The Many Homes of J&A: Part 1

The title of this post may make you think that we currently have many homes... but that's not quite what we mean. We mean the many homes we've had over the past 19 months (right before we got married, and since we've been married).

If you know us, you know we've moved several times since we got married last summer! So... before we make our next (and final- at least for quite a while) big move at the beginning of next week, we wanted to share the places we've lived since we got married. This post is "Part 1" because we will (hopefully) post "Part 2" next week once we move in to our new house!! 

Home #1: Meadow Oaks Apartment

We got this apartment before we got married, thinking we'd live there after we got married for a year or so. We really liked this apartment...it had a big living room, a good size kitchen- with washer and dryer hookups!

But, before we even graduated from MC, we found out Jonathan would be a Resident Director, also know as an "RD" at MC... so we moved out of this apartment and actually, our friend Zach moved in!

Home #2: The Temporary College Plaza Apartment

When Jonathan moved out of our first apartment (this was before the wedding), he had to move in to a temporary apartment at College Plaza (the apartment complex MC uses where Jonathan was the RD). This was a one bedroom apartment, and thank goodness it was temporary!

A few weeks after the wedding, we were able to move in to the RD Apartment at College Plaza. 

Home #3: The College Plaza Apartment

The College Plaza Apartment was a 2 bedroom apartment. The kitchen had vintage wallpaper that we actually liked! It was also the birthplace of J&A Designs! It's hard for us to imagine having to still make frames in that small of a space, but we did make a few.

Early in the Fall, the RD in the freshmen boys dorm left, and Jonathan took his place. Which meant we packed up again!

Home #4: Chrestman Hall

I never thought I'd live in a freshmen boys' dorm, but I did! We lived in an apartment in Chrestman Hall at MC for 8 months! And we worked on a lot of picture frames in this apartment! This apartment was home to the smallest kitchen ever! It was about the size of a walk-in closet. But, the bedrooms in this apartment were huge! 

Home #5: The Rental House

So, when Jonathan decided to leave MC, it meant we had to find a place to live! And we found a town house to rent in Clinton. We thought we'd be in this town house at least a year, maybe two. This town house has been great because it had a garage that we could work in and make frames, plus it had enough room for an office and a work room for painting frames.

So, that brings us to now! We weren't planning on buying a house any time soon. We'd actually looked before we decided to rent the town house, but we couldn't find anything we loved in Clinton- and we wanted to stay here in Clinton. We knew we wanted something older that had some character, but that was updated enough that we wouldn't have to do a TON of work on it. I've always loved the neighborhood my parents live in- not only because I grew up there, but because it's very pretty and quiet. A little over a month ago, we'd been talking again about how we wished we could buy a house, but because of our lease, as well as not being able to find anything, it just wasn't in the picture right now. Then, on a Friday, a house went up for sale in my parents' neighborhood. We called that day and scheduled to come see the house on Sunday. After walking through the house for a few minutes, we knew we wanted it! On Monday, we made an offer on it, and the offer was accepted by the end of the week! 

The past month has been crazy as we've been making frames for upcoming markets and orders, signing lots of papers along the way involving the house and packing up our stuff this week! We close on the house on Monday and we couldn't be more excited! 

So... more on our new house after we close next week- including some pictures! 

Happy Thursday and have a great weekend!

Craigslist Roundup!

Okay... so I've had an idea to do (maybe) weekly posts on cool Craigslist finds for the week here in the Jackson area. I was inspired by Apartment Therapy's posts they put up weekly of finds like this one in big cities ( NY, LA, DC, Chicago etc.) Most of their finds are awesome pieces... but the big cities usually have MANY more listings... so there's bound to be awesome stuff there.

But, every once in a while, there are some good pieces listed on Craigslist in the Jackson area. We've written before (here) about how much we love consignment shops, antique stores, and especially Craigslist. At least once a day, one of us scouts out the current furniture listings on Craigslist. So... here are a few things we found that we thought were worth sharing.

