Feeling Fallish...

Hi There!

While the temperatures around here are definitely not fall like, I've been busy this week putting up the rest of my fall decor. I don't have a lot for Halloween, but that may change if I find/create items that will celebrate the holiday without being too over the top. I thought maybe you'd like to see what I've come up with for the rest of the fall feeling in our home.

First up, I spent a few days creating the wreath you see here. It's made with a foam wreath circle from the Dollar Tree and a large roll of orange crepe paper. All you do is cut the crepe paper into four inch long strips, fold them in half and pin them to the wreath form. It takes a lot of pins, but no hot glue, which is nice. I saw the idea here and had a lot of fun creating this. I did a row of three loops, then a row of two loops and I'm pleased with how it came out.

Here's a close up of the decoration I came up with for the wreath. I'm pretty tickled with it. Burlap cut with a scallop circle Nestie. Gathered lace and gathered ribbon. I did pull out the hot glue gun for this piece.

After I got done with the wreath today, I wanted to work on another idea I've seen out there in blogland. I had picked up some frames from the Dollar Tree and chose papers I liked that fit my decor. I then cut letters on my Cricut with the Storybook cartridge and got this...

Ohhhh, I think adding the pumpkins to the apothecary jar, the wreath and the framed letters adds a nice touch to the vignette I've come up with. Yay! I found those little pumpkins in the jar at Joann's yesterday day. I got a decent sized box filled to the brim with the little guys for $5. 

On the coffee table this is what you see...

I'm not 100% convinced I like the leaf ball, it may be changing (I stuck the leaves into a stryrofoam ball). You see more of those little pumpkins in the metal basket I found this week at a Goodwill in Denver (for 50 cents or so) and I also found that cute little fabric pumpkin on the same shopping trip to Joann's yesterday.

I changed out the flowers heere and added a ceramic pumpkin from the thrift store.

And on the porch, I crocheted a bunch of leaves and added them to the poles. The picture doesn't do them justice, I don't think. 

I found a nice spot for that garland of pumpkin lights. *Ü*

Back inside...

I found this pillow at Joann's too. I admit it, I splurged, but I think it was worth it. I smile when I see it. Oh and the leaf garland (there are actually two strands) were tucked inside a bag of foliage I picked up at the thrift store. I don't pay more than a couple of bucks for a bag and I was pleasantly surprised at the treasures tucked inside!

And another little vignette by the tv. Most of the foliage you see here was picked up at the thrift store as well as the vases (but I got those months ago).

I'm happy with the mood I've created in the house. I don't think anyone else really notices, but I do smile when I look around, so it's worth it for that.

Thanks so much for stopping by. 

Hope you have a great end to your week!

Looking Like Fall and a card for you to see...

Hello there! And a Happy Sunday to you. I've got a few minutes before the Broncos game starts and I thought I'd share a card front I made yesterday.

I did my thrift store rounds yesterday and found a bag of what looks to me to be leather (maybe it's fake, I don't know) on sale for $1.50 or maybe $2. Either way, it was a steal. And I couldn't wait to try using it on a card. First, here's a picture of what I bought...

Part of the bag was filled with these long 2 inch strips of what looks like leather, and this

Two decent sized pieces of this reddish leather. It's obvious it's scraps from a project. Under the leather you see a remnant of denim I picked up awhile ago at Joann's.

And here is the card I made with a little piece of the strip...

I ran it through my cuttlebug and it cut very easily. Then I took a piece of that denim and ran it through. That took a couple of passes to cut. I wanted a layer between them, so I grabbed some green tulle (also from the thrift store) and ran it through the bug, too. I knew I wanted to use the jean pocket stamp from CTMH and I really liked how it looked using the Baily paper pack from K & Co. I added Brown Bag ink to the edges of the papers and sponged a little over the jean pocket, too. Oh and that button! I found it in my stash, and you can't really tell, but the "stitches" on it are kind of gold. To attach the pieces together, I initially planned on using a brad, but I can't find the ones I wanted to use (hence the button). So, I took a needle and thread and tacked them together to be sure they stayed put, then I stitched it to the base of the card front. The button is glued because I cut the shank off. I'm pretty pleased with the look. *Ü*

I've got the card front propped up in front of a fabric pumpkin I picked up at the thrift store last week. 

Here's the pumpkin:

Isn't it cute? I couldn't make it for $1.50! I've got it set out on my coffee table and I smile whenever I look at it.

 I've not taken out my fall stuff yet, but I have picked up a few items at the thrift store.

