The ones that got away

Here are a few things that I have had to pass by as I've been shopping at thrift and antique stores, things I wanted to buy but couldn't.

First up, this pinball machine, not because I particularly love pinball, but because the machine is just gorgeous.

This claw machine was in the back yard of an antique store in a small Texas town. I couldn't help but think how awesome it would be for my kids to have their own claw machine to lose on over and over again, but then actually get to keep their wasted money.

I'm a total sucker for needlework framed as wall art.

Too expensive.

Beautiful but kinda moldy.

Curse you, Goodwill auction! This was out of town, and I wasn't there on auction day.

An overhead projector! I found it at a thrift shop when I was visiting home last fall, and sadly, it wouldn't fit in my suitcase. But how fun would it be to pretend to be my 7th grade math teacher (though perhaps without her tendency to stick the cap end of the marker into her eye socket whenever she was getting a migraine)?

And finally, here's my great white whale, the one that broke my heart:

It's a display cabinet with shelves and glass doors and lighting inside. This was also at a Goodwill near my parents' house, and if I couldn't get the overhead projector back to Austin, I sure couldn't get this thing either.
But it was priced at ten dollars. TEN DOLLARS, you guys. For the mid-century cabinet of my dreams. (I say mid-century, though there was not date on it. I suppose it could be '70s or even '80s, but my definition of mid-century is pretty broad.)

I hovered near it and made big puppy dog eyes at my mom, hoping that she would say, "Well, just go ahead and buy it and you can keep it in the garage until you can figure out how to get it to Texas." Her reaction was more like, "Yep, that's a cabinet. Ready to go?" She's a heartless woman.