Kea [00:00:03] The podcast where we sip and spill, you are now listening to this episode of Tea With Kea. Hey, thank you to all my lovely listeners for coming back to this episode. My guest today, someone very special to me, girl. Let them know. Let them know who you be, who you be.
Homegirl [00:00:26] Girl, I can’t match your energy, but thanks for having me. I’m a friend of Kea.
Kea [00:00:38] You know what they used to say back in the day? I don’t know. Your teacher said it. They’d always say kiss, keep it simple, stupid, then
Homegirl [00:00:43] take on it. Did Miss Smith. Yes, she did.
Kea [00:00:46] Oh, I’m the one who told me was Coach Smith. Oh, that wasn’t married, though. Probably because, like, you know, it’s a different state. I guess we will be married and live in different states. But that’s not a life I know anyways. Yes. Richet, Russia, Rizla Russell, all that jazz, honestly, like you be out here, you Beslan, you do a damn thing. So it’s good to have you on the show. Love you. Love you. Love you. Love you. Love you. Love you. Love you. So, so, so, so much. You know how we do on ti with Key we let you know what we are. Mother freaking got dang souping. Are you surviving. Are you viable. You vibes today
Homegirl [00:01:30] in our lives. Earlier today though I was drinking some lemon ginger tea you know. Yes. Digestion Sheetrit also calm yourself down. Tehsil is good for the body.
Kea [00:01:42] I feel that. I feel that it was like a perfect Monday cup for you.
Homegirl [00:01:48] This tea it hits. It does. Yoki, I think that’s a brand. You know,
Kea [00:01:54] I feel that. I feel that I am rocking the cup today. OK, am I patch tea? I love it. I actually I love passion, passion, tea and like passion fruit juice. Honestly, like, it just makes me feel happy, put a lot of shit in it and just slip away. Oh I just you sip and then like you will be smiling when you be sipping you just like in
Homegirl [00:02:20] my I’m not paying attention to it and if I’m sick then no one can tell because my mouth is covered by the mug.
Kea [00:02:26] So I’ve always loved like you just be like you just say how you just say things how they are.
Homegirl [00:02:36] Yeah. That’s all. And I’ve learned but we’re not going to get stories so.
Kea [00:02:46] OK, ok. We don’t know how to get in that. That’s OK. We’re going to take well just like you know I think it’s very admirable. But any who
Homegirl [00:02:54] are rushing us man
Kea [00:02:57] a real talk, I don’t know. The first day we met I just know that we met and then we was friends and then we’ve been friends literally since the beginning my freshman year. But I remember the first day. Do you remember, um, do
Homegirl [00:03:09] I now particularly I think what I told anyone when we start reminiscing about how we met, like the individuals and our little friend group, I say he added me or sent me a message from the Cornell Facebook group for new students that year and taken it upon myself to think, OK, I’m going to be social media people. And I took the initiative to actually, like, find you. And yeah, I guess I was part of it. But then I guess outside of that, you also had connections with other people that I knew so that it kind of helped that social interaction,
Kea [00:03:51] the little Segway. I feel I feel it. And look, here we are. Twenty, twenty
Homegirl [00:03:56] one quite some time. Don’t don’t say the years, though, because it makes me feel OK.
Kea [00:04:02] Here we are in the future from that, you know. So I actually will be crazy like to to verbalize like, oh hey, this is, this is where I am. But it’s interesting though because I mean real talk here in the AI, I be hanging out with people and I’m always the youngest. And, you know, I don’t even know how come the conversation sometimes to be like music like, oh, I was in my middle school when it came out like he was in middle school. Where were you? Me used middle school and a song came out are just, you know, whatever. So yeah. I mean, I usually like the youngest person, like in your in your front group of or.
Homegirl [00:04:39] Oh kind of. There’s a good mix, one person that’s a year younger, but everyone is kind of in the range of twenty four, twenty five to twenty nine. So but yeah I guess I’m on the lower end of that. Right.
Kea [00:04:53] The under 30s.
Homegirl [00:04:54] The under 30s.
Kea [00:04:55] Well, well we yeah we we are the under 30s. We’re no longer young grad or what do you call them. Recent graduates. Or young 20s, mid weight
Homegirl [00:05:07] or mid 20s, for sure.
Kea [00:05:09] Correct, correct, we are. I was, I was the words, the words were
Homegirl [00:05:14] they come and they go, you know, I just you keep going when they go and you find a new word.
