Here and there: Favorite Finds…

I’m in a bit of time warp, blogging wise. There have been so many things I wanted to say, wanted to link to, you know- here and there? So it’ll be all over the place for a little bit.

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I have shared our financial story a little bit here. In a brief summary, we sold our house to pay off a substantial credit card debt and are now working on  re-building our financial future. Taking it all back to the bedrock and getting a firm foundation this time instead of a shaky one. We’ve had a lot to learn in many different arenas-and it seems like just about the time we figure one aspect out another does us under for a bit. It is slow going, to say the least.

Aimee had just started a ‘buy nothing’ challenge with herself right about the time we were in the throes of selling the house, finding a place to rent and moving. I read the whole series as she was blogging it as much as I could off my husband’s iPhone  because it was *so* what we were facing the consequences of- lots of buying without a lot of thought (at least early in our marriage, and then lots of bondage in the between time). There were so many things she brought up over the course of her series that I would love to discuss in depth, and I hope to do that soon.

And while this whole process of attacking debt and learning money management has been tough going at times, it hasn’t been all bad. Some of it has been down right fun! One of the things I challenged myself to do was to find anything we needed for our new space second hand or free, and to rethink furniture where possible. One saturday afternoon I slipped off to a local secondhand/antique store with few expectations but a pretty long list and hit the jackpot a couple times over! I’ll admit it- by the time I was done, I was giggling with glee at the ‘hunt’.

Here’s just the beginning…I figure I’ll share a few of these a week and show you how I used them around the house.

This is the steal of steals—anyone who loves vintage quilts can tell you how high they are getting, price-wise- this one should easily be $300 or more with hand work and cross-stitching, and I about pinched myself when I realized it was only $25! Someone did not know what it was worth, that is for sure.  I got this amazing, beautiful quilt for Lorelei’s bed for cheaper than you can get a normal ‘bedding set’ at a big box store. Score!

I lurrrrve my new kitchen for the spaciousness, but I don’t have a lot of counter space, nor the room for a traditional island. I must have stared at this three or four time during my shopping (it was a vanity)- and it dawned on me it was the perfect width and height, and all I needed to do was slap some wheels on it. I store all my spices in the drawer, and what’s on top rotates with how I’m feeling that day. The shelf is a great place to keep all my most used appliances and my drain board. Considering most roly-poly islands at your normal store go for $199 and up, this was a serious steal at $75 plus $6 for the wheels.

These were just one of those things…he he he. I adore hobnail milk glass- but before moving to our new town, I could never find any I liked in my ‘price range’. These totally fit the bill, and I’ve been using them as vases (they are a sugar and creamer set). And at 50 cents each, a sweet little treat!

I had this wall in the kitchen that I hadn’t the foggiest idea what to do with (I’ve never had a decorate-able wall in a kitchen before now!) and it dawned on me that I already had a sort of collection of plates. I picked this one up for the simple beauty of it…and then the boys promptly broke it. A little glue and it will be as good as new. It was $1, so no tears lost! I’ll have to show you what I did with the plate collection. It makes me smile every single morning, and I figure it’s a good barometer of ‘good design’, right?