Did I score the other day at Goodwill!!!

Yes, I know I was supposed to be sitting here at home, deciding on photographs for a contest, but my head was swimming with all sorts of images….

I decided a little retail therapy was in order… to help clear out the cobwebs in my head, make it all a bit clearer; you understand, don’t you?? 

So, it had to be a mindless kind of shopping; not fabric shopping, because then my mind would only become MORE cluttered by other possibilities….

I headed to Goodwill. My absolute favorite store, outside of a quilt shop(and Ikea—don’t forget Ikea…) Now, I do have to say the quality of the Goodwill store seems to be regionally inspired.

In New York City, we didn’t have Goodwill’s while I was growing up. There was the Salvation Army, poorly located and trashy. Give me a good yard sale, any day!  And I’m not too proud to say I have shopped curbside many times in NYC either…not something that is really DONE here…(sniff…)

So when I moved here, I took a while before I ventured inside a Goodwill.  I tried shopping yard sales, but I didn’t know the lay of the land, and yard sales are more a Friday and Saturday thing here; and well, frankly, living on an island is different than NOT living on an island.

While plotting out a yard sale driving list I could easily find myself in Amelia county … that’s a long way to travel to see if anyone happens to be getting rid of something I want to own!

So I gave up on the yard sale.  And discovered a far better thing: Goodwill.

Here is Sunday’s take. Someone was cleaning out their music library and their reading library. I had to Stop. Picking. Up. The. Cd’s. It was getting silly. I whittled the stack down to about a dozen. Old friends, listened to for years on LP, and new names I decided to try.

Then, hands filled to overflowing, I wandered to the book section. After I balanced the 4th book on top of my pile of CD’s I had to give in and get a shopping cart.

Again, the book choices this day were phenomenal. Books I have read and lost, authors I love, new and interesting titles….

This trip, I stayed out of the clothing section… I left spending under $50 and now have all these neat goodies!(no, not yard sale-cheap, but not retail either,…)

I buy most of my work clothes here. And a good deal of my non-work clothes as well. (Mostly because I enjoy the poking about, the finding something a bit more unique, and because I think I worked in shopping malls for so many years that I have a secret aversion to them…)

Our Goodwill (of Central Virginia) is a sharp organization. They are clean, neat, organized, large, bright and generally a pleasure to shop.

Oh, by the way, it worked. The photos all kind of sorted themselves out in my head as I meandered, and I came home and was able to choose three relatively quickly. (see them Here…. and here…   and here! ) Wish me luck!