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Interior Files | Thrifted Details
Our house is in a constant state of flux. I don't think it will ever be "Voila! Complete!" or, whatever, and it feels infi...
Our house is in a constant state of flux. I don't think it will ever be "Voila! Complete!" or, whatever, and it feels infinitely remix-able, you know? Right now, I am slowly,
slowly
trying to add small little details to every room. Things that make me smile, or add to the functionality of the space.
It's impossible for me to make a whirlwind of progress + changes, buying furniture and decoration and plants and fabrics and lights and wallpaper and paint—it's just not gonna happen like that. Because of money,
obviously
, but also because I want things to be...special.
I treasure the hunt for that perfect chair or bench or credenza that may or may not pop up one day at a thrift store. It's like, my bread and butter. I would like the things in my home to have a little story behind them; a life; a memory. That shit? Takes time. (And money. 💔)
I've been filling notebook pages with ideas, drawings, layouts, plans. I have shopping lists, to-do lists, DIY's saved on Pinterest, and a series of wishlists on Amazon. I think about this all 👏 of 👏 the 👏 time. [Sidenote: I really enjoy Austin Kleon's weekly newsletter, and he recently quoted someone else who said
Pay Attention To What You Pay Attention To.
Food for thought
por moi
, for sure.]
Anyway, all of this to say: today I'm sharing a few of my recent thrift store finds + projects, in various states of finish. For your viewing pleasure; to inspire; for laughs (
Haha!
You scoff
. Why didn't she just save up and buy something cuter from West Elm?!)
; for fun; for posterity (which I used to think meant 'For the hell of it'). Please enjoy!
Check out my funky lil' terrarium party, son! I know you're jealous of all the pla—hold up! Bitch, she's only got, like, three little cacti up in this piece? (Why am I typing like this? Who am I? I feel like
that SNL sketch
with Louis C K and + Leslie Jones)
What I'm trying to say is: several weeks ago I decided to thrift a few glass containers to make terrariums as the centerpiece to our dining room table. Done. Finished. I done did it, and it looks pretty cute! So cute that my mother-in-law suggested I do something similar in the bay window in our bedroom. That window is doooooope because it gets so much SUNLIGHT and I know some little cacti bbs would love to sunbathe there.
So, voila! This is it. Like that Michael Jackson album. Well, sort of. You may or may not have noticed that this is a sad excuse for a terrarium party. There are only 3 cacti and, like, 400 empty glass containers. THAT is because when I went to The Home Depot, they decided to change the game on me and disappear all of their little cactus friends and replace them with a bunch of 'low light' plants (that I definitely could find a place for elsewhere, but not here, son. Not here.). Soooooo I snatched up the few succulents they had left and went on my way.
Suffice it to say, this area is still UNDER CONSTRUCTION (like the rest of the house. Hell, like my LIFE).
I just got the
Doug
theme song in my head. That's normal.
Anyway, let me introduce you to this chair. It's a vintage (okayyyy, probably circa 1980s if I had to guess) Buckstaff chair with brown leather cushions. I found it at the Habitat For Humanity ReStore that's near our house. Isn't it cute?
It WAS NOT cute when we carted it from the store (clustered with a bunch of other chairs that were also reasonably priced because none of them were of the MCM style and thus were not trendy or modern looking enough to warrant a high ass price tag) ((Clearly, I'm bitter as hell about MCM furniture))(((Not because I hate it, but because I love it and am money-challenged))).
As my
slave
husband carried it out to the car and tilted it awkwardly to fit into our trunk (it didn't), we both noticed that the bottom of the chair looked like my nightmares. Coated in webs and spider eggs, howbowdah? Nevertheless, we lodged it into the
car boot
and I held on to one of the legs inside the car so we could slowly drive it back to our GARAGE BECAUSE HONEY, THAT THING ISN'T COMING INSIDE UNTIL IT'S BEEN BAPTIZED AND PRAYED OVER.
So, after
exorcising
scrubbing down + vacuuming the chair, I had Charlie move it inside, into our family room. Two days later, I went to Home Goods and found the perfect blanket to complete the *aesthetic* and this is the end result and I'm pretty happy with it. Not bad for $35.
More plants!
In an ideal world, my entire house would just be a tropical greenhouse and we would sleep under the stars, viewed through our glass ceiling. This isn't realistic, though, so in order to create the illusion of
Plantasia
(à la
The Jungalow
+
houseplantclub
Instagram feeds), I try to buy at least one new plant for the house every week.
