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Thrifty Thursday, for old time’s sake.
I wasn’t going to blog about this because it seems kind of silly but I went thrift store shopping yesterday and last week as well. The reality is: I’m thinking about my new apartment all the time. My brain is in the clouds decorating away while I mindlessly pack and try to squeeze in a few work projects around the edges. My clients are not getting my best work this week and it’s terrible.
For some reason I got a bee in my bonnet that I really wanted to get a couch for super cheap out here in the sticks where people don’t even know what “mid-century modern” is. I got lucky once with my desk and I keep thinking I’ll get lucky again. Especially now that I have a new space to fix up and a moving truck to fit furniture in.
To tell you the truth I kind of hate it that I’ve jumped on the hipster bandwagon with all the mid-century modern stuff but you like what you like, right? I promise you I will not be putting up any “Keep Calm” posters though. Promise. Hope to die, poke a needle in my bloodshot eye.
What do you think? It’s pretty isn’t it? I’m not so keen on the princess lines on the bottom but I love the color and the tufted button things and the lowness of it. It’s like I want to have Betty Draper over for martinis. Actually I don’t. I have nothing to say to that girl. The whole show is depressing but I love the style so much!
So I bought the dang chair and I’m in love with it. It was marked $125 but I talked them down to $75 which impresses even me because I hate bartering. I’m the girl who bought one dollar necklaces for $15 when I was in Tijuana the first time. I just hate haggling. It feels insulting or something. But I made an exception because I felt like this chair was going to be that chair and I would always regret not buying it.
The new gold chair doesn’t really go with my old gold chair but I think if I keep ’em separated they’ll get along. Or introduce them gradually like noirbettie advised. I think it’s going to look smashing against the turquoise wall. Did I tell you about that?
My new apartment complex had some kind of gimmick where you can get an accent wall painted for free. I think it’s really silly. I don’t need a painted wall or a free bike or a coffee cup to make me move into a place. How about $100 off the rent every month and double-pained windows? Now that would sell me. But anyway, since they were giving away a free painted wall, I figured I might as well take them up on it.
They wanted me to pick from a palette of mauve, dusty blue, sandy taupe and some other forgettable color but since I don’t think I’m going to live there forever I decided I wanted to paint it something really ridiculous: like the brightest, most intense turquoise I could find at the local big box hardware store.
Bug loves it of course. My family thinks I am insane but I think it will be fun. Yes, I probably will eventually hate it. Maybe it will reflect blue all over the rest of my house and ruin all my photos. I guess we’ll find out. But I do think it will look fabulous next to my new gold chair.
I also bought a fondue pot ($2.35!!) and a crazy fun mumu for my friend Deb. I love thrift stores. Now I just need to get back to work so I can afford my new apartment and all my super fun thrift store finds. Le Sigh.
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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!
