#tbt Boho

October 29, 2013

Last week I decided to go boho with this silk skirt I found from Goodwill and the Target sandals I've been wearing everywhere lately.

Holla!

Thrifty Tip #12 - Baby Clothes

I'm a big fan of thrift stores.  While I don't get everything there, I have scored some amazing deals on clothes, furniture and decor.  It only seemed natural to look for baby things there too.  I know that babies have a high turn over with clothing.  It's pretty much wear once, maybe twice, then done.  So, Goodwill is a great place to look for lightly used, sometimes new, clothes.  Our Goodwill sells infant clothes for $0.99 a piece.  Pretty good.  When we were in the store going through the clothes, one of the ladies that worked there told me that they have a baby sale once a week where it's 3 for a dollar!  Its not really advertised so you have to call and see if they are doing it that day.  It won't be on senior discount.  So, all new parents, hit your local Goodwill to score a new wardrobe for the minis!

Cheers!

Lent 2014 Update

We're about 4 weeks into Lent and I'd thought I'd give an update on our progress.  The financial fast didn't go very well.  With a baby on the way, my belly expanding and with both of us just generally being exhausted, there were a lot of expenses that creep up, mainly eating out.  But its ok.  I'm not going to beat my self up over it.  We have cut back a lot, so for that I am happy.  When we need to spend money, like on maternity clothes for me, I try to find the cheapest ones I can.  And I try to only get pieces that will work with what I already have.

As for donating and cleaning out the house, that we are doing well on.  We've stuck to at least one item per person per day.  We tackled a good chunk of the garage and moved it to Goodwill.  We still have one room to clean out so I definitely think that we'll hit our goal of 80 items out of the house by the end of Lent.  We may have already hit that number...

Cheers!

Here's two weeks worth of stuff.  Forgot to take a picture of the second car load we took to Goodwill...

The Desk

I've been looking forward to writing this post for over a year. Last summer Mandi stumbled across an antique church desk during one of her trips to Goodwill. It took a little convincing, but she finally talked me into buying it for $40. The plan was to refinish it and put it in my home office. This was a great project to keep me busy while I was unemployed last summer/fall. I started by stripping the old finish and sanding it smooth. I decided to use a combo stain/polyurethane to save a few steps. I wasn't terribly excited about the original handles (simple wood handles that were kind of bulky), so I planned to find new antique handles. This proved to me more difficult than I expected. We checked all of the local antique stores and shows for something that fit the style of the desk, but we didn't have any luck. I was hoping to find something that would fit in the original holes, but that really wasn't a reality. I finally found some brass handles from the same dealer who had the ottoman legs at the Scott Antique Market. They weren't the same size as the original handles, so I had to figure out how to fill the old holes. Luckily the guy also had something called QuikWood that seemed like it would be pretty easy to use. This is where the story takes a familiar turn. Since the desk weighs about a ton (okay, maybe a bit of an exaggeration), we weren't able to move it from the basement to the second floor on our own. We were finally able to move it when Mandi's mom and Neal stopped on their way home from Florida. Neal and I got the desk up to the second floor and this is where it got ugly. Because of the way the door to my office was configured we couldn't get the desk through the door without either taking off the door frame or taking the top off the desk. I wasn't too thrilled about dismantling a rental house, so we tried taking the top off. Sadly, antique desks aren't  built to be taken apart and we couldn't get the top off without damaging the desk. So back down the stairs we went. The desk sat in the front room of the house until we moved to Florida. Now that the desk has a home I felt it was time to finish the drawers. Plus I couldn't unpack the stuff that goes into it until I finished the drawers. I still need to find a marker to match the wood filler to the new finish, but otherwise the desk is finally finished.

After stripping the original finish (I neglected to take a before picture)

The staining process

Finished staining. I love the pullout writing surface.



Finished desk in its new home

My favorite feature: the old typewriter cabinet makes a great home for the printer

A note from the church secretary