Kea [00:05:20] Exactly. Exactly. You could sell that on a pillow, but you could make out your design.
Homegirl [00:05:26] Like to sit on pillows. Oh, really? Oh, really? I don’t know. Don’t ask me what things I want to say, because, one, I’m not trying to have someone make a business off of my thoughts. And number two, I can’t recall them right now, but I do write them down in my notes.
Kea [00:05:44] You know, to that first point, I wasn’t even thinking about that because I guess technically, yes, if you have an idea and someone likes it, they could just be like I was listening to to with Q and I heard this and the next thing you know, they start doing it and then you’re Tajai or trying to be a TJ Maxx sinister and then you’re like, wait, didn’t I talked with Kudo’s on her podcast. And then so I feel you. I feel you. But I also for that other point because I too am very forgetful. Hence why this notebook will exist, because otherwise, as you said, the thoughts may be coming and going, but sometimes they’ll be fully in there. They went into their Best Buy is hitting girl and say, OK, now my tonsils are oh whatever the word is, all moisturized and whatnot. And you know, I’ve got to get that a good podcast voice. You know, I would like to know actually. I would just tell the people I’m a little people. I brought you here. I brought you here today because I feel like I feel like if people could copy and paste you when they moved, then they would be hooking my place up. OK, because, like, I feel like you would be like, oh, guys, hey, I had my patio up. Hey, look at, you know, how I got my room and whatnot. Hey, like, you would just you be like posting stuff. And I’m like, this is so cute. Am I looking at a magazine or I’m looking at like we’re Rishi’s at you know, I feel like when I think of if someone were to ask me, OK, a person who is creating a space of their own, who you go, we don’t put your money on, I think of you. And that’s why I wanted to have you on the podcast today, because I want to know who’s making your space. Your own been like a priority all the time of your life. I want to know, like, why it matters to you. I want to I want to get into the nitty gritty. Like, let me know, like, let the people know.
Homegirl [00:07:45] Yeah. I guess touching on the last part that you mentioned, has it always mattered to me? I think yes. But I have the resources know. So growing up I didn’t have my own room and my own space. So I think it first started in college, right when you had your dorm room and then you kind of have this blank slate, so to say. But still, I have a roommate, so it’s not like you have your side, but then they have their side, which kind of could clash with your extended to some point. Right. But then that first experience of being out of college and having my own space kind of opened up this creative like, well, you know, where I could go in a little bit overwhelmed and had the opportunity for the first time to kind of like express myself and have a space to call my home and call my own and say, OK, like I did that and I like this and I can pick this. And by that I’m to fill my space. And then going away from college postgrad is a first time I live by myself. And in doing so, that made that, well, even deeper, like bottomless pit, just like empty space where it’s like, OK, like this is a blank canvas and I can kind of fill this space and make a place, my home, you know, and try to find ways that resonate with me, make a home, feel warm, make a home away from home, remind me of myself, friends, family, different things. And just like things I look at and make me happy, you know, it’s like you want to I want to live in a space where I am in every day and it doesn’t stress me out like I look at it. I’m like, oh, that’s nice. That brings me peace, brings me calm and kind of has a function. You know,
Kea [00:09:38] I feel that like on so many points because, I mean, like you were saying earlier, you know, you drink a cup of tea, like a decrease of stress. You make your place your own, you feel good. You have good memories. It decreases stress, you know, so I guess like so when you talk about, you know, your space being warm, like what what specifically makes your space feel warm? Like either like what things that you feel like you need to have in your. These are like, what do you need to put your own, like, artsy fartsy things and like on each detail of the items that you put into your space or what contributes to that warm feeling?
Homegirl [00:10:16] A lot of things, the place itself. So going back to when I moved and I was apartment hunting, natural light was very, very, very, very important to me. And, you know, like being in the cold with the sun and being probably vitamin D deficient,
Kea [00:10:35] not probably
Homegirl [00:10:39] having natural light was very important to just feeling happy. And I think it’s also very important in general, too, because depending on your work environment, you’re in an office mostly all day. And then certain times of day you wake up, it’s dark outside, you leave, it’s also dark outside. And then you have those weekends where it’s like, OK, now I have the time for light and to be enjoying the space. So like, natural light was on, that was really important to me and still is. And the feeling of brightness. So a lot of like right now, my esthetic I think is in terms of colors white. My sheets are what my throws are white, hard to keep clean as a person of color. That was Fanti from time to time.
