Addicted to Garage Sales...

Isn't it nice to be missed? Thank you for the sweet comments welcoming me back yesterday! Is it possible to miss your blogging friends even though you've never even met them? Yes. It is.  

It was a fabulous Saturday of GARAGE SALE-ING. A very nice area near our home here in Orange County had their community sale this weekend. We got an early start and although it was throughout their whole town, we never made it out of one particular wealthy neighborhood - It was like shopping at TJMaxx Home Goods. I went with the idea that I was only going to purchase things that had an immediate purpose and location once I brought it home - No more storing things in my horrendous garage. With that in mind, I focused on the exterior of the home. Hawaii has me rearing to go for summer!

Although I can't seem to keep a plant or flower alive for the life of me, I found this plant stand for $7

If this turquoise color ever becomes repulsively out of style - I am doomed!

And if anyone has some suggestions for plants/flowers for someone with a black thumb rather than green, pass on some advice please!

"No, I'm not getting a bird" was my response to my husband when he questioned this purchase

- Husbands just don't see the creativity in pieces all the time, right?

It is a real bird cage and I plan to doctor it up with a fake bird at some point but for the time being, I had to change the color and find a place in the front entry way.

Green - Gone.Yes to Colonial Red.

(this black chest is actually an old toolbox that I bought at a garage sale almost ten years ago.)

At an earlier sale in March, this little guy came home with me for my girls - The guy bought it at ZGallery and gave it to me for $2

as did this "thing" which I love. I don't know if I should use it as a planter or what?

any ideas? front porch, back patio?

Useful treasures. Well, at least pretty ones as I see it.

My husband might debate me on that one!

Happy Day Everyone!

Soon to be treasures...

With the passing of my grandma comes the clearing out of my grandparents' house. This process brings my mom to tears - literally, every time we enter the house - not for the sadness of it she claims but the feeling of being so overwhelmed with all the stuff and what to do with it. I am trying to be of some help while I am here but I will admit, I am sorting through things right now finding what keepsakes I would like to keep and ship back to California. I happen to be the sentimental one of the four of us females (my mom, aunt and sister). Right now I can't get past the basement where a lot of the older keepsakes have been sitting. My grandpa's work bench kept my attention for at least 2 hours yesterday afternoon. What I'd really like to take back is this...

I know, I know, most of youy probably just see junk. I see a handmade workbench/table that my Grandpa made and transferred from one house to another. I see a redone craft table and blue spray paint or maybe white with some glaze to age it a bit - or maybe keeping it the light bluish green color that it is with the paint splatters and all.

However, sadly, with a big frown, I might as well stop "seeing" anything because I live too far away and can't have it. Any Illinois friends want to come and take this apart and make wonders out of it...

or how about this...

Story is when my Grandpa opened his flooring business back in the 40's, this was in the building and he brought it home for the basement. Again, craft storage, paint, keep the glass knobs...remove the doors for open storage....

hmmmmmmmmmmm...wishful thinking.

Any Illinois takers?

I just love it!

Am I the only one who sees potential in these pieces?

My mom just looks at me like I have reached insanity.

I see functional. potential. sentimental keepsake.

surely these have some craftin' value for some unknown project in my future...

 and these flowers were in a paper bag with only 4 in the bag - I convinced myself that Grandpa just left those there waiting for me to find them.

there's a coat hanger shelf thingamagig in the making with all of these hooks...

my favorite simple little find of the day...how cute is this?

and oh how I wonder the story behind this.

and this tall treasure is coming home with me somehow -- weather I ship it or saw it down to fit in my suitcase, I can see some type of picture holder with ribbon or wire in this piece...

So there's my rescued trash waiting to be treasured!

(Annie, I think you need these workbenches out at your house!)

Happy Day Everyone!

our little get-away

this is a little area, our little "get-away,"  that we have in our back patio that we make great use of when the weather treats us well - which here in California, is almost daily. the chairs and loveseat i purchased a few years ago at the end of the summer when Target likes to mark down their summer stuff at a desirable price. the canopy we added just last fall after my husband won/earned it in a work-incentive goal type program at state farm (good thing i don't have to go into further detail about that program because as you can tell, i am not really sure what i am talking about!) it was just the touch we needed to make it more comfortable out there and to shield us from the daytime sun that can be rather blinding. and the final touch - the pair of tables i scored at a garage sale that i held with my friend. her husband had them in his bachelor pad and had purchased them from Room & Board, a furniture store where, let's just say, you aren't really going to find those Target prices that i just mentioned a few sentences back. she graciously parted with the pair for $50. i added some of that -- um, shiny stuff that allows it to be weather-resistant and hold up to the moisture -if i didn't have a sick baby in my hands while typing this, i'd go into the garage and read the correct name of that shiny weather stuff, but the baby takes priority - those of you who are queens of rehabbing furniture, you know what i am talking about, right? Fifty bucks and a small can of shiny stuff for another $5 - a great deal and a fabulous find!

and i think izzy found her own purpose for the table...

linking up to fun furniture blog parties...

Finding Fabulous & Mustard Seed Creations

  

T G I F friends -

and those attending Blog Sugar, sure can't wait to meet you all!

Matter the Most Monday...

With weather temperatures that, according to the news, were the warmest in the nation, I have to say it was an incredibly beautiful weekend here! Beautiful and complete with garage sales! I ventured out by myself early Saturday morning and found a few keepers - an old desk for $15 that I plan to redo for the twins. Because of the influence of older grade school age neighbors, they have been asking for a "homework desk" as they call it. A perfect-condition North Face vest for 50 cents (!), 2 Shel Silverstein books for free, and some baskets for the never-ending storage and organizing that occurs with three children!

