Sesame Street DIY Birthday Party and Loot Bags!

This past weekend we had a birthday party for my son, who just turned 2! If you are still reading, loyal blog followers, yep, it's been a whole two years since my free time for thrifting took a serious hit. I wanted a nice Sesame Street themed party for the event, but of course, done on a thrifty budget.

I was able to score some amazing deals at Dollar Tree, and found some great DIY ideas out there as well. One of my favourite things was creating these little loot bags with the faces of Cookie Monster and Elmo, his fave characters from Sesame Street. A little construction paper and cardstock, and 50 cent bags from the dollar store, voila!

Speaking of the dollar store, pardon this quick snapshot from inside our car on the way home, but I scored these awesome Elmo-face helium balloons at Dollar Tree - I had to call around to many of the stores locally as they sell out fast! I added some blue foil star balloons to get the Cookie Monster colours in there, but at $1.40 each after taxes, this was great bang-for-buck. They're still full and floating around the house, and we had extras for some of the little kids to take home.

I saw some Sesame Street blowers online that I thought were pretty cool but didn't have time to get them ordered (nor did I want to pay for shipping and all). I found some Pirate themed ones in a package with terrible graphics and cheap cardboard on them. I slipped those off and just added these simple printed tags instead.

It gave the kids something to look for with their name on it, and satisfied the germaphobe in me!

I love the way the bags look all lined up in rows. For the party, we put them up high so they could be seen but not grabbed by the excited kids.

Now I didn't get a chance to take a pic of the goodies inside the bag... Drat I forgot all about this! But the Dollar Tree has a lot of pretty fantastic colouring books, activity books, and flash cards that are all Sesame Street themed! I added some Goldfish crackers, notebooks, and that sort of thing to round out the bags.

I had a great time putting these all together, but I'm really itching to go hunting for cookwares at the thrift now that this task is completed!

Sesame Street Bookend

I've just got a quick post for today's thrift share as it's been one hectic weekend! I found this neat Sesame Street bookend that is actually a little shelf for a set of books.

Have I mentioned before that I love Big Bird? Such a sunny, happy fella.

This little birdie seems to pop up everywhere in Sesame Street books but I don't know if they ever refer to him by name.

I hope to be back later this week to show you this MCM chair that I picked up... I need to get your thoughts on it! I'm linking up this post with Flea Market Finds and Thrift Share Monday!

Review: Thrift Stores in Victoria, BC on Vancouver Island

To wrap up my series on our Thrifting Adventures in Victoria, I am going to share the stores we visited and the items we were able to score.

I put together a spreadsheet of sixteen potential stores and church sales that would be open on a Friday, and marked up a map before we left for our trip.

When I was researching stores before our trip, I was surprised to discover that there were over a dozen thrift shops in and around the Downtown Victoria area. How exciting is that!? Thrifting it up in our Provincial Capital is a great way to explore the town. =)

The weather wasn't ideal - there was snow and slush on the ground, and the forecast called for freezing rain. We persevered and sloshed on through. Our first stop was the Bibles for Missions Thrift Shop. I found this cute Peanuts magnet for 55¢ showing Peppermint Patty being kissed by Snoopy.

This store was huge and the prices were low - we also purchased a small wooden wine rack for $2, and just for reference's sake, they had Corningware casseroles in the Blue Cornflower pattern for $2.

We made our way to the church thrift sales, the top two stops on my list, but unfortunately, the volunteers did not make it in that day due to the weather. The chain stores were open though, so we tried the Salvation Army next and found a blue wood handled screwdriver for 99¢.

This Sally Ann store was pretty rough; likely because the social services offerred by the Salvation Army were in the same building. There was a security guard posted in the store - that's the first time I've seen that at a thrift store!

A friend of ours speculated that the high number of thrifts in Victoria may be due to the concentration of social services in the city, like low income housing and general assistance for the needy. The stores were certainly busy and well utilised, so that was a good sign.

The best find of the day had to be at the Women in Need (WIN) store with this beautiful Pyrex Butterprint fridgie! I loved it even more when I saw the price tag...

Yay, $2.95 and in perfect condition! There was a really nice sign inside this store that read: "Please do not steal from WIN. If you need assistance, please talk to us - that is what we are here for."

Next up was the St. Vincent de Paul store where I scored this great Sesame Street book for 50¢.

These alphabet pages are just a feast for the eyes. Some of the pages were damaged, but I just couldn't leave it behind. Check out the Sesame Street interpretation of the Quaker Oats label. Hilarious!

