"They're always pushing the alphabet"

I've been buying a lot of baby toys lately - from the likes of Goodwill, Salvation Army, a baby and children's consignment sale my mom and I went to - and one thing you quickly notice about today's children's toys is all the bells and whistles they've got. 

Seeing him again all these years 
later, he's kind of scary-looking . . . 

I can't remember having one electronic toy growing up, though I'm sure I did (I do, however, very specifically recall not having the Teddy Ruxpin that my cousin had [grumbling]). But I swear if a toy doesn't take batteries these days, I have been unable to locate it. 

Anyway, these fancy-shmancy toys are, as one might expect, geared not just toward play but also toward learning. And, of course, one of the first things a toy's going to try to teach a kid is the ABC's. 

Which led Brad to announce the other day, in a somewhat skeptical voice, "They're always pushing the alphabet." 

And this is a bad thing . . . ? 

I'm fairly sure that the Toy Powers that Be aren't out to take over our children's minds with the alphabet of all things, but I promise to keep on the lookout while baby plays with things such as the Fisher Price Laugh and Learn ToolBench (retails on Amazon for $52; I paid $2) 

or the VTech Smartville Alphabet Train Station (no longer available, but I think retailed for around $70; I paid $5). 

Maybe it's good to be slightly distrustful of all that plastic and those bright primary colors :). 

Besides, the "o" animal is missing from the VTech toy . . . so our kid's gonna be learning a slightly truncated version of the alphabet - that'll show those toy companies and their plans for world domination!

Take that (!), Craigslist

Well, I finally did it: I found my chest of drawers for the nursery! And with no help from Craigslist whatsoever. 

As a matter of fact, I am officially sick of CL b.s. and glad to no longer be relying on it for my secondhand furnishing needs at this moment. (Though I must say I snagged a beautiful second-hand convertible stationary crib - Storkcraft in a sort of honey oak color - for my mom's house this weekend in a snap - and it came with a Sealy mattress, all for $75.) 

After a month and a half of searching for a chest multiple times a day, with approx. 18 e-mails sent and 3 phones calls made, I got a grand total of 5 e-mail responses and 1 return call. One of those e-mails was to say "sold"; another to say "selling as a whole set"; another to repeat what was written on the ad and not answer my questions; another to which I responded with a when-can-I-come-see-it and then never heard back; and another to say he wouldn't send me pictures. 

Wow, great. Thanks so much, everyone. 

So basically, I'm ticked at the Craigslist culture that says it's okay to treat potential buyers like idiots if you feel like it. 

But there's happy news . . . the chest! Found it at the ReStore last Friday (my 6th trip there in a month and a half), tried all the drawers (they work), imagined it with white paint and knobs (looks great in my mind!), paid my $55, and was on my merry way. 

Honestly, I thought the price was a little steep, about $15 too much, but for that measly amount I couldn't pass it up or think twice about it given all the looking I have done and all the hours I have spent on said looking. The principle didn't matter one iota in comparison with the joy I knew I would feel once Brad hauled this baby upstairs. And oh yes, I did feel (and am still feeling) joy. 

This chest meets all the necessary size requirements, required no driving to distant lands (okay, distant towns) to see/pick it up/possibly pass on it, and I was already in the Blazer, allowing for immediate transport. 

Basically it's about chest height and narrow-ish - which is just what we need for the space under the slanting of the ceiling - the style is simple and therefore versatile, and it will clean up nicely with a few coats of paint. SOLD! 

Finding this gal made for a much less stressed-out weekend last week, though this weekend I'm stressing about the need to get it and the dresser painted . . . but first we've got finish the whole board and batten thing. And right quick, too, since the 3rd trimester started Monday! Yikes - where has the time gone?! 

$8.50, 10 minutes, and a Salvation Army near you (well, me)

You know that expensive Salvation Army (haha) I complained about in the past? Well, they didn't come through for me on the chest of drawers (but that's okay since the ReStore did - more on that soon), but they do have some pretty stinkin' cute baby clothes for some pretty stinkin' good prices. And today I picked some up.

$8.50 got me these 7 onesies - originally from Target (Circo brand), Gymboree, Gerber, and Carter's - and a Steelers bib. I'm pretty sure that bib will be completely useless as a bib, but it's so darn cute and was only $1.99 and, the main reason I got it, it will put a smile on Brad's face. 

