Thrift Store Finds

Went to visit grandma today. Seems to be recognizing people a little more and her memory seems to be improving a little bit. Physically she seems to be doing well, using her left hand well and walking again, albeit a little wobbly.  Also went to Northwest Christian Thrift to find stuff for my "store". Hopefully, I will get my act together soon and get it up and running!



A couple old books, Alice in Wonderland and a mystery novel by Carolyn Keene.



 Little pitcher for half and half with mushrooms on it.



 Bag of fabric scraps for a few bucks.



 Owl plate that reminds me of my Grandma Casto.



 Some vintage little place cards with pink tulips.

In a Nutshell

I was dropping off 3 bags at the thrift store when I found this little frame. The lady at the desk let me have it for a dollar! Woot! I love the little flowery scroll detail at the top. Joe thinks the lady is creepy, so she has to go. I personally don't think so, but I have other plans for the frame anyhow. If anybody wants the old photo, let me know.
Otherwise, just having an average evening at home. Had chicken, rice and pot stickers for dinner. Played with the cat, went to the gym (that is actually unusual). Now having a cup of tea and muddling through the mess at my desk, while making a bigger mess by taking the frame apart. It drives Joe nuts that I usually have a half dozen or so projects going at once. Anyone else have that issue? The cat is taking a nap and Joe is playing video games. Our evening in a nutshell.



Mal has his own dedicated chair in the "studio", its the now not completely yellow bentwood chair that needs the cushion bettered secured (another project) :)

Vintage Retro Awesome... enough said

Without further adieu, I present to you the totally awesome DogClock. This is a vintage masterpiece found by myself and Joe on one of our recent journeys. Now adorning our mantle! 

Happy Wednesday everyone!

New Finds!

Have been doing lots of thrift store shopping, antiquing and well, just general shopping recently. I need to take a little break from it. Which shouldn't be too hard since I go back to work tomorrow, for five "12s" which equals no time to go shopping. And probably not much posting either, we'll see, just finished painting our kitchen today (YAY!) so maybe some pics of that soon. Absolutely love the new color, it's brighter and more cheerful than dark hunter green. With all that said, here are some pictures of my new finds! (Be warned, there's a bunch...)

Little end table from the Antique Mall in Edmonds, and my newish book on top, a birthday present from my mother in law. (Can you find the cute kitty in this one?)

Little two tray server I found at Value Village. This is after it got a nice bath. Trying to decide if I want to paint it or not... (also shows the old kitchen color)

Another Value Village find that is already mid-makeover, this is now a definite before. :)

New scale from the Antique Mall, I love it! My friend Jenn spotted it, she has such a good eye! Also, the white pitcher is a birthday present from her. (Thanks again!)

This is the whole corner, finally filling out a little. The little retro highchair I found at Northwest Christian Thriftstore for twenty bucks! I love the color and it is the perfect spot for my "stereo system". (and no, I'm not trying to send any messages by buying a highchair). The red cookbook stand on the bottom shelf is also new, found at the Seattle Value Village for a few bucks, super heavy, which is awesome, we use it all the time now.

This is also a before picture. A GIANT embroidery hoop. The after will have to wait until later...

And lastly, just a pretty sunset picture. Taken out at Fishtrap area off of I-90.

Happy Holidays Everyone!

Mission Gallery Wall

I love all the gallery walls you see everywhere these days. I got permission to make a gallery wall in our mini-hallway. Right now, I'm in the "collecting stuff for the wall" phase. The only thing I had so far was framed picture of the VW van under a tree, originally posted here. After seeing various versions of state art on Pinterest, I decided to try making a painting of Washington state. I didn't want a solid color though, more of a blended, watercolor look. A trip to Joann's later, I had acrylic paint in 3 different colors of blue and 1 green, a 99 cent artist palette, a 50% off canvas and a little brush. A little down time one afternoon this weekend and I got it finished. Nice to have fast projects! I really like how it turned out, exactly what I had in mind! The photo doesn't look quite the same, but you get the idea.