Kea [00:11:23] It’s got bleach, though, right? The laundry we use
Homegirl [00:11:27] actually cleaning this house because bleach gets complicated because I like white sheets, but there’s a lot of color in my wardrobe.
Kea [00:11:36] Oh yeah, you don’t want bleach. But it was like
Homegirl [00:11:39] know but yeah. So I guess natural light is important in addition to the natural light. Also white. Mm hmm. In general, like to add to the brightness and then I guess areas where you can relax and chill out. So there was no like the concept of no I guess like the concept like a moon chair.
Kea [00:12:05] Where is that the the thing that like Forever 21 and like the like Urban Outfitters, we have in
Homegirl [00:12:11] the basically the chair that everyone in their MoMA had like in the nineties that was like the blue situation, like one of those, like those one of the most comfortable chairs. And I really like sat out on a mission to get one of those because that’s just the lounge and relax, like chill out cozy things for you to enjoy your space, whether it’s throw pillows, patio furniture for lounging Ottomans. Yeah, I kind of just like think about like the space and I’m working it working with and then what could fit in that space. And as I’ve moved, I’ve moved a lot of times in the past couple of years. And part of that, when you know that you might not be in a place for a long period of time figuring out when I do commit to buying a piece, can I see this piece moving with me long term? You don’t always have to think that way, but that’s just how I’m thinking. I just like when I buy something at one, I form an attachment of some sort with it because I want something that brings me joy and sometimes it’s a part with something that brings you joy. So in those scenarios, I’m like, okay, I’m going to buy a big piece of furniture, something that I feel I can take with me for a long period of time and can repurpose in other aspects of a different space. For example, first moved How to Best Buy table, but it was a table bookshelf situation where I could put like the little removable cubby, but then leave the other part, like open and complete, like whatever I want there. Yeah. And it fit well for my first apartment where I had more space. But then when I moved to a situation with a roommate, didn’t really fit in the space anymore, smaller bedroom, so on and so forth and not really wanting to toss that out. I was like, OK, where can I use this now? Vertical worked well as a side table horizontal worked well enough that I guess as a TV stand. So I use this. It became like a little bookshelf TV stand like situation pretty well. And the great thing is I had a TV stand before, but it was too large for my second space and I didn’t spend that much money on it, so I didn’t mind tossing it. But now I still kept that initial item, which I feel like was much better quality than that TV stand. It’s serving a purpose, not the original purpose, but is working.
Kea [00:14:40] Mm hmm. That’s what matters. Like, you know, you get something and you’re like, OK, like to your point about, you know, because obviously when you’re moving dimensions, I’m not going to be the same. Like I mean, I hear you on the point about moving because I was at once about when I first came to Atlanta was another spot. Now I’m here. So I definitely feel you on that. Like when you think about, OK, if we’re not going to be here, Permira. Because, you know, we don’t have dependents, we’re not trying to get a house tomorrow, so, you know, I think that transient lifestyle, especially people our age, is definitely relatable, not trendy in the sense that we don’t know where we’re going. But just in terms of like, OK, I signed a lease for a year, you know, but after that, like, who knows what. So that’s interesting. See, I, I wonder if if it counts, but like, I have a dresser I put clothes in and that’s what my TV’s on. Does that count?
Homegirl [00:15:34] I mean, it might not have always been on that dresser. One day you might move the TV, you know.
Kea [00:15:39] OK, you know, it’s crazy. And I don’t know if my mom’s gonna listen to this episode or not, but I actually have a mouth that I got for Christmas and in the car I just haven’t taken at the box yet. I know I’m terrible, terrible. But anyways, moving on would eventually. Yes, that is the goal. That’s the goal. Have you have you repurposed anything else? I’m just curious.
Homegirl [00:16:06] I’m like looking around to notice anything. Yeah. I bought this three levels stand from that one, you know, not this one. This is a ladder shelf, but there’s one to the side that you can’t see. And I bought it initially on sale at Target because I love a sale. And I wanted to do like a three tier succulent type situation, like something like a home at plants and like one little succulence, another one could be like my Paltos or so on and so forth, because I had a balcony at my first place. A lot of sun. Perfect place for the plants or whatever. And I moved and I was like, OK, look, I don’t want to like the bathroom space wasn’t working for me. Like, I didn’t want to put all of my things in the cabinets space. I just it woke me up like I got this down. Like it’s going to be like my makeshift like you had one little top shelf was for, like, all my facial products, like a moisturizer smell like vitamin C serums and stuff like that. But other level we had like my hair products, like the natural life is serious, serious business to a lot of products going on there. You know, just like Babic, my plants then moved to a separate area and then I repurposed in in that scenario. Now it’s like my bedside situation. So it’s
Kea [00:17:37] it’s switch.
