local shop: birch paperie

It was a weekend full of cards—a preschool graduation card for Alden, a birthday card for me, and father’s day cards for the dads in our life. My new favorite card shop around is Birch Paperie in Tangletown—that hard to describe section of Seattle that isn’t quite Wallingford, and not really Greenlake, and is best known for it’s bakeries and coffee shops. Birch Paperie is located next door to Mighty-O Donuts, and if you blink, you'll probably miss it. But don’t let the size of the shop fool you, it’s packed with carefully selected letterpress cards, beautiful patterned papers, and a few other handmade and luxurious items.

The first time I went in the shop, I expected the prices to be pretty high, but I was surprised to see that most of the the cards were in the $4 to $5 price range with a few as much as $7, but several in the $3 range. If you've bought cards at Hallmark or practically any other retailer, you'll know that most greeting cards these days—even the most basic—are at least $2 or $3. I'd much rather fork over an extra buck to support a local business, selling the work of mostly local artists.

Patrick was able to stop by Birch on Friday to get the cards he needed (isn't the birthday card he and Tula picked out for me cute?!) and I had planned to slip in after our usual Saturday morning donut pilgrimage to pick up a father's day card—yes, I know I’m a procrastinator. Plans quickly changed when I woke up on Saturday, my birthday, with food poisoning. Instead, I spent the morning curled up in a ball, thinking my body was going to turn itself inside out.

Because the shop has very limited hours (it's generally only open Thursdays and Fridays 11–4, and Saturdays 9–2) I was out of luck this holiday. The kids and I decided to go the homemade route, and put together a card and some stories that they each wrote for their dad.

Good thing I have a few more family birthdays coming up, though, so that I can still go card shopping. Maybe the Father's day cards will even be on sale. Stop by and check out the shop if you're ever on the hunt for the perfect card. It's also a great excuse for a detour to Mighty-O for arguably the best donut in town.

friday finds: salt & pepper shakers!

Tomorrow is my birthday, which means I get spoiled by my wonderful husband and kids, but it also means that my driver's license needs renewing. Before I could do any thrift store shopping this morning, I needed to make a stop into the DMV (woohoo). I was prepared to spend all morning waiting to hear my number be called, but I was pleasantly surprised that the whole process—picture and all—took under ten minutes. Here's a little tip for when it's time for you to renew: go to the Department of Licensing on Aurora and 185th! They are so much better than any of the other locations I've tried.

Because the licensing office was so efficient, I was able to make two stops this morning to do some thrifting. First I stopped into Goodwill. There wasn't much there that I was interested in, but I did find some salt and pepper shakers for $1. They aren't quite as impressive as some of the other ones I've seen on Etsy and other sites, but I'm happy with how clean and simple they look.

Next, I stopped into what may have been the worst advertised church rummage sale I've ever seen. I noticed a sandwich board on my way to drop Alden off at preschool that said "CHURCH 9-3 Friday & Saturday, 8th NE." I assumed they had unintentionally left off the important words "Rummage Sale," otherwise, that would be one long church service. I drove to the church, and I didn't see any other signs, but I parked anyway, and walked around the building looking for the sale. While I was circling the building I saw this sign—on the ground, with some deflated balloons:


Finally, I found a back door with a little flyer and some arrows. The sale was about as good their signs, but I still managed to find a few nice things that were really cheap—a gorgeous wood bowl for $1, a super cute winter hat/scarf combo for Tula, and some other clothing items that I won't bore you with. Between both places I spent a whopping $3.50 this morning.


Send a photo of your most beloved thrift store purchase to modernthrifter@gmail.com, and I'll pick a few to feature each Friday.

teacher gifts - ABC3D

Tomorrow is Alden's last day of preschool, and he's loved his school and his teachers so much that we wanted to get them something special. You might have already seen Marion Bataille's pop-up book, ABC3D, because it's been out for a few years. It's been one of our favorite books since Alden was given one for his fourth birthday by his cousins. We thought it would be a great thank-you gift for his two teachers and we hope that the kids that come to preschool next year can enjoy it, too. Watch this quick video of how amazing all of the pop-up letters are:

insight from a 5-year-old

Sometimes my kids catch me off gaurd by saying something surprisingly insightful. Yesterday my 5-year-old, Alden, out of the blue while playing Legos said, "Mom, you and dad are always looking for new furniture. You never stop looking, you just always get something new and then find a place for it, 'cause that's what people do."

Crap. Is that what I do?

I can say in my defense that we really don't own more furniture than most people (with the exception of our chairs), and in many cases, we probably have less. We have just acquired it over a very long period of time instead of in a few massive pottery barn shopping trips. The boy has a point, though. Will I ever stop looking? Am I always in need of something new? There is something thrilling about thrift store shopping. The hunt for the treasure buried in the piles of junk is often times just as exhilarating as the actual find. I think it can be a lot like gambling—it's hard to quit after you've won a few times, because you know there's always the possibility that you'll win again.

The question is, where is the line between thrifting as a hobby, and thrifting as an addiction? Thrift stores, ebay, and craigslist can all become forms of retail therapy, and can be used to self-medicate. It is frighteningly easy to let passions and hobbies overtake our real priorities and become the objects of our worship, giving them too much of our time, heart, and money.

Thankfully, I think I'm still in the "hobby" category, but I know I'll need to regularly check my heart on this issue.

window safety

Our house has tons of windows. One wall in our living/dining room is almost entirely windows, but the weird thing is, there are only four windows in the whole house that open, and one is painted shut. There is one in the kitchen that opens, one in our family room downstairs, one in Alden's room (the non-functioning one), and one in Tula's room.

