Lost and Found

I was vexed on Sunday to realize I had lost a hand knit glove at the dog park. And have no more of the yarn to make a replacement. Grrrr. Then on Monday morning, I lost an earring. I never wear earrings to the park, but I was going to breakfast with KK and Judy and was trying to be efficient, getting dressed for that before I took the dogs out.

Normally I would just shrug and say oh, well over a lost earring, but this was one of the pair that was my sole souvenir from my trip to Chicago. A vintage piece from a thrift store, and way more spendy than the rest of my earrings.

When I got to breakfast I grumbled about losing it, and KK offered to help look. “I'm good at spotting things,” she said. Off to the park we went. When we got there, I remembered she had never seen Minto Brown Park before. Here’s a satellite view.

Yup, that first field is a quarter of a mile long, and we had been all over it. Looking for one earring was worse than a needle in a haystack. At least they stack the hay! So we tried, but had to give up.

The next day I made a Lost Earring sign to pin on the notice board down there. When I put it up, I glanced at the other items there (mostly lost name tags) – and there was my earring! Someone had found it and pinned it up! I could hardly believe it.

So I took down the Lost sign, and the next day returned with a Thank You sign. As I was pinning that one up, I glanced over – and there was my lost glove! Wet and muddy, but nothing a little bath wouldn’t fix. Too wet to put in my pocket though, so I took it back to the car – and right beside my car I found a dollar bill. (And no, I did not pin it on the board, because what are the chances its previous owner would be the one to remove it?)

It's always fun to find money. I admit there’s a bigger thrill in finding, say, a twenty, but we are thrifters, right? One dollar can buy us amazing things. I decided to go back through my spreadsheet of garaging finds to see some of the stuff I've bought for a buck over the years. The list was overwhelming! This year alone I've purchased 76 items for a dollar each, with an estimated retail value of $1120. Some favorites are these earrings 

a delightful dessert plate AND mug 

and the hedgehog dryer balls I gave to Judy. 

But my spreadsheet goes back for years, to 2006 in fact. What am I still using that cost a buck ten years ago? Hands down, best thing I bought that year was my apple peeler. It was from a newly-retired kindergarten teacher, who had used if for ages in her classroom every September for her Johnny Appleseed unit. Still peels and slices like a dream, and we use it year round. (A new one will run you about twenty bucks.)

Some others that have stood the test of time include my favorite dog figurine

a piece of ceramic art by Karen Howell (I found another tile by her a few years later, also for a dollar...and I see that a similar tray sold on eBay in September for $130, and had 26 bids!)

a set of bunny pot feet (you'd think I like bunnies or something)

the cutest vintage bowl ever 

and the vintage Pendleton that became Zoë’s favorite coat.

My favorite line from the movie Pecker came from the mother, who runs a thrift store. “We know how to make a dollar holler here at the Bargain Barn,” she says. I can hardly wait to make my found dollar holler, someday soon!