Monday, Monday.

Blech. That’s all I have to say. I woke up this morning in a funk and can’t seem to get anything worthwhile done so I am going to procrastinate by writing a short note to you guys! Yay! Housework be damned! Laundry be damned! Quality time with toddlers be…damn. I am a terrible mother.

I am just feeling so unmotivated lately! Part of it is that I am in the midst of the biggest junking block I’ve ever had (it’s like writer’s block, only instead of not being able to come up with ideas to write about, I can’t find junk to buy). I haven’t had a real find for quite a while now, and my booth is showing it. When I went in to stock on Friday, the booth was as empty as it has ever been in the two years I’ve been at Daisies and Olives — it was downright echo-y in there. The biggest issue is that furniture is virtually impossible to find around here. I so miss the Chicago days, when little bedside tables, dressers, and buffets were a dime a dozen at yard sales and thrift stores. You should see our Craiglist ads around there — they ask exorbitant prices for furniture, and I guess they’re getting what they’re asking because it’s so hard to find. I have been refreshing CL like a maniac lately, trying to find a bargain, and if you watch it like a hawk and jump on a deal when you see it, you can occasionally still find something worthwhile. I am just having such a problem paying over $50 for anything I’m going to resell, which is ridiculous, because if I can pay $100 and sell it for $300 that’s a dadgum good profit. Parting with $100, though! It’s so hard! There’s a curio that just went on today for $145. I THINK I could paint it and resell for over $300 but it just makes me so nervous to risk it.

This weekend, I did manage to find two things that I think were pretty good deals. The first is this dresser:

Super nice size, not too big, not too small. I paid under $50 for this, so I got a steal. I won’t have to do a thing with it, just transport it to the booth. She had about 15 responses right on the tail of mine so contacting her quickly was the key to getting this.

The second thing I got this weekend was a table, bench, and two chairs set — in hard rock maple. Really beautiful finish and solid as a rock as far as condition is concerned. The table has a watermark on it, so it would at least have to be refinished if I were to keep the wood finish…plus, wood just doesn’t sell. All that’s selling right now is painted furniture. I’ve never felt bad about painting something before but I think I’m going to feel pretty bad about this. It’s just so early American, though, without painting it.

You can’t see the set very well because I’m too lazy to drag it out to take a better picture. The table has two hinged leaves on it and when they’re up, it’s huge. I think I’ll price these pieces separately — I’ve been scouring the archives of Vintage Show Off, a blog about flea market booths, and she suggested doing that. Of course, first I have to paint it. Thank the heavens I got that paint sprayer. I’ve got a post in my head about painting furniture — I’ve been using so many different kinds of paint lately — I just need to sit down and write it.

The other exciting thing I got this weekend that I didn’t take a picture of was five old windows for fifty cents each. Fifty cents! Have you ever?! They’re not selling that well lately but for that price I can price them way low and surely will sell them then. OR, I might work on some Christmas wreaths to display on them, similar to these that I’ve been seeing on Pinterest. Ugh, I’ve got so much Christmas work to do and I want to get all of that in the booth by the end of the first week in November! Thinking about that makes me want to curl up and take a nap.

In house decorating news: I finally ordered some curtains for the twins’ room. I have been looking for fabric for a year now, pinning samples, visiting fabric stores, hemming and hawing around, but I finally decided to just order some ready-made. The biggest problem was getting the right yellow since the beds are a yellow-goldy color; these aren’t perfect, but they’re GOOD ENOUGH. Lord have mercy, enough brain energy has been given to this momentous-but-not-really decision.

That little design on them is supposed to be white, but instead is some weird, bluish-grey color. It makes them look a little dingy to me, but I’m trying to let them grow on me since I’m so sick of thinking about curtains. So with the purchase of the curtains, their little room is done! Which does not mean that I will not continue tweaking it. Of course I will, because there’s so much cute vintage kids’ stuff out there. When I was pregnant, I bought SO MUCH vintage baby stuff for their nursery that I’m still finding it tucked away in cabinets and boxes. I would have had to install floor to ceiling shelves on every one of their nursery walls to display everything I collected. It’s just irresistible to me.

Here’s a look at their room.

