I went to T. J. Maxx yesterday and wandered around; I didn't have anything in particular in mind, but I always like looking through their houseware and decorative stuff, and sometimes I find a bargain. This is what I found yesterday:
It was $5.00, I assume because there should have been a third drawer, and one of the other ones was broken, but it was pretty easy to fix, and I don't think it really looks like it's missing a drawer. The open spot could just be a little shelf. I don't know right now what I'm going to put in it, but for $5.00 I couldn't resist it.
I also bought this exceptionally cool mirror:
I'd been wanting a mirror for my office at work; I'm not exactly sure why, but I just felt like it needed one. Probably some unconscious feng shui thing. Anyway, this one was on the clearance table, too, for $10.00, so I bought it. I love the little doors. The color is a very pale blue.
Every time I buy things like these -- with the paint scraped off in places -- what did they used to call it? I can't remember. Antiqued, yes, but it seems like there was something else . . . Anyway, I always think of my parents. My mother loved to refinish furniture, and went through a spell of antiquing things, and sometimes she'd beat them up a little, and rub stain into the cracks, and then paint it, and rub the paint off . . . techniques that made a new piece of furniture look old, like it had some history.
My dad thought that was crazy. Why would you buy a new piece of furniture and then do things to it to make it look old? I'm not really sure why, either, but I know that I like it. Maybe because it does look like it has some history, or could have, even if it doesn't really. That's not to say that I don't love soulless, plastic, mass-produced stuff, too, because I do. I just love both kinds of things.
This morning I spent a couple of hours photographing the knitting stitch markers that I've made, and stocking my Etsy shop. I have a couple of sets of markers made with old plastic ivory-colored beads -- I bought an old bracelet somewhere and took it apart for the beads. I love taking something old and making it into something new, or even something that just looks old.
And today I also got to watch two of my favorite movies, Men in Black, and School of Rock. I have simple tastes.
