Craigslist Find: Wicker Set

If I haven't already shared, our backyard is ground zero for mosquito breeding. I am very serious...it's BAD. To make things even more interesting, I seem to be allergic to Southern mosquitoes. All my life up north, I got the occasional bug bite with no major issues...then I move to Georgia and every time I get bitten, my skin swells, itches and then turns into this huge, bruise-y circle. It looks like something between leprosy and spousal abuse.

Needless to say, our back deck (when we had one) did not get the most use from me in the summer months and the whole time we had been ignoring our beautiful front porch:

I have a love for front porches, probably because I grew up with this (that was my bridal shower setup):

As kids, this was our 'base' during manhunt and the 'precinct' in Cops and Robbers (yes, I was the dispatcher). It was the place for parties, BBQ's and almost every summer family dinner. This made me realize that I wanted something like that in our house. Unfortunately, our front porch was currently inhabited by way too many spiders and several wasps nests. Lucky for us, we just inherited a power-washer from our in-laws! So after a good power-wash I started the hunt for some patio furniture.

Where did I start? Craigslist of course. Let me tell you, wicker is expensive. I really never expected it to have such a high resale value. So, when I stumbled on all this for $125, I did a double-take:

One phone call later and I was on the way to pick these babies up. I can't remember the final price, but I think we got down to $110. Brian and I just round it down to one hundred, since we describe it as 'the best one hundred dollars we ever spent'. Now, let me just warn everyone of one downfall of Craigslist. Doesn't every piece in the picture above look to be the same color? Well, in real life they were not.

The two chairs sort of match and the little side table doesn't match anything. The table has been rained on since living on our porch, so it's gotten stained. Hopefully we can take the power-washer to these guys soon. All in all, we are really happy with the set and we use it all the time!

Oh, the cushions are from HomeGoods and only $30 for the pair! That is a great price for cushions - you would be amazed at how expensive those things can get. Want to see the view from the other side?

Stayed tuned for another Craigslist Find - Tampa edition. My sister-in-laws scored an amazing patio table!

Master Bedroom Paint?

When you've taken such a long blogging sabbatical...do you just ignore it in your next post? Do you try and make an excuse?

Yes, I've been absent as of late. The house progress has shifted to non-blogworthy things like water main repair and gutter replacement. Trust me, no one wants photos of that. Oh, you do want photos?

Behold our new gutter! We added it onto the house because the drainage in that corner was a serious issue. The pipe will be buried once we get the retaining wall rebuilt...and then its time to attempt to plant something that won't die.

You want to see that retaining wall? Shield your eyes... 

This eyesore is the structure that is currently holding up half our front yard, the side of the deck and our beloved Dogwood tree. And no, our yard does not currently look like that - this picture was from the day we bought the house. We've ignored the wall as long as we could...because let's face it, who wants to spend a few thousand dollars on something so boring? Finally, we've saved up and decided to get it professionally 'done', which should happen in a few weeks.

Wasn't this post was supposed to be about paint...

Ages ago (October 2011, according to this post), I started to gather some ideas of what I wanted to do in our master bedroom. From the beginning, I had been in love with Benjamin Moore's Saybrook Sage. I even went out and bought one of those teeny little sample bottle (that they have stopped selling - gasp!). Sadly, once I got home and slapped a few strokes on the wall, the color just wasn't 'doing' it for me. Today I took reinforcements (my co-worker, Sarah) to the BM and mulled over several more options. So what happened? We both loved Saybrook Sage. Again. Obviously, the universe was trying to tell me something, so I decided to splurge $8.00 and buy the small tester pint. Stay tuned to see how two coats will look and in the meantime I'm trying to figure out how to get Brian to let me paint on a Monday night...

Craigslist Find: The Florida Edition

When my sister-in-laws (remember their house here) sent me their own amazing 'Craiglist Find', I just had to share. They were in the market for a console/side table and these beauties appeared for only $20 each! How could they resist?

What makes them ever better? They are file cabinets in disguise. How freaking cool is that? Here is what they had to say:

"We were looking for some filing drawers to keep organized with various paperwork but we didn't want the typical stale, office looking type of drawers."

 

I'm jealous - I know you probably are too! The sweetest thing is what they sent at the bottom of the email:

"Thanks for reminding us to reawaken our relationship with Craig's List!"

Awww, thanks guys :)



Weekend Recap

(I was supposed to post this yesterday, so let's just pretend it's Monday.)

