How our dining room bar came to be.

You may remember this picture of the bar in our dining room sitting where our microwave sat till I was able to move it to our kitchen.  Well in this post I thought that I could show a little more of the area and tell how this area came to be.

Neither me or my husband really drink all that much, but I love the way that a vintage bar looks.  So when we finally had a place to put one I decided to go for it.  This is how it looked when I first arranged it but I am currently tweaking it for the holidays.  I would show you pictures that are more current but the computer is sick :(

Anywho.,  this is still the basic set up.  We started with a cabinet that I picked up at an auction I attended the summer of 09 with my then 6 year old son.  We had a blast just the two of us.  We came home with a minivan FULL of furniture for about $200.00.  This particular cabinet was $60.00.  Here it is modeled by three year old Miss T.

   

Here is one that shows a little bit more of the cabinet:)

This is sold wood and I didn't do anything to it  except I had remove some cubbies that were on the back so the microwave would fit.  You can see the outlines on the back.  This piece is great, it has so much storage.  We keep out placemats that we use everyday in the drawer and misc. stuff  in the bottom.  Believe me when I say misc. that's what I mean.  There is our hot air popper in there the last of my microwave dishes that i have yet to move(yea that says July on the picture) there is some of my fabric stash, candles and much more.  I just love to store my junk behind closed doors!

Then I wanted some thing with some height so I grabbed one of the leaded windows that we had gotten at another auction earlier this past summer.  We won a lot of four windows for $80.   I just love these.  I have a plan of what I want to do with one more of these and will probably sell the other two on Craigslist.

I also added a lace runner from my stash.  I never pay more than .50 cents for one of these.

Next came one of my shutters this was .50 cents the picture was .25 cents and hat a very gold frame.  I used crackle medium on it then painted white acrylic paint over that and  made a vintage button wreath to go around it.

This mirror I swiped from my dresser.  I have owned it for at least 8 years and bought it originally for $2.00.

Here is a close up of the detail!

Oh and the mess on the dining room table.  And yes my arm!

Here she is all done and and a close up of the decanters.  The two in the middle were my grandparents and the two on the sides were from the thrift store one was $1.99 (the one on the left) and the other was $2.99. The large silver  tray was .50 cents at a yard sale and so were the two small ones.  The glass and the swizzle sticks as well  shot glasses were my grandparents.  The martini mixer was $1.00 at an estate sale this past summer and the vintage shaker was $1.00 from the thrift store.  The silver ice bucket was also from the thrift store.  It was bought two years ago in the winter it was $5.00 and I waited till it went on sale 1/2 off .  So I got it for $2.50. It sits on a cast iron stand that I got at the very end of an estate sale for $2.00. The vintage tags were $2.00 from a rummage sale.  The wine glasses were a wedding present.  The liquid is box wine that is so old I am actually afraid to even try to drink it.

I am looking forward to using this for Thanksgiving.  My mom and dad are coming down to spend the holiday with us and are staying overnight.  This will be the first time we have hosted Thanksgiving.  I am really excited and have already started planning!  Have you begun to make your plans too!  Will you be hosting?

 

Linking up to:

Show Off Your Cottage Monday at The House in the Roses

I can't believe I won. Pinch me!

I am still in shock!  I won my very first blog giveaway ever!  Not only that but it was from one of my very favorite bloggers the fabulous Leslie of Goodbye House Hello Home.

 

Leslie is wonderful and her blog really reflects this.    As evidence her post What Ingredients are You Using- or Antique Mantel Makeover, Jamaican Honeymoon-Style or the one that sold me White Matelasse Slip-covered Wingback Chairs.  Just check these babies out.  She is so oober  talented.

Ohh and check out what she did with and extra kitchen that was in her basement(an in-law apartment).

 

Drool!!!!

 

Leslie is not all fluff either.  Every Sunday she features a photograph taken by one of her daughters and a bible verse.  She also wrote a very beautiful two part post on depression.  It was so personal and touching that I have printed it off so that I can refer to it again.

She is also really generous .  She has two wonderful posts on how to sell on Ebay which you can view here and here.   You also  know this if you have ever entered one of her giveaways.  For the Fall one that I just won I am going to receive:

ALL THIS!!

A beautiful coir mat.  We won't be able to help but think of Leslie every time we see this!  Miss A who is 12 can't wait till this comes and we can get rid of the old one(he he).  She so takes after her mother!

 

This fabulous three wick candle in one of my favorite scents, vanilla.  The candle is sitting in a round wire Better Homes and Gardens basket(I have seriously wanted one of these forever) and is surounded  by leaf garland.  I can never get enough leaves in at fall.  This is going to stay as is for now and will be my centerpiece on my kitchen table.  Can't wait.  I have been trying to figure out what to put there!