Second from the left, front row says, "If mom says no,
ask grandma" - how cute is that?! 

Those are little brown buttons on 
the wheels and propeller! 

Considering a 3-pack of Circo onesies from Target goes for $8.99, I'd say I did pretty well. This sweet little airplane one alone would cost $14.95 if I bought it new at Gymboree. $14.95! For a onesie that a baby will fit in for maybe three months! Ha! I much prefer the $.99 I spent. Hopefully the baby will appreciate my frugality, haha. 

Oh, and while we're talking today's deals from the Salvation Army, how about this gorgeous goldy yellow cashmere throw I got for just $8! I know a nursery, master bedroom, and living room that would love to have that draped over the back of a chair. Let's hope they don't fight it out. 

And instead of paying $8 more to have it dry-cleaned and doused in toxic chemicals, I'm going to get some baby shampoo (which we'll be needing soon enough anyway!) and follow Luci's directions for how to wash cashmere in the washing machine. Done and done!

Scoping Today's Sales: Home Decor Sites

Urban Outfitters 

--If you're on the hunt for curtains (or maybe a new duvet cover), head on over to Urban Outfitters and check out their sale in the "Apartment" department. In addition to like 15 different curtains, there's a ton of cool stuff on sale - like an adorable whale toothbrush holder that would be perfect for a kid's bathroom (for $1.99!) - so it's worth spending 10 minutes if you're looking for home-y stuff with a bit of a contemporary kick. And, there's free shipping on orders over $50 - a major plus. 

Anthropologie 

--While Anthro always has a ton of really lovely and cool stuff, everyone knows their prices are atrocious. Sometimes silly, actually. Their home sale can sometimes - sometimes - turn up pretty decent deals, and I've really liked some of their sale hardware in the past (doorknobs, cabinet knobs, etc.) 

Currently, though, the sale stuff stinks, and it's a little hard for me to take this "sale" section seriously when, flanked by two little knobs on sale for $2.95 each is this (ugly, in my opinion) mirror 

Venus Mirror from Anthropologie 

for $1999.95. ON. SALE. What?! The original price tag is $2898, so I guess they think they're doing us a favor. 

My verdict:  if you've got an Anthropologie nearby, shop their in-store sale which is, like many in-store sales, much better than what you'll find online, though of course you won't find the big ticket items in the store. And if you don't have one, save yourself the irritation and skip this site's sale (at least at the moment). 

Pottery Barn 

Tons of Christmas stuff in the Clearance section - a lot of it is still very pricey, but the ornaments and stockings are pretty reasonable. 

They're also having a limited-time 20% off sale on baskets. While the sale prices are nothing to write home about, Pottery Barn does have some lovely baskets (and, as Brad says, I loooooove containers - baskets are no exception), so if you've been eyeing up any in particular, now's a good time to pounce. I especially love this Jacquelyne Recycling Bin Basket (on sale for a not-at-all-cheap $71), though I would certainly use it for something other than recycling! 

PB Jacquelyne Recycling Bin Basket 

The whole Jacquelyne line looks great, and the Beachcomber baskets are also really cool - their name makes me think of summer! I won't be snagging any of these because they cost as much as I'm willing to pay for certain pieces of furniture, but that doesn't mean I can't look for look-alikes in brick-and-mortars around here!

Treasure Chest

You know how you always find stuff when you don't need it/have nowhere to put it - but as soon as you're looking for something, it's nowhere to be found?! 

Yeah, well, that's currently the story of my secondhand-chest-of-drawers-for-the-nursery hunt. 

I've looked on Craigslist. Been to the ReStore. Hit a local thrift shop. Craigslist again, back to the ReStore, back to the thrift shop, stopped at Goodwill, Craigslist, Craigslist, Craigslist. Nothing!

Or, not nothing, but nothing that's got the right look, the right quality, for the right price. Which, admittedly, isn't a very high price. But, it's also not a particularly specific look or super-duper high quality I'm searching for. 

Ultimately, I'm looking to spend $60 or less on a tall (but not too tall) chest of drawers. This seems pretty reasonable to me, given that I'm perfectly fine with (in fact, I'm expecting) an older piece and not dreaming of anything with a super great finish/paint. I plan on painting it myself - unless by some strange twist of fate it's exactly what I want, which is highly unlikely at sixty dollars. 

