Guest Post: Yes, but where are the kangaroos?

When we first started our blog an ingenious friend suggested that we ask people to write guest posts periodically. Since all of our friends are complete slackers, though, one of them has just now gotten around to actually taking us up on the offer. However, as I think you'll see, the wait may just have been worth it. L and I are psyched to present to you our friend Derek's thoughts on the perils of packing and the ridiculous amounts of things that we not only accumulate in the first place, but also insist upon dragging everywhere with us and keeping for forever and ever. L and I went through this when we moved to Edinburgh three years ago and again when we moved back to the states, so Derek's words are laughably similar to our own experiences. While we had managed to downsize our possessions significantly out of sheer necessity (stupid airlines and their baggage limitations), we've somehow managed to accumulate enough things over the past two years to make us think our 1,800 square feet house isn't quite big enough anymore. And this is from two people who had been living in less than 500 square feet with room for gymnastics. So, with that said, we hope you enjoy Derek's musings. He's planning on blogging throughout his year in Austria (or is it Australia?), so if he says anything noteworthy, we may see if we can pirate it as our own thoughts. Ha!

A Succulent Kind of Summer

As we work through our backlog of non-reported activities, we thought we'd share a quick post on Round One: Battle Heat and Drought.

Getting Back on Track

As I'm sure you can tell, we've been failing miserably at blogging lately. Between the resurgence of summer heat (which has finally broken again) and the effects of some crazy storms on our fence, trees, and roof, we've been swamped. Needless to say, these past few weeks have been full of unwanted surprises and projects, all of which drained our creative appetite (and budget). But, since fall is (maybe) finally here, we're trying to get back on the blogging track and on the path toward some other projects we've been pondering and planning.

Modern Meets Western

As we hinted in our earlier post, this weekend was particularly kind to us on the "finding awesome stuff for next to nothing" front. In fact, my most exciting take home was free! As a country girl at heart (a result of growing up in the middle of nowhere and, as my sisters and husband will tell you, playing in the mud), I have a soft spot for mixing modern touches with western items. So for the past two years I've been itching to find a cowhide rug and set of horns that we could mix in with our mid century decor. We almost sprung for a rug earlier this spring, but decided that we should wait until we can pull up the carpet and replace it with stained concrete or wood (the thought being that a cowhide rug wouldn't be nearly as exciting on top of our cheap carpet). We've also spotted a few sets of horns in junk shops throughout Tulsa, but with price tags of over $70 for a tiny set I just hadn't found anything that I felt was worth my money.

Fresh Find: Out of the Blue

Over the past two years, we've been lucky enough to furnish our home with a combination of new and used furniture that fits our style and budget. The countless hours spent combing through junk stores, garage sales, online ads and retailers have served us well. So well in fact that we rarely spend time looking for or at anything very large because we don't really have the need for those things any longer. But as we learned this weekend, not having a need for something doesn't mean you turn it away when it pops up out of the blue.

For the Birds

 

Literally. We've done shockingly little around the house lately, so we decided to take on a small project that we knew would be nearly impossible to not finish. Earlier this summer we happened upon a simple DIY project for modern glass globe bird feeders on The Art of Doing Stuff (via Curbly), which we both thought would be the perfect solution for our backyard bird menagerie. So when we spotted a white globe at our local thrift store for a mere 99 cents, we snatched it up, ran to Home Depot for a bit of rope, and headed home. 

Fresh Find: 1960s, Mid Century Lane Coffee Table

During a recent online hunt, I  came across a listing on Craigslist for a free coffee table. As you know, a listing with a title like this is nothing special in the world of online ads. They are a dime a dozen and generally are such a waste of time I almost never bother opening them. Notice I said almost.