Dahlia's and Doodling

Doodle Business:
The Doodologist is fast approaching the last stage of business planning, although I am open for business, I still have some hoops to jump through. I visited the bank last week and had a meeting to set up a business account. It was slightly nerve wracking, but mainly exciting and more importantly they said yes! So I now have a shiny business bank account, with a cheque book and card that is emblazoned with 'The Doodologist'. I shall admit to being more than a little excited about seeing that. In regards to the business planning and inner workings, I shall be able to blog more about that sometime in August. I am working with a charity called the Prince's Trust to help me set up the business, from coming up with a sound business idea to then implementing it. Fingers crossed that in August I will have proved that this is a viable business and I will be matched with my own special business mentor. There is also a chance of getting a loan or grant, but really it is the help/advice that is the most appealing thing. More on this in August! (If you would like to join in and cross your fingers, legs, eyes etc, that would be most appreciated).

So at the moment I am working on some cool (very cool) commissions, which I will blog about as and when I can. I am also working on some ideas, so that I have some things to take to 'art and craft fair' type places. I asked the question to the folks that 'like' my The Doodologist facebook page, this question:

If The Doodologist was at an art fair type place, what would YOU like to see me selling?

Any ideas welcome, from doodle character suggestions to products like greeting cards, mugs etc. I am going to art fair type places for a few reasons, those include generating some cash, generating interest in commissions and generating publicity in general. I have never done anything like an Art Fair before, so I am genuinely in need of some help and advice. I have set myself the goal of doing my first one in September, which I am sure will creep up on me very fast!



Photo time:
If you are a regular reader of this blog, then you will have noticed that as well as doodling, I also love photography. So I was wondering if you think that some of the photographs are good enough to do high quality prints of and take them with to the art fair like places too? If so, any type of photographs tickle your fancy in particular? At the moment I am taking advantage of the intermittent lovely weather and the rather nice flowers in my garden. It is nice having photographic muses that don't try and run off.



Blog Tips: If you use Blogger/Blogspot, make sure you log into Blogger in Draft and see the new shiny new interface (place where you write your posts etc). Read all about it here Blogger's update interface now available for draft users. Remember you must be logged into draft mode to see the changes.

Google Plus: I have added another social network to my growing collection, so if you are hanging out over there, be sure to add me +Claire . It is very early days over there at the moment, but I am finding it a refreshing change from facebook and twitter. Not that I will be dropping either FB or Twitter any time soon, it is just different.



Thanks for reading xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Doodle Adventure

For my EPIC four years of blogging post back in November ' I am a Tetradite Blogger' I ran a doodletrific competition, which consisted of just leaving a comment on the post. Then at an allotted time I would pick a winner using a random number generator.... (number was assigned in relevance to number of comments)

Number six was..... Mr Adebond.

In an effort to add more fun (get MOAR comments) I added a second chance to win a doodle, by providing this awesome clue/question:

What is the work of fiction that I have read the most?

Apparently that was far too hard a question, so I added an extra cryptic clue.

Clue = Jaundiced Ed Ripper (first correct comment wins). 

Mr P3dro quickly swooped in and unscrambled the anagram into... Pride and Prejudice, yes I really have read that book a LOT... ummm britches.

Now onto the prizes! I didn't want to doodle any old thing, so I had Mr Adebond and Mr P3dro pick from these:

1. Dragon or Troll?

2. Clothes or Naked?

3. Mermaid or Unicorn?

4. Castle or Boat?

5. Sun or Moon?

After their selections, I stalked looked at their blogs, flickr and twitter streams, to get an idea of what I wanted to draw.

Adebond choices were: Troll, Naked, Unicorn, Boat and Moon

If you look at the 'troll' you will see the first incarnation of my Grumpus character, after I doodled this piece, I loved that character so much, I decided to evolve him into something hairier and grumpier.

P3dro choices were: Dragon, clothed, unicorn, castle, moon.

Bonus time, Mr Adebond took a beautiful photograph of his daughter, when she was a Flower Girl, I loved the picture so much that I decided to draw her as a little Flower Fairy and give it to Mr Adebond as a surprise.

