Thrift Share! { And some crafty stuff too! }

I declare this past weekend a complete success! Started it off by going to an estate sale close by my house. The good stuff was overpriced, but of course I found some treasures that others overlooked. First check out what I left behind. Omg, I was so in love with this!!

It was in immaculate condition, and obviously handmade with the most beautiful felt cut-outs. Tiny dots of sequin, and beading were sprinkled throughout the flowers. The netting was so thin and delicate, I'm surprised there were no holes or tears in it. I think it was a bed topper. My sister thinks it was a tablecloth. Either way $40 was a bit steep. Ugh! I should have tried to negotiate, but oh well, I did get a few cheaper things that I am quite satisfied with :)

The fabric was plentiful at this sale! I'm going to make some flag, bunting banners, and some other type of garland with them. The metal painted tray will be transformed into a hanging magnetic memo board. The old Readers Digest book covers are so pretty! For $0.25 I couldn't pass them up. The Official Preppy Handbook? Oh yeah! No, I didn't thrift the L'Oreal Endless Summer Spray Tan in Medium lol Got it at CVS, and I just wanted to tell y'all it works pretty great!

After the estate sale I got to work on refinishing some old windows I bought during the week at one of my favorite junky thrift haunts. I bought one single pane frame, not shown, two 6 pane, and one huge 9 pane! Here's what I made with the single pane.

I seriously spent about an hour on this. It was nice and chippy to begin with, but I used a thin putty knife to knock off some of the excess paint that was on the verge of falling off. After that I went over the grooves where the glass was and knocked off the old crusty layers of caulk. Once all the scraping was done I gave it a once over with fine grit sandpaper to get rid of any lingering falling paint, and splinters.

I screwed in tiny picture hanging loops on the inside frame edge, added twine, a bit of lace, and that was it! I'm on the fence about some of the visible screw holes. If I try to patch them it will look obvious and mess up the whole natural patina. What do you think? Should I leave them alone?

About two hours were spent on this heavy gal! Scraping, sanding, sweeping, and more scraping. Flip over and repeat! I used a razor blade to scrape the caulk, front and back, into somewhat straight lines, and I scraped a ton of paint off the glass on both sides. Wiped the whole thing down and Windexed the glass. Omg, you guys, cleaning up these windows is hard work!

Black dry erase marker was probably not the best choice, but I couldn't find white at the dollar store. Now I'll have to come up with a way to hang this sucker, or make some feet for it, maybe a kickstand in the back cause it is heavy! My poor little easel was wobbling on it's skinny little legs! lol

On the bottom is this decorative metal piece I found at the bottom of my toolbox. Finishes it off oh so nicely dontcha think?! Gah, I just thought of the two other frames I have to refinish! I might try using a just a glaze or stain on one, maybe paint the other one a solid color. Hummm...off to Pinterest I go to get some crafty "pinspiration"!

Linking this post up with the following thrifty, crafty blog parties!

Sir Thrift A Lot * A Living Space * Remnant * Costal Charm

Ball Heritage Collection Mason Jars { Vintage Blue! }

You guys, I am so super excited to show you my NEW, blue, vintage style, Ball mason jars!

I read about them who knows where and instantly wanted some...ok, A LOT of them. I had this tutorial pinned in my Pinterest crafty DIY board. It gave instructions on how to make your clear mason jars blue. But like with a lot of my crafty DIY projects, they don't happen or they fail miserably!

Blue Jar Tutorial

Her tutorial seemed easy enough, and her jars ended up really pretty as you can see above. But I was scared to mess up and permanently ruin my jars. I pulled a Veruca Salt and decided - I want the new blue mason jars, and I want them now!!

I did a price comparison through Google Shopping and found them super cheap online at Midland Hardware. I ordered 3 lovely cases. The jars arrived in about a week, and were perfectly packaged. I had no problems with the ordering or shipping at all. Five stars for Midland Hardware!

If you feel more comfortable ordering from the Ball jar website by all means go right ahead and order them there for about $4 more each case ;) I kind of feel bad for cheating on Ball, but a girl has to shop around for a good deal!

They are the exact same quality as the clear pint Ball jars sold in stores, only these are a beautiful blue. Well the color is more turquoise as opposed to the light blue hues of the vintage jars I have. But seriously, they are still totally cool whatever color blue they be!

And look how cute! The vintage zinc lids I have in my Etsy store look so good on them, and they fit perfectly!
Are you ready to buy your own new blue jars now? I bet you are! As a treat for my readers located within the USA, if you purchase the zinc lids in my shop I will ship them to you for free!! Type in the coupon code FREELOVE at checkout.  The lids have sold. Thanks to all who showed interest!

Google Reader is Out { Feedly is in! }

As you guys may or may not know, Google Reader will go kaput on July 1st. Or so they say... I read somewhere that they were going to keep it but tweak it, I don't know! Either way you should be prepared in case they do get rid of it! It's like Y2K for people who read blogs! LOL

I use the Feedly reader and it is ah-mazing! In my opinion it's way better than G.Reader. They don't have a widget that lets your readers follow you yet, but I'm sure they will come up with one soon enough. Feedly imports your G.Reader blog list easy and fast! Take a more in depth look at what Feedly is about by reading this article from Tech Hive. And you must download the Feedly app for your iPhone, it's super cool!

Swipe to the side to see categories, bookmarks, and unread posts.

Tap to read full post, swipe up to skip to the next post.

Another popular reader is bloglovin'. I was using it for a little bit, and it's pretty cool. Bloglovin' also imports all of your G.Reader blogs in one click swoop. The site has a variety of linky widgets you can add to your blog making it easy for your readers to subscribe.

You can follow me by doing a search for my blog name in Feedly, or by clicking on my bloglovin' widget over in my sidebar. And as always you can subscribe to my blog via email or RSS :)

And because everyone likes a blog post with cute pictures, here's a cute pic of our boxers Duke, and Pearl. Pearl is Dukes mom :) She's taking a nap on my leg, and Duke is taking a nap on her back. All together now... aaawwwww!

Thrift Share! Paint by Number Paintings {PBN}

Happy Monday everyone! Why such the good Monday mood you may ask? My boss is out of town today! Wooohehehe!

Check out these awesome paint by numbers I got at a garage sale.

The dark brown frames are solid wood, and super heavy! Luckily all 5 came with frames, and hanging hardware intact. Ready to hang them up! ...somewhere! 

I got all 5 for $11! There is a little damage to one of the paintings. Looks like a drippy spill stain or something over the trees.

A Google search took me to an eHow article that suggests rubbing the painting with the soft inside of a piece of sourdough bread. Might give it a shot this week. Gives me an excuse to buy a yummy loaf of sourdough bread! Mmmm, I love carbs!

Take a look at this article I found on the Collectors Quest website, The History of Paint by Numbers. Very interesting! Linking up with the following, also very interesting, blog parties!

 A Living Space

Sir Thrift A Lot

Remnant

Thrift Share: Oh, Deer! { Antlers }

Man, the weekend went by so quick! Maybe its because we had so many awesome activities going on :) My first activity of the weekend was to go pick up these awesome mounted deer antlers I won on an online auction.

The thrift stores around here have been so BLAH lately, and the estate sales are pretty much nonexistent. I was getting thrift fatigue, and then I found a couple of local online auction sites. Bingo! I have yet to attend a live auction. I'm sure they are just as awesome as I've heard they are!

My winning bid was $20 which is quite the deal! The whole thing is 25" long. Perfect condition too! The antler base is wrapped in real fur hide. Eww. That has to go for sure.

At first I thought about using them as a hat rack, but I don't wear hats. Anthony has a few hats, but I doubt he will actually put the hats on there, he prefers throwing them on his nightstand. I want to put them over our bed, but the wood color and fur will need to be changed first.

