justem: little bits of this and that

Thrifty Thursday

As I mentioned a couple of weeks ago, I've recently been bitten with the thrifting bug. I go in streaks where I am constantly searching Craigslist and stopping by Goodwill and St. Vinny's, and then I will go for months without buying a thing.  In the past couple weeks I've had some awesome finds, and I thought I'd share a few of them today, because, well, this blog is pretty boring and needs something other than layouts. (Or maybe not, but whatever...)

One of the local St. Vinny's was slated to have a vintage kitchen sale last Saturday. I was skeptical because I noticed it wasn't mentioned at all on their FB or twitter. But, the main St. Vinny's website said it was so...so it MUST be so!!!  Of course, we arrived and there was no vintage kitchen sale. I did, however, manage to find another sled...it's an "Ace Pacer" and is maybe not as "vintage" as my other two, but it's cute!

I am always on the lookout for blue Ball mason jars.  I decided I wanted to line them up along the back of my built-in buffet.  I figured I could just pick them up here and there until I had enough.  However, a nice man on Craigslist helped me out by selling nine Ball and one Atlas brand blue jars.  A few of them are pretty old...and, as I said on Instagram, I will never need to buy another blue mason jar...but I probably still will. ;)

I think I have the very best husband.  When I send him emails when he's working out of town asking him to go pick me up a globe that I found on that local Craigslist page...he does it. ;)  This is so similar to one I had as a kid - only the bottom of mine was colorful.  I'm keeping my eyes open for one like that!

I have a list of items that I'm always keeping my eyes open for. One of these is a set of Ransburg handpainted canisters.  I saw a set on Craigslist, but they weren't in great shape. I was still going to buy them, but I decided, on a whim, to check eBay.  Lo and behold, there was a set in better condition for way less than the local ones. I bought them, of course. :)

And finally, I went to my local thrift shops last week and was feeling like it was a pretty sad trip, until I found these totally awesome vintage flash cards. They are in perfect condition and cost sixty cents each. Score! I also picked up a few vintage pillowcases - not entirely sure what I'm going to do them, but they sure are pretty!

It's been a fun couple of weeks. I also stopped by a local antique mall today when I had an extra hour...and it made me appreciate thrifting even more!!  Globes that I have in my home were on sale for 50 dollars. The same mason jars I got this week were 20 dollars a piece!! I think I'll stick with Craigslist and the thrift shops. :)

Five for Friday

1. Monday evening, my friend Barb and I went out to dinner for Madison Restaurant Week. We ate The Wise. My three courses included a roasted carrot salad, beet and goat cheese ravioli, and a lemon tart.  My favorite part was the salad, which is very unlike me. I am not a salad lover but it was so pretty and tasted just as good!

2. I finished three books already this month!  That's like half of what I read all last year!!  Two were for my book club, and one was just for me. Promise Not to Tell was a murder/ghost story mystery type book. It was scary. I was not a fan. The Midwife is written by an author who lives in Wisconsin and was raised in the Mennonite community. I wasn't expecting to love it, but it was very, very good. The author is a great storyteller, the characters were compelling, and there were some nice unexpected twists at the end!  Finally, Looking for Alaska is a book that pretty much everyone I know has read.  I read it in a few days, and it kept my attention. I thought there were some pretty predictable parts, but it was still very enjoyable.  The characters were interesting and I love reading young adult books as a grown-up...it really makes me think a lot more about my kids when they grow up. ;)

3. My mom is coming to visit this weekend and into next week! I am very excited! I am going to take her to my favorite bakery and try to convince her to help me with some sewing projects. ;)

4. Um...only ONE more episode of Parenthood left!! Who watches?  This is really the only show that I watch on a regular basis.  I love it so much, and I'm prepared to cry for 60 solid minutes next week!!!

5. I haven't gone thrifting in months.  I'm not always too keen on the idea of bringing the kiddos with me when I go searching through piles of crap hoping to find one good item. ;) ;)  I did take a little trip to Goodwill yesterday while my middlest was at pre-school. I got two picture frames to paint and a lidless blue mason jar. It gave me the itch...now I want to get back out and find MORE treasures! The best part about yesterday - when my husband send me a frantic text saying, "That flower picture is not going in our house, is it?????" Ha.  No, honey. Just the frame. ;)

 

Found: Garden Chair

I'm totally making up the name "garden chair." It just sounds so much better than "crappy little chair I bought from a garage sale."  ;)  Last my town held city-wide garage sales, and a friend and I headed out Friday morningto see what we could find.  I ended up with a vintage metal milk crate, a blue mason jar (one can never have too many!), an old US map puzzle, and this gross little chair. ;)

I slapped a coat of paint on it...totally NOT outdoor paint, but whatever - it's going to sit outside and get destroyed anyway - and it looks so much cuter! I felt a little bad painting over the hand-scribbled name of the child who used to own (and clearly love) this chair...but it was worth it. ;)

I put it on my porch with a few flower pots and it's perfect - exactly what I was looking for.  

