thrifty sunday: you are my sunshine

Friday was great: playdate replete with teeny tiny cupcakes and on the way home, a surprise meet-me-for-lunch message from one of our best gals who was breezing through town on her way south. After some rice and beans and a margarita, I stopped into Goodwill to look around, blatantly milking my baby-free afternoon for all it was worth. 

Three treasures came home with me, totaling $9 and some change. Considering I would've paid a lot more for just one of them, I feel like I scored. 

1. Little wooly vest for George, for when he's feeling like a cultural anthropologist: 

The middle section of the vest is not symmetrical; this detail eluded me until just now. Anyway, I feel like he needs a graying pony tail and some hornrims to really complete the sensitive adjunct professor look.

2. Amazing homemade wallhanging that immediately went up in our bedroom:

It's pretty big, like maybe 18 inches by 18 inches, and fits beautifully on the wall that I often wake up facing. I've tried several other pieces of art there, and nothing ever worked. Clearly, the wall was biding its time until I found the perfect piece.

3. The sweetest ever, can-you-believe-someone-got-rid-of-this crewel work wallhanging:

I have my suspicions that the same person is responsible for both this and the above piece, and if that is indeed the case, I would like to call this woman (assumption, sue me) up and thank her from the bottom of my homemade-loving heart. This one is a little smaller -- maybe 9 inches by 14 inches -- and the lines are sort of wonky, but that only adds to its charm. As with a lot of things that I find at thrift stores, I wonder how someone saw fit to give this away. I imagine it being lovingly worked on after bedtimes by a long-haired lady in high waisted jeans, then hanging in a nursery circa 1978. I figured that it would be expensive, considering its awesomeness/similarity to something one might find at Urban Outfitters, but I turned it over to see the price, which said $3.99! Easily one of my all-time favorite thrift purchases.

Happy shopping and happy week, you guys!

daytrippers

It's "midwinter break," which means, when your partner is a part-time teacher, you get this weird bonus vacation that, to other (better paid, more gainfully employed) teachers is merely a long weekend. In your face, full-time teachers! With all that extra money you're making, you could go to Mexico or something! Too bad you don't have the time!

To celebrate, we decided to take a little day trip to Seattle, to visit my favorite within-driving-distance art museum: The Frye. In my opinion, SAM  is great and all, but it's so expansive, expensive and a little sterile. I like my museums with worn-in rugs and crazy amazing conversation couches. Oh, and free. The Frye is free to anyone and everyone, all the time, as stipulated by the Fryes who so graciously left their art collection to the public of Seattle. The paintings in the permanent collection are hung salon style: beautiful and cluttery and almost encroaching on one another, but not quite. I love it there.

We're all sick (again) and a little crabby, but it was nice to be out in the world, showing George some of my favorite paintings and watching him relate to the art in his own way. The Frye family were in the cattle ranching business, so they had a lot of cow paintings in their collection. This worked out beautifully for the boy who loves to moo (or, brroo, as the case may be). I hope as he gets older he finds different pieces interesting and beautiful, scary, sad, and that I encourage him to discuss them without getting in the way of his thoughts. As we left, I regretted a little being so persistent in pointing out every. single. cow. But I look forward to the time when he can steer us in and out of the galleries, pausing where his eye catches -- that is, if anything catches his eye.

It's the good thing about free museums, after all. You can walk in,

And right back out, if you want.  

(No, George is not walking. He took one step and gingerly lowered himself to the floor, as he, like his mother, enjoys being an expert at things before he tries them.)