Yard sale finds

Well, I didn't score big by any means today at yard sales, but sometimes it's still fun to find just a couple of little things that are way cool!
I found this little bird sitting on a shell for a quarter. I'm not sure what it will hold just yet. I think he needs a bit of whitewash to make him look cuter. What do you think?
Next was the vintage ceramic snowman. I am so in love with this little guy, let me tell you! He reminds me of what the snowman looked like in the original Frosty the Snowman book from the 1950's. He was 25 cents also.

Also is this little wooden primitive snowman for 25 cents.

Then this Martha Stewart organizing book full of great ideas for $1.00.

Oh, and this lamp for $2.00 was a great find. I don't know why, but I suddenly want lamps everywhere to add mood lighting throughout my house. This is the third one I've bought in 2 weeks! Of course, it needs a shade, pronto. Just one more project redo to make it my own. I love doing that!I think it will get a coat of white spray paint and live in Macie's room for awhile. Then I can steal her milkglass wall lamp with the crystals hanging from it, and use it in my room!
I also bought Macie a couple of activity books for when we go on our road trip in July to Mesa Verde. Those were 50 cents a piece.
How did you all do today? Let me know, so I can come and look!

How to cover a simple lampshade

Howdy all.
Before we get started, I just wanted to share with everyone the fact that I will NOT be painting the Stickley end table I scored at a yard sale last weekend. This baby is worth some money (not that I care, I wouldn't sell it, and it's not a family piece, but still!)
Actually, it looks good as it is in my living room, take a look. I love the darker finish on it, and the subtle sheen of the wood.
O.K. Here is the long awaited lampshade covering tutorial!
A friend at work loosely showed me how, and then I ran with it.
I have this cute vintage wall lamp in my kitchen, which adds that all important mood lighting at night, and it had a plain shade. Don't you just love the milkglass? I had only added some vintage yellow trim to the top and bottom. Fine for awhile. Then I got bored.
What if I added some material to it? Would it be too fussy?
Heck no, I love it!
Here's how to do your own:
You need-
Fabric of your choice
Large paper to draw a pattern on
Spray adhesive
Sharp scissors
Trim or ribbon
Get a piece of paper to make your pattern from, one long enough to acomodate rolling your lamp shade around. I used a roll of kids wrapping paper. The print on this paper is a little nauseating, but kids love it at birthday parties, so what can I say?
Start your pen at the seam point on your lampshade, so you can stop at the same place. Slowly move your lampshade by rolling it on the paper, following with your pen laying against the edge, making the line all the way around until you come back to the seam. Do the bottom first, then the top again.
I go slightly past the seam point, so I have a little extra overlap.
Don't worry if it's not perfect, it will be close enough.
Cut out your pattern, and then lay it against the shade to see how close you got it. Trim if necessary. Here's how it should look:
Lay this on your fabric of choice, which should be pressed first to remove any wrinkles, etc.
Pin in place, taking into account were the front will hit, so you can get any pattern on the fabric in the right place.
Cut out with sharp scissors, and remove pins. Place AGAIN on the shade, and trim again if needed. Don't get too over zealous on the trimming, as you can trim after it is adhered, too. Here's how my fabric looks when it's cut out. This is leftover fabric my MIL gave me from when she made my quilt. It's similar to the fabric from my new curtain panels, huh? This a a lighter weight fabric, unlike the heavier fabric fro my curtain panels. You want the light to come through.
Here's where the fun begins: Using spray adhesive for me was NOT fun! The can will say for a permanent fix, spray both the shade and the material. Do not do this! You will start to put it on (crookedly, trust me, it's tricky) and you will not be able to remove and reposition!
I sprayed a small section on the shade, started my positioning, and worked my way around from there. It will pull off and reposition, if you work in sections and have patience.
When I came around to the back, I simply folded the fabric over to give it a finished edge, and sprayed it into place to flatten it.
I finished it off with two different ribbons in my stash, and Wah Lah, it was done!
The lamp was originally gold, but I spray painted it with the Bronze spray paint I had used on two other lamps in my house.
I also found this little lamp at Goodwill about 2 weeks ago, with no shade, but I had an extra one that was just the right size, and was plain as could be. Perfect for some MORE of my leftover fabric from my curtain project. It just goes on and on, folks!
So cute! This one is also in my kitchen, on top of the microwave. Hope you all have fun covering your lampshades and adding personality to your homes. Good Luck!