Knowing this, whenever I'm out at a thrift store, I ALWAYS look for plant pots, planters, plant stands, baskets, or bowls that I can put future plant friends in. I found this cute + classic one at Goodwill, and I was all about it, 'bout it. It's simple, basic, and forever cool. I don't have much to say about it other than that, actually. Oh! And I guess I could say that the plant I put in there isn't actually properly potted. I just stuck it in the pot without repotting it yet because I'm
lazy
reeaaalllyyy buusssyyyy. *runs away*
Sidenote: we have these very nice very cool French doors for the sitting room. One day while casually browsing Pinterest (jk, whenever I'm on Pinterest I'm serious as a heart attack tryna inhale inspiration and ideas) I came across a picture (that I can no longer find!!!), and the idea for this small plant hangout was born. It's still in the process of becoming ✨ truly inspirational ✨ but it makes me happy.
And last but not least: a ladder to the stars. Er, the ceiling.
Charlie and I spotted this sad little wood ladder on a visit to a local vintage/flea market that had just moved to a new space. A ladder like this has actually been on my thriftlist for some time now, and I was glad to find this little dude.
I think what I like best about him is that he's infinitely style-able. For now, I just put a few things on him that we had around, but in the future I'd love to experiment with a few different decor looks for Mr. Ladder.
👉 Bonus Thrift Details: I found that pretty blue typewriter years ago, back when I worked at a thrift store. I've always liked it, and literally just found out another way to display it. I was watching
a Conan Gray vid
and saw he had actually taken his out of its case *gasp* and placed it on top! So I immediately set up ours like that too, and I like it! And then I saw
this project
, and thought
that
would be cool to try if I ever find another cheap typewriter that also doesn't work. (Because this one does work, and I don't want to ruin it by sticking dirt and plants in it).
And I guess that's it! That is all. Goodbye. This post is done. Yup that's it.
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Daytripping | Coffee, Books, and Thrifting in Bloomington
I'm not a super sentimental person, really. I've been known to donate personalized gifts from loved ones to Goodwill with apl...
I'm not a super sentimental person, really. I've been known to donate personalized gifts from loved ones
to Goodwill
with aplomb. (I Marie Kondo'd that shit). Charlie is a bit more caring in that regard, but we're both guilty as charged when it comes to remembering our wedding anniversary. Not that we don't care about it at all, per se—it's more like...it's just a day. Why force something "special"?
This year, I happened to remember our anniversary the day before it arrived, and that night, we went out to dinner (*Biggie Smalls voice* Olive Garden, babay babay!). This obviously wasn't
enough
for me, and I suggested we plan a day trip for that coming weekend. So we did! And invited some friends along for the ride.
Food was obviously the
most important thing
so after driving for about an hour, we arrived at our first destination: brunch!
Fort Jesse Cafe
This family-style restaurant came up first on the list of popular brunch spots in Bloomington. I wasn't convinced until I saw a picture someone took of their chicken and waffles. Sold! I vowed to document our trip here, but we got engaged in conversation and by the time our food came out, it looked so good I was like,
what camera?
So the above shot of the menu is all you get, I guess.
According to my spotty memory, I'd never actually
had
chicken and waffles before arriving to Fort Jesse. I must say, these were good, but their recipe includes green onions on top, which were not my fave.
Not
my fave, bruh.
Goodwill
Goodwill was around the corner, so obviously I ordered our chauffeur (poor Charlie) to pull into the parking lot so we could duck inside and have a look see. I am, ironically, kind of a germaphobe, and that day I was particularly grossed-out by everything. Luckily, my partner in thrifting crime (Rachel
Dolezal
) is also germ-averse and we bonded over our mutual neuroses while gingerly handling hangers and housewares. I ended up leaving with 3 pieces of clothing, none of which I needed to try on—MAJOR KEY.
I'll be sharing my haul from this trip in a totally separate post very soon!
Bobzbay
We then drove to a nearby used book/comic/movie/etc. store where everyone's interests (ahem, Charlie) were more accommodated. I have
this thing
where I love to collect + have books on books on books on books that I
may
or may not read. It's not, like, out of control or anything *breathes heavily* but I do get some flack for it from various family members. Guess what? DON'T CARE. (But, like, obviously I care a little bit since I'm even mentioning it).
I liked this bookstore. It had a good mixture of things for sale (an Atari system, old records, a copy of
The Boondock Saints
on DVD) and an eclectic, home-y feel. My friend and I had briefly discussed Salinger's
Franny and Zooey
at Fort Jesse and lo and behold: I snagged a copy for $4 here.
Family Thrift Store
*Dances* I looooove old stuff! Even though so much of it is Christina Aguilera's "Dirrty feat. Redman," and, like I said, I'm a g e r m a p h o b e. It's just so fun! And old! Anyway, we stopped in this spot and the first thing I commented on was the font used for their logo, which was a bunch of different colors and looked like a knock off of Comic Sans. But like, you know, Don't Hate; Appreciate!