I envision our stoop being filled with all kinds colorful pots and flowers - unfortunately most of our planters were left behind in IL. Friday night, my husband and I went on a date night and when he asked me where I wanted to go, I chose Home Depot - the site of all hot dates. ;)  I got a few more pots, but I want more, more more!!! Here is what it looks like now:

Our front stoop clearly needs  a lot of work.  It's OLD and cracked and pretty ugly, but hopefully I can at least make it look cute during the different seasons! I will share a photo once we get the rest of our pots.  Hope everyone has a great Monday - it's storming here right now and supposed to storm all day. Yay. ;)  I am thankful for the rain, but it makes the day go by soooo much slower!! Hope it's sunny where you are!

Found: Vintage Roll-up Map

I am very new to the whole world of thrfting/craigslist etc.  Our old house in IL was very small and pretty much decorated to the max, but our new house is much bigger, much neater, and has so many more opportunities to decorate!  I've gone just a little bit crazy lately purchasing (cheap!) things for our house.  It's really fun. (And, for the record - I was right, and the ONE item I wanted from Friday's Estate Sale walked out the door 10 minutes after the sale started, while I was still standing outside with my number waiting to get in!) If you follow me on Instagram, you have most likely already seen  some of my recent finds. I thought I'd share some of my favorites here, too!  

First up today is probably my #1 favorite "found" item. It took me a couple of weeks to "figure out" Craigslist - what boards to follow, how often they update, how to contact people, how to search, etc.  Once I discovered the search option, I started looking up a few things that I knew I wanted for the house.  At the top of my list was a vintage roll-up school map.  These things are worth their weight in gold right now - It's almost impossible to touch a good quality vintage school map for under 100 - and most are on Ebay and Etsy for $150 or more.  To see some really amazing ones, check out this seller on Ebay - a girl can dream, right? ;)

I started searching on Craiglist for map/vintage map/antique map, etc.  It's a bit hard because ANY listing that includes a map of the location would come up in the search.  But - crazily enough - there was one!  It was a beautiful vintage map of the Roman Empire that looked to be in good condition.  The seller listed it at $60. I (being the cheapskate I am) asked if she would be willing to drop to $45 - I would have bought it at $60 but it never hurts to for a lower price, right?! ;)  The seller agreed to $45 and the map was ALL MINE!!! 

(The picture I posted on Instagram the night I picked it up)

Here it is in my living room, along with a yellow Dwell Studio/Target pillow that I also happened to get from Craigslist. My husband was a little unsure of me buying pillows from Craiglist, but I promise they were clean and from a good home! ;) When I first started looking at maps, I was hoping to find one of the United States, but honestly, this is even better than I had imagined. The colors, the images, everything is just perfect!  The previous owners had used the twine to hold it up, and after looking at the map both with and without the twine, we decided to keep it!

I love that my home is slowly starting to resemble the home I want it to look like. ;)  I'm constantly adding and changing things, and I will continue to share more photos here! Have a great Tuesday!

#workspacewednesday

Happy Wednesday!  Last week I talked about the new typewriter I got at the UW Swap Shop.  The typewriter, however, was not what I stood in line at 7:45 a.m. one Friday morning to get! ;)  What I wanted...was this:

When I first saw the picture of these cabinets of drawers, I assumed they were small like card catalog size.  When I got to the SWAP, I discovered a rather large (and crazy heavy) piece of furniture.  Without really thinking about  the implications of buying a giant piece of furniture that would need to be hauled into our attic, I plopped down my cash, had some strong students load it into the back of my truck, and headed home.  Once I got home and we had to get it out of the truck did I start to think that maybe this was not the worlds greatest idea...but look how COOL it is!!!  

Fast forward a few weeks to this past Saturday.  My husband and I decided it was time to haul this puppy upstairs.  We used an appliance dolly to get it to the second level of our house, but the stairs to the attic we re too steep and narrow so we just had to lift it up step by step. It was quite a process...I was on the bottom and basically bench pressed the cabinet up each step, took a rest, then did it again while my husband pulled from the top.  The SWAP Shop had some listed online...they ranged in weight from 570-645 pounds. ;) We took all the drawers out, but man...it was still really heavy.

To get an idea of how deep it is - here is a side photo. I think it was 28" deep, 20" wide, and 53" tall. It is much deepr than the IKEA Expedit shelf it sits next to!

(BTW...clearly I did not clean or organize a single thing before I took these photos! Remember...work in progress!)

The drawers open a little differently than expected - each row opens up entirely and the drawers life out. This is great because I can very easily move individual drawers if I decide I want a certain item in another place!  Here is a look in one row:

Some day I will get all the drawers filled and share them all...but for now I'm just working on cleaning and organizing my space now that I finally have enough places to store things!!  I really love the cabinet - and though my husband might not agree with me - it was totally worth the pain of hauling it upstairs!!