When we were done at Joann's, we stopped by the Antique Mall in Edmonds. What a neat place! Packed full of cool stuff! I found some fun vintage postcards, one of Southeast Boulevard in Spokane and one of Madrona Park in Seattle. Will be repainting some frames for these, but thought I'd share pics of the postcards, they're kind of interesting! (You can tell my desk is kind of a mess too... started reorganizing last night, hoping to finish up today, or tomorrow)

Some Progress in the Office

Yay! Making some progress in the "Office". Since the days of less light are fast approaching, I decided since I was going to organize I might as well rearrange while I was at it to make it fit our needs better. I wanted a reading area and a more comfortable chair. So I ended up rearranging the entire room. (Sound familiar anyone who knows me?) Half the room, well a third of the room is clean, so I decided to post some pictures to keep me motivated to finish the other half. Kinda hard to get decent pics when it's this dark but here goes...


I really wanted to paint the back of the bookcase but couldn't settle on a color. So I cut some burlap-ish fabric to cover the back instead. Doesn't show up well in the picture. Brought in the rocking chair that was needing a good home. I love it, have the rocker from one grandma right next to my sewing machine from my other grandma.


DIY'd myself some free art. Found the picture in a magazine and threw it in a frame that was repainted after a second thought about what needed to go to Goodwill. Makes me smile :)


Kitty in his personal chair overseeing the progress.


I finally "de-blinged" the free chandelier I found on the side of the road. My gray candlestick got some free jewelry!

Quick Projects

The dust is finally settling around here. Its been a whirlwind of a month with my sister's shower, then the wedding, our trip to Oregon, two trips to Seattle, then getting sick. Whew... I've got a few more days off before getting back into the full time work routine and hoping to get a bunch of cleaning done around the house and hopefully finish up some projects before the nice weather goes. Thought I'd share a couple quick projects though.

For Rachel's "bachelorette" party we went to Polka Dot Pottery downtown, I know, we're a pretty cRaZy bunch. I finally went and picked up my mug yesterday, just in time to sit down and enjoy a cup of my favorite tea, Egyptian Licorice. Yumm.


During some down time, I ran across a picture on pinterest using clothespins to organize embroidery thread. And since today's mission is to organize/rearrange "the office" figured I'd try it out. I picked up 33 new jars yesterday at my local thrift stores, 5 blue ones and 28 regular canning jars. (Yes, I know I have a problem...) I decided they need to start being useful before someone starts getting cranky about me collecting more "stuff" that sits around and collects dust. That's it for now!

Farm Chicks Show

I finally got to check out the Farm Chicks Show this year! It was down at the Interstate Fairgrounds, going on today and tomorrow. It was really cool, I got some great stuff and there is so much inspiration there it's almost overwhelming! Serena even signed my book "The Farm Chicks in the Kitchen"!

A few pictures of some of the booths there

 And a few pictures of some of the loot I brought home :)

Hope everyone is having a good weekend!!

Value Village

As a kid I hated thrift stores, to me it just meant getting hand-me-down clothes that always seemed to smell funny at first. But now I understand the appeal, its like looking for diamonds in the rough, finding cool stuff that sometimes needs a little love. After going to the gym today, I felt like going shopping, so I hit up Value Village on the way home and found a few things. Here's a few pics...

Two hardback books, I remember reading "By the Sea" as a kid at my grandma's house and the other one "The Green Bough" I got because it has a cool cover. I'll read it though just for fun :) I finally read a Jane Austin book today -thats been on my "Want To Do List" since last summer. It was called "Lady Susan", it was pretty different than Pride and Prejudice - the leading lady was kind of a villainous sort of character.

 Decent sized wooden try for $2.99 that is going to get a paint job, planning on the same green color as the little wood box, then I might try decoupaging some patterned paper or maybe doilies on it. Should be fun to serving things this summer - maybe some mojitos or passion iced tea lemonade...

This candlestick is also getting a makeover - I really want to paint it gray but haven't decided yet. Then I'm thinking about adding some bling as well... we'll see. Oh, and in the background, you can see the Yogi Bear Picinik Basket I picked up recently! I'm really excited about that, can't wait for warmer weather :)

Free and Cheap, My 2 Favorite Prices

October 5, 2010 - Starbucks to go, plus a mini Carmel Via sample! for free!



My latest thrift store find, this little chair was only $7.99, now I just need to repaint it and cover it with a more visually pleasing fabric :)