Thrifty Tuesday finds

I'm breaking out of my bloggy dry spell today to link up to Linda's very first Nifty Thrifty Tuesday party. You can join in the fun at Coastal Charm.

My favorite thrifty finds today came from Hobby Lobby. Here's what I found...

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The pears were  only $1.20 each! I see paint in their future - something like the green one here...

The tall thingys were $4 and $8. These look like the perfect candidates for a gorgeous chippy paint technique that I saw blogged about, if I could only find it again! I'll probably take the easy way out & paint them then add some glazing. Either way, they have a lot of potential. My total came to $17....original price for all this would have been $78!! Yay for 80% off! And double yay for Hobby Lobby gift cards!!!

I made out pretty well at the thrift store, too.

 

The candlesticks, at $1.50 each, will be spray painted and added to my decorating stash. Like-new Levis for my hubby, a new pair of Liberty's for my little country boy ( he's six, and recently decided he liked his overalls when his little sister told him, "You look like a MAN in those!"). I also got a new Waverly dust ruffle for our bed. All that was $6.88 each - a bit steep for me 'cause I prefer yard sale prices. Very good prices compared to retail, though. The Nautica khakis were $1.50 or so. 

I enjoyed sharing my finds. I can't wait for yard sale season to start - hopefully that'll be this weekend! Then we should have some really thrifty finds!

Thanks, Linda, for letting us party at your place!

DIY Hanging Monogram

Over the last few days, I've been working on a little project to fill the empty space above our bed. Today I finished it up.

 

I had everything I needed to put this together, so it didn't cost a thing! I started with an old painting that I bought years ago with the intention of transforming it into a Ballard-type bulletin board. So much for that....

 

After popping the canvas out, I brushed a little black craft paint over the frame to tone down the gaudy gold a bit. Then I stretched a grubby old sheet over the canvas to cover the painting. I just stapled it to the frame in the back, pulling it tightly as I went. Then I did the same with a piece of white burlap - pulled it over the frame & stapled.

After I decided what font to use & got my sizing right, I printed off the letters and did a little measuring to center them up on the canvas.

 

It was at this point that I figured out that my plan to print out my monogram on an iron-on wasn't going to work. Why? Because my printer's acting like a piece of junk. So I just rolled with it - I cut the letters out & traced around them with a marker.

 

Then I got to work filling in with my craft paint. It took a few coats to cover it well. I'm loving the result!

 

While you're in my bedroom, let me show you my new find - a perfectly shabby turquoise table the I found (in a shed, covered in greasy grime) Friday at an estate sale. 

 

 

  

I love, love, LOVE  this table!

****This project was inspired by Little Big Nest.**** 

Thanks for the idea!  

Linking to:

 Tales from Bloggeritaville 

The Shabby Chic Cottage

My Romantic Home 

Finding Fabulous 

Funky Junk Interiors 

The Twice Remembered Cottage 

The Persimmon Perch 

Cottage Instincts 

Thrifty tassel

Today's post is going to be a quick one - I just want to show off the tassel I made. I initially made this to hide some ugly (an exposed screw after I hung a chalkboard), but it didn't work for that so it's just hanging around being cute.

I started with half of a wooden thread spool that I found. After painting it black and threading some twine through it for a hanger, I just started layering on whatever I could find. I wrapped it with burlap first, then cut that into strips and pulled out the bottom strings to make it fringe-y. Then I added some fabric from an old curtain and ribbon left over from making hair-bows. I didn't have a clue how to finish it off, so I just coiled twine around the top, hot-gluing as I went.

I've been admiring cute tassels in blogland for a while now, but I never really thought I could do it. I didn't follow all the rules on this, but it was an easy one to get started on. I think I'll be trying another one soon - it was fun!

 

The Twice Remembered Cottage 

  

The Persimmon Perch 

Cottage Instincts

Party Time!

Home at Last!

This weekend we had the pleasure of hosting a party for all the fabulous people who helped us build our house. In a time when everyone is rushing around from here to there, I am absolutely amazed that these people gave so much of their time - some from daylight to dark every Saturday and on Sunday afternoons, too - to help us. I will be forever grateful to them! This weekend we showed our love & appreciation by doing what we Southerners do best - we fed them!

My smokin' hubby

 

Ribeyes - YUM!

 Peanut Butter pie

You can tell I'm still new at this blogging thing - once the party got started, I was so busy visiting and stuffing my face making sure things were running smoothly, that I forgot to take pictures of the rest of the food and our guests. Sorry!  I do have one more to share with you, though . . . . . our elephant in the room.

