the cozy apartment

cha ching!

Ahhh....Use What You Have month has ended!  I made it through without purchasing one single ancillary item!  It was boring, yes, but possible!  Which is good, since 2009 has officially become Use What You Have Year!  Yes, dear readers, along with thousands of others country wide, TCA has been (or will be, rather) affected by the recent lay-offs.  It won't happen until around September, but we've begun the essential belt-tightening!  We're very lucky that we've had advance notice that DH's job will end.  It gives us time to prepare that many others have not had.  Let the Coupon Clipping begin!

There's some sort of calm peacefulness that comes over me when clipping coupons.  Well, until the cats start playing with the newspaper.  I wasn't able to find a pre-made organizational system that worked for me, so I made my own!  I bought a $2 brag-book style photo album and redecorated it with some Amy Butler paper.  The book has labeled sections for Food, Household, Toiletries and Store Specific coupons.  I keep them sorted by expiration date and it's so helpful to be able to flip through the pages and not have coupons go flying everywhere!  I can see each one clearly and have easy access once I get to the cashier.

No one really wants to have to clip coupons, but it's essentially free money!  Who can pass that up?  2 tips I have are:

1. ONLY clip coupons for things you already use!  That way you don't get sucked into the advertising for things you wouldn't normally purchase.
and
2.  Use something pretty to organize your coupons!  If you love it, you'll be much more likely to use it.

I have learnt to seek my happiness in limiting my desires, rather than attempting to satisfy them.

~ John Stuart Mill

thrifty-ness!

Wow, has it really been since October that I posted about thrifting?  How sad.  Well, don't worry, folks at the Goodwill!  DH and I were out and about early this morning on a treasure hunting extravaganza!  We went to our 4 favorite Goodwill stores.  We thought about going to the other 3 in this area, but time was against us!  It was a bright, crisp, sunny and *cold* morning, perfect for clinging to a mug of coffee and heading out the door! 

It was a good, satisfying haul.  And it's great to go in the early morning on a weekday b/c things are still clean and not picked over.  DH got some more computer and electronic equipment/bits.  I got a bunch of pretty, girly things!  They need a deep clean, of course, but are all in good shape! 

I love the horribly over-the-top pitcher/bowl slag glass set from Avon.  It's beautiful in it's over-done-ness.  It's going on my dresser.  (side note: with further research on eBay, I found out that this set is from 1971-72 and was made for Avon by Fostoria and held Skin So Soft...ah, eBay.  Where would we be without you?)  The strawberry pouch is from a reproduction tablecloth set, love the colors!  The small milk glass urn in the background is the 2nd one I've bought, they're great as tea light holders.  Small cute mirror, iridescent tiny bowl, neat candle lantern from Pottery Barn, the ubiquitous Ball jar and neat little footed dish with a lacy looking edge.  Love 'em all! 

But, people, the best find o' the day was the set of 5 milk glass tumblers.  For $4.95!  They're SO pretty, with that rosy glow and imperfect texture.  I got to them *just* before another lady saw them!  She said, "Oh, are those milk glass? " and I said, "Yes!", as I gathered them in my arms possessively.   Like a madwoman with a purpose. 

The lure of the Great Find is so seductive!  Yeah, it's fun to buy brand new things, but I get such a thrill out of a good deal!!!  It's like winning the trip to Aruba *and* the prize money!  Really, all this for less than $22!  Can't beat that.  And supporting a good cause on top of it.  Yeah, it was a good day.

when we go a'thrifting...

Saturday morning DH and I loaded up the mugs with coffee (and this creamer, which I can't get enough of) and headed out to our edge of Portland Goodwill circuit.   We hit 4 in 2 hrs, which I love.  Saturday morning (at 8am) is the best time to go, if you can drag yourself out of bed.  He LOVES going, which I am incredibly happy about!  Who knew?  Of course, he goes for electronic components and I go for, well, whatever strikes my fancy.  We end up with a lot of metal boxes.  Love 'em.  This time we found the cutest little first aid box I've ever seen.  It's obviously been painted a couple of times and looks like it tumbled around the back of a truck for a few years.  Also a little office-y olive colored box with a cute handle.  A little metal tray, a votive holder from Cost Plus.  This sweet little snack set (just the one set, all alone out there on the shelf.  How sad is a solo snack set?) that I'm going to use on top of my new dresser for my watch and rings at the end of the day.  And the ubiquitous jar of buttons/odds and ends.  It was a good haul.  The first aid box is my favorite, though.  I think it's enamel and man, it is HEAVY.  You could really knock someone out with it, if you needed to.  I thought about using it as a lunch box, but I dunno.  Right now it's fate is undecided. 