Have a seat!

I'm participating in Metamorphisis Monday over at Between Naps on the Porch. Go on over and check it out!

I neglected to share with you my one find from Saturday's dismal yard sale day.
I took Macie to her swim class, and although the sun actually made an appearance through the clouds, the wind was cold, and seriously at hurricane level the whole time.
On the way home we decided to stop at a few yard sales, and just weren't seeing anything. We stopped at one, and it was a lady I knew from church. She had a little old wood bench sitting out on the driveway, marked $5. I asked if she would go less, and she said "How about 3?"
Cool, I'll recover it and repaint the bottom, and it'll be cute. Who knows where I'll put it, but I'm a sucker for old furniture with potential!
So I look closer, and it's kinda wobbly, and coming apart in one area, so she says, "Oh, you can just have it!"
Score!

Here are the before pics:

Yike- ees, I know! That orange red has GOT to GO!

So I take off the tacs, and pull up the old material, to reveal yucky foam padding on top of a top that is flat, and it looks like it originally was a small old childrens table. It had been patched with a piece of tin, and large head nails. I can see why it was covered the way it was, now. Interesting.
Not originally a bench at all, but someone had repurposed it into something else. Gotta love e'm.
I of course, painted it black, but let some of the red peep through here and there.
Oh, and if you're looking for the perfect black paint, Glidden makes a perfect one. I didn't see a black on any of the swatch samples, so I asked the guy at HomeDepot, and he said, "Oh ya, Glidden had a nice true black that I'll mix for you."

Does the top material look familiar? It's the leftover fabric from my curtain project. To see it, go here. I then finished it off with moss green ribbon trim, and used the original upholstery tacs to adhere it again.
I decided to place it below my Longerberger shelf I redid, along with the baskets with all of Macie's shoes by our back door, so she had a little place to sit where she could take off and put on her shoes.
Have you ever seen so many shoes for one little girl?
Yet, she'll ONLY wear her Crocs. Go figure!
Sorry I didn't have time to post also about my lamp shade tutorial, but I'll get to that on Thursday.

Stickley, anyone??

Hey ya'll. How was your yard saling adventures this morning?
Mine were nominal. For some reason, I was not in the mood to go. Blame it on Auntie "Flo" visiting this morning, and my usual weakness due to hormonal changes. I felt extra crabby, and not in the mood to browse or haggle.
There were three community sales in my area, but there was a lot of baby stuff and not much else.
I did grab this beautiful vintage end table. It's solid wood, and in perfect condition.
I asked the lady how much, and she said, "Oh, I don't know. It was my husband's mothers." (He looked to be in his mid 70's).
"Is $10 too much?"
Umm, NO!
Seeing as it has all the original labels inside the drawer, marking it as a piece of Stickley furniture!
My sister-in-law is an interior designer who works for Stickley, and their furniture is high end, nice stuff. I won't tell her I'm going to paint it black, and change out the drawer pull!

I love the thick wood turned legs on this!

How awesome is this going to be once I paint it black?

(Ignore the pink carpet in the picture. The former owners of our house were obviously very pink passionate people (ppp). The exterior of our house is also pink, Ukkk! ) Carpet shopping put us into sticker shock, so for now, we continue to live with it!
We've got swimming lessons tomorrow (if it ever stops raining), and maybe a few yard sales if I start feeling better. Have a super weekend, my friend!

Ain't no sunshine when Creepy comes

No, I haven't forgotten about my blog, I've been busy, and not feeling very creative.
Ever have one of those weeks (or more) where you just wanted to lay around and do nothing? Maybe grab a couch and some cheetos? Sleep in late? Lay around like a total scrub? That's been me.
I blame this blasted weather, with all the rain and constant overcast skies. I live in a state where we proudly proclaim that we get over 300+ days of sunshine a year. Ummm, not THIS year!
I need the sun, people. It's like a drug to me. The first thing I do when I get up is open up all the blinds and curtains, just to wake me up and start me on the cheerful path.
On Sunday this lil' fella came out of the clouds, and was right over my neighbor hood, hovering like the creepy windy thingy that he is.
Hail poured down like no tomorrow, ripping my poor little petunias to shreds.
Creepy (as I call it) moved about 2 miles east and touched down at our local outdoor mall, throwing stuff around and then it hit the brand new Lowe's that had just opened. Lot's of debri damage.
Freakin' weather.
I just want my sun and the windytornadoishcrappyovercastweatherwithstupidhail to end!

