New Plants, Part 4 of 4

Last but not least, my little elephant planter from an antique store got a little succulent love (parts 1, 2, and 3 if you feel so inclined to catch up).

Previously, the elephant planter was filled with aloe, but after using too much of the aloe (sue me! it's really fun to use your plants for practical things!) the plant all but disappeared. 

At this point, I only had one succulent left, so it isn't a big improvement but it is at least a little less empty.

Love this planter, it makes me smile!

So that is the end of my succulent planting saga, I know, it was riveting. Thanks for sticking it out!

Thrift Shop Find: A Globe (with a surprise)

I've been doing this thrift shops series for twentysomethingindy.com which means once a month for the past few months I've been spending hours driving around trying out thrift shops for research. Best research ever! But also worst research ever because it's so tempting to buy stuff. So far I've written pieces on thrift shops on the east side, north side, and the downtown. Of those three research trips I spent $16, $30, and $15. Not terrible, but it's still money spent every month. A run down of what I bought here, here, and here respectively.

This past weekend I was out on the west side researching and I came across a globe. Globes are crazy trendy and since they are easy to find and generally affordable they are a great trend to jump on. So I was not surprised that I found a globe since they are everywhere but what was surprising was how cheap it was at $12.50. The globe in my entry was about that same price when I got it about a year ago, but lately I've been seeing them listed for $20 and up so I was pleasantly surprised to see one that cheap. But I still probably wouldn't have bought it if it weren't for this:

Shut. Up. It's a light up globe. I nearly squealed when (after asking the store manager where an outlet was) I plugged it in and it worked! For $12.50! Seriously, you can't buy a lamp for under $40 let alone an amazingly life changing globe lamp. Love.

For locals I found this at Trader Baker's Vendor Mall in Avon (or you can wait until my west side thrift shops article is published for more info!). Seriously, though, how amazing is this light up globe?! Have you ever seen one like this? If this had been at a cooler store they could have easily charged $50 for it. 

Tip of the day: The further you drive away from any downtown area the cheaper the thrift-able goods get.

How to Hang an Old Window

On Monday, I shared my little dining room corner make-over. Here is the process I used to hanging the large old windows on the wall. 

A few summers ago I bought two large windows. Why did I buy windows? I don't really know. I had a moment where I was feeling very shabby chic-y apparently. Actually, I think I had just gotten Pinterest and I was in that fever of seeing all these new projects with old windows for the first time.

Anyway, for several months the ones I bought just sat around doing nothing. Then I got an idea. What if instead of putting small pictures behind each pane (which is the most common thing people do with windows like this) I printed one large picture instead? I thought maybe it would look a little more modern that way. So I found two pictures from my trip to Paris that I thought would work and had them printed. I used Snapfish and got the pictures printed in the 20"x30" poster size for $18 each. That seems expensive now but at the time I thought it was reasonable. When I got them I taped them on the back of the frame.

I like the overall look. But the reason it took me so long to hang them is that there was no hanging hardware on the back. 

It is just a simple wood frame window but for several reasons I was nervous. For one it is really old window so I wasn't sure how solid the wood was and so I hesitated to drill into it. And secondly these windows are pretty heavy like 15 pounds so knew I needed heavy duty hanging hardware. But you know what, you can't wait around forever so I just did it.

Here is what I did:

1) Measure and mark a spot 1/3 of the way down the frame. My frame was 30" tall so I marked a spot at 10" on either side.

2) Screw in hardware. I used these hooks from a hardware store. I screwed them in at an angle toward the center of the frame. 

Like I said I was nervous to drill into the old wood but I found that using a screwdriver worked find. The wood was pretty soft (not falling apart soft, just not so hard that I needed a drill) and the screw went in easily. 

 3) Attach the hanging wire. I used 9' of hanging wire on each frame. That sounds like a lot but these suckers are heavy and I wanted to be extra careful. I pulled the wire through the loops three times.

On each side I wrapped the end of the wire around all three strands. 

After wrapping the end around several times I stuck the end through the last loop to make a sort of knot. 

After trimming the ends, the back looked like this.

Admittedly, that looks a little wonky but here I demonstrate how it looks when pulled taut. 

4) Put a screw in the wall and hang them up. The rest is pretty basic picture hanging. I measured and marked where I wanted them to hang and then got out my drill. I have plaster walls so I pre-drilled holes and then drilled my screw in. 

They've been hanging up for several days now and no major catastrophes so I think they are good! If you are hanging a window in a hallway or somewhere where they might get knocked often I would consider using bracing brackets on the bottom corners. I'm not worried about these since they are in a corner but they can move pretty freely with the hanging wire so just keep that in mind. 

Budget Breakdown:

Window - $5

Poster - $18

Hanging hardware - $5 

= $28 each (not too bad for a 30"x25" piece of art!)

I love it when projects go this way, when I think they are going to be hard and then they turn out to be pretty simple. I'm glad I knocked this project off of my mental to-do list and I'm happy to say that I conquered a fear of hanging heavy objects, win-win! More pictures and info about the corner makeover here.

Are you into the old window look? Have you ever had to get creative when hanging stuff on the wall?

Dining Room Corner Facelift

So the thing about weekend to-do lists is that they are a terrible idea. Mostly because as soon as I make a list I get mad about lists, like lists are fascist, I can do whatever I want, ugh. I mean, can I just live?

So guess what got done from my list I made on Friday? Yeah, nothing.

But I did do something else that was on an invisible list in my mind.