This is what happens when you act ugly 

while playing dress-up!

Bedroom Bloopers

Oh. My. Goodness. Who would have ever thought that decorating my little sweetie's room could come with so much drama?!

Let me start by saying that this is the first house that I've lived in that had sheetrock - and oh, how I have longed for sheetrock over the years! But my dreams didn't look like this!

Nor did I have dreamy visions of this...

...on my freshly painted bookshelf!! I knew there were studs in that wall, but WHERE???  The top picture is my attempt at finding a stud. The bottom shows what happened when my hubby stepped in with a hammer. It was bad. I mean really bad. He nailed that bad boy to the wall, stepped back and said (in a voice that clearly conveyed the fact that he was soooo tired of me & my bookshelf spectacle), "Now do you think it's going to stay up there?"  So I gave it a little tug . . . . . . .and the doggone back came off the shelf!!!!! You nailed it up there real well, sweetie - but now my shelf's falling apart! At this point hubby was completely disgusted - he left me with it.

And then I cried, because this project was not supposed to be so stressful. Then I put my big girl panties on and figured out a way to make it work. . . . after I staple-gunned the back onto the shelf. =)

Wanna know how I finally found a stud? I found an outlet, which is obviously attached to a stud. But on which side? Ummmm, there's a nail pop! Nails pop out of . . . . Studs! So I measured from the corner to the nail pop to figure out where the stud is at. I attached an L-bracket to the top of the shelf, then to the wall. And it was DONE.

 

A strategically placed jar of sand covers the bracket right up. I haven't touched up the paint on the shelf yet, but maybe I'll get around to it someday. And if I don't, who cares? It doesn't have to be perfect to be beautiful!!!! (Thanks, Nester , for those words of wisdom!)

But that's not the end of the story - no, there's more! See that cute picture hanging to the right of the jar? As I was stepping into a chair to nail it up, the leg broke off of the chair!!!! I screamed, I hollered, I rolled on the floor moaning in pain - I was thoroughly dramatic, but it HURT!!!! And I had a big purple bruise the next day to show for my efforts. Just keeping it real, folks!

Hope you enjoyed my bloopers! I think it's nice to see that decorating (and baby raising - heck, life in general) isn't just the pretty blog-worthy stuff. The trials, though, give me a greater appreciation for all the goodness that God brings to my life! Thanks for stopping by!

 

Trash to Treasure Decorating

I have been so excited about decorating my little girl's room! My son, who is six, doesn't really want Momma monkeying around in his room - he wants to decorate it with things like Transformers and rocks. So I'm soooo enjoying having free reign in my four-year-old daughter's room.  We recently built our house, so I started with a clean slate - and no money for decorating! We've been living here for about four months now, and I've been collecting pieces here and there along the way. I've finally put everything together, and I'm loving what I've accomplished in there!

Her bed was a freebie which was transformed with a little sanding and some paint. Here's a before shot of the bed. Wasn't she a beauty?!

 After living here for a little while, it became apparent that she absolutely had to have a bookcase. A few coats of paint - the green is left over from my laundry room - made an old one new again.

I picked up the lamp for a few bucks at my favorite thrift store, but something had to be done about the shade - it just looked cruddy! I planned on covering it with white burlap, but painting is so much more fun! So I broke out my kids' paint brush painting supplies and went to town painting that baby with my 33 cent craft paint. And it took the entire bottle!! Craft paint usually goes a long way, but apparently not when you're painting thick fabric. So for about $4, I have a cute lamp to add to the mix.

I found a fabulous plate at a yard sale to hang between her closets, and the cute painting above her bed came from a local thrift store for just pennies.

Her window (mis)treatment was inspired by Donna over at Funky Junk Interiors.

 

Hubby's MawMaw gave me the old hanger, and I pinned and clipped some fabric to it that I've had for several years. I love how it turned out, but I'm not optimistic about its future. I can see one of the young'uns snatching it down, but if that happens, we'll just figure out something else.

I've had so much fun putting this all together to share with you. Thanks for stopping by!

I'll be following this up with a Bloopers post, as soon as I can get it together!

 I'm joining in a few parties. Thanks to all the hosts for letting us share our goodies!

Reinvented

 http://diane1876.blogspot.com/

http://asoftplace.net/

http://www.bluecricketdesign.net/?

http://domestically-speaking.blogspot.com/?

 

 

Bloggeritaville

My Romantic Home

Finding Fabulous

It's good to be from Alabama!! 

Thirteen National Championships!!!

Roll Tide Roll!!!