At the Thrift Shop

  I stopped at one of the thrift shops I go to frequently yesterday. Right away I found a large art tablet-18in x 12in paper ( 11 sheets still in the pad ) suitable for pastels or watercolor, etc for only 50 cents. I continued to browse on my way to the books, but did not see anything else of interest. In their book section, they have one bookcase that has unsorted books and magazines. I found book 2 of a series and as I moved some other books I found 1 and 3 of the same series, Yay! 
  When I got to the checkout there was a woman in front of me, I saw she had some old books, embrodiery hoops, and playing cards among her purchases. I was debating whether to be nosy about her purchases when she saw my art tablet and said nice, and was I an artist? I said by no means, but my sister had started art journaling and such and I was trying some different types of media. This gave me the perfect intro as to her purchases, were the old books to read or craft with and she said both, she was into crafts and likes to recycle and reuse things instead of buying new, she would use the pictures on the playing cards also. We had an interesting chat for a few minutes, after she left the cashier asked some questions about the mixed media art we had been talking about as she was not crafty. She wanted to know if only old books or any books used. I told her it could be any book, but she might want the old books for their distressed covers. She also asked what you would do with them, i said that you can cut part of the inside out to make a box, some people sculpt the pages, you can use them to make art journals by adding gesso and other mediums such as paint inks,stamping ,etc. She probably found out more than she wanted to know.
  Back to my books, I got them for 25 cents each and the original sticker price was $10.49 for 2 of them and $10.97 for 1. I got an awesome deal, over thirty dollars worth of books for 75 cents. WHOOPEE !