The only handmade Christmas gift this year.

Usually, I have a ton of handmade items for gifts. This year not so much. School got the best of me and my time. I got the idea from The Adventures of One Crazy Lady and she made a pillow. LOVED IT! It got me thinking that I can do this. I had a ton of vintage buttons and the perfect fabric. This is super easy and makes a great personalized gift.



I started with the picture of this monogram. I cut it out and traced it onto a cloth napkin for me to use as a template for putting the buttons on.



It wasn't finished but my SIL was so excited about it that she wanted to take it and finish it on her own rather than wait for me to find the perfect frame. Now I want to make more since I love how this one turned out.

Getting Creative with Christmas gifts

So for most of the people that know me, I always look for a bargain or a way to save money before making a purchase. The past few years, I have done that with Shutterfly for my Christmas gifts. They have a great selection of present worthy items and usually offer discount codes for a % off or free shipping with a minimum purchase.

Some examples of gifts that I've given are photo calendars(people loved these), mouse pads and a custom poster for Daddy, to name a few. I have also done several photo books all throughout the year and by far this is the most appreciated and well received gifts that I've done. This year, I will be ordering my Christmas cards through them and the possibilities are endless. Here are a few links to check out.

Christmas cards
photo cards
Thank you cards
All of these are a great way to start making your own special Christmas cards.

Or you can start searching for your own personalized creative gifts. Here is a link to some great gift ideas.

photo gifts

**I am doing this as a promo to get 50 Christmas cards for free but honestly, I love working and ordering from Shutterfly and would be using them regardless of this promotion. Quality is great and shipping is fast. Can't beat that.

For a chance to enter for your own free cards use this link

Another Dump find

I picked this cutie up at the dump a few weeks ago. I originally listed it on Craigslist for $50 with a few bites but no sales. I relisted it for $35 and the hubby said the first person to make an offer takes it or it's going on freecycle. The first person to respond offered $20 and it was sold. Of course, I had more responses this time around and could've held out for the $35 but $20 is $20 and still more than what I paid for it.

A bigger boys room

My oldest has been begging for me to paint his room and the answer was always when I get done with my summer classes. Classes have been over since the 16th but the time just hadn't been found to make due on that promise. We made little strides along the way, such as picking out paints, colors and patterns. This week, we finally got around to starting.

Here is a pick of the boring semi before, blue tape was already in progress



Here is the little picture we made up in windows paint to give us an idea of what we were going for.



And here is the after but not quite done....



And here is why it's not quite done.....see all the little seep spots? I have a quart of metallic silver paint and I'm debating on using a small brush and making silver stripes over all the seeps. My son thinks I should fill all the white in with silver but we'll have to see.



What do you think?

BINGO

I am linking this project to the DIY party


The funny thing about this project is about a month ago when I planned it, I thought I was being original. Ha. That's a funny one. I saw 2 scrapbooking pages at Michael's and just knew they were destined to become my wall art. I just had to find the right item to mount them on. Not long after that day, I was looking through blogland, I saw someone had beat me to it with the two exact pages. AND this week, yet another person has used them.

However, mine is a little different, I finally found the perfect piece to mount one of them on and it was bigger then a 12x12. I love the results though. It was originally a black and white print of Audrey Hepburn dancing with someone and mounted to a piece of MDF. I spray painted the edges and put some antiquing mod podge all over it. Then I tried to get it as centered as possible and mod podged the whole thing with a few coats. Here is the end result......



Now I just need to find it a proper home. Oh and find something to mount the other page on. When it's complete it will go in my 2 younger boys rooms. I can't wait.

In need of a stress reduction... LOL

I feel like I need one of these at times.

I haven't been able to do much blogging this month. School is getting the best of me. I'm taking Biology A&P 2 and Microbiology, lecture and lab. These classes are a bit tough by themselves but taking them together and during the summer when they are condensed, is certainly a bit stressful to say the least. I have many projects that I need to finish, start or blog about.

I've never had to

Is this the response from people when you say you are a thrift store junkie? I was having casual conversation during a study group this weekend and this statement was made. So, my question to you is, do you shop at thrift stores because you have to or because you enjoy it?

I, myself, could be a millionaire and STILL shop at the local thrift stores. I would be the one everyone wonders why I still shop there. I've never really "needed" to shop at thrift stores, so the comment threw me off guard. I love the thrill of the hunt, saving money and keeping the landfills free of less of all of these things.

