mini wall-cabinet

Many years ago, I was somewhat of a thrifting expert. I could walk into any Savers or Goodwill and come out minutes later with no less than three ironic t-shirts, a pair or two of men's slacks that I would later cut into "punk pants," and at least half a dozen weird and unusual objects or... rollerskates. I have purchased many pairs of used skates.

Turns out, thrifting in L.A. is nothing like its counterpart in the Bay Area. After moving here six years ago I quickly learned that everything is picked over, way too expensive and grungy. Really, really grungy. One thrift store I tried to enjoy several times before giving up forever actually just throws piles of clothes on the dirty concrete floor to be sifted through by customers, and I've seen bugs crawling through this pile. Never going back.

So, I have mostly given up on this endeavor. Once in a while B and I will run into Goodwill if we are in the area, to check out their book selection, but that's about it.

It was on one such book browsing trip that I got bored and wandered through the "housewares" section (which is a term I use loosely, as this section holds dishes, broken televisions, and VHS tapes) when I spied a cute little wall cabinet for under $5. There might be a more official name for this kind of thing, but I am going to stick with "wall-cabinet" or even "mini wall-cabinet." Sure, someone had left a blob of mustard paint on the trim and the wood was fairly scratched, but I had great plans for it.




Six months later, I finally get around to painting and filling it. It hangs on the wall in our dining space and looks adorable!


The inside was spray-painted a glossy white, and the outside is painted with Martha Stewart's precious metals collection of interior paint. That paint is so smooth and shiny and wonderful. I bought a tester size but I am about to go back and get more to paint a wall of our bedroom with it. It looks dark grey in the photo but it is actually a sparkly metallic dark silver-blue color!


I ended up filling it with all of the random things we had scattered around the house: a puffy heart, some vintage matches, a ceramic elephant, a tiny bird, hello kitty, glitter skulls, many pigs, salt and pepper shakers, an owl, a voodoo doll, a cheeseburger finger puppet, some mushrooms, old perfume bottles and the toppers from our wedding cake. Such a fun way to display all of the tiny trinkets that would otherwise get lost in the overwhelming house shuffle!

travel tuesday: joshua tree

in an effort to write more, record more, and plan more, i decided to start a few little series-type posts here...

and this is the first one.

from now on you can look in the little side bar to the right ------>
and click on

to see all of the posts in this series.
as more series are added, you will be able to find icons on the right as well!

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From the minute we returned from our inaugural trip to the desert town of Joshua Tree, we have been trying to make it back. Sadly, merely trying never gets me anywhere. Thoughts of moving states (and even regions!!!) have made us look more closely at what L.A. still has to offer us, and helped us become slightly more spontaneous. Our little family (cats not included) finally made it back to the desert last week, for one short day.





While on our last trip we spent hours and hours and hours exploring the national park, this time it was far too hot to do any real hiking. Instead we conquered the town as much as possible (everything in Joshua Tree & Twentynine Palms closes early), went swimming in the motel pool, scrambled over the little mountain to a yard sale in Pioneer Town, and eventually drove deep into the park in the dark of night, although a rogue coyote and a few too many scary stories made me too wimpy to actually get out of the car.





The most magical (and I don't use that word lightly, or really at all) part of the weekend was the night sky show that we stumbled upon at the rangers station in the park. Once or twice a month, all year long, two park rangers set up high powered telescopes and spend the evening explaining what the gps is pointing the lenses at. Yes, telescopes have gps now. Who knew.

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I can't even put into words what it is like seeing Saturn in real time. Not a photograph or discovery channel program or planetarium field trip, but actually there to be seen in real life, all of its rings, its biggest moon a dark spot in the brightness. It was moving in a way that I don't usually feel (like a hallmark card commercial), and me and B both walked away stunned and speechless and small. Although seeing the swan nebula, a bright star cluster, and individual rocks and craters on our moon was great too, nothing will compare to seeing that huge planet look so shiny and far away with my own eyes.