I had a MAHOOSIVE amount of fun doing these doodles and had the pleasure of meeting the guys yesterday to hand them over. It is great having such cool and creative people that live relatively nearby. It just goes to show how effective a tool Twitter really is, if you use it with an open mind. You can connect to all sorts of cool people, that may live round the corner or thousands of miles away. Alison, Adebond and P3dro are just a few of the very cool people that I have connected with over there.

Now ye gang o bastards, if you like my doodle style and would love to win a doodle of your very own, then get your arse over to my Self Exam Doodles Facebook Page, you have a chance every Friday! Once a week Tahira Lubrano and myself take turns to doodle something for someone who has 'liked' the page, this week it is my turn.

Doodle Do

The mumborg asked me to doodle something for her friends baby shower, so of course I obliged. Whilst we are on the subject of baby showers, when the heck did they become popular in the UK? I know they are the thing to do across the pond, but all of a sudden they have appeared on these fair shores. Not that I am complaining, it was much fun creating this doodle. I have provided a mini slideshow in case you wonder how I go about creating a doodle like you see above. Of course I didn't photograph all the hideous malformed deformed incarnations that where created in the process of finding that perfect final sketch....

From doodle sketch to finished in a frame

Mucho thanks for all the comments on my four years of blogging post, it was greatly appreciated. I hope you enjoyed the post? It's ruddy hard to summarise four years into one post, figuring out what has been useful and what has not, over the years. As I said in the post, there is no magical formula, just time, be yourself etc etc. If you didn't read the post (WTF!!!), then run to it at once! If you did read it and commented, then you will be ecstatic to know that I replied to ALL the comments, even if the shitty blogger/blogspot commenting system will be the death of me.

I will be doing another post about the doodle winners, when their doodles are ready! Which 'will' be before Christmas. I am off to Hamburg, Germany, end of this month for a visit with family. So things will be hectic before, during and after that trip!

Other Doodle projects.
1.Working on some international ladies for the translated posts on my 'Self Exam Doodles' site. Which I hope you have all checked out by now? (Why bloody not?).  So hopefully by this weekend you can have a sneak peek at the ladies, maybe even have a go at guessing what countries they represent. Hopefully I don't offend anyone with cultural stereotypes..Below is a selection of sketches for an idea for one of the ladies.

2. Chasing down a certain author so I can maybe possibly hopefully illustrate their poem, without getting into copyright shenanigans! If I can, that will be awesome! If not, then insert sad face here. I have now been in contact with the literary agent of the author and as the author does not use email, they are sending a carrier pigeon with the request. Fingers crossed!!

Other notes: In regards to the mumborg, still no news on the brain tumour yet, find out more at the end of the month, when she sees the relevant specialists. For now she is well and I appreciate, as always, the well wishes and concerns.

I am a Tetradite blogger

As the clock struck 10 on the evening of the 29th of October this year, I had now been blogging for FOUR whole years! Well actually I was working on another blog, not this one, at that very moment, but oh well. To mark this monumental occasion, I will take you on a doodle journey through the last four years of blogging.

Blogger/Blogspot has been my blog drug of choice these past four years, simply because it was the first thing I found when looking for an online diary/blog. Although I do have a Tumblr blog and a Wordpress one (backup blog), that I occasionally mess with now. I have found that Blogspot is still the most suited to my needs. My niche, before I knew what a niche was, is 'Personal'. The blog was just meant to be a place to dump my thoughts on a daily (ish) basis.

How do you get people to read your waffling and offerings? Who wants to? Do you want them to? How do you add pictures, How this and how that? Basically there were a LOT of 'How do I?' type questions and somehow I found the 'Blogger Help' forums. It really was a miracle that I even found them and how I cringe at the type of questions I asked back then (Noob alert). Some nice folks did take pity and gave me some pretty good advice, mainly stop using so many exclamation marks!!!!!!!! and your layout is HORRID! So I changed the layout and curtailed my use of !!

From the Blogger Help forums, I moved onto other blogging forums, still rather clueless about this whole blogging thing and was now on quest for knowledge (and widgets). Followed by the usual thing of registering your blog with every blog directory known to man (or google).  I also started reading a LOT of other blogs in my niche, which was and still is, a personal blog of sorts.

Suddenly you are flooded with talk of SEO, Page Rank, Flickr, Twitter, Google reader, Facebook, technorati, memes, tags, awards and much much more. It is so overwhelming at first and it becomes very easy to forget the reasons why you are blogging. You see other blogs getting lots of comments and wonder how they attract so many, when not even ten people a week are reading yours (Insert sad face here).

It seemed a good idea at first to get involved with paid posting, internet memes and silly blog like things. I am sure for some people that is enough. For me though, it was horrid. I was posting so frequently, numerous times a day and felt burnt out quickly. The lesson was learnt, but I think it took about two years, before I really started developing a blog voice of my own. I think the worry was that just me on my own would be bloody boring.

It would be remiss to not point out the darker side of blogging, especially when it's something that can really upset people. There are some very very strange people on the internet, don't try to analyse them too much, just accept that and move on. People will be horrid to you, some will think they are giving you 'helpful' advice, some are just being twats. It takes a while to develop a internet strength thick skin, but you will.

Is it worth all that? YES it is. The Pros far outweigh the Cons in my opinion. The inspiration and friendship that I have gotten from the blogs that I read, and the people that read/comment on here, has changed so many things in my life. From my interest in photography and doodling, to just inspiring me to actually share my thoughts on difficult situations. I could mention a lot more great things about blogging, but I have so much more to fit into this post.

Advice:
You should really read my One, Two and Three year blogging anniversary posts to gain a better insight into how this blog has developed. There is no magic formula, just lots of mistakes, lots of learning and lots of time. I try to put a lot of time and effort into writing these blog anniversary posts, as it's a great way to look back at all I have learnt over the years. I think a lot of people want to know more about how to start blogging, how to get people to read it and so on. Those questions are hard to answer, mainly because everyone is blogging for different reasons. So I just try to show what I have done over the years, with the hopes that that may answer some questions.

Thoughts on blogging:
I thought there would come a point that I would get bored of this blogging malarkey, surely boring myself and others. Although I have been frustrated, stressed out etc, at times, I still haven't reached the boredom point. I guess I like (maybe love) sharing some aspects of my life and personality with the strange folks that wander the interwebs. It opens up a dialogue, that then translates to real life interactions and guess what? It's good to talk.

What next?
I have some rather exciting doodle projects on the go at the moment, you already know about 'Self Exam Doodles', but that is just the start. I hope you will stick around for a few more years and follow me on the next adventure.


Thanks to everyone new and old for reading!

Treasure Box Wednesday: Luster, Shine and Glitter

Welcome, Treasure Box Wednesday friends! How's the week been treating you so far?

It was a treat for my inner-magpie this week, when a visit to the Red, White & Blue thrift store in Bellevue, PA uncovered a trio of interesting lusterware plates!
It's been some time since I've thrifted any unique lusterware, and this stack, just sitting among the glassware, was easy to take a shine to. Given the color and style of the pieces, it got me pondering those nifty thrifty questions for which I'm unlikely to ever have the answers...

Like, were these a part of a single person's collection? What did their house look like? Were they loved and displayed? And what happened that meant these beauties made their way to the thrift store?

Then I had another pleasant surprise this week, of the non-thrifting variety, that I wanted to share with you.

One of my favorite decorating magazines is Romantic Country. While it's sometimes just a tad heavy on the floral patterns for me (I'm more of a paint instead of wallpaper gal), it's always chock full of vintage goodies and soft colors. I just wish it came out more than four times a year...
So as I was leafing through it yesterday, enjoying a morning cup of coffee, I was shocked to see someone very familiar!... The internet's Good Lady o' Glitter, Rosemary Olson...

Now, I met Rosemary online some years ago when we both discovered the same decorating and crafts forums. She's a sweet lady with a terrific eye for creating magical, whimsical-style gift and decorative items, like tiaras, wedding favors and seasonal boxes.

So I just wanted to take a moment to say, "Congratulations on the lovely magazine spread, Rosemary!" I'm so happy to see you getting the recognition you well-deserve!

Shine on! (And don't forget to wash the glitter and glue off your hands before you try to frame that great photo spread. You'll stick.) :)

You can check out Rosemary's blog-- Rose's Petite Maison-- here.

Treasure Box Wednesday: Luster, Shine and Glitter

Welcome, Treasure Box Wednesday friends! How's the week been treating you so far?

It was a treat for my inner-magpie this week, when a visit to the Red, White & Blue thrift store in Bellevue, PA uncovered a trio of interesting lusterware plates!
It's been some time since I've thrifted any unique lusterware, and this stack, just sitting among the glassware, was easy to take a shine to. Given the color and style of the pieces, it got me pondering those nifty thrifty questions for which I'm unlikely to ever have the answers...

Like, were these a part of a single person's collection? What did their house look like? Were they loved and displayed? And what happened that meant these beauties made their way to the thrift store?

Then I had another pleasant surprise this week, of the non-thrifting variety, that I wanted to share with you.

One of my favorite decorating magazines is Romantic Country. While it's sometimes just a tad heavy on the floral patterns for me (I'm more of a paint instead of wallpaper gal), it's always chock full of vintage goodies and soft colors. I just wish it came out more than four times a year...
So as I was leafing through it yesterday, enjoying a morning cup of coffee, I was shocked to see someone very familiar!... The internet's Good Lady o' Glitter, Rosemary Olson...

Now, I met Rosemary online some years ago when we both discovered the same decorating and crafts forums. She's a sweet lady with a terrific eye for creating magical, whimsical-style gift and decorative items, like tiaras, wedding favors and seasonal boxes.

So I just wanted to take a moment to say, "Congratulations on the lovely magazine spread, Rosemary!" I'm so happy to see you getting the recognition you well-deserve!

Shine on! (And don't forget to wash the glitter and glue off your hands before you try to frame that great photo spread. You'll stick.) :)

You can check out Rosemary's blog-- Rose's Petite Maison-- here.

3 years and counting

Twas a cold October evening in the year 2006, the wind was howling and the body lay there cold on the floor.... Shit wrong story! Ah hem, forget the body bit. A young (ish) woman was stumbling around the internet looking for an online journal of sorts, something to record her thoughts for a personal development project. It was for her new counselling course, as the old pen to paper of recording thoughts thing wasn't working for her. Somehow she stumbles upon 'blogger' and Bob's your mothers aunt. She ponders for a while on what to call this blog thing (for about 2 minutes), nobody is going to read it anyway, so what does a name matter? Then the poor gal falls down a rabbit hole and awakes three years later.......

Lessons Learnt in Blogging

If you are a newbie blogger or just clueless like I was (well still am), then I think that you will enjoy reading the posts that I wrote for my first and second blogging anniversaries. I have learnt a lot and it really can't all fit into this one post. I will still highlight some of the information from those previous posts, in this post, as I try and sum up three years of blogging fun. This is blogging 'Personal' stylee, not making money, not professional writing, blogging tips or anything like that. This is just my little journey through HTML hell, troll dung and template tiffs.

Year One

My first blogging anniversary was a tad late,who knew you had to write an anniveresary post for every year you don't quit.

The blog looked like this

You can also see it in action here, thanks to the Way Back Machine (records all your old horrors). I have no idea how it works, but maybe you should check to see if your blog is there? Wayback Machine

The first actual incarnation was a horrid green spotty classic template (no offence to those that have the horrid green spotty one, although you could change it). There are No screen shots of that, because I had no clue what a screen shot was.
Main lessons learnt after year one: Posted like crazy, several times a day, twas a bad idea. Tried paid posting, it got boring,fast. Horrid template at first, messed the HTML, did a million memes, got bored.

Year Two

The blog looked like this

The wonderful Design Bug designed this for me and I loved it, still do.

Main lessons learnt after year two: Started doodling again, twas a joy, found more of a 'style', posted a lot less. Made some great friends, not all people on the internet are scary. Rediscovered twitter, found it vastly appealing. Twitter also led me to connect to people closer to where I live.

Keep Reading for more wonderful insights........

