Black Friday Success

 

The past few months have flown by in a blur.  While it has mostly been good, however I have felt like I really have slipped in the organization department.   So on Thanksgiving, since it is just the hubby, the kids and I, I started the day catching up a little.  While the food cooked and the kids watched the parade I cleaned out my dining room of the treasures I had brought home during the thrifting season that had yet to find a home.  While it is not perfect, it is definitely a better start.   

 

With this done we were able to sit down to  a RELAXNG meal, and I was mentally ready for the Christmas season to begin!  While we cleaned up I put on the Christmas music and planned my Black Friday.

 

My husband volunteered to go into work on Friday (he starts work at 6am) and I saw a few things in the AC Moore sale flyer that I knew would be great gifts for my girls.  One of my girls has wanted something that was in the special deal that started at 5am.  So we woke up at 3:50am and left here at 5:15, him in his car and me in my truck.  The mall was a lot less crowded than I thought it would be and the people were really nice and friendly ( both the shoppers and the store employees).  I found everything that I wanted and was back home by 8am.  We live 25 minutes from the mall so I was really happy with this.  I got in and checked to see what kids where up and where they were at and brought in the stuff for the sleepy heads.  Since I was pretty tired and being lazy going to be super organized this season, I decided to wrap the gifts rather than just hide them.  This also would mean if they were out in the open I didn’t need to worry who was looking at what.

 

Over the summer I went to a yard sale and picked this up for $5.00.

 

It was filled with this.

There is also ribbon, bows and tags in there!

So over the course of the day I brought things in and wrapped.

I now have all the presents that we currently home wrapped!  Now just to keep up with it!

So did you go out yesterday?  How were the crowds in your area?

 

Michelle

Some Fall Decorating

 

Since starting school I have been so super busy.  Tami had asked what I was going to school for.  I am going to school for cosmetology.  I love it!  We started last week and I have already learned so much.  I feel so alive.

However with that my part part time job, homeschooling number two and just keeping the house running, I have not done much of anything else!  I love the fall, the temps have been beautiful around here and the colors are amazing.  So I finally managed to get a little of that into our décor.  This is in our entryway.  The shutters act as a room divider so you don’t walk straight into the living room.  I LOOOVE them.  I bought them at a local antique store last year for $5.00 each and my husband added hinges to them.

I wish I had taken a before picture, but I thought that I had one…..nope.  Everything we already had.  The wreath I made has been up there since last year, I just keep moving her around and adding different “accessories”.

The Easter one came out especially well but, UGH, there is no picture!

The plates are vintage ones that I embellished using vinyl and my Cricut.  

The apothecary jar has some potpourri and a Chinese lantern that I saved from a bunch that I had found years ago.

The boa is from a garage sale from years ago.

This is how the compote looked before it was redressed for fall.  The books are my husbands, he found them last year at an antique shop.  This compote is one of my favorites, I use it a lot to hold various things for decorating.  It originally came from the thrift store and was less than $2.00. 

Well now that fall is almost over, I have been planning what I am going to do for Christmas.  I am hoping to get an early start, so we can enjoy it longer.  Have you switched gears and started thinking of Christmas decorating?

 

Michelle

Finding Me

My personal style has change a lot over the past several months.  For the better and it has really done an overhaul on how I am thinking and feeling.  I should start by giving you a little back story though.  Over the course of the last 12 years I have had 6 children.  Now I love and cherish each of them and really love having a big family.  However because time was at  a premium and I stopped working and I am sure many other things, I stopped doing things for my appearance.  I stopped doing my hair, I would wash it, comb it and cut it but that was it.  I wore loose clothes with socks and sneakers.  Even jeans were saved when I went out in public.  I gained weight.  I stopped wearing makeup.  This all was gradual and I was not sad or depressed, just lazy.  I wasn’t working outside of the house, I had a husband, my life was fine.   I not really sure what happened to me to change this.  But this past spring I was in a funk.  I was unhappy and miserable.  So I made an appointment with my hair dresser, in secret, went in with a picture of pink and told her I wanted it cut like that.  I also said I wanted a two step color.  I thought when I told her that I wanted red with blonde highlights and showed her the red swatch she was going to fall over.  I promptly went home and put on makeup.

 

 

This did a world of good for my self esteem.

My dad then had a stroke a couple of weeks later.  I was traveling up to see him and help my mom.  My parents are very into appearances so I made sure to have my hair done, makeup on and dressed just right.  I didn’t want to make them feel worse, did I.  This also got me into the habit of getting it done.

