Thrifty Halloween

I have nothing exciting to share today. Just a little something I picked up at the thrift store on Saturday for 50 cents.

A little ceramic jack o lantern. Isn't it cute? He was the only thing that managed to find his way home with me this weekend.

I was originally going to paint it Heirloom white as my Halloween decor in my family room this year is black & white. But once I got him home & all cleaned up. I kind of like him orange.

Besides, he now goes with the other orange pumpkins in this cute little sign I picked up at Tai Pan Trading back in August for $3.00. Makes a nice little vignette on my side table.

I did work on numerous Halloween projects this weekend. But I got none of them completely done. I really need to just work on one project at a time. Hopefully I'll get something completely done to share with you tomorrow or the next day.

It is still too hot to climb up in the attic to get the rest of my Halloween decor down. It was 110 degrees yesterday. And today is suppose to be just as hot.

Now that it is fall, we are just now getting summer temps here in southern California. It's been a weird summer.




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Tabletop Tuesdays @ A Stroll Thru Life

Nifty Thrifty Tuesdays @ Coastal Charm

Today's Thrifty Treasures @ Southern Hospitality

My birthday is over :(

Well my birthday is over. Boo hoo!

Not that I did anything exciting. I pretty much did my usual Saturday routine.

We started off with a trip to the local thrift store. Now I haven't been to my thrift store in about a month. So it was a welcome sight.

However, I really didn't find anything to write home to mom about. But I will blog about it.

I did find all these wood plaques for $1.00 each. The wood plate was $2.00. I'm going to make me some Halloween or fall signs. Let's hope I get them done before Halloween.

The only other thing I found worth buying was some more white plates. My hubby thought I had totally gone off the deep end with this purchase. You see, I already own about a bazillion white plates. But you can never have too many, right? Plus they were only $1.50 total for four dinner plates and three salad plates. They were a 1/2 off item.

Plus they totally match the plates I already have. You see, I purchased a set of these plates from Mervyn's back in the mid 80's. They lasted me until this year. I could still use them, they are just all scratched up & don't look pretty. So a few months back I found another almost complete set of these plates at a thrift store, so I retired my old plates. So finding a few more to add to my collection made me do a happy dance. Now if only I can find the matching bowls. My bowls are not looking too good & need to be replaced. But they still hold cereal.

This is the maker mark on back. They are actually stoneware and not ironware. But who cares. I love them!

After the thrift store we headed to lunch (after a quick trip to the bank and one to AAA to get something notarized). We went to El Torito's Mexican restaurant to use my "free birthday entree" coupon that I got from joining their e-mail club.

I got chicken fajitas & boy were they yummy. Too bad I didn't take a photo. But I was too hungry to stop and take a pic.

But hubby did take a pic of me with the deep fried ice cream.

After lunch we went to Granny's Attic which is an antique store in Temecula. Didn't find anything there that I wanted to spend my birthday money on. But they do have an old fashioned candy/soda bar. We decided we were thirsty & stopped for a cool one.

Hubby got Verner's (I personally think it's nasty tasting, but he loves it). I got a Dad's rootbeer. Not sure what hubby was looking at when I took this photo. They did have a small Hungry Hippos game on the table that we played for awhile.

The rootbeer was mighty tasty. The fridge is stocked with all kinds of different sodas. Mostly stuff I had never heard of.

I loved the candy area. It had all kinds of old fashioned candy. But I was a good girl & refrained from purchasing any.

But I was tempted to purchase these fizzies. Remember fizzies? I loved them when I was a kid. It brought back great memories seeing this.

The only thing I saw at the antique store that I really liked was this sign. But I think I could make it. Oh the hazards of blogging. We now think that we can knock off everything for cheaper.

After leaving the antique store we stopped by Home Goods. Did I purchase anything there? NOPE!!! I think it was the hot weather on Saturday. I really didn't feel like buying anything all day long. Not that I didn't give it the old college try. My heart just wasn't into shopping on my birthday. Maybe I was getting sick. Coming down with old-age-itis.

After shopping, went home & jumped into the pool to cool off. Layed on a raft and relaxed for about an hour or so. And no I am not going to share a photo of me, in my swimsuit, laying on a raft. I'm not crazy! I'm just fat.

For dinner we went to Red Robin and had my free birthday burger (another perk from signing up for e-mail club). They also give you a free sundae for showing up on your birthday as well.

So all in all, it was a pretty good birthday. I got to eat out twice, go shopping, hang out with some of my most favorite people and had happy birthday sung to me twice.

Now if we could just do something about this getting older crap. Other than that, my birthday was pretty near perfect (too bad I didn't win the lotto, then it would have been perfect).



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I finally got it done!!!

Did I tell you that I was the queen of procrastination? Well I am. And here is proof.

See this bare wood trunk? I've had it for over 15 years. That is fifteen years!!!! 15!!!

I purchased it from JC Penney online in it's unfinished state for about $100.00 plus free shipping. I had always planned on painting it. But year after year, after year, after year, it sat in it's unfinished state. Getting dirtier, and dirtier and dirtier. You get the picture.

If not, here is the proof of how dirty it got. Fifteen years is a long time to go neglected.

I finally decided enough was enough. I had procrastinated this project long enough. Plus I had a little motivation from Donna over at Funky Junk Interiors. She is having a "Gitter Done" party this week. So I had to "gitter done".

So I got to work getting hubby to sand it down for me to get rid of the 15 years of neglect. Looked like new when he was done sanding. Too bad I didn't take a photo.

Then I started painting it white. Did you notice that I said that I started painting? Hubby didn't like the sloppy way I was painting, so he took over. Works every time! I'm good at getting other people to do my work.

