Tuesday, July 10, 2012

First time blogger

Hi! I am a first time blogger (unless you count my xanga shout outs in 6th grade). I have always been interested in blogging but never thought I had that much to talk about. However, I love turning trash into treasure and I am a Special Education teacher. Plus, I'm about to start teaching at the middle school level so I figure I don't have too much of my life left and I might as well start on the bucket list, and since Idris Elba isn't answering my calls I'll go ahead and knock off blogging.

If you love reading blogs because you love ideas on how to be the perfect homemaker, teacher, or woman you are very lost and this blog will disappoint you greatly. I am a huge mess but I do know how to get a lot of stuff done cheaply and I figure I'll share my ideas. I love pinterest but sometimes you just dont have the funds to build a jungle habitat in your backyard or time to spend 3 hours whittling orange peels into a rug. Everything I do is easy, cheap, and can be done with simple tools.

I'm gonna start off today talking about WHERE to buy cheap things to turn into beauties. I laugh when I read bloggers all over pinterest talk about the steal of a deal they got on an old junky desk-$50! In my world if it's $50 it better be ready to go in the house, not still need to have the animals moved out of it and painted! Most people are not 80 at heart and probably don't wake up early on saturdays to go diving into garage sales, and then hit up every junk store in town, but I am. One of my best friends really got me into the junk world. Her mom and sister are AMAZING interior decorators (shout out to Embellish Interiors) and she's been junk store diving for years. I, not so much, but I've caught up fast.

There are a few categories of "used stuff" stores. There are antique stores which are fun to look at but normally super expensive (cause these people actually know what the stuff is worth). Consignment stores-big mix of amazing antiques to major crap but if you don't mind getting sucked in for several hours they can be a gold mine. Goodwill-I pretty much hate Goodwill. I've found a few gems but typically they way overcharge for junk they get for free (cue people thinking $50 bucks is a good deal for a used crappy piece of furniture). Sometimes they have good things, but rarely, and they don't negotiate. Please don't comment or email me about how Goodwill is awesome for the community cause I don't care :) The real winners are junkstores, storage center cleanouts and offbeat charity stores. Junkstores are typically run by people who make a business out of everything. Normally they are tagged as "resale shops" but you'll know it's a good one if it has 600 other businesses inside of it. I like one around the corner from me that is a used clothes boutique (they use the word boutique pretty loosely) sno-cone store, and furniture place. They also allegedly run donations for an orphanage out of there but I haven't witnessed any of those transactions. Anyways they have a lot of absolute disgusting crap but they do have treasures occasionally. Storage cleanouts are often awesome (I got a great wicker chair for $2 once and a WWII trunk for $10). Charity resale shops are great because it's almost always negotiable (nothing like bargaining down those volunteers) and always has awesome stuff. Twin City missions is my fave in Bryan/College Station. I got a desk and a dresser for $20 total today and the other week my junk store friend got a brand new in wrapping ihome for $5. Plus I got this cutie table for $6. Spraypaint at Lowes is in the range of 3-4 dollars and I had some blue already laying around. My phone obviously takes bad pictures....or maybe it's me.



Tomorrow....my cheapskate Texas Kitchen :)

8 comments:

  1. Love it!! You are hilarious. I will be adding you to my list of blog I live to stalk:). Good luck.

    Lori

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    1. That's BLOGS I LOVE to stalk! ;)

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    2. Hahah!! Live to stalk/love to stalk same difference.

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  2. Great job, Laura. This is great for all teachers (or really anyone) to know this information. Last night when I was talking to a group of ladies several did bring up about how expensive Pinterest can be. But anything can be done simply or to an extreme. Maybe one day you'll start your own "Cheap-skate" Pinterest:)

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    1. Yay so glad you decided to go for it!! I'll be reading this daily because a) you're hilarious and b) I need to learn your deal-finding ways. What's your favorite junkstore in Austin??

      Love you Buds!

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  4. Goodwill, Salvation Army & Garage sales rule! Great blog idea...I'll read em.
    Kelly Lopez, LMT( & Krysta's Mom)

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  5. Laura Darling, are you sure "Cahoots Handbags" (towel set) wasn't really "Cahoots Motel" in Gainsville, Tx? Just saying...

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