Ash Wednesday Thrifting

It's time for farewell to the flesh and also spring cleaning. Someone threw out these fantastic low slung, cast iron garden chairs in Algiers on Wednesday. The Aqua cushions are pure heaven!

there were four but I could only fit the least distressed ones in the PT Cruiser,sigh.

It's Getting Crazy Around here for Mardi Gras

Heather has just gotten started making these again. We have been in a thrifting frenzy as of late and I'm just now trying to find places to put everything and get to work on making stuff myself. I found no less than three chandeliers on the street this week.

We have also been wig shopping and putting our costumes together.

I fell in love while thrifting

It's hard to believe that Heather and I have been together for five years now. It seems like just yesterday when we were heading out all day to go thrifting in Chalmette, or down Jefferson Highway or over to the West bank. Some days we would thrift and then go roller skating or we would thrift and then go take her dog Sheeba for a walk and then go to Mona's or something. We have just returned this evening from heading out to pick up freecycled debris for her art, a long and worthwhile visit to the Green Project, more salvage shopping at the Bargain Center and then over to see our friend Ena and her beautiful baby Zoya. A passion for thrifting brought us together and we have been official for five years now. Happy Valentines and Happy thrifting!

Mardi Gras Thrift Store Shopping In Algiers Shopping Center New Orleans Louisiana

It's mardi gras time and time to head out & shop for a groovy costume. Give the Goodwill at Algiers Shopping Center a try, right off Berhman Highway, next to Walmart. This Goodwill still has a large selection of prom and other ballgowns, $16.00 and up. Open Monday through Saturday 9am until 8pm. During Parade season, no public bathrooms.

Breaking News! New Orleans' Lakeview Goodwill Thrift Store set to reopen by March 1

I love Goodwill, especially the Goodwill at Robert E. Lee Drive in Lakeview. Lakeview (or whiteview as it has been snarkily called) was the last bastion of Estate Sale Shabby Chic Heaven, especially with those KBT Estate Sale ladies. Lady K waterlogged all of that 50's French Revival Furniture but Goodwill is now set to reopen and I hear it is chock full of donations to sell. See my Valentine's post for happy memories of the Lakeview Goodwill Store

New Orleans Thrift Store Thrift City Reopens

In case you havent heard, Thrift City USA has reopened on the West Bank on Terry Parkway inbetween Carol Sue and Stumpf. We're going to have to start calling this neighborhood the Latin Quarters since no less than 5 new Latino restaurants have opened up in this area since Lady K, not to mention the new and less than fabulous Union Supermarket.
Also there are Latina employees at Thrift City which is refreshing. No umbrellas on the ceiling yet and still no dressing rooms but they will exchange your clothes if you buy the wrong size.
1/2 price day is coming up this Thursday. Expect the place to be crowded with Mardi Gras Thrifters looking for costumes, otherwise known as amateurs ( not that there is anything wrong with that).
Thrift City is open 10am - 7pm Monday Through Friday
10am-6pm on Saturday, Closed Sunday. Drop off donations accepted.

The rest of the place will be packed with vintage clothing shop sharks (we know who you are) so get there early and bring money or you'll have to buy that darling outfit at ridiculous prices somewhere else. My pet peeve has got to be someone who buys an item at the thrift store for 2.95 and then tries to rip off college students or uptown ladies by selling the item for $90. Please dont call yourself "indie" or "alternative" when you are the equivalent of "walmart," not "target."

Good taste should be affordable and available to all.

That is why I love vintage shops like Funky Monkey on Magazine Street that keep prices reasonable. I'll never stop shopping there.

H & H Estate Sale today uptown on Jefferson Avenue

I am very happy to report a positive outcome for today's H & H (Huffy & Huffiet I like to think of the old lady as) estate sale uptown on Jefferson Avenue. I used to get so depressed before entering this lady's sales as her prices were always so unreasonably high and her morale (or is it morals) so low. Also, Heather and I would just start to pick on her when she would have a $3 tag on a pack of old light bulbs. then there was a time she had a scrap -literally a scrap- of mildewed carpet priced at $25. That was a day in Lakeview at on one of the bird -named streets but I digress, anyway, Lady K must have helped Miss Huffy see the light as her prices have come down since the Big One.It was a gorgeous day.

Things I am no longer allowed to bring home

For one reason or another, I have been asked to no longer bring home rusted lampshades. Even though I could start making lampshades any day now or use them as the base for my next paper mache mardi gras costume I have started to comply.I pick my battles.