I'm a bad, bad, blogger. Sorry about that. I'm trying to get the husband back on the house-fixing kick and I'm also trying to come up with a blogging-schedule of sorts. My first order of business is dedicating Mondays to talk about my weekends! And no, my social life is not really that exciting, but I'm still giving this a shot.

Saturday was quite a big day. I was really hoping to get over to the Inman Park Festival, and more importantly, the Inman Park Tour of Homes, but sadly, we just didn't have enough time! We did manage to get down to Inman Park for dinner at Barcelona. I won't give you a full review, but let's just say this: I'm Spanish. Naturally, I am picky about Spanish restaurants. I remember taking my parents to Cuerno when it opened in Atlanta and it was embarrassing. Barcelona really exceeded my expectations! Even the pulpo (octupus) was good - and that means a lot. Oh, the Patatas Braves were excellent.

After dinner, we headed off to see Rodrigo y Gabriela at the Tabernacle. First off, if you can see this show, see it NOW. It was a-mazing. Second, the Tabernacle is a great venue!

If that wasn't enough excitement, after the concert we met some friends in the Highlands for drinks at Neighbors. I'm still not sure how this happened, but we all ended up at the Majestic for some late night snacks and didn't go to bed until three a.m. I am way to old for 3 a.m.

Most people would have taken the rest of the weekend off, but no, not us. We were on a roll. And, there was no way I was missing the Taste of Marietta. I know every town has a 'taste of', but I promise you, Marietta's is the best. There were three or four different bands and tons of food. We went very late in the day, so it was really, really hot.

Well, that's all she wrote. Next weekend we might actually work on the house (gasp!), but I've promised that before...so let's see if I actually deliver.



Old Map + Old Window = Free Art!

A long while back, Brian and I replaced four windows in our house (that's all we could afford at the time) and I made sure to save a few for some potential Pinterest projects. Here they are shortly after being replaced:

I had a few ideas in mind, but never ever really came to fruition (aka: I'm lazy). So, imagine Brian's confusion when I brought home a completely different old window (that I picked up from the side of the road after a run in Chastain Park). Why in the world would I need another window in the house? Well, this project validated my garbage-picking efforts. First, remember my old sailing map that I got from a co-worker? I've been dying to frame it and hang it up in the guest room. Brian was not as gung-ho. After I bought this Craigslist console table (post to come), I threw my original window up there:

Turns out, the husband loved it. Score. Then one day it just clicked - I could modge podge the map behind the window! I did have to do a little compromising; I wanted to use the other side of the map (vertical) because it showed Cape Cod and Boston. I ended up having to use the map horizontally and that meant a map of Long Island. I'm not the biggest fan of Long Island, but hey, at least it was New York? This is where my other window came into play - it only had two panes (as opposed to six in the other one) and I knew it would be easier to work with. The map would also be more visible.

Here is the new window candidate (I love that the latch was still on):

Before we proceed, check out my favorite map details:

Here goes my attempt at a tutorial:

Supplies: One small jar of Modge Podge Matte (I read that the matte was good for picture projects). One medium paint brush. One map. One window. Got it? First step is to brush the modge podge liberally on the window glass. I ended up dumping some straight on there and smoothing it out with the brush.

Second, coat the map with modge podge. Important: make sure you're not an idiot like I am and coat the side that you will see. I coated the wrong side and it just made the whole process much harder.

Third, just lay the paper onto the coated window and press down. Few tips here: If I was patient, I would have cut out the map to fit the exact size of the window panes. We all know I am not patient, so I just pressed it down and trimmed it with an box cutter. Yes, a box cutter. Don't use that. My edges were horrendous.

I tried to use a ruler to smooth out the wrinkles, but since I have modge-podged the wrong side of the map, it was really difficult to smooth anything. At first I paniced when I saw all this craziness, but the white dried clear and the wrinkles actually add to the 'vintage-ness' of the finished product!

So, want to see the final product?

The window was free, the map was free, so all I paid for this project was the cost of a jar of modge-podge. I think I want to hang it on the wall and attach some hooks on the bottom, like this:

(here)

I also picked up this red lamp at an estate sale the other day, but we've decided he doesn't really 'go' in the guest room. We'll find another spot for it somewhere.



1080-H (The End)

I'm trying very hard to get back on the blogging-bandwagon and while organizing my pictures, I realized I never finished my little 'Where It Began' series. We began with my very first apartment in Newburgh, then moved onto my first apartment in Atlanta. All that's left is my first apartment with my husband!

