Dear thrift store, no thank you.

Shoes for Norwegian summers only...

I got some new eBay'd Weejuns in the mail yesterday. Here they are, making their debut on a snowy day in Ohio. Note to self: Weejuns are not good for walking on snow and ice. Wear Bean Boots tomorrow. End of note.

The new Weejies are paired with my new Old Navy chinos and some J. Crew socks I picked up a few weeks ago for $3.50 on clearance.

Oh, did I mention the shoes were $0.99 plus shipping?

Celebrating Sunday of Orthodoxy in style...

No, I didn't go to church with my tie halfway undone. This was taken after we took the wee ones to a local mall to play on the indoor playground. I really need spring to come. Soon.

Cheesefare & Tweed

Today was cold…and our church isn’t very warm inside...so I went with a cardigan/sport coat combo. It was a very warm ensemble, indeed. I didn't wear an overcoat and stayed quite warm despite weather in the 20s.

- Vintage USA-made tweed by Imperial by Haggar
- LL Bean cardigan
- Brooks Brothers OCBD (eBayed a few years ago)
- Merona tie from Target (got it for $4.98)
- Eddie Bauer jeans
- USA-made Bass bucks

Target Trad

I want all three of these outfits for my little boys. For real.

Let it snow.

Well, heck. I got cut loose early from work so I figured I'd pick up my new blazer and tweed sport coat from the cleaners. No such luck. Bah. Now I'm going to have to trudge out in the mess tomorrow. Anyone up for a snowball fight?

It's official.

It’s now official that I’m a thrift store junkie. The lady at Goodwill knows me. She hasn’t quite called me by name, but I can see it coming. I got the lovely wife a Land’s End sweater today for $3.69. It’s not USA-made model, but I like it and hey, you can’t win them all. I found the dear baby son a pair of New Balance sneakers that should fit him right around time he begins walking…which reminds me, I need a pair of gray NB sneakers. Everyone does. Pictures to come later…

The best thing I've heard all day...

Dear Tax-Paying Blogger,
Congratulations! The IRS has accepted your federal tax return. There's nothing else you need to do.

Schooooool's out for summer!

Yeah, I know it's not summer. In fact, the first week of February in Central Ohio is about the furthest thing from summer. It's not snowing now, but at any moment we could get a foot of snow.

That's why I decided to buck my usual trend of flannel and oxford cloth in favor of a madras shirt today. I wore it under a sweater and I quite like how it looks. It's fun and bright, on a day when the weather is dreary. It definitely requires and undershirt to work out. This particular shirt breathes so well it feels as if you're not wearing a shirt at all.

It's an unusual shirt, too. Osh Kosh B'Gosh for adults? Made in USA? I checked the RN number and it was made for them by Van Heusen. I can't get a read on its age, but it must be a few years old given that (I think) Van Heusen shipped all their production overseas in the 90s.

I have another madras shirt hanging up in my basement waiting for warmer temperatures and I think it's coming upstairs to mingle with the rest of my winter wardrobe.

I've been thinking lately...

I need to thrift a suit. I have two suits, one a little too small and one a little too big. I need to thrift one that's juuuuust right. Since my closet and drawers are bursting at the seams, I'm going to now limit my thrifting purchases to just one suit. It's a good thing Friday is payday - time to hit up the Goodwill!

Now where's my pipe?

I’m sporting my newly-found LL Bean cardigan today. I can’t help but call it my “old man sweater.” It’s super thin but warmer than I expected. It’s a good thing I like wearing sweaters because the frigid temperatures in my office require it nearly every day. I can’t wait to try out this sweater under a blazer or sport coat.

Terror at Chuck E. Cheese

We went to Chuck E. Cheese for my dear son’s 3^rd birthday this past weekend. Terror alert noted at the ticket-counting machine.

Love this

I stumbled across this on the interwebs today. This is a great vintage ad. I look forward for the snow to pass so I can start wearing my Weejuns again.

Dying for some jazz

I'm dying to listen to Miles Davis. I own a copy of Birth of the Cool but I can't find it. I found my Coltrane, my Monk and my Monk & Coltrane...but Miles is missing. This is not cool at all.

Wow, what a haul!

So, my lovely wife's lovely mother is in town for a visit this weekend. We almost always hit up the local thrift stores as the mom-in-law is losing weight and losing it fast, so she always needs new clothes that fit her new figure. Although the monthly half-off sale is coming up, I just had to go through the menswear while we were there. Here, ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, are today's finds.

