THE ONES I THREW BACK

Just as in fishing, sometimes in shopping, there are those you have to throw back in.  As you probably already know from my earlier blog post today and the post from yesterday, I went second-hand shopping yesterday with stops at Goodwill on the east end of Belleville and at Unique Resale, also in Belleville.  In addition to the killer wedding dress I found (but didn't buy), I also found all the items below at Goodwill yesterday.  I must have timed my visit  just right because I have never seen so many great items in one visit there before.  Unfortunately, none of these items were on my "shopping list".

Homer Laughlin "Diner" China.  Buck a piece.

Vintage look Cocktail Pitcher from Pier 1 Imports, just $3.

Just a few of the large assortment of wedding cake "toppers" in stock!  Too fun!

BEST find at Goodwill that day:  Beautiful Antique Chest of Drawers in great condition and only $80!

Ok, don't know what this is for but its made of coconuts and it made me smile!

Trestle table, 4 chairs and a neat bench, all a set.  A little rough but could be painted up so cute!

Metal twin bed head and foot board, not old, but has that look.

Retro-riffic vintage desk in great shape and I think it was only $25!!!

Vintage pottery vase in great condition and only $3!

Old metal cabinet for $20 makes for great sturdy storage!

PART DEUX

More from my shopping adventures in St. Louis a couple of weeks ago.  The Green Shag Market informed us that there was another shop a block down, around the corner.  So we braved the cold and wind and blew down the street to Quintessential Antique and Furniture Company.  And were we glad we did!

What a wonderful shop.  Truly, the wonders.  So many unusual items, we found a very well curated selection.  

They had the most fantastic selection of corbels that I've ever seen, some beautiful wall hangings from needlework pieces to oil paintings.  Two of my personal favorites that I wish I could have found a home for in my home were a armillary sphere lamp for under $50 ( thought that was an unbelievable price for such a statement piece) and a large wall pocket, for lack of knowing exactly what its original use was.  I wondered if it had at one time been a wall mounted refuse can but in this incarnation I could see it filled with forsythia branches in the spring and red twig dogwood branches and evergreens in the winter, on a porch or entry of a house.

They also had a large selection of beautiful architectual pieces and furniture.  Here's the catch, they are only open the first 7 days of the month from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.  That's easy enough to remember, though, 7 days, 7 to 7!  They are located at 5707 Manchester.  Find them on the web at www.antiquesstlouis.com or on facebook search for Quintessential Antique and Furniture Company.  Call them at 314-531-9701.

Next up was the furniture and home decor consignment shop Consign and Design Galleries, located at 10036 Manchester Road (one mile east of Lindbergh Rd.)  They had such an eclectic selection of items from new to vintage to antique.  Fun painted furniture pieces, repurposed items, like a sweet silver tray chalkboard, even jewelry.

Owner Nancy Cullen has done a beautiful job merchandising and organizing the store.  And there is so much to take in.  You really have to look up, down and all around to take it all in.  Why you'll see chairs hanging from the ceiling, just too cute!

With spring coming they had some wonderful wicker pieces to brighten any sunroom or porch and great accessories to go with them!  Find them on facebook and take a look at all the photos of their inventory.  You can check them out on their facebook page Consign And Design Galleries.  They are open Monday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Saturday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and even Sunday (I LOVE stores that are open on Sunday) from 12 p.m. to 4 p.m.  Their phone number is 314-394-2222.

Next up (later this week or next week) I'll give you the 411 on Modern Vintage Decor.  I also visited there on my trip but I'm going back this week to consign some items so I'll fill you in on both sides (buying and selling) of the shop in another post!  In the meantime, get out there and shop!  And tell them you heard about them from Debbie's Bargain Basement!

QUICK STOP

I made a couple quick stops in resale shops this week and scored in a matter of minutes!  First up, I stopped at The Shelter Shop in Belleville at the corner of West Main and the North Belt West.  There I found two men's vintage Pendleton wool shirts, for just $2.50 each.  I bought them with making pillows for the bed at the cabin in mind.  But the red one is my size and pretty cute so I may keep it for wearing hiking at the cabin and make the other into a pillow.  Well, I won't actually make it into a pillow, oh no, I don't sew.  But I know people who do, so I'll barter, beg or buy their services.

