Date Archives → June 14, 2012

Thrifty Thursday, for old time’s sake.

The dog deterrent does not deter cats.

I wasn’t going to blog about this because it seems kind of silly but I went thrift store shopping yesterday and last week as well. The reality is: I’m thinking about my new apartment all the time. My brain is in the clouds decorating away while I mindlessly pack and try to squeeze in a few work projects around the edges. My clients are not getting my best work this week and it’s terrible.

For some reason I got a bee in my bonnet that I really wanted to get a couch for super cheap out here in the sticks where people don’t even know what “mid-century modern” is. I got lucky once with my desk and I keep thinking I’ll get lucky again. Especially now that I have a new space to fix up and a moving truck to fit furniture in.

To tell you the truth I kind of hate it that I’ve jumped on the hipster bandwagon with all the mid-century modern stuff but you like what you like, right? I promise you I will not be putting up any “Keep Calm” posters though. Promise. Hope to die, poke a needle in my bloodshot eye.

$100 too much?

What do you think? It’s pretty isn’t it? I’m not so keen on the princess lines on the bottom but I love the color and the tufted button things and the lowness of it. It’s like I want to have Betty Draper over for martinis. Actually I don’t. I have nothing to say to that girl. The whole show is depressing but I love the style so much!

So I bought the dang chair and I’m in love with it. It was marked $125 but I talked them down to $75 which impresses even me because I hate bartering. I’m the girl who bought one dollar necklaces for $15 when I was in Tijuana the first time. I just hate haggling. It feels insulting or something. But I made an exception because I felt like this chair was going to be that chair and I would always regret not buying it.

The gold chairs are not sure they like each other.

The new gold chair doesn’t really go with my old gold chair but I think if I keep ’em separated they’ll get along. Or introduce them gradually like noirbettie advised. I think it’s going to look smashing against the turquoise wall. Did I tell you about that?

Emerald Coast

My new apartment complex had some kind of gimmick where you can get an accent wall painted for free. I think it’s really silly. I don’t need a painted wall or a free bike or a coffee cup to make me move into a place. How about $100 off the rent every month and double-pained windows? Now that would sell me. But anyway, since they were giving away a free painted wall, I figured I might as well take them up on it.

They wanted me to pick from a palette of mauve, dusty blue, sandy taupe and some other forgettable color but since I don’t think I’m going to live there forever I decided I wanted to paint it something really ridiculous: like the brightest, most intense turquoise I could find at the local big box hardware store.

I see some turquoise paint in my future.

Bug loves it of course. My family thinks I am insane but I think it will be fun. Yes, I probably will eventually hate it. Maybe it will reflect blue all over the rest of my house and ruin all my photos. I guess we’ll find out. But I do think it will look fabulous next to my new gold chair.

and a fondue pot and mumu for Deb

I also bought a fondue pot ($2.35!!) and a crazy fun mumu for my friend Deb. I love thrift stores. Now I just need to get back to work so I can afford my new apartment and all my super fun thrift store finds. Le Sigh.

See ya ’round, Town.

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This morning Bug and I decided to take The Hollster (aka Holly, the dog) on a walk around the block. When we first moved here we used to take her on several walks daily and she loved it. We all did. But then we stopped because I got this paranoid fear that my house was going to be broken into if my alarm system decided to go walking around the neighborhood advertising that she was not guarding all my valuables. In hind sight it was kind of silly to be so paranoid but I haven’t backed up my laptop in a few years (I know, I know!) and pretty much my entire career is tied up with that thing. I’m living on the edge.

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Today for some reason I decided to live even further on the edge. Maybe it was the cowgirl hat that Bug has been wearing since we bought it yesterday at a thrift store and the fake Texas drawl she’s taken to using all day and all night. This morning she sighed dejectedly, elbows on the counter leaning like she just walked the back forty and says, “Weeelll…I had to tayke mah horse to The Haven. Ah miss her so.”

The Haven is a nickname we call the local animal shelter. It’s called Ramona Animal Haven or Shelter or something like that but we locals often call it “The Haven”. Sadly, it comes up a lot in conversation around here. I’m not sure why other than the fact that pets are cheap and they multiply with no effort at all. People around here seem to like to adopt pets that they can’t really handle and then the next thing you know they are having babies. So somebody is always going to the Haven to get a pet or get rid of one. Somebody always has a batch of kittens to get rid of or a puppy with mange or some other even worse story. Bug knows all about animals and all the ways they are taken care of or not taken care of. Let’s just say it’s been educational.

I’m rambling. What I was getting at is that Bug knows very little about real horses or ranches or farms but she knows a lot about animal shelters and her imaginary horse had to get put down at The Haven, which apparently was very sad. So we decided to go for a walk and look for a new one.

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And we wrangled Holly to go along with us.

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This looked like a place a horse would live but no, just old dead cars.

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None here either. Probably because the grass was fake. Everyone knows horses don’t eat green painted rocks.

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Not even any here.

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Or here, though she did see some tracks.

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All the horses were in other pastures.

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So we walked back home. But it was nice long walk. We enjoyed it and I took about a thousand instagram photos, (because I didn’t have the forethought to bring a real camera with me) which I’m sure cost me a few followers but also turned into a little farewell collection. I might have to frame them all and put them up in my new place.