yard sale bandit

the last few weeks marty and i have spent our saturday mornings scouring the city for budget-friendly used shit treasures to dress up our home. although we have managed to find some amazing pieces, it hasn't all been smooth sailing. looking for yard sales on craigslist is like looking for anything else on craigslist - you're going to find normal people with decent taste and you're also going to find the people who are using their old crap as a ruse to kidnap you. my personal favorites included the girl who was selling the entire contents of her kitchen (such as half-empty bags of cornstarch and paprika) and the guy whose moving sale included his, ahem, used adult magazines.

i found this beauty in the lower garden for $8. its owner was giving away free beer with every $2 purchase. well played, lady. well played.

still haven't quite figured out what to do with this amazing ikat fabric... pillows? reupholstering this crazy/amazing chair i bought from the beer lady? 

for $5. right. 

 fiesta ware! in turquoise! this was one of those yard sale moments when you look around and say to yourself, am i the only one seeing this? is it a yard sale mirage?! and then you try not to knock anything over as you lunge at it. true story.

this is just adorable. enough said.

don't quite know what i'll do with these yet. i'm sure pinterest will hook it up.

a natural accent for our bedroom

surfboard table

 marty and i moved into a new apartment - which should explain the recent choosing change silence as i have been working on putting together our new home. in an attempt to disguise the fact that the bulk of our furniture consists of hand-me-downs, items from my parent's basement and thrift store finds, i've been scouring blogs and hardware stores for repurposing ideas. marty and i both love mid-century modern anything (how original, i know), so that's where we've focused our attention. one of the first amazing pieces i found was this surfboard table at a thrift store for $30 - the catch, of course, being that whoever owned it had covered it with sticky contact paper to hide water rings, burns marks and who knows what else. so, marty sanded it down, we stained it a gorgeous chocolate brown and [in my opinion] we restored it to its former glory! 

before:

 

 after:

walking in memphis

cheesy song lyrics aside (did i just get them stuck in your head? sorry! ...not.), we spent the majority of our short time in memphis walking around the downtown area. chilly weather or not, it was shocking to see how few people were out and about! memphis really feels like it's been deserted, so it was very surprising to learn it is the 19th largest city, by population, in the united states! the weather was beautiful and we had a lot of fried chicken to walk off, so we hit up some of the city's most important landmarks (the lorraine motel, sun studio, some hoarder's antique store on front street, etc) and ended up - shockingly, i know - on beale street for some blues.

i'm back!

and thus begins my triumphant return to the real world following the busiest and most stressful month of my life. the bar exam is over friends! the exam ended on friday afternoon and i had the BEST time celebrating it. obviously i was too exhausted to do anything that lasted past 9 p.m. (considering i'm still waking up at 6 a.m., with no alarm, expecting to have to study), so a lot of daytime fun was had. roommate and i took the day saturday to go thrifting all over new orleans for our new apartment! we ended up with a new couch, some knick-knacks, and i pranced away from the salvation army with a pencil skirt from banana republic for a whopping $9. it felt amazing to use my legs (and my camera! and becky's new holga!) and be out in the sun for a bit, even if we were sweating the moment we stepped out of becky's air-conditioned car.

ew. legal text.

deal[s] of the day!

well my brain break is in full effect. i rode my bike up to lakeview and got a little retail therapy in to distract myself from studying (and thankfully beat the rain!!) let me tell you... i made a killing!

ikat print scarf from world market (find a similar one here)

prayer shawl, world market (yay, more scarves!)

stopped in my favorite consignment shop, buy popular demand, and picked up this ann taylor dress for $7!

little fishy earrings from the consignment shop, $2 - i had to get them!

gold, black and blue earrings, world market (similar to these, i knowwww)

consignment leather belt, $4

so my mom got these fish earrings years ago in mexico - and then proceeded to lose the other half. i've kept one fish, trying to work up the courage to wear just one earring (i don't know if i'm cool enough to pull that off), but now he has buddies! i plan on wearing all three. it's a good thing i went through an ear-piercing phase freshman year of high school.

i had to stock up on incense

best purchase of the day! i've been craving a pair of allstars for rainy, cooler, casual days for the longest time and found TEAL ONES! ya'll know i love my teal...