Leah Darling Roberts

Find It! Love It! Thousands of inspiring finds arrive every single day! The sign in front of the ARC thrift store says that in addition to its exceptionally low everyday prices, most items are half price today. Yay!

I love thrift stores, flea markets, consignment stores, and the like, partly because I never know what I may find (a pair of designer jeans, a two dollar office chair, a Jell-O mold in the shape of a human brain), and partly because I’m a sucker for a good deal.

Most of the time I leave without buying anything, but it’s still fun to consider the possibilities.

Like this pile o’ pigs:

Or this feather angel playing the violin:

Ten thousand square feet of used furniture, clothing, toys, cookware, knick-knacks, and miscellaneous junk . . .

“Help me mommy! Someone put a bag over my head!”

Everyone needs one of these.

Used cosmetics anyone?

They have new things too, like pastel, padded seats for your library.

Just like Grandma’s house!

And neon pink, zebra car mats:

Each of the items in this store belonged to someone at one time, and that person (or the person who gave it to them) thought it was awesome enough to purchase new.

Including this:

Ahoy Matey!

It’s been an unusually wet couple of months here in Colorado. In fact, the National Weather Service says we had the wettest May in recorded history. After several years of intense drought, I’m grateful for all this rain, at least intellectually. However, summer is my favorite season of the year and I welcome the sun and heat with open arms.

Marvin and I took advantage of the first dry weekend in weeks (or so it feels), by going on a treasure hunt.

This weekend, the Denver Public Library Friends Foundation held their semi-annual used book sale on the north lawn of the main branch of the Denver Public Library. The sale, which started Thursday and ran through today, helps fund a bunch of worthy causes, including the children’s summer reading program, adult and child literacy programs, and technology assistance training for adults. Each year, the foundation also purchases thousands of new books, CDs, and DVDs for the library’s general collection. The sale is a bargain for anyone who loves to read, with books selling for as little as fifty cents.

Every couple of years, when my bookcases get so full that I can’t fit anything more on them, and my office starts to resemble a horder’s nest, I pare down my collection of books. I donate anything that’s badly worn, or that I don’t plan to read again, to my local library for their sale, and then I enjoy the process of building my collection back up.

Anyway, Marvin and I spent an enjoyable couple of hours digging through the stacks, and came away with a handful of books, as well as several vintage CDs and a DVD boxed set of the fourth season of Smallville. We didn’t find everything we’d hoped for, and our haul wasn’t as large as in previous years, but we had fun. Afterward, we enjoyed a picnic lunch outside the Denver Art Museum, and left satisfied that the twelve dollars we’d spent had gone to a good cause.