Chocolate Covered Love

 Our tiny little bookshelf is filled with Aria's books that I've picked up at the thrift store. She occasionally picks out a book and wants to read it, but her favorite activity is definitely pulling all the books off the shelf over and over again. She does it so often I just started stacking the books horizontally instead of vertically - it's easier to clean up and easier to pull down.

This is what I wish the top of the bookshelf could look like on a daily basis, but with a 2-year-old, it only looks like this in photos.

These are shoes that I've gotten within the past few months at the thrift store. My thrift store often has great shoes, the tricky part is finding shoes that fit though, because you know there's only one pair!

This first pair of shoes is definitely my favorite pair of heels. They are super comfortable, unique, the heel isn't too high and go with a variety of outfits. After I buy stuff at the thrift store I love searching for them online to find the original cost. I found these for $92 online! I got them for about $7 at the thrift store!

Of course, oftentimes, the things purchased at thrift stores are no longer in season or stock at most stores so finding them online can be quite a challenge.

I love checking out the thrift store on half-off Mondays  I always find the best stuff. I mostly find shoes and kitchen supplies, but I do get the occasional clothing item, toy or DVD.  I have found and bought THREE Pyrex glass baking dishes [on separate occasions] for under five dollars a piece. As well as a Pyrex glass pie  pan. This time I found a small, white ceramic pitcher and a tiny handled jar with a screw-on top with holes. 

I went to the thrift store to looking for plain white mugs so I could do this project. The mugs I got didn't match but I think I like them better this way. As they said in their instructions, some people had problems with the marker washing off. I didn't have that problem until I accidentally left one of the mugs sitting in some soapy water that had bleach in it.. oops. It only slightly faded the marker, which I was able to correct by re-writing on the words and baking the mug again. Presto. All fixed.

We are tea drinkers for the most part, the only coffee either of us consumes is the occasional Starbucks. And I'm really the only steady tea-drinker. My fiance really only drinks tea when he's sick. I love tea. I have collected a great amount of tea, all varieties, although my supply is starting to get low. I've already requested my father buy me some Jasmine tea pearls in China when he goes there next for work, but I won't be getting that until the summer. Otherwise we have a variety of herbal and fruit teas, Indian loose leaf black tea, and from China, lychee and rose tea. And then of course honey/lemon tea and Chai are made from scratch. 

Chai recipe coming soon.