Redecorating on a Budget
Welcome to Thrift Shop Thursday #21. This is my favorite time of year and over the next few weeks I will be sharing some of my favorite Christmas Thrift Shop finds. This week I will be sharing a few Holiday items and a lovely wooden mirror that I have gone back to several times and finally decided to pick it up, knowing that I could find a home for it.
The first piece I am going to share with you is the cardinal card place holder.
This weekend my friend and I went to The DC Big Flea Market. It was my first time and I loved it. It is one of the Mid-Atlantic’s largest indoor Markets. I have never been to a Market this large, there were over 600 hundred booths. I bought a few things but today I am going to share some of my flea market favorites that I saw but did not purchase !
I am finally getting around to my Fall Home Tour with a bit of Halloween fun mixed in as well. I pulled out all of my Fall and Halloween decorations several weeks ago. Then I went through all the boxes only to realize I am ready to get rid of the majority of my decorations. Last year I didn’t decorate inside because we were in the middle of renovating the entire main floor so it has been awhile since I have gone through everything. It’s funny how your taste changes over time. I still enjoy a few of my pieces and the memories they hold but the rest of the decorations are getting packed up for Goodwill.
This year I am adding a few touches throughout the house. In the kitchen, I have placed a few pumpkins around and have even used a cookbook for decorating.
I am keeping it super simple this year. Something the Gman is not all that happy about. He keeps asking if I am going to do more.
As for the outside, I like to add some large pumpkins, mums and a fall wreath to our door.
I also like to decorate the outdoor fireplace a bit too. I made this mini wreath with vines found in our back yard. Then I wrapped the vines with faux leaves.
This is how I like to decorate for Fall and Halloween…
BUT this is how I decorate for the Gman (the other three males in this household could not possibly care any less what I do when it comes to decorating).
This is how the Gman likes our house to look…
and this is how I like it to look.
So it was a compromise.
Happy Halloween!
Until Next Time,
I feel like this week has totally gotten away from me. Things have been crazy busy. Over the weekend, my husband and I took the Gman to Universal Studios in Florida. He is a huge Harry Potter fan. It all started when he was in the third grade. I would read one chapter a night to him. I was so sad when we read the very last chapter of book 7. We read from that series every night for almost two years. It was so sweet to watch him in the park. I am so glad that is something we were able to share with him.
Since we have been back home, I have been trying to get back into the schedule of school and the gym. I am also slowly decorating for fall. By the time I get around to it, it will be time to start decorating for Christmas!(I have already started shopping…I know that drives some people crazy when I say that.)
O.K. getting back to Thrift Shop Thursday #20. This week I am sharing some of my finds from the past. When I went to Goodwill earlier in the week, I found another Ironstone piece so I thought I would share some of my earlier pottery and dishes that I have been collecting. Most of these treasures have come from Goodwill with a few from consignment shops as well.
I have missed the past two weeks of Thrift Shop Thursday. I really thought that since the gym was near both of my favorite thrift shopping spots, it would be a breeze to pop in, see if I could score any new finds, then head home…quick and easy! Well, that is not happening. One, when I leave my class at the gym, I am either dying or just look like I am dying or two, I skip class all together then don’t go thrift shopping for fear someone from the gym will see me! Anyway, today I hit the gym and the shops and found something to share and yes, I did look like a mess!
I love the large candle holder that I found at the consignment shop. When I saw it, it reminded me of the one Joanna Gaines found at an auction on The Fixer Upper, one of my favorite shows on HGTV.
This is what it looked like when I found it today.
Since I was planning on using it in my office, I was back and forth between spraying it black or gold. The gold won out!
This is a nice and heavy piece. I am glad I chose the gold. It gives it a nice pop. Check out Charlie in the background…so bored with this whole blog thing!
Yep, I am still loving my office space!
The next piece I am sharing, I found several months ago. I get stuck on something and pick up several different variations. I am back to the candleholders.
This one is just a teeny tiny one that I picked up a Goodwill. I will just add it to the collection of gold candleholders in my office. Seriously, this is the last gold item and the very last candleholder that I will share…for now!
I just love this little candleholder though, I think it is so sweet!
Last up on this week’s Thrift Shop Thursday #19 is an old one that I have shared before but wanted to share again before I repaint it.
I found the base of this cloche at a flea market. It was originally stained wood that needed some love. I painted it with Annie Sloan Graphite Chalk Paint. I am thinking of repainting it and off white. I think the graphite is just too dark for my dining room. I still need to put some more thought into it but I love this piece. I picked up the glass top at Michaels and it fits within the base perfectly.
Well, that’s it for this week’s Thrift Shop Thursday #19. I hope you are finding some great thrifted finds too.
