Thanks, But I'll Just Do It Myself

A word about Steamboat Springs & Stagecoach, CO. In the poetic words of husband: "we're gonna die here." That is his way of telling me that he wishes to retire to Stagecoach. I'm slightly ambivalent so far, but I don't really have to worry yet because retirement is soooo not imminent w/ two small children and one big one in college sucking up every dollar before it even comes in.

Stagecoach is in the middle of nowhere. We don't even have a convenience store. Technically, we are part of Oak Creek, a teeny town that's about 10 minutes away. Teeny, as in the "town" itself consists of one road (Main Street, of course) that is lined with probably less than a couple dozen miniscule storefronts such as an upholstery shop (handy!) and a dance school...we're well rounded in Oak Creek. For the most part, though, there's just nothing there, and if we need something we usually make the trek into Steamboat, which, frankly, isn't a whole lot better.

Steamboat is pretty much up and coming but they haven't gotten there yet (as far as I'm concerned) because they don't have a Target. They do, however, have a Walmart (shudder!). When we make the long drive from Houston to Colorado, passing through forgotten towns, big and small, I always comment that it's not a real town unless it has a Walmart. Well, Steamboat has one. I hate Walmart. If it weren't the only game in town, I'd boycott it, same as I do here in the big city, but in Steamboat, your choices are high end designer boutique or Walmart so Walmart usually wins.

The house is so far furnished in Ikea and thrift store finds. The nearest Ikea is in Utah, so you have to order the furniture online and have it shipped, a huge pain and quite expensive. I'm calling my interior design concept contemporary/rustic with a mid-century modern twist. This is also known as hodge-podge.

This is my long seque into this story: while in Colorado during Christmas, I decided I wanted a faux plant or two to add some green to the house. Walmart's faux plants look like green construction paper leaves glued to brown pipe cleaners. E could make me a better plant. I couldn't put that in my house, so I went into downtown Steamboat, which has some great shopping for the tourists but is also very expensive for that reason, and walked around, venturing into Romick's Home Collection. Chi-chi. Foo-foo. Wandered around. Saw a nice simple, smallish ivy plant on a sideboard that looked harmless enough. Checked the price. Blanched. $200. For a plant. A small plant. Found a few more plants scattered throughout the joint. The cheapest one was $145. It was in a pot the size of a Dixie cup. I moved on.

But while I was there, I also saw baskets and baskets of these:
I had no idea what they were, but I thought they were pretty cool. I never found a price, but I'm pretty certain that they most likely cost $100 per pine cone at Romick's Home Collection. After I got home, I googled wax pinecones and discovered that they are firestarters. Well, how handy! And how much prettier than the wad of newspapers we were using to start fires. Google how to make pine cone fire starters. Do some reading. Find the version I like the best. Order pine cones. Make my OWN pine cone fire starters for pennies on the $100 when compared to Romick's Home Collection (especially since I already have the candlemaking equipment from a small teacup candle craze I went through last year). So there. They came yesterday:
I'm dying to get started. I'll keep you posted.