Archive for the ‘thrifty’ Category

Kitchen

Thursday, April 16th, 2009

The new kitchen bar is coming along with the addition of my recently found Bertoia chairs. I just picked up a set of six that need some love, but for the price they were a steal. The other four will go on the patio right outside the kitchen.

Whats that lovely art you say? Above the awesome open storage? Oh yeah…

Spagat!

This lovely clown photo was the best of a stack of clown head shots from the seventies that I bought at a local Angel View Thrift. With a snazzy frame fom Target it looks like art.

He’s so drunk!

Here is a close up of my stuff on shelves. It will change…it always does…

**Maya – I finally got it! My very own Blabbermouth radio!

Bench REMIX

Friday, March 20th, 2009

Last night I got home and was itching for a change. I was just in one of those moods where I wanted to either rip out the bathroom tiles or go buy expensive danish furniture. No money means no new tile or a brand new hutch….so it was time for a REMIX!

We’ve had this Ikea Flokati rug for a number of years and it is gross. It has been stored away and SHEDDING in the pit of a guest bedroom so that little Iggy would stop marking it.

BAD DOG.

Something about the rug smelling like a sheep made Iggy crazy and he kept putting little pee drops all over the thing. Yuck.

I also had this kind of ugly bench that was also wasting away in the guest bedroom as well. I bought it on the cheap at a thrift store and thought I would one day reupholster the cracking yellow vinyl in something fun…

I love everything sheep skin and thought that the rug would look really nice upholstered on the bench.

I cut a clean section out of the rug that was big enough to cover the bench

Removed all the legs – they just unscrewed.

Flipped over the rug so the good side was down and pulled out the trusty electric staple gun.

I just pulled the edges over and stapled them down onto the wood frame of the bench. I didn’t bother removing the old vinyl upholstery since it was pretty tight and solid. I was worried that the foam would be a mess underneath.

I stapled the rug section all the way around and folded the corners in. The rug was very furry and VERY forgiving so it didn’t matter if it wasn’t a totally clean and sharp upholstery job.

I then cut off the excess fur…

all the way around the edges so they didn’t hang down.

Screwed the legs back on and its DONE!

It took me about an hour and a half to get it all done and finished…with a few breaks playing with Iggy. He loves those Flokati fur balls.

Then like a serial killer I brushed, spot cleaned and vacuumed all the fur. It rubs the Flokati on its skin…or else it gets the hose again…

Ta-da!!! All brushed up like a show dog.

A lovely furry white ottoman. This way no ones walking on it and getting it all dirty.

I’m not sure where it will end up in the house, but the project scratched that itch for something new without spending any money!

Mac-tastic.

Wednesday, March 11th, 2009

Welcome home baby.

I’ve been saving and waiting and hoping and it finally happened. The new Imac’s have come out so that means the last generation is on SALE! I also had a little inside help that made this expensive dream a thrifty reality…

My trusty old 15″ Mac notebook has been dragging ass and refused to handle the Blogger post template, let alone OSX. The processor is a relic of my college days – bought a whopping 8 YEARS ago. Jeeeeezzz.

I’m going to keep the old beast for web browsing and easy things, but this new beauty – she is FAST and PRETTY.

I just can’t stop touching her.

I feel REALLY guilty about such a big purchase in such a bad economic time, both globally and personally at The Brick House. I had been saving and planning this off and on for a year as my computer slowly disintegrated and became totally obsolete. I looked on Craigslist and Ebay and scoured anywhere for the perfect deal. With the introduction of the new Imac’s this open box baby was the right one at the right price. With all my love for her (Ms. Jackson if Your Nasty – thats her dog show name) I feel awful that I used the money I had saved for so long instead of keeping it in case things get worse.

But what about other people – are you buying big things you need and have saved for? Or are you stuffing your cash under the mattress?