I will be doing a post soon about how I just bought almost my entire wardrobe for under $100 and most of it still had the tags on it, from J Crew even :)

Cupcake stand

I found this mini plant stand for .75 at my local thrift store. I wanted to make a cupcake stand out of it.


Before


After....


My little guys birthday was coming up and I waited until the last minute to work on this. That's why it's not painted and the cake plates aren't exactly centered. Hopefully, by the next party, I should have it done the way I envisioned it.

What color do you think I should paint it, white or black?

The making of a Captain James Cook costume

Leave it to me, the ever procrastinator, to wait until the last minute to start working on anything. If I could change one thing about myself that would probably be it.

My 5th grader needs a costume for James Cook tomorrow, say what!!!! Yesterday, I started really looking. Yeah, last minute. I happened to find a pair of womens Dressbarn white capris. Last night, I doctored them up to fit my son. I sewed down the seam to make them tapered and smaller. I cut about 3 inches off the top of the pants and made an elastic waist. They aren't perfect but they will work. I had a few cards worth of gold buttons, so I attached 3 to each cuff. Next, I found an old Jones New York dress coat that's navy blue. BINGO. Going to doctor this up too. I bought thick white grosgrain ribbon and some gold ribbon to attach to it. When he gets home from school, I'll get to sewing it all up.

I ended up buying a white button down maternity shirt and cutting off the sleeves to use for the sleeve ruffle and the rest of it was sized down to make it look like a vest and gold buttons were added. I got the hat from my younger boys costume stash and the wig from one of the thrift shop cashiers that said she had one we could have.

This is the look we are going for


Here are the pants.....


Here's the jacket complete....


And lastly, my very own Captain James Cook!!! Isn't he handsome?



Costume cost a whopping $8 to make
*capris- $3
*shirt- $1
*ribbon- $4
*everything else, I already had on hand or was free :)

Recovering dining room chairs

These chairs were supposed to only be temporary until I could find chairs to replace them. They've been upstairs for awhile now and my boys are not the neatest when eating and ended up looking rather rough. So, I finally got around to recovering them.

Before...yuck




Enter these curtain panels from the thrift store for $1 each. I bought 4 of them.



After...much better



I have 2 full curtain panels and 2 tops of the curtains left. I have pillow covers in mind for their future.

AND wouldn't you know it, the next week, I found a table and chair set at Habitat for Humanity. Here's a sneak peak at one of the chairs, notice there's no fabric for my boys to ruin and the newly recovered ones made it back down to the basement for the eventual bar area for my husband. The green must go.....

Paper towel holder

I've been wanting one to hang underneath my cabinets for awhile and I finally found one at the thrift store for $1. Great bargain. Add some black Rustoleum spray paint and here ya go.

Before, well more like during because again started painting first. OOPS



AND the after.....

Cloche- AKA Blogland copycat

I had to copycat everyone else in blogland and make my own version of the cloche. I have to admit, it's not all that original but I love it.

I don't have a true before because I started painting and then thought about it so there are a few in progress pics

I started with a cheese cloche and a wooden candlestick holder both from the thrift store. Total together was $3, add a little paint and here ya go.






Here's the after. I have a teeny secret too, it's not complete yet, I still need to glue the two together but I wanted to show it off at the Before and After party at http://www.thriftydecorchick.blogspot.com/

CVS trip

So the total for this trip was $16.69 and another $6 in ECB

3 Gillette Clinical- $7.99- used 3 $3 off coupons
3 Gillette body washes- $3.00- used 3 Buy deodorant get body wash free
2 Secret deodorants- $3.99- used 2 $2 off coupons- and got $1 in ECB for each one
2 Mylantas- $3.99- used buy $4off/2 coupons- and got $4 in ECB= free
2 Oral B Pulsars- $5.99 and 2.99- used B1G1 coupons
1 Tampax Pearl- $2.97- used $2 off coupon

Spent $16.69
Got $6 in ECB
Saved $69.89

Great Shop!

Someone else's trash.....

Isn't she cute???



This looks adorable next to the little fish pond in front of our house. One day, I'll get around to painting it a darker shade of green instead of the bright green it is now. So glad someone left this to the side instead of just throwing it away!!