Next up is a leaf plate.  I can't wait to play with this  and figure out where to put it.  I have several ideas though.  Leaves are my absolute favorite and I have nothing like this.

 

Ohhh and check this out!  A faux fur and suede throw!  It gets really cold here in New York.  I can already see myself curling up in it watching Glee.  Painting my nails with that yummy nail polish.

Peeking out of the throw, a beautiful vintage postcard.  I just love these I have a bunch of Christmas ones but none for Thanksgiving. 

 

 

Yea more leaves!!!

 

Last but not least Leslie's favorite magazine.  I am sure this will be one of my favorites as well. 

 

I am especially looking forward to this article!

 

Well if all this were not enough Leslie also said the sweetest things about me!  Leslie is definitely one of the bloggers that I would love to get to know in person.  So Leslie if you are ever in New York drop me a note so we can get together.  To the rest of you if you have not been to Leslie's blog.........  GO NOW!!! You won't be disappointed.

Thanks again Leslie and thank you to everyone that left congrats over at Goodbye House Hello Home.

Thrifty Easy Halloween Costumes

I am pretty cheap in a lot of areas.  I love to get a good deal.  Don't get me wrong I do spend money.  I like designer clothes (although I buy them second hand)  I drive a large SUV.  My children go to a private school and are involved in sports and various lessons.   All of these things are important to me.  However one thing that I can never bring myself to spend any money on is Halloween costumes.

I am not anti-Halloween.  I just can't see spending $20- to $50 dollars or more for a costume that will be worn in the dark for a couple of hours.  Just in case you think I am full of it with the prices here are a few examples.

Source:

Target wasn't any cheaper. 

This is also very expensive with six kids to dress up.  Even with saving and handing down costumes, which we do do some.  It would cost us about $100 for just the costumes.  No thank you.

So we do alternative things to embrace a thrifty holiday.  One of our strategies I already listed.  We reuse costumes from one year to the next.  Of course kids grow and nobody wants to be the same thing year after year.  Enter strategy number two.  We plan ahead and I shop garage sales and rummage sales in the summer.  This is how we started our stash of costumes and also how I came up with baby D's costume for this year.  More on that later.  Strategy number three we look around the house for things we already have that might be used in different ways to add to our costume.  One of the costumes I proposed to Miss A this year was Miss America.  Her sister had her senior prom this year and we have a prom dress laying around.  She rejected this but it was an idea.  Enter strategy four.  We brainstorm!  I refuse to spend very much money and my children sometimes propose costumes that are either above my skill level or to expensive to implement.  This lead to this years costumes.  More on that later.

And finally strategy number five.  We buy some stuff  to use in our costumes that is either very inexpensive(think the dollar store) or can be used again throughout the year(sweat suits etc.).

Now some examples of how this works.  Here are my kids all decked out  from last year.

 

Now last year we had a 2 month old baby that I had had quite a few problems delivering and was not getting much sleep.  My husband was also out of work and we had NO money.  So we used only some of the strategies.

 

We will start with Miss A.

 

For this costume we used strategies number 4, brainstorm and number 3 shop the house.  As you can probably tell the halo and wings are aluminum foil.  The dress we already owned as well.  It is an American Girl nightgown that I had previously bought at a yard sale. 

 

Enter Mr. J.  This costume we have had for years.  It was given to me and I saved it.  This was strategy number 2.

This is Mr. A wearing the same costume from the previous year.  With me kicking and screaming my objection the hubs took pity on the boy and bought this brand new on clearance for $5.00.  This is strategy #1.

Then There is the blondie boy.  I have no idea why he is crying.  This is a strategies #2, #1.  We originally bought this at a yard sale and we had used it for Mr. A previously.

Then there is Miss T.  We bought this costume at our school rummage sale for $1.00.  This implemented strategy #2.

 

Last but not least there is baby D.  This bee costume was bought over the summer at a yard sale also implementing strategy #2.

So lets review.

1. Reuse from year to year.

2. Plan ahead and shop yard sales, rummage sales and store other peoples hand me downs.

3. Shop the house for things that might be used in different ways.

4.Brainstorm.

5. Buy inexpensively and buy stuff that can be used after the holiday.

Stay tuned to see how we will use these strategies for this year.

So how do you go about outfitting your kids for Halloween?

Linking up to:

Nifty Thrifty Tuesdays at Coastal Charm

A Vintage Bar, why didn't I think of this sooner.

Well I said that I would post at least three times a week and by golly a computer with a virus and a camera that is going wacky and not being able to import pictures is not going to stop me. 

So I figured that I would do a post that I have had in draft for a couple of months.

Well my kitchen is very small and has very limited counter space.  So we never had any place in the kitchen for the microwave.

So last summer my oldest daughter was throwing away her old desk.    As it sat in front of the house in the sun on it's way to the dump I looked at it and noticed it's curvy legs and just as my husband went to pick it up I said "wait".  I think we can transform this into an extra cabinet in the kitchen.

