What a hoot

Meet David James, the owl who is a cookie jar in his spare time.

Angela aka “the Bounty-Huntress” was giving away this beautiful owl rescued from Goodwill in celebration for her 38th Birthday. I put my name down, crossed my fingers, and waited…..and I won, Hurrah!!!!!!!! David James made the trip all the way from Austin to NYC. He arrived with a bellyful of tootsie pops, and wrapped in beautiful vintage paper.

The boyfriend looked bemused as I excitedly unwrapped him. However, he did approve of him immediately, as the boyfriend is a Brit and by coincidence his team, Sheffield Wednesday, is nicknamed “the owls”. The owl was immediately named David James after some famous Sheffield footballer. David now sits happily on my Manhattan tiny kitchen, looking over all activities with his sleepy, wise guy looks. He is an owl, after all.

Thank you Angela!

The little black dress

Every thrift girl knows how important an LBD is.

Thrifted in goodwill, courtesy of lookbook, all the way across the East river ie Brooklyn.

Second hand man

Because guys love thrift too.

From Ireland - loving the enormous scarf and thrifted jacket

From Germany (all thrifted) - maybe this big scarf thing is a trend....

From the US, shoes and shirt from the Salvation army (maybe he wants to jump off the ledge beacause he didn't thrift his jeans...)

From Brooklyn, New York - thrifted vest - let's hear it for the home boy! Yeah!

Are you a guy that thrifts? Are you a girl that thrifts with or for her guy?

My man wears thrift - on occasion - but I'm the one with the addiction....

Polka dotty

Rainy days ask for a splash of colour to cheer us all up. Here are some polka dots from those trendy people at lookbook:

• From Berlin, a vintage dress and a handbag from a London fleamarket.

• Thrifted polka dot skirt
• From New York City, thrifted dress and belt. Love the peeptoes.

Something old, something borrowed, something blue

Moving into a completely empty apartment with nothing but a couple of suitcases filled with clothes, was, I admit it, a little daunting. However, in a city filled with thrift shops, and in the country that gave you Craigslist, I quickly realised that the process of making a home was going to be a lot of fun.

In NYC, there is no reason to go to Ikea or other similar mass-produced, yawn-inducing stores. I want a home with personality. A home where things have a story about who they belonged to, the house they lived in, or how they were hunted down and found. And I'd rather not have to assemble my furniture – lego for grown ups is simply not my thing.

Each day, after we'd moved in, L and I obsessively scoured the Manhattan furniture section of Craigslist. This is one of our early finds and one of my first ‘home’ projects. The dresser had the exact shape I was looking for and in its shabby, off-white state was going for only $30. I dragged a grumbling L miles down south to the financial district.

We followed our map through an anonymous part of town but then found ourselves in a funky apartment where the owner sat us down, poured us tea, and wanted to know our life history. Hmm, we were buying a dresser, not considering an adoption. Nevertheless, we chatted for ages and she kindly sold the dresser to us and volunteered her reluctant boyfriend to deliver it to our door. Success!

From the very beginning I knew I wanted a brightly coloured dresser in my living room. And so I transformed the dresser from its orginal sad white into this gorgeous blue beast, and finished it with these sleek burgundy drawer pulls from Anthropologie.

Summer in the city

It is August and it is boiling hot in Manhattan. I rather be at the beach or on an island (I know Manhattan is technically an island but I mean an island with palm trees, beach bars and hammocks). Ho hum. Here is some summer thrift inspiration via lookbook:

I love this holiday chic look all the way from Australia. Knickerbockers were thrifted, or as the ozzies say - bought in an op-shop.

Here is the same girl in thrifted dress and shoes (she clearly knows her stuff). The perfect city summer look.

A New York summer look with a dress thrifted in Brooklyn.

On my thrift list: the white summer dress

On my thrift wish list is a white summer dress - with some embroidery perhaps. I haven't had any luck yet but I'm keeping my eyes open!

Here are some inspirational thrifted examples via Lookbook:

From Canada, a thrifted example of white summer dress AND leather bag from a flea market...beauty!

Some inspiration from Germany - This is the dress I would love to find - what a beautiful combination of the thrifted dress and a sharp blazer...

And finally, another example of a white dress, this time paired with some roller skates - also thrifted. Not sure about the skates.....I'd last about 10 seconds....