Table Centerpieces

Wow, my hiatus has morphed into way longer than I intended it to be. Apologies! I went to visit family, family came to visit us, plus regular summer activities has left me pretty tuckered out by the end of the day. But I have some exciting new finds to share with you guys!

Today I wanted to show you my new dinner table centerpiece. I've been wanting some silver candlesticks for ages but couldn't find any that I liked. Truth be told I wasn't really sure what I wanted, I just knew I wanted them to be sort of chunky and in a cluster of three or so. Just when I was about to abandon my search I found this beauty. I squeed and (carefully!) tossed it into the shopping cart and left in search for candles.

Have you guys bought candles lately? Oh my word! So I needed one pillar candle and three tapered candles. I stopped at Target on the way home and the size pillar candle I needed was $15. FIFTEEN DOLLARS. For a candle! After a kind employee picked me up off the floor I left and after searching various Goodwills and thrift stores I found exactly what I needed. Of course. Why didn't I look there in the first place?

The candle holder and candles are now living happily ever after on my dining room table, and I think they look quite lovely. Even though it's early afternoon here I lit them to see what they'd look like and I am so pleased! Now all I need is to set the table for dinner and invite friends over! And, you know, have food to cook other than canned soup. ;)

Table and chairs: Salvation Army

Candle holder: Goodwill

Pillar candle: Goodwill

Tapered candles: Nifty Thrift thrift store in Austin

I also have a few new things in the Etsy shop, stop by and check them out!

A Teeny Holiday

Hello, readers! I'll be leaving bright and early in the morning to travel to Mississippi to visit my family for the next ten days. I'm excited, I haven't seen them since Thanksgiving! I'll try to keep up the posts while I'm gone, but if you don't hear from me it's because I couldn't figure out how to use Blogger on my iPad. See you guys soon!

Thirfting Thursday

People often ask me what my favorite thrifting find is. And hands down it's my card catalog.

I'm a writer and all around book lover. I feel like I basically grew up in our local library, I even read my first ever book (It was a Word Bird book I believe) in our little library. To say that I've been looking for a card catalog for years would be an understatement. One day I walked into one of my Goodwills and there it was calling out to me. Only problem was it was a auction item. 

The Austin area Goodwills have a few items that they do a silent auction on over the course of a week, then a live auction every Saturday. I wrote down a bid and prayed it was enough. I was leaving Wednesday of that week to go out of town so I begged my poor husband to go to the live auction on Saturday to make sure I won. And he did! Turns out only one other lady had bid on it at the silent auction and nobody had interest in it at the live auction. Score for me!

I just love it. It's old. The wood has different tones in it and I love everything about it. I also love its size. While yes I'd love a huge card catalog, this one measures right at about three feet tall. Perfect for my small apartment! 

Succulents

I love plants and gardening. My dad has the most amazing green thumb you've ever seen and I spent many-a Spring and Summer in the flower beds with him and my mom.

Not only do I have a teeeeeeny outdoor space, it gets zero shade. I live on the third floor and for the most part enjoy it. I don't mind climbing the stairs if it means not having someone stomping above me all the time. The only drawback is the balcony. Since it's on the top floor that means it has no roof or covering of any kind. I've thought about trying to install something but I recently reread our apartment lease and apparently that's a lease violation.

I lived in denial for a while, I bought plants and put them outside anyway. They died very, very quickly. Then I bought "full sun" plants and they died, too. Now I may not have the green thumb of my father, but I can at least keep a plant alive. I think it's just too hot and dry here for any outdoor plants other than cacti.

After some thinking I went to our local home improvement store and bought a succulent to keep inside on the coffee table. I bought a beautiful milk glass pedestal bowl a while back and I knew it would make the perfect planter. Succulents are particularly hearty. They don't take much water or much looking after and they're very pretty. There are lots of different kinds to choose from! We've also started growing a tiny herb garden in our windowsill, so stay tuned for sproutlet photos soon!

Plant: Lowe's

Milk glass bowl: Goodwill

Brass bird: Goodwill

Candy dish: Goodwill

Tray: Goodwill

Coffee table: Goodwill

Thrifting Thursday

Happy Thursday, everyone! Thrifting Thursday is a feature I've been thinking about for a while, even before I started this blog. Each Thursday (hopefully!) I'll talk about thrifting in some way. Either how I've incorporated something into my home, my finds for the week, or something silly I saw at the store.

This week want to talk about this beauty:

I have been looking for a bar cart of some sort for ages and couldn't find one I liked. It either wasn't the right size or shape or wasn't in good enough condition. While I was out thrifting yesterday I spotted this guy from across the store. I did a slow-mo run to it and saw it was $15. After a quick once over I saw it was well worth the $15 so I pushed it around the store while I did my other shopping, getting many looks from other shoppers. It made an excellent shopping basket!

I am in love with the detailing on the side. It's pretty much exactly what I've been looking for, sans the color, of course. I'm going to repaint it, I just haven't decided what color yet. I'm thinking a light teal blue/sea foam green color. I might try to mimic the side detail on the top, but I'm not sure if I want to get that complicated with it. I'll get a piece of glass cut to put on top and breathe some new life into this bad boy! I'm hoping to get to it sometime next week. The weather here in Texas isn't showing any signs of cooling off as we head into the end of May so I need to do it as quickly as I can. 

