The post with the--wait, I can't decide.

"Mind changeitis." It's what I suffer from. Please don't analyze that disease name too closely; you'll find that "inflammation of the mind changing" really makes no sense, which your nearest friendly pharmacist will readily point out to you. If my local friendly pharmacist was currently lurking over my shoulder instead of watching Norm Abram install pocket doors on This Old House, I'm sure he would have already informed me of my error.

Yes, I did give myself the ability to read his mind in the above picture. One of those perks of being a woman, you know.

Anyway, this problem of mine has resulted in me spending many minutes trying to locate some receipt that I put in a Good Spot (must do something about that) and then more minutes in some return or exchange line, with the following questions running through my mind:

"When has green and red plaid ever been a good option for my couch pillows?"
"What do these stores really pump in via those halogen bulbs?"
"How long will Rick roll his eyes at me this time?"
"Was it the 70% off sticker that made this snowman statue end up in my cart?"

Fortunately, I've learned of my problem and have been coping with it ("Hi, I'm Erin, and I'm addicted to changing my mind"), just in time to make some serious purchases for our house. How devastated would I have been if I bought some gorgeously red couch only to wish I didn't have to look at its face a couple months or even years later? They don't make return lines for stuff like that. And let's face it, not every color goes with red. Just ask Anne of Green Gables.

"Mrs. Hammond told me that God made my hair red on purpose and I've never cared for Him since."

So, in my quest to encourage my habit rather than eradicate it (yes, I'm an enabler: please don't tell the administrators at my school), I've decided to go with classic white for our new comforter. I've been doing some investigating and my qualms about white bedding have vanished since discovering that a little bleach will make a white comforter as good as new. Therefore, this West Elm duvet cover that I've been stalking keeping my eye on will soon be arriving at our door, thanks to a gift card and a 20% off sale:

'Til death do us part. I promise, this time. And my fingers aren't even cleverly crossed behind my back.

That is, it will be arriving as soon as I'm able to convince that friendly pharmacist of mine that I won't be trying to sneak it onto Craigslist within the year. :)

The post with the melting dough ball/couch.

I don't intend to buy much brand-new furniture for our new house. This fact explains the arrival of this chair. We prefer to spend time, not money, and I've realized recently that I like this approach for three reasons:

1. It allows us to be good stewards with our finances. Since we aren't spending all of our money on these material things, we can tithe our 10% each week as we are called to, and are free to give to other people who need it more than we do. God is so good with His blessings.

2. It keeps what might otherwise end up in a landfill...well, out of a landfill. Like this ladder.

3. It gives us lots and lots of PROJECTS! (Insert spastic interpretive happy dance here, and then insert Rick giving me a sidelong glance and reminding me not to quit my day job.)

A couch, though, was one of the items that was on the top of my "Things to purchase straight from a store and not a store named Goodwill" list.We ended up at a Raymour and Flanigan Clearance Center and not only met our future couch, but also a completely bald little salesman named Gary who brought us complimentary bottled water and took off his shoes so he could jump on couches in a real-life demonstration of their strength and resilience.

I demonstrated how to not wet my pants from all that water because I was laughing so hard.

Blatantly disregarding the fact that I couldn't take any more laughter because I was about to have an extreme accident, Rick began finding the weirdest pieces of furniture (a dime a dozen in a clearance center, let me tell you--have you ever seen a couch upholstered in red terrycloth?),  plopping himself down in them, and then posing with a face that he apparently deemed to be appropriate for the given piece of furniture. For example, we affectionately began referring to one sad leather couch as "the ball of dough." It was a nondescript, saggy thing with little beige "dough balls" as armrests. It seriously looked just like this:

Only with a price tag on it.

Unfortunately, since I failed to bring along my camera (who knew that couch shopping could provide such photo-rich opportunities?), I'll have to leave Rick's "dough ball" pose and face up to your imagination.

We did manage to move beyond the dough ball to find and purchase a couch that met our requirements of:

• comfort (my sister-in-law said, "I'll spend the night on this anytime!"), 

• quality (Gary did, after all, successfully and without injury jump on the base and the arms, which bodes well for all those future sets of boisterous twins that our mothers plan on us having),  

• size (we squished 7 people on it when our families came to gaze upon it after church yesterday--which also bodes well for all those twins),

•  attractiveness (I wanted something classy with nice lines),

•  color (light blue-gray for something neutral but not boring), and 

•  price (we paid about $600 below retail and $300 below our budget (!) by A) purchasing a couch that has a you-practically-need-a-microscope-to-see-it-on-the-back-corner-of-the-couch tear, B) avoiding delivery fees by picking it up ourselves, and C) asking our friend Gary "Is this the best price we can get?" to which he responded, "Well, I'll give you $50 off, but only if you let me jump on your couch one more time.")

I kid. He actually offered to throw in the dough ball for free, as a kind of BOGO deal. We graciously declined.

I don't have a picture other than the grainy one on my cell phone, but this is our new couch (except not the right color) that is currently residing in the maintenance room at church because we have no other place to put it:

Our new couch!

Today, I'm praising the Lord for providing the means to buy a brand new piece of furniture as well as providing a day off, thanks to MLK Day: His timing (as always) was perfect to have a long weekend follow a rough week. It was just what I needed. :)

The post about fabric, Black Friday, and mooing.

