i LOVE thrift stores {creativity}

let me preface this with the fact that i found my blog yesterday & deleted all the posts (cause they were from 2008 or earlier and i was just an idiot then.) so i decided to start it back up. won't always be personal. won't always be business. and i'm 100% sure i won't always write. :) but today i had something to share so here we are.

thanks to my mom and grandma, i have come to LOVE thrift stores. still haven't fully embraced the clothes section. i'm a banana republic girl at heart. but decor, bags (they always have so much vera bradley!), etc. make it one of my happy places.

here's my most recent thrifting story:

i'm a photographer, right? right. i don't have a lot of photog friends (fix that) and so i don't know what the inside of their homes look like. but i would assume there would be a lot of photography displayed, hung up, used as art...you get it. i was failing miserably at this. 

so i looked at a blank wall i'd been ignoring for months, went to the thrift store and BAM i feel so DIY-savvy that i'm writing a blog about it so all of you can say - OMG you're so DIY-savvy.

this was my very boring, lonely wall. some awesome mirrors from IKEA. and a special keepsake hanging from my window treatment on the top left. and that's it. so sad.

bought some frames from the thrift store for an average of 29 cents each. all different colors and textures. spray painted them the same color (it's called oil rubbed bronze. warm black/brown tone. my mom buys it in bulk. she spray paints EVERYTHING.) got the metal cross on clearance for 2 dollars at hobby lobby. the fruits of the spirit framed art was a gift. printed my pictures of me+friends at meijer (my favorite local printer!) and VOILA! wall art. total cost : $10.70.

figured while i was at it, i should update my bedside table. frame is all wrong. i love my housemates from college but i haven't seem then in years plus i look a LITTLE different now {ugh}.

here it is now. added a red vase/something i found in the closet and changed the picture to me+my loves (frame was also thrift store - 39 cents - spray painted)

i had one casualty. it was the largest frame from the TS and the cheapest. i should have known. 

now i have this life-size picture of me+P to find something to do with.

no seriously, it's life size. :)

{next project} - find something(s) at the TS that can help with my michael shrine. right now it's just a mess but it's out of the way at least. and in case you can't see everything, that's a newspaper after he passed, an ebony cover, the people magazine after he passed, a people from the 80's with him on the cover (still in plastic), 2 buttons, the trucker hat, the complete michael jackson box set, and a mead notebook from who knows when without a pencil mark in it. :)

here's to creativity, frugalness, and memories.

xx