About a year and a half ago or so, I pinned this link to a girls’ room. I knew I was using it as inspiration but it wasn’t until I looked it up to give credit to Ginny Phillips on Instagram that I realized HOW MUCH inspiration I was garnering. The walls are the same color, the beds are the same color…and I didn’t do any of that on purpose! I think it’s just an example of how much influence an image can have over you when you love it. The beds were actually supposed to be white, but I didn’t have enough white spray paint the day I wanted to paint them and I was too lazy to load the kids up to buy some more. And the walls in their nursery were this same blue — I feel like painting the walls blue gives me permission to be a little more girly and still have the bedroom reflect that both a girl and a boy sleep here. Buuuuuuut…it’s pretty girly, all the same. Jack doesn’t seem to mind too much.

This is the little benediction we recite every night before bedtime. Hoping it eventually sinks in to my reprobate children’s brains.

I got this in a Chicago thrift store before the kids were born for about two dollars. I had nowhere to hang it so it lived in a closet until I was decorating their nursery, then it seemed like a natural fit.

The bird print is an anomaly in my decorating scheme: it was purchased new, not used (gasp!) and was SIXTY DOLLARS (double gasp!!). I couldn’t believe I was paying that but I just loved the way it looked and its sentiment.

I ADORE their quilts. I have been on the lookout for something a bit more boyish for Jack’s bed but in the meantime, he gets my all-time favorite quilt EVER. The colors are so perfect on this one and it’s in SUCH great shape. I got it in Bentonville, a town about forty minutes away from me, on a Saturday when I was having no yard sale luck at all so decided to strike out for parts unknown. It was about 2 pm, and this little yard sale had this quilt and two others (that I’ve since sold) sitting on a table. I figured they were charging WAY too much if they were still available but I asked anyway and was quoted $8 apiece. OMG I wish someone had been videotaping me. I can’t imagine what my face looked like. I have no idea how on earth those quilts were still there but I’m awfully glad they were.

Emme’s quilt came from the yard sale of an older lady who had it market $60. I looked at it long enough to see the price, then moved on. She said “I thought I was going to be able to get a lot of money for that but I guess not. You can have it for $20.” For me, $20 is a lot to spend at a yard sale, but not for a quilt, I guess…and it was predominantly pink, which I was looking for for Emme’s bed. So I bought it. The End. What a thrilling story. Take a moment to calm yourselves before going on to the next picture.

This mirror is one of my most favorite finds EVER — $2! What a steal!

This hutch is where all of my vintage doodads for their room ends up. It’s pretty crowded right now and I keep trying to edit it but I love everything on it! That carousel was hand made by my Grandpa and those apes up there, holding Jack and Emme’s names, are from my dear friend Shara. My Mom hand-embroidered the little doll on that same shelf and the bunny is from my brother and SIL.

I just can’t stop buying vintage baby knick knacks.

I love these guys so very much. $4 at a the flea market where I had my first booth.

I bought this print from my friend Paula (Emma’s Back Porch at Daisies and Olives) and framed it in a $1 garage sale frame. I love it SO MUCH. It looks so much like Jack and Emme. It makes me smile every time I look at it.

The book ledges were actually Ikea frame ledges that I got for a buck a piece at a yard sale — they work perfectly for the books. The Solar System print came from In Retrospect, a flea market here in Fayetteville, and was $20, which was a lot for me, but I wanted something vaguely educational to fill up that wall above the books and this fit the bill.

I got that polka-dot lampshade at a thrift store for $5 to go in their nursery; the blue didn’t quite match then, and it still doesn’t match, but I just love polka dots so much that I don’t care. The lamp base was a $2 yard sale find. The little bust on the chair came from In Retrospect too. Can’t remember where I got that blue chair from. I swear, I used to be able to tell you where and for how much I got every single item in my house; now I’m lucky if I can remember where I got something last weekend.

Whew. That was a lot of pictures. Sorry to dump that all on you, but I’m pretty proud of this room. At the beginning, I briefly flirted with the idea of making it a calm, soothing space, sparsely decorated with neutrals, but then I thought, screw it. It should reflect their personality. So it’s bright and loud and (usually) cheerful. I also love that I found most things cheaply with which to decorate it, as you can probably tell by my insistence on listing how much I paid for each item. 🙂 Also, in the interest of full disclosure, it’s clean for approximately 5 minutes, three days a week.

All right, I’m off to have lunch and try to shake my funk. Hope you’re week is off to a cheerful, happy start!