Check out these great bookshelves we found in this post. They are "Legal Style" as the post says with glass doors on the front- much cooler than your basic bookshelf. And these are only $40 a piece!

These chairs would look great re-done- even just spray painted with new cushions! They are only $50 for the pair!

How about 4 of these chairs for only $50? So what if they don't have a seat? You can always make some seats when you only pay $50 for 4! And this is CHEAP- we've been looking for chairs!

These dressers are a little expensive- but really pretty! $400 for the set and these are at the Flowood Flea Market (we think)- one of the places we've blogged about before as a great place to find antiques! Several places (Forget Me Nots in Brandon, Flea Market in Flowood, 49 S. Antiques & Flea Market and the Flea Market in Clinton occasionally list new items on Craigslist.)

This dining set is only $75 and it could easily be re-painted! Pretty sure this is at the Flowood Flea Market too!

 We've been looking for a new dresser- so usually if the listing title has anything about a dresser we click through to see what it is! This antique dresser is only $80 and includes the mirror!

This one is only $60! We'd probably call these people- but it's located a little to far for us to drive.

HOW COOL is this?!? Who doesn't want a little restaurant booth for their house? Only $75 too!

This Farmhouse Table looks famiar! I recognize the picture from when we bought our Farmhouse table (although this one is 8 feet instead of 6). This couple handmakes these tables and sells them from their house.

Anna has been looking for a vanity now that we'll have a master bedroom with room for one (the same master bedroom that has TWO walk-in closets- I'M SO EXCITED!) She found this one the other day and we picked it up today! We'll probably repaint it soon after we move!

Although you can find some cool stuff on Craigslist... there's a lot of junk too. Like this chair:

If you like one of these pieces, we encourage you to try out Craigslist for yourself- but since we haven't talked to any of the owners of these items- we have no idea if the items are still available.

And since we're talking about Craigslist here... I'll leave you with the general rules we go by when buying off Craigslist (the ones we originally mentioned in this post):

1. When you find out the person's name who has the item- be a stalker! Look them up on Facebook- make sure they don't look completely creepy on Facebook. Although they could be creepy in real life, even if they look normal on Facebook- at least you can maybe see what they look like and find out a few things about them. 

2. If you decide to purchase something and you're going to pick it up at their house- look it up on Google maps. Find out what neighborhood it's in. Make sure you're not going to a sketchy area of town.

3. When you go to pick something up- take someone with you. We always go together or Jonathan takes someone with him to help him.

4. Tell some other people where you're going- in case anything did happen. Although, usually these transactions happen pretty smoothly- you'd better be safe than sorry. So let someone else know where you are headed to pick up an item, the person's name who has the item, etc.

5. Take cash to pay for your item. Most sellers expect cash only anyway, but you don't want to have to worry about a stranger cashing your check in a timely manner, etc.

Double 5x7 Frame

Last week we took a poll on Facebook because we were curious what you'd like more - a frame that holds two 4x6" pictures or one that holds two 5x7" pictures. Most everyone said Double 5x7...

We think this frame is perfect for holding two coordinating photos. Perfect for engagement, wedding, family, baby, and the list could go on and on. Whatever pictures you have will look great in this frame! ;)

So ... Here is our newest frame we will be offering in our stores and have for sale at the markets we attend! It's the same style as our Double 4x6 but just with 5x7's!

This actual frame was made as a special order. We had a customer contact us wanting a frame with two 5x7's and this is her frame! 

One of the very few frames we actually have in our house is a Double 5x7 we made a long time ago. We just have never shared a picture of it. It's one of my favorite frames/color combinations! I'm probably partial because it holds pictures of Jonathan and I with our wedding party.

Of course we sell our frames with black and white inserts, but you can see how great color photos pop in our frames here. 

We will be adding Double 5x7's to our store over the next few weeks but just so you know any Double 4x6 frame you see in our store can be upgraded to a Double 5x7 for just $5 (making the price $45). Just contact us if you would like one made!

Here is the link to purchase the Antique White & Aqua one pictured above:

Double 5x7: Antique White & Aqua

Happy Tuesday!