Jumping on the Cloche Bandwagon

Ok, I'm sure most of you know that cheese dishes/domes turned cloches are popping up all over blogland.  I think they're pretty...not exactly my style, but pretty nonetheless.  So when I spotted the glass dome at Goodwill for 1.49 I decided to experiment.  A few weeks later I found the wooden base at a different thrift store for .79.  And then a couple of weeks later I found the candle holder for .99.

I used a good strong glue and attached the candleholder to the base.  Roughed it up, painted the blue part a dark brown, then did a couple of layers of dry brushing over the entire thing, and added a clear coat. 

And here's what I got.

I'm not exactly sure what I'm going to do with it now because like I said, not really my style, but it was fun to experiment.

Yard Sale Fun

Are you like me?  Does the site of this vintage/retro style typography make your heart go pitter patter?  And does the sight of it's $1 price tag make it pitter patter a little faster?  I was SO excited to find this for only one buckaroo!  It will be a nice addition somewhere on the porch or in the flower beds.

Growing up, we had these same butterflies in our bathroom for umpteen years!  But they won't look like that when I get done with them, and they won't be in the bathroom.  The $1 luggage rack is also on the list for a makeover.

Vintage Christmas ornaments - $1 for all.  Nice, right?  My husband and I take turns each year deciding how our tree will be decorated and this year I had wanted to do an all vintage tree.  But this is the first stuff I've found in over a year that wasn't outrageously priced!  I don't know if I'll have enough collected to do it this year.   

Shirts and much needed summer sandals for my daughter - 1.50

Cozy Coupe (is that what they're called?) in great shape for $5, and a fun little Tonka
 toy for the Bubsters for $2.





 The Tonka toy has these little "sweeper" arms underneath that pick up small toys when you run over them and stows them in the middle compartment.  So cool!

  And we added new batteries and all the lights and sounds work like an annoying charm.

And last but not least, my husband needed a specific sized wrench and I found it for him for $2. 

From what I understand, this is about a $25 tool!

So, all in all today I spent $14.  I deem that a thrifty success.

Linking up to:

Frugal Friday - The Shabby Nest

Saturday Nite Special - Funky Junk Interiors

More Dollar Store Fabulosity

Ok, so "fabulosity" is probably a made up word, I'm not really sure, but I think it applies.  A couple of months ago I did a shabby chic dollar store bird makeover.  Well, today I'm bringing you another great dollar store project.  The inspiration for this came from Pick Your Plum when their item for sale one day was a small sheet of metal.  In one of the pictures they had it decoupaged with paper and displayed as a magnet board.  I thought it was super cute, but too small to be of any real use.  It needed to be bigger.  So I started thinking how to get a larger sheet of metal on the cheap, and I thought of cookie sheets.  With a coat of spray paint on them it wouldn't matter what kind of grungy shape they were in, so they would be a great thrift store find.

  I stored all this info away in my lil' noggin'.

A few days later I realized my niece's 3rd birthday was coming up and I would need a gift for her.  My sister has been in the process of redoing her room into a big girl room with lavenders, white, and green.  My ol' wheels started turnin' and things started clickin'.  I knew I had the perfect set of scrapbook paper that I had been saving for just the right thing.  So I decided to tackle this project.

But, of course, when I wanted an old grungy cookie sheet they weren't to be had.  So, I just picked this one up at the dollar store for...........you guessed it....$1. 

Hubster drilled the holes for me and I gave it a few good coats of ivory spray paint.  Here it is pictured with the papers I've had FOREVER.  Now they had the perfect use.  I found the green ribbon in my stash, too.

(I wasn't worried about the middle/front area being painted too well because I knew it would be covered by paper)

I just eyeballed the sizes of paper I would need, and ripped them out so that they'd have an uneven edge.  I rounded the corners to fit nicely, punched holes to fit over the drilled holes, and inked the inner edges of the torn paper.

Then I Mod Podged it on.  Again, this is for a 3 year old, so I went ahead and did another coat of Mod Podge over the top, too, to help protect it.

I scrounged through all my embellishments trying to find something to make cute magnets out of.  I finally settled on some typography type word squares.  Incidentally, just a couple of days before this I bought a large tub of craft stuff at a yard sale for $5 and in it was the perfect amount of magnets I needed for this project!

And here she is all finished. 

I put a picture of my daughter and the birthday girl (BFF cousins who miss each other VERY much!) that was taken a couple of years ago under the "Remember When" magnet, and added a little note.  And yes, "Wild Thing" is befitting. She's a very energetic, go-getter, tree climbin', monkey girl!  : )

After I completed my project, I Googled the idea to see if there were more like it out there in the crafty world, and yes.........there are tons.  The idea was not original apparantly.  There was a really cute one for a Christmas Advent calendar that I'd love to make some time.

So, any hoo, cost breakdown of this birthday present:

Cookie Sheet - $1

Scrapbook Paper - $0 (had on hand), spray paint - $0

Ribbon - $0, Mod Podge - $0

Magnets/Embellishments - $0

Total Price:

$1

Beautiful and cheap.  See, I told you, FABULOSITY!!

Linking up to:

Thrifty Thursdays - Thrifty Decorating

Frugal Friday - The Shabby Nest

Fabulous Friday - Faith, Trust, & Pixie Dust

Saturday Nite Special - Funky Junk Interiors

Still Seeing Red {Roses}

I can't take any credit for these roses, the bush was already here when we moved in and I haven't done much of anything with them, but I sure am enjoying them!

They actually have more of a pink tone to them in real life, but I couldn't get that to come through in the pictures.  They look more red here.



Did some color editing on this one.

