Thrifty

I love a good thrift store find- in fact, many of my furniture pieces are from thrift stores! I'm drawn to the originality of the furniture there. Need a king size rattan bed? Check. Giant dresser in shocking purple? Check. There's so much life to these things that a little spray paint, elbow grease and a lot of love will bring out!

Case in point: our entertainment console. Mr. E wheeled that baby off the street. It fit the TV I brought with me from college as well as the gleaming hunk of metal Mr. E drools over. Also known as our new TV. We store our video games here, and display some of the things we've picked up on our travels. It also (semi) works for storage. Ideally I'd like to stain it a little darker, but we've stayed our hand since it might not fit when we move. 

We're also crazy about chairs from the Habitat for Humanity ReStore. I was drooling over a comfy wingback when Mr. E spied this one. Faded blue, good condition- it had my name written all over it. 

Then we found these hospital chairs. They're not terribly attractive to look at with that awful fabric, but these are SO. COMFY. Someday I'll have enough time/money/skills to make slip-covers. Or re-upholster. But until then, they don't smell and that's good enough for me.

So when my lab partner confesses his love of thrifting, count on me to suggest a little lunch-break trip! I haven't gone too crazy, considering we're moving and April was the month for FINISHING my projects, not attaining new ones. 

But I just couldn't put Abraham Lincoln down. Look at this face! Does that say stern disapproval or what?! This is actually a two-material-ed cologne bottle (with cologne still), but every blog I follow has a bust or two somewhere. Apparently busts are in. So I took him home, cleaned him off and spray painted him a monotonous soft gray! Ugh, those cheek bones. Jealous...

Of course, it's hard to stop there. Especially when you have rows and rows of fabric/pants/skirts/shirts just waiting to be re-fashioned! Since my little pants-to-shorts event, I picked up more pants (for myself and Mr. E). My pants worked out perfect- they're black corduroy (as pants? shudder) with a really cute waistband. Couple hours on those bad boys and they're shorts too!

Mr. E's were not so easy. I grabbed two pair (8 bucks each, thankyouthriftstores) and while the first pair fit fairly well (we've relegated them to "set pants") the second pair had...a lot of room. 

A LOT of room...below the fly.

 So that's how gangsters do it... 

Here I am, thinking I've GOT this: while Mr. E was on set, I set to work. I felt pretty proud of myself too! Nice straight seams, sewed the crotch together again, yadda yadda yadda. And then Mr. E tried them on and I realized I cut almost ALL of the crotch out. 

He looked over at me with such a pained expression and said, "Baby, you've made me an Abercrombie model."

Oh, well.

My most recent thrift find? Hidden among the pottery and porcelain was this gem: We'll call him Georges. And I love him. Because, you know, I don't have enough stuff on my walls...and while downsizing to move it's almost always acceptable to upsize with cute ceramic cows, right? Right??