Gratitude Box and a Splash of Yellow

There are still a few days left if you would like your family to do a Valentine Gratitude Box (or jar or basket). It's one of my favorite family traditions.

I love having that little pink box brighten up our kitchen on the sometimes chilly, dreary days leading up to V Day.

And speaking of cheering up. Do you see that little bit of yellow peeking out there?

I found a small café chair at the thrift store for $2.50 and gave it a (kind of sloppy) coat of spray paint this week to add more color to the kitchen. I ran out of paint, so don't look too closely.

Here's the before:

And here's the after.

Want to join me for a mug of tea?

The Tuesday that Feels Like a Monday

In the spirit of easing into the week, I'm having a catch-up pajama day over here. I just wrote an article to send to one of my all-time favorite magazines, and I hope they'll want to print it. Fingers crossed.

I've also been thinking about beauty products.

Back when I was spending my parents' money, I had expensive tastes in hair care and makeup. Clinique, Estee Lauder, and of course super-sized cans of Paul Mitchell hair spray cluttered my countertop. No "bonus gift" or "gift with purchase" passed me by, even if the colors were all wrong for me. But back in the 80's, sometimes the colors were so wrong they were right, you know?

It was as I got older (poorer, cheaper, thriftier) that I made the move to CoverGirl, Maybelline, and the occasional Wet'n'Wild product.

Well, at thirteen, thanks to Youtube videos and Pinterest, Margaret makes my previous champagne tastes seem more like Milwaukee's Best. She is familiar with every high-end product at Sephora and is skilled at using them. The good news is, she is introducing me to a few new products and helping me figure out how to keep my sparse yet unruly brows "on point" as they say these days. She also managed to help me look like I'd had a full night's sleep by dotting white eye shadow on the inner corner of my eyes. Who knew?

The bad news is, I am not comfortable supporting a $50 a pop toiletry habit, even though the desire for "bonus gifts" was passed down from my genes to hers.

Her desire for more products/more money led to a little mother-daughter furniture painting adventure, taking this sad little nightstand with its cheap plastic knob:

 To this shabby chic charmer.

Selling it on our local yard sale site means Margaret pockets $25.

Which I think translates to about 1/2 a high-end mascara and hopefully more mother-daughter enterprises like this one!

End Times and End Tables, OR, Can this Friendship be Saved?

I think I’m in trouble.

So my friend Arnebya has been itching to do some furniture rehab. We’ve talked types of paint, good thrifting locations, and ideal shades of gray. For months, she has struggled to find the perfect nightstands for her bedroom, and when she came across some on Craigslist, she sent me the link. They looked promising. Since they were in my town, not hers, I ran over to pick them up.

I was hoping they wouldn’t be too heavy for me to carry to the car. Not a problem. The tables were not just small, they were Lilliputian. And as sturdy as a soggy piece of cardboard. In a word, they were ANNOYING.

(I'd love to show you a photo, but after 2 hours of trying to get one to post, and having it want to break my blog, I've decided to forgo putting a pic here. You may use your imagination to conjure up the sheer crappiness of the nightstands or take a peek over on my Facebook page)

Take that bottom drawer, for instance.

If Arnebya happened to be in bed and needed a little something something from that drawer-- say, um, reading glasses-- and she leaned over the side of the bed to get them, she would surely fall on her head.

Did I want to be responsible for Arnebya’s goose egg? I thought about putting wooden feet on the bottom to raise the stands up a bit, but there was nowhere to anchor them. And that top “shelf?” Puhlease. Not enough room for a lamp! Forget about a box of tissues. Annoying.

I tried to decide whether the nightstands were as terrible as I thought, or whether I was just PMS’ing. It’s not like my furniture standards are all that high. Our nightstands, TV cabinet, side tables and numerous chairs came off of people’s trash piles. Choosy, I am not.

But maybe I put too much pressure on myself because I was shopping for a friend, not myself. I mean, when it comes to shabby chic, I am the shabby, Arnebya’s the chic. She wears high heels, she smells good, and her hair deserves its own Facebook page. She has standards. So I turned down the nightstands on her behalf, and promised to find her something much better and much less annoying.

Except now she has no nightstands at all.

