A Thrifty Saturday

You ever have those days where you just want to sniff down a good bargain? I’m talking about sifting through junk up to your elbows to get that super-deal high afterwards. Well, the urge strikes me quite frequently, so on a Saturday I started off on a thrift store adventure. I was in search of super deals. Not really looking for anything, just looking for pretty things to fill our house.

My first stop was Goodwill. This actually isn’t one of my usual thrifty haunts since the collection at our Goodwill in the housewares section can kind of be slim, but I thought I would give it a go. After this trip I might retract my Goodwill statement! I got so many fun little finds for the house; most for under $1! Here’s my loot, maties.

 

Look at all these wonderful little knick knacks I found. I am usually not a knick knack person (or I try not to be but my house may say otherwise) but with the projects going on in the Mego Cave, I need decorative items. Since these were all a super bargain, I went for it. For such a steal, they may eventually find their way back to Goodwill, but I call that a win-win. I get something for the house for a while; Goodwill makes a double sale on an item!

After Goodwill I was ready to continue the search. After so many successes at Goodwill I headed over to our furniture heavy DAV store. Known for being a little overpriced, you can still find some great bargains (like the side tables in our guest room I got for $25 for the pair!). They had some knick knacks but I was a little knick knacked out, so I honed in on the furniture section. I was nonchalantly looking for a side table and lamp for the Mego Cave. Man, did I ever make out!

I was originally looking for a lamp with good lines that I could paint a pop of color, but what happens when you find one that already pops? You buy it of course. You also look for a lamp shade with a good shade that you could possibly cover. Well, that is until you find one you actually like and don’t have to cover. As much as I love to DIY anything and everything, you can’t pass up something beautiful just because someone took the work out of it for you!

So you know I mentioned right at the beginning that I get the urge to sniff out a deal frequently? Well, I kind of meant daily. Since that isn’t realistic, I satisfy that urge with my good old friend Craigslist. It is lots of looking at cheap old things with lots of potential (and many hopeless cases way overpriced). So part of my daily routine is to just do a quick lookie through Craigslist. It lets my creative juices flow yet it is basically impossible to spend any money impulsively (it takes time to set-up a Craigslist buy). Anyways, that same weekend I was taking a look around and found something so amazingly wonderful for the Rapp family. I don’t think it could have gone to a more appreciative family. It was a Japanese toaster oven. Look at this baby.

It first caught my eye because Eric loves everything Japanese, especially the crazy-kooky stuff they have/modify over there. We have quite a bit of funky Japanese stickers and such around the house. I knew this would be an awesome surprise for him. But when I get excited about something I want to burst and talk about it. So I burst and told him, and we were able to be all excited together. The excitement mounted as we got our arranged meeting place and saw that it was an actual Japanese family. Why does this make us excited? Because that means it really is authentic and came directly from a Japanese store! (Okay all you Debbie Downers out there, don’t go telling me that almost all of our items we buy in the US are actually built in China or Japan or places like that. Don’t ruin this for me.) This piece was originally going in the basement as part of Eric’s Japanese memorabilia, but this was tool cool for basement banishment. It took up a space front and center on our beautiful kitchen countertops!

Don’t you love those little pictures of food? How cool are the characters? The pictures make me giggle since the Japanese are into all those little cutesy things, like making that shrimp picture look adorable. Not only does it make me really happy every time I look at it but it was only $10 and heats like a charm!

This may go down as my best Craigslist find ever. So I will continue my trolling fresh off the victory of my little toaster oven (aww anyone else just flash back to the Brave Little Toaster movie?!).
Check back in on Wednesday to see where all my other thrifty finds have settled in at the homestead.

House Tour: Blue Bathroom

Continuing our house tour (the living room and the kitchen have already been showcased) we will continue with the flow of the house. Flowing right into our guest bathroom. Convenient, eh? Let me just say, I love this bathroom. Our bathrooms have definitely gone through quite a tremendous transformation, although I am a bad blogger and do not have before and afters. I didn't really take pictures of the house until I started the blog. To give you an idea, the bathroom was covered in an ugly yellow tan color (including trim, ceiling and walls). Also, a little before my time in the house there was a pink toilet and pink sink. Eric changed those out before I moved in. The shower however was pink when I moved in. That didn't last too long with the amazing Rebath product that will come and cover up your ugly, old bathroom. With that done I was left to painting and accessorizing.

