Garage Sale Finds

Spur of the moment Garage Sale Stop rendered me a few good finds:

This decorative fleur de lis candle/elephant [LOL] stand

Mom collected elephants and I displayed these here for now

[$2.00]

I was debating over these pieces when I realized she had the entire set tagged for $8

I asked her a few questions about them when she offered the whole set to me for $5

SCORE!

Have no idea where I'll put them all though

Suggestions welcome

Oh and I think these came from Hobby Lobby??

[Anyone recognize the clearance tags?]

They each had their retail stickers still on the bottoms but a few still had clearance stickers attached. By my estimation, she paid about $60 clearance prices.

[$180 retail for all]

ALL for $5 buckaroos!

Subtle changes make a big difference

I can't stress enough how small changes affect the look of a room. With very little investment, these are the few small changes we've made in our kitchen to make it feel more like 'ours'.

BEFORE

AFTER

Command Center - Part Deaux

This wall is opposite where I showed you here:

Command Center - Part One

Just to the right as you enter the Laundry Room

Main goal was to get the backpacks off of my counter top [barely visible next to dryer]

The memo board holds a variety of coupons, playbills, favorite photos and misc. reminders

[newspaper clipping was a favorite July 4th photo of mine that made it to print!]

Love having the backpacks off the counter, but also off the floor!

[keeping with my pink accents, I added a pink hamper to Girlie Brighten up the place!

Here's the small counter that the kids piled their backpacks on before.

My plan is to put a one-stop charging station here for the family.

DTR [aka Down The Road] plans are to flip this counter to the left of the washer/dryer instead of the right side where it is currently. We have a closet door, the garage door AND the washer door all converging on the same spot, so moving the counter top there would also allow us to slide the washer/dryer down a few feet. But like I said - down the road.

For now - this works for us.

Call me subtle...

~~My husband is a contractor/carpenter~~

~~Yes! It's wonderful to have a handy guy around~~

~~and Yes! My stuff is last to get done~~

You know.....

Cobblers kids are the last to have shoes syndrome?

Umkay

so THIS

has been MY sink in the master bath for about Forever 3 weeks.

Can you see it??

S-T-A-N-D-I-N-G W-A-T-E-R

Ackckckcck!

*****

Now ~~ I tried the 'Honey, can you fix my sink?' approach, and got the standard response...

'

Yep, I'll get it done soon

'

Well, I took to using HIS sink and was envying the flowing AND draining water that he obviously took for granted!!

Funny how you crave something when you don't have it, right?

So I decided to leave him a slightly subliminal message where he couldn't miss it!

And YES, I used my manners because I'm nice that way [grins]

Well....... it only took a few days!

He took yesterday off [our anniversary] and did a whole BUNCH of 'Honey Do' list items.

~~ and NO, that wasn't his gift to me [but it sort of is]~~

~~Don't tell him I said that, kay?~~

I came home from work and discovered he had done this!

I'm tickled!!

Now you're all saying 'Man it doesn't take much to excite this girl, does it?'

Nope!

My love language is 'Acts of Service'

When my hubby gets to doing things around the house for me??

I swoon!

Seriously!!

But just so you don't think I'm COMPLETELY abnormal

I do like chocolate, diamonds and Coach purses (not necessarily in that order).

OH!!!

...and

He's taking today off too!

I heard rumblings about him cleaning out part of the garage.

~SWOON~

See? I told ya!

Command Center

My new command center

[based in Laundry-land]

I have plans for this room but they are WAY down a very long road, so for now I chose pink accessories to accent the 'stainless' washer/dryer

[behind this wall is our laundry closet]

This is the laundry closet

[currently the pool closet]

Towels, swimsuits, sunscreen, etc.

[soon to be retired for the fall]

I have plans something along this line:

we'd remove the closet and build cubbies and a bench

{hey a girl can dream, right?}

Giveaway ~~ Giveaway ~~ Giveaway

You can win one of these:

Right HERE

This is REMOTEly cool!

**Bad photo disclaimer: Broke the lens on my good camera so the quality of my point and shoot are -- well -- sorta poopy!

I'm turning on my TV!

[sort of like that vintage commercial of the mom doing something leisurely and stating "I'm cleaning my oven"]

Yes I know I'm pointing it at the microwave!

Hence the 'Remotely cool'

[did you catch my play on words there??]

Don't even have to point it at this when I press the buttons!

