Thrifty Treasures

  On Friday, I was so blessed to be able to spend the day with my friend, Sarah. After hearing about my day thrifting this summer, she has been excited to go treasure hunting with me. I was her guide for the day. No pressure, right? :)

  We started off at the local thrift stores & we each scored some goodies. I almost bought this coffee table, but it was too long for our space. It would be so lovely all redone.

  Check out this FAB-U-LOUS glass set Sarah snagged: 

Yes, those are silver dots on the glasses. Perfection!

  Yup, she's a quick learner. 

  After getting our feet wet, we moved on to the antique stores. Here are some gems that we loved, but didn't buy. 

Large wooden spools

Vintage looking (but new!) table & chair sets

Row upon row of 3-footed tea cups

A well set from an old soda shoppe.

Most of the wells even had the original labels on them. 

My dear friend, Sarah, in a fabulous blue chair that we found.

Neat sewing chair...

The seat opened up for storage!

Look at this beauty!

Massive dictionary

  Days like these are a feast for the eyes. It's so much fun.

  Here's what I came home with:

1. Milk glass - 3 pieces total. Goblet, candy dish, & bowl.
2. Vintage shot glass that I'll use as a candle holder since I don't drink.
3. A bag of vintage Christmas decorations. Don't they look pretty in the milk glass bowl I bought too?
4. Vintage spools. I have plans to use these to make some Christmas ornaments. 
5. The poison dart froggy sponge holder. I've been looking for one of these for a long time. When my kids saw it they were kind of scared & had to inform me of it's proper name. I see some glossy spray paint in this chap's future.
6. Two maps. The major score of the day for me - and they were only .50 each! I've been looking for some maps to start a project that involves a lamp. 

Stay tuned for the above makeovers! (Hopefully) Coming Soon.

Enjoy your day!

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Gift Card Holders

  All the Christmas paper crafts I've been doing are getting me in the mood for Christmas! I'm itching to start playing my Christmas music & start other Christmas crafts. Have you started listening to your Christmas tunes yet? My hubby is going hunting with my son on Saturday so maybe I'll crank some Bing Crosby or Ella Fitzgerald (I lo-oo-ove the classics!) & do some more crafting with my little girl.

  A little public opinion poll here: When you start listening to Christmas music, is there one album that you put on first? What's your go-to Christmas album?

  One of the things I've been working on is gift card holders for Christmas. More people are giving gift cards than ever before. Including me. My nieces & nephew are getting older & wanting to pick their own gear. I get that. So, if you're going to give a gift card, make your gift a bit more personal by giving it in a handmade holder. Perhaps something like this??

Lovin' the bird & the music on this paper.

The snowflakes on this paper are flocked a.k.a. fuzzy! I'm in love!

  I'll be spending more time in my craft room this weekend, working on birthday cards. One week until the Fall Festival! Eeeek! 

Enjoy your weekend, my friends!

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Meal Planning via Pinterest

  Every two weeks, I do a big grocery shopping trip. The day before I go, I sit down & plan my menu for the coming two weeks. I look in my freezer & fridge to see what I have on hand & try to incorporate those things into my meals to save on costs. Why buy extra ingredients when you already have some on hand?

  Since discovering Pinterest, I've come across a whole new world of delicious looking recipes. This week, I've decided to put some of those yummy looking dishes onto my meal plan. I told myself to stop dreaming of cooking & baking those fabulous recipes & start DOING it! I love to try new recipes. Love, love, LOVE! But I have stipulations for the recipes I pick.

• I have to know what all the ingredients are. Or at least be able to easily find out what they are. See, I'm willing to learn new things.
• The ingredients have to be easy to find. I don't want to have to run into 5 stores to do my shopping.
• They have to be somewhat easy to make. I don't do incredibly detailed recipes.
• They have to be ready in 1 hour tops! (Excluding crock pot recipes, of course.) I have a few exceptions to this rule, but they're pretty few & far between. I start cooking supper between 4:00 - 4:30 p.m. & we eat between 5:00 - 5:30. 

  So, when I look at a recipe with those conditions in mind, I can easily decide whether to make it or not. 