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I could cut the base to make a set of two. I love how these are painted mint and gold. A set would give me more options for placement. You think that underneath the fur on mine that there's a bit of bone like this? I hope so cause I'm leaning towards this style a lot! Painting the whole thing a bright color would look great.



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I might be in over my head trying to replace and recover the fur, but these sure looks cute with their chevron fabric. Of course I could save myself lots of time/decision making and just go with classic white. I wonder how fur would take being spray painted?? 

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Remount the antlers to a piece of reclaimed wood is an idea. An easy idea? Not sure! Jewelry holder perhaps? Agghh! I cant unsee the awesome jewelry holder! Mustn't get distracted! Too many choices! LOL

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I think I'm going to take the fur base off tonight to see what I'm working with underneath. Then maybe I can make a decision...maybe...hopefully! Either way I'll keep you updated!

I am sharing my thrifty find at the following blog parties:

Thriftasaurus * The Nifty Thrifty * The Penny Worthy Project * Mid Century Mondays

Check 'em out!

Funky Armoire DIY Makeover { Funky like Fuuugly }

I bought this Ikea armoire off Craigslist many moons ago. Of course it was not in this condition. But as all funky Ikea armoires must do, it bit the dust fast and hard. The drawer front popped off and the door broke off its hinge. Instead of kicking it to the curb I hit up my Pinterest page for some DIY inspiration.

I thought about making it into an awesome bar but I seriously do not need an abundance of liquor in my house. I'll just stick with keeping the beer in the vegetable crisper! (You know what I'm talkin' 'bout!) The more practical solution was to use it for displaying and storing my vintage goodies!

It was a quick and easy project that I finished in two days. Two days cause I started working on it at 3:00 in the afternoon. Start earlier than I did! Ok, here are the to-the-point instructions on how you can transform your funky old laminate armoire into a totally cool display cabinet, bookshelf thing

First removed all the hardware. Remove the one wonky door, yank out the stuck drawer, and gently pull of the flimsy back panels. Fill the hardware holes with quick dry wood filler. Sand those filled holes smooth. Now it's prime time! Do not sand the armoire or back panels. Use the best primer on earth, Zinsser Cover Stain. No need to sand and it dries in like two hours. It stuck to the laminate perfectly. It sticks to everything else too so be careful getting it on you/on carpet/on floors/on pants! (All of which I did oops!)

After the primer is dry paint the outside of your armoire with about 3 different color paint samples mixed together that you found in the garage. Lucky you that the colors turned out to be a pretty light green and not the baby poop green it initially looked like! (Yes you left the white parts paintedprimer, no one will ever know!) Next tape together the 3 panels in the back, flip it over, measure off your lines lightly with a pencil using your eyeball measuring skills, and a poster board edge as a guide. Tape off your lines, turn up the jams, I suggest anything by Prince, and get to painting!

Peel off the tape when its dry. Yaaay, youre almost done! Spray paint your hardware, (easy) and spray paint the shelf edges (not easy...your way might be easier than my way lol). My favorite go-to gold spray paint is Rustoleum Metallic Gold. It's not too-too gold, tacky 1980's jewelry color gold, or glittery gold, or...ok you get it, it's the perfect gold. I used it on some hardware belonging to my faux bamboo dresser. More info on that project later!

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Ta-da! Youre finished! Now shove it in the corner of your reselling room and fill it with so much stuff that you cant even see the cute chevron pattern in the back! LOL!

I am so glad I repurposed this little junker. I mean looking at it now with all the stuff in it I wonder where in the world did I have all that inventory stored at anyway?! I'm going to have to show you guys my room where all the extra spending, money making magic happens. Until next time! Toodles!

Check out the other crafty bloggers at the following parties I linked up with!

Transformation Thursday at The Shabby Creek Cottage
The Weekly Creative at Reasons to Skip the Housework

The great Texas thrift chase!