First up we have a pair of nearly-new bucks from GH Bass. The doozie here is that as new as they look they are, in fact, old school USA-made bucks. These are a great find because they actually happened to be on my "to thrift" list -- just like the Bean Boots I found last time I walked into this same store. These fine shoes came home with me today for $4.99.





Next up is a very interesting vintage piece from Woolrich Woolen Mills. I suspect it's a shooting jacket of some sort. The bellows pockets on the chest definitely seem made for holding shotgun shells. There are some loops on each side that are too high up to be belt loops so I figure they have something to do with holding a gun. Maybe?

It is made of heavy, heavy wool with a plush body lining and quilted sleeve lining. It's insanely warm. It wasn't very cold here today, about 45F, and it was almost too warm to wear. I wish I could figure out how old it is. I thought about trying to hide it and picking it up during the upcoming half off sale, but for $4.99 I couldn't pass up taking it home today.





After I found those first two items I almost called it quits, but I decided to check out the sweaters, hoping to find a cable-knit Aran sweater or an LLB Norwegian. Instead, I found the ultimate old man sweater -- a made-in-Scotland lambswool cardigan from LL Bean. It had a small stain on it that my lovely wife seemed certain she could get out. Heck, at $1.99 it was worth the gamble. When we got home tonight I went to work on the stain. Sure enough, the stain came out and I have a new sweater to wear tomorrow.





Here's the find that really caught me off guard. For the minuscule price of $6.99, I brought home a vintage charcoal single-breasted overcoat from Brooks Brothers. I have no idea how old this thing is, but what I can tell you is that it's heavy. So heavy, in fact, that when you have it on, you can feel it kind of weighing your shoulders down. You can't tell in the photo, but it's a long overcoat, something to wear over a suit or jacket & tie for church on Sunday. I look forward to wearing it as we charge full steam ahead into the end of January and beginning of February -- the worst part of the year for snow and slush and nastiness here in central Ohio.

Whoever owned this coat wore the hell out of it. The lining is a bit of a mess. It has a few rips, which my dear mother can repair, but there are some places where the lining is worn through. It doesn't strike me as mistreated -- it strikes me as if somebody owned this coat, and wore it all winter, every winter, for 20 or 30 years. The fantastic part, though, is that despite the signs of age in the lining, the wool exterior is absolutely flawless. The fabric is a herringbone wool that almost feels like a tweed so it has worn like iron. I suppose that's why Brooks can get away with charging $1,000 and up for garments like this. Quality. Thirty years from now the coat will probably still look as good when I pass it on to one of my dear sons.





Okay, it's time for bed. Tomorrow is my dear son's 3rd birthday party and we have to get up early and frost his homemade vegan chocolate "dirt cake." Buenas noches!

Dressing like a grown-up for church

Speaking of dressing up for church; this was my ensemble this past Sunday. We celebrated the Great Blessing of the Waters, in preparation for the upcoming Feast of Theophany.

I’m wearing a lamb’s wool sport coat that I picked up a few years at Belk’s in Chattanooga. It has certainly seen enough use to justify its $79.00 purchase price, but every time I wear it now I can’t help but notice the most unnatural shoulder. I’m certain I’ll replace it with something from a thrift store soon enough. Don’t get me wrong, it looks sharp and all, but the shoulder just doesn’t seem a little out of place with the button-down shirt and khakis that accompany it.

I paired the jacket with my newly thrifted, green oxford cloth button-down and a recently eBay’d vintage Land’s End tie in navy with pink and green stripe (note the Brooks #1 stripe pattern rip-off).

Lunchtime thrifting...

I visited the local thrift shop on my lunch hour today. It's a very small one, but I always manage to walk out with something. I got my dear son his first pair of Adidas soccer cleats. He'll need them come summertime! They were $1.99 and are in pretty good shape. They just need the dirt knocked off of them.

I also stumbled upon this Brooks Brothers tie for a mere $0.99. It was a perfect find because I don't have any green ties in my collection. I wish that our dress code here at work was friendlier to those who like to dress nicer. I mean, I could come into work in a jacket and tie but I’d be “that guy,” and I already suspect I’m “that guy,” for other reasons. Good thing I’ve started dressing like a grown-up for church. J

New chambray shirt...