I'm searching for something along these lines, though obviously not brand-new looking. And I'm certainly open to a wide variety of variations on this theme. 

The weekend approacheth and, with it, I can only guess another round of hitting the secondhand shops and scouring Craigslist. Maybe the furniture fates will look kindly on me this time around - if I pretend I'm not hunting a specific type of piece . . . . 

Lamp Fetish

It's true: I've got an undeniable thing for lamps. Big lamps, small lamps, lamps with shades, lamps without shades, metal lamps, glass lamps, ceramic lamps. You name it, I either have it or want to have it - and am secretly plotting to get it next time I step foot in a Target or Goodwill. 

This past weekend at a local thrift shop, I indulged my lamp obsession with this little guy who came to $3.59 after a 50% discount on pink tags: 

The shade was horrid, which is mostly to be expected from a secondhand lamp, so I ripped off the fabric and now it's just this little cheap-o plastic dingy thing that I may nor may not be able to do something with. But I figured the shade was a throw-away when I put the lamp in my cart, so it's no biggie if I can't make it work. 

I'll give him a coat of spray paint (since I don't need a black lamp anywhere) and he'll be good as new. I'm thinking something bright or bold and definitely glossy. This little luminary might end up in the nursery, though I've got other nursery lamp ideas bouncing around in my brain, so we'll see. 

Hopefully he doesn't become yet another one of my I-don't-need-one-more-and-have-nowhere-to-put-it-but-I-just-can't-pass-this-up lamps that I've brought home over the past year or so. I've got like 5 or 6 of those floating around this house - well, they're mostly on the table in the upstairs hall, taunting me as they collect dust in their disuse.

The Ikea Experience

On Sunday Brad and I experienced Ikea together for the first time ever. And I do not use the term experience lightly; the venture was definitely an experience, as "shopping at Ikea" can't quite convey the goings-on. 

Each of us remembers having been there once before, but not together. Brad vaguely recalls a visit during the early part of college, something like 12 years ago (yee-ikes!). My trip was also more than a decade ago, when my soon-to-be freshman roommate came down from Erie for a visit and a bit of shopping so we could coordinate was was to be our (very unhappy) dorm room. 

Anyway, I can safely say Brad and I had no idea what we were getting ourselves into when we set out for the Ikea in Robinson, which is about 15 minutes west of the city and a 50-minute drive from our house; we had no idea what we were doing while we were wandering, lost-feeling but nonetheless pleased, around the store; and we still had pretty much no idea what had happened after we got to the car with our un-bagged purchases. (They don't give you bags - ?!) 

But, it was still a great success, as we managed to buy what we set out to buy (and quite a few other goodies to boot, without totally breaking the bank) and you better believe we will be returning. 

The inspiration for this shopping trip was the Ikea Erslev rug, a white, almost 5x7, steal of a rug at $39.99. You simply can't beat that price, especially if you're looking for a rug to paint. Yes, I said paint. 

It's simple with a soft texture and only $40 - excellent! 

Recently, as I've been mulling over rug options for our nursery decorating project, I've looked at a lot of painted rugs around the blogsphere - and about 80% of these tutorials make use of the Ikea Erslev rug. Painting a rug - a low-priced one, of course - is an economical way to customize the look you want for a price you can live with (and mixing fabric medium with your paint keeps the rug nice and soft). I love me a pretty rug right straight from the Pottery Barn catalog as much as anyone else does, but I have a very hard time with the thought of parting with two hundred and fifty or three hundred dollars to get said rug into my home. (I did find a Dash and Albert rug for $104 that I liked well enough, but it wasn't perfect.) 

When I checked the Ikea website a few weeks ago, I found either that rug or something comparable (I can't remember now), but when I looked on Friday, it was gone. Nowhere to be found. Nada. Dis-a-ppeared. The best I could get from the Ikea site was an error message. I was not pleased, to say the (very) least. 

A call to Ikea, however, revealed that the rug was still available in the Pittsburgh store (but for how long?!), and so Brad and I planned a Sunday trip to snag it. Actually to snag two (b/c you never know where/when you might need a nice, cheap, versatile rug!). 

Anyway, I guess I expected Ikea to be like a normal store where you walk in, see the labeled areas of the store, go to the area you're interested in, and browse products lined up on shelves or hanging on racks. Maybe this was a dumb expectation? Regardless, it was not the case.