I wonder if she’s mad at me. I mean, perhaps a nightstand in the hand is better than two in Arnebya’s um, you know. After 6 fruitless trips to various thrift stores, with no suitable tables in sight, I think I flew too close to the sun on this one. Sure I’ve had stellar thrifting success in my day. Yes, my chair collection is the envy of the dumpster diving set, but what right did I have to turn down Arnebya’s nightstands? What made me think I could find better? What if she hates my taste? I mean, in addition to our shoe incompatibility, she doesn’t like beans. Eep. I think I’m screwed.

So if you are local, and you have a heart:

 
If you see smallish (but not ridiculously small), vintage (but not fussy), nightstands in need of some TLC, please let me know!

Thrifty Summer Styling

Blame it on the nightly ice cream or the 2 (still) injured shoulders, but late spring/early summer found me with 3+ social events looming on my calendar and a closet full of clothes that were too small. We have a major family vacation coming up, and I knew any new clothes would have to be of the "twice-loved" variety. Let's see how it all turned out:

Wedding #1
Elegant country club setting in Bethesda, MD. Stunning young bride and groom. We will not discuss the epic argument that transpired by the three people pictured below on the way to the wedding.

Strapless dark blue Target dress purchased for $5 at the thrift store. When I got it home, however, I realized I'd over-estimated my cup size, so there was a lot of gaping fabric. A quick trip to the tailor to have it taken in put the dress up into the $45 dollar range. And, it was now so tight in the ribcage,  it was hard to breathe, and laughing was out of the question. New at Target, the dress would  probably would have been about $25.

Win? Not so sure.

P.S. I forgot to get my roots dyed before the wedding.
P.P.S. Yes, Margaret is wearing a brand spanking new dress. No one said life was fair.

Wedding #2:
Outdoor wedding at a national park on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. Perfect weather! Service under the trees, then reception with live music in a big, breezy barn. Gray cotton J. Crew dress from thrift shop $6.50. Cool and comfy, plus pockets for my cell phone. Definite win.

Wedding # 3:
Took place at our annual camping trip in West Virginia. Read more about those trips here, here, and here. Ceremony in meadow surrounded by mountains. Vows under an arbor made by my brother, the groom.

I ran out of time to buy a "new" dress and pulled out dress # 2 again. It was cool and comfy, and this got the price per wear down to just $3.25. Win-Win!

 (Margaret helping bride and groom put flowers on arbor a few hours before the ceremony)

 

 

 

(My big brother the groom)


More thrifty finds to follow!

I'm a Fixer, Just Like Olivia Pope

...for those of you who don't watch Scandal, see you on the next post!

Although I don't look as good as she does in white and off-white, and my mom really died when I was a teenager--  not fake-died, spent decades in prison and then came back to terrorize the world-- I still think I have a heck of a lot in common with Olivia Pope, the main character in Scandal.

Take the vintage oak table.

"Vintage oak table? That does not sound like Olivia Pope," you might be saying. Olivia is all modern and sleek, with walls an icy gray and wine glasses the size of gourds. Oak and Olivia don't mix! True, but here's the thing: there was a vintage oak table in my life, and it was a problem that needed fixing, Olivia Pope-style.

In attempt to earn some money in dribs and drabs to try to shore up our hemorrhaging bank account, I decided to start hitting the thrift store again. On one recent trip I found a beautiful vintage table in perfect condition. I wanted to take it home, paint it, and re-sell if for a handsome profit.

But when I got it into my garage, I felt my motivation ebb. There was no one there to look me in the eye and say, "Get out your paintbrushes, Anna. You are a gladiator! Do what you must to earn the $100 OBO that will surely save your family from ruin!"

So it sat. My husband was not thrilled to see a table occupying his parking spot in the garage. Day after day, when he came home from work he'd push the button on the garage opener, and as the door made its slow ascent, he'd look with fear and dread to see if there were four oak legs waiting for him, and there were.

I suggested that perhaps we could move it to the basement until my painting mojo returned. He said a dismissive yet definitive, "It won't fit down the stairs," and that was that.  Now, as a fixer, I probably would have said, "Let's just try it" especially based on the knowledge that this is the same man who told me this curbside sideboard/cabinet would never fit in my minivan. Amateur.



Eventually, I decided to sell the table on Craigslist As-Is, and let its new owner paint or not paint at his or her choosing. Tim suggested we move it into my office area until it sold, but I prefer to keep active Craigslist items a little farther outside the heart of the home so that my neighbors can hear me scream if something goes down. Good Olivia Pope-thinking, right?

This makes me wonder how no outsiders ever seem to notice the murder and mayhem in Olivia's sphere of influence. Hmmm.