  As I said, this week I turned to Pinterest for inspiration. Wanna see what made my list? Here's my plan:

1) Hamburger soup (a recipe from one of my cookbooks) with Red Lobster biscuits

2) Cajun Chicken Pasta

3) Mini Frittatas & salad 

4) Lemon Chicken Breasts with roasted potatoes & salad

5) Bean & sausage soup (my own recipe) with homemade Crescent Rolls

6) Pizza (cuz a girl's gotta have one night off, right? *wink*)

7) Lentil Tacos

8) Greek Pasta Salad (my mom's recipe - I'll post it soon.)

Goodies / Extras for the lunch box, snacks, or desserts:

Best Ever Blueberry Muffins (a favourite recipe I've been making for years)

Pumpkin Cream Cheese Muffins

Chewy Granola Bars

  That's my plan & we'll see if I stick to it! ;) Most weeks I do, but there's the odd one that I veer from the path that I've laid out. I'll be sure to let you know how the recipes turn out. I usually divide new recipes into a few different categories:

• Make again
• Make often
• Don't bother making again

  You should see my cookbooks. Full of notes, they are. 

"So & so liked this one". 

"Blah. Don't bother with this one again." 

The favourite note that still makes me smile is on a soup recipe that my mom made when I still lived at home. It says, "This soup ROCKS MY WORLD!" Truly. I still make it & it's a family favourite. :)

  Have you tried any recipes you've found on Pinterest lately? What were they? How did they turn out - would you make them again?

Enjoy your day!

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Paper Boxes for Cards

  As I explained on Monday, I'm in the throws of making all kinds of cards, boxes, & tags for an upcoming craft sale I will be attending. Today I'm giving you a peek at the boxes I'm making to house a collection of my handmade cards. These hold about 10 cards - 15 if you pack them in. These boxes are super easy to make, but do require accurate measuring & cutting. :)

They're a great way to use up scrap patterned paper too! 

If you would like to have measurements & instructions on how to make these boxes, 

leave me a comment & I'll do up a tutorial for these. 

I aim to please. :)

** Update: Click HERE to see the tutorial you asked for!! **

Enjoy your day!

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Before & After Home Tour (Part 4)

  It's been awhile since I've blogged about our house, so today I'm adding the newest addition to the Home Tour Series. Our master bedroom. I was a little tentative about posting this with the room the way it is. But let's be real... life isn't always perfect & neither are our houses. This is how the room looks right now. But there are still some changes to take place.

  When we bought the house, the master bedroom was done in a faux stainless steel look complete with a silver painted shade, upholstery tacks in the walls, & old shag carpet.

We painted, pulled out the carpet, put down laminate, put up new window coverings & things are looking much more welcoming.

Here's the part I wasn't crazy about revealing: The dresser in our room leaves something to be desired. Another word to describe it is B-O-R-I-N-G. I've got plans for it. It's on my to-do list. I promise once it gets finished, I'll post pics. Here's an idea for it:

Source

I love the stripes.

What's on your project list this week? Leave me a comment to tell me. I'm all about reader interaction. :)

Enjoy your day!

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Christmas Gift Tags

  Well, after a yummy week of cookie goodness, I'm taking a break from baking this week & am putting my creative focus on my paper crafts. I've been asked to do a booth at my church's fall festival at the end of this month, so I'm working like a crazy woman to get greeting cards, gift card holders, boxes, & gift tags made to sell at my booth. A friend of mine who is also a card maker is going to join me & sell her goodies as well. I'm excited & nervous at the same time.  I'm excited to have a venue to show / sell to people I know, but I also hope people like what I have to offer. In any case, it will be a fun time with yummy food & good friends.

  I'm also excited to see what my fellow crafters have whipped up. I'll be sure to take pics & post them.

  This past week, we had my mom-in-love, Ethel & my sister-in-love, Jodi staying with us. While they were here, they helped me create the gift tags I will be selling at the fall festival. We fired up my Cricut & started cutting! Ornaments, mittens, snowflakes, & stockings were all fashioned into cute little tags.

  So, without further ado, here's what I've been working on:

  What do you think? Can you see yourself adding these cute little tags to your Christmas gifts this year? Which are your favourites?


  MAYBE I'll make up some more & do a give away!! What do you think?

Enjoy Your Day!

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