Let me introduce you to 1080-H. I suppose you want a little back story? Here is where I admit that yes, Brian and I were 'living in sin' for quite a while before we got married. We moved in together after only six months (shhh, don't tell my future children that). Initially we looked for an apartment somewhere in between our two worlds (Duluth and Roswell), but in the end it was easiest to just stay in my apartment complex, extend the lease and get a bigger place. So I moved from a small studio on the ground floor to a two bedroom on the third floor. The most exciting part? Our new deck:

It was mostly used for bike storage - we tried eating dinner out there once and got forced out by cockroaches. Yes. I said cockroaches. Living in upstate NY, I had only seen a cockroach once and that was in the basement of a NYC building. No one told me that almost every complex in Georgia has a roach-sighting incident.

Let's head back to the front door. This was your view as you first walked in - kitchen to the left and living room to the right.

The kitchen was narrow, but roomy and we had plenty of room for Brian's popcorn machine. What I can say? The man loves popcorn.

My endearing attempt at decorating:

Ah, and my first attempt at styling some shelves. I've come a long way, right?

That's all I really have to show. There was a master bedroom with attached bathroom and then a second bedroom and bathroom on the other side. When we first moved in I was beyond excited to decorate the apartment and Brian kept thinking I was nuts because it was 'just an apartment'. Even after moving into the house, I was hesitant to decorate because (a) the house technically was not 'mine' and (b) we were more preoccupied with getting the major things done like ceilings and floors.

That concludes my trip down memory lane - it was nice to revisit all the places I've called home and see how much my 'decor' skills have improved in the last six years.

One Man's Trash...

First let me preface this by saying that I really try and edit myself when I go estate sales. I probably over-think things a bit too much, but I don't want to become some kind of crazy hoarder! That being said, I did go a little nutty this week with random stuff. In my defense, most of it was free (thanks to my office moving in two weeks), and the rest was realllly cheap.

You're probably wondering about that bar cart from the last post? No, I didn't get it. Even sadder? It was way cooler in person! I almost shed a tear. Seriously. When I walked into the estate sale, I immediately spotted it behind the payment desk and knew it had been claimed. The lady did not know how much the person had paid for it, so I keep pretending that it was some insane amount that I would never have paid. Just goes to show that sometimes you need to trust your gut and call ahead to put it aside. All was not lost though, I did turn the corner and spot this lovely little table:

Please ignore my scary-mess garage (and Brian's work boots). This table has a little bonus too:

It's a sewing table! Yes, I know I'm not exactly a seamstress, but Megan has let me borrow her sewing machine indefinitely and I thought this would be perfect. Now I have no excuse to put off making those curtains.
Last weekend I stopped by two very random estate sales, not expecting to find anything. So what happens? I come home with these guys:

Brian's not really a fan. I thought it seemed nautical-ish with the dark wood and brass. No? The jury is still out. I paid a whole $5.00 for it, so even if I have to take a can of spray to him, I won't feel bad. One things for sure - the shade has GOT to go. I tried out some drum shades I had laying around in the craft closet, but that pesky plastic piece is just way too long and makes the shade look like its sitting too high. 

Next up? The coolest thing I have found to-date. A 1942 Midwood High School yearbook!

Normally I am never drawn to things kinds of thing unless they have a personal family connection to me, but this book won me over. I googled the school on the spot and realized it was in Brooklyn. That sold me right there. Then I flipped through the pages and died over the girl's hairstyles!

Excited yet? I saved the best for last. Since 1942 was in the midst of WWII, the senior class of 1943 decided to write an unfriendly letter to Hitler:

Turns out Midwood High is rather famous for not only being an excellent school, but the graduation place of many well-known people (Woody Allen is one)! Check the Wikipedia page here.

The same estate sale had this super-cool prints just rolled up in a corner.

They are quite possibly the most colorful thing I have in my house. No idea where I will hang them - but I'm thinking the hallway outside the guest room.

The next random thing I found? This model ship. I know, I know, I already have a huge one, but it was $7 - I just couldn't pass that up.

 

You're probably wondering what I got that was actually free...

My office just relocated to a fancy high-rise in Atlanta, so we needed to purge almost thirteen years of crap before packing up. Needless to say, the dumpster was filled with some good stuff. I grabbed these three frames just for fun. You never know when you might need one!

 

One of the frames was ugly, but had a great burlap-ish matte.

I also snagged a large basket, but ended up giving to Megan to use as a laundry hamper.