I've been having this really strange feeling lately - I think I want to decorate according to a 'theme'. It feels really weird, almost upsetting. Definitely foreign. Hopefully a transient phase.

Not sure what décor scheme could absorb a giant upside down wooden umbrella sign.

Thing: $0 outside boating store

Okay. I don't even need to try to be witty with this one. It's a flippin' Buddha creamer!

Sacreligious artefact: $2.99 at Goodwill

I know slavery has largely gone out of fashion in my parts of the world. However, I seem to be reintroducing this dreadful, inhumane practice in my own home. My dad is my personal trash minion.

It only took two configurations and three Robaxacets to get this wingback installed (note: carrying things on your head really does work).

Wingback: $0 roadside find

Servile father: unconditional love

"The secret of creativity is knowing how to hide your sources." - Albert Einstein

Sorry, Al. I'm not with you on this one.

Glasses: $6.99 at IKEA

Lampshade: $2.99 in as-is at IKEA

Spraypainted Folger's can: Yes, I drink Folger's

Pears: $0 in leftovers from a yardsale

Kick ass picture frames are a perpetual feature on my to-find list. (Does it vex anyone else how expensive they are in real life?) I scored these two suckers in soggy horse barn yardsale over the weekend. The price for this project was so right - running under five bucks - until I cracked the glass on one of them in a completely conspicuous way (read: shattered).

Paper: $1 at Dollarama, Michael's

Frames: $2 each at yard sale

Replacement glass: $7

Gas to get replacement glass: $3

Beer to calm down after getting replacement glass: $4.60

It's in the stars that I will never be a great athlete. Or really an athlete at all. I once bowled a 9 in high school. Yup, a nine.

I am, however, a world-class trashlete.

Bowling balls: perhaps the coolest roadside find of the decade

I don't think my blonde Italian landlord understands that there are degrees in between 15 and 38 Celsius. Just nudge it, Angelo, just a tiny bit. If the windows are open in January, your tenants are too hot.

Too bad this beat up old radiator cover goes to waste in so many ways.

Radiator cover: roadside find

I'm of the mind that anything gold and rub-on probably looks better on buildings in Brussels than discarded plastic picture frames.

All hail Rustoleum!

Frame: roadside find

Rustoleum: $5/can

Mat: sheet of printer paper

Print: from a day when I wasn't too lazy to take a good photo

The chances of me using these hype tin cans for their designated contents - flour, sugar, tea, coffee - is pretty darned skinny. I want to use them for very secret stashes of some mysterious things.

Retro canisters: $9.96 for set at Goodwill

I got this swath of textile at a yardsale for one rumpled American dollar. I'm pretty sure it's a table cloth, but for now it's a blanket.

Fabric: $1.11910 CDN

I now have enough dishes to feed the Brady's, the von Trapp's, and several large Roman Catholic families all at once. Possibly even multiple courses.

But I guess that would involve cooking or something.

Heap of bowls and small plates: 0$ in a box on the sidewalk

My dad is visiting. Today we cut through a parking lot at school on the way to the subway station and crossed paths with a behemoth 12-foot tall green dumpster. Before I even had a chance to size up its trashtastic potential, my 59 year old father had already scrambled up the side and was yelling at me to see if I wanted some candles.

I am still but a grasshopper.

Beading treasures: destash, Chinatown, Lowe's chain, Queen St, and elsewhere ($?)

Type set box: auction find ($?)