Thrift Scores

If anybody knows me, they know I like to do some thrift shopping. Garage sales, estate sales, tag sales, yard sales, secondhand stores, thrift stores, Craigslist, Goodwill, Salvation Army—I love them all. I inherited this passion from my mom, who has been known to score a garage deal in her time, but I think I might have hit my peak a couple weeks ago.

My parents were visiting Justin and I one weekend and my dad left my mom and I to do a little "vintage" shopping of his own, at the car show in Joliet. Justin used to be a fan of sale-ing with me Saturday mornings when we were in college, but now he prefers to let me have my fun all by myself. So, when my dad said we were off the hook of going to the car show with him  and Justin begged off mumbling something about mowing the lawn, fixing the car, and other things on his honey-do list, we grabbed our cash and coins to go junking, however, my wallet was dry. I never carry cash on me, so Justin generously emptied his wallet into my greedy-little hands, a whopping $6.10, and told me not to spend it all in one place. I wish I could say that I listened to him...

Not more than 2 minutes in the car (or even out of my subdivision) did we spot a promising sale (2 blocks from my house). It was labeled an estate sale, but it was more like a garage sale. The estate sales that I have been to in the past allowed buyers to walk through the house and everything was for sale. This sale had a couple tables of stuff and some furniture. In fact, what caught my eye to stop were a pair of low-slung arm-chair frames. When we walked up I thought to myself—SCORE!—but had to play it cool so I gave the whole place a once over, and in the process found some vintage fabric that would make Jonathan Adler proud. Then I asked how much the chairs were.

(Cue the drumroll....)

The woman was so sweet when she responded, "Oh, well, five dollars...but they are a set and there's a couch as well."

Hold up, stop right there, halt! Did my ears deceive me? I repeated the price, "$5?" and she said yep, "and there is a couch?", and she said yep, "are you sure?", and she said yep, "Mom! They're only $5 and they come with a couch too!" and the skies opened up, and I heard the heavens singing. If I would have died right then, I would have been the happiest girl ever.

So, enough gloating about my thrift score of a lifetime, you gotta check out the goods!

The show car-stopping chairs:

...and the kicker-nearly-freebie couch

I am going to make box cushions for these, so watch out for my after post of these beauts in a couple weeks the future. Happy Friday!

Fall Fashion '09

I have been hearing everyone welcome in the fall season, but yesterday, it actually felt like fall to me. At lunch I went for a walk down Michigan Avenue and it was crispy-cool enough that I didn't feel hot with my coat on, and the sun was out providing great casts of light shining through the gaps in the building skyline.

Also, I saw wonderful new fashion for the fall season. Here are some of my new favorites.

1: Urban Outfitters - Pins and Needles Open Stitch Beret (on sale $19.99)
2: Fred Flare - Grey Texting Gloves ($22)
3: Old Navy - Belted Trench Coat ($49.50)
4: Kate Spade - Boerum Hill Mikkel ($345)
5: Fred Flare - Bent Feather Ring ($36)
6: Frye Boots - Jane Stitch ($298)

(wink-wink, Christmas is right 'round the corner, wink-wink)

Logo Love

Sure, sure you may THINK you know your corporate logos, but do you REALLY?

I stumbled across AOL's Company Logo Quiz the other day and couldn't stop myself from testing my identity smarts. Thankfully I didn't embarrass myself and am proud to report that I scored 13 out of 15. I bet you can't get a perfect score–careful, there are a few curve balls in there.

Join the Masses

Today I registered to partake in Blog Action Day (BAD09).

To participate in BAD09, I will be writing a post about a global issue on October 15. The aim is to use the power of the web to create an organized general forum about one concern to be discussed globally. It was started in 2007 and in its first year over 20,000 bloggers participated by writing a post about the environment.

BAD09's website says:
"Blog Action Day is an annual event that unites the world's bloggers in posting about the same issue on the same day on their own blogs with the aim of sparking discussion around an issue of global importance. Blog Action Day 2009 will be the largest-ever social change event on the web. One day. One issue. Thousands of voices."



This year, the discussion is about climate change. So, if you haven't yet, you can register your blog by clicking the badge on the right side of my site or by visiting the Blog Action Day website. Stay tuned for my upcoming post on October 15 dedicated to raising awareness and generate discussion about climate change.

DIY Wedding Gift

This past weekend Justin and I had the pleasure of attending my cousin's wedding in a little town west of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. While the weather was cooperative, it was a fabulous affair with an autumn inspired color palette and chock full of family and friends. The men wore dark chocolate brown tuxes with a bronze vest and tie and the bridesmaids wore milk chocolate strapless dresses with custom made jewelry. Rust and burgundy flowers made up the bouquets and boutonnieres and white flowers filled the church.

Leading up to the wedding, my schedule was crazy-busy, so when it dawned on me that it was less than a week away, I became frantic to figure out what to give them. On a whim, a couple years ago, Justin decided he was going to be a vintner and whipped up a couple batches of wine that yielded about four dozen bottles. If he would have known at the time that we would still be drinking it two years later, he probably would have stopped after the first batch, but surprisingly it has aged beautifully and inspired this DIY wedding gift. My cousin and her husband have anything and everything needed for a full home and unlike most newlyweds (who scramble to find a matching spoon, fork, and knife), they are charged with consolidating two homes into one. Armed with the knowledge that they love anything wine related I grabbed a bottle from our cellar (a.k.a. cardboard boxes filled with wine bottles in our basement), an empty basket, a pair of wine glasses, and got to work.

In addition to joining in their celebration, I was recruited for the job of invitation designer. I abused this privilege and swiped the custom logo and leaf motif I created to design labels for the naked wine bottle. I stuck one on the front with their motif prominently displayed for all to see...

one on the back crediting us for the creation of the wine and the year it was made...

and one striped over the top of the cork. This took all of an hour or two and my materials consisted of a page of Avery full-sheet crack-and-peel label paper, printer, x-acto knife, and my design wits.

For those of you who don't have access to a cellar box full of homemade wine, you could easily remove the labels from a store bought bottle and relabel it with your own (crediting the original maker, of course).

After I branded the bottle, I washed the store bought wine glasses and wrapped the wine bottle stopper that I included in the basket as well. When it came to assembling the basket, I realized too late that I didn't have any filler to prop up the items. However, I did have white and silver wrapping paper and a paper shredder. Yup, I shredded the paper to create coordinating filler for the basket.

So, in anticipation that my cousin and her hubby have already opened up their gift and are on a plane to Jamaica at the moment, I hope my quick and easy DIY wedding gift gave you an idea of how to customize the next gift you give.

Congratulations Jacky and Kurt!