Today is The Day.  I start the Big Closet Clean Out of '07.  Dan put together my dresser and it's HUGE.  Everything at Ikea looks smaller than it is when you're there.  And I measured and everything!  Ak!  It's fine, though, I really need the space.  Hopefully today and tomorrow I can really sort through a lot of stuff and possibly even part with some items.  Ha.  Ahem.  I have SUCH a hard time getting rid of things!  Why is that?  Eh, that answer could take a long time, and years of therapy.  And now that I sew, it's even worse!  Phrases like, "The fabric in that shirt is really cute.  I could totally reuse that and make x,y or z!" have made an appearance.  Not good.  Or good?  I dunno.  All I know is, if it doesn't fit in the closet, it ain't stayin'.  I say that now, but...? 

This is  gonna take a LOT of coffee.  And I don't know if I'd consider myself a coffee snob...I love Starbucks (sorry local Portlanders whom I'm currently offending), I won't buy Folger's, but I will set the alarm on my coffee maker to have the coffee ready before I get up.  I used to grind my beans in small batches every morning, but now I don't care.  I just need the caffeine.  I have no pride.   This is all leading up to... Dunkin' Donuts is selling their coffee prepackaged in stores.  I can't tell you how happy that makes me!  I LOVE DD coffee!!!!  It is SO good.  Something about it.  When Dan and I were dating back in New York, I would drive 4 hrs on I-90 to see him and after a while I knew which rest stops had a Dunkin' Donuts and would pace myself by them.  By the time I got to his place, I was wired and happy.  Ah, nostalgia.  Alas, no Dunkin Donuts out West!  I had my family send me the coffee for a while, then I forgot about it.  Imagine my surprise when I saw it in Target, of all places!!!  Sigh.  Good times.  Oh, and Honey Crisp apples are back!  Ah, fall.  I love ya, I do.

...and now back to your regularly scheduled blogging...

Stepping back off the soap box here, back to non-gray areas of life!  In fact, very colorful at this point, with lots of thrifty goodies today!  The last few times DH and I went treasure hunting, I found nothing.  Literally.  Zilch.  He found oodles of computer parts and random electronic weirdness.  (Really, not a day goes by that something isn't buzzing or beeping on his side of the room and I can't find it to turn it off!  It's ok, though, he really LOVES electronics and I love him, so it all works out.)  In any case, today was my day.  Started off with a cute little white bowl (I have a thing for little bowls, I don't know why.  In fact, I rarely use them, I just like to have them around.  What's more useful than a bowl?) and 3 cute napkins that will be reused as something else. 

Then.  I found this embroidered, um, picture?  I love it.  Love it.  It's so cute and tacky at the same time.  And I really hate the use of neon orange.  But I LOVE the saying and the thought that someone spent so much time on it.  Also, I love it because I cannot imagine embroidering something this intricate.  Or embroidering at all.  My mom tried desperately to get me to embroider when I was a kid, but I had a short attention span and kept pricking my finger with the needle.  It didn't last long.  I have residual feelings about it that make me appreciate embroidery a LOT, but can't get myself to make that leap.   Anyway, Happiness IS still Homemade.  Maybe just not homemade by me! 

Next stop, found this book from 1973 of botanical illustrations, which I can't seem to pass up.  DH was standing behind me when I was flipping through the pages and said, "Well, you have to buy that one!", which was so cute of him.  He's so stinking cute sometimes.  In fact, today he said the words every woman wishes their DH would say.  We were looking at my our haul and he said, "Hey, we should start going to garage sales!".......I didn't want to frighten him by being over enthusiastic, so I held my breath for a moment and said, "Yeah, that would be cool."  Inside, I was jumping up and down and clapping my hands like a small child.   I think he's none the wiser...

Also got a brand new set of Rachel Ashwell Shabby Chic sheets originally from Target.  They're the pale pattern on the pillow on the far right.  Oh, Target.  I love that you directly donate to the Goodwill and pass the savings on to us! 

And then.  The coup de grace.  3ft by 4ft.  To hang above the fireplace in the cozy apartment.  From 1981, when East and West Germany were still divided and the Soviet Union still existed.  Sigh.  It's my humongous map of the world.  And I LOVE IT.   

   

it's a fiesta!

Today is dank and dreary, which I've been waiting for all week!  It's difficult to stay inside when it's sunny, it makes me feel like I need to be *productive*, running errands till I'm exhausted.  Someone once called it, "The Tyranny of a Beautiful Day".  Days like that don't allow you to lounge in your jammies and read this month's decorating mags.  I love the rain.  I love curling up on the couch with my trusty kitties purring and read and read and read. 