Did you guys find anything interesting this week? Have any recommendations as to what color I should paint my bar cart? Let me know in the comments!

World's Easiest Cookies

Tomorrow I'm meeting a friend in the afternoon and wanted to bring a little treat for us to nosh on. I had a recipe for cinnamon apple sauce bread I wanted to try, but sadly I was out of cinnamon. I'm not sure how I let this happen! Instead I fell back on my old trusty peanut butter cookies. I'm not even sure who told me this recipe or where I got it from originally, but I'm seen it posted in a few other places too so it's not like it's an original recipe or anything. I promise this is literally the easiest cookie recipe ever. And they're gluten free!

Ingredients:

• 1 cup sugar
• 1 cup peanut butter (1 cup = 16 tablespoons)
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla

Mix everything together with a mixer. You can try to do this by hand if you're looking for a good workout, but you'll thank me by suggesting the mixer! You'll have a nice dough consistency pretty quick. I use a 2 teaspoon scoop so that all my cookies are the same size (because I'm nothing if not OCD) but you can do whatever is easiest for you. Place cookie dough balls on a greased cookie sheet then using a fork press in an up/down direction then a left/right direction for each cookie. Place in a 350 degree oven and cook for 10-12 minutes (I do 10). Once they're out, let them sit on the sheet for about five minutes. This is important! These cookies are pretty crumbly so you need to give them a few minutes to stabilize. Since there's no flour in the cookies they won't rise. After your five minutes are up carefully move them to a cooling rack to let them cool completely. For me this recipe makes almost two dozen cookies.

Mixing bowl: Pyrex from the 1980s

Serving plate: Mikasa (habitat pattern), from the 1960s

Glass cake dome: I know it's vintage, but I'm not sure who it's by! I also have the matching cake stand.

Working with What You Have

I've been blue for the past few days. No real reason, just one of those weeks I guess. The weather here in Austin has been rainy and overcast, so we'll just blame it on that.

I had to do my weekly grocery trip today, which I LOATHE. I usually put it off for as long as I can because I hate going so much. In an effort to cheer myself up I planned on buying some flowers for my coffee table, but in all the stress and hassle of the grocery store I completely forgot until I was halfway home. As much as I wanted some fresh flowers, I wasn't about to turn around for them. Plus it was over 90 degrees today and I had cold stuff in the car. I seriously needed my ice cream more than flowers.

When I pulled into my apartment complex I noticed for the first time that the magnolia trees are pretty much in full bloom. Not sure why I haven't noticed it before. After putting my groceries away I went for a quick walk with just my keys and a pair of scissors.

I go walking a few times a week and I rarely ever bring my cell phone or iPod with me. When I first started I did, and I found that if I wasn't checking my email constantly I was checking to see what time it was. Which kind of defeats the purpose of going for a walk to clear your head or whatever. I don't even really like to listen to music when I walk. I just want it to be me and my thoughts.

 It took me a while to find a bloom I could reach (I'm only just over 5 feet!), but I finally did. It hasn't bloomed fully yet, but I'm hoping over the next few days it will. I also found a very friendly black cat with a bushy tail that I stopped to pet and in return I was given some leg rubs.

I love magnolias. I was born and raised in a little town in southern Mississippi (magnolias are Mississippi's state flower), so I feel a bit of pride when I see one. Hopefully no one judges me too harshly for hacking a limb off one!

If you find yourself in a similar situation to mine, take a quick walk around your apartment complex or neighborhood. Even if you don't find a flower in bloom, there's lots of greenery this time of year that would look lovely in your home!

Coffee table: Goodwill
Tray: Goodwill
Candy dish: Goodwill (It's a vintage Anchor Hocking chip bowl!)
Vase: Salvation Army (I don't think it's an actual vintage milk jug, but it's cute anyway!)
Candle: Painted by my friend Andrea

An introduction of sorts!

My name is Stephanie and I'm a nearly 30 something (when did THAT happen??) living in Austin, TX with my nerdy husband. By day I write fiction for children and young adults. Also by day I am an avid thrifter, baker, and decorator (among other things!). I've had a few people approach me over the past few years to start a blog about living in a small space and how I incorporate my vintage finds into my home. "I already have a blog!" I thought. "Why should I start another?" Well after much thought I decided I wanted to try to keep the two separate. This blog will be specifically about my thrifting adventures, apartment photos, and things of that nature. My other blog will be mainly a more personal one where I talk about my writing life, family, etc.

Confused yet? Yeah, so am I. We'll get through this together.

Why do I thrift? The thrill of the hunt more than anything. Also vintage kitchenware. Pyrex, Fire King, Glasbake, you name it. I have accumulated so much of it that I sell it on Etsy now.

I also thrift because I like to be as green as possible in my day to day life. Yes, I'm the type of person who gets giddy off recycling things, so saving something from going into a landfill or dump is just up my alley. 

I thank you in advance for finding my little blog. I will be updating things around here soon, so please be patient with me!