Homegirl [00:17:38] It was outdoor patio to bathroom to better
Kea [00:17:42] understand it should
Homegirl [00:17:45] at all. It’s been cleaned in between all of them as well because, yeah, we got to make sure it’s in pristine condition for whatever it’s used for.
Kea [00:17:55] I mean, real talk every time I’ve seen you on Zoome and then also obviously like seeing a space, like a college, like nothing ever looked like dilapidated or anything like you like the things that you choose, like you were looking it up.
Homegirl [00:18:07] So, you know, I think it’s important. Well, personally, like I don’t want to feel like I wasted money. Like I don’t want to buy something cheaper only for it to break later and like have to keep on investing money. So if I am going to buy something for a lower, it’s going to be something like small and like I wouldn’t care too much about or if I’m going to do it, like I have to be like really in that like hustle and hustle and mood like that TV stand. Like I knew that was going to be in that apartment past year. So it’s like it is what it is like. I’m not trying to invest a lot of money into it, but I guess examples of that frames were posters and so on and so forth. Wal-Mart, Ballan, super cute and simple Wally world.
Kea [00:18:54] Yeah, I
Homegirl [00:18:55] think that’s my thing. That’s it really. But I think yeah I think I buy some things cheap and then also try to think about ways that I can reduce the amount of money that I would spend on things. For example, groceries. Right. Is add up like art is just expensive for whatever reason. But where what,
Kea [00:19:19] where posters from where
Homegirl [00:19:21] posters in general. Look, if you want like a piece of art that’s like on a larger scale, you can be spending twenty dollars for one item, like not including the frame and all of that. Right. Yeah. So what I try to do is bundle like I try to find multiple frames. You can probably always find frames on sale at Michael’s Wal Mart, like I was saying, like sell them those group frames. And then Etsy is a wonderful place where they do this thing where they’ll sell the the file, the digital file so they can buy a digital file that have three prints for like five bucks and then take that file and go to Walgreens, like do the prints. And you got like nice glossy quality photos. And spend like ten, ten, fifteen dollars. I don’t remember I bought these a long time ago, but see, that’s like I spent maybe like twenty twenty five dollars on, like, three pieces of art, one that would have been like the cost for just one, you know, outside of the box and how I can stretch my dollar and I feel good.
Kea [00:20:23] I didn’t even I didn’t even realize are like even think about that because yeah. My next question will be like OK, so yeah. Like where you going to put these. Because my mind I’m like I’m pretty sure, I’m pretty sure the only time like I actually printed something that was glossy was like in college and I went to a library or something like that. But, but Walgreens, the Walgreens coming in closer,
Homegirl [00:20:44] they all started doing Walmart and sometimes they even have sales on their prints and like certain sizes. So if you just, like, wait for the right moment, you can get a larger sized print on sale like they’ll have like the discounted rates.
Kea [00:21:00] My mom, it’s about some website. Oh, gosh. I feel like it was called like I think it’s called Brigstock or something. You know, I’m talking about unclear. It’s like a website where you can go to, like, find products that are like really discounted at Walmart, but like you just never know what items are going to be. I think that’s the website you told me about because, yeah, it’s like you don’t know when certain things are going to be on sale or like if you want to buy it on Monday. But then I oh, let me like hold out and wait till Friday. I’m pretty sure that’s what’s called. I’m a double check to make sure. But yes, like definitely catching a sale and stretching your dollar because obviously we are not rich.
