Winners! Winners! Winners!

Good Monday Morning!!! When I posted the closing date of the giveaway, I had no idea that the following weekend would be so busy and that I would have to wait until Monday to announce the winner. So without any further waiting…..
The WINNER is:

Comment #17, as generated by random.org, Heidi Wendland!

Congratulations Heidi! We think alike on the fall decorating…I love the “smells” of fall too!
Thank you everyone for entering and giving me some awesome ideas for fall table decorating and the input on what to do with my gate-leg table. I’ll be sharing more on that soon.
There were some other winners on Friday, not through my blog, but over at The CSI Project. I love it over there! The challenges over there provide me with a lot of inspiration! On the weeks that they are hosting something that I want to participate in, I stay on top of getting a project finished because of the deadline to enter. It’s not a month long project that I will tend to think that I “still have time” I know that I only have from Tuesday ‘til Thursday or I’ve missed it…and I have …more than once! I work so much better with a deadline…even if it’s getting cleaned up for company coming! :-) I also get so excited when I see all the other projects…I usually end up wanting to try several.
I love these from Nine to Midnight Designs.

and I want to try something like this from Infarrantly Creative for my laundry room which is a work in progress.

My friend Nikki from Nikki’s Nifty Knacks and I both made the Top 10! Woo-Hoo!!

Here are Nikki’s Ballard Boxes:

Lori’s comment: “I am a sucker for silhouettes and the fact that you can hide stuff in these storage boxes is such a plus!  I am all about hiding the ugly inside something cute!”
And my Ballard Birds:

Lori’s Comment:”The birds in this project were so great.  SO cute!  But it is really the sticks that they are standing on that I love!  I actually have some ideas on how I am going to implement them into some holiday decor!!  So excited to have such a great tutorial on how to make them!”
Thank you Lori for liking my little birds and your kind words!
Lori from Be Different, Act Normal was the guest judge this week. She has a link party on Saturdays that I can’t wait to join!

Here is the Calendar for the upcoming challenges at The CSI Project:

I also had a small but winning (at least in my book! ) project this past week. I found this wooden basket at the thrift store time ago. It was looking a little tired.
After wiping it down with some Murphy’s Oil Soap. I dry brushed some opaque black acrylic paint over it     
and was amazed at the transformation!

Instead of old and worn out, I have aged with detail

and warmth…

I love it when a little project like this turns out so amazingly wonderful! It took me all of about ten minutes to do this!  I filled it with some ummm…filler…
and now I just need to find the right spot for it! :-)
So, it’s been a winning weekend!
Sharing my wonderful new wooden basket at:


and some of the parties listed in my sidebar like


Come along and check out some very inspiring projects! I found a new link party here:

Thrifting on Thursday

I LOVE a sale…especially a 50% off sale at my favorite thrift store!! Well today was my day!!!!

This is my haul:

 

A little closer…

This is what all is in that pile:

2 sleeping bags ~we ARE going on a family camping trip!

4 bowling balls ~ yes, four! You’ll see them made over very soon!

2 basket balls ~ also destined for a makeover soon.

1 nice metal stand with 3 shelves ~ getting a coat of spray paint

2 nice pillows that match my bedroom colors perfectly!

2 boat towels

A laundry basket,large brass planter, unique watering can, frame, wooden crate, wood curtain rod, a large bag of wooden craft supplies, and I really needed the wood beads and balls for a couple of projects I’m working on! I love it when that happens…I live in a small town with no craft stores and our Walmart has basically no craft supplies and I find my wooden beads at the thrift store!

I also found some really nice, new yarn!

 

It was a very profitable day!

Have you had any good thrift experiences lately??

I DID IT!

Yes! I did my eight months of paperwork and finished our taxes yesterday!!! Yes, I know they were due on April 15th, and yes, I filed an extension. Nothing like a little procrastination and a looooong story, but since they’re done we’ll just forget it, okay? I have freedom to craft and garden now!!!!!
My garden definitely needs some attention and the project to-do list is endless and keeps getting longer! While we were riding our bikes on the Tybee, I found a thrift store less than two blocks from our house! It’s only open three days a week and for two hours each day! They definitely operate on “Tybee Time”! lol I made it in the day we left. I found a couple of things to add to my stock pile.