I just got the fabric pumpkin you see yesterday. Last week I found the wooden one, with the leaves on the top and the other one is from 2 weeks ago. I think I spent $5 total for all three of them!

Here's the bookshelf you see as you walk into the house. I'm developing a thing for pumpkins I think. LOL

And this is a garland that has plastic pumpkin lights attached! All but one of the lights work, too! I'm not sure where I am going to put it as it isn't very long, but for $1.50 I couldn't pass it up. LOL

I also changed out the foliage in the basket I have on the porch with some lovely fall leaves. 

When I go to Joann's, Michaels, etc, I  can't see spending what they want on the fall foliage when I have been sooooo lucky finding neat things for a lot less at the thrift stores.

Okay, that's it from me today! 

Hope you have a super start to your week.

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Thanks So Much, Card and a Thrifty Find...

Hi There!

Thanks for the belated birthday wishes sent my way. You are so sweet!

I've been trying hard to get back into a housekeeping routine, but I haven't quite gotten in the groove, yet. I'll get there, but sometimes I feel like I am spinning my wheels. LOL

And since I finished the top I crocheted, I've been sort of spinning my wheels about what I want to work on next. I've started a couple of things, but not sure about them yet. Looking forward to getting into a groove there, too.

Today Steve and the girls went on their annual hike with our friend Dave, which meant I had a quiet house after I was done with my thrift shopping. *Ü* I've been on the hunt again for some storage items for the crafty space as Steve now wants to use the garage room for a weight bench and treadmill. That means I have to reorganize the storage in the garage to make room for those items. Today, I found something that will work great for most of my non-CTMH clear stamps! And it was under $3! Whoohooo!

I've also got my Nestabilities in there, too. It spins really smoothly and I'm so glad I found it. 

While I wanted to work on cards all afternoon, I also knew that I needed to move a few things back into the house, so part of my time was spent doing that. But, I did manage to create one card before everyone got home.

I let all my magazine subscriptions run out several months ago and I'm not renewing them, so it's been a long time since I've looked through a papercrafting magazine. A few weeks ago, I was inspired by a card I saw on Aaron Brown's  Booth #32 blog, here, She was inspired by the recent issue of PaperCrafts magazine. She took a picture of the card in the magazine that inspired her. Love how that works. Anyway, the next time I was at Joann's, I took a peek and saw several card ideas I liked, so I bought it, with a coupon, of course! 

Today was the day to go through the magazine again and decide which design I wanted to try. As you can see, I chose to use the Cuttlebug embossing strips that Alanna gave me (thanks again, Alanna!). I really thought the embossing looked great on the kraft cardstock on the card in the magazine. I also used the crimper. Can anyone tell me just how you keep the cardstock straight while you run it through the crimper? I have a feeling I once knew, but I honestly cannot remember. The inspiration card used yellow and white gingham ribbon, and I KNOW I have some, but one of my boxes of wound ribbon has mysteriously vanished and I'm sure the ribbon I wanted to use was in that box. Sigh. So, I decided to use this American Crafts ribbon instead. The background cardstock is textured and is from DCWV's Linen Closet stack. I embossed the straight lines and chalked them so they would stand out more. The sentiment is from Papertrey Ink's Mixed Messages set stamped in CTMH Autumn Terracotta.

I was all set to start another card when the troops came home and my quiet time was done. Ah well, getting one done is a whole lot better than getting none done, right?

I hope to be back soon with more to share. Thanks so much for stopping by! I sure appreciate the visit.

In closing, I thought I'd share a photo that Amy took while on their hike. I thought it was sweet.

Perfect Thrift Store Find...

I don't have a scrapbook layout of this, but thought I'd share anyway. You just never know what you're going to find at the thrift store! I hadn't been thrifting for a couple of weeks due to our vacation. But I went this past Saturday and found this:

and we've been making this all week

(okay, so this one is mine...frozen lemonade...yummy)

Excuse the messy background in the pictures...the girls have rediscovered their love of Barbie and Polly. They've been playing almost non stop for days now. Their stuff is everywhere!

Wanna know how much this icy delight machine set me back?

Are you ready?

$2!!

Yep, two whole dollars!

And the BEST part?

When I got it home and opened the box up...it was in its original packaging! 

No one had used it before. 

Whooo hoooo!

Score!

It cost me more to get the sugar free flavorings for the slushies/shaved ice than the machine.

Given how hot it's been this week, I'd call this a serendipitous find. hee, hee

Hope you are finding lovely ways to stay cool in your neck of the woods.

Thanks for stopping by.

I'd better finish my slushie before it melts....

Thrifty Score BIG Time!