It hasn't really been a problem yet because our house is very shaded and is cool all the time. We also have several doors that open onto our deck if we need a little more breeze. Our big concern is that the windows that do open, swing out. There are no screens, and no child-safety locks. That's a problem because our house is built on a very steep slope, so although the corner of Tula's room is at ground level, there is about a twelve foot drop outside the portion of the window that opens.

The latch on her window is particularly hard to maneuver, but I'm not relying on that because just when you think something is impossible for a 2-year-old, they figure out a way to surprise you. Since this situation would have much more serious consequences than say, figuring out how to lock oneself in the bathroom, I think it's imperative that we come up with a solution to prevent a dangerous tumble out of the window.

I'd like something that doesn't look like a jail, so vertical wood slats are out, but I don't want to block off the whole window. My idea is to frame in some sort of wooden geometric pattern with holes large enough to reach through to the latch to open the window, but small enough that a thirty pound little girl can't wiggle out. I found these modern headboards from West Elm that have the kind of look I'm going for:

And here's one of their headboards that I cropped and shrunk to mock-up the actual window:


Now I just have to figure out how to actually build and install something. Has anyone ever seen this type of thing done?

friday finds

Today I had the pleasure of thrifting with a good friend. We are both regulars at Goodwill so we decided to try a few thrift stores that we don't shop as often. Our first stop (after coffee) was St. Vincent dePaul in north seattle. The prices seemed on the high end for thrift, but the store is organized well, and the book section is reasonably priced. We both found several books for our kids ranging from 49—69¢ cents. I did see two nice pieces of furniture, but neither were priced and I don't really have places for them, so I never inquired further. There was a sign posted for a 50% off sale on Monday which would make the prices much more comparable to the other thrift stores in the area.

The little pink book is filled with really sweet illustrations. I'm going to find a place in Tula's room for it. Here's the illustration from the dust jacket:



We only had time for one more stop so we decided on Deseret Industries. We were short on time there, so I wasn't able to do a thorough search. I did find a beautiful teal vintage Moire Glaze KYES tray for $1.50. I'm not sure if I'll use it for a vanity tray or a serving tray. Now I kind of wish I had two! I've seen several for sale on ebay and Etsy, so I probably could.



Here's another great find by Margaret Ann. It's a KitchenAid K45SS that she picked up at Goodwill for $19.99. Considering they retail on Amazon for $183, I think she got a fantastic deal!


Here's what she has to say about it:
"I tested it at the store, and then brought it home and cleaned it. I used it to make some chocolate chip cookies. I am in love with it. I am also expecting it to develop a crazy loud motor noise and/or start smoking momentarily, but [we] thought it was worth the risk."

vintage children's books

Yesterday, grain edit tweeted about a vintage modern kids book for sale in their etsy shop. It is a fun looking book that reminds me so much of a vintage book that I snagged from my parent's house. Mine is a first edition book called Everything Has a Shape and Everything Has a Size, by Bernice Kohn and illustrated by Aliki from 1964.

My mom is an elementary school teacher and she gets to dig through the library discard pile every once and a while. She found this book and had it in the toy box she keeps for the grandkids at her house. The illustrations were so lovely, I just didn't want to see it get its pages ripped out, or chewed to a mushy pulp—which has been known to happen to our books from time to time. We rescued it from the bottom of the bin, where it was buried under old stuffed animals and barbies with chopped off hair (thanks to my sister) from my childhood.



One particular spread seemed so fitting in our home. The little girl and boy on this page remind me so much of Alden and Tula, and I wanted to find a way to display these illustrations without removing them and destroying the book. The picture of the little boy was, however, just a little too sad. I made a few adjustments in photoshop—flipped the frown to a smile and made the balloon a little bigger—before printing it out. Patrick has a great method of making simple transfers using acetone and color copies, so we decided to enlarge and transfer them onto wood panels. If anyone is interested in the process, I can put together a step-by-step instructional post.


Now the pictures hang together in our playroom and the book sits up on a shelf. The kids love to read it, so we take it down quite often, but it always gets returned to its special little spot... out of reach.


Alden insisted on being in this picture, so I suppose this is his first Modern Thrifter cameo.

Friday Finds

We just got back from our little mini-vacation to Great Wolf. It was a really nice break from everyday routine, which would have normally included my weekly trip to Goodwill this morning. Although, I did just get off the phone with my husband who, on his way back from picking some things up from his office, just so happened to be at the thrift store. I guess he's as die-hard as I am.

Instead of posting things that I found today, I'm going to share some kids-related past finds.
Above is a picture of one corner in my little girl's room. The rocking chair, guitar, and the tall doll were all purchased at Goodwill. I am particularly fond of the vintage dolls. The short one, nicknamed Little Miss Trouble, is from my childhood. The tall one reminds me a little of these Alexander Girard wooden dolls.
My dear friend Margaret Ann, who is a seasoned thrifter, sent me this picture of a recent purchase she made:


She had been looking for a ride-on toy for her son, and came across this great Radio Flyer trike—new it sells for $60—for under $10. I laughed when I saw the picture, because I almost bought this very trike at the thrift store on what must have been the same day, but I decided that we already had enough wheeled toys in our house. I'm so glad she picked it up!

Send a photo of your most beloved thrift store purchase to modernthrifter@gmail.com, and I'll pick a few to feature each Friday.