Weekend Treasure Hunting

Monday mornings always come too fast.  Today, Monday decided to start off the week taunting me.  I left the house this morning with everything for my lunch but the bread for my sandwich.. ugh.  Of course I realized on the walk to the train when it was too late to turn around. Only a few minutes later, I realized that my ipod was still sitting in its dock in the dining room.  Poo.  Silent train ride.  Now I'm tethered to the computer by my headphones.  I'll get over it somehow.

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This weekend was a fun one for my tag-sale habit.  $28 spent.  I actually started on Friday after work strangely enough.

I'm a little crazy and plan out what tag-sales I want to visit the night before.  I scour through Craigslist ads and write down addresses, times, and what interested me about that sale (i.e. "lots of furniture," "estate sale," or the specific item I'm interested in).

You can imagine my excitement when I saw an ad titled "Interior Decorator with Vintage store is moving" advertising a fire pit among many other things.  I promptly e-mail asking details of the fire pit, because as mentioned last week, I want a chimenea/fire pit.  Once I got the e-mail reply, her name sounded SO familiar.  Naturally, I googled her and realized she was featured just a few weeks ago on Design*Sponge!  OMG.  I took her up on her offer of stopping by Friday night to check out the fire pit before the tag sale vultures stole it out from under me.  I ended up purchasing the fire pit and a book about textiles for $25 total, but I had such a great time chatting with her!  I picked her brain about her favorite vintage sources (since she has a vintage store on Etsy: Trampoline), and I can't wait to check them out!  Such a great start to the weekend!

Saturday's tag sale fun was a bit more drawn out, but I still got a deal that made the trip worth it.  I get a little frustrated at ads that claim "HUGE tag sale" then have one table of crap.  I have also decided that people need to be beaten for claiming their sale is an Estate sale when it clearly isn't.

Enough bitter ranting.  One of my stops was an ACTUAL estate sale that made me giddy.  I only spent $3 but it was so cool to look at!  The home's former occupant was clearly into fixing lamps.  There were probably hundreds all around the house, garage and shed, all in various forms of repair and disrepair.  Color me fascinated!  Thinking back, I should have taken some pics to share, but I was so wrapped up in treasure hunting, it didn't even occur to me at the time.

I found my treasures in a back room attached to the garage that was obviously where the magic happened: the workroom.  Sitting innocently on the window sill was a dusty blue glass Bell mason jar, which a friend is hoping to use to decorate her wedding in April, so that got snatched up.  On the adjacent wall was the workbench piled up with dust, wire, parts, and misc junk.  The top shelf beckoned to me- looking over all the junk was a very old paper sorter with wire baskets.  I'm sure everyone else in the room thought I was nuts (so does Hubby), but it spoke to me and needed to be taken home.  It is missing 1 support wire, but that will quickly be remedied.

When I asked about pricing for the 2 items and was told $3 I was beyond excited.  I was expecting much more- I was so taken aback, I didn't even haggle!  The guy was probably thinking "wow, we can get $3 for that junk?" and I was thinking "wow, do they not know what they have?"  Win, Win for all!

It will eventually find its home in the office, which (when done) will be a perfect marriage of traditional and industrial.  I can't wait!

Because I'm Crazy

This week has been a countdown of last minute projects leading up to our housewarming on Sunday.  The 9to5 has been pretty quiet the past few days, giving me plenty of time to think about my To Do list (not a safe pastime). After creating a checklist yesterday and banging out a few things on the list and crossing off another (no, Self, you do NOT have time to sew curtains for the bedroom before Sunday), I decided it needed a place to be seen so I would stay on track.  I debated all evening if I really wanted to be this crazy, but I decided that I did.  Don't judge.

Yup.  I totally taped my To Do list and a pen to the wall by the stairs where I would see it.  I figured this way, I couldn't ignore the list, and it would motivate me to want to cross items off the list over the next 3 days.

Can't say Hubby is too happy with my temporary wall art, but he's smart enough to let it be until Sunday.

What crazy habits keep you on track and motivated when you're working toward a goal?

Knock Knock

Who's there? The cats! They have a new door all to themselves!

Yeah, I know... any post that starts with an exceedingly bad attempt at a knock knock joke doesn't have a lot of promise.  But if you're still reading, welcome!

One night this past week, after getting home from work, I decided it was project time.  It was still light out, it was (almost) warm out and I'm solar powered.

Time to break out the trusty jigsaw and have at the basement door!  Yay Power tools!

I've had a number of people ask me, after I stated my intention for a cat door into the basement, why we need it.  Let me elaborate:

1.  A closed door (even one with a cat door) is prettier than an open one.  I don't need to see 50+ year old VCT next to the pretty wood floors.

2. The kitchen is the coldest room in the winter months and the heat vent is right by the basement door.  Why pay to heat the basement?

3. And MOST importantly.... the litter boxes are in the basement which is why the door has been left open.  Litter boxes smell sometimes no matter how clean you keep them (especially when you have a cat like Charlie).  A cat door allows us to close the basement door, allow the cats access to their restrooms, and we don't have to smell it!

I won't bore you with the step-by-step.  I presume you're intelligent, and the process is pretty self explanatory.  (Figure out location, cut hole, attach cat door over hole.)  Most importantly, I'm pleased with the result.

It'll probably be a few weeks before we use it normally (without taping it open to get the cats used to it), but, hooray, one more thing off my to-do list!!

Another mundane item checked off my to-do list is hemming the sheers in the bedroom windows.

The room ALREADY looks more pulled together without the sheers pooled on the floor.  Now only if I had actual curtains with them...  I'll work on that next weekend and hopefully give the lonely leaning curtain rods in the picture a purpose in life.