Homegirl [00:21:37] OK, there there are a lot of trends that like you go to the Urban Outfitters website. Right. And you see like they have all these things on their website, but they overprice them for sure. And if you just like, look at them simply, it’s like a piece of wood and some rope. And if you think about that, that’s Home Depot. You can literally like a lot of people, I don’t know if you thin and it’s weird nowadays where there’s just like so much out there. And if you just like, look, you can find the answer or like a way that someone has done something that you haven’t thought of before. But for me, like when I first moved two and a half years ago, I really wanted to hang shelves, but like from Ropen. So I went to Home Depot, bought the wood, and they have like this nice, like white painted wood. Yeah. They cut the wood for me. They drilled the holes, they cut the rope that I needed and I just like bought the nice silver I guess hoop that hoop that I can spread the rope through and hung it. And Mitchell’s and there are these nice hooks I think they’re called monkey hooks and I’ve looked at them or you can look it up and then put in and like the linked like these on the issue when I was trying to hang those shelves. Now it’s just like, well, I want to hang heavy items on it because before I try to hooks and comen hooks to just just did not have the power to hang them like they dropped. I had a little souvenir friend, friend from high school on the shelf and it dropped and broke and that made me really sad. But I was like, OK, we’re not doing this anymore. I looked up these hooks and they literally don’t require any kind of hardware. Like I don’t need to find a stud. I didn’t need a drill because I saw I was like, worried about like I couldn’t drill into the wall. You literally, like, push into the wall and it hooks back and behind the drywall and holds up to 50 plus pounds, I think. Is that strong? It’s amazing. Oh, what great is great. And I live in a place where there are earthquakes and then falling off the shelves in times of earthquakes. So I would highly recommend,
Kea [00:23:44] OK, I feel like they should throw that into their advertising, like because yeah, California I’ll be having earthquakes.
Homegirl [00:23:51] So they haven’t fallen out or anything like that. So I’m also pretty open about earthquake. Knock on wood. No, no big one.
Kea [00:24:00] But yeah, I’ll knock on wood right now for your shoes, see if that is also like that’s being self-sufficient, which is what my mom kind of like wanted to instill in me, which I mean I guess I was like especially not especially with our generation, but, you know, more so the younger people who are growing up, like you said, being able to see something, but then seeing it for what it is. And you can use your own two hands to create something, OK, and save half the money. So you get to be artsy fartsy, you get to save money. See, you get to be like, hi, my name. I just that is my dang self. You see that? That’s all me first. Yes. So you also when you’re when you’re when you’re making your own space, you’re like you’re it’s like you are the curator of your own like museum in a way except the museums like your apartment, you know.
Homegirl [00:24:51] Yeah. And I think there there’s a sweet spot like we don’t all have to be Bob the builder, you know.
Kea [00:24:58] Yeah. That’s Yeah.
Homegirl [00:25:01] Like the you can do this in. Will things save a dollar here, are there. Some people will take that extra step they want to build like patio furniture and like all those extra things and like power to you if you want to do that. But for me, honestly, I’m lazy. I’d rather be to to when you start getting to that scale, you have higher risk versus reward if you get it wrong, right? Mm hmm. If it’s a stable structure, i.e. your bed and you build your bed frame incorrectly, you’re sleeping on an uneven surface. And, you know,
Kea [00:25:38] oh gosh, I actually wasn’t even thinking that far because I
Homegirl [00:25:41] will not say who I this to.
Kea [00:25:44] Oh, this. You know, someone. Oh, I thought you were just like making this up like oh no. I hope the person you know about the person I guess they got rid of that and then they you know,
Homegirl [00:25:57] I’m not in my business. I don’t know.
Kea [00:26:01] I’m, I’m like, oh no. OK, that’s definitely true. I would definitely not something like that. But if it was something cute and little. Yes, but the bed. No, like you said, you walk with a queen. I’m like a little queen too. I couldn’t see I couldn’t see myself because I’m like, you look at it and you’re like, oh, OK. You know how to pieces get together. You think something looks great now these two hands, but at no level.
Homegirl [00:26:31] The funny thing though, speaking of straight, so my cousin is an interior designer and over Christmas break I went to go visit and see them. Haven’t seen her in a really, really long time, but her mother was moving and in the process, like, Larry had to move everything and then help put things up. And it’s just so funny to try to level something because you can have a level relative to a wall. Right. But then the ceilings not straight. So the paintings level, but it looks crooked. The ceilings are straight. It’s like so funny. Like, I don’t know, it’s like I just think that’s funny. It’s like a similar situation. Like you try to build a flat bed and then the floor is slanted. Like I was just about like that. Yeah. When you’re walking across your room, which is like oh like this little little dip here, like that’s different.
Kea [00:27:32] Exactly. Exactly. That’s like my last place, the kitchen floor was crooked. And then like if this place I mean I love this place, it’s like nearly perfect. But I mopped, I was mopping and I saw the like where the water was kind of going to. And I was like, oh, I guess as much as I do it look straight. But then like when it’s yeah, I’m like the water, it’s in the water, the water. Ensham, you know. But Schuh Yeah. When it comes look what I was about to say. They have that little, you know, little tool like the little liquid dots. But I guess at
Homegirl [00:28:09] the level that’s it.