We had a great time thrifting in Victoria and realized that there are many needy people in this city. Thankfully, it appears that there are also many resources and services to assist people. In fact, many stores we visited were exclusively selling used clothing, and things like coats and scarves were very reasonably priced.

Our most surprising observation was that many of the thrift stores offerred free fresh baked bread! We had never seen this in Vancouver before. Do thrift stores in your City offer food or bread to the needy?

Linking up to ATG's Thrift Share Monday and HLA's Flea Market Finds!

Vintage Sesame Street Lamp Light Fixture Cover

I'm sure you all know how I feel about Sesame Street by now, so I was pretty pumped when I came across this sweet light fixture cover recently.  I believe they produced several designs in the Sesame Street series during the 80s.

It was marked with the princely sum of $1.00 so I tucked it under my arm and continued shopping. I once left a similar one behind at a thrift because it was too expensive for my tastes, even though it had a glum-looking Bert glaring at Ernie, who was up to no good.

With the name of my blog being Six Balloons, I also thought it was pretty exciting to have something vintage, Sesame Street-themed, and with balloons on it!

There are so many vibrant colours on the glass, and it was in perfect condition... until I accidentally snapped the corner off!! I fessed up to the church lady of course, and purchased it, justifying that I could at least share this depressing story with you readers.

The chip is right in the corner near Cookie Monster and it's too dangerous to keep as it's so sharp. I put it out in the Recycling Box this week with a wistful sigh! I'll chalk this one up as one of my Thrift Fails and move on!

Linking up to Nifty Thrifty Tuesdays at Coastal Charm!

Sesame Street ABC's Book

Happy Friday everyone! I had to share this little purchase I made recently on a perfect condition 1989 Sesame Street book. For 25 cents, I couldn't resist, even though my pile of books is growing a little faster than I'd like...

"On My Way with Sesame Street -  My ABC's" is the first volume of a series that focussed on different subjects. I remember watching Sesame Street as a kid in the eighties and learning all about the Letter B from the great tune that accompanied it. The show was so clever back then, mimicking The Beatles with puppets in such a memorable fashion. Brilliant. Educational. Hilarious.

I like this page especially because it shows so many of the great Sesame Street characters. Isn't it funny that the detective is named Sherlock Hemlock?

Check out some of my Sesame Street posts regarding a couple of finds I have made in the past!

Sesame Street Cookie Monster Castanet

Happy New Year everyone! I hope you all had a great 2010 and that an even better 2011 is coming up. I have loved starting up this blog (it's almost been a year!) and am so thrilled that I've got readers out there. Thanks to all of you who are reading, following, commenting, and of course, blogging and giving us inspiration.

One of my favourite finds from all of 2010 is one of the simplest and cheapest that I've purchased at a thrift store. It is this great Cookie Monster castanet I purchased for 25¢! It was stowed away in a miscellaneous toy drawer that I rummaged around in.

I love this little noisemaker with its bright colour and of course, Cookie Monster! Cookie Monster is one of my favourite Sesame Street characters, and making noises while his mouth chomps away seems fitting. His googly eyes are just hilarious. This little treasure just goes to show that thrifting is fun because you never know what you can expect to find!

Vintage Sesame Street Books

I have always loved Sesame Street, but since my nieces were born, my siblings and I have been sharing our old Sesame Street toys with them and singing songs from the 80s. How can you go wrong with Ernie's la la la song and the Manamanah guys?

I recently came upon a huge throng of vintage Sesame Street books from a combination of a school booksale and Value Village. For 20 cents I picked up a great condition copy of this old colouring book:



I think it's so clever how they have called it the Museum of Monster Art and the drawings inside are hilarious for kids and adults alike.

I really like the idea of Bert being the serious, judgemental fellow while Ernie is such a fun-loving goof.



Speaking of Ernie, I found a "I Can Do It Myself" book in great condition.



But the real thrill for me was when I came upon the old version of the Sesame Street Dictionary... in perfect condition for $1.99!



I understand the book was originally published in 1980, and a reprint was issued with a new cover in 2004 showing the nouveau popular guys, including Elmo. I love how each page is so colourful and has both humour and educational content. The illustrations are great.



I am tempted by the idea of a craft project with featured Letters of the Alphabet. I imagine this as having the Letter Bar across the top and rectangular cutouts of say, 6-8 dictionary terms under that letter. I think if they were neatly arranged under some photo matting and put in a plain frame, it would look great in a kid's room either on the wall or on their door!



This would involve cutting up this great book, so I don't know...