Goodwill Returns

Goodwill closed a couple of years ago. I was crushed. It was only a few blocks away from my house and it was so easy for me to run by several times a week. In and out in 5 minutes....and I often found vintage goodies. So you can imagine my joy that it has reopened in town - not so close- but I was happy. They had their Grand Opening on April 1st ....was that a joke?

I got there early and the parking lot was crowded. There were speeches- It was HOT- I got in the shade behind the stage to wait for the doors to open- They were going to release 2006 butterflies to symbolize the 2006 people that the career center helped last year.....Do you see where this is heading?

The speeches were not long but there were several of them.
The crowd grew hot and restless.
The butterflies were beating their wings off frantically in the boxes.
I was being smushed.
They released the butterflies, who in their confusion, flew toward the
crowd-against the building.
Many of them did not make it.
The crowd surged toward the open doors - trying to escape the butterflies,
get in the air conditioning, and be one of the first 200 people to get
a t shirt.
I was carried along in the wave.
I got a t shirt and a butterfly caught in my hair.

I thought that I would just look around and leave but the crowd was pouring in and I hid out in the back of the store to wait for a lull. Then I saw him...
And he had to come home with me...
Then I saw this FireKing bowl and it needed to go to my Thrifting Buddy for her collection.

And since I still could not get near the exit, this milk glass candle holder joined us-

Finally I made a break for it, got in line to pay (with my 20% off coupon) and found out the cashiers had no idea how to work the registers with a coupon! I really think this was all an April Fool's Day joke!!!

Tale of $5 Chair

My Hubby and I went Yard "Sailing" this weekend. He was a good sport and gave up his Saturday morning to drive me around. There were some hits and misses. It was windy and not quite as warm as I like it! This poor little $5 chair was my favorite hit. We spent most of the weekend together doing a makeover!It was sturdy, old and had some cute details. The plan was to make a slip cover for the seat. I have been considering slip covers for the dining room and this could be a good practice. Look at the cuteness of the back of the chair!

The leopard was not what I had in mind and the cording was falling off. This was not a professional job!!!

Underneath that.....even worse!!!!!

At one time it had a caned seat under the stripe. The caning was broken. It could have been replaced, if they had not put so many nail holes in the wood when they put a seat on it! So I covered the seat with a piece of toile I had. Much better already!

I got out the big linen dress that I got at a thrift store recently (to make pillows out of) and made a slip cover.

My favorite part are all the little pleats. They took a long time ....maybe I'll reconsider doing slip covers for the 6 dining room chairs!!!!

And here it is - in the hall- with a new/old needlepoint pillow! Cute!

The pillow was a needlepoint canvas I found at Goodwill and finished 8 years ago! There were four of them. I made the first one into a pillow. Then the others went to the pile of unfinished projects. I found this one when I was cleaning the sewing room. It had a few moth holes :( but luckily I had more of the yarn. I repaired it and made the pillow this week...now if I could only find the other two!!!

Thrifty Thursday

This is the Thrifty Thursday Party- Green Edition! I'm not Irish, but for today I can pretend. Here is our kitchen table decked out with thrift store treasures.

On top of my estate sale green tablecloth is a linen dish towel for a table runner found for $.50 at a thrift store.

For my centerpiece a sweet crocheted doillie given to me by a friend, collected cookie cutters and a wee clay leprechaun in a thrifted wooden pedestal.

Love these salt and pepper pugs, a Christmas gift from the newlyweds!

The Johnson Brother's ironstone was a steal at Angel's- I could not have gotten it cheaper at Dollar Tree! The little ivy plates , Early English Ivy by Crown Ducal, are from Mission Thrift-$.75 each.

Mix and match vintage napkins (collected here and there) with cute thrift store urn napkin rings-

The goblets also came from an antique mall up the road in Valley, AL for dollar store prices!

And don't forget the candles by Glade with improvements copied from Leigh!

A couple other thrifty things that are new to me this year -

An estate sale leprechaun, who was captured and placed under a cloche in my parlor!

And a bowl of faux moss rocks from Dollar Tree! Please excuse the fact that the silver bowl is not old and tarnished! I know it is not my style, but I forgot that I had it. When I saw a tarnished one on another blog I remembered the bowl given to me when I retired - still in the box! I pulled it out so that it can age and look more at home in my house!

Thanks again to my friend Leigh who enables my junk addiction every week by having this party in Bloggeritaville!

Extreme Pruning

We had two ancient camellia bushes. One on each side of the porch. They have not been pruned since the first year we lived here.Now they have.

I love those bushes. They always bloom in December for the Porch Tour. I hope we didn't go too far!

Knock Off

Here is my inspiration photo from the RSH catalog. Price $75 on sale for $59...not going to happen.Here is my knock off version. Price $1.18. I can live with that!

I had an old topiary from a yard sale. It was unloved. I bought some plastic eggs and a nest. Painted the eggs. Glued them on. Added the ribbon since I didn't have a bird I liked. Done!

A Whole Lot of Sewing

I've spent most of the week up in the sewing room. It is now messier than it was last weekend and I have not made a dent in the junk pile. But I have finished several things for friends. This pillow came together quickly for a friend who is having a shower this weekend and was "fluffing " her nest. She had the trim and I had a scrap of fabric. It is hard to tell in the picture but it has a wide band around the edge and another row of fringe around the back. It turned out really cute and now I want one shaped like this for me!

All of the next pictures are the Spring wardrobe for a friend's 3 year old daughter. She bought the fabric and T-shirts. I came up with the appliques and made the pants. I don't know which one is my favorite!

That was the fun stuff...now I've got a bunch of alterations to get done before I get to work on any more cute things :( !!!!

Thrifty Thursday

I've been doing a little Spring cleaning or purging this week. The only fun thing about this is finding stuff that I have forgotten I had. I had declared February the month to clean up the sewing room...it did not happen. And it still is not done. I'm such a pack rat. I started pulling out stuff and it just got messier! I have gotten 1/2 of one wall cleaned and redone. (This was the easiest wall!) Everything here is a hand-me-down, yard sale, or thrift store find.I cleared everything off the mantle, then shopped my junk pile and around the house to put things together. I started with the suitcase stack and the picture frame. Then gathered things in Spring colors to fill in.

I found the vintage linens tucked away. The old postcards are from a thrifting trip to Angels with my Mom.
The suitcases are filled with craft supplies. They were already in the sewing room but, they make more sense in front of the fireplace. There was no place for storage on that wall so it was pretty much wasted space.

Mixed and matched rose cups and dishes - $.50 here and there. Grandma's elephants and a $2 shabby pink shelf - all look new to me after digging them out of the stuff I've squirreled away!

Two weeks ago I saw this intriguing topiary and had to try it! I just love it! Even the boy liked the fuzziness of it and could not believe I made it from an old sweater! That is a real compliment because he is not impressed by home decor!!!

It was so fun to make! Thanks again to Leigh for hosting Thrifty Thursday each week! I look forward to collecting new ideas like this one!