Read more »

Two bloody years of blogging

 Well I wasn't going to write anything to commemorate two years of me blogging, but its better than doing homework, so what the heck.

Behold semi epic doodle which summarises two years of blogging in doodleriffic form.

Personally I believe that I have been sucked into a weird time vortex and then released two years later. I have no idea what a time vortex is, I just wanted to use that in a sentence.

What have I learnt?

Tons, to put it simply. Okay, okay, I will write a wee bit more than that.

1. The majority of people are not going to find your blog by accident and even if they do find it, they might hate it or be very bored. Some will even tell you this, it may hurt, but its for your own good.

2. People want to know about you, its not creepy, its nice (most of the time). If you write a personal blog and its public, you are putting yourself out there and if you do a good job, they see enough of your personality to actually connect with you. I have made some great friends through this blogging lark, its not something I had even thought about, it just sort of happened. Now I cant get rid of them, sigh (haha). So spend some time and write a decent 'About Me' page, mine is just a backdated post and people seem to read it a lot. I know that I always check out other folks 'About Me's.

3. There are scary frickin trolls out there, people that live in a basement and wear tinfoil hats. They probably don't actually do either, but its nice thinking of them in that way. Basically some people vent their frustrations with life onto the poor folks of the internet. That's their problem and not mine or yours. Get back under your bridges evil troll folk! Go on now, Get!

4. HTML is the stuff of the devil, but sacrifice that damn goat, because people want the links to be damn clicky.

5. Use and Abuse Google Reader, its the only way to keep track of all the blogs that you love.I seriously read a lot of blogs and this is the only way to go about it for me.

6. Become a twit on twitter. I love twitter, I use it for all sorts of stuff. From updating the world on what I have just blogged about, what music I am listening to, what I have just eaten, sharing other folks links, subscribing to local and world news. The list goes on and on.

7. Comments, comments, comments. You have to give to receive! Either by responding to own comments, commenting on other blogs or continuing the conversation in some way. I am still god awful at this, but I also encourage people to email me if they like. It takes time for this to happen, like nearly two years...

8. Blogging has helped immensely with my counselling homework, it was the reason that I started blogging in the first place. The insight and wisdom from the commenter's has been wonderful and has helped a lot! I can even use a lot of the blog in my final counselling project called 'Who Am I'. So I have downloaded some software to turn the blog into a book and that will go with final portfolio.

What would I do differently?

1. Probably less memes and actually concentrate on what really interested me. If it doesn't interested you, then why on earth would it interest anyone else? This is my own time capsule and I love looking back at what I have written in the past (for the most part).

2. Got someone to have design a theme for my blog a LOT sooner, why mess around with the bloody thing when someone far more talented can do it for you! The amount of stress I caused myself messing around with the ruddy template before Design Bug stepped in and created what you are looking at now. I do not recommend anything haphazardly, working with Kelly was great and the outcome was awesome.

3. I hhmmm and haaaaa over the paid post thing. Whilst I made a fair bit of money with it, it was bloody boring and just dosn't fit in with what my blog is for. I am not sure if I would do them again, I probably wont on this blog.

4.There is probably lots more, but I cant think of any at the moment.

Thanks to everyone for reading my blog over the past two years. I am a grumpy, miserable sod, who pretends not to care whether you read it or not, but I do care really!

I have no idea where this blog is going in the future, so keep reading .

Shit I Forgot my Blog Birthday!

Over at Blog Catalog for some unknown reason a post about my birthday was resurrected, so some well meaning people have been wishing me happy birthday. Also some not so well meaning folks, you know who you are. That got me thinking about something I could feel nagging in the back of my mind, I had forgot something....
Twas my Blog Birthday on the 29th of October and i totally forgot! Now i have to think of something deep and meaningful to encapsulate all that i have learnt in a year of blogging. I may be some time trying to sum it all up!
 
Hours later (actually weeks, yes really started this post weeks ago)..........................

