Thrift Store Finds

I stopped at the thrift store on my way home on Thursday, because my dad wanted me to look for teaspoons. (The stores he had been looking at were out, I knew this one had lots in the past, and I love stopping at thrift stores!) I thought I'd share some of my fun finds with you. :)

Cookie Cutters:

I have an awesome gingerbread recipe, and enjoy making gingerbread houses at Christmas. (When I have the time and space, that is!) There was a bag of cookie cutters for $2.50, and I could tell it had some I wanted... like the Christmas trees. (Useful for both separate cookies, and decorating the "houses".) I didn't need as many as were in the bag, but I didn't want to ask if I could break the bag up, and I think that copper tree would cost around $2.50 by itself if it were new. I think the duplicates would make fun Christmas tree ornaments if I tie a ribbon around them. :)

Thread:

The bag of thread spools was $1.99, and I bought it for the cool old wooden spools... they would also make awesome tree decorations! The newer thread I've added to my stash. Again, the whole bag was cheaper than a single spool of decent quality new thread. (The spool of purple thread is puzzling... it looks hand wound or something!) I'm a bit undecided about the Aero thread spools... their thread is still in excellent (and thus usable) condition, but they'd also make great ornaments.

Canadian Social Studies Atlas:

I love atlases, especially old ones. Although old ones are out of date, it lets you know what the world looked like at that time. (This one is copyright 1952, last printed 1953.) For a while now, I've been wondering what was where Israel was just before Israel was created.

In 1815, it was part of Turkey! That doesn't quite answer what it was around 1940, but it was still interesting.

Another fun fact. People often wonder where my online username, "Noricum" comes from. Well, here's a map:

See that province just above the boot of modern-day Italy? Around where Austria is these days?

Well, that's the Roman province of Noricum. (Of course, *I* discovered Noricum by randomly flipping open my dictionary, looking for a reasonable username that wasn't already taken.) My heritage is half Austrian. :)

One of the fun things about this being a schoolbook is that you can make guesses about what different homework assignments were.

I think one of them was to count all the indian reservations (IR) in Manitoba. (The student missed a few.)

Other fun facts in the atlas:
Routes of the crusades:

Routes of the explorers across the oceans:

Routes of explorers across Canada:

There's *lots* more fun things too!

This isn't all of what I bought at the thrift store... I bought a few neat pieces of cutlery for myself, three more neat pasta bowls (probably actually soup bowls, but I use them for pasta and salad), a nice plaid shirt that doesn't wrinkle when washed, a few cute buttons, a tin with mallard ducks on it (that will make a nice gift for my dad if I fill it with baking), and a sturdy wine bottle opener. (My neighbour bent my wine bottle opener, and so returned it bent, plus a rusty one she found somewhere.) Including my dad's spoons, I spent a whopping $15.03. Definitely cheap entertainment!