The Bargain Life

When I can’t sleep I like to lust over gorgeous apartments on Atlanta craigslist. These two are utterly fabulous. Each photo links to a listing with more pictures.

@ The Factory Lofts in Downtown

@ Eco Lofts in Chamblee

I dream of brick walls and high ceilings.

$24.99 seems a bit much, but I love the simple sleek design of this magazine rack from Target, and it would definitely help with the clutter in our living room. I can’t decide whether or not to buy it. opinions?

This “cat pueblo play tower” from Target (online only) is so beyond adorable and well-priced at $31.99. Unfortunately my cats don’t need it anymore since I already bought them a “kitty scyscraper.” Part of me likes this a lot better even though it’s not really my style.

When I first saw that Target was selling Converse shoes, I was excited. I saw the shoes, and they have some really cute stuff. Then I saw the prices. Most of the shoes are $30-$35, which is hardly cheaper than Converse shoes would be elsewhere, but more importantly if I wanted to pay $30+ for shoes, I wouldn’t be shopping at Target. Converse also has a clothing line at Target, but at $35 for a pair of jeans I might as well be in a department store. Payless has the same problem with their designer collections, and in my opinion it undermines the whole point of the store. I love that Target invests in having good designs, but talent doesn’t always come from a recognized name, and it doesn’t need to come with an elevated price.

If you actually want designer goods from Target at discount prices, the place to look is last collection’s clearance. This collection isn’t the type of clothes that I would actually wear, but I can imagine the pieces below looking really great on someone with a more sophisticated style.

I’ll edit this later with more details on the process, but right now I just want to show off. I got this pair of dressers for $5 at a yard sale, mended them, covered them in Target wrapping paper, and attached some Ikea capita legs. I envision using them as a sideboard when I have a dining room that’s actually used for entertaining. Right now they’re in the living room holding the tv. I’m really happy with the result, though I’m worried about their durability.

I just got back to my family home in New Hampshire and I plan on staying for about a month, so there won’t been any more furniture projects for a while.

I bought this “kitty skyscraper” at Target last week. It was $30, and I contemplated for a while whether it was worth it, but in the end my ridiculous love of cats beat out my cheapness. I’ve loved cats my whole life, but couldn’t ever have one (mom’s allergic and dad hates them). Now that I finally have cats I’m obsessed. I am 21 and already a crazy cat lady.

While I’m showing off cat furniture, here is my cat Ted’s little corner.
Ikea Bastis tent – $6.99
Lova bed canopy – $14.99
and usually there’s a $2.49 Irma Blanket in the bottom of the tent.
Ikea has some seriously adorable pet furniture. They just introduced cat tunnels that match the tents. I would have picked one up last time I was in the store, but they were out of stock.

[[edited June 17th: replaced some mediocre hoodies with cuter ones]]

Alloy – $19.99
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delias.com has lots of cute things in clearance right now. Nothing amazing enough for me to place an order, but plenty of lust-worthy pieces. Here are some of my favorite steals:

items pictured:
Dino Pullover Hoodie
Fast-Food Friends Tee
Pop It Like It’s Hot Tee
What’s Up Tee
Aimee Buffalo Check Thermal
Aimee Victorian Thermal
Andie Heart Henley
Gingham Cinched Bandeau
Gingham Boy Short

I was playing around on polyvore and came up with this outfit. It’s probably a little too straight-outta-Hot Topic for me to actually wear as it’s pictured, but it’s cool looking. And if it wasn’t obvious, I like bright colors. I’m glad that they’re “in” right now because it makes it easy to find bright clothes in stores, but maybe if it wasn’t so trendy I wouldn’t have to worry about looking like a Hot Topic mannequin or a 14-year-old.

I figure I’ll start things out by posting the project I’ve most recently completed. This is a white laminate dresser that I got of of craigslist last summer for $10. I hadn’t had any plans for it except to replace it with a better dresser (Ikea Hemnes maybe?) when I had the spare cash.

My initial vision was to decoupage it with torn up newspaper, but I was concerned about it yellowing, so I used text from magazines instead. It’s just torn up magazines and matte finish Mod Podge. I left the sides and top white to keep it from looking too busy. I could replace the drawer pulls, but I don’t want to put much money into poorly-made laminate furniture.

(eek, so messy!)