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Thursday, April 29, 2010

Giveaway at tales from an OC Cottage.

 

Want Some Treats--- Go Ahead...Be A Little Shellfish !!!

There is a great giveaway at Tales from an OC Cottage and I want to win!!!!

 

Just checkout all the luscious goodies she is giving away and more!!

If you haven't checked her out before you are in for a treat.  Her blog is like candy without the calories!!  I could just look at her stuff all day long, so much better than laundry who needs clean clothes anyway .

tales from an oc cottage

My Thrifty Corner Hutch

 

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Today, for Show and tell Friday at My Romantic Home and Frugalicious Friday at finding Fabulous, I decided to show off my corner hutch.

Everything in this hutch was gotten very thriftily, including the hutch!

To start with I bought the hutch the week before Thanksgiving last year at an estate sale that I went to with my two oldest daughters.  While my oldest daughter went off to find treasures of her own my 11 year old and I went together.  After going through the main rooms we went into a back room off the kitchen that had brooms, seasonal yard stuff and canning supplies etc.  Well just sitting on the floor tucked into the corner behind some brooms, shovels and a garbage can this cute little shelf sat with her adorable little scalloped edges.  I didn't even notice her (none off the other adults there did either).  My daughter pointed her out and said to me "we have to get that for daddy he loves corner cabinets".  So I hemmed and hawed for a minute and decided for $15. dollars mommy liked corner cabinets too.  Well we paid and dragged it out (boy is it heavy).  As we were people kept saying "wow where did you find that"  and "I never saw that" and my personal favorite "you only paid $15. for that".

However when I got home.....well my husband was not as thrilled as my daughter had previously thought.  I believe his reaction with an eyebrow raised was "what did you get that for and where are you going to put it.  I quickly explained why I bought it.  Even though those strangers at the sale thought that I had gotten a good deal my husband thought that I had paid to much.

The white outside is just as it was when I bought it, I took some acrylic paint (the little tubes) and repainted the inside.  The embellishment on top I found a couple of months latter at the thrift store for $4.99.  It was black and  cast iron I think.  I painted it white and added some Ralph Lauren glaze to it.

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In front sitting on my grandma's old sewing machine cabinet which is below the hutch, is a antique dictionary my husband picked up at an estate sale for $1.00 and one of my grandma's prayer books. Sitting on the books is a clay panda that my 9 year old son made in kindergarten.  He says "he's sniffin".

On the bottom shelf from left to right is a wood rooster that I got at a garage sale for .25 cents,  a toile transferware mug that I got from an other garage sale for .50 cents,  a cup that matches the pattern of the red vine plates it was .50 cents at the thrift store, the plates were also .50 cents each the white one was .25 cents from a rummage sale, the large rooster is a planter and was .25 cents at a yard sale and the rooster salt and pepper shakers were my grandma's, the silverware in the cup and the buttons were all from yard sales and combined were about .50 cents.

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On the middle shelf I have some green buttons in and old jar that I got in a free box, a tiny little mouse that I found in my grandma's sewing box, the vase is just a plain one that I got for free and sewed a vintage runner that I got for .25 cents to, the transferware creamer was .69 cents and you may remember it from this post.  The milk glass in the middle is actually two pieces I just sat on top of each other.  The small one is from the same estate sale as the hutch and was a $1.00 the large one is from the thrift store and was .39 cents, the little flower ball in the top one was in a fill a bag sale it worked out to be about .05 cents.  The milk glass base that my cloche is on was $2 .99 at the thrift store, the cloche was a Christmas present from my oldest daughter and the little girl dancer inside was my grandma's.  I found the thread that I turned on it's side.

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The large platter in the back was .50 cents at the thrift store.

 

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The top shelf has three milk glass urns that were all bought at the thrift store for between .59 and .99 cents, the ironstone cups are also from the thrift store they were .59 cents each the matching saucer was .29 cents.  The little terra cotta pot was a gift from my children's school for helping out with their annual art show.  The vase in the back was .50 cents from a yard sale.  There is a small book in the back that one of the urns is on it was .25 cents and the silverware I spray painted blue, I bought in a lot at a yard sale for a $1.00.  The buttons are in an old horseradish jar that I added a decal to.

So here is the breakdown:

Hutch with embellishment-$19.99

Bottom row- $3.75

middle row-$5.87

top shelf-$$6.68

Total-$36.29 I think that is pretty thrifty!!

What do you think?

Linking up to:

Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Buffet Re-Do with Hand Painted Knobs!

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This is how my buffet started out.  When we bought it two summers ago, it was in rough shape but the price was so right.......$30.00.  We were told it was from the 1890's.  The previous owners bought it at an antique shop.

We have the doors for it but they were warped too badly to reattach without more effort than we wanted to put into it.  I wanted to be able to use this right away for my kids game storage.  So my husband (the brawn of the operation) naile dit back together fand made it structurally sound and we moved it right in.

Then it sat there for two years looking ugly, while I waited to get off my lazy bum for inspiration to strike.

Well about two month ago I decided to make curtains for it to at least cover up the hole and so you couldn't see the games anymore.  Well it would have been 6 more months if I had decided to sew them, so I got out my glue gun and went to town with a huge piece of material that I picked up at the thrift store (I got over 10 yards of fabric and it's nice home decor stuff for $7.99).

 

It then looked like this.

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Well ever since we bought it I HATED those knobs!!!!!  They are so plain and bright and that silver screw just SCREAMS at you.  The minute it came into the house I told my husband that those knobs had to go!!  However I was unsure what I wanted to replace them with.

Her Majesty's Stamp Knob, Crown

I really like these from Anthropologie.

But for $12.00 per knob and I need 10...ummm no.

walled garden knob

These are nice too.only $8.00 per knob.  But I don't love them. For $80.00 I HAVE to love them.

