Cinderella's stepsister: A severe case of thrift shop fever

It was 5 minutes before closing time and the cashier of the thirft shop was tapping her fingers impatiently. And I... I was completely unaware of this all, in the fitting room squeezing myself in numerous items. Finally, the cashier could take it no longer. "We're closing in a minute!" she snapped at the general direction of my fitting chamber. "What?" I mumbled, with my head halfway through what -by the size of it- appeared to be an armhole. In my mind, it was at least half an hour till closing time. Unfortunately it wasn't, and hastily I tried to wiggle myself back into my own clothes, and ran to the checkout. In the spur of the moment I decided to buy a pair of black wedges that I had only spotted seconds before.

On hindsight, maybe not a very bright idea; I hadn't even tried them on. And indeed; at home the inevitable happened: the shoes didn't fit. They made me look like cinderella's chubby stepsister. And  what was even worse; I didn't even like those shoes. Why on earth had I bought those monstrous things?

the label might be Graceland, but there's no grace in sight!

Well, a reason that may have played a small part here, was the fact that these shoes were black wedges, and I kind of needed black wedges for my work. But the major reason for my impulsive action was that I had suffered a severe case of thrift shop fever.

Thrift shop fever... that's what I call the temporary brain-malfunctioning that makes you buy really weird stuff in thrift shops. (I work in a hospital, I'm allowed to invent new diseases ;) ) It really only happens to me in thrift shops, but when it happens, oh boy.... ugly clothing in wring sizes, toys even though I don't have kids, incredibly tacky art..  Why does it happen? Is it the light, the atmosphere, or the comparison of even uglier items that make those things look good?

Well, anyway.. Since I was stuck with a pair of ill-fitting and ugly heels, I might as well have fun with it, didn't I?

Giveaway Tuesday... the results!

Hi there!

First of all, thank you all for responding and e-mailing me, I love reading your responses to my blog!

Today I'll choose the 3 winners of the giveaway!
For a few days, it looked as if my poor family would be the only ones receiving my postcards, but after this weekend, they got quite a bit of competition :)

So let's start with it!
Broen, will you be my sparkling assistant?

"Sure thing!!"

I like to keep things old-fashioned, so I wrote all your names on pieces of paper and tossed them in a bowl.

And the winners are.... (drumroll...)

you've got mail... + a giveaway!

I remember how I used to love getting mail as a child. Because as a child, there existed only two kinds of mail: postcards and letters, which are both great. I really couldn't understand why my parents didn't like mail as much as I did, especially not those in the pretty blue envelopes. Well, at least now I understand..

But I still love postcards, so I jumped up in enthusiasm when my former housemate told me about postcrossing. Mail that did not consist in bills and 50 shades of bureaucracy? I was in!

The idea behind it is very simple: whenever you feel like it, you request an address, write a postcard to someone somewhere in the world. Then, after a while you receive a postcard from someone else. You don't keep in touch, you don't have to write when you don't feel like it, you just occasionally send and receive postcards :)

Today I decided to send some postcards. Only trouble was that our stash of postcards consists out of horrific cards. It was bad, really bad. Over the years we had picked all the acceptable ones out, and what was left was a staple of pure horror. Like the cards that you wouldn't even send to your least favorite family member. So, of course, I decided to paint some of them by myself. I mean, why walk to the shop if you've got paint? Here's a few that I made: