Where I blog & Garage Sale Finds

How was your weekend?

This weekend I spent some time garage saleing by myself. I like going with others, but I find it faster to go alone (no one to wait for).

I found these:

The tealight candles were:  50 cents
The Clock was $1.00
Tealight holders: 50 cents each (one had the original tag for Winners for $4.99)
The Silver Caddy: 25 cents
The Boys clothes: 50 cents (perfect for first day of school)

So in total I spent $3.25!!  I'll show you later this week what I do with these finds.

So, Kate at Centsational Girl is having a Where do you Blog party, and since I love me a party, I decided to join in!

This is where you will find me most mornings and late evenings on my fave chair in the  Family Room. 

(hmmm... lampshade is crooked) 

When we updated our very dated family room furniture, I gotta me a Momma-Bear chair.

(that's what I call it)

On the little table beside it, is a little box with Muskoka's ashes (our last dog),

and some pictures of the kids when they were babies.

Of course, you will always find a drink there for me too (this time coffee).

I also have an "office" in the basement, but I only go down there when the kids are in school and I can get down there by myself without worrying about them.

So where do you blog?

I'm also linking up to some of these parties.

Please check out my online Shaklee Shop.

Garage Sale Goodies

I hope you all had a wonderful weekend.
 We had a relaxing weekend, although it was a rainy weekend.
My brother-in-law and sister-in-law took the kids Saturday overnight and hubby and I were able to go to a party and not worry about getting home to the sitter. The funny thing is the party wrapped up early and we were in bed by 11:00 p.m. Go figure!

My mom and I ended up going garage saleing and I found a couple of goodies.

A bunch of baskets of 25 cents each.

My favourite! I love the scrolly work

These are 8 dresser drawer handles for 1 dollar. They match the ones on the desk in S.'s room.

I'm going to re-do her dresser and add these.  Stay tuned.

So that's all I got.  Little A ended up filling a grocery bag with Hot Wheels cars for $1.00 at one of the garage sales.  He was in heaven!

I'm linking up to Southern Hospitality Thrifty Treasures.

What did you do?

Did you find anything at garage sales?

Old Keys and a Frame

Hi there!

How was your weekend?

We had H's final soccer tournament this weekend.  She played two games.  In the first game she scored 3 goals out of 10 and the second game, she was goalie for the second half and although they did not win she didn't let any goals in.  She was quite pleased with herself and I am glad soccer season is over. YAY!!

(they were the Red Chillies)

I think I might have mentioned somewhere that my parents are visiting us from Portugal this summer.

With all the old key projects all over blogland, I was determined to do something too. Problem was though that I didn't have any old keys lying around.  So when I heard they were coming to visit this summer, I sent my dad on a mission over in Portugal.  I asked him to go check out my grandma's abondoned house.  My grandma passed away in 1987 and no one has lived in that house since that day (other than mice, snakes and some other choice rodents). Well, he found these...

A bunch of old keys still on an a string.  No idea what they were for, I'm assuming they opened the various doors on my grandma's farm house.

Whohoooo!!  I can finally do my old keys project!

This weekend between soccer games I managed to pick up this frame for 25 cents at a garage sale...

First I cleaned the frame and the keys with my favourite, Shaklee's Get Glean

Basic H2 Organic Super Cleaning Concentrate.

( I used the window & Glass spray on the frame glass and a drop of full concentrate on the keys)

( you can order Basic H here through my website)

Then, I grabbed some scrapbook paper, and some scrapbooking glue dots that I had on hand and voila!

(the glue dots are super sticky and super strong) 

It's now hanging between the basement door and the powder room door.

The frame is a tarnished silver colour.

What do you think?  Not bad for 25 cents, huh?

Oh yeah, and my dad was quite impressed with it too. 

He couldn't quite figure out why I needed those "rusty old keys". 

ohhhh dad... The treasures I would find in granma's old house if I wasn't deadly afraid of those snakes!!

I'm linking up to some of these parties.

Don't forget that Friday I will be having a Bloggy Friends Weekly Party link party. 

I will have badge for it, if I can figure out how to do it. :-D

Have a nice week.

Bette

Please visit my online Shaklee site here.

Awesome Goodwill Finds!

So yesterday, the hubs took the three kids out for the day (not sure where, I haven't asked yet) and I got a whole day to myself to do whateva I wanted. 

So what do I do, you ask?  Cleaned the house, vaccummed, washed floors!  Yeap, that's what I did for the first couple of hours.  And then, I went out!

I ended up at Goodwill first.

A Birdhouse!!  I've been looking for one for-ev-er!!

The little door says "CHATEAU".

Isn't it cute?

I popped into the grocery store and found this Orchid.  Isn't she purdy?  I was thinking of popping her in that apothecary glass right behind her.  Do you think she will be ok in there?  I don't to kill her... yet. (cause you know I will)

There they both are on my buffett!  hmmm...  I'm gonna have to play with THAT look!  The scale is really off.

I'm linking up to:

So now I need your help!

What colour should I paint the bird cage?