CVS shopping

This is what I bought for $5.20



Here's the breakdown

Bertolli on sale 3/$5 bought 4- used (2) $1.50/2 coupons
Ragu on sale 3/$5 bought 3- used (1) $1.25/3 coupon
Old Spice body wash on sale for $4- used a BOGO coupon
Big Sexy on clearance for $2.50 each reg $9.99

Used $12 in ECB from previous trip

AND......also got another $11 in ECB for future trip

Coupons, Coupons, Coupons

Today was a great little shopping day

I spent $6.97 at Target and walked away with clinical strength deodorant, body wash, dog treats, 3 prescriptions and best part yet........ $30 in GIFT CARDS! Awesome with with one exception... I almost left my coupon holder....mini panic attack for a minute.

Coupon breakdown

(3) $10 GC for new scripts
(1) Buy deodorant get body wash free
(1) $3 off deodorant
(1) Target $1 off dog treats
(1) Manu. $2 off same dog treat

Total OOP= $6.97
Plus $30 in GCs.

Finally, bedroom furniture

I've been looking for a solid wood door with panels to use for a headboard. Yesterday, at Habitat for Humanity, I found it and better than what I had been looking for it. It was actually a full sized antique double door. Then I saw these beauties that would be a lot less work. I couldn't stop looking at the door but know I made the right choice.




The headboard/footboard/rails were a whopping $80 and the dresser was $30. The drawers aren't in it at the moment(makes it much easier to carry that way). I had intentions of painting these black but they are going to stay the way they are. Hubby will have to do some gluing where a few pieces broke off while being transported to Habitat for donation.

A cute thrifty baby shower gift

I can't take the credit for the idea because it came from someone else who sells these on etsy. I found a brand new package of cloth diapers for $2 at the thrift store and I used fabric that I had gotten for free along with ribbon for $.50(used a fraction of the roll), used my sewing machine .....VOILA....made these.

Going with the theme of the pillow

I've been shooting myself for not picking up this lamp at the thrift store that I'd been eyeing for awhile. Someone finally bought it and for only $3. Headslap here. Well, I'm so glad that the lady did. Today I found 2 of these beauties for only $12. LOVE them. The ceramic is the color green in my inspiration pillow where the other one was not and I would have to paint it. There were 2 of this one. YIPPEE! And these also came with shades in decent condition, the other one was pretty much trash. You can't work with trash. YUCK.

So here is what they look like......



Now, I have to decide how to cover the shades and paint the metal accents, probably going to go with oil rubbed bronze or ORB.

Went with the ORB and here they are side by side to see the difference

Wall Words

I have much love for the new wall words hype. At Big Lots, I found several wall sayings that would be perfect for me. Get this. They were only $3 each. I chose a few to try out first. LOVE THEM! Here is the first one. Blank wall and NOW.....

This is for the Birds

My newest thrift shop purchase. For $2 I got this vintage wall hanging with birds on it. I have a great vision for this and it includes, you guessed it, PAINT! It will go somewhere in the master bedroom, just not sure where.

Master Bedroom Redo

2 posts in one day, so much to catch up on.....

We are switching rooms around in the house and the master will be what was once the boys' room. These pictures are just strictly for the paint change, no decor has gone up.

Before


Took border down only to realize there was a painted on stencil as well, lucky us.


During



blue is gone...


And a after, this paint color is hard to capture, it's a color from PB catalog that was matched with Valspar paint. It's a bluish gray. LOVE it!!! Yes, that is the infamous Pottery Barn Spiral Votive Holder!



More to come....Stay tuned.

My first post

So, here is where it starts. It will be a pretty bleak one since I don't have a lot of time. My idea with this blog is to show off my thrifty shopping deals. My favorite place to shop are my 2 local thrift stores that support the mentally and physically challenged adults in our county. They provide them jobs and a source of revenue to keep the program going. It's a win win for everyone.

My first purchase to show off wasn't a thrift shop find at all, it was from Ebay. I just purchased a set of large tiki fork/spoon wall hangings. I got the idea from another blogger and went searching for a pair of my own. Ebay has been hit/miss with them but after a week of looking, I found one with a Buy it now and best offer button. I offered $15 and the seller accepted it. Yay for me. I'm sure I would eventually have found them at a thrift store but I didn't want to hold out for them.
So here they are..........THE BEFORE





Now, I have to wait for them to get here and hopefully soon, I'll have an after picture.

So scratch this one. I got them in the mail Saturday and they aren't big enough for the space I wanted to use. Went back to Ebay and bought another set but this one is 28". Can't wait for them to get here.