddy's day, heehee.)

Until next time!
♥Usamimi

TToF: I'm never going to grow up

It's Friday night! You know what that means!

This week's post is basically more proof that, not matter how old I get, I'm probably never going to act like a mature adult. (As if anyone doubted THAT, right?)

I only really found one good thing at Goodwill this week, but to be fair...it's pretty awesome:

"Kawaii desu~~~!"

Yes. That is a Bobba Fett helmet. (Or should I say ME in a Bobba Fett helmet?) And not just some plastic Halloween mask, either--the full helmet! The antenna's missing, but the voice activation still works, and the batteries weren't dead! Not too shabby for $2, right?

And technically, I didn't get these yesterday...I got them today. But I figured since yesterday I didn't find much, I'd include them in today's post. ;D

OMG, TAMAGOTCHI! I was shocked to find someone selling these for $2 a piece...when I looked them up on Amazon and eBay, people wanted outrageous prices for them! (And most of them were used...these are new in the package!) I used to have at least 4 of the larger Tamagotchi back in the day...these were apparently released in 2005. I'm not sure if I want to open them and see if the batteries work, or possibly try to resell them...either way, I still think it was a pretty awesome find. >D

This week's total: about $6 plus tax

What do you think, guys? Not too shabby, right?

Til next time!
♥Usamimi

TToF: They can't ALL be treasures...

Friday has rolled around again! Time for another exciting edition of:

...or maybe not?

This week I actually didn't find anything all that interesting on my thrifting trip (unless you count a couple of books. But that's not exciting to post about!). So while I was looking around, I realized that this was a good opportunity to talk about some other aspects of thrifting. Obviously, you're not ALWAYS going to find something good whenever you go looking. In fact, more often than not you're going to be subjected to something that's most commonly known as "thrift horror". What's thrift horror, you might ask? It's basically the hilariously BAD junk that you see at any thrift store or garage sale...the kind of stuff you couldn't even give away. The kind of junk you see and don't know whether to laugh at or burn so that you never have to be subjected to looking at it again.

So this week, I decided to show you a couple of thrift horrors I found at one of my local Goodwill stores.

First off, we have...a cow, wearing a dress, and holding a teddy bear. At least, I think that's what it's supposed to be?

Speaking of cows...

I'm not sure if this was supposed to be a cow, or an AT-AT Walker in disguise. XD

I've seen my share of ugly clocks in thrift stores, but this one...D: Ugh. Who would voluntarily hang something like this in their home?!

And last, but not least...

We have a sad shelf of lonely, discarded bears. (That poor "artist" bear in the right corner looks so confused.)

If you can believe it, there's way worse (and funnier) thrift horrors out there to be seen. There's the Thrifthorror blog, and even a community where people can post and share their own finds at the Thrifthorror Livejournal community. Be warned--some of these are so hilariously bad, you might spend a good chunk of time looking through a lot of crazy photos. XD

Well, that's all for this week! Maybe I'll find something cool my next trip. ;D

♥Usamimi

TToF: Strawberries & Awesome Power!

It's that time again! Another exciting installment of--

[insert fanfare here]

Haha, joking aside, this time around was certainly a prime example of quality over quantity. I only found a couple of things...but they were pretty awesome finds, which completely makes up for it.

First up is this vintage Strawberry Shortcake figurine. I was a little confused by the large number 7 sculpted onto it (at first glance, I almost thought it was a birthday candle!), but since it was only $.49 cents, I figured, "Why not?" and just scooped it up. It's really not every day I find actual vintage Strawberry Shortcake stuff and not just stuff that was remade in the early '00s (or the new, updated look Strawberry Shortcake, which I'm not terribly fond of.) When I came home later, I did some Googling and discovered that this was a line of mini ceramic statues that were made specifically to buy as birthday gifts for little girls--the number representing their age, of course. So I guess when my first thought was birthday candles, I wasn't too off, eh? XD I was surprised to only find 2 similar ones on eBay, which were going for $19-29! Interesting.

Imagine my surprise when not even 5 minutes later, in the same Goodwill, I found a second vintage Strawberry Shortcake item! When I first saw this little pillow/cushion, I wasn't entirely sure that it was a Strawberry Shortcake item because I couldn't find a tag or copyright mark on it (though the previous owner wrote her name in neat little letters on the back of it...which I thought was kind of cute). But it was only $.99, and even if it ended up not being what I thought it was, it was still cute, so I got it anyway. Again, my gut instinct was correct! I found out that this was an official SBSC item...the fabric itself was sold as a "sew-your-own" pillow pattern, which was why I couldn't find any tag or info. (Ah, isn't it cool how much useful info you find on old stuff like this just from using Google?) I was really excited about both of these, because much like I said in my previous posts...I was a child of the 80s, and I miss a lot of the cute junk I had from the cartoons. Strawberry Shortcake was another fave, so it's no exception. Here's a closer look at the cute little lady bug on the pillow:

And the last item, which has absolutely NOTHING to do with Strawberry Shortcake!

MR. SPARKLE! Ok, I will admit to being a fan of The Simpsons...y'know, back when they were actually funny. (Awww.) If you're too young to remember this ep from '97 (or you just don't watch TV), here's a clip. But for someone like me, who has seen this episode probably a million times, this was an awesome find. I actually had a Mr. Sparkle t-shirt, but I'm not sure where it is (probably in the depths of my closet somewhere). If I can't find it, this will be a nice replacement...either that, or I can make a t-shirt bag out of it. Either way, best $1.99 I spent this week, yo.