I scored this coffee table for a buck! i thought she misunderstood me and was giving me a price for some small item that was on top of the table - nope, just one dollar for this table. I will at some point redo it and paint it white with some blue in there somewhere..until then, it makes a nice plant bench in the front of our house.



I found this mirror for $2. With a little black spray paint, and a piece of chalk, I changed it into a chalkboard for the front door. I am hoping that the girls will leave little messages for their dad for when he leaves/comes home from work, and he in return will leave them little messages to find in the morning. (I have some work to do in terms of learning how to prep something for spray paint-- look at the gob of magazine pages taped all over --I just dread that part of the process)

...and the final look...

sharing my project with

the most awesome-est FREE find...

i am getting a kick out of myself a bit on these friday posts -- i remember when FRIDAYS  used to be TGIF days and i couldn't wait to share a happy hour with college friends, and then later, with co-workers, and then a few years down the road, with some mom-friends after a playdate and um, now my Fridays are woooohooooo, it's thrifty day and it's time to share the thrifty wealth with all the other thrifty bloggers -- and i think i am genuinely just as excited to do that as i was to have that first cocktail "way back when.." am i getting old? or is this just normal? maybe i'll have a beer while i type this post just to make myself feel a tad younger....

anyway.......TGIF 'cause i'm linking up to Finding Fabulous and Miss Mustard Seed once again...

i was driving out of our neighborhood a few months back and this armoire was sitting curbside at a neighbor's house. it was garbage day as well so i figured it was headed for the garbage rather than for a charity pick-up. now i love my curbside finds, but modestly, yes i admit, i like them when they occur in someone's else's neighborhood rather than my own - call me vain, but i just always fear that the next time that person sees me, they'll think "oooh, she's the one that took that dirty old piece of furniture from me." i get over it really quick, don't worry -i'm not judgmental, just always afraid of being judged i guess - a weakness, i know. and if she, the neighbor could see it now in my daughter's nursery, i think she might be quite proud of how it looks and may even ask for it back!

so after pretty much taking apart the seats in my seqouia and a very patient helpful neighbor next door, kim, who i've mentioned before, we ended up bringing this baby home around 10 that night. i love it! a few purchased hinges, a good cleaning, a removal of a few of the shelves in the interior of the cabinet ( it's actually a computer desk) i had it assembled and arranged in her room. and no, i didn't whitewash it - it came that way! made it all the better and there's more than enough storage on the inside.

and the finished look...

did i already mention that it was FREE? 

(has my neighbor not heard of ebay, craigslist, freecycle, donating to a thrift store, something???

why was this headed to the dump?)

and my little sentimental touch - my mom's first pair of walking shoes

T G I F FRIENDS!

love those frugal finds...

I am linking up to Frugalicious Friday at Finding Fabulous once again, as well as to furniture feature friday at Miss Mustard Seed, to share my thrifty finds from last week –i've said it before,  but it really is so fun to have found these blogs because i don't think my husband "gets it" when i get a good sale or bargain - either that, or he is just a bit tired after 7 years of hearing how great my thrift stores are and how wonderful a saturday morning of garage sales can be --- to him, i am STILL spending money, no matter where or what it is - it's still money being spent. but he plays along and deep down, i think he likes my frugal finds!

last week, i found two of the dining room chairs pictures above at our local Goodwill , priced at $10 each. Add two cans of spray paint, 2 contrasting yards of Amy Butler fabric that I already had, and a little work and this is the end result.

and i was even more jazzed to see that these "queen anne upholstered chairs" at pottery barn are $249! (pictured below) i scored with my 2 for $20!

and the finished combo in my dining room - a craft/sewing table for me and my girls...

another garage sale find which didn't require any work or makeovers - love those kind too - were these bamboo stems from z gallerie and the brown vase that they came in - for 7 buckaroos. it sits next to the bathtub in our master bath and well, it just works well there.

have a great weekend!

Frugalicious Friday Fun

My baby's room is a collection of resale and free finds, but honestly, had i been given a shopping spree at a top-of-the-line furniture store, i would have opted for my thrifty finds instead - i love that the items have been used and loved before - if they could just talk to us and tell us their stories...

this was the very first thing i found - curbside - for izzy's room. this lamp was gold and black with a hunter green base - the crystals had been removed but i had crystals that i rescued from a chandelier that were just waiting for a purpose. the thing that captured my eye was the three cherubs circling the base of the lamp, which to me, once in my home, represented my three little girls. i spraypainted it in two shades of purple, used a lamp shade that i had purchased earlier, and replaced the missing crystals. i just love it!

izzy's lamp sits upon the first "shabby chic" purchase i ever made, back in 2000, way before children were a thought in my mind. i got it for $1 at a garage sale, and my grandma even treated me that day! so i guess that makes it a free gift. it has made three moves with us now, been in three different bedrooms and has finally found a great home in izzy's room.

a first "FrUgALicOus FrIdAy" share...

i am more than excited to participate for the first time in Frugalicious Friday  over at Finding Fabulous -- i am one of those people who, when you recieve a compliment on a piece of clothing or some new item in my house, i for some reason, before even thinking about it, MUST announce to you that i got it for 75% off the already reduced clearance price - my 50-some dollar shirt that you were just admiring now became a $4 bargain. NOW WHY? why can't i just i just let you think i am a person with good taste and a nice new item? guess it's just the "humble" in me and the fact that i am darn proud of these fabulous "frugalicious" bargains!

my first great find is this vintage Ethan Allen chest of drawers that i scored at a garage sale for $30 earlier this summer -- my favorite find yet and the color couldn't be more perfect!

and my 2nd great find, an IKEA frame for 50 cents at a garage sale - I had it laying around for a bit, was ready to put it back into a box for my own garage sale, and decided to do a little DIY craftiness with it instead -- it now sits on the ledge by our front door and is one of my favorite frames throughout the house!