Instead, Brad and I found ourselves in a maze of rooms, wondering if we had gotten lost in the course of our wandering, writing down product names and locations (e.g., Rugs and Textiles) with a little mini golf pencil provided near the entrance, snapping smartphone pictures of things we liked but that I felt I could do a better (read: cheaper) job making. 

Then we took some stairs (I think) down to what (I think) was called the "Market." Here we traded in our (empty) over-sized, yellow shopping bag for a much more practical shopping cart. And then the real shopping began. We got some apple-scented candles. We picked up a few BPA-free plastic 365+ food storage containers to aid in our kitchen cabinet organization project (which has been going for, er, um, oh, like 6 months now). We got some $.59 drinking glasses and a beer mug. 

And of course, we gleefully grabbed our rugs. I also wanted a handful of Ribba frames for the little guy's room and into the cart went those as well. 

These white 9x9 shadow box frames come with white matting, and you really can't do better than their $9.99 price tag. I was tempted to cheap out (after all, $60 for frames isn't exactly my style), but for matching frames of just the right size that require NO SANDING, PAINTING, OR OTHER EFFORT ON MY PART, I was willing to part with the moola. Plus, as my mother pointed out, they can be used over and over again. So, they're well worth the investment in my mind. 

And so with 19 items we (illegally) went through the self-checkout (limit: 15 items) to avoid the heinous lines (this place was packed), then loaded our goods straight from our cart - remember, no bags - into the Honda. It was a whirlwind experience, with people everywhere, and several moments where I was sure we were never getting out of that store. I'm sure I missed like 15 cool things; I definitely wrote down the names of some items that mean basically nothing to me at this point. 

I'd give the Ikea experience a 4.5 out of 5 stars. Less than perfect b/c you (seriously) had to read directions (and pay attention to them, which I didn't do) to figure out how to properly shop there - but a pretty darn good score regardless.

Baby Furniture!

I should be working on the most pointless end-of-semester project ever (sigh), but instead I'm geeking out over awesome baby furniture online and getting ideas for the nursery - as if I don't already have a million. 

Of course I'm not planning on buying any of this lovely over-priced stuff. No no no, that's not thrifty old me. I'll be looking for second-hand and imitation styles to save mucho moola. In fact, I've already found some - and it's proof that you can find great stuff at great prices if you put in a little (sometimes a lot of) effort and have patience. 

Case in point: after searching online like 7 different times over the past few months, last week I found this amazing rocker on Craigslist, and the next day Brad went to the city to see it (I was too sick), liked it, and snagged it for less than $70. Sciz-ore! 

Isn't it fabulous? It's in great condition, so comfy, and rocks super smoothly. Plus, it's a light khaki color - i.e., totally neutral and goes with anything. 

While the typical nursery-style rocker/gliders are nice (and Amanda's is quite comfortable), they're not really my style.

Dorel rocker from Target 

I wanted something that looks like - for lack of a better word - real furniture. As in, furniture I might have elsewhere in my house. And hopefully, once the baby gets older, I will have this elsewhere in my house! 

Anyway, the inspiration for our rocker was the Pottery Barn Dream Rocker, which PB stopped making recently and ran upwards of $800 (yiiiiiiikes!) but was supposed to be super comfortable. It also reminds me of a current rocker at PB, the Charleston rocker, which starts at $599 and goes up to $899 depending on the fabric. The Charleston has an $80 delivery surcharge - that's more than the price of our rocker! 

PB's Charleston rocker 

The room we'll be turning into the baby's room, which is across the hall from our bedroom and currently the second bedroom, is 10x12. So, it's a fairly good size, though obviously not huge. I was a tad worried that an upholstered rocker might be too big, but it fits beautifully and I'm sooooooo happy with our purchase! Hopefully the little one will love it as much as we do!

Pottery Barn Vanessa Bedding

So I'm super siked: I just ordered the PB queen duvet cover and matching shams in the blue Vanessa print on eBay for $49.99 + shipping! What a steal! 

On the PB website, the duvet cover (in full/queen) alone is $129 and the shams are $39 a piece. That's $207 - meaning I saved $157! And me, the super second-hand shopper, totally doesn't mind that this set is pre-owned - I'm not sleeping on it! 