This is the corner of my dining room as it's been for the past 15 months:

Pretty sad and boring. Here is the other corner of my dining room:

I got these two windows from an antique shop for like $5 each. They are huge, 30" x 20" and pretty heavy. I'm sort of over the old window as a picture frame thing but since I've had them for over a year I just wanted to hang them and get it done with. The reason it has taken me so long to hang them is because they had no hanging hardware on them and I was nervous to attach hardware on the back, but I'll go into more detail about how I hung them on Wednesday. For now let's skip ahead to the big reveal:

I hung the windows, added a little side table from a thrift shop, and voila! The previously dead corner has life. Not that I expect anyone to actually sit in that corner and have tea or anything but I like having those two extra chairs in there for when I have more than six people over for dinner so having a little vignette in the corner make the chairs seem a little less out of place. Plus this dining room is so big that it makes it seem less like a big empty room. 

My new goal is to make to-do lists of the things I don't want to get done and then I'm guaranteed to succeed! I'd basically given up on hanging those windows because they had been sitting around so long but then I just got a rush of inspiration and did it. 

Do you actually get stuff done from your to-do list? If you do, share your secrets because I'm a big failure when it comes to that sort of stuff. 

Antiques Mall Finds

There is a big difference between thrift shops and antique shops, but they both have their merits. Thrift shops make you work harder but you can get really good deals. Antique shops are curated for you and you pay for it. I've chronicled my thrift shop adventures here and here, but I haven't yet talked about antiquing. A week or so ago I made my way up to the Carmel Old Town Antique Mall and like most things with 'mall' in the title, it was huge! Most antique malls are set up so that different vendors can rent sections of the store. For that reason pricing varies from booth to booth. Overall I found this mall to be reasonably priced. I tried to walk out with only one thing but alas I left with two because I'm obsessed with weird things.

Can you spy what is new?

Okay, that is a little too far away to see her. Here she is up close.

Yep, that's a solid brass Nefertiti. This one booth had a solid brass seal with beach ball on his nose and I was sort of tempted by it because it was brass but the seal was very cartoonish looking. Then my friend spied this lady up on a shelf. She was $10 and I had to have her. Actually, I really debated whether or not I needed her but I'll get to that in a minute. First let's talk about how regal Bob looks here:

So serious, as though he has the weight of the world on his shoulders. Anyway, on to the kitchen where the next item I bought is.

I know what you're thinking... you didn't even bother to put away the dishes before you took pictures? Yeah, it's true I didn't but no what you're probably thinking is... didn't you just buy a different rug for under the sink? Yes, I did, good observation! So apparently I'm now obsessed with rag rugs because I've purchased two in two weeks (the first one is here). I can't help it I just really like them. The best part about them is that you can just throw them in the washing machine - amazing. So the pinky coral one that I originally purchased for here is great and I still love it but when I saw this one which is a little longer I knew it would work better under the sink. So I moved the smaller rug to the bathroom which I'll show you a picture of in a minute but first another picture of Bob who was feeling very photogenic on the day I took these pictures. 

This picture makes me really happy for three reasons:

1) Bob is standing still. That never happens, seriously never. 

2) The new rug is so pretty

3) The. Floors. Are. Beautiful.

Here is the other rug, relocated. 

iPhone picture because I was too lazy to get out my good camera

As you can see I just laid it on top of the bath mat that is already in there. Why did I do that? Because I thought it would add texture and depth to the room, uh, just kidding, I did it because I'm lazy. But I actually like it sitting on top of the other one because it makes me feel like I'm standing on a plush carpet while brushing my teeth. So luxurious. Plus I love the bright color in there. 

But back to my big decision, both the rug and the Nefertiti statue were $10 so I was trying to choose between the two but I decided I liked both of them well enough to pay $20. That is the big difference between thrifting and antiquing. Last time I went thrifting (here) I paid $16 for five things and at this antique store I paid $20 for two things. 

Do you prefer antiquing or thrifting?

Thrifting for the Win

I love going to thrift shops, they are my happy place. But like Craigslist, I have to deny myself the pleasure because I can't contain myself. This is probably the most pretentious thing I'll ever say but here it is: The bad thing about having good taste is that you have to buy stuff that is awesome when you see it for a good price. Ugh, I hate myself for saying that.

Anyway, I finally went to a thrift shop I've been eyeing for a while (Audrey's Place at 10th and Rural for locals) and it was better than I could have imagined. Here's what I got:

1) A brass blanket stand

2) A plaid wool lap blanket

3) A bamboo woven basket

4) A mallard duck 

5) A small rug

Any guesses how much I paid for all of this? You won't be able to guess because it was such an amazing price: $16. I know right?? The total was actually $20 but he knocked off $4 for no reason!

While getting a good deal was really fun my favorite part is putting my new stuff in it's place. So here is the run down of where everything ended up.

The mallard duck is hanging out behind my couch on my faux sofa table. He is currently a nice stained wood and while I thought about spray painting him I think I'll let him stay the way he is for the time being.

I love this bamboo woven box. I didn't really need another little box but it was so pretty I couldn't say no (plus it was not even $1). It has become the catch-all for my earrings, necklaces, and bobby pins. 

I love this brass blanket stand mostly because it is brass but also because it has a sort of faux bamboo look to it. I also didn't realize what a good idea it is to have a blanket stand in the living room but it is a great idea! I'm always freezing so blankets are constantly strewn around on my couch and chairs. Now I have a place to fold them nicely when I have people over.

This cheery little rug makes my heart happy. It is such a great color! In some pictures it reads pink but it much more coral in person. I wanted a little rug there for water drips from the sink. The cork is sealed and water resistant but I can't help but feel a little worried about getting it too wet (I feel the same way about hardwood floors) so this little rug gives me peace of mind and a cheery heart and it was less than a $1 - so much winning in one little rug!

Have you done any thrifting lately? My hands always feel really dirty after I go thrifting but it is worth it for the deals.