Gaga for Goodwill!

After receiving the IKEA catalog yesterday in the mail, I was inspired to start planning for my future apartment/house (but I think apartment). I haven't been working so I want to be very careful of how I spend my money and I also love diy projects... so I decided to venture into my local Goodwill not expecting to find much. I was so wrong and found soo0o many things! My plan is to clean the items and re-furbish them so they are my style. My priorities while shopping were the condition of the item and the lines/shape/structure of the item. I bought:

• A striped armchair with short wooden legs
• 3 bronze decorative lamp bases
• A wooden chair with a padded cushion with straight clean lines
• 3 decorative pieces of art (picture frames/mirror)
• A medium sized chest

Here are pics of some items before their renovations:

This framed hanging mirror was $0.99!
I can paint the frame if I'd like.

This chest was the most expensive item at $19.00!
I can paint the chest, but I actually like this color. I can use this as a coffee table or I can use it at the foot of my bed to store blankets, extra pillows, etc.

These 3 bronze lamps were collectively $15.
They provided me with a bulb in the store to test them to make sure they were in working condition. These did not come with shades, but that's great for me because I can now pick my own. I plan on spray painting these silver.

Why would I want second hand furniture?
Second hand furniture is not for everyone. Personally I don't think I would want a second hand couch or bed, but all these other items are fine with me.
1. You can save lots of money. Just look through your fav furniture catalog, take a picture of what you like on your phone, when you're out just look for pieces that are of similar size, shape, and structure. You can do the finishing touches later.
2. If a piece of furniture has lasted 20/30 years and is still in good condition, that's saying something about how things were made back then. The piece was made right and probably isn't going to fail any time soon. Now, practically everything that is obtainable within a budget is made in bulk at a warehouse. These pieces don't have as long of a life span as the other REAL stuff. Dressers used to be wood instead of particle board etc. Might as well get real materials especially if it's cheaper.
3. You can have a say on your piece of furniture. Not every piece of furniture comes in your exact shade/color/ fabric you're looking for. Take this as an opportunity to make your space your own and not an exact replica from Pottery Barn.
4. Finally, if you're like me, you will take great pride in your piece that you created. It's a great conversation starter and is a tribute to what you're capable of doing.
5. This is probably the simplest way to recycle. Give some life to something old. Old doesn't always mean bad.

How much did all your stuff cost? Everything turned out to be less than $50 all together!!! The chest alone would have been $50 from a chain retailer.

Have you ever re-furbished a piece of furniture/art? Comment below and let me know what you did! Attach a link to a pic if you have one.

Guacamole

I've been craving some fresh guacamole so I looked up a few recipes for basic ingredients and did my own thing. This is great for summer picnics, Jersey Shore Thursdays, fire nights, good with beer or margaritas... etc. You will need:

• 2 Avocados
• 1/4 of a medium onion
• 1 garlic clove
• salt and pepper
• 1/2 a lime (juice)

First slice your avocados in half (long ways) and remove the pit. You can do this by quickly taking the knife and making like you're going to slice the pit. Instead the knife will get stuck in the pit a little, so just twist the knife so the pit turns as well and then remove the pit out. The pit will easily come off the knife as well.

Then grid your avocados with the knife so that when you take a spoon to scoop the avocado out of it's shell, it's already in pieces and is easier to mash up. Do this and put it in a bowl.

Finely chop the onion and garlic and add that to the mixture.
A trick to chopping garlic and to remove it of it's paper like cocoon is to take the clove with the back of a spoon on top. You could use the side of your knife as well for this. Apply enough pressure so that the garlic opens and is easier to work with.

Add some salt and pepper and squeeze the lime of all it's juice.

Take a potato masher and mash it all together.

Taste test and add more ingredients as you please or leave as is.
Voila!

Serves about 4-6 people for a light snack.
Cost: $10

Dresser Double Duty

Again, going on the idea that my room is a closet, (almost literally considering most of my stuff is clothing, shoes, etc.) I need to occupy every inch of vertical space that I can. I have most recently attacked my bare dresser sides.

What is it? Gasp! It's another one of those darn Command Hooks. Do you see a trend here? I used a command hook to help me easily locate some clutches so they don't wind up on the floor.
Cost? $3 for hook
What is it? Ok. So I know this isn't one of the cutest ideas, but it's practical and I needed space -_-. I bought a bin from Target for $5 and used my handy command strips to hang this basket on the side of my dresser closest to my bed. I am using it for socks because 1. I have ran out of space in my "top drawer". Victorias Secret has taken over my underwear drawer. 2. Don't you ever get cold feet in the winter and you don't want to get out of bed to grab some socks? 3. I had no where else to put my socks.
But you can put whatever you want in it... remotes for the tv, water bottle, reading materials, etc. Use your imagination. Whatever it is though, make sure you support it with enough command strips.
Cost? $5 for bin, I already had command strips.

Put Your Clothes in a FOLDer

Tell me if this sounds familiar...You wake up for work/school and need an outfit quick, and you think "Ahh I have nothing to wear"!... when really you know you have a plethora of pieces available.

Maybe you will like to try this trick. I take pictures of outfit options so when I need something quick for work, I can go to my "Teaching Outfits" folder and get some ideas. Here are samples of what I did last year:

Also, this can help with a future shopping list. What do I need now? What am I missing in my wardrobe? From these pictures alone, I would say homegirl needs more pieces with color. But I've since done lots of shopping and have expanded my options.

Finally, while browsing through my pics from last year, I see pieces that have some how vanished from my life... time to get to the bottom of the laundry bin to dig out some perfectly good pieces.