This set it beautiful, and I've had my eye on it for like a year and a half. But I just couldn't bear spending the money, and I've never found a good enough deal on eBay (until today). Just yesterday I gave in and re-bought the Simply Shabby Chic set at Target that I've really liked since this summer ("re-bought" b/c months ago we bought it, I decided I didn't want to spend the money on it, and we returned it). 

But, it has pink (which Brad and I both oppose), it was $90, and I love the Vanessa print so so much more. Plus the Vanessa set was almost $30 less. Basically, I'm really pleased with myself right now (haha). 

Here's to happy bedroom decorating! 

The Friday 4: Amazing Stores

As an ode (lament?) to my shopping ban, I'm doing a Friday 4 on my favorites places to shop. Do note that only one of these is exclusively a clothing store (although even it sells shoes and bags, which are decidedly not part of the ban); I basically just love to shop in general. 

Anyway, the following are my fav-or-ites: 

4.  Pottery Barn 

I've only ever bought about 10 things from PB - 2 area rugs, some candles, a box/basket thingy - b/c they're horribly over-priced (and the furniture quality is not nearly what it should be for what you pay), but I can't tell you how much I LOVE looking through their catalogs (which I swear come in the mail every 2 weeks). Their room displays are totally inspiring, and I love trying to recreate aspects of their look for less. (Don't get me wrong, I would love to not include the "for less" part there, but c'est la vie.) 

Besides, one of my favorite parts of their catalog (and their website pics) is the incorporation of non-PB items - antiques, random wire baskets, old chairs, etc. - and this is the kind of stuff I love hunting for at thrift stores, on Ebay, and, yes, in people's cast-offs (i.e., their garbage. See picture below.) 

3.  Gap 

While Gap makes an endless number of ugly things that I simply can't understand, they are my go-to store and have been for years. I worked at the Gap my senior year of high school and was super-spoiled by the discount - who knows how much of my earnings I gave right back to that darn store . . . . 

Gap makes great jeans (got two pairs - black skinnies and white boot cut capris - for my birthday), lots of nice sweaters and cute skirts, and their in-store sale rack can't be beat as far as mall clothing stores go. It's gonna be tough to resist that sale rack for the next 345 days. 

$8 for this stellar lamp. Fully working, no 
scratches; would've been $25+ at Target  

2.  Red, White, and Blue Thrift Store 

This is the second-best thrift store I've ever shopped in - second only to its identically named sister store that was, one upon a time, a huge, glorious, obnoxiously lit place just up the street from Kennywood. (Which is an amusement park, for those of you who don't know. And for Shannon - Kennywood is awesome, so lock it up, b.) 

This RWB (which is located just outside of Pittsburgh, through the Liberty Tubes, on Rt. 51) is crowded with stuff and shoppers and workers and, 9 times out of 10, verging on the chaotic, but I've only ever walked away empty-handed once. From dishes, to furniture, to picture frames, to clothes, to shoes, to books, this place kicks booty - and you can come away with a lot of fab-o booty. (I had to, okay?) 

1.  Target

Matching vases, on sale for a total of $20 

Come on: who among you doesn't own a home good or piece
of clothing from Tarjay? Who among you doesn't love wandering around that store, perusing the many items? Even Brad loves going to Target - though he did attempt to ban it for the summer since we can't leave the store without spending $100+ (I guess we're big on bans this season). Said effort failed in no time, however, given that we just bought three throw pillows, an over-priced but lovely hand towel, party supplies, cat litter, and a bunch of food stuffs a week ago. 

We got 2 of these puppies about a month
ago - $12.99 a piece, orig. $49.99 each 

Target combines a variety of styles, a wide selection of products, and reasonable prices better than probably any store I remember shopping at. And there's new stuff practically every week, so you really can go back again and again and again and . . . . (It's like the TJ Maxx slogan from all those commercials in the early 2000s. You know, "Never, ever the same place twice." TJ Maxx is great, by the way. My mom, Brad, and I just enjoyed a little trip there on Monday. Not to be lame, but it really is considerably different every time you go.) 

Honorable Mention: Gabriel Brothers. A discount clothing, shoes, and housewares store my family has shopped at for longer than I've been around. Watch out for holes, snags, or seams that are a bit off. "Irregular" is not an uncommon word there. But man, can you find some cool stuff at great prices. They even have a website now (you know, in 2011), even though, from the looks of it, it's pretty useless. 

