1.99 Thrift Store Finds

Gussying up my front porch with a few thrift store finds. I put a fresh coat of black paint on my old bench and dug out a few things I had tucked away for summer. These embroidered (crewel maybe?)Pottery Barn pillow covers where a steal at the Goodwill for a $1.99 each. I used some feather pillow inserts I had on hand and just popped them in a trash bag before inserting them. I also added a few rocks so they don't blow away in the wind. It has been crazy windy here!



The vintage cotton tatted (is that what it's called?) tablecloth was 1.99 too! I'm usually not a lace girl but I liked the texture. I'm thinking I will dye it red with some Rit.

I still need to add potted flowers to the yard, I had a little bit of sticker shock this week at the nursery. The price of flowers has really gone up compared to last year. Is it that way in your area too?


It will be a cozy spot for my morning coffee. I hope everyone has had a nice week. My youngest and I are off to see Speed Racer at the IMAX. Should be fun!!!

Finally Feeling Better
*UPDATED 5/16 PICTURES AT BOTTOM*

Today I am finally on the upswing from the horrible neck thing. Yay. I'm so exhausted from lack of sleep, and trying to get caught up on all the house stuff that gets neglected when Mom is sick. I was so happy to go do a little thrifting today. I started a little plate display/collection on the kitchen wall, on either side of the window. It's a work in progress and I've already changed and rearrange since I took these pictures but I thought I would share my process.




Reasonably priced brown transferware has proven a bit elusive around here. So I mixed it with some creamware and vintage silver. I'm liking the bit of glimmer and texture the silver gives.

In the end I put 4 plates on either side of the window. Mixing silver, ceramics, size and shape while try to keep it uniform. I'll post pictures of the finished wall tomorrow.



The little finial thingy in the center of the table was another junk store find for $4.00. I haven't decided where to put it yet, so it's kind of hanging out on the table while I make up my mind. I bought the table and 6 chairs off CraigsList for 150.00 in November. It is in like new condition has big chunky chairs and a great "shabby" finish. I love CraigsList.


I decided to paint my dining room "totally tan". So that is on the to-do list for the weekend. We also need to work on our little goldfish pond in the backyard it has seemed to have developed a leak. It should be a busy weekend. I hope you all are having a lovely week!


*UPDATE*

Here are the promised pictures of the finished (for now) display. I can't seem to figure out how to get a decent picture of the whole wall because of the window glare. Anyone have any photog tips for me??

Rush Street Pillows

I had about 2 hours this morning to sew some pillows for the family room. I reused the old pillows, the left overs from the mistreatments project and some coordinating fabric from my stash. Most of which I bought out of the 50% off remnants bin. Because I reused the old pillows some of my new ones are a little lumpy and a couple are a little flat. But they look used and loved and that is exactly what they should look like in a family room. Don't you think?



I try to buy neutral materials for my projects when I find them on sale and keep a stash. Things like nubby cotton fabric in neutrals, tan and blacks, off white matelasse and trims. It makes it really easy and inexpensive to change things when the feeling hits. Which in my case is quite often. So for a few dollars I have a nice fresh look on my dark, not so fresh, very used sofa.


My favorite pillow is the one with the raggedy frayed raw edges. It was the easiest one to do. I didn't even have to turn the fabric inside out. The pillow with the tea pot and number 1 are dishcloths I ordered from Sadie Olive a few weeks ago. Pillows are one of my favorite cozy touches to add to rooms and so easy to "do it yourself."

Springtime Restyle

This room is in desperate need of some fresh springtime restyling. It's the most used room in the house. Usually there are kids and dogs flopped all over the furniture. Food wrappers, soda cans, dog toys, pillows all askew. (Have I mentioned I have teenage boys that don't eat at school because apparently it's not cool, so they come home after school and eat everything in the house? Seriously, I buy a rotisserie chicken for after school snacks. It's like living with cavemen.) If you look closely you can see where our puppy chewed the leg of our ugly comfy chair when our backs were turned. Ugh.

I learned long ago to embrace the chaos, to love the little imperfections and to laugh about it. The day will come when my furniture will be pristine and dog hair free, and the house will be silent. I think I may be a little sad when that day comes. For now I will continue to buy my furniture on sale or from garage sales and vacuum my pillows 3 times a day.

So for my spring restyle I have planned some lighter curtains and pillows. I found some great french stripe fabric and a complimentary floral that will make simple panels to clip onto my existing hardware. With a touch of the "fabulous fringe find" from last month I will definitely be mistreating these windows. What is on them now is tablecloths. Nester would be proud.

I would like to try to slipcover the ugly comfy chair from some matelasse coverlets I have stashed from a super clearance sale. If there is one thing I wish I was good at it would be slipcovers. Tight, couture looking slipcovers with fringe. Yes, that would be rad.

I'll be redoing the little display behind my sofa with some lighter accessories. Oh and the mantle, I didn't take a picture, but it needs redone too. I've also been on a hunt for a piece of furniture that will fit perfectly into the "TV hole". Hard thing to find I have found.

For a little Spring decoration inspiration visit HERE for a fabulous Spring mantle display, HERE for and super sweet family picture display wall and HERE for a darling Springy display bin that I bet you could put together with things from around your house.

So I'm off to go get my hair done and do a little shopping. I'll update my Spring redo later on this week.



Wishing you a happy Spring day!

Deal of the Week

I know not everyone is gaga over fringe. But in my book this is like the deal of the century. 30+ yards of yummy fringe.


Look at the little aqua colored vintage looking cotton lace isn't it sweet? And the black and tan bouillon fringe isn't it pretty!


Ooooooo. Yummy...Creamy wonderfulness...Is it weird I get this excited about fringe?

Now for the best part...*Drum roll please*


$1.99 a YARD!!! Yes, more than 90% percent off. I did hold myself back from buying all of it. I kindly left some of the purple and orange stuff for others.

Ugly Art ReDo Part 2
I got everything hung, recovered the canvases that hide my ugly doorbell and thermostat. The canvas recover idea came from the wonderful Nester Queen of "Mistreatments" She is cool, wicked funny AND creative. You simply must visit her blog.

The chalkboard paint worked better on the ugly art than the ugly plaques. I figure with using everything I already had around the house this project only cost about $5.oo for the paint and the little bit of fabric. How cool is that! I really fills up the entry wall and has big impact.


We will be filling the boards up with sayings and stuff in coming few days. I need to find some cute sayings and keep the boys from drawing butts or worse on them. Sadly at 15, and 13 they do stuff like that. *Sigh*

Ugly Art ReDO Part 1

When we moved into our new home I kinda went willy nilly with my art choices trying to get stuff on the walls and make it feel homey. Now as I look around I am like "what was I thinking?"

Lately I have been brainstorming about how to reuse some of this "ugly art."



I love the look of the big ole' chalk boards I see in the Pottery Barn and Ballard catalogs. And I really like the idea of having a message center where my crazy funny boys can write silly fun stuff to each other, and where I can scrawl ( with my less than stellar handwriting) random quotes, shopping lists, weekly menu, to do stuff. You get the idea.






So I thought maybe just maybe I could redo my ugly art with a can of chalkboard paint and a couple of cans of spray paint. I did two coats of chalk board paint, it dried really fast and didn't smell up the house at all. This stuff is really neat!




The project went well last night. I actually made a killer pan of Lasagna in between coats of chalkboard paint and spray painting the frames. I love multitasking.


I will post pictures of the finished message center later on today. It's snowy and blustery here today. A perfect day for some decorating projects!


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