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The Frugal Homemaker

Your guide to turning your house into a home... one DIY project and yard sale find at a time

A day of thrifting and antiquing in Pigeon Forge, TN

February 6, 2012

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I shared in my P52: Shadows post last week that my husband and I had long weekend getaway to Pigeon Forge/Gatlinburg, TN last weekend.  We met up with another couple who are friends of ours and had 3 fun days of double dating! Smile  My friend Molly, loves Goodwill and yard sale shopping as much as do, so we had already planned to check out ALL the thrift stores in the area while there Winking smile.

So Monday morning the husbands headed off to the Smoky Mountain Knife shop and the wives headed off to find some thrifty treasures. Smile

I had been scoping out the area as we drove in and knew there was a Goodwill and a local thrift store right next to each other so we hit those first.

That Goodwill was the dirtiest, oldest, junkiest Goodwill ever!  And their prices were outrageous! Sad smile  The thrift store wasn’t much better – I don’t think we bought anything at those stores.

But I also knew there were several antique stores (turns out 5 within 2 miles of each other!) so we thought we might check those out.

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Neither one of us exactly have a “antique store budget” but sometimes you can find some yard sale prices in an an antique store – it just takes some looking!   We kept our eyes peeled for booths that said “50% off”! Smile

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Before I get to our finds, let me show you some fun thing I saw:

Lot and lots of glassware!

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I had my eyes peeled for some turquoise glassware to add to my dining room and I loved these pieces but they weren’t in my budget.

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Crates and baskets like these are a huge thing right now for organizing stuff in your pantry, magazines, blankets, etc.  We saw quite a few but none at the price I was willing to pay.

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Huge mirrors like this are a great find!  The frames are usually plaster or plastic and easily paintable.  The mirror I used for my outdoor self-portraits is almost identical to this but I got mine under $10 and this one was much more expensive.

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Lots of tin cans, enamel ware.

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We walked in this store and thought, “Wow, too glitzy and glamorous for our yard sale budget!”

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See this candy dish- it is an antique King’s Crown ruby candy dish.  My mother-in-law has some of this glassware passed down from her mom and she loves it.  I found the identical candy dish at a yard sale this past summer for $10 and gave it to my mother-in-law for Christmas (Shhh….our little secret!  Don’t tell my MIL that her Christmas present came from a yard sale!)

Price at this antique store – $59.99!

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I was in love with all the milk glass!!  it was everywhere!  Some very reasonably priced, some way overpriced!

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LOVE!  Can I just take this whole cabinet home??  Of course, I don’t have anywhere to put it all Winking smile

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We stopped in a little crafty home décor store and we both loved these cabinets!  They were handmade and very rustic looking with just basic wood,  but the doors were all old windows!

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I loved the black cabinets!

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One day, I might get inspired to try to make one of these cabinets.  I just loved them.

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This entry table or potting bench was unique too.  See what the back part is made of?  An old door! The top looked like it made me made from the back of antique child’s desk and the bottom part was the other part of the desk.

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This store turned out to be our FAVORITE store and the one where we both bought baskets of treasures!

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We walked in and both looked at the crystal chandeliers and said “This is another store that is going to be out of our budget.”  But we looked around anyways.   Turns out up those stairs was a gold mine of a booth! Smile

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See that price on that bottle – $0.10!!  Oh yeah, yard sale prices! Smile  And this booth was FULL of stuff and prices like that! Smile

We were literally crawling around on the floor digging under tables to find stuff!  Molly posted a picture of me to prove it! Smile

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$2.25 for milk glass cups when we had been seeing them for $20+ Smile

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$4.00 for pretty candy dishes, instead of $59.99! Smile

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A milk glass lamp for $12.50???  (I think it was damaged but I can’t remember.)

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This frame was HUGE (and would have been awesome spray painted white or a fun color!) and only $2.00 and I just about snatched it off the wall.  But then I saw the damage on the corners (see in the bottom left corner)?  Wasn’t sure if that could be repaired so I left it.

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So what did I buy?

