May Thrift Haul

This month was another extra fun thrifting adventure, as it includes scores from our trip to Naples, Florida.

As I mentioned, my husband found so many amazing treasures that we had to zip open our carry-ons wider so that he could fit them all in! I think there was around 6 pairs of golf/fitness shorts, 2 polos, 2 t-shirts and 2 hats. He’s been wearing everything since he came home and it tickles me to no end that when I compliment him, he responds enthusiastically with “THANKS, I THRIFTED THESE SHORTS FOR $5!”

I was very, very picky with my thrifting treasures, but I came home with a few winners:

Lou & Grey joggers, $6.99

I’m pretty sure these are the Lou & Grey Signaturesoft sweatpants that retail for $69.50. They are incredibly soft and fit like a pair of leggings and a pair of joggers had a baby. I absolutely love them and have already worn them a bunch of times. Love, love, love these and after seeing how they wear for a while, I might even purchase another pair at retail prices. On sale, of course.

Jofit skort, $6.99

I love a good skort for running or even for our afternoon/evening neighborhood walks. There were skorts a plenty in the Naples thrift stores (thanks to all the local golf courses and tennis clubs), but this one was a winner for me. I loved the bright orange accents and the pleats make for some sassy twirls. Similar skorts retail on the Jofit website for $98.

Madewell Walker Chelsea suede ankle boots, $5.99

These Madewell booties were my best score in Naples! They are in fantastic condition, fit me perfectly and retailed for $178 on the Madewell website. If I were shopping retail, I’d be hesitant to purchase suede shoes since they can get ruined by rain, however at $6 there’s not much to lose and these will look fantastic with some dresses and jeans in the fall.

Athleta v-neck lightweight sweatshirt, $9

This is a score from home, but I love the v-neck Athleta sweatshirts (I own two, one in navy and one in green). So when I saw this black one for $9, I figured I might as well add it to my closet. I love them as a layer for hiking and I also wear them regularly on chilly days in my house.

Pyrex “Zodiac” casserole dish, $8.50

I’ve never seen this pattern in Pyrex before, so I was intrigued. It was in TERRIBLE condition though, so I thought it would be a fun gamble to see if Bar Keepers Friend could really magically restore it. Spoiler alert, it did NOT save it. However, olive oil helped a lot:

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Family Travel: Our Trip to Naples, Florida

We had our 4-day weekend in Naples, Florida and it was everything I hoped it would be! It was full of beautiful weather, lots of delicious food, all the splishing-splashing you could want, and thrifting. What more could I ask for in an impromptu Mother’s Day weekend trip?

We love staying in houses rather than hotels (I typically book through either VRBO or AirBNB) and the house we rented for this trip was in the North Naples area. It had three bedrooms, two bathrooms, a kitchen, laundry and the most gorgeous private lanai with a pool and hot tub.

We rented the house FOR that pool situation and planned on spending the majority of our time there. And we did!

In fact, we didn’t even go to the beach. I KNOW. CRAZY. But having your own private oasis in your backyard was too much of a treat… why would we want to be around other people?

So, what did we do?

ALL the pool time

We were basically in and out of the pool all day long. They had four pool lounge chairs in the shallow water, a couple float chairs, boogie boards and assorted pool toys to play with. Outside the pool was a picnic table, a seating area with an outdoor sofa and also two lounge chairs.

At one point, a game was devised where you have to sit in a float chair and catch a pool toy in a bucket from one side of the pool to the other. I mean, COME ON, this is what core memories are made from! The pool and hot tub had some fantastic LED lights, so every night we had a before-bed pool dance party in the dark. It was absolute heaven.

Lots of yummy food

We stopped at the nearby grocery store to stock up the house with bottled waters and snacks. We also impulse bought a lemon icing pound cake from Trader Joes that was pretty fantastic with some fresh strawberries for breakfast one day.

As for local restaurants, our favorites were: Joe’s Diner for breakfast, Turco Tacos, Michaelbob’s for BBQ, and Kilwins for ice cream.

And some thrifting

We hit up a bunch of the local Goodwill stores and one of the St. Matthew’s House thrift stores. We were actually shocked at how many Goodwills were in the area and I think we must have gone to at least 5 of them! According to Jack, the kid’s toys/games offerings were lackluster, but he did end up with a Nerf gun, a cool deck of cards and a keyboard fidget. I also found a few winners, which I will be sharing with you all in my May Thrift Haul post.

As for Travis… he scored! Because Naples is such a golf course area, he found so many pairs of nice shorts in perfect condition, as well as multiple polo shirts, a couple nice t-shirts and two hats. Believe me when I say the man has fully caught the thrifting bug now. We had to zip open our suitcases to make them a couple inches larger in order to fit all of his treasures inside for the plane ride home!

Our 4-day weekend was so relaxing and I loved every minute of it. It was exactly what we needed and we came home relaxed, refreshed, and just a little sun kissed.

And yes, we will absolutely be returning again – to the same house – and next time we plan to check out some of the local beaches. Maybe.

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Before & After: Another Rit Dye DIY

As I mentioned in my April Thrift Haul post, I found a pretty Line of Oslo blouse at the thrift store for $6 and immediately decided to buy it and dye it.

Here is the before:

I don’t know if it’s actually a blouse, tunic, swim coverup or dress… it’s flowy and hits about the top of my thigh. I found the brand website and this pretty little top traveled here from Norway, so that’s pretty dang cool. I love the drape of the top, the sleeves, the neckline and the silver accents. However, I don’t really wear white.

So, that brings us to the dye! I was initially thinking I’d go for a dark grey but when I checked my stash, I found a box of purple dye that I had never used. So, I figured why not? Here’s a link to the exact box of dye on Amazon if you’re looking for it.

Anyways, I could not have been lazier with this project. I put on a pair of gloves, wet the shirt, added the powder dye to a pot of hot water (it’s a pot I only use for dying… not for food) and swished it around for maybe 5 minutes.

I didn’t want it to be super dark purple, I just wanted it to be less white. And I wasn’t sure if the silver was going to show through or not. So, about 5 minutes and I was done. I rinsed it and rinsed it until the water was mostly clear. The photo on the far right is the rinsed color, however it always gets a bit lighter once dry.

I threw it in with the rest of my load of laundry through the washer (on cold) and the dryer.

And here is the after:

I love how it turned out and the fact that the silver came right though, so I didn’t lose the pattern at all. It’s still somewhat transparent, so I’ll have to wear it over something more than a bra. However, I’m thinking I’ll use this as a swimsuit cover up (with and without shorts) on our next trip. It also will look really cute knotted over the front of a dress, so I still get coverage but it can pretend to be a shirt.

So yeah, certainly worth $6 and not much of my time!

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