Bargain decorating

Yesterday while I was out running errands I stopped in at HomeGoods, which is inarguably my favorite store.  I found a large square mirror with a beveled edge in a wide white lacquered frame for $24.99.  I could easily see this for 2 or 3 times as much in a retail store.  The lacquer finish gave it a glamorous look I thought would fit in well with the Hollywood Regency theme in our guest bedroom, so I bought it.

I also saw a charcoal drawing of the Eiffel Tower in a mercury glass/distressed mirror frame for $12.99.  Again, I could see this for 2 or 3 times as much in a retail store.  I thought the mercury glass/distressed mirror finish would fit in well in the same room, so I bought it too.

Oh, and did I mention that I had $40 worth of HomeGoods bonus dollars, so both items were FREE?

I had also saved a piece of metal wall art that used to be in our master bedroom.  I'd gotten it on clearance several years ago and eventually replaced it with a nicer piece of artwork.  Yesterday I gave it 2 coats of black spray paint to go with the Hollywood Regency scheme, and then hung all 3 pieces.  Here's the result:

For under $40 I have an interesting wall collage.  I really like the way the shapes compliment each other, and I love that I was able to re-purpose the metal piece with just a $1 can of spray paint.  Decorating doesn't have to cost a lot if you use some creativity and know where to shop.

Color my world

A couple months ago I saw a facebook post from an artist named Brenden Sanborn, along with a sample of his work.  I followed the link to his website and started falling in love.

To me, there is something so soothing and relaxing about watercolors.  But then to find that this gay artist creates watercolors of men and male couples just pushed me over the edge.  The signed prints were so reasonably priced I had to order a few!

They arrived before Christmas (with a hand-written note from the artist, thanking me for supporting his art) so I thought I might frame them and give them to Spouse as a Christmas gift, even though we don't really exchange gifts with each other anymore.  This would have been more of a gift for both of us.  But I wasn't able to decide what kind of frame I wanted, nor had I settled on exactly where these were going to hang, so I postponed the frame purchase.  Every week or so I would check the frame selection at HomeGoods but nothing really made me pull the trigger until this week.

I found these weathered-looking painted wood frames at HomeGoods for $9.99 each and I knew right then and there that they were what I wanted.  I brought them home and yesterday I inserted my signed prints and hung them in our bathroom.  

These are hung above our bath towel bars.  (Click the photo to enlarge.)

Left: "Timeless Love"  Right: "One Last Summer Swim"

I especially love the one of the guys on the beach since going to the beach is a big element of mine and Spouse's life.

These are also hung in our bathroom but these are in the water closet.  (Click the photo to enlarge.)

Left: "Let Me Be Your Shelter"  Right: "A Night In Paris"

The one on the right is especially apropos since Spouse took me to Paris for my 50th birthday.  

I really like all of his watercolors, and it makes me feel good to support an artist who makes a living from creating art.  When Spouse came home from work and saw them on the wall he was very pleasantly surprised.  He confessed that he wasn't as fond of them the 1st time he saw them (unframed, in plastic), but he said he really thought they looked great in the frames I selected.  

Check out his work and see if you don't find yourself ordering some!

Christmas recap

It was somewhat of a whirlwind, but we had a good Christmas.

Tues my office closed at 1pm so I met up with Joe P for lunch, then stopped at HomeGoods for a little bit of last minute gift shopping, then filled the tank with gas, and went home to let the dogs out and tidy up the house.  Spouse came home at 5pm and we packed our suitcase, loaded the car, and were on the road by 6pm.  It was raining lightly but the real concern was the heavy fog which caused me to have to drive slower than usual, but we eventually arrived at Spouse's mom's house safe and sound.

Wed morning after breakfast Spouse & I took Marvin & Walter with us to visit my cousin Inez & her husband Steve.  They live about an hour from Spouse's mom, in a 200+ year old stone house.  I love spending Christmas eve by the fire in Nez's warm kitchen and adjacent sitting room. Nez's mom (my aunt Rosie) was there too, so it was great to see her as well.  We talked and had lunch, and then exchanged little gifts.  I gave Nez a t-shirt with the caption "You had me at Merlot". 

Nez gave me a cool bar set that hides inside a bottle.  It was a great visit, but we needed to leave mid-afternoon and head back to Spouse's mom's.