Have you heard that saying before? It's better out than in?Well I have to agree with it. Every since starting my blog, I feel like I have somewhere to scoop out the jumbled up grey goo known as thoughts, ramblings, utterances, brain spillage and crap!Even the mad typing I did while at home or house sitting in that dark time known as Internet isolation, helps exorcise some brain pressure.So what have I learnt in a whole year of blogging?

1.Firstly that although I have used the Internet for years, it was only for shopping and email. This translates into I knew jack shit about computers. I still only have an amoeba like knowledge of HTML but now I can at least find my arse in the dark (was that a good metaphor?) and install things like the dreaded 'Mr Linky'. I have also learnt quite a few other things, but that's for another post I think.

2. Unless you have a really concrete idea about what you are going to blog about, your ideas and thoughts will change continually. Mine has and now its a totally different beast. I thought it would just be a base for my counselling homework, with the occasional personal thought thrown in here and there. Now its anything from photo's to paid posts. These are two posts from the beginning: Blog why do you do it? and A little bit more.

3. So what does work for me in regards to writing posts and getting visitors? The posts I enjoy writing the most are my counselling homework ones but they don't attract the most comments, they do however attract attention from Google searches. Those posts are for my own personal learning, so if people comment that's great but not the main reason for posting them.
Photographs have become a big part of my blog, ever since I got my digital camera and a Flickr account. I get to show off some of the beautiful parts of this country I see when I am out hiking and various shots of my family. They also come in handy for the photographic memes I participate in, which attract many a visitor.
I have at times become meme crazy, with Manic Monday, Wordless Wednesday, Thursday Thirteen, Saturday Photo Hunt and Green Thumb Sunday all being regulars here. Memes are great when you have the time to focus on them, but at times can feel like a burden, but if you want traffic do a weekly meme.
Get Social! Whether it is visiting other sites and commenting, doing memes or joining great blog directory like Blog Catalog. Blog Catalog has been a great learning place for me and it is great for newbies to learn all sorts of things. Yes I love Blog Catalog.

4. You can make some great friends! Now doesn't that sound all disgusting and cheesy, but yes I really have. Some of them are even American! I was at first resistant and sceptical to the fact that you can indeed be friends with folk that you have not met before. Now there is a whole heap of folks on my sidebar that I will be meeting up with in the future.

5. Be realistic about how much time you can and should spend blogging! I still haven't balanced this yet, so have been a bad blog friend. Your blog can turn into a monster so try to stick with stuff that you enjoy writing about and worry less about how many visitors you get. I regret that I don't thank my regular visitors as much as I did in the old days with my Happy 100 posts but I just don't have the time, click here to see the past winners Happy 100's. Also lurkers where punished in a fun way. Talk about being a big fat hairy hypocrite, now I am Queen Lurker thanks to Google Reader. So if you feel a strange presence whilst at your computer it is probably me lurking away. All visitors to this blog are appreciated by me and feel free to email anytime if you particularly want to get my attention.

6. I have to mention paid posts, although at the moment I don't want to, with all this Google smoogle goings on. Paid Posts have provided me quite a bit of spare cash and that money went to paying for my first year counselling diploma. The way things are going at the moment I am not sure how much I will make in the future, but I am glad that I at least got the chance to make some. Here is a post I did a while back on what paid post companies I have used Show me the money.

Here is the Formula for my blog so far:

Claire+Photos+Hikes+Cupboard Monster+Counselling Homework+Blog Catalog+ Visitors+Paid Posts+ Internet Issues+ Lack of time+Coffee+Drink = a mess! otherwise known as my blog :)

To sum things up after over 850 posts I got my 25'000 visitor, guess who it was?

Yep some perv looking for little panties:


Here is too another year of blogging! Chin chin :)

Winners of the Nifty, Thrifty Gifty Giveaway

Ah, it's an exciting day here at The Thrift Shop Romantic! Why? Because today I get the pleasure of announcing the winners of the Nifty Thrifty Gifty Giveaway!

Gosh, I feel just like Bob Barker. (Except, you know, without all the sexual harassment lawsuits.)

First of all, I'd like to thank just everyone who played along! You all put quite a bit of thought into your responses, and I'm aware the game wasn't the easiest. I know prices and item availability vary across areas of the country.

