what a mess...

The only problem with bringing home fabulous thrifty finds is that your home can begin to get a bit cluttered. Today I have some major cleaning to do, and since I'm a list person, I am going to make myself a list.

• put away my laundry
• take my donation bags and recycling to Freeburg
• declutter the living room
• put away my sewing stuff and my tools
• clean dehydrator and then dehydrate the green beans and acorn squash

Five things sounds good. I think I can do those :)

today's thrift haul

So I went back to the Goodwill outlet store today with my mom and my sister Annie. I was kinda afraid it would be all the same stuff. I was wrong! (awesome) Their turn over is amazing. I didn't see one thing that I saw last Saturday. (With the exception of the furniture area, but even most of that was different.) I learned two things: this is the best thrift store ever AND if you like it get it cuz it won't be there when you go back. All that being said, here's what I got today... starting with my favorite finds of the day!

Is it fall yet??? I want to rock this amazing outfit we found me! I found the shoes and the hat, mom found the purse, and Annie found the cardi. My favorite thing about this outfit is that all the pieces are legit vintage. The shoes remind me of my Grandma Hilda.

Here's a close up of the hat. I crochet, so I rarely buy hats or scarves, but this one is lovely. It's the perfect shade of 70's mustard, and it's a light weight intricate knit :)

Amazing wood beaded bag made in Czechoslovakia. Eat that China!

Pretty geometric tank.

 cardi 2

cardi 3

Ok, so these are SUPER boring boot socks, but I bought them for my dear husband. They are fabulously thick and will be really warm when Justin, who's a paramedic, is digging people out of snow drifts this winter.

Speaking of Justin being a medic, look what I found this time! Last time, I found a cute BP cuff. This week, I found a stethoscope (which makes heart thumping noises), trauma shears, and two syringes. There were two different Dr. bags, but I didn't like either. I'm just going to have to sew one that's super cute. All I really need now is some band-aids and gauze... oh, and a baby to play paramedic, lol.

Speaking of us having a baby (no, not yet but soon) I found these awesome animal cracker tins. Annie had the awesome Idea to use them as bookends in the nursery! Great thinking Annie! I love it!

This green army blanket is going to provide the base for my nursery rug upcycle project.

I got a zebra, monkey, elephant, camel and tiny rhino for my class.

Recognize this shark? It's Bruce from Finding Nemo, AND he's a puppet! My class is gonna freak!

I got this stuffed animal for me... yeah, I know, I'm supposed to be a grown up lol. It's so cute though. Apparently it's from a show called Maryoku Yummy which is about the land where wishes go to come true. There's a pocket in back where you can put your wishes. I put in two wishes :)

 I'm going to upcycle this little wallet. My sister does not believe I could do anything to make this cute. She thinks it is awful. As is, it pretty much is awful, but look inside.

It has storage galore and is really clean... the front is going to meet my new friend mod podge :)

Finally, I found a really cute little jewelry travel case. This is much nicer than the zip-lock my jewelry usually travels in. 

Done any good thrifting lately?

I really feel like sewing today... I might see about making that Boho tunic I promised you... or a little medic bag... or both... or whatever I can find....

need an end of the summer project?

I was amazed when I was doing my paper work today that it's almost August! Where did the summer go? One of the blogs I subscribe to is doing a 30 day photo challenge starting August 1st. Here are the details.

Thirty Day Photo Challenge by Jennifer at Oh So Lovely

Doesn't this sound fun? I'm not a professional photographer by ANY means. I took one photography class, but that was really just for fun. I'm afraid to commit to lots of blog challenges because they last too long or are only something a stay at home mom has time for, but this. This is one picture a day. I think I can do it, and I'm going to try :) Anybody with me?

one cart worth of thrifting by the pound

I'm feeling very productive this weekend. I found my cabinet plus an extra, and this morning before I even made my morning tea (Chinese green tea today) I found a butchers block laminate counter top, which looks similar to mine for $2. I called the seller, and I can get it today, hooray! Even if it doesn't match I'm going to get it anyway because I really don't want to mess much more with this project. I don't want to go to a custom kitchen store and have to wait a month or so to finish this. I saw some oak grain contact paper that matched my counter top exactly in color, so if this doesn't match at all. I might cover it with contact paper then seal it. It's going to be half covered by our enormous microwave anyway. :)

blah, blah, blah... let me get to what you came here for! Yesterday I went to the Goodwill outlet store in St. Louis: a magical place where everything is .79 a pound. I got a cart full of cool stuff... and here it is!

 A cool bottle top and nipple washing cage

 adorable toy blood pressure cuff

yet another tin, I love tins. I use them for tea and bath salts :)

 cute little dress for my cute little niece

 moccasins for work, will be so nice this winter... yes I know they need cleaned

 stretchy thermal purple target top

chocolate brown cord jacket... love it!

These are too extra long pillow cases which I am going to turn into a boho tunic top. (I'll do a tutorial)

cool vase, don't really know what I'll do with it yet

knifty knitters... just because. 

