Mego Caving into Change

You know I can’t help to give a good tease, which I most certainly did on Monday, but you know that I couldn’t just leave you hanging like that! So here’s your reward: You get to see where some of those oh-so-cute (and cheap!) knick-knacks ended (only some because some are still waiting to find a home in our casa) and see a few bonus updates in the Mego Cave!

Let’s start with where those super-deal thrifty finds went. Check out the majesty of the combination of those sweet little items and some of the bigger ones!

 

Remember the before? What a mess! 

After:

Before:

After:

I’d say this is an upgrade for this little corner of the room. I couldn’t just let this corner get a makeover without seeing the lonely stares from across the room. So I remedied that by a little pound of a hammer (aren’t I a loving home owner?) and viola! More updates!

From this...

To this lil' update!

 

Just a little change but it brings more of a balanced look to my eye. Let’s take a close look at that piece of artwork though, because it has an amazing story. Aren’t those the best artwork pieces to have?

 

This is one of the pieces that I bought in China, hence the slightly Asian flare. Decorating Asian isn’t totally my thing, so I tried to buy toned down Asian items so I would actually use them in my home. This piece is just magnificent though. Looking at it from far away it is fun to just enjoy the picture. Then you get up close and you get to thinking, “Wow, this looks so light and airy. Wait a minute. Where’s the paint or pencil lines?” Well my friends, there aren’t any. This whole piece was cut, by hand, from one piece of tissue paper. Did you get that? One. Piece. Of. Tissue. Paper.

Apparently this one only took a few hours, but some larger items they sell in the store can take months to cut! It’s just incredible. Can you ever even fathom having the skill or patience to create something like that? I sure can’t! So of course something that stunning needs a more front and center place in the home. Thank you talented Chinese artist half way around the world. This post is devoted to you!

Just one other little update in the room to share. Of course we can't forget the amazing chair appearing act. A little dated but still pretty spectacular for now. I thought adding perhaps a pillow or throw to it would snazz it up a little and make it more modern. Thankfully TJMaxx's clearance section came in for the win! Check out the result.

 

So there they are, a few random updates in the Mego Cave. Little updates, lotta punch!

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.