After a great deal of begging, groveling, and promising not to spend more than four hours there, I finally convinced Rick that we should go to Joann Fabrics on Black Friday. And though we both lived to tell about it, I am still questioning my sanity. I decided that there were five glaring clues that should have told us to turn around and run madly in the opposite direction (had I been in my right mind and not a "Look at all the stuff that is 60% off and I have an additional 30% off coupon in my back pocket" trance):

Clue #1: Entering the store and being greeted not by some pleasant seasonal tunes, but, rather, the sounds of a small child perfecting his ability to make ear-splitting cow noises.

Clue #2: Pulling ticket number 126 at the fabric cutting counter at precisely the same time that shopper number 89 was being serviced.

Clue #3: Glancing nervously around the cutting area and finding ourselves in the presence of 30+ other shoppers wielding carts stuffed with approximately every fabric item in the store.

Clue #4: Watching number 103 getting her pile of fabric cut for 35 minutes straight. Her cart was like a Mary Poppins handbag, I tell you.

Clue #5: Still hearing the continuous cow noises after being in the store for 45 minutes.


We ended up putting the to-be-cut fabric back (what can I say; the deep discounts were just no match for the mooing) but did leave with $29 worth of merchandise that, had it been full price, would have cost us $85. So all was not lost.

And I, once again, got to be grateful for my ever-so-patient husband, who actually left laughing and making cow noises of his own.Thank goodness for a sense of humor, right? :)

The post in which I wonder if I missed something.

We occasionally get mail for the previous tenants, and one of our recent deliveries was in the form of a Mackenzie Childs catalog. The cover seemed harmless enough, so, over breakfast one morning, I opened it up to see what else they had to offer.

And saw this.

I had a little giggle at the fabric pairing on the chair and ottoman (maybe they were designed by an old man in the dark?) and the side table made of a drum/hatbox type thing (I do enjoy a good repurposing, but...) and then I glanced over to see how much those babies cost.

Good news, folks: for just $3,850, that oversized clown club chair can be yours, and for an additional $2,350, the ottoman can come along as well. I say, why not buy one for each room? (And in case you were wondering, the table is a mere $1,750.)
I also am rendered speechless by this goose planter, which, at 13.5" wide, 32" long, and 22" tall, wins the prize of being larger than my cat but smaller than Rick's ideal TV. Cost: $1,050 (!).

And in case a simple goose planter wasn't enough of a feathery fix, you could also purchase that matching side table for $1,950.

And in honor of Halloween/almost Christmas, and because I'm not sure what it's supposed to be, this headless woman. Although I suppose she's not entirely headless, since she has generously been given a lampshade for her above-the-neck area.

 I'm not sure what made me choke on my Shredded Wheat more: the cost of these things, or the fact that they make me think I'm looking at Barnum & Bailey gone undercover as home decor. All it's missing is a trapeze artist.

Oh, wait, never mind: I found one! A $19,500 one. Phew.

Which leads me to my question: did I miss something? I have truly never seen anything like the stuff in this catalog. And I promise I'm not just saying that out of some deep-seated irrational fear of clowns. Please enlighten me if you have more knowledge than I. :)

The post in which we have a good laugh in Goodwill.

That's right, folks, Rick and I have a hobby, and it's not typical like jam-making or crocheting. (I tried crocheting when I was in Girl Scouts. Let's just say that "a child's blanket" ended up looking more like a potholder. I don't think I got my badge for that one.) No, our hobby is much more amusing (and doesn't involve yarn). It's name is Goodwilling. We like to visit the said thrift store to A) see what real bargains can be snatched up and B) have a good chuckle about some of the odd treasures that make us say, "Why would anyone want that?" But, what is one man's junk, I suppose, is another man's treasure.

Or just another man's junk.

Here are some of the treasures that we found while touring Goodwill with our camera. :)

*          *          *

1.  This ghost. As if ghosts weren't scary enough: now we have them posing seductively. As you can see, Rick was particularly enamored with this little beauty. I guess I know what to be for Halloween.

2. This owl. While I do like repurposing, there's just something about repurposing teeny shells into a sculpture that screams "Tacky Southern Tourist Gift Trap." The good news is, there was a whole collection of these fine-shelled feathered friends, so you could buy one for all of your family members!

3. This frumpy lampshade. Enough said.

 

4. This little boy sleeping peacefully on a moon. Aww, how sweet. Wait--is he naked??

It reminds me of Maurice Sendak's In the Night Kitchen. If you've never read it, I highly encourage you to check it out of the nearest library. Not only does it contain stunning graphics, but also contains a great moral about why we have cake every morning.

If you have a blank expression of your face, you're not the only one. Read the book. It will answer alllll of your questions. :)

5. This rabbit. I tell ya, if you're looking to make your kids forget about the Easter bunny, just tell them he looks like this. I doubt they will want this guy creeping into their rooms at night to leave Peeps and chocolate eggs. And what is that thing on his chin?

6. And last, but not least, these elderly painted mice. Rick predicts that this will be us in 50 years. Only he says we won't be sitting in rockers crocheting: we'll still be marching (wheeling?) around Goodwill trying to find weird stuff.

 

In case you were wondering if we got anything useful out of our trip, we did! We left the store with an array of cheap goodies:

 Exciting, right? I know they don't like like much now, but they will. Just give me time. And some spray paint. :)

Anyone else like to have fun in stores? What's the strangest or best thing you've ever found at a thrift store or yard sale? Feel free to share!