I also stopped at Variety on a budget on Lincoln Trail in Fairview Heights and scored two jackets.  I don't usually buy secondhand clothes (except for projects such as the pillows)  but every once in awhile something catches my eye while I'm looking at other things.  I'm hard to please when it comes to clothes as far as their condition and fit and I'm really pretty good at finding clothes cheap firsthand.  But I made an exception this day.  I found a yellow jacket that had a vintage look to it and I just loved the sunny color.

Plus I've bought a few new navy shirts for spring and it will look so nice over them.  Then I found a coral jacket, a favorite color of mine and I love wearing the color with my turquoise jewelry.  The jackets happened to be on sale for a $1 off that day so I paid $2 for one and $3 for the other, what a splurge!

Can't wait to see what's in store (haha, get it) this weekend!  Hope you all have a GREAT weekend!

FREAKIN' (GREAT SHOPPING) FRIDAY

Explore St. Louis!  Resale shops, consignment shops, thrift shops and antique shops . . . My friend Kathy and I did just that on Friday!  Like Dr. Seuss says, "Oh, the places you'll go"!  We found some killer destinations!  Today I'm going to fill you in on our shopping itinerary that day and what I found.  In the near future I'll post photos of the shops and information on each of the ones we visited.


We started the morning off at Green Goose Resale and Consignment.  The shop is located at 5611 Hampton Avenue.  They can be reached at 314-352-5000 or by emailing them at Robin@GreenGooseResale.com.  You'll also find them at www.GreenGooseResale.com and on Facebook.  They had a great selection of items from smalls to furniture.  We fell in love with the vintage menus they had from a variety of restaurants throughout the United States.

We rifled through them, hoping to find one from a place we had visited.  I got lucky, and found one from Timberline Lodge on Mount Hood near Portland, Oregon.  It's from 1965, back when you could get filet mignon for $5!

We've visited there and ate lunch so I grabbed that one.  They were each $5, which I thought was a great price for a piece that I'm going to turn into artwork for a wall at our cabin.  It fits right in with my rustic cabin theme.  Its amazing how something so small and inexpensive can make my day, I knew we were off to a GREAT start!


Next up was The Green Shag Market, Reclaim and Exchange.  I love this concept.  Its an antique mall but they are putting an emphasis on repurposing, reusing and reclaiming antique and vintage items.  They are located at 5733 Manchester Avenue (between Macklind and Hampton).  They can be reached at 314-646-8687 (I hope I've got that right, the writing is kind of tiny for these old eyes).  Their website is www.TheGreenShagMarket.com and they're also on Facebook.  I had to show a great amount of restraint here.  So many things calling my name - but I picked one item that was a great buy and something I actually needed:  A vintage silverware set for 8, silverplated, a sweet pattern by Wm. Rogers/International Silver.  And just $30 for the entire set.  Really, you can't pick up a "cheap" silverware set at any "MART" for that, can you?

As I was checking out we were told there was another shop just down the block, Quintessential Antique and Furniture Company.  We visited that wonderful shop, plus the beautiful boutique The White Rabbit and Consign and Design Galleries (both on Manchester), a shop just busting at the seams with fabulous finds!  But, I'll write more about them in upcoming blog posts, I don't want to be too long winded here.  After those three amazing shops, we found two more, on Gravois near Sappington.  At Modern Vintage Decor I found a piece of creamware McCoy pottery.  I collect creamware and while I really didn't NEED another piece (I have over 50 pieces), I WANTED this piece.  My collection includes both marked and unmarked pieces but I really like McCoy pottery and it is usually more expensive, but this one was just $12.99, so that was in my budget.

There was lots of eye candy here, a really cool old projector, lots of vintage cameras, fun furniture and more.  The shop is located at 11433 Gravois Road.  They can be reached at 314-842-5555 or email modernvintagedecor@gmail.com.  You'll find them on the web at www.modernvintagedecor.com and on facebook.


Next door to Modern Vintage is the Exchange, a consignment resale furniture store that carries a great selection of jewelry too.  They can be reached at 314-842-7300 or email theexchange.shop@yahoo.com.  Their website is http://theexchangestl.com/ and you'll also find them on facebook.


