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Thrifty Thursday: the accidental lamp edition
It was a
dark and stormy nighthot sweaty afternoon and I was on my way to the grocery store for some odds and ends for a new craft post I’m writing (Stay tuned! I have a new writing gig and it’s super fun!) and I suddenly found myself in the right turn lane instead of going straight at an intersection. That happens in this town. I hate it.So instead of making some kind of crazy-dangerous illegal lane change, I decided to ride this mistake out and go with the flow of traffic going right. Very inconvenient but sometimes God works in mysterious ways, right? I turned onto the very busy avenue and the first chance I had to make a u-turn back to the street I wanted to go straight on, happened to be a thrift-store parking lot.
Since I happened to be in the thrift store parking lot and I had some extra free-time because I was not picking Bug up from kindergarten (Grandma was. They had a special afternoon planned.) I decided to stop. I was there by divine intervention I figured, why not. I haven’t been thrifting since forever. I’m watching my funds closely and I don’t really need stuff. But that’s when you always find the best stuff, right? When you don’t need it and aren’t looking for it.
And of course I found a lamp for $6.99.
I’ve always dug these lamps with clear bases. The kids I babysit have them in their parent’s bedroom and I always thought they were cool. Of course their’s were clear glass, not tinted yellow but I bet they didn’t pay seven bucks for them either. So the dusty lamp jumped into my hands and I bought it.
I took it home and cleaned it up and then spray-painted the warbly, cracked, messed-up shade red. I should have a photo of me spray-painting here but I did it in the backyard and it was about eleven-hundred degrees out and my face melted.
Then I ran out of red spray paint half way through. So it’s hot pink on one side and red on the other which might be super cool and hip except the spray paint didn’t paint evenly and now I need to either go buy more spray paint or just get a new lamp shade. I’ll probably just ignore it until I find a new shade by accident or divine intervention or something. Garage sales are great for u-turns.
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In other news: I’m reviewing some Fair Trade Green Mountain Coffee on my review blog and there’s a FREE Keurig coffee machine in the mix!
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15 minute posts, BIG news, domesticity, Family Matters, gardening, house stuff!, movies, Niece-com-poops, party party, Shop Talk, the sticks
So. Much. Going. On.
So here’s a quick flick through my camera stream lately. First a photo taken by Rapunzel of her own hand. She’s not afraid to grab the camera and get in there with the interesting shots. I love that.
Another one of my old saguaro. She can’t believe that I never took this shot myself. Nope, I didn’t. Too prickly!
We had a little tiff at dinner so I’m feeling a bit sentimental as I post these photos. Teenagers are so complicated!
I spray-painted an old wooden chair my mom had laying around. I wanted to give the chair its own post but it’s not like I’m really a DIY home-decorator blog or anything so I’m just going to smash it in here instead.
Spray, spray, spray. Don’t you love it when you forget to change the ISO setting on your camera and the last thing you shot was a product shot inside at 3200 and then you go outside and over-expose everything so bad that your backyard looks like heaven from the 70’s?
Maybe that’s just my version of heaven from the 70’s.
Anyway, the chair looks fantastic! It went from country bumpkin to eclectic mess which is sort of good except I hate eclectic mess. I love the chair though. I just need to de-clutter my house a little so it can shine on its own.
It’s already a favorite for family meetings.
And vain self-portraits.
Speaking of, I need some better self-portraits because I’m A PUBLISHED AUTHOR NOW!!!! And I had to put some dumb hand-held frumpy mom shot in the back of my book. I know I could pay someone to take a real portrait but I like to keep it real (or cheap). I am self-published after all, it’s not like I have a big book-contract deal. But I do have an awesome agent/publisher friend who is hooking it all up. I’m so excited. This is really a dream come true for me.
It dropped on Amazon yesterday for my birthday! This is just a soft launch. I have two more books to illustrate and then we’re going to launch a blog tour with giveaways and prints and a book party (squee!) and I’ll probably talk about it so much you will all get sick of me. But until then check it out! $2.99 yo! It’s only on the Kindle right now I think but you can get a free kindle ap for your mac or ipad. I’ll share more when I get the hang of it. I’m new at this still. (Also available in the UK and Germany)
In the meantime I have two books still to illustrate! (And many more after that I hope) I’m so behind. If you see me goofing off, feel free to kick me in the butt. I’ve got work to do!!! It’s always feast or famine around here.
Yes, my birthday was fantabulous. Thank you for asking. We kept it low-key with a night out with my best beach gal pal DMA and a new friend on Friday and then a family dinner with the niece-com-poops and my Aunt Keren and Grandma on the day itself. My grandma made me my favorite birthday dinner (peanut encrusted Thai chicken—soooooooooo yummy you could die) and Rapunzel made my cake. How can I be mad at her when she’s so sweet like that. Teenagers! She kills me.
Anyway, it was super sweet and fun and the kids had a blastola swimming in Grandma’s community pool.
I love summer.
Why yes, I did make a peach pie. I know! All this fun going on when I have work to do!!! This is what I’m talking about. I should be shackled to my laptop but no, I’m in the kitchen pretending to be Martha Stewart or something. It’s just that it’s summer and the fruit is going bananas (or more correctly, peaches) and it’s such a wonderful new thing to me that I just can’t bear to let it rot! It’s me and the fruit flies and I’m not about to let them win.
Peaches, zucchinis, apricots, plums, sugar snap peas and soon tomatoes. I can’t even keep up with my camera. Life does not stop for the weary!