And appreciate I did. They had a lot of cool MCM pieces that were all a million dollars, but they also had some really affordable, interesting pieces. I didn't find anything I couldn't live without, and even if I had I doubt we could have fit it in our car. My philosophy, though, for when I love everything but can't afford any of it is to Take A Lot Of Pictures, Please. So I did.
[A sidenote on that last pic of the room with all those cool chairs? This was in the basement area of the store, and it smelled
like death
but I'm a rebel and decided to brave the years and years of must to see what I could see. Even though my eyes started itching from all the layers of dust. I'm building up my immune system, or whatever. Right?]
Babbitt's Bookstore
Hey! Another bookstore! Who would have thought? Babbit's was in a cool old building with high ceilings. If I owned it I would definitely use it as a bookstore slash cafe slash art space slash zine distro slash record store. You dig?
I don't necessarily have much to say about this place, but that fact has never stopped me from crafting paragraphs on paragraphs of nonsense before (see: this entire blog). There were some cool books here about witches and one called "Marihuana" that had a groovy looking typeface and was published in (obviously) the 60's. I really wanted to buy it, but had literally no reason to because I was
definitely
not going to read it.
The Coffeehouse
Last stop: caffeine. Except I actually didn't get any here because I had already had some at Fort Jesse. Instead, I opted for a croissant. We went in under the illusion of reading quietly + resting (I guess)? But we ended up loudly discussing a near-future weekend trip to Chicago, and food, and some other things that I can't remember. I do know chicken strips came up, as well as our general distaste for the bathroom situation at this place. It was preeeetttty unsightly, but I'll squat-hover almost anywhere—as long as there's no vomit in sight.
I'm definitely going to end this post with a sentence containing the word vomit.
Bye!
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Inspiring Visuals + Overwhelming Whiteness : Lana Del Rey's Love
A few weeks ago, Lana Del Rey released a video for her new single, "Love." It's a production full of dreamy, spaced out vi...
A few weeks ago, Lana Del Rey released a video for her new single, "Love." It's a production full of dreamy, spaced out visuals, and Lana looking like a perfectly-coifed, hippie earth-mother in a white mini-dress and flowers in her hair.
Sparkle, Beth Hoeckel
Creation, Beth Hoeckel
Cheerful, Beth Hoeckel
Dreamer, Beth Hoeckel
The song is about, well, being young and in love. Nothing new in the Lana-sphere. But the video! The video has this epic, sweeping surreality that I love—and an overwhelming whiteness that I do not. I would be truly remiss not to address the sort of headaches I get, singing along with Lana's sultry voice while also being painfully aware that her world—a vivid, often devastating and idealistic dreamscape—is also one that feels exclusively white.
Moonriver, Beth Hoeckel
I'm not even interested in holding Lana to some standard of "diversity"—just as I don't expect any nuanced dialogue about race or women (or
anything
, really) from rappers like Migos or Future. If it's music that I can bop to...or make art to...or sing along with...or daydream during, etc...I'm good.
Solar Eclipse, Beth Hoeckel
Wading, Beth Hoeckel
If a musician's social outlook tends to line up with mine: awesome! Even better! But I don't need it to. I'm not gonna go on twitter and drag M.I.A. because she has informed and honest opinions about refugees and the BLM movement. I like Lana Del Rey's whole vibe, music, visuals, lyrics: everything. But she's also a white woman living in a world that feels closed off to me. It's impossible for me to ignore that. It's at those times—grappling with that exclusivity—that I'm grateful for artists like Solange or Dev Hynes, who intentionally make music for certain marginalized voices and identities.
Moonrise, Beth Hoeckel
Float, Beth Hoeckel
The general lack of melanin isn't the
only
thing I noticed in this video, though. I totally appreciated the repeating motifs of space and otherworldly wanderlust throughout. Partially because they felt like an Urban Outfitters ad, but mostly because they reminded me of one of my favorite collage artists:
Beth Hoeckel
.
To me, Hoeckel's work instills a sense of wonder and awe, by presenting a person or thing in a totally unexpected context. Her work is often funny, playful, or dreamy. A ham sandwich becomes a chair for a girl in a retro bikini; women lounge in impossible plant arrangements; children swim through a starry night sky.
Ember, Beth Hoeckel
Distance, Beth Hoeckel
I think all forms of art—music, theater, painting, etc. are always referencing one another. Even if it's subconscious, these "conversations" are always interesting. They tend to enhance each work individually. I love witnessing + discovering these interactions and chance happenings. For your viewing pleasure, I've embedded the "Love" video below. What do you see? What do you think?
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