Journey got a bunny toy, which she is loving lol

Ok, this little dresser/end table I got at the restore not Goodwill. It was $5

ottoman. This is an upcycle in the making. $1 in Goodwill furniture section. None of their furniture is over $15, most is under ten.

Now the stuff for my classroom. This is a water toy for our water table.

These little pencil boxes are indispensable! I use them for extra paint brushes, beads, scissors, you name it.

These organizers are going in our art/writing center. I have two there now, but I've been wanting a few more.

All this was around $9. It was awesome. My sister is in town next weekend, so we are gonna go again :)

so retro

Justin and I have been super busy working on the house here lately. We've painted the exterior (mostly), worked on our garden, installed a dishwasher, a washer, and a drier, cleaned and rearranged things, and done a few small projects. I've got to show you one that we are both loving.

Remember all my wonderful finds from the New Athens town wide yardsale? Well, I got that amazing little record player, and I was trying to decide between fixing the record player and gutting it... we went with gutting it. Here's what we did :)

 This is the infamous before shot :)

 This is my wonderful husband getting those pesky screws out.

And this is the interior... Our Ipod and a little radio. We love it! It has a cool distortion from being in a box. We had a graduation party for Justin a few weeks ago, and everyone was like, "where's the music coming from... omg, is it coming from the record player? that's awesome." We are pretty proud of ourselves.



Now, the project that is driving my nuts at the moment is getting this last little bit of our kitchen done. When we moved in we had no appliances and a weird little desk thing in this spot. We tore out the little desk thing pretty early on because it served no purpose besides annoying me by taking up needed space.

I bought our dishwasher for $35 a few weeks ago. (Score!) My MIL's boyfriend Jim and Justin hooked it up, and it works great. TODAY, I bought this base cabinet from the St. Louis Habitat for Humanity Restore. I expected to pay around $20 for a base cabinet. I could not believe my eyes when I saw that the tag said $1! ONE DOLLAR PEOPLE! That made my day for sure.

 Now, it's door and handle do not match our cabinets, but I am working on that. I'm also working on getting a piece of counter top as close as possible to our existing counter top. Usually Home Depot comes through for me, but it looks like I'm going to have to go to a custom cabinets and counter tops place. This doesn't hurt my feelings too much since I got the cabinet for a dollar. SERIOUSLY A DOLLAR!

Since the cabinets were only a dollar, I also picked up this long skinny one. I've got some big ideas for it, but we will have to see. I'm thinking about hanging it horizontally  in my awkward little nook thing. Also, I think I want to put one of those lift up hydrolic frosted glass doors on it. I might use it to store my tea in. (I am already taking up a whole cabinet of just tea.)


I also went to the Goodwill outlet store. It's a giant Goodwill with bins that you have to sift through and everything in the bins is .79 a pound, books are .39 a pound, and none of the furniture or appliances is over $15. It was amazing! I got a bunch of cool stuff that I really want to show you, but I will have to save it for later. My poor pooch is very sleepy... and I am pretty tired too... sorting through all those bins tuckered me out, lol.

Good-night :)

knock me up :)

I've got baby fever here lately. Justin and I are looking to add a little birdie to our nest, and I've been searching up some baby inspiration, mostly upcycled and fabulous and crafty... so while you puruse my recent finds I have two songs for your listening pleasure.

I didn't put any links cuz these are purely for inspiration's sake. If you are savvy with google though, you can search up any of these :) If you really, really want to find something from here, I can probably tel you what I searched to find it. (AND, just in case anyone misconstrues this post... no, I'm not pregnant yet, but could be soon)

My Wonderland (so far)

Ok, back to that inspiring Pier 1 commercial... let's see if I can find it on youtube and link it... nope not on youtube. ANYWAY, here is our wonderland (so far)

 I bought this swing for $15 in Mexico almost seven years ago. I never had anywhere to hang it until now :) Also, I have one wind chime, yay. I want a bamboo one too and some bells and lights.

 This is how I like to sit while I read. Not the best view, but dappled light and a swinging motion aren't all that conducive to reading, lol. I'm reading Wuthering Heights right now :)

 This is the view to the right. It's a lovely field.

Here's the view to my backyard... notice anything different? We painted the exterior a chocolate milk brown. I love it now. It looks bigger and warmer.

Here's a footless pic :)

Part of my tea garden. This is German chamomile and French lavender.

tiny tomatoes and big daddy tomatoes... I'm going to eat you all!

Justin's peppers (he did water them after I took this picture. they look kinda sad and droopy here)

My filing cabinet planters. You can see my cabbages and mints are doing really well. The mints smell amazing!

My hydrangeas are looking really good. I put up a fence, added river rock, and put in some cute little stakes. They have all almost tripled in size, and they are all blooming.

ta-da! This is where I've been until this 114 heat wave swept in. You've got me back for a while at least, but I do want to get out in my swing and finish Wuthering Heights. I do need to go to the Habitat Restore soon to look for a base cabinet and some counter top. Kitchen project :) you'll see. While I'm there I'm going to look for some globes to make those DIY luminaries :)

I've got another fun post a-brewing, I've been doing an inspirational search for a special room in our house.