Did you see Jacinda’s Canton flea market scores? Hi, jealous. With all the fancy pretty things out there in the universe to lust after, why is it it’s the cheap stuff we love the most?

One day I had this random thought that from then on every time I went to a dinner party I would bring a set of vintage salt & pepper shakers as a hostess gift and try to theme them to the recipient. I went on ebay and bought about 40 sets for a dollar or two each. We don’t go to a lot of dinner parties anymore, and I’ve already given a set to everyone I know, so the rest just sit on this shelf. Now people think I collect them, which I don’t, unless “buying in one frantic ebay session” equals collecting:

The two birds in the top pic are my favorite. They look kind of angry. They get to sit on my desk.

This captain’s wheel from the fairfax flea market serves no purpose whatsoever. When I brought it home my husband just laughed. But whatever, I like it.

I found that frame to the left in the clearance section at homegoods for $15 and took it to a local glass shop and had a mirror put it. Everyone thinks it’s vintage, but it’s just cheap and broken.

First edition Gone With the Wind from an antique shop on Sutter Street in Folsom, CA. I didn’t name my daughter after Scarlett O’Hara but she’s rad, and so is this book. Score!

And for all of you book collectors out there, I know it’s a book club edition and therefore not worth thousands of dollars. That would be a bummer anyway, because then I’d have to sell it.

One crazy watercolor from an insane man on the side of a bridge in Budapest. Don’t know what it says. Love it. 1,000 forints = $5

I don’t know what this piece of furniture is supposed to be. It’s super run down, the top lifts up on hinges, but it’s not deep enough to fit bar stuff, has no holes for record player wires, and wouldn’t fit a sewing machine, but it does a good job of holding stuff. $30 at a swap meet.

Oh, and my mom picked up that rocking horse for $1 at a yard sale. Once, and only once, it made a neighing sound. We can’t figure out how to get it to do it again.

George Washington cameo, you’re tiny and weird and I love you. Picked that up somewhere in berkeley during college and it’s followed me around ever since.

This painting is on glass. I found it at a thrift store in Corry, PA on a family vacation. It was $1 and it says 1936 on the back. The frame is falling apart, I guess I could re-frame it but should I?

So there’s some cheap stuff i bought that I love. What about you?

by Jaime