Used Book Mini Haul

I was out and about exploring when I drove by a thrift shop I had not been browsed in a while. 

Not letting the weird old stuff cleaned with cleaning liquids smell deter me, I found some book treasures. My grand total for this haul is $2.41. 

Always stop and browse at the odd thrift store, you never know what you will find.

Journal for 25 cents. I could not resist this for obvious reason. My name starts with a "T" so this was meant to be. I get excited when I find the letter T in a font I like. 

This will be a great reference book for when I am writing my mermaid novel. Lots of big detailed colorful pictures of sealife and underwater environments. 

When I find things that are connected to the beach, ocean or mermaid art,  I always feel encouraged to continue writing my mermaid action novel, mermaid children's book and creating mermaid art. 

Individuals - Portraits from the Gap Collection 

I love photography books because there is so much inspiration. Whoa! I just flipped to the back of the book and found a CD!  That made the $1.08 (regular price  was $35.00) an even better deal. Cool!

This book has lots of portraits of celebrities from the 1980s, 90s and early 2000s. It's cool seeing these people in their prime. I have been facinated by how some people who are famous age gracefully and some do not.

So that's my quick used book haul. I will give more indepth reviews later.

Thank you for reading my post. 

Thomasina

Walmart 50 cent Clearance Haul

Get ready to be scrolling for a while because I got quite a few things from two Walmart clearance shopping carts. I walk into the store and right near the front door were two shopping carts with a sign on them that said "50 cent" . I drove right in and found a lot of cool items.

Settle down and grab a cup of tea or hot chocolate and enjoy :)

Let me explain.... No way am I a fan of this boy band. I did at one point think Harry was a cutie. I'm over that now. But I could not turn down a journal and a cool rhinestone pen for only 50 cents. I will buy a journal with a cover that I don't like because I can just cover it up with a picture of what I do like. It is my own custom cover.

Sidenote: This journal set was regular priced at $9.99 - not worth it because I just barely opened it and the pages separated from the spine. Poor quality glue holding the pages to the spine. The pen writes in black very smoothly so that is a plus.

For use on my journal covers, journal pages, greeting cards or an art piece. This is so me. I feel like I am in the right place at the right time when I find things that relate to who I am as an artist.

When I picked this up out of the pile of clearance stuff, I thought what will I use this for? I use it to draw circles (a mermaid in a water globe). This actually makes drawing quick circles really easy.

These stickers make me happy just like a little kid. When I reach a goal or need encouragement, I will pop one of these stickers on a journal entry or a note and it makes me smile and work harder to reach my goals.

Silver sequins. Can't beat the 50 cents price for this amount of product.

A kit to attack bling and athletic theme stickers to a T shirt. I will probably use this to play around with on a shirt to wear around the house. Good deal for 50 cents.

Of course this is the BEST find of the entire haul. Digging deep down in the shopping cart that had all the 50 cent clearance items piled in, I found a beautiful poseable mermaid sticker. Whenever I find a mermaid and I wasn't looking for a mermaid, I always view this as a sign to keep working on my mermaid novel. She is adorable with the water bubbles and the shell.

Back view of the mermaid sticker.

These beautiful gold letters were not 50 cents, they were 9 cents! It is because they are from Christmas. Excellent!

Back view of the gold sticker package.

Wands anyone?

Not a Harry Potter wand but it is a girly cute wand. I taped this to a pen. Maybe I will tape it to my wall for decoration or to a bulletin board.

I almost cheered when I saw these cool beach stickers. This was the first time I ever saw such authentic looking sand stickers. Being a beach girl this was right up my alley. Can't wait to use these.

Glittery stickers are fun. These adhered to the page very well.

Puffy stickers for 50 cents is a really good deal. The princess them is really sweet. I will use these on the outside of my journals or on greeting cards.

I'm not really into these characters not being a fan of horror movies or cartoons. Big fan of Buffy and Angel though. I thought I would give these a try because they were kinda cute and 50 cents.

 

Usually the little notepads like this are useless in a real write notes or reminders on but these are actually really nice fainted pictures of the Disney Princess. Ariel is here so that made me happy. Mermaids represent!

What these are for exactly, I really don't understand. Pockets for pages inside your binder or notebook on the paper itself. What is this good for? I am just going to use this as decoration in my journals. I like the graphic. It reminds of the 70s graphic designs.

While not my favorite actor for the role of Superman - Henry Cavill was perfect in The Tudors. Tom Welling was perfect as Clark Kent on Smallville and Brandon Routh was a great Superman in a terrible Superman movie.

These are really cool stickers and they don't look like the actor for Man of Steel so that was a plus too. LOL!

I was excited to find two of these findings. Simple task to design a quick DIY for a new pair of earrings. Just attach pieces of jewelry from my jewelry parts stash and french hooks.

Here's a great bargin: a sequined applique for only 50 cents. I was very happy to find this bargain.

I see how this can be used for decoration on a shirt but I think I will use it to decorate the front of a pair of denim shorts or the back pockets of a part of jeans.

A cool single sheet of paper featuring a colorful picture of a galaxy. I see this as a wall art or cover for a journal.

At first, I did not know what these were then I saw the string. This a type of hanging decoration for parties. I might hang one of these in my office and use the rest as covers for journals. I will recover a journal if I don't like the cover with anything: tearout from a magazine, a picture or any graphics I find. Repurpose and Reuse!

Favor boxes and a table decoration  - all for 50 cents. I might display the table decoration on a table just for fun and I could use the boxes for gift boxes or tear them apart for use as covers for journal books.

Thank you so much for reading my blogpost!

Thomasina

If you have questions, please contact me at thomasinawords@gmail.com or comment below.

Calendar Haul Part 2 - Desktop from Dollar Tree

This calendar haul features the desktop calendars I purchased for a dollar each at the Dollar Tree store. 

The full length view of the calendar use to write my work schedule, bills due dates , etc. located in my home office.

Side panel view of a full year calendar. 

Both calendarsi are distributed by Bendon Publishing International  1-888-5-BENDON

I love the pretty design of the swirling flowers and the bright happy colors. I use this calendar for scheduling blog tasks and planning. I usually write in my bedroom so this is on a desk in there


Both calendars are a little smaller than the normal office desk size found in office supply stores. But they are a good value and will do what I need them to do. You cannot beat a dollar item that will last a whole year.

Thank you for reading my post !

Thomasina

If you have questions or comments, you can also email me at thomasinawords@gmail.com

Express Jewelry Clearance Haul

Here are the items I was lucky enough to find on the almost non existent jewelry clearance sale rack at Express.

Maybe this is a once a year event but their jewelry rarely goes on any type of sale or markdown much less at clearance prices. 

I love the dainty elegant sparkly bracelets and earrings I got. Express has beautiful good quality costume jewelry but it is very overpriced. Everything was priced at $5.99 and then 50% off. 

Gold tone with rhinestones circle black cord with gold beads bracelet. 

Love the gold beads. They add an extra finishing touch. 

This is a very tiny letter "T" goldtone with rhinestones chain bracelet. 

A goldtone rhinestone very small star bracelet with a sky blue cord with gold accent beads. 

This "V" goldtone rhinestone gold chain necklace looks so much better when I put it on. I was kinda unsure about the design of the piece in the store but loved the price. 

I am so glad I got it. "Goes with anything"   simple tiny sized necklace. I love my big statement necklaces but this is a nice change.

Love this infinity or the number 8 necklace. My favorite symbol and number. Anyone remember the School House Rock song with the little girl skating on the pond? Love the song!

The last piece is a faceted plastic bead bracelet with a beautiful thin rhinestone cross.

Part of the cool thing about buying jewelry at Express is getting your purchases put into these mess drawstring small bags. 

Another nice "display" item is the actual card the jewelry is attached to. It is a thick paper that feels like suede.

Of course this nice packaging adds to the high regular price of the items.

It was so exciting after browsing in Express for ages to finally be able to buy something. 

Express jewelry is made from very good quality materials. Love the design of most   of the jewelry but it is usually way out of my price range.

Thank you for reading my blogpost.

Thomasina

If you have questions or comments, you can also email me at Thomasina8@gmail.com

Tangled Art Set - Goodbye To Store Sale

The Disney store in a local mall is closing. I am so sad about this. Every time I would go to that mall, I would stop into that store to smile at the happy atmosphere.

I got a Tangled Art set as a saying good bye gift to the store. 

I always loved shopping the clearance shelves. The merchandise doesn't go on sale very often but when it does, it was really worth it. 

Tangled is one of my favorite Disney movies. Rapunzel is an artist and this always made me identify with her. Also she did not let her isolation make her bitter but maintained her creativity through some very lonely and difficult times in her life.  This was very inspiring and motivating to me. 

The cover of the plastic art set case. It has a push button closure. I hope this does not break over time. Love the cover picture. 

Enclosed were three sets of the same small stickers, small sized pencils, a slim blank sketch book, two tubes of liquid glitter (gold and purple), a set of ten color watercolor paints. A soft bristle brush was included too. 

The set was marked down to $9.99 then an extra 25% off. The total with tax was $8.02. 

Honestly, this is still a bit more then I would like to pay for cheap quality art supplies. These type of art sets are for children to play with. 

I use art supplies like theses for sketches and journaling. For art pieces you want to last for years and be displayed, I would suggest paying more money for better quality materials. 

This is a lovely sweet picture of her. 

These are the watercolors. 

I love art sets especially ones with fun graphics on the cover of the cases. 

Sorry to see this happy place for children leave the mall but I can still visit the store in Crabtree Valley Mall in Raleigh. 

Do you buy inexpensive art supplies or do you only buy the better quality ones?

Thank you for reading my post!