Table Talk & Craigslist Deals

Even though I worked over the weekend, I savored the wonderful weather we had in San Diego on Saturday.  Low 80s, sunny, lovely, gorgeous.  Sunday turned nasty, cold, cloudy, and windy but Saturday was perfect.

I spent time with Skylar and we went to the park together.

And got in some great runs and streamlined, 20 minute at-home workouts, too.

Backtrack to Friday, I found a great Craigslist score:  A table that I plan to use for photography purposes.  It was $20 bucks, it’s teak wood (pretty certain) and it’s perfect for my needs and available space.

I had looked around Target, local thrift and antique stores but wasn’t seeing anything that just grabbed me.

I went on Craiglist on a whim and found the ad for the table I bought within minutes of searching (a blessing unto itself because CL can be such a pain to weed through all those ads).

Turns out, the woman met me 18 hours later a few miles from my house with table in hand, and it’s perfect.

I can set up near my windows so I can get better shots.  As I mentioned in my Making Lightbounces & Using Light post, the lighting I have in my house is iffy, at best, and I think having a table near my windows will really help my shots.  I can walk around the table and try to capture the best shot and will not be confined to my dining room table or my kitchen countertops which has been the case for the past almost year.

When I went to my Food Styling and Photography Workshop, I realized that wood is a beautiful medium in which to shoot food photos.  Both as a backdrop to set plate of food on top of…

….and just putting the food directly on wood.

I would have never thought so, but wood just seems to work wonderfully well, especially for certain food like burgers or chips or potatoes.

I wanted a table like Matt & Adam’s.  Well, they actually have a large table and then have various sizes of wood planks with different finishes, paint, textures, that they can put on top of one of their tables, too.

White, smooth wood and a more rustic, planked wood “table toppers” shown on top of their bigger table.  Change the “topper” to get a whole new look for your images.

I can put any kind of tablecloth, napkins, other wooden boards, tiles, you name it, on top of my new table if I don’t want the weathered look.

And just like my new tripod that folds up when I’m done with it, so does my new photography table.  I have a small living space and just don’t have the space or desire for another table to be set up, permanently, just hogging valuable square footage and living space.

If all this table talk is boring, let’s move on to food talk.

How about the Peanut Sauce Baked Tofu I just made.  Glad you all enjoyed that recipe and thanks for letting me know you love your peanut sauce, too!

Foodgawker liked it, too, which made me super happy!

If you’re feeling more like breakfast or a snack, try a Microwave Banana Oat Cake (vegan, GF, easy)

Top with, what else, peanut butter or sunflower seed butter, or other nut butter.

Or make some No-Bake Oatmeal Raisin Carrot Cake Bites (vegan, GF, easy)

Questions:

1. Best thing you ate or did over the weekend?

Saturday’s weather was perfect.  Sunny weather always makes me extremely happy. I just feel great when the weather is great.

I also had tons of time in the kitchen Sunday afternoon which was fun.

And my new table makes me happy.

2. Have you ever bought anything on Craigslist or Ebay?  Or at second hand, thrift, or vintage stores?  Ever sold anything?

I know I’ve mentioned it in the past but both CL and Ebay can be a great way to save money and find some unique, awesome pieces, and great deals in the process.

I have been an ebay member since 1998.  I have bought and sold everything from maternity clothes to camera memory sticks to lamps to stevia on ebay.

I bought my Macbook which was just a couple months old from a local Craiglist ad and saved a ton of money in the process.  (Not for everyone’s comfort level but for me, it worked)

I sold my Polar Heartrate Monitor I used just two times on CL

I have bought used/vintage clothes and like going thrift shopping for $3 tshirts

I bought vintage scarves to use in my photography shoots

I found the scoby mother I used to make homemade kombucha on Craigslist a year ago.  It has since created hundreds of “babies”, some of which I’ve passed along to friends.

I love finding good deals and one-of-a-kind items.  And, re-using someone else’s castoffs is great.  Reduce, reuse, recycle.  So you can think of using CL or Ebay as doing something green, right!

What have you bought, sold, or found on Ebay or CL?

If you’re just catching up on weekend posts, here are mine since Friday:

• Peanut Sauce Baked Tofu
• Tripod & Photography Page
• Soups, Salads, Dips, & Savory Recipes
• Just Noochy & Food Trivia
• Refunds and Sunshine