As I previously stated, J and I try very hard to have almost everything we can homemade, although it's usually me that's pushing us towards trying before buying. I feel at this point, I must step back and explain WHY that is my immediate thought process. I was raised in a house with a very handy father who could fix almost anything (he's a plumber by trade, but he knows how to wire a light fixture, re-roof a house, change the transmission on a car, and even re-carpet our entire house) so right off the bat I had an affinity for doing things myself. When I was a young-en, I used to take apart almost every mechanical thing in my house and put it back together (it almost always worked still...almost). As I got into high school, I found I wasn't entirely terrible at using power tools, and found extreme satisfaction at creating something with my own two hands. Anything I could.
In comes me at 20 years of age, deciding I was going to go to art school. I didn't know what I wanted to do as an artist, but I knew I needed to create. After a few years of bumbling around (and discovering I can dye fabric, carve wood, make jewelry, and fiddle with photography) I discovered I wasn't a terrible printmaker. It was in this printmaking class I fully discovered J! We realized we were kindred spirits and our need for anything homemade came into fruition. As we got to know each other, we learned our tastes were very similar, and as you know we became the bestest of friends (more like family).
Then we decided upon creating a hope chest. We try very hard to make almost everything for our hope chests with our own two hands, but sometimes there are things you just can't make, no matter how much you want to. And with this statement, I finally come to the reason for my post today:
SECOND HAND STORES!
Second hand stores are amazingly wonderful things. You can find almost anything you need at second hand stores (and sometimes things you didn't think you'd need!) for wayyy cheaper that you could ever find them in (x) store. I've found some amazing pieces that I realized I just couldn't live without.
I came across this wonderful suitcase and 2 sheets for under $3! I plan on creating things out of the sheets but this just goes to show you that you can find amazing things if you know where to look.
More often than not, the things you'll come across will be TERRIBLE but you just have to realize you sometimes have to wade through the crap to find the treasure underneath. Usually the things I buy are of better quality than most of the items I would find for 10x the price in brand stores. I would much rather pay $5 for something that's needs a little love and tlc than something that I have to pay $100 and is made of particle board.
So please, if you just can't find something in your price range that you truly want, don't rule out second hand stores!
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