Lovely Finds

I love sales in stores. I adore them, really, for so many reasons. I love to peruse the stacks of things on clearance- the hunt is half the battle. I also love not paying full price. In fact, I do everything possible to never do such a thing- this is accomplished by hunting the sales and by making friends in the stores that I want things from. Yesterday, though, I came across a particularly good find at the local Kirklands- a cherry wood etegere. It was sitting in the back corner, like a misfit toy, with a sticker on it that said "$25 AS IS". I checked the original price- $100. I further examined the piece- the wood is in good shape, nothing is broken...then I give it a shake and it almost falls over. A-ha. So, I examine further and find that there are no pieces missing, it was just put together terribly....nothing that I couldn't fix. In short, I took it to the front counter and told the lady that I wanted it. She looked at it and said "well, we have one in the back that's in excellent shape", to which I replied "nope, I want this one." Apparently there was enough resolution in my voice that she didn't try to argue. I happily brought it home in two pieces (because it literally was put together that badly), and today I put it back together (with a little help from Significant Other)....and it's as sturdy as it should be, and beautiful. It is seldom that one can profit from another's laziness or ineptitude (whichever was the reason that it was so shoddily put together), so I consider this a super find. Beautiful and cheap because of human error.
I also found flowers made out of wood shavings for two dollars- wild roses, to be exact, and a really pretty iron candle holder that has been made to be a working ferris wheel! To top it off, I found some really pretty wall art for entirely too much....so I went to Michael's and surprise! Five 16x20 canvases for $20. I bought those, too, and a bottle of acrylic gesso....there are now two canvases in my house properly gessoed and just waiting for finals to be over so that I may paint to my heart's content.
All of this, as silly as it may be, makes me kinda happy. Yay for retail therapy!