Thrift store shopping and the murals at the soon to be defunct Thrift Trader on Iowa St.

Fully charged by my cold brew from Heartwork, I took the long way home...

and meandered from Mission Hills to North Park...

I was hoping to get lucky and find some designer jeans (7's, Joe's or Citizens of Humanity) at a couple of North Park Thrift stores. The first one I went to was the Thrift Trader on the corner of 30th and El Cajon Blvd. The chicks in here were so cool, plus they were playing Rock en Espanol. I asked which group it was and it was Enanitos Verde.  I like La Ley, a Chilean group that my friend La Ley is obsessed with. I'm familiar with some of the rock en Espanol groups through TORC (Soda Stereo, Phobia, Mikel Erenxun, Heroes del Silencio) and even though I can't understand everything they're saying, I dig the music.

I got one decent summer skirt here (which will be seen at the end), a yellow and white leaf print linen circle skirt from H &M. It was three sizes too big, but I can make it work by adding darts at the waist and wearing it slung low. I normally don't wear this style of skirt but I loved the pattern so much; it looks vintage but it's not. Plus, there's a pocket!

The other Thrift Trader I wanted to check out was on Iowa Street, not too far away. I didn't realize that this store location was closing. Before I went in, I snapped several shots of the amazing art work on their walls, including a recent one of the late Robin Williams (depicted as Popeye)...


I don't know who painted this wall, but there is a doorway painted in a similar style somewhere along  University Ave (I'll have to find that photo from an old post and update it later)...





Pretty awesome art!

While I didn't score any designer jeans that day (I did see some, but hell, I don't have a 24" waist!!!
My spree contents.  The yellow leaf skirt was $7. Everything else was a total of $20 (for 11 items; I think I left one CD out)...A vintage Atari shirt I bought for TC, a Tesla shirt for Bert, a bamboo handled purse with a cool Chinese floral print, a black fluffy skirt with embroidered white flowers (another vintage looking skirt but isn'), plus CD's...

The CD include: "Move Along" by The All American Rejects (bought for TC),  An instrumental cd by Joe Fos (a former San Diegan) a Filipino American pianist who gained fame in the early 60's by playing with Van Cliburn and then winning a scholarship to Juilliard, Elvis Costello's debut album "My Aim is True" (1977), the best of Book of Love,  the soundtrack to "Romeo + Juliet" (the version with Leonardo di Caprio and Claire Danes which I didn't really like, the movie that is), and Phenix TX (for me).

Here's a few vids from a few of the groups:





The yellow skirt is folded in half. It's not that narrow, trust me. It's huge on me but I will have to employ my failing eyesight to thread the damn needle and handsew the $%#@ thing.

For those of you old enough to remember the Atari 2600, this is Pong and Pole Position.


Hours of fun! Not.

Previous visit to this location of Thrift Trader:
January 2013 where I scored an original Dittos top!

$20 for 11 items isn't too shabby. Bert already wore his t-shirt and TC really likes the Atari. We actually do have an Atari 2600. We should break it out so she can play Night Driver and Ms Pacman!