Top 5 Thrifting Finds

As you may have already read my Top 5 *50 off* Thrifting Finds post I decided to share my all around Top 5 Thrifting Finds! Now these finds are not limited to strictly Goodwill like my other post was. These are my absolute favorite, once in a lifetime, never will forget top 5 thrifting items I've gotten throughout the past 4 years! Whether it be from a tag sale, flea market, Savers, Goodwill or just a local thrift store, here are my Top 5 favorite thrifting finds!

5. Chicago Roller Skates, $20 ($19 after my 5% discount!) Soooo can we talk about nostalgia? Because these actually scream it. I used to roller blade almost everyday when I was younger, though I wasn't very good at it. Regardless, I was dying to find a pair of retro skates to remember my childhood and I've actually seen them making a comeback. Now, these are much more easier to skate in than blades and since my clumsiness hasn't gotten any better over the years, when I came across these BRAND NEW skates they had my name written all over them. I haven't skated with them yet but I will be come Spring!



4. Sleeping Beauty snow globe and Princess Aurora "Jim Shore" figurine. These were found over the summer and the snow globe was the first Sleeping Beauty item I've ever found thrifting and in perfect shape nonetheless! No bubbles or discoloration in the water, no chips or breaks in the ceramic. I couldn't put it down once it was in my hands so I knew it was coming home with me! The Princess Aurora figurine was found at our local monthly flea market, right up the street from our house. I've seen these hand crafted Disney figurines by Jim Shore before and knew I wanted one for my collection so for $2 I immediately said "I'll take it"! I love every Disney Princess so the more merchandise the better! Since this Princess Aurora Jim Shore piece I've added a Belle and Elsa one to my collection as well. I'm now asking for more of these as Christmas gifts because they are so beautiful and I love seeing them on my bookcase shelves!



3. Olive Green Rain Jacket, the story behind this still amazes me to this day. So as I talked about in my Thrifting Tips post, Target donates their clearance items to Goodwill. Now obviously I still actually go to Target every chance I can because their stuff is amazing, but one day I decided to try on this super cute rain jacket and it fit perfectly. The length fell at just the right spot on my hips, I had room to move around and layer clothes so I fell in love... until I saw that price sticker, $39.99! Sometimes I just cannot fathom spending retail so I had to put this jacket back on the hanger and walk away. But don't get your hopes up yet because about 3 weeks later I FOUND THE SAME JACKET AT GOODWILL IN MY SIZE... FOR ONLY $6!!! YES $6!!! My heart dropped, I was ecstatic, I grabbed that jacket and literally ran to Zachary to show him (He was standing right next to me at Target and knew how much I loved it) and we both couldn't believe it. I wore that jacket so much last year that I already have a hole in the arm, but I sewed it up so it's ready for Fall and Winter! I just can't let it go yet! Here's a photo of Zachary and I Christmas Tree shopping last year, I'm wearing the coat!



2. Harry Potter Collector's Edition Books. 2 of these books were bought at the same time and the other was actually found in Pennsylvania while on our way to a mini weekend vacation, but since they are all Harry Potter related I included them as one awesome find. I came across the Harry Potter Film Screen for $10 at a thrift store in Pennsylvania! I was hesitant to get it because there is a rip on the spine but deep down I knew this was a one in a million find (and if I did end up coming across another having 2 isn't a big deal right?). Zach convinced me to buy it and I'm so happy I did. I held that book like a baby walking out of Goodwill that day and now when I see it on my shelf I not only remember the deal I got, but also the fun weekend vacation we had. The other 2 books were found at one of our local stores, and Zach actually grabbed these for me. He walked by the book section right as an employee was putting these on the shelf. They were only available for about 30 seconds before they were in his hands. Want to know the price? They were $2 each! How incredible is that?!