Festival Flower Knob, ClematisThese are $6.00, but still not in love.

All knobs were from Anthropologie.

 

So I decided rather than spend that much money to replace something that didn't really need to be replaced, I would find a way to make me hate them less make them work.  So I decided to paint them.  Well this was my first attempt.  It is  supposed to be a fleur de lis .  It came out horibly wrong and I am saving this pic. for Susan at Between Naps on  the Porch's bloopers party.

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So I scraped that idea and decided to try something freehand that was a little more abstract and free that could hide my miserable painting abilities.

This is what I came up with!

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Whenever acrylic paint goes on clearance I pick it up.  I chose four colors that were in the curtain material from my paint stash.  The outer green is called Grass Green and was .25 cents.  The gold is Inca Gold Metallic and was .25 cents.  The mauve color is a mixture of Rose Pink .50 cents and Burgundy Rose .10 cents.  To paint the horrible, ugly, sore thumb of a screw, I mixed the green with the gold.  This whole project used very very little paint.

Here are some more pictures.  I just love it now!!!

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Please ignore the SHARPIE that nobody who lives at our house did and mysteriously ended up there!!!

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After finishing the knobs the curtain needed something more.   So I went through my stash and found some lightweight velvet from the thrift store for $1.99 and some trim that was .50 cents for three yards and got out......my glue gun of  course and added some to the bottom of the curtain.

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Please ignore the pile of crap kids stuff on the bookcase.

Well now I need your help, I am undecided what to do next with this piece.  Should I leave it as is or paint it and if i paint it what color should I do?  The rest of the furniture is wood and my curtains are a sage green just like the leaves on this curtain.  The walls are white.

 

I'm linking up to:

Transformation Thursday at the Shabby Chic Cottage

Vintage Thingies Thursday at the Colorado Lady

Thrifty Thursday at Tales from Bloggeritaville

 

Monday, April 26, 2010

Still No Money, So More Lampshades!

 

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In keeping with my, no money, use what you have to spruce up the house.  I decided to tackle these two lampshades. 

I picked up these lamps back in November at an estate sale for $3.00 for the pair.  I really love milk glass and wanted to get some lamps for the buffet to brighten up the dining room . 

While I hated the shades on these since I bought them, the price was right and they match so I kept them. 

So I have been on the lookout for inspiration to figure out how to cover these up on the cheap!

Well I found the inspiration I needed over at Miss Mustard Seed's in this post.

While I liked Miss Mustard Seed's lamp, I also saw a candle somewhere out in real life that was similar that I also liked so I changed mine up a little.

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Here is a close up of my original shade.  It is is structurally sound, but yellowed and not in a vintage way in an old yucky way.

So my first job was to take off the band.  I did that with  the steam of my iron just like Sherry from Creations from My Heart says to do in this post. 

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It then looked like this.  You can see better just how yellowed this was.

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I then grabbed my vintage sheet music.  I got this last summer at an estate sale, I bought 5 books just like this for .50 cents for all five.  This is the only one that I have used so far and I still have tons of pages left!

I cut the pages in various sizes and distressed the edges with my distress ink.014

 

On some of the pieces I added some stamps.  This one and a vintage style skeleton key.

I also added some vintage lace and some vintage doilies. 

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My 5 year old son helped with this one while I wasn't looking, and I used it.

After using my handy dandy decoupage finish that I bought literally 5 years ago or more(this project finally finished it off), I added my trim that  I talked about here. 

So are you ready here they are!!!!!!

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I am linking up to:

 Trash to Treasure Tuesday at Reinvented

Nifty Thrifty Tuesdays No.9 at costal charm

 http://linda-coastalcharm.blogspot.com/

Toot Your Horn Tuesday At a Silly Little Sparrow

NewNostalgia

Anti-Procrastination Tuesdays at New Nostalgia

NewNostalgia

Gettin Crafty on Hump Day @Nikki's Nifty Knacks

Sunday, April 25, 2010

A "New" Lamp Shade or What You Do When You Have No Money!

 

024I was unable to go out to any yard sales this weekend due to the fact that I have noooooo money.  We just found out that we have to get the antifreeze line replaced in our truck and it can only be done at the dealership:(  Our car insurance is due and we had spring break last week so I lost a weeks pay.  But no matter, there is always next week!

 

So this week I got to work doing some projects  that used stuff that I already had around the house. 

So you may remember this lamp from this post.

Loved the lamp but the shade needed a lil sumthin'-sumthin'. 

So while looking at the other projects that were on the link parties that I participated in yesterday.  I found a wonderful blog Creations from My Heart.  I loved her project that she had linked up and decided to browse through her older posts.  Well she is soooo creative, I just love her posts. 

Anyway back to the lamp shade.  I new I wanted to do something it looked so bor-ing , but I wasn't sure what till.......I found this wonderful tutorial.

I knew when I saw this that it would be the perfect use for the Toile fabric that you may remember from here.

So I rummaged through my supplies and found some wonderful trim that I bought at Jo-Ann's back in October for .25 and .50 cents a yard!!!!

Well I won't bore you with all the details because Sherry's tutorial says it all!!!!

So with out further ado her she (yes my lamp is a girl) is!!! 

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I so Love it!!!!

Well I can't wait to torture myself seeing all the treasures that everyone else scored this weekend!

So tell me are you putting all your treasures to use?

I am linking up to:

Permanent link to Thrifty Treasures with Rhonda over at Southern Hospitality

Show Off Your Cottage Monday at The house in the roses

Metamorphosis Monday!  at Between Naps on the Porch

http://thediyshowoff.blogspot.com/The DIY Show Off The DIY Show Off The DIY Show Off