Tonight, I was supposed to be taking pictures at a Nine Inch Nails Burlesque show...but mother nature decided to turn the weather dumb so here I am catching up on the blogs! (Abuttonblog post coming soon).
For some odd reason, Chicago is having a pattern of a really really cold Mondays then warming up to having a pretty nice Saturday. Last Saturday, when it was 40 degrees and sunny, I went alley picking. Got a hold of this pretty nice table.
The table was purple and from Ikea. It's now in several pieces in my craft closet and will probably be turned into purple free market boxes. (Created by one of the best builders in the world, Logan!).
A question I want to throw out - I don't really know anything about Dumpster Diving in Chicago. I'm not a huge fan of dumpster diving for food - although high five to the freegans who can. I do love a good deal on a piece of furniture that comes from a trashcan though. Are there any groups out there? You can leave the comments in the comments section, or email me at design2513@gmail.com.
Now, one very sad thing that I saw a lot of while alley picking were abandoned Christmas Trees. Guys...I saw this on December 28th! Jesus was just born at this point for Christ sakes! (see what I did there?).
The last bit of my tree, now my stair area smells like Christmas
Do you go camping? Do you have a garden that likes acidic soil? Do you like the smell of Christmas to last and have some fancy bowls that need to have something in them? Re-purpose the tree!
I live in Chicago proper and even I had enough room to take my tree outside and cut it with a basic hand saw. Took an hour to take apart. (It was a 4 footer...give yourself more time for a bigger tree)
Here's what you can do with your tree:
Trunk: Camping/Fire logs
Branches: Good smelling kindling
Branches: Good smelling decor for the next month.
Branches: Potpurri, I think?
Branches: throw them out on your garden during the winter to make your dirt more acidic.
Logs, good smelling stuff and garden improvement stuff - buy a tree for you holiday season and get all that for free!
Update: Or you can take your tree here and save some birds:
http://www.christmastree.org/dnn/AllAboutTrees/HowtoRecycle/RecyclingIL.aspx
And finally, let's talk about the creepy estate sale I went to today. When it comes to estatesales.net, I tend to trust the sales on the site. Today I went to a sale that I should have trusted my gut and not gone - even though I got some cute things for $5.
The person running it was nice and he was a legit estate vendor. The sale itself was in a busy part of Lincoln Park. And the stuff was pretty awesome. However, he didn't know what to do with himself and just hung out about 10 feet away while I was looking around - I was the only one there. He also said I could check out the artwork in the garage...and there were no signs going to the garage. Again, he was legit but it still felt weird. I got my stuff and quickly left - but not without him trying to sell me other things before going. Creeppy!!
This is as good time to add an article about yard sale safety. As the article points out, there's a 99 percent chance you won't have any issues. But the reality is that you are going to a strangers house and buying their stuff off of their property. It's always good to keep your wits about you and be smart when you shop. Check out this great article I found here:
http://fleamarket.about.com/od/insidershoppingtips/qt/yardsaleshoppingsafety.htm
That's about it for now. Oh, Geaux Saints!