You all know my cardmaking stuff is out in a room in our garage. And I know I am totally lucky to have that space. It worked wonderfully when I was a consultant. However, it wasn't making me happy anymore to have to trudge outside and wait for the room to heat up via space heaters in the winter. Plus, when I had to use the restroom, I had to trudge back into the house and then trudge back outside as this garage is not attached to the house. I've used it because it's the space I had, and even though I purged a ton of stuff recently, I just wasn't motivated to head out there anymore. Granted it's only a matter of yards, but when you aren't feeling it, it could be miles for the effort it takes. I really liked it when I had the corner in our spare room, except I felt claustrophobic, so I headed back outside. And you see the result of that, I've not been making any cards or paper crafts lately. LOL The big deterrent for Steve is my stuff looks cluttered and he probably feels claustrophobic looking at it. Granted, I do have a ton of stuff, so I can't argue it too hard.

When I stumbled upon that computer armoire, I thought it could be the answer to my being able to stamp/papercraft back inside the house. That's why I was bummed when it wasn't in the cards for me at the time. Yesterday changed all that!

For I found this wonderful handmade piece of furniture that I felt would work even better than the armoire.

It's pretty big and hard to get in one shot, so I don't know if you can get a feel for it. But here's the first shot I took of my new storage space for crafty stuff.

It's two pieces, actually. The shelf unit is separate. This puppy is over 5 feet long!

And it has three cabinets, with a shelf in each...

Had to put the sewing machine somewhere. LOL

And it has three drawers!!!

I'm absolutely giddy over this find.

This huge thing was, are you ready?

$65!

Let me tell you, I worked for this (and so did Steve and our rockstar neighbor) 

I had to take three trips back and forth in the van, plus one more for the recliner that Steve bought!

That's 4 trips to get all our goodies home.

But it was worth every.single.trip!

Oh am I a happy, happy, HAPPY girl!

Now, excuse me, I have some cleaning up to do around here.

I have to decide which items will be housed in the unit, too.

Happy Sigh...

Thrifty Score #2

Oh my, what work I had to do to be able to post this. Thank goodness for having multiple computers in the house! LOL The card reader on my computer isn't working at the moment. So, I ended up starting this post on Steve's computer, so I could upload pictures. Then I saved it and went back to mine to finish the post. LOL

Thanks for your sweet comments on the thrifty finds from yesterday. I hinted at being able to share another one and possibly two. Well, this post is about the second option. The first one isn't ready yet, but hopefully it will be later today. (I will be writing it after I publish this post, so check again soon).

A little (okay, long)  backstory...a couple of weeks ago on my thrifty hunt, I saw this item and really, really liked it. Only it was too expensive and the color tag it had on it meant that I couldn't get it for half price. I admired it, sighed and moved on. However, I did tell Steve about it. At the time, he wasn't much interested and I dropped the subject. Going back to the same store another day, I saw the item still in the store, with a different color tag and a lower price, but knowing Steve wasn't interested, I admired again, tried to convince myself it was a little too beat up to ease my longing, and moved on. 

Then yesterday, the item was STILL in the store, but the color tag was the one that wasn't on sale. I did see another item that tickled my fancy hugely, and I called Steve to come to the store to take look (this is what I will be showing in my next post). He thought that item was a great deal and okayed the purchase. We wandered around a bit and Steve came to this item. He looked it over and thought it was pretty cool. Only it wasn't on sale. He told me if it was still there next week, when it would go on sale again, I could get it. I was very excited.

I moved along on my shopping and was on my way home when I realized I had a coupon that said if I donated something, I could get one item for 50% off! I double checked and it would work for this item I've been longing for the past few weeks. I'll tell you how much I paid for it after the pictures. I'm still pinching myself. (hee, hee)

Are you ready?

You sure?

Okay, enough suspense. You may not think it's a big deal after all this talk, but it is a big deal to me!

TA DA!!!!

Closed, it looks like this

But open it up and you get THIS!

A new to me computer workstation armoire!

Our next door neighbor is completely awesome. He has a furniture dolly and he helped us move in my new goodies and he loaned us the use of Old English scratch remover for dark wood. That stuff rocks!

And even better...I got this sweet station for $35! No that is not a typo! When I first saw it, it was over $100.

Ahhhh, sometimes it sure pays to be patient. And it helped I'm sure that it looked beat up and was missing some knobs. The knobs are easily replaceable and the scratches aren't too glaring, 

so it works very well for me.

Sigh...I'm a happy girl!

Check again in a bit for my other great find!

Today's Thrifty Finds...