Until Next Time,
Today was a good day to stay inside and finish up a project that I started over the summer. I have seen these decorative orbs everywhere and I wanted to try and make one myself.
For this DIY project, I needed the following supplies:
Galvanized Steel Hanger Strap
Nuts and Bolts
Metal Cutters
Two Different Colors of String/thread
Work Gloves
The first thing I did, with the help of BK, was cut the galvanized straps to the approximate size I wanted. Then I formed a circle and used a nut and bolt to attached it together. I repeated this process two more times and connected each circle to the last until it formed an orb. Be sure to wear work gloves because the steel straps are very sharp.
I then left it in this unfinished state for a long time. At first I wanted to fill in the holes with putty then sand it and paint the entire orb. I wasn’t all together sure what I wanted to do. So I just left it, plopped up on my bookshelf in the sunroom and would look at it occasionally and think I really need to do something with this thing.
I finally decided to wrap the galvanized steel orb with thread. After I completed my DIY Lamp, I had a lot of left over string/thread. I thought this would be a quick and easy way to finish off the orb and give it a different look. Well, it did give it a different look but it took forever to wrap it. I am not just saying that either, I did not think I was ever going to finish it! It wasn’t hard, just time consuming. Ultimately, I would like to have a medium and smaller size one to go with my large completed orb. For now, I will just enjoy the one I do have!
Until Next Time,
Today I am sharing a very simple and quick project. I made a rag wreath for my newly revamped sunroom.
.
I have seen several different rag wreaths all over Pinterest and thought I would give it a try. For my DIY Rag Wreath, I used an old sheet. I ripped it into several 1″by 4″ strips. I attached the fabric to an old embroidery hoop simply by tying a knot in the fabric around the loop.
This really was an easy project. I was in the middle of doing laundry and packing for our trip back home to my nephews wedding. By packing, I mean, I packed all of my things then had to get the boys suits organized so nothing was left behind like dress shoes or dress socks or dress pants. My husband walked into the kitchen and just looked at me, I knew he was thinking don’t you have enough to do so we can get out of here? Why add another project on top of everything else? But he didn’t say anything, I am assuming he thought it best not to since we had a four hour car trip ahead of us.
I was able to hang the wreath and get these three guys to the wedding looking this handsome!
I just had to share!
Until Next Time,
I have been working with this ladder on and off all summer. First I was going to use it as a rack for my blankets, then I was going to take it to the Island Home, but I have changed my mind…again. I decided to decorate my ladder with lighting just because I like the way it looks!
I had seen this image and fell in love with the hanging light but for my ladder I wanted a light with more of a vintage feel to it. At this point, I knew I was not going to be using my ladder for my blankets.
My ladder is actually a teak boat ladder so it is much shorter than other ladders I have seen. I knew if I wanted to hang a light from it, I would need to hang the ladder up instead of just propping it against the wall. Would I have preferred to just prop it up against the wall? Yes, but it looked too short and by the time I would drape my light it would be hanging way too low and the one thing I knew I definitely wanted to do was hang a vintage looking light from it!
Before I even found the light I wanted, I had to figure out how to hang the ladder. The ladder had hooks on the handles so I was trying to find a rod to hang it from and a way to attach it to the wall. I originally wanted to use a curtain rod but they were too large in diameter to hook the ladder over. I found a steel rod at Home Depot that they cut down for me, two plastic end caps that I sprayed silver and to eye hooks that I screwed into the wall studs. The gentleman at Home Depot was trying to figure out what I was doing and I could tell my explanation was confusing him. He was super helpful and I promised him I would show him a picture of the finished project. Sometimes, it is hard to explain what you see in your mind and how you are going to actually make it happen.
Once I got my ladder hung securely to the wall, I began searching for the light I wanted. I order mine through Etsy from a shop called HangOut Lighting. As soon as I saw all of their custom lighting, I fell in love…gorgeous, one of a kind pieces. I chose a simple vintage like black fabric plug-in cord, black socket, and an Edison bulb. It was exactly what I was picturing in my head and when it arrived, it was perfect!
Sometimes, the easiest projects take the longest time. I was all over the place with this one but I adore this outcome!
Until Next Time,
We Party Here:
Hello and welcome to Thrift Shop Thursday #18. Today was a great day at one of my favorite Thrift Shops. I did not have any luck at Goodwill even though I searched every inch of that store. Both of the places I went to today are very close to the Kickboxing gym I belong to which hopefully will be enough incentive for me to make it to class everyday.
I found all of this today!
My sunroom reveal using IKEA EKTORP furniture has been a long time in the making. I have known for quite some time exactly what I wanted, it just took awhile to pull it together. Finally, I am sharing it with you today!