Powder. Room. Reveal. Finally!

I've been majorly MIA in the world 'o blogging as of late, but not without good reason - we recently undertook the Epic Clean of 2011 in preparation for what Brad calls the Great Validation '11. Which, in more colloquial terms, is known as my mom's birthday party at our house this past Sunday for which my sisters and their families came over and our house was on display and under scrutiny (at least in my mind). 

BUT ANYWAY, all of this is important with regard to this post b/c of the fact that it motivated Brad and me to finally finish the powder room remodel that we started, oh, like 3 months ago. Ah! 

In the long, long process, we were stymied (as my mother and my German teacher would say) by about every possible sink/plumbing problem that total amateurs might encounter. Otherwise, this whole thing would have been done in about a month. Brad estimates that we made, between the two of us, 7 total trips to Lowe's solely in relation to the sink. But it's too exhausting to even think of chronicling all those trials right now, esp. when there are pictures to show . . . 

So, quickly, here's what we started with (when we moved in in August '09): 

Then, here's where we were after we started removing the wallpaper (which turned out to be much more difficult and time-consuming - even in this 2x4 of a room - than we imagined) in July or August 2010 (it looked like this for the next 8 months): 

Finally, sometime this February, we got back to work. And where once there was this terrible yellow wall-mount sink 

now there was this disgusting-looking wall 

Here's my beloved with the reciprocating saw on one of the many, many days of sink tribulations: 

Once everything old had been removed/scraped/sawed/sanded/or-otherwise-dismantled, we began the "reconstruction process." Which went a little something like this:  

1.  Brad and I painted the top part of the walls with 2 coats of the same color as the living room. (It's an awesome Martha Stewart color in Behr paint, but I can't find it at Lowe's anymore and don't remember the name.) 

2.  Next my mom helped us apply paintable beadboard wallpaper on the bottom part of the walls (read: she applied it. Although to my credit, I did all the cutting with the utility knife). 

3.  Then the three of us had the most difficult time ever figuring out how to cut the chair rail accurately without a mitre saw and mitre box - or even a compass. After much folly, and some wasted chair rail, we figured it out, and affixed it to the wall with finishing nails. I filled in the nail holes with paintable silicon for a smooth look. 

4.  After the beadboard had been up for 24+ hours (I guess that's drying time - ?), we painted the beadboard, chair rail, interior door frame, and baseboards (which we didn't replace) with Behr paint in Blizzard Fog. It's a soothing white with (I think) gray undertones, and it matches the sink and toilet pretty perfectly.

5.  Next came the faucet and sink drama installation. Through eBay we'd gotten a brand-new Price Pfister faucet, towel ring (perfect for the small space), and tp holder - all for $65! The pedestal sink (which I'm in love with) was under $50 at Lowe's - the smallest and, conveniently, cheapest one they had. 

Getting the faucet properly installed was more than a bit of a challenge. I can't tell you how many different times I had silicon on me (yes, Diplo, Brad was quite wary), but we managed to make it happen eventually. Attaching the sink basin to the wall was likewise a sh*t show and not easy on our backs. I installed the new tp and towel holders with ease though. 

6.  Bullcrap, etc., annoyance, dysfunction, etc.: that about sums up getting the sink in working order. But it's done now, so let's (please) not dwell. Although I should note that there exists unanimous agreement in our house: our plumbing adventures have come to completion. Even the cats concur.

7.  Brad painted the nasty, greasy-looking ceiling the same color as the beadboard and totally brightened up the room. 

Okay, now that you've indulged me, here is is (!) . . . 

Doesn't the floor look so much less unstylish now? 



Like those blurry babies? I made 'em using two of my thrift store frames and pressed flowers! (More on that in another post.) Regarding the blur:  it was hard to get a clear pic. from that position in the bathroom. 

And another . . . 

So - what do you think of our thirfty powder room remodel?! We LOVE it, and every time I'm in there, I'm amazed that Brad and I accompished everything on our own (with, of course, a bit of physical labor courtesy of my mom, some plumbing advice from Amanda's plumber bro, and lots of discussions with Lowe's employees). Soon enough I'll estimate the costs - you'll be impressed, I swear - but right now I'm still recovering from all the cleaning of last week and this weekend . . . yawn. 

