The savvy shopper.

I took a little Monmouth County road trip with local lovely Susan that brought us to the ARC Thrift Store in Red Bank, NJ. I think I actually heard the big “50% OFF EVERYTHING” signs in the window calling our names as we pulled up.

It was pretty picked over (the sale was the whole month of August, and goes until September 12) but I guess that just makes the “game” a little more interesting and fun. While I did pass on the mug pictured above (though, if the mug fits...) I did find a couple of little treasures to add to the thrift collection.

At 50% off, the trio came to $1.70 before tax. Not bad, huh?

The hobnail milk glass is Fire King, and the little dish (you know what I’m doing with that) is Hutschenreuther. The challenge is removing the grease pencil that ARC uses to "brand" the pricing on with, especially if that something you've bought is glass.

One set of dishpan hands later, the little covered jar now houses my Hamilton King Ocean Grove Girl postcard. And a couple of shells I plucked from my neighbor’s post-yard sale trash.

While at the ARC Thrift I also spied a light fixture tucked high up on a shelf. We’ve been looking for a light for over the pool table, and while this wasn’t exactly what we were looking for I took a quick photo to see if it could work.

It had opaque glass, which was a big plus. The fixture that came with the house wasn’t our style, and had exposed bulbs that were more like interrogation devices than soft lighting for a friendly game of billiards. But in fairness the previous owners used the dining room to actually dine.

The next day, the man and I went back and picked up our new/old light fixture for $17.50. Score! More shockingly, we’ve already installed it.

While this new/old fixture isn’t necessarily 100% our style either, I do like the sort of fleur de lis motif that’s going on in that center contraption. It’s a perfectly suitable placeholder fixture.

And by “placeholder” I mean it will likely be years until we find something else.