Free stuff and almost free stuff

Liz and Luke came to visit this weekend and we had two dream-come-true moments over the weekend. The first occured on Saturday after we went bowling in Northern Liberties with Padhraig and Carrie. We were going to go to Johnny Brenda's, but it was loud and obnoxious, so instead, we wandered over to this house design place across the street. It turned out that they were celebrating their two-year anniversary and so had set up several huge white tents on the outside of the store with music, food, and drinks. We had walked past the tents but assumed it was a private party, only to be told by the friendly and only slightly drunk store owner that it was open to the public. We went inside and settled in by the food and wine area. They were serving hummus and fancy crackers, bread, cheese, and cheese pate, sunflower seeds (?), lemon bars, chocolate bars, fresh shrimp with cocktail sauce, something wrapped up in dough, thick slices of pizza, and a few other things. You could choose from red or white wine or get expensive beer from the keg next to the pizza. We were in heaven. We didn't even feel self-conscious about sitting right by the food. We could've felt like those guests at a party that no one knows who eats all the best stuff and then leaves, but since everyone was a stranger, it didn't matter.

On Sunday, Liz and I went to Circle Thrift by my apt. We walked around and every once in awhile, we'd find something really cute. Liz stumbled on a pair of green sandals with thick corkboard heels and I found a black pleated skirt with a black lace slip sewn in. Then something weird happened--we started to realize that we were finding TONS of really cute stuff. A bright long sweater with big sugar cookie-sized buttons. Lavendar perfume and powder in a brand new old-fashioned, sealed cosmetics case. Placemats with hand-embrodiery on them. Finally, we overheard the guy at the counter tell someone that Anthropologie had donated five truck loads of their sample clothes. Anthropologie is my favorite store, but I never buy anything from there because it's too expensive. At Circle Thrift, pretty much everything sells for $4. I bought one key lime pie colored shirt that still had an $88 price tag on it. Some of the pieces were slightly distressed or had "sample" written on them, but most were fine. I spent $70 and walked away with: 7 shirts, four sweaters, two skirts, a placemat/curtain for the bathroom, new hand lotion, and a soap dish. Liz spent less, but she got 3 pair of great shoes and a few shirts and sweaters. We had to keep pinching each other because both of us thought we were dreaming.

Here are some examples of what I bought. The white tee with colors was originally $68 at Anthro and is currently on sale for $35. I bought it for $3. The Kangaroo Pull-over stripped pull-over was $118 and is now on sale for $35 and I bought it for $5 (however, this one does have "sample" written on the back hem part in marker. What should I do?) The cardigan with the flowers in not on sale--it's new and going for $148.