Kea [00:28:11] Oh yes. It is called a leveler, right. Yes. But then it’s like, oh, what’s relative? Because I don’t even I mean, you know, when it comes to move in places I like, I like when I was looking for places, I didn’t have a hard oh, it has to be, you know, new new. But I was like, I can’t be old old, you know, because. Oh, all they get.
Homegirl [00:28:36] Yeah. I can’t, I can’t believe that. No, no I can’t do it.
Kea [00:28:42] I feel like I’ve definitely asked my mom like OK, can you back up and can you tell me straight. And it’s like one and two down. OK, no put it back half an inch. I think it is like OK whatever. I think so I have a Cornell banner, a pride flag and like a painting and then some photos. And that’s about all I have hung up. But it, it looks, it looks straight enough
Homegirl [00:29:09] and and that’ll do. Yeah. Right here, you know,
Kea [00:29:13] versus like honestly I like how you have like that’s a mirror. Right. The little sparkle. I made it way but it’s a mirror. Right.
Homegirl [00:29:22] Why didn’t make the mirror both.
Kea [00:29:25] I mean I know because I was I was like looking and I couldn’t tell if it was like ah a mirror. And I was like, wait, no, that’s a mirror. See, even like that. OK, so you bought a circle mirror and
Homegirl [00:29:38] then all Michael’s and Amazon so that a circle mirror got some gold rings of different sizes from Michael’s and then bought some good cardboard. I guess we cling to the paper and wait till the rings. Yeah, it’s the rules
Kea [00:29:55] look
Homegirl [00:29:57] like a bargain with Amazon because if you get like the toilet paper rolls from your used to or whatever. They really thin, but you get this recursive quality, like a little bit more durable, so got those and they look a little like solar esque. I like symmetry. So you’ll you’ll see circles all around the room pretty much since I have more circle like a bamboo curtain type circles on that. I love bamboo
Kea [00:30:24] longevity. Do you need though. I feel it. I feel like see even even stuff like that. It’s like you look and it’s like, oh what can I buy? That made it to myself. It’s like your favorite craft store, is it? I mean, it’s the only one honestly that comes to my mind, because like Michaels’s everywhere, you
Homegirl [00:30:46] know, monocles is everywhere. I think for that I probably was like favorite by lack of other options. But there is Hobby Lobby. Oh, yeah, there’s Joann’s. I think I like Mychal’s for their coupons because when they get that 50 percent off coupon, I’m like, yes, I’m going to buy this big thing that I’m going to go on sale and just go, I got a nice price. But I think Hobby Lobby in general has better deals overall. So I like them for more of the smaller craft things that I want to do. So like when I wanted yarn yarn, a Hobby Lobby was less expensive than yada yada. Michaels, we had a son, so I
Kea [00:31:26] see even my little stuff like that, like being conscious of the assets you need to create what you like, want to see if like the big picture, like, oh, I know if I go here I could like save a little something nice on something and you are hearing your whip and you could just like put it in a GPS or like you probably know by heart, like, OK, I’m will go ahead. Scooby’s the Hobby Lobby on my, you know, my happy go lucky day,
Homegirl [00:31:47] things like that. You know, it just takes time. It takes time to kind of know what you’re looking for. And then also put in the time to research what you like, what you where you can and can’t get certain things. And then just like looking at the pricing and figuring out, OK, like I did enough research, this is what I want to do. For example, Automan, so Moroccan, like the other Ottomans, kind of really trendy. And my previous roommate was also pretty crafty and she was on a budget budget or I it because she was also really good at what she did. So whenever she wanted to make something, it turned out really well. She wanted to make this from scratch. But leather working, that’s a law. And also, like, love is not cheap. And then if you were to buy this Ottoman from your regular store, whether it’s like West Dome or some like other like trendy furniture, it’s like they were you like two hundred plus dollars. But Etsy, depending on the shop, Renney 60 plus shipping maybe. So she’s like you put in the work to make it, you can get it at a reasonable price on Etsy or if you like, don’t care to spend the buck. I would say don’t spend the book because you can always probably find something cheaper, just like buy it like full price without like doing the extra work and research to see if you can get it cheaper, you know. So there are options. There are levels to this a little bit
Kea [00:33:09] fax, fax. It’s really like it’s like a tiered approach. It’s like, OK, what’s the size of the project like. How much do you want to like what, what’s the pricing variation.