I decided to wait on showing you my lamp recovering project because someone else had a lampapalooza party (which was way cool) and it stole my thunder, so I'll be posting that next time.
Till then, wish me sunny days, puleeeze!

Seriously, what's with the rain?

I feel like we live in Seattle, what with all the rain and clouds hovering around constantly!

I found this comic that I save from long ago, which pretty much sums it up:

I've always felt a bond with Lucy Vanpelt. She's crabby, I'm crabby. She's bossy, I'm bossy. She is a fussbudget, I'm definately a fussbudget. She fell for a blonde piano player that completely ignored her. (Mine was a guitar player in a Rock band) but you get the point.

The sun promises to come out tomorrow. Until then, the crabbiness will linger around here....

A curtain dilema solved!

Hey everyone! Hope you're all having a super Memorial day weekend! Ours is low key: barbequeing and hangin' out with family.

I wanted to share a curtain project I recently completed, with the help of my friend Chris. I have this large picture window in our front living room, that is insetted with a window seat underneath. The top of the window hits the ceiling part of the inset, and there is just an 11 inch strip of wall on each side of the window. Really hard to put a rod across, and too short to hang traditional curtains on.

Pretty bare and pathetic!


This calls for a custom curtain treatment!


I knew what colors I wanted for the panels, so I went shopping at Joanne's and found the perfect fabric. I had in my mind the design, but I don't really sew much, and so that's where my friend Chris came in. I descibed what I wanted it to look like, and she told me how much fabric to get. Isn't it lovely?


Now the dilema: how to outfit the area so that you can hang a panel. We took a trip to Home Depot, and with the help of a creative employee we came up with this:

First, we grabbed a pair of closet pole sockets and a 1' wodden dowel.. I spray painted them black. Then we bought a package of 1" rubber leg tip which fit perfectly inside the sockets. Then I purchased 2 traverse rod center supports(at Walmart) to hold the other side of the dowel that will be the curtain rod.

Socket and leg tip

Shows socket, rubber leg tip, and center support piece all mounted.


I cut the dowel a little longer, so the curtain would overlap the edge of the window slightly.
Get it, now that you see it all together?


I also spray painted it black, although you won't see it when the panels are on. Pretty imaginative, huh?


For the panels, we measured the area, and then eyeballed literally how long of a drop I wanted on the black and cream check. We finished the panel with a 1 1'2" seam on the sides and bottom, and made a 3" rod pocket, so it would slide across and cover the closet socket against the wall.


I seriously love it! It makes the room seem so much more cozy and designer-ish like!

Very simple, yet it looks like I bought it custom.

Oh, and to finish off the end of the dowel, I bought two drawer knobs, and spray painted them black. Then I hot glued them on the ends of the dowel to make it look finished.
Hope I inspired you all to tackle that weird space by just starting somewhere, and enlisting the help of a good friend to come up with some great ideas!

Stay tuned for an easy tutorial on how to cover a lampsahde, and make it look like a custom piece!

Have a fun and safe holiday weekend!

Depression, anyone?

I'm re-posting this at Southern Hospitality's thrifty party, partly because this post is so funny, and partly cause I haven't had anything else thrifty to share. Go checkout everyone else's thrifty treasures!

Hi ya'll. Yes, I've been away too long. Busy life, and bloggers block have kept me away for awhile.

On a funner note, it was an awesome garage sale weekend. I knew of at least 5 large community sales within 15 minutes of my house that were going on, so Macie and I were up very early, to make the most of our morning. I couldn't stand knowing I couldn't hit them all!

She is an afternoon Kindie, so we had to be home by 11 to get her fed, and off to school at noon. Then I had to go to work for awhile.

Seriously, every minute counts when you know there are dozens of sales, and bargains to be had. When you have a 6 year old in tow, time is constantly being wasted, haggling over getting her in the car, out of the car, and ripping her away from sale after sale.