I have no before pictures because this was before I started blogging.   But here is what she looked like after I moved her into the kitchen months later finally getting the microwave out of the dining room.  This makes using the microwave much more convenient as well.

 

We cut off the writing area and took the top completely off.  The butcher block is actually a piece of a bowling alley that was switching from wood to synthetic lanes and was throwing away the wood.  (This was in the 80's days of excess.)  I also added a 25 cent rod that I bought at a yard sale and some curtain ring clips also from a yard sale(50 cents)  The curtain is a dish towel and I change it with my mood.  The original desk was white.  We spray  painted it red and added yellow for the detail.  I am not fond of the handle but my husband picked it out.

 

In the place of the microwave in the dining room I decided to add a vintage style bar.  This is how it looked when I finished.

Everything here was thrifted.  Stay tuned and I'll write a more in depth about that in another post.  So I guess this is a sneak peak.

 

Linking up to:

Show and Tell Friday at My Romantic Home

A Thrifty Fall

 

Just a little post to show you a project that I have been working on.  I figured a short small post would be a lot better than no post.

Here is a  arrangement that I put together for the season.  I made the paper flowers with scrapbook paper that I got on clearance, and vintage buttons that I bought at various garage and estate sales.    You can find a great tutorial on how to do it here.  I can usually find the buttons for $1.00 for a big jar.  The flowers and berries are from my stash and where originally purchased at yard sales for .05 cents to .25 cents.    The pitcher was $2.00 at an estate sale and you can read more about it here.  So here she is in all her glory in her home for the holidays.

These wood boxes which I love sit on top of a small cupboard.  I needed height in that area and this served the purpose perfectly.  I paid $2.00 for the large one and $1.00 for the small one and the one that is next to it.

Sorry for the blury picture my camera is on it's last leg.

More on this area latter.  I really like how it has turned out.  So stay tuned!!

 

Linking up to:

Nifty Thrifty Tuesdays No.32 @ Coastal Charm

An Absentee Blogger and the Versatile Blogger Award

I really can't believe that it has been 2 months since my last post and I am vowing to be better.  No excuses but pretty much my life has looked like my desk for the last 2 months.  As embarrassing as it is to show this here it is.

For all of August it seamed like I kept getting further and further behind.  So when the kids went back to school in September I really needed to play catch up.

However now it is October and the kids have settled into school and I ready to commit to blogging at least 3 days a week more if I can.

 

Well in other news while I was on hiatus I received

 

I received my first blogging award from Betty @My Mink Betty.  So was so thrilled to receive this .  Thanks so much Betty!

 

Well there are a few rules that come with the award:  You have to thank and link back to the person who gave you the award.   Check.  Then you have to share seven things about yourself.  So here goes seven things about me:

1.  Before getting married I worked full time as a nurses aide.

2. I work now part-time in my children's school in the afterschool program.

3. I HATE laundry.

4. I have won several awards/ribbons for my pies .

5. My husband and I had our first date at our State Fair.

6.  We were married on September 11th, years before the attacks.  We were remarried on May 25th.

7.  My husband and I have only bought  two brand new pieces of furniture since we have been married other than mattresses.  One when we were first married, a particle board entertainment center on clearance for $100.  I hated this piece and it is long gone having been replaced with a beautiful all wood entertainment armoire from Craigslist for $100.  The second our dining room table.  This is also the most expensive thing (other than our mattress and box spring) that we own it was $1000 for just the table and no chairs at a furniture gallery that was going out of business.  We still have and love and use it everyday but the kids have really abused it and 2 months after we bought it we found one at Bouckville, an antique with chairs for $800.  We both looked at each other, you know the look.   Uggggh!  So we have decided we will only  buy second hand from now on.

 

O.K that is seven things about me.  Now onto rule three.  Pass on the award to 15 blogs.  So here are 15 of the many many that I enjoy.

 

1. Leslie@ Goodbye House, Hello Home

2. Krista@ The Gathering Place Design

3. Carmie@The Single Nester

4. Cori@ STARVIEW SONNET

5. Regina@ Regina's Rose Cottage

6. Missy@ The Little Green Bean

7. Maryann@ Domestically Speaking

8. Marjorie@ Crazy Cat Decor

9. LV@Thoughts from Meme-'s corner

10.Stephanie Lynn @ Under The Table and Dreaming

11. Tanya@ Make the best of what-'s around

12. Allison@ A Glimpse Inside

13. Mikey@ Shabby French Cottage

14. Nicole@ Made by Nicole

15. Doni@ Faith, Grace, and Crafts

These are all such wonderful blogs you will want to be sure to check them all out.

A special thank you to LV who introduced me on Pink Saturday before my hiatus.

 

I miss you all and all your wonderful comments!