I craft emotionally.  They are my own personal mood ring.   

knitting = relaxed

ripping apart knitting =  annoyed

drawing = optimistic

erasing = disappointed

sewing = ambitious

finished sewing = defeated

photography = contemplative

beading = happy

finding trash = excited

painting trash = lazy

staple gunning = agressive 

gluing = ambivalent 

cutting = stressed

organizing = out-of-control

These cards reflect a particularly pronouced bout of excited-stressed-out-of-control-ambivalent-ness. 

Card materials: $0 from destash, dumpsters, miscellaneous things, and Dollarama 

I kicked this world around underneath my desk for six months before I had the lampshade epiphany.  

Hardware: $4 at Lowes

Beaded trim: $1 at Dollarama

Northern Hemisphere: $0 at my sidewalk

There's no ugly that glue and spray paint can't fix. 

Buttons: late '90s auction find

Lamp shade: $2 as-is at IKEA

Copper pot: yard sale leftover 

Night stand: road side find

Most of my friends are way too smart for their own good.  You know, make plans for their lives that extend beyond the next 34 minutes, and whose most pressing concern is not the peanut butter supply in the fridge.  Julia is among them.  She plans for Kilimanjaro. I plan to go to yoga in 7 hours 50 minutes. 

Julia asked me the other day what will happen when I'm done decorating. 

I've been having existential angst ever since. 

Filigree Mirror: Some trash god wants me to self-reflect.

Erin: *gasp*

Emily: Do you want it? 

Erin: yEs!

Emily: What do I do? what do I do? 

Erin: idunnoidunnoidunnojustpulloverorsomethingidunno

Emily's car: *screech*

Emily: go go go!

Erin: I'm going!

bang. thud. bang, bang. bang. "Oops, sorry Hazel." bang. thump. door slam. 

Light turns green. We win. 

Emily: It's got bird shit on it. 

Night stand: The trash gods gave me this one on the way home from a full-priced dresser purchase at IKEA. 

I'm a trashlete. I train 7 days a week - even on statutory holidays. I do pull-ups on every dumpster I see, sprint to large objects on garbage collection night, and don't even question the power this girl's got to lift furniture up three flights of stairs. Victory is mine.  

Screw the gym. I've got garbage. 

Curtains: found 'em in a borrowed suitcase

Ceramic jug: $2.99 at Goodwill

Got this freebie from the official crazy cat lady in Sackville, NB.  She had 12 indoor cats, all of whom had names beginning with "R".  This fluffy girl was among the ranks of the outdoor cats and tended toward the feral side of things.  

It only took five years to break her in; she turned out to be a crafty little sucker.  

Toothless stray: $0

I just had the perfect date - a little sunset stroll to Lowes, nosed around in the dumpsters out back, sauntered through every aisle planning home renos down to every screw and shower hook, muzak swirled around, imagining dream homes and swiping paint chips to match.  Enjoyed a late evening Subway feed and early to bed.  Gosh, I love spending Friday nights alone.

Frames: $1 each at Dollarama

Flowers: $3 book on remainder table at Indigo

Paint chips: Souvenir from a hot date with myself 

I found a good heap of discarded books at one of the theology libraries at school.  I'll spend 8 minutes grabbing serious tomes for a paper, then 52 minutes pouring my crafting soul over the books.  

Yesterday, I took this one from the Lord, sisters.

Used record: $1 at Around Again

Easel & frame: $1 at Dollarama

Dust jacket: $.50 from the Big Guy. 

I can't figure out which one of these vases best reflects my figure.  Or why I collect vases that might resemble anyone's figure. 

White: $1 at IKEA

Tall: $2 at yard sale

Shorter ones: about $.25 at church rummage sale

Flowers: $1.75/stem at Write Impressions

My father has been trying to say no to his mother since October 2, 1949.  It hasn't worked for me either.  Things she has foisted upon me include a fur coat and a lace mumu.  These curtains were a score though. 

Paper: $4.95 at Write Impressions

Ribbon: $1/spool at Dollarama

Curtains: Thanks to Grammie Green's personality

My dream vehicle is a half-ton truck. Some kind of banged up early '90s Ford dealio. Navy blue. About as many dents on it as miles travelled. AM radio only. No heat.  Chips in the windshield. Few rust rings around the wheels.  Deep gouges in the box and a mangled tailgate.  David Hasselhoff air freshener. 

Just imagine what I could bring home . . . 

Deceptively heavy drawers: 870m from my apartment

Future ride: $350 truck bought off of someone's lawn 

For ten months I stared at shower curtain that was plain in every sense of the word. Dull, modest, ordinary, big yawn, dry, ho hum. The day my roommate told me she was movin' out (along with her blank white shower curtain) I installed this showpiece.

Shower curtain: $3 at rummage sale

I did yoga twice last week. I think that's why a heap of good karma came my way in the guise of a huge dumpster. 

This charming pleather concotion was nestled in some drywall, just begging to be rescued. 

Shoulder bag: $0 

I heard so much about these new-fangled desk chair things that I just had to run out and buy one for $650 at Staples. Or not. 

Found this soggy little girl and her three sisters, lonely in the rain, about 1km from my house. Wheeled her home in '04 and she's been my loyal companion ever since. 

Chair: Shout out to Jane St. 

New containers are merely an excuse to get new stuff. 

Crock pot & basket: Destashed

Yarn: $9.99 for a fat fat big bag of yarn at Goodwill. 

In the past, Telus used chameleons to hawk cell phones.  Moral dilemma: I loathe cell phones, but love chameleons.  Moral dilemma solved: I realized that I could procure chameleons (and related propaganda) without buying a phone. 

Unfortunately, my epiphany came at the end of the chameleon campaign. I had to ambush every Telus sales person I could find until they agreed to call a regional manager and find a box of chameleons for me. 

Then I stuffed them in a spice rack. 

Spice rack: $2

Acrylic paint: $1

Chameleons: Worth their weight in gold. 

I was either a flamingo in a past life or will be in a future one.  The only problem: I eat a lot of peanut butter.  So, I'd likely turn out a bland chestnut than the hot pink that yields the colour of plummage which drives me toward flamingodom in the first place. 

Plant: Stole it from my momma

Candles: $1 each at Dollarama

Candle holders: $1 each at Dollarama

Flamingo: $1 at Dollarama. But I've insured it for a million.