But that said, you gals have "skillz"! (Well, as "skillz"-oriented as any of us inclined to use teacups and vintage tablerunners can be, anyway.) You really rose to the challenge, made some insightful, educated guesses. I found myself cheering you all on as the entry emails came in! I hope you had some fun, too.

And now, to reveal the winners and the correct answers to the puzzles.

For the first basket, entrants had to choose from six labeled items "Which Item was NOT $1 or less?"
This was of:

1.) Fairy candle holder
2.) Portrait plate
3.) Carnival glass tumbler
4.) Jadeite cup
5.) Red rose embossed lampshade
6.) Vintage pink glass bowl



The correct answer here was #6, the vintage pink glass bowl. I bought this bowl at the L&L Fleatique in Jeannette, and it cost $3. Which still is quite good, as these bowls aren't easy to find-- plus it matches some other pieces I have.

Quite a few of you chose the portrait plate which, believe it or not, was actually $1! I found that at a booth in the Riverfront Antique Mall in New Philadelphia, Ohio, and it was sitting haphazardly on the FLOOR in a stack with some other plates. I had to read the price several times before I realized the owner had actually-and-for-truly marked it as $1! As a decorative item, you just can't go wrong with that.

A few of you also suggested the red rose-embossed lampshade was more than $1-- but not only was it just one buck, it also has a matching buddy. I got them at the U.F.O. (Used Furniture Outlet) in Greensburg on one of their overflowing dollar shelves. For a gal who loves fixing up lamps, the shades were too tempting to pass up.

I had three entrants who correctly guessed that the vintage pink bowl was the sly intruder in my list of dollar items. So those three names went into the drawing for the Shabby Chic-styled gift basket-- as witnessed by one of my friends who witnessed the spectacle to ensure everything was on the level. (And yes, my friends DO think I’m nuts, but this was no better proof of it than anything else, really).

So the winner of the basket is a lady who goes by the name of “Mightycat”. Congratulations to you, O Cat of Keen Mental Power! Mightycat has already been notified of the good news and once we pin down the ol’ logistics, I’ll be shipping off her package.


Okay, are we ready to reveal the answers to puzzle number two? That was, "Which of these items came from a thrift store?" And I'd mentioned that there could be more than one.

This was a tough one. Here you had a choice of:

1.) Marble topped pedestal table
2.) Shabby chic style mirror
3.) Green vintage vase
4.) Vintage rose-printed vinyl dress box
5.) Antique dresser/jewelry box with still life
6.) Pair of chalkware bookends
7.) Vintage lampshade






The answer to this one was that everything came from a thrift store EXCEPT the green vintage vase. The vase came from an antiques mall which sadly no longer even exists anymore, out by Smicksburg, PA and near the Wingate Winery. I think I paid about $4 for it. But can you believe the marble-topped table, the antique dresser/jewlery box, the lampshade, the chalkware bookends, the mirror and the vinyl dress box ALL were thrifted finds in the last year or so?

I thought this was a fun idea simply because it goes to show the remarkable things it's possible to find in thrifts!

As I'd said, this was a really tough one, because as many of you thrift-savvy people rightly pointed out, virtually anything in the list could be a thrifted item. That said, we didn't have any one person who got all of the items correct. But we DID have three sharp-guessing ladies who guessed only one item incorrectly. So those entries went into the drawing.

I'm pleased to announce the winner of the second giveaway basket is “Belle-n-Lex”.

Congratulations to you, Belle, for your nifty thrifty detectivework! You have been contacted and will be receiving the second of our giveaway baskets! Woo-hoo, Belle!


And that about wraps up the first giveaway on The Thrift Shop Romantic.

Next week, in honor of the upcoming Halloween holiday, join me as we thrill and chill to some SCARY retro-recipes and some decorating HORRORS I’ve found recently in thrifted ephemera.

Until then, have a safe and happy week!

Winners of the Nifty, Thrifty Gifty Giveaway

Ah, it's an exciting day here at The Thrift Shop Romantic! Why? Because today I get the pleasure of announcing the winners of the Nifty Thrifty Gifty Giveaway!