1. What could my top thrifting find be? It couldn't possibly be a book could it? Yup, it definitely is a book! Here we have The Wrath & the Dawn by Renee Ahdieh. Now every single one of the books I've thrifted should be on this list but to keep matters short I narrowed it down to my all time, absolute favorite book. I actually read this first on my kindle when it was on sale for $1.99 and immediately fell in love on the first page. The story has so much depth with an intense plot, interesting characters and it was so hard to put down. I recommend it to everyone and my review for it can be found here! However, since I had a Ebook my heart was set on finding a hardcover copy for my collection, and the day eventually came when I found it in perfect condition sitting on the shelf of a Goodwill for only $2! I left with the biggest smile on my face that day and it still remains just thinking about this book. A few months later I found the paperback copy at a different GW for $1! You better believe I snatched it up quick, because I obviously need more than 1 edition of my favorite.



So there's my Top 5 favorite finds! It was so hard for me to choose only 5 because we find so many awesome things a week! I actually had to rewrite this original post because my Top 5 changed. With that being said I decided to start a weekly blog post of everything I thrift each week, launching within the month or so. The days I post will vary because sometimes we come home empty handed, but right now I plan to get one out every Friday! I'm looking forward to writing these and this way I won't have to think of my top favorite finds because I'll be sharing them as I find them! So please stay tuned for these upcoming posts! Thank you and take care!

Top 5 *50% Off* Thrifting Finds

As I mentioned in my Thrifting Tips post, every week Goodwill has a "color of the week" sale. The 4 colors that rotate are red, yellow, green and blue. After 3 weeks certain colored items are marked down to help sell and make way for new merchandise. That means these items have been sitting in Goodwill for over 3 weeks just waiting to be found... 3 weeks!! That may not seem like a long time but with avid thrift shoppers like Zachary and I who constantly look for the best deals, it can be hard to find that must have item at 50% off. However, once and a while I get lucky so here are my Top 5 50% off Thrifting Finds found at Goodwill!



5. Wall-e Blu-ray movie - Originally $6, bought for $3. Zach and I are huge Blu-ray collectors, we own over 200+ Blu-rays and most are courtesy of thrifting. Many of our movies are Disney because...DISNEY, need I say more? $3-5 for Blu-rays are our happy number, which means we don't normally like spending any more than that unless it's a new release we absolutely must have. Most Goodwill's price Blu-rays $5 or less but sometimes they get greedy. We've seen them priced at $15 before while the same movie is at Walmart for $5! So when I saw Wall-e priced at $6 my heart sank a little. Do I spend the extra $1 over "happy price" or just walk away? Well, I decided to walk away and every time I walked into that GW for the next 3 weeks Wall-e stared me in the face. Once it was priced down I grabbed it before anyone else could!



4. Black booties - Originally $15, bought for $7.50. Scored these super cute brand new booties at a Goodwill that was closing down! This deal is actually an exception to the weekly 50% off because this was found when the entire store was on sale! As a promotion to try and sell merchandise before their move to a new store built up the street, my local GW had everything discounted at 50% off! Pickings were slim so I was pretty excited to get these in my size!



3. Harry Potter tank top - Originally $4, bought for $2. Hufflepuff pride here! Anything HP draws my attention regardless of what it is, so this tank top immediately caught my eye and once I saw it was marked down I went right to the checkout! Layer it with a cardigan, leggings and sneakers and I have a new thrifting Fall outfit!



2. Holding up the Universe by Jennifer Niven ARC - Originally $1, bought for 50 cents. This book by Jennifer Niven was released in October 2016 but I actually found this ARC (Advance Reader's Copy) in July of 2016! So it was a special surprise to have this book before release date! I didn't end up reading it until June of this year though. Jennifer Niven is a favorite author of mine, her book All the Bright Places was one of the most beautiful books I've ever read. It's a definite must read so I recommend both of these books to anyone who loves YA contemporaries!



