9 Things I Thrifted In June

THE legendary sunglasses, a perfect (free) golden vase, and a vintage diner pad for placing your order with the Universe✨.

A few months ago, I was having coffee with a new friend I met at Bodycraft, and (coincidentally) two other friends from the dance class we like to take showed up for their own little breakfast meet-up. There were a few tables between us, but for whatever reason, we eventually ended up huddling around our table, chatting about hopes and dreams…and a relationship in jeopardy and a very cool opportunity someone was freaking out about but then was unexpectedly put on hold…

But there, on our table, we noticed one of the servers had accidentally left their pad for taking food orders. It seemed like…a sign? Or maybe just a fun/spontaneous exercise to order french fries and scrambled eggs as well as a few other things we were craving….say, a connection for a film project or a chance to mend a broken friendship. So, that’s what we did. We took a few of the sheets (with permission:), and we each went to work. It reminded me of this episode of a podcast I’ve written about before called “Woo Woo” with Rachel Dratch, where her guest Amy Poehler talks about how she has a special typewriter she only uses for making wishes or casting requests out into the ethers. It’s a beautiful idea. So, on a recent eBay expedition, I went hunting for both a working vintage typewriter 💙 AND some restaurant food ordering pads. I’m still on the lookout for the right typewriter, but the pad showed up immediately—it’s a vintage single pad from a place called the Portage Inn, a turn-of-the-century hotel in Westfield, NY. After some googling, I discovered the building was torn down in 2015 (a shame)…but I did find this postcard image from perhaps its glory days.

Anyway, that’s my #1 here—a vintage dining pad from a place that no longer exists that I may or may not use to request some very important things from the Powers That Be in the very near future. If you, too, like the idea of a tiny, very easy/affordable morning ritual like this, here’s a link to a whole lot of pads (you can give some to friends as a cute gifty) or this one, which has that nice vintage typography that I was drawn to with mine. Above all, have fun. I mean, my daughter has already used a third of mine for drawings of her bunny, but whatever…we have what we need, right?✨

Okay, a bunch more fantastic thrifted things and some found free things, too, after the jump…let’s get into it 😎.