Found Treasures

I am finding that trying a new thing a month and trying to tighten up my budget is a tricky thing to accomplish.  Plus the lingering cold decreases my motivation to push myself out of my comfort zone and into tango class. But I stumbled onto a solution of sorts. One of the benefits of living in close proximity to the more affluent neighbors at the other end of Capitol Hill is that often enough people purge by just leaving perfectly good household items on the sidewalk. Recently, on a fluke warm enough-to-ride-my -bike day, I scored a suitcase, food processor, and lamp. The former two I plan to give to friends who need them, the lamp I recently discovered fulfilled my new thing for February. The lamp was just a base. Feeling empowered and organized getting a lamp harp (also learned a new term) made it not only onto my to do list but quickly crossed off with a trip to Target. Of course it couldn’t be that easy; the first buy didn’t have the base thingy (apparently some terms remain a mystery) needed to attach the harp to the lamp base.  After a trip to Frager’s, I thought I had learned my lesson to remember to shop there first. Next I had to disassemble the inside parts of a lamp, easy enough, but the wires that wrap around the light bulb socket made me nervous enough that one wrong move could prove to be disastrous.  I embraced my inner MacGyver and persevered.

new to me lamp

Lamp harp, base thingy, and other random part

Of course now that I have the thing disassembled, I realize the base part thingy that came with the second lamp harp doesn’t actually fit in the lamp base. I figure at this point it’s best to just leave the pieces in the bowl on the coffee table for a couple of weeks. Frager’s comes to the rescue again and I find the kind of lamp thing that just fits on the bulb and attaches to the shade. Now if I had taken the easy way to put a lamp shade on my free lamp I might not have spent an extra $10 on lamp harps but I also wouldn’t have learned how to take a part and put back together a lamp.

fixing snaps

Darning socks

The whole exercise inspired me to fix the snaps I had sewn on to give extra security to a couple of wrap skirts and while I was at it darn a pair of socks. Living frugally may take some practice and patience but you do gain a greater sense of accomplishment and feel good about recycling stuff to boot. Maybe with my pennies  I can feel ok about doing two new things in February  and buy for the first time ever a brand new piece of furniture. I have my eye on this chair.  

But then I found this stray part that didn't make it back into the assembled lamp. 

What is it and is it necessary?