The Friday 4: Best-ever Craigslist Finds

When you're livin' on a budget, chances are you're shoppin' on a budget. Even for the big stuff. 

That's where my good buddy Craigslist comes in. Brad and I have scored a lot of awesome deals through the site; in fact, probably half of the furniture in my house has come from there (I'm being serious). 

I can say from personal experience that Craigslist-ing can become quite addictive. And I've been known to go great lengths (see #2 below) to secure the perfect find. In addition to the amazing deals below, we've also snagged a 1-year old, perfect condition Broyhill micro-suede chair ($115); a matching Pottery Barn coffee table and two end tables ($125; they're in the pictures for #1 below); and a custom-made wooden console table (free!) that's an awesome addition to my office. But these next four are the truest beauties . . . 

(Disclaimer: all of these rooms need work and, in time, will get their share of TLC. Don't judge me!) 

4.  Ethan Allen leather couch 
     We paid: $300; seller paid: $3000 (it would've been more, but it was discontinued!) 

Focus on the luscious leather (ignore surrounding mess) 

This couch - if I do say so myself - is simply gorgeous. An uncommon color, sturdy, possibly the most comfortable couch I've ever sat on. I wish it had mates in the form of a loveseat and chair - not that we could have afforded the set if it did and not that we have any place to put them - but it's an ideal fit for our wee little family room. Oh wait, I think you're supposed to use the word "cozy" for things like that. 

3.  Broyhill Attic Heirlooms Windsor side chairs 
     We paid: $160 for five chairs; MSRP: $159 per chair (ahhh!) 

Look at those four happy chairs snuggled 
around an ugly table! 

I love high back chairs. We get compliments on these babies left and right. (I seriously think Amanda has said something about them every time she's seen them.) We only need 4 for the table, so the other's in the bedroom (where it matches pretty darn nicely) as a decorative accent. You really can't beat what we paid, and while they've got some dings and scratches, said flaws are barely noticeable and don't bother me one bit. 

The cheese chair stands alone 
(just for this picture) 

2.  Broyhill Attic Heirlooms hutch 
     We paid: $225 + the cost of gas (approx. $100); seller paid: $2000+ 

Our living room is giant (11' x 22') and any old media piece just wouldn't do: we needed something equally giant. Enter Broyhill's lovely Attic Heirlooms hutch, which is really a bedroom/dining room piece. (I have a thing for the Attic Heirlooms collection, if you hadn't noticed). 

Originally a black finish;
seller painted a creamy white 

Before Brad put the kibosh on this activity, I used to look at the Craigslist websites for the, um, surrounding areas. That is, if you consider 5 hours away, just across the New Jersey border to be a "surrounding" area of Pittsburgh. (Hey! I love a good deal! Cut me a break!) 

And what a deal this baby was. To transport it, we borrowed Brad's dad's super new Chevy Silverado (less than a year old - boy, was that nerve-wracking), drove all morning through the pouring rain, got lost about half a mile from the seller's house, then drove back through the rain with a giant 400 lb. piece of furniture not adequately covered in the truck bed. On top of all this, I was sick as a dog with a stomach bug, so I really shouldn't have been spending 10 hours in the car. 

Oh, but it was soooo worth it! Isn't it just gorgeous?! 

1.  Ethan Allen matching couch, loveseat, chair, and ottoman 
     We paid: $800 + U-Haul and gas (approx. $110); seller paid: probably b/t $3500 and $4200   

Doesn't the paint make the double windows just pop?!

For the first 5 years of marriage, Brad and I sat on a futon to watch tv. Yes, a futon. And for about 4.5 years, that's all the living room furniture we had besides a coffee table. We were living in an apartment then and had no money to waste, so it seemed silly to buy furniture that would eventually be too small for the living room of a house yet still be too pricey for our wallets. So we suffered with the futon (and I did a lot of complaining). 

Under Construction: everything to the right of the bookcase 

Just before moving out of our apartment - literally, days - we bought the leather couch (#1 above), but that thing weighs about as much as a small elephant, so we couldn't get it upstairs and never sat on it until we moved into our lovely house. But, as you can imagine, a couch is not quite enough furniture for a room with 222 sq. feet - even a giant couch like that one. 