A bucket, a candle holder and a window like picture frame all haveI  lots of potential!
The day after we got home, I had to go to town…my first stop? The thrift store of course! I found some really good stuff! Two trays, and easel, a metal plant pot holder, a basket with a great shape, I’m not sure what the tall green thing with the sticker is, but I liked it…looks “gardenish”…
  and last, but definitely  not least, my two favorite finds: Two birds nest candle  holders that will look awesome on the porch I will have someday!

And after a week at Tybee Island, I came home to find a lighthouse  that I really like! It’s even similar to the Tybee Lighthouse.

A couple of coats of craft paint and the coloring is even more like the markings of Tybee. Did you know that besides the light at night, lighthouses coloring and patterns are called “day marks”? They help  the ships navigate by day. I didn’t know that til last week! ;-)
The Tybee Island Lighthouse:
My repainted lighthouse:

See? black, white, black! BTW I climbed all 178 steps to the top of that lighthouse! Great view and great exercise!
 
Great family too! :-)

While getting pictures off of my camera card, I found this picture I had taken at our last get together at my sis-in-law’s. This is her water-lovin’ Lab Moses. He will chase any size stick into the water and retrieve it…but don’t get in his way! lol I do not usually capture the Kodak moment, but that day I was lucky and caught this!

This is another project on my to-do list as everyone in the family who has seen it, wants  me to do something with it and give it to her for her birthday! Any fun suggestions?
Out to the garden for a while!

Sharing my finds here:
 

Better Blog Day and My First Topiary!

Today seems to be a “better blog day”…I’ve gotten by banner to cooperate! Yay! I am working on the rest of it! Instead of more complaining, I thought I’d show you something I never thought I’d make or like…a topiary!
The blogging world has caused me to grow in my ‘likes’. One of my new likes is a topiary, specifically this type:

created by Miss Mustard Seed. I saw it and was hooked! So imagine my excitement when 2 days later I walked into a local thrift store and found this for only $1!
Yup, the whole thing was only one dollar! Do you think that no one saw the potential here? Well, six months ago I wouldn’t have either…I would have passed this up and wondered why they hadn’t just thrown this into the trash can! But after my education via blog land, I knew that underneath all that ‘80’s mauve hideousness was a foam ball waiting to be made over and a coat of ORB would do wonders for the urn!
After several trips to  Hobby Lobby and Joann’s and Michael’s with NO boxwood bushes, I gave in and bought two eucalyptus bushes at Michael’s. I wanted to make my topiary NOW! The eucalyptus may go better with in my bedroom anyway.
I pulled out all the old “stuff” and started putting in small pieces of the eucalyptus. Check out Miss Mustard Seed’s tutorial here. I followed it  and voila’:

For some reason it looks a little more wild here than it really is…But I think it will look good in my made over bedroom IF I can ever get it completely made over!
I’m off to take five kiddos to the dentist/orthodontist….Yay!
Why am I excited about an hour and a half trip to the dentist? Because of all the thrift stores on the way…AND a well stocked Dollar Tree! (My 11 year old son is snickering as he reads over my shoulder…)
Sharing this at:

and


Posting my finds later!

My Latest Thrifty Finds

Each day when I take my daughter to work I have the temptation opportunity to stop in at one of our local, smaller (compared to a Goodwill) thrift stores. Yesterday when I stopped in, I found  some treasures that had to come home with me.
I’ve always liked apothecaries, but since I’ve been reading so many creative blogs and discovered all the potential they have, I’ve become totally addicted! I can’t leave one behind, no matter how small.

I also found two wooden,possibly hand-turned candle holders, that will help feed the pedestal addiction I’ve also developed from blog reading.  I’ve always had and addiction to baskets…I’ve just realized how many addictions that I’ve confessed to here…and I haven’t even mentioned coffee or chocolate….
I tried talking myself out of the round metal “basket”, as it was a little higher than what I like to pay, but it kept calling my name and it wouldn’t take no for answer, so I finally gave in and picked it up. This is one of the few things that I knew EXACTLY what I was going to do with when I got it home!

It’s a new home for my decorative balls! (What do you think, Tracy?) They are very happy here as they have lots of room to spread out and they can all be seen. I’d like some opinions, should I change the color of the basket to my other new addiction…Oil Rubbed Bronze?
I didn’t have time to share these finds from Saturday, but I was excited to find them too! Lots of potential in the yellow-framed bead board and who can’t use another bunch of twigs? :)

What have you found lately?