Once it was all painted white. I thought it needed something (it was really hubby). He suggested we add a wood applique. I thought it was a great idea. Why didn't I think of that? So off to Home Depot we went.

This is the one we picked out. They don't have much of a selection. I think this was our only option. We glued it on the front and added some new wood plugs as a few had gone missing over the years. Painted the brass handles ORB and had hubby finally put them on. I then distressed and antiqued the entire trunk (yes, I did do this part of the project).

And here is the pretty lady now.

I'm pretty happy on how it turned out. What took me so long?

The wooden applique was just what this trunk needed. Thanks honey for suggesting it!

The back.

The handles were originally brass and had never been put on the trunk. I spray painted them Oil Rubbed Bronze (ORB). Much better than brass.


This was a pretty easy project. Why did I procrastinate it so long? If I had known how fabulous it was going to turn out, I would have done this years ago. Like fifteen!!!!

On top I placed a little vignette of some thrifty finds.

The subway art tray came from Target a few months back. I got it on clearance for around $10.00. Clearance has to be one of my favorite words.

I would love to travel to all these places some day. The only ones I have seen are the Golden Gate Bridge, Big Ben, Vatican, Roman Colosseum (hubby's favorite), and the Eiffel Tower (my favorite). Someday I hope to see all the rest.

The urn was a recent thrifty find from an antique store in Riverside, CA. It was only $2.00!!!

My fleur de lis finials also got a mini makeover. They were originally brown and came from Dollar Tree for a buck each. I spray painted them Heirloom white & then antiqued them. I love how they turned out.

I still need to make a burlap runner for the top of the trunk. I hope that I don't procrastinate that too much longer. Knowing me, burlap will be out of style by the time I get around to it.

Thanks for stopping by & taking a look at my long awaited trunk makeover aka: "Gitter Done" project. And I hope that I won't procrastinate the next project as long. Do you have a project you have procrastinated? Can you beat 15 years?



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Thrifty Finds

It's been awhile since I posted any of my thrifty finds. So today you are going to get "thrifty overload".

I found this cute plate on clearance at Target a couple of weeks ago. I got it for $5.00!!! I think it was originally $10.00. Isn't it cute? It goes perfect sitting on my china hutch.

When I saw this tray at my local thrift store it was love at first sight. I had to have it. It was $17.00. More than I would normally pay. But it was love, love, love!!! And did I tell you it is huge???? I'm going to paint it Heirloom White & probably distress it. It will fit perfect on top of my old trunk with the uneven top. This tray will make displaying objects on the trunk so much easier. Hubby can't see the beauty in this piece. And he thinks I paid too much. But it was love!!!

I love the frenchy handles. I'm not going to paint them.

I've started a new collection. Like I don't already have too many collections. But I've been bitten by the vintage flatware bug. I've seen so many of you with them in displays, I had to jump on the bandwagon. Here are the knives I got a few weeks ago for 25 cents each at the thrift store.

These spoons were 50 cents a piece.

The forks were 50 cents a piece as well. I choose all my vintage flatware for the pattern on the handle as that is the part that is going to show when I display them in my little white pitchers.


Every time I go to a thrift store I always look for a Scrabble game or Dominoes. But have not had any luck until last week. I found a Scrabble game for $2.00. Still had every single letter. It was like brand new.

I also love collecting urns. Found this one for $1.50 a couple of weeks ago at the thrift store.

I picked up these ugly brass candlesticks for about $1.00 each. I'm going to spray paint them. Not sure what color. I'm thinking blue for summer. I need candlesticks like I need a hole in my head. But I don't have any that aren't silver, crystal, black or white. I'm looking to add some color to my life. And I won't be afraid to paint these some wild color. Or some not so wild color.


I paid $1.00 for this silver candlestick. I just love the shape of the base. I am probably going to glue this to a silver tray to make a pedestal tray. I'll be sure to share it later if I do.

This is something I got this past Saturday at the thrift store. I think it is a towel or napkin holder. Not really sure. I just loved the bird on it. It was $4.00. A bit pricey for me, but again, it was love at first sight.

I'll probably paint this heirloom white as well & then antique it. Then I'll add a vintage print to the frame part. I'll use it for holding my dinner napkins. Isn't that birdy just the sweetest?

I got this little shell dish to use in a summer vignette. I'll probably paint this heirloom white as well. It was $1.25.
I found this 3 tier dessert stand at a thrift store for $5.00. I have a couple of reproduction ones from Tender Heart Treasures. Paid a lot more for the reproduction ones. I think this silver one is the real deal.

I passed it up a few weeks back as I already had a couple of the repro ones. But I couldn't get this beauty out of my mind. So lucky for me it was still there on Saturday.

At this same thrift store I found this vintage rooster for $3.00. Yup, roosters is another of my collections. There isn't much I don't collect I'm afraid.

I also found a bag of vintage clothes pins for 50 cents.

And I found more vintage flatware for my newest collection. Each piece was 25 cents.

Another new collection for me is vintage milk glass vases. I saw on someones blog, where they had about 5 milk glass vases sitting on a round silver tray with flowers. I loved it. I have a silver round tray and some flowers. All I need are the 5 milk glass vases.

So I started looking for milk glass vases. All the ones I saw at Goodwill were like $2-3.00 each. Yikes!!! I can do better than that. I found this one at my local community cupboard thrift store for 50 cents. Much better.


And these 3 were only 25 cents each. I just need one more to make my silver tray display. But until then, I'm using 3 of them in this weeks tablescape. Be sure to come back Thursday to see more.

I'll try & show you later how I used my thrifty finds around my house. So stay tuned.

Oh and I almost forgot, I found the most spectacular crystal chandelier at Lowe's on clearance for $32.00!!!! Once hubby gets it installed, I show photos. I am so excited, I can hardly wait. I've always wanted a chandelier.



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