If we do end up moving away from here, I will sorely miss Joshua Tree and the natural beauty it has to offer. If only I could get the desert night sky over the city of L.A., then I would be less inclined to ever leave this place.

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trip time:
motel: super 8 twentynine palms (less than $50 a night, clean, and they let doggies stay with you for $10 extra. none of the "hip" hotels allow pets, and we don't travel lightly these days!)
vegan eats: natural sisters cafe, crossroads cafe, joshua tree health food
fun stuff: pioneer town, night sky program, park info

yard sales.

large tins full of hundreds of various matchbooks: free.

vintage envelopes that i thought had old letters in them: $3. SO RIPPED OFF.

travel tuesday: palm springs

At the age of 17, a friend managed to get me a job at the bookstore she was employed with. It was some regional chain on the rich side of town that I hadn't been in before, and while the selection wasn't good by any means, I liked that I could tell people I worked in a bookstore. After a while, half of my high school group worked there as well (although, a few months in I was promoted to assistant manager but hated the responsibility of keeping my peers on task and quit in the middle of one shift so I could make it to a green day concert... and I don't even really like green day), and a great time was had by all.

ANYWAY, working there was the first time I was exposed to the phenomena of harry potter. I hated it. I hated every single child and adult that came in to buy those thick and unwieldy HP books. I hated the goddamn stuffed white owls we sold, and the little coins and bookmarks and dolls and stickers that seemed to take up half the store. I hated it when children (and adults!) came in wearing capes, threw their wands around, and messed up my precariously built displays.

At that point, I decided I would hate little harry and his friends forever, and never read the books. Even my extreme love for youth fiction would not convince me to read that mess.

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Cut to two years later, I am working as a nanny and consistently bored out of my mind while the kids napped. After exhausting all of the other books on the shelf of their home, I picked up Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, and decided I might as well read the first few pages. Anything to pass the time.

I was instantly in love. I am still in love. I retracted my previous hate for the series and went about reading all of the books that had come out by that point, and eagerly waited for the next edition to be published. I went to the midnight releases of book and movies, contemplated a hedwig tattoo (still contemplating), attended various wizard rock events... general obsession. When I am into something, whether it be a musician, a food, a word (table... table. table, table table. obsessed.) or a book, i am wayyyy into it. It is probably annoying to everyone else (sorry, husband).

Luckily, my friend G was just as into it. Way back when we were 20ish, G and I talked about how we would be almost 30 by the time the last movie came out. I think we even mentioned flying to London for it (did we really think we would be wealthy enough to fly to London just for a movie premier? probably... such optimistic youthful dreams!). So when it came time for the film to come out, we decided some sort of trip was needed. We ended up in Palm Springs for just under 48 hours, and it was pretty rad. In retrospect, I should have worn a scar on my head all weekend, but instead I just wore the same shirt three days in a row.

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some sort of fake fried chicken that was delicious and eaten by the empty fireplace, why does G look so pretty and i look like a wet rodent?, obligatory sign shot, brunchies, evil dog, cold mountain pool, beer in bed, complimentary toes, B on bike, we really did have fun, super henner.

28.

letter to myself of the 2001-2004 era:

dearest megs,

please do not sign up for, sporadically attend, and eventually drop or fail classes at three seperate community colleges and one art university. Later, when you are older and wiser and concerned about getting a good education, you will hate that you have to pay $17 per transcript from each institution you attended, even though you dropped or failed 90% of your classes. You are applying to a largish-bunch of universities, and all those transcript fees sure add up (not to mention how bad it probably looks to have to send in five transcripts, four of which show a 1.5gpa, ouch). You really should take school seriously, or better yet, just don't even bother trying. The free health insurance isn't worth it, and you will do much better in ten years.

xox,
28 year old self who is really tired of spending money on transcripts that could be better spent on cat treats, or... dresses... curtains... fancy coffee... gas... plane tickets... pie.