Flea Market Therapy

Yesterday I went shopping at the Jockey Lot because we still need a lot of stuff for the new house and because I am slowly going insane. Being cooped up in this house while sorting through 20+ years of accumulated junk has taken its toll on my overall well being.

For instance, a couple of days ago as I continued to purge, sort and clean my art room, I once again was frustrated with some of the storage options I'd chosen. I'm doing all of this without buying a single thing so I'm just using whatever boxes and bins I can find around the house. I'll do the real prettying up after we move.

Anyway, on the shelf in one of my closets I had one Rubbermaid box for my paint brushes and another one for sponge brushes, sponges, and texture tools. I came across another paint brush and went to put it in the paint brush box and wished I could find some other bins for these supplies because the box I had the paint brushes in was too big and the box that held all the sponge brushes and other supplies was too small. I like how the supplies were divided and didn't want to mix the two but the box sizes were driving me crazy and had been for several days. Plus, I didn't like the way they were stacked on the shelf either. I wanted the paint brushes on top to be more accessible but since they were in the bigger box they had to be on the bottom. The whole thing was messin' with my chi.

Okay, any normal person would have instantly seen the obvious solution. Switch boxes. Simple, right? Yeah. I'd been frustrated with that for days until out of nowhere a little voice in my head said, "switch boxes" at which point I jumped for joy while simultaneously slapping my forehead with my palm.

After that I decided to take a break and eat something since I was evidently pushing myself too hard since I couldn't see such an obvious solution to a problem.  Not wanting to waste too much time cooking and eating, I just heated up a bowl of soup in the microwave. I stood with my head pressed against the microwave and my eyes closed while I waited for what seemed like forever for the thing to ding. It didn't ding. I opened the microwave to see if my soup was ready and it was still cold. Because I never turned on the microwave.

This is payback for when I made fun of Jayson, I just know it. Anyway, I felt like I deserved a break so I went to the flea market yesterday. Here's what I found:

Drawer pulls and skeleton keys. The keys will go in my art room and the pulls will go on...something fabulous I'm sure.

Are these the best lamps ever or what?! I LOVE them! Now all I need is a couple of funky shades for them. After I clean the brass I might paint it silver or maybe give it a pewter finish.

I paid $20 for both lamps and was surprised that both of them work. I just assumed I'd have to rewire them which, by the way, is very easy to do nowadays with all the lamp kits that are available.

I saw this idea on some website not too long ago and couldn't wait to try it. I bought the salt & pepper shakers at some of the thrift stores in Houston then brought them back to Lafayette so I could see how amazing my glitter looks in them. It's amazing, right?

There's just something about this that makes me happy. Maybe because it's all sparkly and shiny.

I've been seeing this aaaallllll over the internet but it wasn't very high on my to-do list since I only have one spool of Divine Twine. Then I ran across the sugar container at a thrift store and thought maybe it was a sign from God that I needed to buy it for my Divine Twine. He cares about my twine storage, I'm just sure of it.

I didn't want this glass dish but the couple at the flea market wouldn't sell me just the buttons so I had to buy it. After a little negotiating, they threw in the next 2 items for free so it's all good.

I don't know what was going on with this bottle. I think it was etched then maybe silvered but it had tarnished so badly that it turned black.

After lots of scraping and scrubbing and mixing toxic chemicals to clean with, it turned out half way decent.

These were my other gift with purchase when I bought the bowl of buttons. I think they'll actually look good in Taylor's bathroom with that blue and white seersucker shower curtain I got from the thrift store.

30 bucks and a couple of hours of my time isn't a bad alternative to several months of therapy and hundreds of dollars in psychotropic drugs. Make that MORE psychotropic drugs.