Homegirl [00:33:20] And also never, never forget Facebook marketplace.
Kea [00:33:24] Like honestly I’ve never used that. I’m not going to lie. I know it exists. I’ve never actually used it.
Homegirl [00:33:29] It’s good for. Well, I guess it also might depend on your area. Well, the last time I moved, it was, I guess, around the time that people were moving out of college and so on and so forth. So there was a lot of activity on it. So my roommates and I, we found a really nice L shaped couch for half price. And it was good quality, really nice.
Kea [00:33:55] But what was the material fabric? You know, I you know, I feel like I feel like I don’t know. I feel scared to get like a fabric couch from someone just because I don’t trust people.
Homegirl [00:34:12] Gerwel trust I’m from New York like, oh, bedbug situation. Like I don’t play. That’s why I guess part of it, we were looking for a lot of furniture. And personally, like, I completely understand because even going to thrift shops and things of that sort, I don’t know what kind of processing these things go through or anything like that. They probably do allude to delusions, I don’t know, but I don’t care to find out. I’m not trying to bring critters back to my house. So and these places like that or like on the marketplace looking for something, as always. No to drugs. Like, I don’t necessarily care for buying a drug off of that place, but if I did, I’d always make sure to ask, do did you have pets? Do you have pets? Where. Our pets in the vicinity, you don’t want to buy something and bring home fleas, you know, in your house, I just like knowing the right questions to ask. Like the great thing about this piece of furniture, the couch, the girl offered to clean it, so the couch got clean before it came to us. So there are ways that you can go around, like your concerns with buying secondhand in certain scenarios. Yeah, that’s
Kea [00:35:27] so nice because. Yeah, like I mean, that’s the main thing because OK, obviously clothes are completely different clothes like you can put like in Washington, you could put a dryer like you can like you know, versus you can’t put like a couch in like a washing machine dryer. So yeah. But that was that was nice of her to offer that service because it’s like I give you like more peace of mind to like going into that situation. Oh, good hearted people out here.
Homegirl [00:35:50] Yeah. Sometimes. And then sometimes you have like not so good people.
Kea [00:35:55] I mean. Yeah. But also like you literally just said, you know what questions to ask. So you’re not going to find yourself in a situation to where you know you’re giving something and it ends up being more of like a hindrance than a positive in your life. So, you know, I hear you. Oh, man. You know what? I want you to talk about? What. So going back to the sun, like, OK, yes, we need sunlight, but guess who also needs sunlight? And I plan, you know, OK, because. Because we’ll talk. We’ll talk. I had I had some plants, but some of them died. So I have one now. And I saw I like I see. Well I don’t see them at this angle, but obviously, like, you know, you have like a little plants on your shelf ladder. That was very cute. Very, very feng shui. How do you plant babies? Do you have and are you going to get any more of them?
Homegirl [00:36:49] Oh my goodness, I don’t have enough space right now, but six, seven indoors. And then I have a bunch of succulents outside and the succulents have been with me almost since I moved to California. Oh yeah. Meanwhile, the indoor plants harder to maintain the lucky ones out there. But when they do
Kea [00:37:12] thing, do you name all your plants?
Homegirl [00:37:15] No, I don’t have one.
Kea [00:37:19] That’s OK. Yeah I, I was just one I like. Oh like she’s a plant mom. I got to wonder.
Homegirl [00:37:28] No ma’am.
Kea [00:37:29] No that’s that’s totally fair. I still like. Where have you seen. I don’t know if this is like a thing now obviously because of covid, you know, people got to got more into plants to begin with. But now I’m starting to see these like these ginormous plants as like accents and people’s living rooms. Have you been seeing those?
Homegirl [00:37:49] They’re expensive, but yes, like with like Högni had she had a fiddly fig, but like full grown like sized one. And she had to look in the corner over a little dining space for plants. The larger the more mature, the more expensive. Because, you know, it’s like time like you can you right.
Kea [00:38:09] You right. Wait, so like if you had more space, what’s a cardigan in a fiddle, a fiddle, twig,
Homegirl [00:38:15] fiddle leafing
Kea [00:38:15] fiddly fig. So if you had more space would you get more plants or would you get bigger plants?