#workspacewednesday

Hi!  Today's is Wednesday...so here is a little tidbit about my workspace!  I recently got a "new" typewriter.  I have another one that I got many years ago from a friend who acquired it when a local school was cleaning out a storage room. It's adorable - a little blue Brother traveling/teaching typewriter - pretty much like this one. It's SO cute and easy to take with me places. BUT, the ribbon is crazy expensive and doesn't last long, and the typewriter itself isn't in great condition. It often leaves a giant crease in the paper, which drives me crazy. Lately I have taken to just using my computer and using a typewriter font for big pages of journaling, and using the little typewriter for smaller things like labels.  

Last month, if you follow me on instagram, you may have noticed I got a HUGE "new" cabinet of drawers for my scrapbook space.  They are awesome - and I will share them here sometime soon!  I purchased them at the UW Swap Shop (thanks to my friend Barb for telling me about it!!), which is a store that sells all kinds of old stuff from the university. The day I got the cabinets, I also picked up the typewriter. It is an old office typewriter - which means it is humongous. It's so big and heavy! BUT...it works really well and...it was $10. Awesome!  

It is so big that I don't really have a place to put it, so right now it is just sitting on top of a locker basket on the floor! I'm not quite sure WHERE I'm going to put it, but honestly, the whole layout of my scrap space is up in the air right now as I figure out how to include my giant drawers!  The only other negatives are that it doesn't correct (bummer) and as you can see in the first photo, it sometimes leaves a bit of a "shadow" when it types, but honestly, to me, that just adds character! It's not fun to look at typewriter by any means, but it works well, and that's more important to me!

Do you have a typewriter? Where did you get it? Or did you play along with #workspacewednesday? I'd love to see your post! Have a great day!!

#workspacewednesday

I'm so sorry for the lack of posting lately!!  I have three layouts to share and about ten other posts that I want to write out!  For today, here's a quick look at my workspace.  The biggest "'problem" with my awesome new scrap spaces is the lack of storage.  I had SO much built-in storage in my last house - though I was down in the dark basement, so this one is still leaps and bounds better! ;)  I've recently become a little obsessed with thrifting and Craigslist! I've gotten a few pieces for my scrapspace, including an amazing old set of drawers (that I will share once I get them up and running in the space - you may have seen them if you follow me on Instagram) and also this cute little vintage appliance cart. I paid about $15 for it, and after seeing similar (and, quite frankly, less cute) versions for a lot more money on the internet, I'm feeling pretty good about my purchase! ;)  It works perfectly to store my 12x12 paper holders and some other items.  I'm sure its contents will change over time, but for now here's a peek at it in its new home next to the oh-so-famous Raskog! ;)

Our New Old WI Home: Living Room Built-ins

Happy Friday! I've decided to start sharing a few bits and pieces of our new {old} home!  I have lots of work to do before the house looks the way I want it, but here are some "along the way" photos! I am by no means an interior designer or a legitimate home blogger, so be gentle, ha!  Today I am sharing just a tiny bit of our house, but it happens to be one of my favorite parts!!  When I first saw our house on realty website, the photos of the main living spaces immediately caught my attention...especially this end of the living room with wall-to-wall built-ins!!

(listing photo)

One of the first things I did when we moved in was fill up these gorgeous book cases! I don't know that they will stay exactly the way they are - some of the shelf heights are not ideal, but when your goal is simply to empty as many boxes as possible, you don't really worry about the logistics of everything fitting perfectly! ;) The left bookcase holds all of our "regular" sized book, and the right is a random collection of books, picture frames, and piano books right now.  My good friend who helped us move in just unpacked a box of frames and put them all in the right case. I'm guessing the right case in particular will be changed when I have the time! The bench under the window opens up, and we will probably store blankets in there, however it's not finished on the inside, and I want to get some large bins to hold the blankets so they aren't up against the raw side of the house! I also would like to eventually paint this room, but it's HUGE so it will probably not be one of the first things we paint! ;)

I'm also not entirely sure about what to put on the tops of the bookcases. I'm so excited to have this space to decorate. I like the left side a lot, but the right needs a little work! I've been keeping my open for cute thigns to put up there! If you have any suggestions, I'd love to hear them!!

(old globe that I got for $5 at a flea market, gorgeous canvas from Red Letter Words which was given to me by my closest friends for my 30th birthday, vintage music books, S sign from anthropologie)

(pillows and S from World Market, yardstick star from a friend, blue vase from City Farmer in Door County, orange vase made by my talented friend Rhonda, vintage 5 sign from Vintage Archeology, family sign from Wilco/Zulily.)

Have a great Friday and a fun weekend! Thanks for stopping by! :)