This also had a ripple affect.  I went through my closet and pitched everything that didn’t make me feel good.  All the dowdy and matronly  clothes, even if they fit.  That gave me a good reason to head to the thrift and pick up a couple of “new” pieces.

 

It has been several months and I feel wonderful!  As simple as it sounds this cut and color have changed my whole outlook and given me new confidence.  I have since bought some new make-up and started wearing it differently.  I have also decided to go back to school and Monday I will be starting classes.  I can’t wait!

 

Do you ever do anything just for you?

 

Michelle

Church Rummage Sales in September

I certainly didn’t want to miss the last Thrifty Treasures over at Southern Hospitality, even if I am late to the party.  Yard sale season is starting to wane around here, but thanks to a bout of Indian summer, there were still plenty to keep me busy this weekend.  So many in fact that I am going to just share a few of my favorites now (or you may get really bored).  Friday I went to a church rummage sale that was fantastic!  I got there about a hour after it started but there were still so many things to choose and the prices were amazing.

I picked up a boat load of purses, they were .25 cents each.

 

This is leather.

This is Gap.

Little change purses for .10 cents.

Belts, hats, clothes also .25 cents.

Boys tap shoes.

A bag of hangers for .10 cents…..for the whole bag!

There were 10 wooden hangers a funky vintage metal and velour one and 2 plastic ones.

These were .50 cents each.

These were .25 cents each.

And this was .10 cents.

Then on Saturday I went to another church sale.  This sale was not as good, there was not very much stuff and it was priced kinda high.  All clothes and shoes were $2.00 each no matter what it was.  Faded Glory t-shirt $2.  men’s snow pants $2.  So I bought my hubby the snow pants which I forgot to take a picture of, left the t-shirt and then found this in the bottom of a pile.

 

It is a genuine Chanel purse!!!!!  For $2.00!!!!!  I would normally think it was a fake except the leather on the inside is so soft and lush.

It needs a cleaning, but I did my happy dance out of there!

So are you ready for yard sale season to be over or are you still out on the hunt?

Linking up to:

Thrifty Treasures

Vintage Fun at the Thrift Store

Things have been super busy at our house since school has started……….mostly for me!  Trying to get everyone where they need to be and getting everything done is always such a challenge.  A good one but a challenge never the less.  So Friday after dinner I decided to take a little break and hit up the two thrift stores in our town on my way to Wal-Mart for some necessities.
My first stop was to the Salvation Army.  I arrived 15 minutes before they closed.  Well I found some great stuff in less than 15 minutes!

This great vintage purse was just $2.99.  I love it so much!

It has such subtle detail and looks even better in person.


This great vintage London Fog raincoat was 1/2 price….just $3.50!  I have wanted on of these for so long!  This one fits like it was made for me!


I also picked up this vintage  plaid coat.  It was also 1/2 price it was $3.00.  It is starting to get cooler here and I thought it would be just perfect for fall.  I already wore it on Saturday!
Then it was off to the Thrifty Shopper, I had an hour till closing here.
I got a few scarves to add to my collection.  They were $1.00 each.





This one was brand new!

I have a problem ,addiction collection of vintage scarves.

When I am not wearing them around my neck or on my head I like to tie them to my purse.
I think I my need to find an additional drawer to store them in.  This is BEFORE I added my new ones!

These shoes aren’t vintage and at $5.00 were more than I like to pay, but they are oh so cute!

This cute belt was $1.00, I wore it with my new coat and red purse on Saturday.

This one was also $1.00.

These necklaces were $1.99 each except for the silver one and one other but I am not sure which one.  Those were .99cents each.
The blue one is 5 feet long and the black one is made in Austria.

The silver one is actually a belt, but it is to small for me so now it is a necklace!


This is the only thing I picked up for the house.  At $1.99 I could not resist it!  What is not to love?  Red and white POLKA DOTS!
Well when I was checking out I found out they were having a sale the very next day for 40% off the entire store!
So the next day I headed over with Miss A.
She picked up 3 pairs of jeans for $4.19 each and a t-shit she loves.  It has Elmo on it and NYC.
I picked up this neat bracelet.


I am really loving plaid right now.  Over the summer I found this great vintage bag that I never blogged about.


It was $1.00!!!!
Well back to Saturday.  I got this great bag!


Ralph Lauren tweed for $2.99.  It is apparently vintage from the 80’s.  I found a similar one on Etsy for $85.00!
Well how have you done this past weekend?  Are yard sales in your area starting to fade?

Linking up to:
Southern Hospitality Thrifty Treasures

Apron Thrift Girl Thrifty Monday