Socially Distanced Thrifting.

Socially Distanced thrifting during a pandemic has become a thing. For me anyway.

I posted this picture in one of my early posts containing a few thoughts and observations about our Pandemic experience. 

All very non-political or containing any blame. I'm not about that.

But this picture got a lot of feedback - 

While going to Goodwill and other favorite thrift stores is not essential a lot of us missed it! 

We are on Week 17 here and while many things have opened we must continue to be abundantly cautious. So we are at home 99.999999% of the time :)

For that reason we have worked very hard in our backyard on projects and improvements to make spending our Summer at home more enjoyable. 

One thing I wanted was a lounge chair to go beside our stock tank pool

 (which I call The Bucket.)

I wanted something other than a folding metal beach lounger if possible. I really wanted wrought iron and vintage was preferable. That's what I like and the new ones were shockingly expensive and then you need a big, thick cushion. Also a bit pricey. 

But by late April I thought I could make a FB marketplace transaction be safe if I wore a mask and we put the cash in a baggie and left it in the mailbox or somewhere like that for the seller.  I scrolled through FBM constantly. Let's face it, I had time, and then finally in May these popped up!! I didn't even try to bargain. She was 15 minutes from the house and so we jumped in the truck and headed to pick them up. And it was TWO for $50.00!! Yay!

When we arrived her husband came out and chatted from a distance! We were masked and safely apart. I'm so glad he came out. He told us that his wife's father had been a Master Welder and had made these two lounge chairs for her decades ago!! I love them even more. They are not exactly identical because they are handmade

 but they are soooo well made and sturdy.

So the next step was to find new cushions. I had shared on IG that the "color scheme" of the pandemic (for us) had been dark green and white because that's the paint I had on hand when the lock down began. We already had a lot of our outdoor furniture painted a dark green because 

I am from Charleston and it's in my DNA to paint outdoor and porch furniture dark green.

 I can't help it!!

So I, of course, wanted green and white striped outdoor cushions. 

Sounds easy, right? Not so much. 

But after diligent searching online I found an excellent price for Sunbrella chaise cushions through walmart.com. 

I read the descriptions and measurements on other sites where the green and white striped Sunbrella cushions were $249.00 and $198.00. The descriptions matched exactly, were Sunbrella brand like the others and were under $100.00 with free shipping and returns. 

I figured it was worth a try.  

They are so nice, thick cushioned, and perfect green and white striped Sunbrella fabric!

(The dappled light makes funny looking shadows on the cushions - there isn't anything wrong with them! In fact, they are fabulous and I've already spot cleaned one and it looks brand new!)

I have made another masked, socially distanced Facebook Marketplace purchase since this one!

 I'll share soon.