1. 3 Batman statues - Originally $113, bought for $53.50. So this find is for Zach and since we found these Batman related items all at once I am counting it as one. Now when we go thrifting we have our usual weekly spots but there are quite a few stores about 1 hour away from us, in each direction, so once in a while we'll pick a different town to go and take the drive. This was our 2nd time at this particular Goodwill and it was a Sunday, a new week, therefore a new 50% off tag color. Almost immediately upon walking in we both notice these huge Batman statues above the glass case. Zach was on a Batman statue kick at the time so he was bouncing off the walls with excitement... and then we realized the color of the week matched the price stickers on these statues! Total they were supposed to run us $113 but with 50% off (PLUS the additional 5% off since we spent more than $20 and used our GW membership perks) he only paid about $53.50! After some research we found that one of these statues alone sells for over $70! Now he can add these 3 to his collection for a great price! It was definitely worth it and we were so excited we chose that Sunday to go because these statues wouldn't have been there for much longer!

So that concludes my Top 5 50% off Thrifting Finds! Please follow my blog to stay updated with my posts as I'll be sharing my all time favorite Top 5 Thrifting Finds very soon! Thanks for reading, take care and happy hunting!

Top 5 To Be Read

I'll admit it my To-Be-Read (TBR) shelf on Goodreads is way out of control. I've had way too many longing days of effortlessly clicking that "Want to Read" button therefore sending my number into the hundreds. From time to time I'll go through my TBR to delete titles I no longer am interested in, but somehow it never seems to go down, which is probably because for every book deleted I add 10 more... hey, I can't help it!

So my Top 5 TBR, the books I'll never take off my TBR list no matter how many years pass since release date are,

5. Shatter me by Tahereh Mafi - I've heard nothing but great things about The Shatter Me series, and with Tahereh's announcement of 3 more books added I need to dive into this soon. However, the main reason this is still on my TBR is because I only own books 1 & 3! While thrifting for books is fun it's also very stressful because I find most of series out of order and I rarely start series that have been published entirely without having them all. So I'm patiently... no, very impatiently waiting to find Unravel Me!



4. A Darker Shade of Magic by V.E. Schwab - Believe me, I am well aware that I have a lot of catching up to do with V.E. Schwab, and I'm a little shocked myself that this series is still on my TBR list. I deeply want and NEED to read ADSOM as soon as possible because there's not a doubt in my mind that I'll love it.



3. Crystal Storm by Morgan Rhodes - I am in love with this series so far but unfortunately the ending for this book was spoiled for me. I was actually looking at a different book review when someone mentioned Crystal Storm and just BAM! wrote the spoiler without a single warning. I was crushed, heartbroken and was actually put into a 3 month reading slump because of it (if I'm being honest I'm still not 100% out of the slump). The Falling Kingdom series instantly became a favorite of mine so not being able to experience that ending for myself hurt so much. I will absolutely be finding the strength to read this before Immortal Reign is released in February though.



2. Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo - The Grisha Series is absolutely, positively, most definitely one of the most amazing series I've ever read. Seriously, I recommend this series to everyone. Leigh is an amazing author however The Six of Crows duology has been staring at me from my shelf for far too long, so I really need to consider starting this sooner rather than later.



1. Warcross by Marie Lu - Okay so I know this book hasn't been released yet, but I literally picture the day when I can devour it come September far more often than I should. I want to read this so badly that my heart has started beating quicker just mentioning the title. It's my absolute most wanted read right now and the fact that I have to wait 2 more months is killing me. I've never read a Marie Lu book before (I know, I know, WHAT?!) but after Warcross my plan is to take Legend, Prodigy and Champion head on!



So there's my Top 5 TBR, unfortunately I'm not able to show off any gorgeous photos of Warcross since it's not out yet. I'm certain this list will be changing soon because writing this post actually makes me want to grab one of these off my shelf and start reading. Have you read any of these books? Are they your favorites? Stay tuned for another Top 5 down the road! Hopefully all 5 of these, including their sequels, will be marked of my list! Thanks for reading, take care!