We recently moved, and doing so made us instantly aware of how tight our budget really was. We are paying our bills, but we're also trying to save up for a new car by the end of summer (we're thinking a 7-seater, maybe a crossover), so we've had to keep an eye on our expenses. Back when my husband was handling the checkbook, he would tell me to spend now and worry about the balance later. I like to think that's because he just loves me so much and wants me to be happy, and not because he's bad with money. Truth is, he's very good with money... he just works 80 hours a week and has no time to sit down once a week to go over the money. So I've been handling it for a while now. Truth is, I've been slacking too... this move has been crazy stressful ad my 2-year-old has a funny way of hiding things like, say, the checkbook. Not funny so much as extremely annoying.
Anyway, back to the point. I know I mentioned this before, but we've had to rehab a lot of our own things rather than buying new. We are improvising a LOT. Reusing tables in new ways, placing shelves strategically, and buying curtains from strangers has been a regular way of life lately. It's nice, though. Keeps us on our toes.
But this weekend we got some amazing news. Nathan got a new job! Ok, it's pretty much the same thing he does now, but it's so much better for a number of reasons I won't get into now. We decided to celebrate. And how do I celebrate? By thrifting of course!
We discovered a new place this weekend. Well, new to us. It's been there forever and I've been wanting to go, but I kept forgetting. It's called ReStore, and they give all proceeds to Habitat For Humanity. They have a little bit of everything, and a lot of hardware-store-type supplies (you know, paint, etc.). I found a very cool side table - probably from the 70's, very dark, solid wood. It wasn't very pretty as it was, but I took a chance on it for $20. In the same store, I bought primer and paint for it ($2 a can, btw) and wanted to find new door pulls, but couldn't find anything I was in love with. Then it occurred to me... paint the existing ones! They're cute, they're in good shape... they're just ugly. So I bought aluminum-tinted spray paint for $2. Later, while doing our grocery shopping at Wal-Mart, I found some very cute iron-on flowers for $1.50 a piece. I had never incorporated fabric in this type of project before, but what the heck, right? So I bought three of them. Cute.
The project took 2 days. I probably could have done it in one if I had started early in the morning. I put one coat of primer, 4 coats of spray paint (4 cans), and painted the pulls, and applied the flowers with my newest toy - a hot glue gun. =-)
I shall leave you now with the final result. I think it's my favorite so far.
Happy thrifting!
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