Ok, it's not thrifted. I'll admit it. It was, however, 75% at Target so it was only $4.99. Come on, that's as good as thrifted. I told my wife it's chambray, she said it was denim, but said that I don't look like Jay Leno. Thank goodness.

I <3 Oxford Cloth Button Down Shirts

But you already knew that, right? This one’s from the big Ohio Thrift haul that we brought home last month. It was $1.99 or something like that. It’s 100% cotton – and a very hefty cotton at that. Unfortunately, it’s not USA-made, but you can’t win them all. I’ve wanted a green OCBD in my collection so this was a perfect find. Now, I just need to find a pink one and I’ll be all set. Pink uni-stripe would be bonus.

 

My closet runneth over…

Interesting...

We just went to a local Irish pub to see the gallery show of a photographer friend of mine. There was a guy in jeans, Jack Purcells, button down oxford shirt and pink PRL sweater vest. He was quite well dressed, to be sure, but the funny part was him talking about his supporters club, the Hudson Street Hooligans. That's very cool in my book; I belong to a Crew supporters club myself. He just didn't fit the stereotype. It seems that as I get older, every day presents a new lesson about stereotypes and preconceived notions. It turns out they are almost always wrong. Right?

Today I wore the vintage sweater that the lovely wife got me for Christmas. She's got the thrifting bug, too, ya know. I love the rust color. It's unique, not something you'd see in stores today. The LE Hyde Park - and its lovely collar roll - make another appearance. One can't own too many blue button-down oxfords. Ever.

My new saturday look

Some thrifted, some not. Well, the Crew sweatshirt is sort of thrifted. I got it for $20 at the annual "Crew yard sale" at their training facility here in Columbus. The USA-made, university stripe oxford cloth button down by Arrow was thrifted at the River of Life thrift shop in Chattanooga during a dollar-a-bag sale.

My first Ohio Thrift store purchase

Today I'm wearing my down vest from Lands' End. I got it for $6.00 and it was the very first thing I ever bought at Ohio Thrift. It was our first visit there and I found it within five minutes of walking into the store. It's not vintage or USA-made, but a heck of a deal none the less.

The flannel shirt is from Lands' End, too, and also from Ohio Thrift. I think it was $3.99 or something close to it. They make great flannel shirts but I wear them so often in the winter that I'm pretty hard on them. I guess the bright side is that if it falls apart it was just a thrift store find.

A white Christmas!

Lovely, isn't it?

A blessed Nativity to all of you!

I wish all my readers, all 2 or 3 of you, a blessed Nativity!

 

 

Mom's a thrifter, too!

My mom sent me a little care package recently and in it were a few shirts she picked up at a Goodwill store near Cleveland, OH. This confirms that I inherited my thrifting abilities from her. It’s almost like a superpower. She picked up this tartan oxford-cloth Old Navy shirt for $1.49. It’s brushed cotton for a cozy, wintery feel. Good job, Mom.

It’s quite appropriate for today since we celebrate Nativity (Christmas) today. Yes, I know it’s January 7^th.

Now, back to my hot chocolate and watching the snow fall.

The Great Blazer Caper of 2010

So far, so good. The lovely wife didn’t kill me for bringing home another blazer yesterday. I tried them both on and the new one clearly fits me better than the old one. I think the sack blazer is a size too small – never noticed the way the vent in the back opened up. No es bueno.

Now I just need to make a trip to the cleaners in case I brought home any jacket-eating moths…

I aaaaalmost paid $20 for one on eBay

But then I found one a few days later for $4.99 at Ohio Thrift. I don’t know that I’d ever be interested in these jackets if my little 2 year old son hadn’t gotten a matching one from his grandma, same color and everything – thrifted, of course. My mom is a master at getting good stuff at yard sales. I suppose I inherited my thrifting powers from her?

Thrift store, how you taunt me!

PRL “Big Shirt” – My size, I just didn’t feel like paying $3.69 for it. My closet’s about to explode. Nice shirt from Pendleton, but when did they start making clothes in China? Pink oxford button-down from LE. Right shirt, wrong size. Boo. But after all this heartbreak came my vindication in the form of a $4.99 blue blazer (as seen below).

A letter to my lovely wife

Dear Lovely Wife,

Please don’t kill me for buying another jacket. It’s a blue hopsack blazer. Two-button, darted, fully lined. Fits me much better than the other one I bought at Goodwill. $4.99. I promise I won’t by any more sport coats or blazers for a long, long time (unless I find a blue flannel blazer that fits me). Love, The Husband.

