-
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.
* * *
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!
-
Camping in the Backyard: brought to you by REI
You may have noticed my tent in my last post about camping on Labor Day Weekend. That’s the tent I bought with my REI gift card back when I toured their store a month ago. Remember that post? Little did I know my tent would come in so handy! In the rain even!
Anyway, I took the photos below when we did a little test run in our own backyard about a month ago.
I also bought that backpack with the whistle in the buckle. I figure if we go hiking I’d definitely want something loud to scare away the mountain lions. Plus Bug really liked that it had a bladder in it and I think being able to sip her own water might make it more fun for her to carry her own bag. We’ll see.
We decided to take our tent on a maiden voyage to our backyard. We do have an awesome backyard after all. We might as well enjoy it. It cools down really nice out here in the desert and I’ve been wanting to sleep outside for a while.
So we set up the tent.
That was fun. Actually, it was really easy. I love how the tent poles just snap onto the tent instead of having to thread them like the old ones. So much easier!
It was so easy even a five-year-old could do it. Sort of.
Tah dah! We were so proud of ourselves.
Please forgive my backyard camping hair. Actually, that seems to be my all-summer-long hair. It’s so stinkin’ hot out here I can’t stand a bit of my hair to touch my face.
And then we went inside and enjoyed the peaceful evening by having a massive tickle fight.
Goodnight!
I can’t wait to take it on a real camping trip!
What outdoor activity do you pledge to do with your family this summer and how would a $100 REI gift card help you get there? Take the REI Outdoor Pledge and submit your comment to be entered.
No duplicate comments.
You may receive (2) total entries by selecting from the following entry methods:
a) Leave a comment in response to the sweepstakes prompt on this post
b) Tweet about this promotion and leave the URL to that tweet in a comment on this post
c) Blog about this promotion and leave the URL to that post in a comment on this post
d) For those with no Twitter or blog, read the official rules to learn about an alternate form of entry.
This giveaway is open to US Residents age 18 or older and runs from 9/7 – 9/27 .
Winners will be selected via random draw, and will be notified by e-mail.
You have 72 hours to get back to me, otherwise a new winner will be selected.
The Official Rules are available here
Head to the BlogHer Roundup Page for more chances to win.