It Came From the Street

Some of my best most favorite and most under utilized items have come from heaping piles of trash - all pre Katrina. I love all things rusted and under loved. These items must come home with me. I have abused many vehicles, relationships, and lunch hours to bring these items home. This is why I dont have children. There is no where safe and unrusty for them to play.

I found this chair on Magazine Street. It weighs more than a broken and unusable chair should be allowed to weigh. It has two missing panels on the front but just needs a big cushion in order to be semi safe. I dont really care. You can bury me with it and no I do not want to paint it.

St. Vincent de Paul's on 4th Street in Marrero Louisiana

Ironically located between several biker bars (Ms. Bootie's Lounge & Bob's Lucky Penny), the sole surviving St. Vincent de Paul has some of the best elements that the old stores used to have. Employees - usually very colorful characters that make this a truly regional experience. Furniture- mostly feast or famine, this store usually has beds and dressers to spare. Look way in the back, to the left of the store and to the right of the cash stand. A visit today yielded an old Duncan Phyfe six dresser drawer that was five feet tall. The $1 sale- usually reserved for special occasions in the old days is now offered every day. 20 items for $ 20 dollars every day! And, finally a store that takes credit cards. They take American Express for goodness sakes. I love this store for the wonderful vintage shoes they usually have and great vintage children's clothes. They also often have good clothes gone wrong - stuff horribly stained but so cheap I can pull it apart and make something else with it. Also they have great old linens but not always.

The address is 4034 4th Avenue in Marrero. The hours are very strange. Something like 10-2 Thursday through Saturday.

This store is also convienently located a few blocks away from on of the best nurseries in town - Rose Garden Center ( on the West bank Expressway down a few blocks from Barrataria). Next to Mizell's at the Farmers Market, Rose's consistently has the best perrenials & varietals(spirea,forsythia,flowering maples,nandina) that are hardy for our tropical area. They also have compost, chicken manure and pine needles.

Ain't There no More - Bloomin Deals About All That's Left of Thrifting in NOLA

There was a time when you could plan a day of just thrifting in New Orleans by neighborhood: uptown (Bloomin Deals on Freret, Goodwill and St. Vincent dePaul on Magazine), or in the Carrollton/Jefferson Highway Corridor (Salvation Army,Bridge House, St. Vincent de Paul, then the Red, White and Blue way past the Flea Market) or even hit Tulane/Airline for the least traveled trifecta of Thrift City at Carrollton & Tulane, then down to Family Thrift Center and then the long, long stretch of stop and go traffic and ten million red lights to Salvation Army and St. Vincent dePaul near the M.E. Green Shopping Center and the Zephyr Field. This haul was particularly worth it as hardly anyone ever seemed to be at those stores and they always had fantastic items. I bought many of my now long lost cut velvet handbags there. But enough of crying about the past.

In some respects a very consistent store has survived and that is the Bloomin Deals store on Freret. This store has always maintained a great supply of blazers, vintage wedding dresses and skirts and sweaters for years. I love this place but most things are very tiny perhaps best attributed to many of their former junior league owners? Shop here for quality vintage designer items to sell on ebay. Prices here are okay - 4.00 for skirts/pants/sweaters, 6.00 - 10.00 for dresses (sweaters are currently half off) and they accept cash or checks only.

Bloomin Deals is open Tuesday - Saturday 10Am - 4:50PM and Sundays 12:30-4:15PM. It is located at 4645 Freret Street down from the old Dunbar's.

***Thrift Stores Reopen on West Bank New Orleans***

One of the biggest signs of recovery around town has to be the reappearance of two thrift stores on the West Bank.Thrift City, the wonderful store that used to be next to Union Supermarket in the Carrolton Shopping Center in New Orleans is now located at Terry Parkway in unincorporated Terrytown. This might be the "Divine Providence" indicated in the above photo. Thank you thrift store goddess!

Thrift City was my first New Orleans thrift store and you never forget your first one in every new city. Especially when the stuff is as good as it is there. Thrift City now has a sale every day on whatever color tag. They never used to have that! However they have resurrected 1/2 off day, the next one to come is February 15. I'll see y'all there at 7am. It is awesome they have these now on Thursdays because that is my late day at work. Do you remember running to Thrift City on your lunch hour during 1/2 off day?

Thrift City is run by the same great folks and they still take donations. They still dont have dressing rooms though.

Last Chance Thrift store has just reopened in its same location at 1716 Barataria Boulevard, four blocks from the intersection of Barataria and Lapalco.

Last Chance Thrift Store is open Mon-Sat 10AM - 8PM