I was actually grateful Tim was out of town last week so the table could stay put while his car was at the airport. That gave me time to deal with two Craiglist no-shows. And by deal with them, I mean write pleasant emails back and forth for several days about the joy of owning this table, truly bonding with my new Craigslist friends until pick-up time when...nothing. It made me think that when I die and someone sends out a mass email to report the fact, there will be a lot of Craiglisters in my contacts who will say, "Who the hell is this Anna person they're talking about, and should I be sad?"

Anyway, with the prospect of Tim's return looming, my inner Olivia Pope sprung into action. Using my already advanced powers of estimation (see: Sideboard, Minivan), I was able to deduce that a solution had been right under my nose the entire time and that Tim's angst over the table could be alleviated rather quickly.

I know this is almost as complicated as some of Huck's computer hacking codes, but stay with me here. If I rearranged some of the crap in the garage and turned the table SIDEWAYS, I would be able to gingerly wedge it against the wall and Tim would still be able to pull into his spot safely. Oh yes.

Tim hasn't mentioned the change yet, but I went ahead and rewarded myself with a glass of wine and a bowl of popcorn for dinner.

Gladiator, indeed.

Word Birds!

Since last we met, I've been dealing with major back pain and a general shirking of responsibilities both at home and at work. Having spent most of the past week and 1/2 on a hard bench in front of the tv, addled with pain killers, I will answer a question you may have asked yourself at some point:

Is it possible to watch too much HGTV? The answer, sadly, is yes. Same goes for Lifetime Movies. Oh my.

But today is a new day, and a Friday at that, so I thought I'd share one project that can be done in the aforementioned prone, drug-addled state. It's inexpensive, fun, and even has a cute name:


Word Birds!

I took old frames that I had previously painted in my favorite colors (heirloom white, black, aqua). I glued burlap to the back, and attached a cute paper cut-out to the burlap. I couldn't free-hand this, so I found bird shapes I liked online and cut those out first. I used old books such as Jane Eyre and a biography of Hemingway for my paper. The flock is a lot larger than this, but I thought I'd share a few today:

The Word Birds and many other home accessories will be joining me at a flea market next Saturday, June 4! I will travel to my friend Theresa's charming store, Stifel & Capra, in Falls Church, Virginia to sell vintage and re-purposed accessories from my home.

Mirrors, trays, vintage jewelry boxes and travel cases-- you get the picture. If Falls Church happens to be local for you, please come by and see me! Hours are 10-2. I will focus on accessories rather than furniture because, well, my back kind of hurts, and I think I can fit more in my 10 x 10 space that way.

Happy Long Weekend! If you are spending yours at sports tournaments like I am, may there be an adult beverage somewhere in your future!

And thank you, God, for all who sacrificed their lives to protect our freedom!

Linking up to:

Fashion Photo Shoot, Take 563

So I was thinking about starting to post photos of some thrift store outfits and get feedback from readers.

I'd be all: "brown boots-- $7.50, sweater-- $4.00, Ann Taylor Loft jeans-- 6.00, Bracelet-- 50 cents" and you'd be all: "Looks great! Don't feel bad that you spend $28.00 on jeans for your nine year old daughter but buy used clothes for yourself. You're looking f-i-n-e."

But I couldn't quite master the whole "taking a picture into a mirror thing," so I asked my 11 year old if he could pry himself from the computer for 5 seconds to take a picture. Whine. Complain. Huff. Puff.

He took this pretty much from Siberia, so if you want to get out a magnifying glass you can see my outfit. Fortunately the distance also shrinks the laundry piled up on the couch.


Then I decided to try what every woman aged 7 and up is doing these days-- and tuck my boots into my jeans.

My jeans aren't "skinny jeans" and the boots have an unconventional zipper situation, so this was harder than it might seem. To gain leverage, I had the audacity to sit on the couch.

THIS did not sit well with Shadow the Dog. Notice the glowing red eyes of the Devil's Spawn:

You see it was 4:18 and she eats dinner at 5. If I dare sit down between the hours of 4 and 5, she torments me by climbing on me and barking until I feed her. Yes, this is the dog we got instead of having a 3rd child. Waah.

So as I tried to shove my boot-cut jeans INSIDE the boot, I had a stinky fish-breath dog all up in my business.

