Kittens From The Dark Side: My Favorite Thrifted And Gifted Household Items

I have family members and friends with great taste -

and even better, they understand my taste.

I don't know how I got so lucky.

My house is just right for us in almost every way.

Of course, some cabinets and the hall closet need cleaning out,

and the windowsills need cleaning, but overall, we've slowly created

a cozy, peaceful, and comfortable living nest for ourselves and our furry family members.

A lot of the ingredients have come from our families

and our friends.

Other items we (okay, it's been mostly me) found second-hand.

Greg cares how our house looks and that he feels represented and comfortable, but he doesn't care overly much exactly how things are arranged.

This little woven bowl was discovered at the Sea Hive, a thrift shop I found in Oceanside, California, while we were there in July. I love how the orangey rust color brings out the wood tones and also looks good with the gold/mustard accent color in our house.

Our coffee table is a gorgeous live-edge slab with a blue streak down the middle.

It's smooth and has a lovely grain.

I have happy memories of a walnut apple-shaped ice holder

my parents used to bring out for parties, and I found these cute little salt & pepper shakers at the thrift store last spring! They bring back those happy memories and look great, too!

I display them but they don't have salt and pepper in them.

My kitchen table is a rotating display of some of my favorite items.

Here's how it looks right now.

The rock tower in the background (a cairn, a guidepost on hikes in the desert) is a gift my Mom and her dear friend Bonnie bought me. The little pottery vase was another find at the Sea Hive vintage shop in Oceanside, California.

The beautiful multi-colored vase is a gift from my dear friend Cindy

It makes me happy every time I look at it because of its color gradients and shimmery-ness.

Even though fall hasn't quite arrived officially, I notice that the days are getting shorter

and cooler weather MAY be on the horizon for us (it's 104 right now, but it could be worse!)

My Mom bought these adorable little fall ceramic pumpkins for me while I was in Minnesota,

and I couldn't resist putting them on the dining room table right away.

They look perfect with the gold glass candle holders Greg was given as a thank-you gift for helping out with the details of a friend's wedding.

I LOVE dishes - glasses and bowls, especially. Okay, basically all tableware (though I don't focus much on silverware). I have mix-and-match dishes and glasses, and I most of it I've had for years.

We've had our regular eating plates, bowls, and mugs since we got married 23 + years ago.

We chose mostly good quality ceramic stuff rather than china style because I like chunky pottery.

I added some dotted white bowls to the bowls we still have from our wedding dishes

(the blue leaf and blue striped bowls - I still love them!)

Apparently I have a clear type preferences with glasses,

because all my drinking glasses are either footed or thick chunky glass.

One example of this is my love for these "cubist" vintage glasses.

I found this style first at TurnStyle, the consignment shop where I take the clothing I don't wish to wear anymore that's still in reasonably good shape. They pay me in cash, so I can reinvest in my wardrobe. I browse while I'm there, and I found these and fell hard for them.

I bought all they had, which was six.

Then I found four more when I was at Goodwill a few weeks ago!

What a deal. They were $12 apiece on eBay.

Here are some more examples.

These pretty blue patterned glasses are a similar shape.

My Mom found these at a thrift store near my parents' cabin in

Sauk Centre, Minnesota, and gave them to me as a Christmas gift a few years ago.

Do you see the clear glass dessert glasses in the background -

they also have a foot, and it's beaded glass!

Here's another example!

These are blue glass (and blurry - sorry!).

I found them at a consignment store.

The little cut glass clear glass compote bowls to the right in the photo below

belonged to my parents.

I love them and regularly make chocolate pudding . . .

and my Mom was thinking of getting rid of them, so I have adopted them.

They have a happy home and are well-loved!

The blue tulip bowls in the center of the photo

were a gift from Greg's Mom. She found them at her favorite thrift shop:

The White Elephant in Green Valley, Arizona!

These amazing chunky ceramic mugs are also a gift from my parents.

I remember my Dad drinking hot chocolate out of these mugs on chilly Minnesota days.

We call this beautiful wall-hanging The Alligator.

If you look at the wood part, it looks like an alligator.

The spoons are wooden, carved by a travelling salesman who sold them to Greg's Great-grandmother.

When Greg's Grandma Marion stopped using them for cooking, she put hooks on them and hung them on this piece of driftwood rescued from Lake Bemidji (in northwestern Minnesota)

and used it as artwork. I complimented it (potentially more than once because I always loved it)

and she sent it down with Greg's Mom one time. It's been on the wall behind our dining room table ever since! It's perfect. It adds personality, fun, whimsy, and a tie to our Bemidji family.

This glassware is a mix of a set from my parents and a set from Greg's Grandmother.

The stuff with the gold trim is from Greg's Grandma. It's heavy glass with a neat pattern.

The amber set is from my parents. They bought it in Mexico almost 50 years ago. It is light and delicate and tiny. It's the prettiest color. They look wonderful together!

This beautiful wood cactus (with roadrunner) and coyote are

another very special gift. My talented Uncle Ron was a carpenter,

and he made these for me after hearing me admire a similar artwork.
I miss you, Uncle Ron!

This photo is full of gifts from our families!

The dining room table is from my parents.

They bought it before I was born, when they lived in Texas.

It has a leaf insert and can seat six comfortably. We don't typically have over a huge number of people, but if we do, we also have an outdoor table that seats four, another outdoor seating area that seats 2, and the couch, where two people can eat.

This is the perfect size for us because we have a small area for a dining room.

I love the size and shape of the table and even the style.

I switched out two of the chairs for the chairs from our newer kitchen table because I like

how it looks.

Aren't the chairs pretty?

I used to run my finger around in the grooves of the figure eights

because it seemed like a road or a riverbed to me. It was very soothing!

I recovered the chairs with a blue and white vine print fabric.

I found the rattan woven placemats at the head and foot of the table

at Goodwill (in Cave Creek) on a trip there a few weeks ago.

They add such nice texture!

Isn't that a pretty pattern and color?

This chair is another of my favorite thrifting stories.

I took a load of stuff to the Goodwill 1 mile from our house

(the one on Arizona Avenue, not the one on Warner).

While I was unloading it (no one was immediately there to help),

I saw this chair sitting there in the drop-off area, and I promptly loaded it

into my car and drove away! I considered it an exchange, but I thought later that it might have been stealing . . . at the time I didn't even think twice!

I love bent wood chairs.

They're not the sturdiest, but they are beautiful.

This one has a heart shape in the back

and a fantastic patina on the seat.

It looks almost gold.

This painting is another gift from my parents.

It was painted by a friend of theirs who recovered his painting ability after a stroke.

It says, "PTL" (praise the Lord) in the corner by his name.

We don't have a lot of walls in our house, and it's a pretty heavy painting, so we have it

leaning against the wall in our great room where we can see and appreciate it all the time.

Another sweet gift that ended up bringing me lots of joy

is this light-up tree.

It was a Christmas gift from my sweet and thoughtful friend Jen.

I love trees and have an ongoing tree theme even when it's not Christmastime.

I still like trees in the summertime!

Isn't it elegant?

The little snow-covered tree is from Cindy.

My parents purchased these little paintings when they were in Asia.

The gold frames and the colors fit AMAZINGLY in our home!

And they're the perfect size for this beam in our hallway.

This ladder-style shelving unit has an interesting history -

it used to belong to our neighbors across the street, Jordan & Amanda!

They put it on the street with a free sign on it, and I convinced Greg (though not easily)

that we needed it! I cleaned it up and it's PERFECT in the corner with all my style & fashion books on it (plus books related to plants and animals on the bottom shelf).