Yep! $20 and it was mine, all mine! It took a full tank of gas, 230 miles, and 6 days to get my Marx dollhouse but it was all worth it! I was more than willing to drive an hour to pick up my precious. When I got to my destination is when things took a turn. The seller on Craigslist emailed me the wrong phone number! So her plan of "Call me when you're close and I'll tell you where to meet" did not work out. I waited in a random strip center parking lot for 30 minutes. During that time I emailed her 3 times. Nada.

As I was waiting I said well screw it, I'm going to get on Craigslist and see if anyone else has something out this way I could buy. (For real though! Haha!) I came upon this Texas Pickers 1st Saturday Sale post.... Pickers sale? In an old cotton gin?! Sweet, I'm there! My iPhone said it was only about 30 minutes away. Might as well right? That 30 minutes turned into an hour due to the po-dunk, two lane, farm to market, curvy road I was on.  



Just when I seriously thought about turning around it was like a scene from a movie. I went over a hill and saw a field of beautiful bluebonnets as far as the eye could see!

Right across the field was the most rusty, rickety, amazing barn ever with antique and vintage treasures spilling out of it! I was in WhiteHall, Texas y'all, and it was heaven!

Outside of the barn a group of ladies were selling homemade jam, and a little girl was manning her families fruit tree stand. Off to the side the volunteer fire department was selling BBQ plates, a little league team was having a bake sale, and an old man was playing guitar while his lady friend sang Patsy Cline.

It was pure to the heart Americana going on over there I tell you what! The massive barn had quite a nice little selection of treasures. There was a little loft with lots of glassware, and a neat basement where they had all of the mantiques! 

The name "pickers sale" was quite misleading as everything was pretty spot on at antique store prices. Well beyond what my $20 dollhouse cash would have bought! Either way it was fun to roam around and look at all the pretty things. I lurked around for about an hour. Figured I drove all this way I might as well take it easy and enjoy some time to myself.

I went back to the blue bonnet field for a bit. There was quite a crowd! A family was having professional portraits taken, a young couple was snapping pictures of their little girl and her big golden retriever, and then there was me. Frolicking around all alone and taking waaay to many selfies.

I had such a great time. The experience ended up being well worth the 230 miles. What about the dollhouse lady you may ask? She called me when I was halfway home! Her email was on the fritz, she just now got my emails, and she was sooooo sorry she entered her phone number wrong. Turns out 6 days later she just happened to be in my area, and I finally met up with her....about 15 minutes away from my house. Sheesh!

Check out the Texas Pickers 1st Saturday website for more photos and info about Whitehall, Texas and the barn sale. Also take a look at the Texas Bluebonnet Sightings website to see pictures of the beautiful bluebonnets in Whitehall. Don't forget to sign up for their bluebonnet sighting reports! ;)

I am linking up with the following vintage, thrify, linky parties:
Remnant - Mid Century Mondays

Sir Thrift A Lot - Thriftasaurus

My Goodwill store is nuts.

Someone at my Goodwill store is officially on my sh*t list. I stop in about twice a week. Some of the employees know me, some not. Some are friendly, some not. And those some not people might just be nuts enough to try and sabotage my thrifting.

Whenever I see milk glass vases I buy them. And this Goodwill always has them. Like all the time! It's awesome! But just the other day when I snatched a couple up I noticed a slight price difference.

$3.99! Each! For the short ones too! Normally they price them all at .99 cents regardless of size. Immediatley my eyes get squinty and start darting around the store. Which employee is it that knows I always buy all the milk glass vases and priced them higher because of it?! I could just hear them... "That tall girl always buys every single milk glass vase so lets price them higher." GRRR!

I didnt buy them. And you know what? They went on markdown, and I still didnt buy them! I'll show them! I am never buying another vase that's over .99 cents eveeerrrrr!

And maybe my temper tantrum ban of buying their over priced milk glass vases worked (or maybe that employee was fired...hopefully) cause now they are back to .99 glorious cents! I sure showed them! Ha!

By the way, this vase right here, it is number 50 in my collection. Yes, 50! More on that later... :)