There's a cool computer with a touch screen

[the really bad pic is showing me choose 'Watch TV'

And then guess what happens?

The TV turns on!!!

Even if I point it at this!

Like this!

This was my hubby's birthday gift from me. He despised using FOUR different remotes. When he wants to watch a movie, now all he has to do is press 'Watch a DVD' and it changes the HDMI input, turns on the Blu Ray player and automatically switches on the surround sound system!

I think I may have heard angels choirs sing!

School begins in less than a week for the kids

We're trying to squeeze in the last bits of porch time

It's an inviting porch don't you think?

We never did get around to assembling and staining the matching rockers to the swing over there...

Maybe next summer? Until then... we have this...

Giveaway ~~ Giveaway ~~ Giveaway

You can win your very own Stella & Dot necklace right HERE

Craigslist Funnies

I'm always entertained by the Craigslist items for sale!

Come.........take a look at the bargains you can find.

This beauty falls under the category of 'Shabby Chic'

And she can be yours for the low price of $125!

(dust mites included at no extra charge?)

******************

This one......

described as Antique (ya never know what that will bring to the table)

But for the bargain price of $500, you can remove the couch condom and it might be good as new.....uhmm...... or maybe that's 'good as old' since it IS, after all, an antique.

******************

This one was listed as a 'Three Seater Couch'

What on Earth?!? I guess two sit ON the couch and the 3rd person rolls around on the back cushions until they deflate??

************

And this one was simply listed as

'Green Couch'

While it certainly IS green and it looks like it has good bones (gotta love the tufting!), let's look more closely at the description and find out if there might be any special reason for the low price of $30??

**Vintage Green Couch [so far so good]

**Good Condition [I would probably agree.......but wait]

**A few cigarette burns on the lower side of the right arm that are almost unnoticeable [umkay, but still ....cigarettes?? + burns?? -- probably a deal-breaker for me]....then the description goes on to say ..... and one large one (burn) on the right cushion -- we just flipped it over [guess the right side of this couch was where the smoker had his/her time outs?] Sorry, you had me at 'Cigarette'.

Then it says [remember the above noted flaws]

**we bought it 6 years ago and since then it's been in a smoke free, pet free home. [phew that makes ALL the diff in the world!]

and to finish it off

**Cash only, serious offers only [because if you're in the market for a vintage green couch with cigarette burns from a non smoking home, and only have $30 in your budget, they don't want to hassle with you if you're not serious!

SLIPCOVER VIRGIN

I did it for the first time!

I made my very own slipcover!

Before you see the reveal

Here's a reminder of the BEFORE look!

!!!!!!!!!!!!!

(now you all understand why she HAD to be covered)

Here is her skirt

Here is her seat

Doesn't she have lovely arms?

I made a velcro 'escape' hatch on the back.

I had to do it so I could make the cover fitted enough to show off those pretty arms in the previous picture~

And here she is all done!

Next Victim Uhmm I mean project!

Nesting

I've been 'Nesting'

Someone posted a real birds nest on Freecycle

I thought it was kind of an odd thing to offer but I was curious

I had to let it sit outside for about a week to dry out

Then I had to 'evict' some of the creepy crawlies who were dwelling on the underside

Can I hear a collective 'ICK'??

Apparently it was blown out of a tree by our recent storms.

The eggs fell prey to the local wildlife

I nestled some of my 'surrogate' egg soaps inside

Thanks to a little Gorilla Glue

I attached a small clear plate to a candlestick holder

and voila! The perfect nest display!

Giveaway ~~ Giveaway ~~ Giveaway

You can win a pair of THESE

At Frugal Mommy of 2 Girls

Robin's Nestful

Garage Sale Finds

Vintage dish I'm using to hold some jewelry for now

.25 cents

Picture frame

$1.50

Stackable storage boxes for my daughter's closet

$5 for the set

Pottery Barn Kids Book Rack

This along with the cork board were my huge splurge items

I paid $85 for both items

Love this cork board -it's huge!

Board alone measures about 23"x17"

The framing adds another 4" all the way around

Would love to know what this retailed for new.

Is it the Madison line like the book stand??

Technically, I didn't buy this AT a garage sale

I bought it from my neighbor though who had just purchased it in January and replaced it with something else

$25

I'm playing around with wine corks in my apothecary jars

I've got plans for this picture ledge I bought for $1

And finally, this mason jar I picked up for .25 cents

I poured some sand inside and added a votive for a nice lantern for outside