I agreed to hang out at home with the dogs while Spouse made a quick trip to the grocery store to get the ingredients for our Christmas morning breakfast casserole (eggs, cheese, sausage, hash browns baked together).  I had suggested this easy-to-make breakfast casserole because in past years we never seem to have a decent breakfast on Christmas morning.  Spouse's mom always has raisin bread or English muffins or the like, but nothing for a proper Christmas morning breakfast.  I thought this breakfast casserole would be great since its preparation is quick.  But I was sorely disappointed when Spouse returned from the grocery store empty-handed.  He said the store was crowded and there were long lines at the cashier stands...  Imagine that!!  People trying to buy food on Christmas eve!!  Who would have ever thought??  Rather than being patient and buying the food, he aborted the mission.

Later that evening we went to Spouse's sister Mary's house for Christmas eve and Spouse's mom's birthday.  Mary made a pulled pork tenderloin, mac-n-cheese, and kale.  There were numerous Christmas cookies, brownies, and other sweets for dessert, PLUS a homemade birthday cake for Spouse's mom's 85th birthday. 

My long-time friend Kathryn also stopped by for a bite to eat and a visit, and other folks (relatives, our nephews' girlfriends, etc) stopped by as well.

On Christmas morning there was no breakfast casserole so we ate donuts, raisin toast, and Christmas cookies swiped from the previous night.  Not at all what I'd hoped for, but it was what it was.  Around noon we went to Spouse's brother and sister-in-law's house nearby for a little visit.  After dropping Spouse & his mom off at her house, I picked up my aunt Mary and brought her to the house.  We exchanged gifts with her there rather than with the rest of the family later on.  She gave us the Lady GaGa & Tony Bennett duets CD, the official 2014 White House Christmas tree ornament, and 2 Ina Garten cookbooks (Make it Ahead & Back to Basics).  Then we all went to Spouse's sister Mary's for Christmas dinner.  She made rigatoni with meatballs and Italian sausage, chicken Parmesan, and stuffed shells.  My aunt Mary brought sweet potato shuffle and a hummingbird cake.  It was all delicious and we had a great time.  Later we exchanged gifts and Spouse & I were happy that our family really seemed to like the gifts we got for them.

Fri we met up with our dear friends Kerry & Hugh, Kerry's dad George, Kerry's sister Kelly, and our long-time friend Lisa for our annual Christmas luncheon at Joe's Place.  

It is the only place I know that serves hippie rolls, which are Italian sausages and sauteed onions and peppers wrapped in pizza dough and baked to a golden brown deliciousness.  I'm crazy for them!!

We had a lovely visit with them and the time just seemed to pass too quickly.  We returned to Spouse's mom's house, packed up our stuff, loaded the dogs into the car, and headed home.  Steven & Thad invited to their house for leftovers from their Christmas dinner so of course we agreed.

I went back to work on Sat but that evening we met up with our buddies Vic & Mike for dinner.  Vic had recently been in El Paso TX and picked up t-shirts for us.  

How perfect!  They are very nice guys and we always enjoy hanging out with them.

Sun morning Spouse & I had breakfast at the Crystal with Steven and Joe P, and then I had to work again.  It was extremely quiet in the office so we played Scrabble!  It was a fun way to pass the time.

Party gifts

This week my (real estate) work team had our Secret Santa gift exchange.  I was extremely fortunate to have Dawn as my Secret Santa.  We share a love of Chihuahuas.  She had 2 'seniors' when I came to work here, but both have since gone to heaven.  She was thrilled when we adopted Marvin, and then again when we adopted Walter.

Dawn knows me very well, including that my favorite cocktail is a Cosmo.  So this is what Dawn gave me for Christmas:

Click photo to enlarge

 I was absolutely speechless when I saw this.  This Chihuahua is nearly identical to Walter's coloring, with the exception of Walter's head markings.  The color, texture, even the pink inner ears is just amazingly accurate.  And notice the bottle of Cosmo mix he's holding, rather than a bottle of wine.  Two of my favorite things:  Chihuahuas and Cosmos!  How perfect is this for me??

I also attended an employee/entertainers appreciation party at the Blue Moon which also included a Secret Santa gift exchange.  In this case, you bring a gender-neutral gift since you don't know who will select it.  I found these groovy high ball glasses I really liked at HomeGoods, and figured they would be equally enjoyed by male or female:

Click photo to enlarge

Super cute, right?  So when its my turn to pick and unwrap a gift I get a deluxe poker set.  Yawn.  But this game also allows you to 'steal' a gift from someone else, so I decided to steal the high ball glasses!  Nobody knew I'd brought them, so I didn't feel tacky about stealing my own gift.  Despite my collection of vintage and new cocktail glasses, I really didn't have any high ball glasses so these will fill that void.  I couldn't be happier with both of my Secret Santa gifts this year!!