Small table Redo

What a beautiful weekend.  I woke up to birds chirping outside my window.  What a great sound.

The kids were playing outside all day.  Although the snowbanks are still melting, the sun was shining.  Of course I hate to jinx myself and get too excited and then we get hit with another downfall.  I hate to be Debby Downer but that's my reality living in Southwerstern Ontario.

So, while the kids played, I did some playing myself.  Recently,  I found this little side table at Goodwill for $4.99.  It was ok... but the colour of the wood didn't really match my other dark furniture in the house.

So I got out some paint Black Satin leftover from the Powder Room cabinet re-do (which I will show you soon) and got painting.

I started off by painting the legs and everything and then changed my mind and wiped the paint off.

I loved how some of the paint got into the grooves and scratches.  I didn't sand it down first cause... let's face it... I'm lazy.

ooops... look at those stroke marks!! I still need to do a light coat of Poly to protec it and then I think I will use it in my son's bedroom.

 Here it is again.  What do you think?

Original Art... on a budget

Have you noticed how expensive Art is?

Well I have, and that's why I barely have anything up on the walls.

The other day the kids were playing some kind of silly game with their hands and feet and I got another "brilliant idea".

I quickly grabbed my camera!

I uploaded the pictures to Costco.ca and printed 11 x 14 size in Sepia tone  to go with the browns and greens in the room.  I picked up the frames at Michael's Boxing week for $9.99 each (down from $29.99 each).

I looove the colour and detail on the frames.

Here they are above our new leather chairs (that I spent waaay too much money on, even though it was Clearance Sale).  The lamp in the middle was a Thrift store purchase for $3.99 (bulb included).

These two works of art came to under $25.00 total.  AND... I love them and will treasure them forever!

I'd love to see your original art... Post a comment with link back to your post (not your blog).

Saving a Lamp... and money too.

We're pretty good here about recycling our "garbage".  We make sure that cans and tins are in the metals recycling box.  Paper is in the paper recycling box.  And...  and i think you get what I am saying.

What about things that you no longer love? 

A few years ago I would have bagged it up and dropped it off at the nearest Goodwill or Salvation Army.

Now...  I save it, thanks to what I've learned from my new decor blogging heroes.

Let's look at this OLD lamp.  I bought this lamp about 10 years ago.  It was actually a set of 4 (2 buffett, a floor lamp, and an accent lamp).  I've lived with them  the way they were for 10 years.  They were in storage and then they were moved all over the house.  Never quite happy of where they ended up.  They are not bad, but I didn't looove them.

Then I got a brilliant idea.

I spray painted the base black and added trim to the shade ( I used a smaller shade that I had, so I didn't ruin my matching ones).  A little better, but still not great.

Then I tried this one.

I changed the shade for a new-to-me shade from Goodwill that I bought a few weeks ago for 2 for $3.99.

I love this new look.  What do you think?  Isn't it amazing what a little spray paint and "new" shades can do.  Two new lamps for the hefty price of $3.99 (and what ever the cost of pray paint was).

I have two of these and they will be used in my bedroom.  I'm not ready to reveal my bedroom yet... soon, I promise.

DYI - Princess Canopy

My 9 year old daughter "H" is quite the princess. Always has been.  I thought it would cute if she had a princess canopy above her bed.  On a trip to the thrift store a while ago I found a  corbel ($1.99) with a whole in the middle and a pretty curtain panel ($2.99).  This is what I came up with to fill the space above her bed.

I just tied the curtain together through the whole in the corel and hid them.

This is what it looks like above her bed.  In the middle is a green ladybug night light that we got at IKEA last year.  I'll show you the whole bedroom once we are done.

P.S.- on the bed is Paddington Bear that she has had since she was 6 months old.  The other guys (Monkey, Silvery and Tiggery) came along sometime about 6-7 years ago.

DYI - Quick Bedroom Window Update

My oldest daughter's window has been looking like this for about 4 years. 

I saw this on somebody's blog, but I now I can't remember where. If anyone knows let me know... I think she calls it "window Mistreatments".

(Edit: It's The Nesting Place.  Thanks Molly!)

So I used some of these push pins...

And this is how it looks like now!!  Isn't it pretty??

Her blind is hiding behind the curtain.  The curtain is actually a shower curtain that I picked up at Goodwill awhile ago and cost me $2.99.  I used push pins along the top to tack it up and along the side to "swoop" it up.  She loves it!  I love it too!

I'm joining Funky Junk's Saturday Night Special!!  Won't you join me too?




 

And also to Thrifty Decor Chick's Before and After Party.

  

More Thrift Store finds...

I took a quick looksy to see what they had today.

Purple Watering can for "H", my 9 year old's room - 0 .99 cents

A pail with a garden and buterfly theme for H's room again.

These picture frames were .99 cents each.

A pretty mirror for $4.99.

Desk Accessories - $1.99

A pretty clock- just needed new battery - $1.99

I've been going to the thrift store alot lately, but in my defence I only buy things that I know exactly where I will put them.