Urban Outfitters = $32
That’s right. A fake stick is worth $32. Gee, if only I could find a real stick. I could make my own! If only there were real sticks just lying about on the ground!
Money really does grow on trees, I guess. I’ve got an extra $32 in my pocket thanks to a stick I spotted in the bushes by CVS.
(For those of you who know me, yes — that is every single piece of jewelry I own.)
It’s been a busy week. Worked my real job Monday-Saturday, worked my part-time job on Sunday, and stole a few hours Sunday afternoon to work on this bookshelf project. I have a funky 23″ wide alcove in my home office that came with a metal bracket storage system from the Home Depot… you know, this crap:
Except my variation included plywood shelves wrapped in adhesive paper. With a daisy motif. They had to go.
23″ turns out to be a really weird size to work with, so after hours of googling around for the perfect piece of furniture I gave up and hacked a couple of IKEA shelves apart — literally. REXBO shelves must be the only IKEA item that comes almost fully built. I had to saw a set of them apart to join them up with a second set. But hacking out that fourth rail saved me exactly the inch and a half I needed.
REXBO before:
Double REXBO:
It’s a little stuffed right now ’cause it’s the only bookcase I have use of at the moment, and I got a little carried away when I started cracking open my old boxes of educational goodies. When the living room is finished, I hope to move the collection of art books (and there are many more!) downstairs.
But this is a start! I’m wondering if I should paint the inside of the alcove a fun color, just to spruce the room up a bit. I did snag a cute little rug (for $7.99!) on my IKEA trip; it’s tough to see from this tiny picture, but it’s white with random colors woven in every third layer or so. I like how it plays on the different colors of the book spines.
Well, my tweet didn’t get any feedback, but I forged ahead with my idea, anyway. Here it is!
This was an unpainted wooden broom closet built by the guy who owned my house before me. I think he meant it to match the kitchen cabinets (the door with the trim down the middle is the same style), but the wood was a different color and it bugged me. So I tried to pretty it up a bit with a two-toned painting of an aspen tree, and I think I like the results! In fact, I might paint my whole house like this. Art hasn’t been this fun since… uh, I went to art school and started to hate it.
Another first today: I finally learned how to use my cruise control. And I set it to — gasp — the speed limit. Guys, it’s hard to drive 55! (Or, in my case, 65.) But I’m trying to be more waste-conscious, along with all the other broke people I know.
Speaking of waste, I made my first purchase for the house last week, and it just arrived yesterday:
A set of coasters made from recycled wallpaper! If you haven’t been to Etsy yet, go. The sellers are amazing. I can’t even decide which set of homemade damask printed throw pillows to buy, because I have too many choices. Uh, nor can I pick a paint color to match them to. But that’s a problem for another day…