New art

Last year my colleague and friend Garrett went to visit his father who lives/works in Cuba.  Garrett noticed that most Cubans drive old American cars from the 1950s, and knowing how much I love 1950s cars, Garrett brought me back some beautiful matted, signed photos.  What a thoughtful gift!!

I'm embarrassed to say that those photos have been sitting in my house unframed for nearly a year now.  I anticipated that getting them custom-framed would be really expensive so I put it off.  But yesterday (my day off work) I came across the photos again and decided I would check my local HomeGoods store to see if they had any standard frames that would work.  So I measured the matted photos and headed over to HomeGoods.  Sure enough, I found terrific black frames for only $16.99 each!  

Two have black mats and one has a white mat.  At first this distressed me, but as I looked at my photos I noticed that two were portrait style and one was landscape style, so I decided that if I put the one landscape style photo into the white matted frame it might look intentional.  So I trimmed the mats slightly to fit, secured them in the frames, and here are the results:

#1

#2

#3

All 3 together

First off, I think the photos are amazing.  They are partially black-and-white and partially color.  I don't know how they do that but its cool.  Obviously the cars are super cool as well.  But I think the photos look so terrific in these frames, all 3 of which only cost me $50. 

I haven't decided yet where to hang them so for the time being they are on our living room sofa.  Maybe this weekend Spouse & I will agree on a place to showcase our new art.

Mirror mirror, on the dresser

Spouse & I decided a few months back that we are going to redecorate one of our guest bedrooms in the Hollywood Regency style, so we began picking up pieces when we saw them at bargain prices.  Spouse saw a clearance/close-out on a bedding set (comforter, bed skirt, shams, and decorator pillows) we purchased for $49.95 and I picked up a large sequined pillow for $12.99 and tossed them in a closet until we were ready to put the room together.

One of the key elements to making this transition to remove the large computer desk and replace it with a mirrored dresser to store some of the items from the computer desk.  I saw the perfect piece at my favorite store, HomeGoods.  It had 2 side-by-side drawers on the top and 2 full-width drawers below.  But since I hadn't done any research on pricing yet I initially thought $279. for this piece seemed like a lot, so I didn't buy it.  I came home and searched several online suppliers of similar pieces of mirrored furniture only to find that $279. was actually a very good price for the piece.  Many similar pieces were 2 & 3 times as much.  A few days later I went back to look at it again and, of course, it was gone.  (That's the way it always is at this HomeGoods.  If you like it, you have to buy it that day or it won't be there when you come back.)

A month or so later I saw another mirrored dresser that was very similar to the original one, but the drawer configuration was slightly different.  It had 3 full-width drawers, but still it would work.  It was in the clearance section because it had some slight damage (cracks) in the mirror.  It was marked down from $279. to $149.  The damage wasn't significant, and probably wouldn't be noticed by 50% of the people who would sleep in this room.  But $149. still seemed like too much for a piece with damage. 

Then a few days ago I saw that same piece had been reduced again, from $149. to $99.  I was tempted to buy it right then and there but was afraid to do since Spouse had never actually seen the piece.  I came home that evening, told him about it, and we agreed to go back the next day together. 

As we walked toward the back of the store where the clearance items are, I noticed a woman and her husband picking up a nightstand from the non-clearance furniture area that matched the dresser.  Spouse & I looked at the clearance dresser together, agreed the damage-to-discount ratio was very good, and decided to purchase the dresser for $99.  I went back to the front of the store to get a cart onto which we'd load the dresser, while Spouse began talking with a store clerk who walked by.

When I came back to the clearance area with the cart, the couple who had gotten the non-clearance matching nightstand were telling the clerk that they want this piece (the damaged clearance dresser) too! 

It was a bargain beat-out!!!

For a second I considered telling the couple the piece was mine, and showing them the cart I'd gotten from the front of the store as proof, and if they didn't relinquish the dresser, I would get all 'ignorant up in here'.  But my better sense took over and we left the store, feeling defeated.

But the mirrored lining to the story is that the merchandise in this store changes over so incredibly fast that I know it won't be long before another mirrored dresser shows up for us.  And this time I won't hesitate.