Texas Kitchen

I have always had a huge affection for Texas. My superpatriotism is probably a result of my dad forcing me to watch John Wayne movies and making me learn every detail of our independence from Mexico by the time I could walk. I get stopped and questioned a lot (primarily by judgemental old ladies) about why I got a Texas tattoo on my foot. Uh, duh. There are two answers to that question. One, because it is a scientific fact that Texas is the best state that's ever existed. People from other states like to argue about that but I'll only give people the time of day if the average 10 year old can find their state on a map. I passed a lot of notes in 5th grade so I actually wont be a great judge of their accuracy. The other obvious reason is that I was 18 and bored on a Sunday and Platinum ink had discounted small tattoos. I found out that around here in Bryan a Texas outline tattoo can be gang related. So if I went to jail they might list me as possibly affiliated? Finding that out was the final push I needed to stay out of prison. Anyways, I love Texas and if I could make my whole house Texas themed I probably would but people seem to think that's obnoxious, so I settled on the kitchen.


I have been collecting my kitchen stuff for some time planning the move into my new house. I have gotten a bunch of steals and you can too!

                                                 First I'll start off with the bigger stuff

This counter-height-or bar height, I'm not a carpenter- table that I'm sitting at in this picture was purchased the other day off of Craigslist for $130 bucks. My fiancee really wanted to build one cause we could have done it for $50 but I dont want to end up with a splinter/shank in my butt during breakfast so we "splurged" on teh $130. Tons of dining room sets are on craigslist for next to nothing though, I was just picky and wanted a tall one. It worked out though, because I bought it off of some stoner college kids and I got to feel cool because they were SO overly impressed that I had a Bob Marley CD in my car. Craigslist is AWESOME except when you end up getting murdered so I try to tell people I'm going to meet up with someone and if they don't get a text from me in 30 minutes I've been abducted. The "Free" list on Craigslist occassionally has great stuff- especially in bigger cities. Sometimes it's just good for a laugh: "Free half a bar of white chocolate"....uh we all know you're either a murderer who preys on desperate chocoholics or desperate for friends.

I got this bakers rack at a semi antique semi junk store called "Furniture Farm" on Texas. They kind of walk the line pricewise but they do negotiate. Anyways I got this for $25 bucks/the lady upset at the bargain down because it's "really not even hers" (???) and I didn't have to repaint it or anything.

DISCLAIMER: I'm still moving into the house/setting up if you're gonna judge how displaced everything is...go away. :)

I have a big wall to fill behind the table and I haaaaate a bunch of empty wall space (don't call hoarders....ok please dear God someone call hoarders). Anyways, I at least love that the builders painted the house khaki -it's called relaxed khaki which I think is as redundent as "boring beige"-anyways that looks better than a big ol' white wall. I wanted something to cover the space so I bought a ton of old Texas postcards at a booth in The Antique Mall of Austin (awesome place near Burnet). They all were $0.50-$1.00 each (I bought 9). I bought ones from the main places in Texas like Houston, Dallas, Austin, Galveston, San Antonio....weirdly there were no "greetings from Bryan" cards..hmm. I also bought a buncha $1 wood frames from Michaels to put the post cards in and painted them red, white, and blue. Finally I bought wooden letters to paint RW&B that were on saile for $0.59 each during Michaels "Dollar Days." This is my work in progress/messy, messy garage.





Several months ago in Gainsville, TX I got the cutest Texas towel set at Cahoots Handbags

They were $20 which is way more than I'd normally spend on kitchen rags but they are just decorative and I loved them too much to not get them.

Here's my favorite one

  

Lastly is my favorite kitchen piece of junk that I got for $5. I drink constantly...er I mean I drink out of straws constantly and I loved this little old straw dispenser. Don't worry (mom) I cleaned it out.



All of my "glasses" in my kitchen are big mason jars. They are fun, cute and 12 for 6 dollars at Wally world. I love them! Plus if I lose one, and somehow I'm always losing cups/glasses, it's not a big deal because again you buy them in a 12 jar crate. Did I mention that I'm really classy?

  Anyways that's my Texas Kitchen. Tomorrow I'm going to talk about where teachers get discounts. I'll do this to inform teachers and make other people jealous :)