Here were my finds from the “bargain booth” at the antique store…

Frame – $0.50

Urn – $2.00

Milk glass bowl – $3.00

Bag of HUGE bay pinecones (I had been wanting some of these) – $1.50

Antique carnival glass bowl – $4.75

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Found these pieces at another store.  Think the small one was $2.00 and the large milk glass bowl was $5.00.

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We also found one last thrift store as we were headed to meet our husbands before lunch.  It was one of those junky, dig through piles, kind of stores but they had TONS of stuff.  And nothing was priced so you could negotiate the prices (love that, although Molly was a much tougher negotiator than I was Winking smile)

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Lamp with shade – $2.00  (LOVE this lamp!  I had been looking for one just like it since I saw Laine’s gorgeous white lamps and $2.00 was an awesome price!)

Pictionary game – $3.00

Taboo game – $2.00

Red chunky knit scarf – $1.00

Has anyone tried recovering a lamp shade?  The shade has a really heavy duty metal frame, but not sure how to go about recovering it?  Might just scrap it?

Molly went home and used a lot of her finds to decorate her Valentine mantel.

The tutorial to her $0.50 heart wreath is here Smile

Such a fun weekend!  Fun fellowship, shopping, thrifting, crafting, games, and more!  Oh, and by the way – the husbands spent much more than our thrifty finds at the knife store! Winking smile

Have you had a fun thrift shopping day recently?  If you have posted some fun finds, link them up in the comments so I can pop over and see! Smile

{cj}

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Comments

  1. Renee @ Living, Laughing, & Loving says

    February 7, 2012 at 8:19 AM

    Oooh! Love all your finds!! I need to remember that store b/c we go to PF a lot! Love all that milk glass!
    And so much fun to have a shopping partner too!

    Reply
    • Christina says

      February 18, 2012 at 12:50 AM

      I have never gone in all those stores before in TN. we don’t usually have as many days as we did this trip so it was nice to explore. and you are right – having a partner that wanted to do it helped a lot. David is good for about 20 min. in 1 store. Then he wants to spend 2 hours at the knife shop 😉

      Reply
  2. Frankie Nelson says

    May 9, 2013 at 10:41 PM

    Thanks for posting about your shopping in Pigeon Forge. I googled to see if I could find locations of some thrift stores in that area. Going next week with some friends and love to go shopping at Thrift Stores and also Antique stores. THANKS so much for your post. Enjoyed looking at the bargains you found.

    Reply
  3. Kim says

    June 4, 2014 at 9:30 AM

    Just happened upon your posting while looking for thrift stores in that area, girls weekend coming up and we ALL love ‘junking’.

    Wanted to note that I have recovered lampshades. It is pretty easy just be careful taking off the existing cover and use it as a pattern for your base. Then have fun with it! I recently did a square one that didn’t have the bars that hold the top and bottom together so I was able to lengthen it and it now looks pretty much like just a shade standing on a table that ‘magically’ lights up 🙂

    Reply
  4. Margie Cochran says

    June 29, 2015 at 11:40 AM

    Thanks for all the info. We are going there next week on vacation and I look forward to going to these stores.

    Reply
  5. Sally says

    August 2, 2017 at 10:32 AM

    What was the name and Location of Thai last thrift shop?

    Reply

Trackbacks

  1. Coffee Filter Wreath says:
    February 15, 2012 at 11:59 AM

    […] remember that little weekend getaway that my husband I took a couple weeks ago?  Not only did my friend and I hit up some antique […]

    Reply
  2. Dollar General: 50% off your ENTIRE purchase of Home Décor, housewares, and more! | The Frugal Homemaker says:
    February 15, 2012 at 3:57 PM

    […] little white lamp was cute!   $7.00 so only $3.50 after coupon!    I just got a large white lamp for $2.00 at a thrift store/yard sale but that is RARE and hard to find!  These are brand new, and super cute!     […]

    Reply
  3. Before/After Dining Room Reveal | The Frugal Homemaker says:
    March 15, 2012 at 12:46 PM

    […] Lamp – $2.00 thrift store find […]

    Reply

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Hi!  My name is Christina . . .

I love doing simple, frugal things to make our house feel like HOME! Come learn along with me how to have a beautiful home on a budget.

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