Entering the bathroom. I apologize for the awkward pictures. Our bathrooms are...efficient (aka smallish) which makes it a little challenging to get good overview pictures.

A closer view of the bathroom. You can see the transformation a little paint will make. This bathroom seems so light and airy (although devoid of windows) with the light blue paint on the walls. A white ceiling and white trim work helped as well. The blue vase was a thrift store find that I love.

A shot of the shower. I credit Eric for the shower curtain. I am usually a fabric shower curtain kind of girl, but he got this one to with its little clear blocks mixed in with the blue to allow as much light as possible in the bathroom. Good job hubby! You can also see the white (fake...shhhh) marble peeking up outside of the curtain.

Ahh, my favorite part of the bathroom. A piece of Ikea artwork (which we are acquiring quite a collection of. Not valuable but so fun!). I saw this piece and it was one of those"Squeal!", run up to the piece, grab it possessively, and say "We are getting this. It is perfect for the bathroom." Then in it goes into the cart. I loved the colors: the blue matched the bathroom but also subtly suggested other colors to bring in as accents. Think peach towels. That is my plan! It also have little squares that mimic the shower curtain. It is also a very large size that fits perfectly on the big wall leading into the bathroom to the left of the sink (look at the very first picture to see how it fits in relation with everything else).

Another shot of artwork in the bathroom. I am a huge lover of Van Gogh and do not mind having prints in the house. This one actually came in a horizontal poster with the three in a row. I cut the three pictures into individual ones and put them in their own frames to make it look more like a collection. The colors work well in the bathroom, but I am not in love. I like the spacial usage, but they seem a little dark in the bathroom. My goal was to get white frames but I could not find the size I needed. I did find black. I thought I would put them up black and give it a try. I have been giving it a try for a few months now. Still not working exactly. I think they will soon meet a friendly spray paint can and become white. Any thoughts?

This picture gives you a sense of where the pictures are in relation to the bathroom.

Well that is the bathroom tour. How fascinating, right? We still have plans to change out the mirror and light fixtures to something more modern. I also need to find the perfect decorative touch to go over the toilet. There is just a blank wall screaming "Put something on me!" Any thoughts on good bathroom decorations that mix storage, usefulness, and appeal?

Estate Shop Vintage Finds

I really love to shop. I really like to buy unique things. I am a cheap shopper. Oh, and I like everything blue and green and EVERYTHING that sparkles and shines. It takes you only a few seconds to learn that when first meeting me. Most likely I will be wearing all three of those items. So when I was able to combine all of my favorite items I was excited!

Last weekend I went with my wonderful and craft mother-in-law downtown to our community market and local thrift store Estate Specialists that is one of the coolest places ever. We went in there when a really neat old Santa caught our attention and then we got stuck there when we passed the jewelry section. I have shopped there many times and seen a lot of their jewelry before but there selection was quite impressive this time! I spent quite a bit of time going over the entire collection and picking out pieces for Christmas presents (both for myself and others!). Unfortunately I packaged up and sent the Christmas presents before I could snap any shots but I will share what I found.

Here are the green and blue sparkly earrings that I fell in love with. They are a bit costume-y and a bit vintage looking and I think they will be an outfit stealer! Just love them!

Here is a very fun and sparkly (see the pattern?!) necklace that I found. It is so unique and trendy at the same time. It is fun longer length too, which I am alllll about these days.

And last but not least of the goodies that I picked up is this brooch. I have been looking for one that would dress up my blue pea coat and this adds just the pop it needed.

The best part of the whole trip was putting my bargaining skills to test. I wrangled over the price with the woman (my tip: ask for a lower price and just look at the person. Awkward silence is the best and never be the first one to break it. People hate silence and will usually cave). I knocked off $10 off the price. Since I got two necklaces for my family members for Christmas my grand total for 3 necklaces, 1 pair of earrings, and 1 brooch for a whopping $35 plus tax!

As another fun part of this story is explained in a post from my friend Carrie - an awesome DIY blogger who was part of my inspiration in starting a blog. She loves owls and I saw this awesome owl necklace while there and almost texted her about it. But I didn't (don't know why!). Then I ran into her downtown and got very excited to tell her about the necklace. The result, this post: Dream Green DIY Owl Necklace Post

Do you have any thrift store fun stories? Or how about bargaining stories and tips?