Oh my goodness, I hit the motherload of goodies when I did my thrift store shopping today! Just take a look at all these goodies!! Every single item was 50% off, except for that coffee/tea cup/saucer (it was FREE). I have specific plans for most of these goodies and I can't wait to share them when they are put to use.

This is a close up of the hankie. Love that stitch work for 65 cents!

The placemats will be used for holiday decorating. Maybe 4th of July. Two for $1.50!

I about jumped for joy when I saw this cake stand.

It was $4 on sale!

The bottom part needs to be cleaned up, but isn't it pretty?

And you guys, I'm going to have something else verrrrrrrrrrry special to share soon. Possibly TWO things, if I get Steve's okay on the second thing. I know I'm being mysterious but you'll understand when I can share. Even if the second thing doesn't work out, the first thing is so exciting, I'll still be happy!

This turned out to be a very good day!

Yay!

*Ü*

Thanks so much for stopping by. I am just about done with Jessica's dress, just need to do some hand stitching and add a little accessory or two and then I'll get the girls to show off their new dresses. And I went back to Joann's and found another pattern (and some fabric I just adore) for another dress for each of the girls. Wheeeee!

Thanks so much for stopping by and sharing in excitement over my fun finds.

Happy Finds

I thought I'd pop in and say hi, in case you were wondering what I have been up to. Don't want anyone to worry (Kathi-hee, hee). I have to tell you, I had a super fun time thrift store shopping yesterday. All of the local thrift stores had 50% off sales! But what was even better is that I FOUND stuff! It's one thing to have an awesome sale, but quite another to actually be able to take advantage of it. I didn't take pictures of them but I found several tops and they fit! Whoo hooo! I found a pair of Bass slip on sandals, too, with wooden beads on the top leather piece. Ohhhh they are so cute and were only $3.50! I can't wait for it to warm up so I can actually wear them. The tops I've been looking for have the crochet look to them, at least in the edgings. I got lucky there, because I'm so hard to fit!

I did take pictures of my other happy finds that I thought you might like to see.

I thought this little wooden watering can was just adorable and it was just a dollar. Actually, the flowers cost me more than the can. LOL I picked up a couple of bunches of flowers and a styrofoam square at the Dollar Tree and arranged them to the best of my ability. This is sitting on top of the tv I watch most of the time. I love the happy colors and as I'm working on my handwork, and I glance up at the tv, now I can see this and smile.

Oh my gosh, I am in love with this pitcher! $3 and it became mine! I should have taken a photo of the eyelet looking side by the handle and I really didn't do the water sign justice. I had some extra flowers from the watering can and plopped them in here. Oh, do I smile when I look at this, too!

I'm a bit of a dork and you know I freely admit it. My lack of cultural experience showed when I realized what I thought were neat looking egg holders were actually sake cups. Oops. I saw these two "egg holders" with a sweet little "bud vase" and for a $1 they went into my cart.

This is my new bud vase. LOL Oooh, maybe I should put my glittery eggs in their "egg holders" here. Hmmmmm....

The picture isn't the greatest, because this is a pretty dark corner, but I saw this apothecary jar at the thrift store earlier in the week. It wasn't on sale that day, so I left it and held my breath that it would still be there when I went back yesterday. Luck was with me. Maybe it was the ugly plastic roses inside that saved it for me. I yanked those puppies out and for now have some potpourri from another old, tired jar in here. The bird I picked up this morning from the Dollar Tree when I got my flowers.

This jar was just so neat looking I had to get it. It was only a dollar!

I'm not so sure I like it with the lid on it, which is why I took both pictures. 

Excuse the floors, Steve and our friend Duane worked hard yesterday getting the dishwasher hooked up. They had to go under the house a few times and mucked up the floors. Oh and I have kids, and you often find random toys (Barbie bridal bouquets and trucks) all around here.

One of my thrift store finds ended up smashed to bits yesterday. I'm bummed about it, but what can you do? The girls have been just chomping at the bit to get a hold of the big box that the dishwasher came in. Jessica was messing around inside it and tipped it over. It landed on the coffee table with enough force to smash the little bowl I had here. The other stuff survived just fine, though.

That one there in the upper left corner. Sniff, sniff. It was so pretty.

Oh well, I can always look for another one, right? LOL

I'm still crocheting. See. I've now made 20 of these little squares and I'm not done yet. I need a total of 36, so I'd better get to crocheting again.

So far, the dishwasher is working fine. Actually it was pretty quiet when it was filling with water a little while ago, Steve thought it wasn't working! That is a pleasant bonus. I never noticed the other one being that noisy.

Thanks for stopping by~

I hope you've had a wonderful weekend!