You know what I mean, Moms:

You drive up to a sale, get out of the car, and stand outside the car for who knows how long, telling your child to unstrap and get out; they are busy taking apart something they got at the last sale you stopped at, so they are suddenly deaf.

Again and again, you ask them to get out, as you watch 5 more cars pull up, knowing your bargains are going to be snatched momentarily.

Finally, you snap, and yell at them to listen to you, and get out of the car!

As you finally get their attention, you see out of the corner of your eyes someone carrying off a large, beautiful mirror, the EXACT kind you've been looking for for months! Argg!

This happens at each and every sale you stop at, all morning.

The other scenario is that once you DO get them out of the car, you absolutely cannot get them back IN the car, because they will always go over to the 25 cent box, to mull over for the next 15 minutes which stupid McDonald toy they MUST have.

I can tell within 5 seconds if the sale is a dud, or a good one. I want to get back into the car, and head to the next one, pronto. With a child in tow, there's gonna be a fight, to be sure, if you don't let them browse around for something. Anything.

My daughter insists she wants to GET something. She has the "I wants". She can't stand to leave the sale without buying something. I'm trying to break her of it. Step AWAY from the yucky stuffed animals and crappy McDonalds toys, honey. Just do it.

Really, it's only fair to let them browse, too, especially since they have to go with you, and endure you looking, when there's alot of sales with no kid's items. Macie actually enjoys going with me, and carrying her cute little wallet, with all of her piggy bank coins in it. She is learning the value of each coin in Kindergarten this year, and is so proud to count out her quarters when it's time to buy something.

Let's get on to what I got! This darling ceramic snowman platter, and these four brand new felt snowman placemats, tags still on: 25 cents, and yes, 25 cents for all. Unbelievable! ( I KNOW that my continuing to buy more Christmas stuff is a sickness!)

A bingo game from the '90s. I love the style, so I can age them for my paper projects.
50 cents.

A Puzzle from Springbock. Did I mention I love jigsaw puzzles? But only Springbock. They always have interesting pictures, almost like an eye spy picture. I can't do the 1000 piece farmland scene, where EVERY piece is green. My dear mom loved to work puzzles, and now I honor her by doing them, and always think of her when I do them. I've even gotten my husband interested in them, and we sit side by side, for hours, bantering and stealing each other's pieces.
50 cents.
Sorry for the flash! This one is an open fridge, with all kinds of cool thing in it. I like at the top, the "Cop Stopper" package of donuts.

I also scored several antique plates and depression glass at one sale. The guy said he cleans out foreclosed homes and storage units, and comes across all kinds of cool stuff that people leave behind. Below is a picture of one of the two hand painted Haviland plates I picked up from him. Perfect condition, not a chip on either one.


Beautiful hand-painted detail
Also, a little creamer, he said he thought it was Delft. I think it's flow blue. No markings on the bottom. If anyone knows, drop me a line, please!

I also picked up 6 of these green depression glass dessert cups. I always try to picture who used these way back when, and what kind of yummies they may have eaten from these. Remember, back in the '30's, everything is made from scratch, and that homemade goodness. For now, I'll keep them, and try to make some homemade goodness for my own family to honor these beautiful pieces.

The guy threw these two plates in the box, at the end, to be nice.
They are marked J & G Meakin, Hanley England. I just love them. If anyone knows anything about these, drop me a line.

Hand-painted gold edges, and embossed roses, such pretty details.


Are you ready for the total? 6 depression glass dessert cups, 2 hand painted Haviland china plates, 2 heavy china rose plates, and a Delft? creamer, all for .... $7.00! Yes, I LOVE it!
I also got a cute Express T-shirt for $1.00, and a few cute clothes for my daughter for .50 cents a piece, a great bargain. Oh, and a great fall doormat, for 1.00.
Don'tcha just love finding all kinds of cute stuff that someone else wants to get rid of?
I think now more than ever, people are doing yard sales to make extra cash. In this economy, every dollar counts! I love finding cute clothes at extra cheap prices, cause then I'm saving money on things that I would've had to buy at full retail.
I told my daughter when we were yard saling last weekend, "Honey, I love you, but mommy will be so glad when you start first grade (and start at 8 a.m.) and I can yard sale by myself!"
It's not far away, that end of July date. She is on a year round school schedule, so I'll have some time to myself, before the season ends. Yay!