Grand total this trip: about $3.47 + tax

Another SUPAH LUCKY successful thrifting venture! Any thoughts? Feel free to leave comments!

Until next time!
♥Usamimi

TToF: Pink Nostalgia edition

Has it been a week already?! It's already time for my second installment of:

I was lucky yesterday to have come to the Goodwill while they were putting out new stuff. It's fun to be able to get your hands on things first before anyone else!

First up, I found this cute pink shopping tote. I dunno about you guys, but I'm always on the lookout for reusable shopping bags that are not only functional, but look nice. This was apparently an Old Navy tote...not sure how old, but I liked the design, the pattern, and the colors. And for $.99, it cost about as much as those ugly ones you see at the grocery store all the time, so why not?







Now here's one I was really happy to find! An extra-large, 3rd Gen "Styling" My Little Pony--none other than Pinkie Pie!

I took the second picture with the "new" version of Pinkie Pie, so you can get an idea of just how much bigger this one is versus the smaller ponies. Yes, as a child of the 80's, I will fully admit that I loved My Little Pony. I will also admit that I regret having to get rid of about 99% of my old toys, so whenever I see an MLP that I think is cute from the Goodwill, well...I tend to rescue them, clean them up a bit, and either keep them; or put them up for swap on places like Listia. Since Pinkie is just so cute, well...how could I resist?! She definitely needs some TLC (especially a good hair-washing--it's all in knots!), but for a measly $.99, she was a pretty good find.

And finally...as if talking about My Little Pony wasn't enough, we have my last find of the day: Share Bear, the Care Bear. Yes, another obsession of mine in the 80's was, like many little kids, Care Bears. I used to have quite the collection, too. But of course like many toy collections of old, I reached my teen years and let my toy collection either get taken by a sibling, or get donated to charity by a parent. So, much like my weakness for cute pink ponies, I also have a weakness for these cute little stuffed guys. My favorite Care Bear was Cheer Bear, but I'm not biased. This plush was actually made in the early '00s for the reboot of the franchise, but I don't really mind...actual vintage Care Bears can be few and far between. And for $.50? Sure, why not!

Grand total this trip: about $2.50 + tax

And there you have it! What do you think of this week's finds? Feel free to leave comments!

Until next time!
♥Usamimi

Introducing "Thrifting Thursdays...(on Friday)"

Anyone who has a blog or has been on Tumblr knows that thrifting has gotten huge lately. Which I think is awesome! I love going to thrift stores, and I've been doing it for quite awhile. In fact, lately I've been browsing our local thrift stores about once a week, since now I live close to so many. I thought that it'd been fun to do a weekly post about finds, since sometimes I find stuff that's pretty awesome (and sometimes...not so awesome. XD) So here's our first installment of:

Yesterday was a pretty good day!

First off, I found this beautiful strawberry-printed tea cup! I love the pattern, and the handle looks so elegant! Someday, I want to do my entire kitchen in a strawberry theme, so whenever I see cute pieces like this, I always pick them up. And it was a steal at only .49 cents! Under the tea cup is a mini polka-dotted case (it kind of resembles a lunch box, but it looks to be made of some kind of industrial cardboard instead of plastic or metal). It's not very big, but I couldn't resist it! I think it'd be cute to hold small things (like maybe hair clips or something like that?), and for the price (also .49 cents!) I couldn't pass it up. I'm always on the look out for cute storage options! (Allie commented that it almost looks like something from Swimmer Brand, which is true! That must be why I spotted it, heh!)

This was a fun surprise--a children's book of the original story of "The Little Mermaid", anime-style! I picked it up because it reminded me of the old 70's anime version (which it might be tied to, I'm not sure! The look is definitely similar. If anyone knows, leave me a comment!) This Goodwill has all their children's book priced at 5 for .99 cents, so I scooped it up without much thought. The artwork has a sweet, vintage anime look that I really like. I've been considering doing something with it (like maybe frame my favorite pages?), but until then, I'm just keeping it on my manga shelf. Here's a couple more pictures:

Apparently there are a whole series of these books, all of classic fairy tales, so now I kind of want to see the rest!


I also took a look around our local used record store (conveniently right across the street from one of the Goodwill stores!), which periodically has great sales on all sorts of things like CDs, vinyl records, old video games, DVDs, you name it! Sometimes you have to dig around through a lot of boxes or bins, but that's one of the things I love about the place--it's like looking for buried treasure!

It may come as a shock to some people (given my love of all things pink and cute), but I'm a big fan of horror movies! And since I'm a fan of video games and anime, too; I guess it's no surprise I enjoy Asian horror movies, too, huh? This is one I've been wanting to see for a while, so I was excited to see it in the bargain bin this week for only $1.98. It looks to be an ex-rental copy, but when I checked the disc, it looked practically brand-new! Infection is a story that takes place in a hospital (and hospitals kinda creep me out to begin with!) and has consistently gotten pretty good reviews, so I'm really looking forward to watching it.

Grand total this trip: about $3.20 + tax

That's it for this week's finds! What do you think? Feel free to leave comments!

Until next time!
♥Usamimi