Cha Ching! - My Suburban Kitchen

Do you like to shop? Boy, do I! I’ve slowed down considerably on my shopping (especially since the arrival of Baby E…two kids ain’t cheap!) but still love the thrill of finding something I love and buying it. I’ve turned my buying more towards stuff for the house recently. Although, don’t get me wrong, I still love shopping for clothes/shoes/bags but I find the time I have to shop for clothes is minimal and, when I have the time, I end up at Gymboree or BabyGap. I’ve got some well dressed munchkins

Back to the shopping…I’ve been eyeing some artwork from Crate and Barrel for awhile. The liquidity prints (I-V) just called out to me as the perfect thing for the wall in our foyer. I couldn’t stomach the price though.

Upon the urging of “Junior” (a.k.a. “my sister”), I decided that I would try some DIY artwork for that space to mimic the design of the C&B prints. I’m no artist so I knew I wouldn’t even come close to actually copying the prints. I just wanted the same general vibe. She was awesome and actually went to the store and bought the canvases and I picked up the paint. We had grand plans!

We loaded the shopping bags filled with canvases and paint in the car and drove them 5+ hours to the beach with us. Grand plans, I tell you! Every single piece remained in the bag for the entire trip. We didn’t even manage to get them out to figure out a configuration for the multiple canvases.

So, they took another 5+ hour drive in their shopping bags back to my house where they sat…and sat. The other day, Junior asked me had I decided on how I wanted them to hang on the wall and I realized I still hadn’t touched them. I had been so focused on this space for awhile and yet, with supplies in hand, I wasn’t doing anything about it.

Spurred into motion, I pulled out the canvases and laid them all out on the floor in front of the table they would hang above. I settled on a configuration and put the extras back in the bag to be returned to the store.

I ran to the computer to write an email to Junior (couldn’t find my phone!) to let her know I had made progress. Upon opening my email, ~~angels sang~~ I got distracted. There was an email from C&B that screamed “Sale” in its title. I opened it up and saw that my beloved Liquidity prints were marked down to a much more reasonable price. I’ve been holding onto a 10% off coupon to C&B too which meant I could drive the price down even further. Jackpot!

I quickly called the store and checked to see if they had them in stock or if I should order online (and pay shipping, blech!). They did have them in stock so I stopped on the way the home to pick them up and solve my foyer dilemma (for this week at least).

Fingers crossed it doesn’t take as long to hang them as it has to buy them/paint them.

I mentioned in part of our beach recap that Junior and I went to a few thrift stores while we were on vacation. I never got around to post pictures of our finds though!

The first place we went was full of clothes and shoes! It wasn’t until we got all the way to very back of their small store that we saw stacks and stacks of fabric pieces. The pieces were just large enough to make a pillow or other small item out of. We picked up a few and went on our merry way.

Next up, we hit a much bigger store on the way back to the beach house. It was full to the brim with furniture, house wares and other items. I saw a few furniture items I would have considered if we would have had space to get them home in the car. Instead, I settled for some smaller items: