Thrifting Again

Hi everyone!  I hadn’t gone thrifting in long, long, looooong time since I've been in the decluttering/packing up phase. Last weekend I went to my favorite place to do a little shopping. The weather was gorgeous and it was so much fun to look at all the pretty things. Here are a few pics of what they had and at the end I’ll show you what I got.

I’m so into old outdoor birdhouses right now. Isn’t that a cute one!

I liked this one too, but I didn’t get either since they were waaay more than my spending allowance.

What do you think of this? It’s made from old tires!!!

I think they’re planters (there’s two there – at first I thought it was a weird two-headed swan thing)!

Some more cute outdoor stuff.  I saw lots of old painted ladders inside as well.


I just loved this little yellow bench made from a bed!

Also loved this little red cabinet.

There were some fun light fixtures for sale too! I mean really, where would you put that?

This one was pretty because they had a beaded bulbcover on the bulb. Very Frenchy looking!

Wish I had room for this yellow cabinet.

They had quite a few pieces that incorporated burlap. Including a rug made out of burlap that had been stenciled on (couldn’t get a pic of that do to poor lighting).

I’m looking for an old painted ladder to use in my garden as a trellis. All the ones in this store were crazy prices (in my opinion, but maybe they’re hard to find?). I might just buy a new one and I’m sure by next year it’ll look like that one!

I thought this old dishrack was the cutest thing. Great for displaying dishes and cups&saucers on that bottom shelf.

Want to see what I bought?……………..

Almost bought that black vintage scale. But instead I got this cute vintage picture!

$12 and I think it’s just perfect for this spot!


**Moving News – soooo, we’ve pretty much decided to stay put for now due to a number of factors.To complicate matters, our daughter isn’t sure she’s going to stay at SCAD Atlanta for her degree. So that’s going to factor into where/if we move. So for now I’m just going to “bloom where I’m planted” and make the best of it even though this town isn’t exactly my cup of tea.

I do have some fun news to share with you all later this week!

Anyway, thanks for stopping by!

Spring is Here & An Update

Hi everyone! I’ve gotten quite a few emails asking if I was alright. Yes, I’m fine – we’re all fine here. Just busy with life in general and still trying to get this property in shape. I’m a little behind in my projects but my husband is taking some time off this month and my daughter has spring break, so I’ll be getting some help with the things that need to be finished up.

(Those are Primroses above for those of you that aren’t familiar with them.)  I’ve been ruthlessly decluttering! You wouldn’t believe the amount of books I just donated to my library. I gave them my whole collection of frugal/simple living books. I think I had every book ever written about frugality and simple living! The only one I kept was the Complete Tightwad Gazette. My library hardly has any books on either subjects so I thought those books would be put to good use there. Also donated tons of magazines.

Let see….I’ve been working outside since it’s been so gorgeous here lately!

I added some lattice that I had laying around to my arbor on one side and on top and moved one of two grapes here. Just have to find a place for the other grape and add lattice to the other side. The grapes are from last summer when I had this garden area in addition to the one you see above.

I took it apart when we decided to sell but I never moved the grapes I had planted along the fence. So they’ve been sitting in the middle of the yard all winter LOL!

I also weeded and put down some new mulch in this bed.
 
Yes, spring is here is Georgia! I’m sure we’ll get another below freezing night before it’s safe to really plant – we always do.

Unfortunately, this nearby bed still needs to be done. Plus last spring I started planting liriope around the edge and never finished because it got so horribly hot I couldn’t stand to be outside (except later in the day but that’s when those horrible little biting bugs are flying around)! So I have to also finish that. Sigh…….

Tried to sell these cinderblocks on Craigslist.

They were from this lovely pond we used to have.(chipmunks made a whole in the liner and it leaked so we dismantled it).

I had a guy who said he wanted them then he never showed. So if anyone in the Atlanta area wants them email me. I’m going to Freecycle them as I’ve got to get them out of my yard.

I have tons (and I mean tons) of various rocks etc. from the pond dismantle.

In an effort to use some of them, I made this little planting circle.  I used a Japanese Maple that we had growing in a pot. Before we list I’ll fill that bed with some flowers and mulch. It was a good way to use up some of those  stones and also use the outlet that’s there(it was for the pond pump). I didn’t want to have to dig up the electric line and I couldn’t just have an outlet sticking up out of the ground for no purpose. We already had uplights etc so we have the tree lit at night and it’s really pretty. I did put down some grass seed but I think it all washed away in the storm we had this week!

I painted the ceiling, wainscoting and primed the walls above the wainscoting in the downstairs bathroom.

I started applying the Venetian Plaster that I’m going to use on the upper part of the wall (the walls are in bad shape) but decided that the color I had was too dark for a room with no windows.

So I had to wait a week to get to Lowe’s to get a lighter tan (we have three people using two cars).  I’ll start applying it this weekend and then I need to find a mirror and a new light fixture.

My daughter and I did paint her room. It was a real bright BRIGHT blue and now it’s more of a light gray/blue. If her room wasn’t a huge mess from all her art projects that she’s been working on I’d take a picture…but it is :)

I also painted the hallway downstairs (mixed up a nice milk chocolate color with some leftover paints). Anyway, I’ll take pictures when everything is done and just have a blog open house tour. You’ll see the house and gardens as prospective buyers will see them.

I’m sure I’m forgetting something….anyway, mostly I just wanted to let you all know that yes, I’m still here, yes I’m still trying to get my house sale read (want to get “top dollar” ya know LOL), no we haven’t even looked at houses yet but plan to this month and yes, I’m really really REALLY tired and can’t wait to just get on with it!

Be back when I can!

Happy Valentine’s Day & See Ya!

Hi everyone! Just wanted to pop in to let you all know that I’ll be back in March or there abouts. I’m in the home stretch as far as getting my house ready to list and I really need to concentrate on finishing up my bathroom remodel and then just cleaning and depersonalizing.

I'm not packing up my stuff yet so here’s a little bit of Valentine's decorating that I did do. This is my foyer tree this year.

I used the same sticks from last year!! But this year I used fabric hearts instead of the scrapbook paper ones I usually use -  How To Make Hearts From Cereal Boxes.

I replaced my mitten garland with this fabric heart one.


This is not VDay decor but I wanted to show you anyway. I found some vintage potholders last week and I pinned the prettiest one to the center of this pillow. How cute is that! Vintagey toile goodness! LoVE it!


I hope to start looking at houses in a few weeks as well (I need the motivation to keep up this pace)! I’ll do my best to take pics of the contenders! Probably won’t post them until I get back to blogging though.



So, Happy Valentines Day, thank you so much for stopping by and see you in a month or so!

Happiness is…..

 
Little things like…the morning sunlight shining through my favorite drapes

a pretty vintage tea towel

fresh sheets on the bed

Blooming bulbs! Did you force any bulbs? I did two pots of Narcissus. (You “old timers” – notice anything different about my deck?)

I know some people don’t care for the smell of paperwhites but I love it! Every Christmas Target sells various containers of the bulbs and I always buy some at the after season sale (they’re pre-chilled and most of them have already started sprouting by then). Makes it easy to force bulbs cause all the work is done for you!

a bottle of moisturizing handwash with a pretty label that brightens the sink area (I always buy them at TJMaxx – they have an unusual selection and they’re not expensive)

Happiness is…..finding the first bits of green in the garden after a long, cold, (very cold for Atlanta) winter! Is spring here?  Now that would make me very very happy!

Those are just a few little things that make me happy!

I hope you all have a great weekend!