 

And I'm LOVING having fresh flowers to cheer up my kitchen!

Hope you're having a blessed week!

Seeing Red

Remember this inspiration board I put together for the master bedroom?  I've made a little progress on it.  I'll give you a hint.....it's red........it's not the pillow.

I found this lil' guy at my neighbor's yard sale for $3. I had heard from another neighbor that there would be furniture there and I had been stalking  diligently looking out the window waiting for them to start.  As soon as I saw them setting up I bolted calmly walked over and grabbed him up (the table, not my neighbor).  I only had a $10 bill and she had to give me all her $1's as change. I think I upset her a little.  Oops. 

Anyhoo...it was a typical, sad little night stand that had seen better days.  I didn't take pictures of the process because I know you all have been there, done that, or at least have read about it.  So I'll just tell ya real quick.  Sanded it down, beat it up a little, put two coats of red on it (imagine it looking BRIGHT SHINY red), then finished it off with a brown glaze (craft paint mixed with water).

And here he is.

The glaze picked up the damage I did quite well.  : )

This was my first experience with glazing a piece of furniture, and unfortunately I didn't realize how messy it would be.  I ruined my favorite pair of pajama pants.

I guess that's what I get for being too lazy excited about finishing it to get dressed.

I had everything I needed for this, so the total cost of transformation was $3.

I suppose the sacrifice of the pajama pants was worth it.

Oh, and in other news, I stopped by the paint store to get my free sample of Benjamin Moore paint (pink for Halie's room) and while I was waiting on them to mix it I checked out the "oops" section.  Found the perfect shade of green for the headboard for this room for 2.50.  Yipee!  I love a great bargain!

Linking To:

Saturday Nite Special - Funky Junk Interiors

Catch As Catch Can - My Repurposed Life

Furniture Feature Friday - Miss Mustard Seed

Frugal Friday - The Shabby Nest

Creative Bloggers Party Hop - Homemaker on a Dime

Sweet Lil' Gretchen

I'm doing a special post specifically to link up to Donna's Saturday Nite Special over at Funky Junk Interiors this weekend.  Last week she shared the sweet story of her special cat and how, sadly, she had to say goodbye to him.  Then she gave us readers some homework - "Do a photoshoot of your special furry friends in your home alongside your favorite decor. Capture the essence of your decorating along side your buddy and you will have a portrait that will mean the WORLD to you once your pets are gone."

I've never been one to neglect doing homework, so here goes! 

This is our sweet Gretchen, a 7 year old Jack Russell Terrier.  We've had her since she was just 7 weeks old and she is near and dear to our hearts.  It is known as a fairly common trait of JRT's that they aren't always very good with kids.  But not so with "Wigglebutts."  She adores our kids and is so great with them.

She plays tug-o-war with Halie, follows her around the house playing "games," and lets baby Burl pull on her ears without so much as a whimper.  I don't allow him to do that, but it happened before I could catch him and she never moved a muscle, just waited for him to let go.

She LOVES to hunt and loves to snuggle.  Sometimes her personality seems almost human-like.

Those warm chocolate eyes are what I fell in love with the moment I picked her up as a tiny little puppy, and I knew I had to have her!

Here she's sitting next to a collection of things I love. 

Old crates with wonderful typography.

Of course, my Edison Lamp I made (if you missed it you can read about it here).  The rusty round metal thing the blue canning jar is sitting on has special meaning to us.  My husband and I were able to visit the land where his great grandpa's farm used to be and where his grandpa grew up.  We found it amongst the rubble/remains of the house.  The little galvanized bucket is from our wedding almost 9 years ago.  We used them to put nuts and mints in on the tables.

The tin cup was a gift from Hubby's grandma.  The old black and white picture is of my husband's deceased Grandpa Burl (our son's namesake).  I want to replace it, though, with a picture of my dad's parents when they were young, because my grandpa gave me that old horseshoe.  It was from his farm many years ago.  The old butter churn has also been in our family for many years.

And here we are on the front porch (still a work in progress).  You can read a little about the bench here.  Those old cans were out of a box of junk I got from someone's garbage, lol!  We used that tea kettle for a couple of years before retiring it to another use.

I got the watering can at an estate auction.  It was lumped together with a small grill and I paid $10 for both.  The couple standing beside me were disappointed they hadn't won because they wanted the grill.  I had no use for another grill so I sold it to them for $5 and kept the can.  The large glass jug was a gift from my mom.  I'm still trying to figure out how to decorate/fill it.  Any suggestions?

So there you have it, our sweet little, loyal, protective, loving, playful, Gretchen.  Or as our 3.5 year old, Halie, has humorously named her, "Gretchen Wigglebutts Licks Halie All The Time Knock Knock Who's There."

Linking to:

Saturday Nite Special - Funky Junk Interiors

"Our Lil' Cupcake" Party

Anyone who knows me well knows that my love of decorating isn't confined to just interiors, I love to put together and decorate a good party, too.  So I figured I'd share some during this in-between time of project posts.

This was almost 4 years ago, for Halie's 1st birthday.  I didn't blog then, so my pictures aren't quite as "blog worthy."  But you'll still get the general idea.

Those giant cupcake pans were just starting to become popular, or at least that's when I was first becoming aware of them, and I loved them.  So I decided to do a cupcake theme.  I found partyware that said "Our Lil' Cupcake's 1st Birthday" and I planned around that. 

(This was held at my in-laws home.)

In the end, I decided not to use the giant cupcake pan, and had Publix make a cake to match the cupcake on the partyware instead.  I kind of over calculated on the amount of people it would be for and it turned out huge, lol!