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I’ve often said that I’m lucky to have the “purge” gene as well as the collecting gene. What I mean is, when I get overwhelmed by stuff, I simply go into purge mode and donate, toss or organize large amounts of accumulated clutter.

Of course, along with that comes the danger of then thrifting a couple weeks after a purge, and re-buying something I just donated because it’s SO CUTE. I’ve had to stop myself a couple of times.

Right this moment, though, I really wish I’d come upon something that I re-donated a few months ago. Because I really need it back!

About a year ago, I bought a small hobnail milkglass hurricane lamp base at Goodwill for $1.99. It was electrical – not an oil lamp – and it would have been perfect for soft lighting on the kitchen counter. It didn’t have the actual hurricane cover, but I bought it anyway, believing I’d eventually find a cover for it.

Except I didn’t. For many months I looked, and finally decided I wasn’t going to find what I was looking for. So I tried to sell the base at my Fall garage sale, and failing that, I re-donated it shortly thereafter back to the Goodwill.

And then this happened:

By the time I found this sweet little hurricane cover, painted with soft pink roses, my hurricane lamp base was long gone.

I even searched through my remaining “to be donated” boxes thoroughly, just to make sure I no longer had it. But I could picture the box it had been laying in, and I knew in my heart that box was gone.

As for the rose-painted hurricane cover? 99 cents. I bought it anyway.

And now the hunt begins anew, for the piece that got away.

Well kids, that was a long and not always pleasant/easy month… but I am still here and have some fun things to share with you!

A couple years ago, when we first moved into this (rental) house, I shared a great curb find: a table and chair set we found in the apartment complex parking lot! I made new seat covers for the chairs, and it looked and functioned well for awhile.

Then the plastic covering on the top started peeling off, and one night I may have actually peeled it off on purpose (using a hot hair dryer on the stubborn parts to loosen the glue), and then I had a bare-naked tabletop made of cheap pressboard, so then Greg decided it was finally time to make that harvest-style tabletop I’d been wanting:

Once it was built, I had a little trouble with the finishing products… apparently I am not patient enough to let them dry properly (WHO KNEW??) and I had to have Greg sand the whole thing back down and try again. But it was totally worth it… I used Minwax wood stain in Provincial Pine and then the accompanying Minwax polyurethane in clear satin. Both excellent products when you… ahem… follow the directions.

Here is how it turned out:

Rather beautiful, I would say! And huge – it’s 3 x 5 feet of “real estate.” I’m sooo happy this is my table!

Do you ever want to just kick yourself for letting your preconceived notions get in the way of discovering something new? I swear I could start a whole new blog category just for these types of forehead-smacking moments.

So recently I was reading Courtney’s advice for acquiring inexpensive fresh flowers on her beautiful blog, French Country Cottage. It’s seriously like she read my mind. I mean, her blog is FULL of fresh flowers all the time, and I had even considered asking her, where do you get all the amazing fresh flowers? And more importantly, how can you possibly afford them? And within a week of my wondering, this post pops up hinting that Trader Joe’s has a decent fresh-flower market.

Trader Joe’s??

Now I knew of Trader Joe’s before I read Courtney’s post… There’s one on my to-and-from-work route. It’s been there for at least two years, probably longer. One of those over-priced health food markets, is what I assumed it was, passing by it every day but never stopping in, because why on earth would I set foot in a health food market, the absolute least likely place to ever find Diet Coke on sale?

Well I decided to finally stop in solely to check out the flowers, and I’m so glad I did! Now I don’t pretend that I’m suddenly in “TJ’s” target market… Although they would love me if I was, it’s definitely a store for foodies and honestly that’s just not me.

But their fresh flower market is indeed wonderful – and inexpensive! I picked up two nice-sized bouquets of purple daisies, deep purple alstroemeria, and green mini-hydrangeas for just $3.99 each, plus two bunches of ready-to-bloom yellow daffodils for just $1.49 per bunch.

At my usual grocery store, the $3.99 bouquets would easily be $8.99 or more. I’ve never seen them have bunches of daffodils, so I can’t compare, but they were definitely a no-brainer.

As for the other groceries, the store is largely devoted to their own painstakingly sourced house brand, natural instead of artificial ingredients, and probably a weird vegetable or two. I promise to check it out more thoroughly on next week’s fresh flower run!