Adding a signature to your blog

I found this cool website that lets you create a custom signature to add to your blog. I know some of you have done it, but there are alot of clueless people such as myself, who don't own Photoshop by Adobe, to do such cool things.
This website will help you create one, or you can draw one to make it really custom. I would not recommend downloading your exact signature to the site (which you can do), because of identity theft and all.
The name is my live signature , and it was quick and easy to follow the steps to create my signature. You can pick from limited fonts and colors, but it was cool for me to do it, as I've been wanting one for awhile now.

At the end, I chose to see the html code, which you want to right click and copy, then come back to your blog on your dashboard, go to settings, then formatting. Scroll all the way down to the bottom, then paste it into the template box. It should now appear on all new posts.
Fun, fun, fun!
Hope ya'll had a super weekend; it's looking up here, with finally some sunny days ahead. I should be able to do some digging in my flower beds, and I look forward to my annual Mother's day trip to the local garden center to pick out lots of flowers. What a fun tradition!

Step AWAY from the Christmas stuff, Susan

O.K., so Spring will just not warm up here! It's overcast, cold, and still downright gloomy here in Colorado! I had been looking forward to going to The Paris Street Market for seriously months, and today was the opening day.

My husband came home and informed me that HE had to work the one and same Saturday, to my disamy. That means I get to stay home with my daughter.

What, you say? Just take her with you?

Let me just step out of the room and laugh.

I'll be back.





O.K. I'm back.

Not on your life.

Here would be the the dialogue:

Honey, don't touch that.. No, I said no, don't touch that. Yipes, that's breakable, I told you not to touch anything that looks breakable... Actually, don't touch ANYTHING! (Dealers giving me and her dirty looks.) HANDS OFF! (Now I'm giving her dirty looks.) Macie! How many times do I have to tell you not to pick up or touch anything? Hey, do you want to go sit in the car? I'll put you there if you touch ONE MORE THING! (and on and on and on.)


And that's if I don't lose her in the crowd of hundreds.

So. Now you get it.

Besides the fact that I hate being cold more than I hate, well, just about anything. And today is cold.


So we resigned ourselves to searching for the almost non-existant yard sales around the neigborhood. (It being cold and all.)

The first one we came to was just junk, but somehow my daughter talked me into buying her a Furbie.

The second was a picked over Estate sale that looked like it wasn't that great to begin with. I did score a cool aluminum ware tray, really large and pretty with detail.


I'll be using it at work, at the salon, to put over the top of my rolling tray that I put color bowls, cutting tools, etc on. Yes, my salon is that nice! Look how pretty!


Beautiful handles. Nice and big, for all of my "accoutrements". Cool word, that one. Snagged it for $4!

Then we met my dad for lunch, and on the way home, we spotted a sale sign, so we pulled in. This is where I found some cool old holiday decorations. First I spotted this large Tom and his wife ceramic turkey salt and pepper shaker. These are seriously really large, although it's hard to tell from a picture. I'm going to use them for display, not S&P. They are very old, which I love the look of.

Next, of course, I saw the Christmas stuff, and not just any ol' Christmas stuff. Cool ol' vintage Christmas stuff. Like, the Bonanza of Christmas stuff!
LOVE the little paperboard Christmas housed with the glitter, and bottle brush trees. Don't you love the Santa and the reindeer pulling the sleigh?

The little elves are all marked Japan on the bottom, nice and old.

Their faces and detail are so darling, don't you think?

Along with several Old bottle brush trees, faded to vintage perfection (not pictured), this rubber faced santa, the bottlebrush wreath, the spray with bells and the switch plate cover (so cute), were also in the box, as well as some hard plastic reindeer.

Also in there was an unusual assortment of these little mirrored ornaments, which were kinda cool.
I'm also a sucker for chalkware figures, so I snagged this angel, which also is a spinning music box, as part of the deal. She's my 4th chalkware angel, and plays Silent night.

All this for $7.00. I feel your jealousy oozing through into my family room right this second!

At this point, I'm not feelin' so bad about missing the Paris Market; after all, it will be here again in 4 weeks. Just think of the money I saved, not going today!