(I’d rather find another sack blazer instead of a darted one, but who are we kidding? On my frame, darts aren’t so bad, plus the shoulders are pretty natural. I’m not sure if it’s a wool-blend or straight up poly. There’s no tag with the materials on it, so I can maintain plausible deniability. Either way, it looks pretty sharp, and I’m more likely to wear it than my other one, so I believe that qualifies it as a good purchase.)

Speaking of winter

My Bean Boots and the conditions they are made for.

Winter wonderland

I love winter. I love snow. I don’t necessarily love the frigid temperatures we get here in central Ohio, but the white stuff that comes with it is nice. I like cool temperatures because of the abundance of clothing and accessories that are necessary to deal with it. I like jackets and coats a lot – just ask my lovely wife.

I’ve got a black pea coat (I now wish it was navy), a vintage army parka (a nod to my scootering pastime), an olive drab MA-1 flight jacket, a vintage USA-made Lands’ End “Squall” jacket (thrifted for $4.99!), a much-loved Old Navy jean jacket, a Columbus Crew rain jacket, and more that I just can’t think of right now. Of course, I have a few blazers and sport coats. Our coat closet is jam packed and the coat rack is overloaded. Always.

Still, I find myself always on the lookout for new (old) outerwear. Right now I’m hoping the thrift stores shine upon me a Barbour coat. My luck will most certainly be that I find one that is either the wrong size, or just too beat up to pay money for.

Along with my love for jackets, I just can’t have enough scarves. I have at least 4 or 5, and that doesn’t count my collection of football* scarves. My lovely wife gave me my first cashmere scarf a few years ago. I love it but I’m always afraid my stubble is going to tear it to shreds – you should see what it does to my shirt collars.

My newest scarf acquisition wasn’t thrifted but it is pre-owned. My mom gave me a scarf for Christmas that belonged to my grandfather. It’s all-wool, burgundy with a golden windowpane pattern and best of all, it’s made in Scotland. I wish I knew exactly how old it is. I’m guessing late 60’s or early 70’s. It just screams “old school.” Most of what my grandfather did screamed “old school” and I can only hope that some day my boys say that about me.

* By football, I mean soccer.  

NTR: Mid-day boredom.

This is my view of the world for 10 hours a day. I really need something thrifted to spruce it up. A vintage Panasonic table radio would be just the thing, wouldn’t it?

Items of note:

- Sharpie Accent Highlighters, Orange. My favorite highlighter color.
- Wall calendar from Holy Cross Russian Orthodox Monastery.
- Red plastic pencil cup from Ikea. Uber-modern, but I love it.
- C.O. Bigelow Chapped Hands Remedy. A stocking stuffer from the lovely wife.

Love my gumshoes

Ok, I know I already showed off the gumshoes when I bought them, but I just wanted to share with you my favorite socks for wintertime. Red, fuzzy, acrylic socks from the Gap. I got them at the outlet store in Calhoun, GA. They are about to get a hole in the big toe. That makes me sad. This may be, in fact, a memorial for them. I don’t think they’ll last through the winter. *sigh*

Lands' End Junkie

LE Hyde Park oxford, $2.00. LE cotton Drifter sweater (perfect because the heat in my office is broken), vintage USA-made, 99 cents. I haven’t owned a cotton sweater in years and I’m really digging it. It’s quite cozy but not too warm.

Both came from Ohio Thrift. I can’t say enough about that place.

Something old, something new.

Eddie Bauer flannel shirt from Ohio Thrift Store. I don’t remember what I paid for it -- $3.99 or something like that. It’s definitely one of my winter favorites. Once it starts getting below freezing on a daily basis, I wear flannel pretty much every day.

 

Also seen in the photo is my shiny new Timex with a grosgrain watchband from Brooks Brothers. I grabbed a couple watchbands at Brooks because they had 25% off of all accessories. They are nicer than I expected, but a 1mm too narrow for the watch itself. Oh well, I suppose I’ll survive.

Ready for the humid Ohio summer...

Authentic Indian madras by Nautica. $4.99 at Ohio Thrift. More than I'll usually pay for a thrift shirt, but it was too nice to pass up.

Summer comfort for the wee one.

Cute canvas slip-ons for the older boy. 99 cents at the Goodwill in Springfield. Now to find him some patch madras shorts to go with them...