Gosh, I feel just like Bob Barker. (Except, you know, without all the sexual harassment lawsuits.)

First of all, I'd like to thank just everyone who played along! You all put quite a bit of thought into your responses, and I'm aware the game wasn't the easiest. I know prices and item availability vary across areas of the country.

But that said, you gals have "skillz"! (Well, as "skillz"-oriented as any of us inclined to use teacups and vintage tablerunners can be, anyway.) You really rose to the challenge, made some insightful, educated guesses. I found myself cheering you all on as the entry emails came in! I hope you had some fun, too.

And now, to reveal the winners and the correct answers to the puzzles.

For the first basket, entrants had to choose from six labeled items "Which Item was NOT $1 or less?"
This was of:

1.) Fairy candle holder
2.) Portrait plate
3.) Carnival glass tumbler
4.) Jadeite cup
5.) Red rose embossed lampshade
6.) Vintage pink glass bowl



The correct answer here was #6, the vintage pink glass bowl. I bought this bowl at the L&L Fleatique in Jeannette, and it cost $3. Which still is quite good, as these bowls aren't easy to find-- plus it matches some other pieces I have.

Quite a few of you chose the portrait plate which, believe it or not, was actually $1! I found that at a booth in the Riverfront Antique Mall in New Philadelphia, Ohio, and it was sitting haphazardly on the FLOOR in a stack with some other plates. I had to read the price several times before I realized the owner had actually-and-for-truly marked it as $1! As a decorative item, you just can't go wrong with that.

A few of you also suggested the red rose-embossed lampshade was more than $1-- but not only was it just one buck, it also has a matching buddy. I got them at the U.F.O. (Used Furniture Outlet) in Greensburg on one of their overflowing dollar shelves. For a gal who loves fixing up lamps, the shades were too tempting to pass up.

I had three entrants who correctly guessed that the vintage pink bowl was the sly intruder in my list of dollar items. So those three names went into the drawing for the Shabby Chic-styled gift basket-- as witnessed by one of my friends who witnessed the spectacle to ensure everything was on the level. (And yes, my friends DO think I’m nuts, but this was no better proof of it than anything else, really).

So the winner of the basket is a lady who goes by the name of “Mightycat”. Congratulations to you, O Cat of Keen Mental Power! Mightycat has already been notified of the good news and once we pin down the ol’ logistics, I’ll be shipping off her package.


Okay, are we ready to reveal the answers to puzzle number two? That was, "Which of these items came from a thrift store?" And I'd mentioned that there could be more than one.

This was a tough one. Here you had a choice of:

1.) Marble topped pedestal table
2.) Shabby chic style mirror
3.) Green vintage vase
4.) Vintage rose-printed vinyl dress box
5.) Antique dresser/jewelry box with still life
6.) Pair of chalkware bookends
7.) Vintage lampshade






The answer to this one was that everything came from a thrift store EXCEPT the green vintage vase. The vase came from an antiques mall which sadly no longer even exists anymore, out by Smicksburg, PA and near the Wingate Winery. I think I paid about $4 for it. But can you believe the marble-topped table, the antique dresser/jewlery box, the lampshade, the chalkware bookends, the mirror and the vinyl dress box ALL were thrifted finds in the last year or so?

I thought this was a fun idea simply because it goes to show the remarkable things it's possible to find in thrifts!

As I'd said, this was a really tough one, because as many of you thrift-savvy people rightly pointed out, virtually anything in the list could be a thrifted item. That said, we didn't have any one person who got all of the items correct. But we DID have three sharp-guessing ladies who guessed only one item incorrectly. So those entries went into the drawing.

I'm pleased to announce the winner of the second giveaway basket is “Belle-n-Lex”.

Congratulations to you, Belle, for your nifty thrifty detectivework! You have been contacted and will be receiving the second of our giveaway baskets! Woo-hoo, Belle!


And that about wraps up the first giveaway on The Thrift Shop Romantic.

Next week, in honor of the upcoming Halloween holiday, join me as we thrill and chill to some SCARY retro-recipes and some decorating HORRORS I’ve found recently in thrifted ephemera.

Until then, have a safe and happy week!