Over labor day weekend while Atti was playing with Grandma, I took the opportunity to sneak away with Bear and his dad to do a little thrifting. Ventura is a great little beach town with some wonderful shops, and I couldn’t wait to get my hands on some great antiques.

As is always the way, the antique store I had been anticipating all year didn’t have much of anything I couldn’t live without, but the little thrift store down the street had the greatest find of my life.

For $25. $25. I wish I could capitalize numbers, that price is so good. $25 bought me a 12 piece place setting of this GORGEOUS glass faux bois dishware. It’s a little bit of a mish mash, 12 dinner plates, 12 salad plates, 2 shallow bowls, 12 little bowls – dessert size maybe, and 12 even littler bowls – berry cup size.

Faux bois is the fake wood pattern that Martha Stewart is so fond of, and has been super trendy for the last few years. I believe these dishes are pressed glass, which is when molten glass is pressed into a mold. All those wood ridges are 3-D on the bottom of the plates. I’ve been trying to investigate where these plates came from, but there aren’t any markings I recognize, and google has yielded nothing. Ventura is really artsy, so it’s possible these were made by a local glass artist.

Wherever they came from, they’re gorgeous, twice as gorgeous for how unique they are, and three times as gorgeous for how cheap.

Every single time I walk into a hair dresser, every single time, I tell them that I am unafraid of change. That I am putty in their hands and they can do with my hair what they will. My only guidance is where I tell them that I am a designer and internet professional and I want to look like one, not a frumpy stay at home mom. I want to look like the punk rocker that lives in my heart, not the pajama wearing chewed up food canvas that lives in my house.

And every single time they give me some version of The Rachel.

My cousin Summer is a hairdresser and set up a salon on the deck of the beachhouse we stayed at this weekend, and I pounced on the opportunity.

Since I am not a great style replicator, she took my dry, just out of bed hair, looked at how it wanted to go (complete with the occasional weird swoopy piece) and gave me a cut that worked with my hair. Choppy and punky and weirdly asymmetrical. I am completely over the moon about it.

Of course, now that I have cool girl hair, I suppose this means I should really stop dressing in capri pants and T-shirts. That will be my next step.