Today I finally went out and bought 4 place settings of Fiestaware!  Macy's is having a buy-one-get-one sale on the place settings!  When I told her of my plan, my friend SB said, "Oh, do you need place settings?".  I laughed.  No, no I don't need them.  But I LOVE them.  Just like everything sounds better in French, every food looks better on Fiesta.  A McDonald's hamburger looks stellar on Fiesta.   L'hamburger est sur le Fiestaware.  Hm.  Even better.

Scarlet and Turquoise.

Tasty colors!  It's been a colorful day, despite the rain.  I always feel more creative when it rains.  I like nesting.  I like drinking coffee.  I was meant to live in the Pacific Northwest. 

I did clean out the cabinet-type sewing locker!  V. cute now!  And it holds everything I need it too, which is just lovely.  And all for $8!  Dan and I always feel like we're getting away with a crime when we find something good at the Goodwill!  Like after you turned 21, but still felt like someone was going to turn you in for buying beer.  I almost felt as though an elderly woman was going to tackle me on the way out of the store for this one.   It's just too cute and I LOVE that it's brown!  Now that everything is organized, I am even more excited to start sewing in earnest.                                                                          
This time off hasn't been as relaxing as I had hoped.  But, is it ever?  Too many things to do.    So tonight it's Fiesta Night!  Dan's making jambalaya and I have Real Simple, Romantic Homes and the newest Anthropologie catalogue to drool over!  The next sewing project will be one of these skirts, which are about the cutest things in the world.  I know it's going to be 108 degrees here again this summer and I need to be prepared! Since I don't have a Flickr account, I'll leave a few pictures here of the little cabinet/locker.                
                         

Luckyday

Lucky day, indeed!  On Tuesday, Portland and it's surrounding areas received ~ 4 inches of snow, which, for an Upstate New York girl like me, is child's play.  It was lovely to watch fall, though, sparkly in the morning darkness.  Then I realized I had to drive through it.  It's not my driving I worry about (though my mother and friends reading this may beg to differ), but The Other Driver's.  Have you seen this?  That's basically what I had to contend with on the way to work, even though there are no hills out here.  By the end of the day, I remembered why I moved 3,000 miles away from Rochester! 

On to my thrifty find!    These  vintage buttons could use some work.   In truth, we all know I didn't buy the buttons for their utility, but for the adorable packaging! I'm such a good little consumer.  Bright colors attract me.  I'm like a hummingbird at the Goodwill, buzzing over to little spots of red.  I love this little lady!  She looks so smug and coquettish in her sweet red hat!  Ah, the 40's.  Or 50's?

Do eBay finds count as thrifting?  At $4.99 for a set of four, I think these trays count!  And how adorable is the gardening girl in her suburban yard?  I especially love the pond in the front of the house!   And French Blue?  Fab.
The tray is sitting on my sewing table, which I have yet to put to use.  Yes, it's true, I have a life outside of the cozy apartment, and it's been draining me of any inclination to craft.  Or to blog.  So I've already fallen off the resolution wagon!   Damnable job.  Damnable need for income.  Luckily, my sewing class was postponed due to the weather (ha!), which is a good thing since I have yet to attempt to thread the machine.  I have watched the included DVD, though!  The lady in it is almost *too* perky, but very excited to be showing off her sewing prowess!  She makes it look really, REALLY simple...which may be deceptive.  Am I intimidated by The Machine?  Hm.  It's possible.  However, I did make a cozy nook for it in the craft/computer room.  I will, of course, share pictures when it's finished.  Till then, please enjoy the picture of the French Blue house, yard and pond, which I hope to live in one day.  (smile)

     

thriftilicious

Not certain that's a word.  It is now!  Went to the Good Will with my friend Mel, found the best things!  I esp LOVE the little 8x8 baking dish!  My Dh loved the mixing bowl (who knew?  he's full of surprises, that one!).  The sweet blue down pillow is from Target, the Thomas O'Brien collection.  I've wanted that pillow for SO long, but never could accept the price! 

But the 8x8 dish, SO cute!  There's something about a square dish...this one looked so lonely, I just had to take it home and possibly make brownies!  The dish would be exponentially cuter with brownies.

 

As a side note, I have a difficult time leaving objects behind that look lonely.  As if they have personalities and feelings.  I blame The Brave Little Toaster.  And possibly Toy Story.  And definitely  The Velveteen Rabbit.  So, the little square baking dish, the small mixing bowl, the set of cocktail napkins (that never got to go to the cocktail party) and the discarded pillow came home with me!