Homegirl [00:38:23] I don’t think so. I think it would depend on the place I was in life. Like if I’m still in the place where I’m moving around and don’t see my next fall as long term, then like moving is something that’s always in the back of my mind. What do I have and how much of a hassle would it be to move? And moving plants is not fun because they do not want to stay in one place. They took over the soil does does whatever it wants, like I’m not here for it. But then also I think in the long term it would be nice to just have a really large part with a plant that kind of just has been around for a long period of time, just like I like. That’s the home. He still has no name, but she might’ve been in the corner.
Kea [00:39:10] We like this plan has been with me through five places
Homegirl [00:39:15] like this plant has been a lot longer than this dog I acquired.
Kea [00:39:21] I mean, she’s like got a green thumb. Do it. You do give it some love.
Homegirl [00:39:27] Oh, I had to I had to download an app because my last set of plans passed on. Not all of them. Some of them because I went away the break for three weeks and yeah, they struggled but I
Kea [00:39:43] feel a hundred percent. That’s on my I died, I literally I left for two weeks and honestly that’s why I love the spider plant too, because the two weeks passed the Bonzai, I was like, maybe I can bring it back to life, not bring it back to life, but like, yeah, like, you know, I was like, yeah. The point, though, point is, I hear you OK, but it’s also nice, just I mean, my one plant, it’s in the living room. So the table that is like in front of the couch where I watch TV and when guests come. So it’s like the plant is the center, you know, of what’s going on. Well, not not that we’re talking about her. Her name is Charlotte. I named my plant, but yeah, it’s like it also contributes to the vibe. Green is that lively color, you know,
Homegirl [00:40:36] hearing I hear you. That’s yellow for me.
Kea [00:40:40] Do the yellow flowers. Oh, I had
Homegirl [00:40:44] plants with yellow accents, but no longer.
Kea [00:40:47] Well, that’s fair. That’s fair. Maybe all in my mind I was like, should I should say, a yellow plant, like on a random day?
Homegirl [00:40:56] I don’t think so. But then also normally yellow is not a good for a plant. I mean, it’s not a healthy way.
Kea [00:41:04] Oh, I guess like a yellow flower.
Homegirl [00:41:07] No, I’m allergic to pollen, don’t you?
Kea [00:41:12] All right. Yeah. You know, scratch that scratch. I’ll scratch all those ideas completely off
Homegirl [00:41:18] the list, the potential gesture. But I’m good.
Kea [00:41:23] You see how it’s like trying to be thinking out loud. They’re like, yeah, I see. Yeah. Because I was really thinking like, wait, hold up. Yeah, no, no. But Yellow and Klotho
Homegirl [00:41:34] and indeed
Kea [00:41:35] he was always walking yellow, I mean not always walking yellow, but when you rocked it you rocked
Homegirl [00:41:42] it. OK, it’s like it goes back to the light and the bright and the happiness knows a good time.
Kea [00:41:50] I identify with that one hundred percent. When you’re a little kid and you’re drawing the sun, you just get the yellow crown. You can find you just, you know, so that’s that warmth that’s that is radiating. So we will listen back to your episode and what you really hope resonated with them, what you really want the listeners to walk away with.
Homegirl [00:42:12] If anything, have fun with your space. You know, take time. There’s no rush. You don’t have to fill all of your space at one time. And in general, you don’t have to fill all your space at all. You know, do what makes you happy, purchase what makes you happy and don’t feel like need to hold on to something because you might have invested time or money into it with like Marie Kondo. If it doesn’t spark joy, let it go. Let it go. And it’s OK. If something sparks you joy at one point and then you change your mind, you’re into something else. Now, you know, homerooms are a representation of you. You grow, you are a dynamic. You are allowed to change. You are allowed to like different things and have different styles as you mature and grow and go through different phases of life. And then, you know, also just thinking to the fact that sometimes you might not have the resources to build a space that you want in the moment. But that’s OK. If you can even just find like a small area that you can add a personal touch to, I think there is joy and happiness that could be found in small spaces as well.
Kea [00:43:24] So I feel that I feel that you said it best when you talked about different stages of maturity in different points in your life, because, like you said, we are changing and so our spaces are going to be changing as well. So you ask yourself where I am now, what am I supposed to look like now and then where you are later, what you want your space look like later? Sometimes it’s the same, sometimes it’s different, but either way, it’s still you. Thanks for listening to this episode of Tea With Kea.
Tea With Kea 