So I looked at Levin's, dreamed about Pottery Barn, etc. etc. Eveything in our price range was too ugly. Everything lovely was out of our price range. Then, in October, about 2 months after we moved in, I found a whopper of a deal on Craigslist: enough upholstery to fill the room at a price lower than the cost of even a crappy couch. They're super high quality, and they were in unbelievable condition. These pieces suffered more wear and tear from me and Brad in 2 months than they did from their previous owners in the course of years.

$23 + 20 minutes of shopping =

8 second-hand picture frames that will be painted and variously distressed to look super rockin'. 

What a score! (Only six of the eight are pictured.)

I'd call this a thrift store success. We went in specifically looking for cheap-but-cool frames to make-over. Not a half hour later, we left with an armload of said c-b-c frames and still had enough money to buy groceries. (That's actually just a rhetorical flourish; the groceries were already in a trunk.) 

If you've recently done any shopping for picture frames, you know how dang pricey they can be. I usually look at Target, JoAnn Fabrics, and Pottery Barn (though I never buy any from the latter), and depending on the size of the frame and the store, you're talking $10-$80. 

I recently saw ones very similar to the small oval ones at JoAnn's on sale for $10, down from $20, during their Daffodil Days sale. That was $10 a piece; we paid $2.12 for the pair. (And, I just have to say it: they had a pink tag and pink tags were 1/2 off, so they should have only been $1.06 total. But the girl didn't ring it up right, and Brad insisted I not "make a scene." Would it not have been reasonable simply to inquire about the sale price . . . ?) 

I've already got plans for the little oval ones and the bigger green one in the middle. In addition to the painting/distressing, most of the pictures will be removed and replaced. Unfortunately, I cannot say that no animals will be harmed in the process - that rooster's gettin' the ax.

Decorating the Weird Spaces

If yesterday was Thrift Shopping Saturday (I just made that name up), then I guess the day before was JoAnn Fabrics Friday. (How very alliterative of me, I know, I know.) While the former hurt the wallet less, the latter proved more successful. Regardless, both helped us get a little closer to "completing" what I'll call the "weird spaces" of our house. 

First, the dining room cabinets/counter. Our little dining room has some really cool cabinets - top and bottom, with a counter in b/t - but the space from the counter to the top set is about 20-24 inches and really hard to decorate. I think, however, that I'm getting there. This pretty lady from JoAnn’s set me back about $11 (on sale from $19.99 to $13.99 plus a 20% off coupon), but she's worth every penny: 



We found a sister (well, this might be a brother - ?) for the vase (is it a vase?) at the thrift store. She/he cost $10, which is a ton for the thrift store (everything was half-off except white tags; guess what color everything I wanted was), but I saw jugs that looked exactly the same at the antique store last weekend, and they cost $18-$35+. 

Now look at the fun way one side of the counter is shaping up (please ignore the color-less walls – everything in its time, everything in its time): 



The makings of a dining room counter 

Next, the living room window/windowseat. This puppy is smack up against a not-actually-built-in-built-in. So close, in fact, that we had to place the curtain rod holders in such a way that we couldn't actually make curtains work with the rod if we tried. (It is, as you'll see, gone.) As for the windowseat - which P.J. the girl kitty loves - it still wears the cover the former owners made/had made for it. That's all well and good, except it doesn't match our furniture. At all. (And it's gross.)  

The sweet beasts pretending to be friends . . . 
(P.J. on the left; her brother Fuzzy on the right) 

I've searched and searched for drapes for this window (the back living room windows are curtain-less by our design), planning to buy an extra one to turn into a cover for the windowseat. The problem, however, is that not a whole lot coordinates with our plaid chair/ottoman and the green couch and loveseat and the goldy-toned walls. Let's just say it ain't been easy. And then . . . 

I found this amazing Ralph Lauren fabric at JoAnn's: 

Eleanor Floral - Khaki, Lauren Ralph Lauren 

I think it's love!  

Or at least adoration. The fabric's pricey - $34.99 in store, $39.99 online – but, like most fabrics at JoAnn’s, it’s 50% off this weekend for President’s Day; add that to another 20% off coupon, and we’re talking $14 a yard for some lovely, high-quality upholstery fabric! Now that's a good deal and a price I can live with. 

Next task: convincing my mom that she can sew drapes (b/c I sure can’t).