jburn's Profile

I recently found a huge royal blue velvet chesterfield on Craigslist for $300 - my husband thought I was crazy at first, since I used to always go for such neutrals, but the blue totally makes the room pop!

I live in the midwest where apparently we don't have the same nyc bed bug paranoia. I have made hundreds of dollars from finding stuff on the street, fixing it up, and selling it on Craigslist. I do hate trying to beat the scrap metal guys when there's a lovely piece - I want it to go to good use, not melted down!

I've always been perplexed by this: I live in the Kansas City metroplex. In the south Overland Park area, we have lots of "world headquarters" for a bunch of companies, and that part of town has scores of multi-million $ monstrosities that are all bunched close together, painted gray, have a surprisingly "builder basic" interiors, and are frankly boring compared to Kansas City's historic neighborhoods, where you can also find million-dollar homes with 1930's character, charming landscaping, and absolutely unique interior details. For the life of me, I do not understand this! Why the yucky suburban million dollar neighborhoods?

I have a similar problem - My mother-in-law is beginning to clean out their crowding home, eventually to downsize to a condo. She messages me regularly with "do you want a wooden rolling pin? What about 3 copper baking tins in the shape of a bear? A set of mismatched pyrex from the 80's?" It's all very specific and I'm afraid I'll offend her if I say, "No I don't need a rolling pin."

I'm sorry, but a "lefty liberal" who doesn't like your own flag? Really? I'm not going to lie, the Union Jack in decor trend does irk me sometimes because we're not British. It has no meaning to us aside from being "trendy!" Lame sauce. I would have like to see more American flag inspired decor, like the painted dresser fronts, or pillows, or bunting, which my patriotic self is going to locate now for some 4th decor. I don't understand the patriotic shame. Go to France on Bastille Day and see how they roll.

Love it! Fun and quirky. Love the vintage inspiration. Feels so individual.

As an "on the side, second-shooter for weddings" photographer, I never understood the headless photo. The bride and groom without heads...I just feel like it looses a timelessness. Grandkids are not going to care about a picture of your chest.

We got married a year ago, and have furnished our 2700 sq. foot home exclusively from Craigslist, garage sales, flea markets and antique stores. We're just now getting to a place where I really like what we have, but we've gone through 2 dining rooms sets, 2 kitchen sets, multiple side tables and chairs etc. I bought what we needed on CL, then traded up, always making a profit, until I've found what we love.

I live near Raytown - we go to the Bargain Factory in Grandview, and one of my favorite finds was quality air filters for $.25. I bought 15. Last time I was there, I saw a pack of hundreds of parchment paper cupcake liners for like $2 and I'm still kicking myself for not getting it. My friend got a Kitchen Aid Artisan Mixer for $35.

A couple points:

1. If someone has a legitimate allergy to dogs and cats, putting them in a different room is going to do little to help. The dander is already everywhere in your house.

2. We recently had a party. There were people I knew there, and people I didn't. The people I know love our dogs (labs which are well-behaved - no jumping, licking, incessant barking). People knew NOT to put their drinks down in the path of Amos' tail, and everybody had to meet the dogs, they're social creatures, they tromped around the house excited to see everybody.

As for the people I didn't know, why again are you at my house? Oh, you're a friend of so-and-so, and you don't like dogs? That's too bad.

I think I have a different definition of "host" than Amanda. We've had multiple house guests this year which began as, "I'm coming into town to visit, can I stay with you?" I always ask, "Do you have a problem with dogs?"

The same thing with a small social or family gathering; people I would invite to a dinner party come to our house regularly, they've housesat our beloved pooches, they bring goodies for them (not us) and if someone comes along with them that says, "Yeah, I don't get dogs" we probably won't have them over again. As for the family thing, I don't get that. If they're your family, why can't you communicate?