I hope I've got you drooling, now go explore St. Louis resale yourself!

FINDS/SCORE

At the Shelter Shop in Belleville earlier this week I found some great buys. A friend I was with unearthed this beautiful lace studded with rhinestones long vest with scarf, for just $8. I found a summer Izod purse that looks very "Lilly Pulitzer"ish in a hot pink and lime green tropical print with white leather accents and a vintage summer straw zippered clutch, both were only $2.25 each, and I'm ready for summer!

MORE PROM

A reader inquired if I knew of anywhere to sell used prom dresses.  I don't.  I told her she could check with Plato's Closet in Kirkwood but that's the only place I know of that caters specifically to Juniors clothing.  If you want to know more about them check them out at their website http://www.platoscloset.com.  I suppose you could also list them on Craigslist this time of year and maybe get some bites.  If you know of anywhere to sell used prom dresses let me know.

SHOP WISE ON GRAVOIS

I've mentioned these places before but they're worth mentioning again. Especially now, when one of these shops is holding a Grand Re-Opening this Saturday 3/21.

The Women's Closet Exchange is still in the same plaza on Gravois (just east of Sappington) but they're in a much nicer well laid out space. And they'll be celebrating on Saturday with special discounts, lots of merchandise and in store modeling. I've bought a couple things here and have been very happy with them. But for an even better bargain head another block east on Gravois to the next plaza and you'll find another shop run by the same gal, called Sweet Cherity. This is their non-profit store. Merchandise here either didn't sell at the Closet Exchange and the consignor donated it or it never made it in to the Closet Exchange because the donor wanted it to go straight to charity. I have gotten some great buys here on clothes, shoes and jewelry. I know, you're probably saying "ooh, not shoes" but a lot of the shoes here, and all of the ones I've bought, were either not worn or barely worn. Believe me, you can tell.

Also in this plaza is a resale home decor and furnishings shop. Now, while I'm partial to Elements obviously, if you're in the plaza, you may as well stop in. I did, and got a cute little vintage basket to put on my porch or deck for this spring and summer.

And while you're over that way, back in the first plaza with The Closet Exchange, is the Purple Cow Kids resale shop. So if you got kids to clothe, take a peek in there!

SHOP, EAT, REPEAT

Shopping, eating out, I've been doing a little bit of both this week.  Yesterday I headed down to Waterloo.  I had dropped some items at the new resale clothing shop, Hi-Style Boutique, there in the plaza in front of Wal Mart.  I had a large lawn and leaf bag full of clothes that I was emptying out of my closet and some of them were still in good condition.  They were headed to a resale shop to be donated but I thought I'd stop there and see if they were interested in any of them.  Out of the bag, they accepted half to 3/4 of them and gave me a check for $37 for them.  I can't tell you how much they gave me for each individual item because I didn't ask them to.  I was happy to be paid on the spot for items that were just going to be donated and that I didn't have to sit at a yard sale and sell.  If you're going to give them a try its best to go Tues. through Thurs. and call first and see if the owner, Lisa Kueper, is going to be in.

After that, I headed to the Western Egyptian Resale shop to donate the leftovers and while I was there I thought I better just take a peek.  I came out with 3 great necklaces for a total of $2.50.

Later that afternoon I headed with a friend over to The Closet Exchange and Sweet Charity (both resale shops), on Gravois near the intersection with Sappington in South County.  I bought a Lilly Pulitzer hot pink polo top for spring, brand new with the tags still on it for $20 something (reg. price on the tag was $75) at The Closet Exchange.  And at Sweet Charity I bought an Emmanual Ungaro black jacket for spring and a Ralph Lauren black and white stripe blazer (also for spring) both for $8 each and a Jones New York spring pink with navy polka dots blouse for $7.  There's also a home furnishings resale shop in the same plaza as Sweet Charity but I didn't catch the name of it and they seemed to still be setting up and getting ready to close for the day, so I'll have to check them out further another time.

Tonight I'm headed out to eat with my husband and another couple to Lucas Park Grille downtown St. Louis.  Of course I'll let you know how it is.

I'm hoping to find somewhere to shop tomorrow.  And yes, I'll let you know if I do and what I find.