My son, The Reluctant Photographer, suddenly got the undeniable urge to document:

While she may look semi-innocent standing on the floor in the rest of these photos, please KNOW that when my son pressed the button on the camera for each picture, the dog was on my lap. By the time the pictures took, I had shoved her ungently to the floor. BTW, who put my mother's hands in these pictures? Tail wagging. Happy to torment:

Looks can be deceiving:
Going in for the next lunge:

Get out of my crotch! How long does it take to put on a stinking boot?
This smile is fake. I am not amused.
Losing my will to go on. Does the dog look guilty?

I have an idea. Maybe if I just drink my tea she'll go away.
Fat chance. OUT! I AM SO SICK OF THIS DOG!

GO!

FINE! I give up. I will never sit down again. You win. Why don't you just eat yourself into a vomitous stupor?!

Here's the final pic, with one boot on and blurry.

Not that you can see the boot anyway. Sheesh.


Oh what we endure for the sake of fashion.

Saving Money in a Bind

In what could be the world's most boring post, I would LOVE to tell you how to save at least 30 bucks this year.

And if I'm stating the obvious, please bear with me. It's like when I read "Hints from Heloise" and someone sends in a brilliant hint like, "use extra plastic grocery or newspaper bags to pick up dog poop," and I'm like, "Really? Thanks for bestowing such wisdom upon me."

But I digress...

This would be a better post at Back to School time, but I obviously forgot to share it with you this year, and all bets are off for next.

Although a big part of the appeal of Back to School shopping is the smell of fresh erasers, the reams of brand new paper, etc, there is one item you MUST buy used.

Binders.

Each of my kids needed 4-6 binders this year, from 1 inches to big honking 3 inches wide. The cheapest ones at Walmart were about $3.00 each, while most at Staples were in the $8.00 range. Instead of spending $60 on binders, I bought them at the thrift store for a total of $6.90. They were all in pristine condition because apparently, like hangars, binders breed. I'm thinking we'll never have a binder shortage.

Since September I've stocked up on additional binders in various sizes for next year, all at .50-.70 each.

And if you really just love to buy new things, I'm sure those teacher-provided lists will give you plenty of opportunities. Dry erase markers? Hand sanitizer? Toilet paper?

Guess how many glue sticks my friend had to buy for her second grader? 3? 5? Try 60. Sheesh!

Happy Friday!

Deal or No Deal?

So we're trying to rein in our spending this summer. Fortunately we decided to so this AFTER I'd already committed to going to a pricey little conference in NYC called BlogHer. Too late to back out now!

I thought I'd share some of what we are doing in case any of these ideas will work for you:

Canceled pool membership: Savings: $450. Verdict: good call. Our next door neighbor has a pool and likes us! Downside: I miss the Chipwiches and Nutty Buddies at the snack bar. Up-Up-Up side: No need to wear a bathing suit in front of numerous town residents. Yay!

Canceled trip to Europe: Savings: 8,000. Verdict: Waaaaaaahhhh.

Putting cheap meals in our weekly rotation: Spaghetti (family of four, $3), Turkey Tacos ($6), Black Beans and Rice ($3). Verdict: Yum. Side dishes? Who needs side dishes?

Couponing: Savings: $20-40 per weekly shopping trip. Verdict: I am glad I'm no longer passing up "free money," but you wouldn't want to be behind me in the checkout line!

I have not yet gotten into the whole stockpiling and "moneymakers" things, but I am learning bit by bit. These websites: madamedeals.com , mrsmoneysaver.com help me plan my shopping each week by showing me what the best deals are and telling me which coupons to use.

They showcase other special offers, too. For instance, my family got 4 free tickets to an amusement park just because we own a Chevy! That saved us $200!

These sites have also alerted me to fun freebies like free Slurpees at 7-11 on 7/11, which have helped get the kids excited about saving money.

Freebies: Taking advantage of local freebies such as free bowling, laser tag and movies. Savings: TBD. Verdict: Good, but I'm finding this harder to squeeze fun activities in with my job this summer, unless you count taking the kids to work with me fun. I wouldn't.

I think our yearly Library Coupon Booklet program, which offers tons of freebies, will be an epic failure this summer because I can't get one of my kids to read a darn book.

Using Coupon Codes: Savings: varies. I have started doing an internet search before I buy anything, just in case there is a discount code. Verdict: Big Thumbs up!

Tropicana Juicy Rewards: Savings: $30. Verdict: I don't see a lot on there that I want, but I think our one-time savings at our (very expensive) petting zoo makes it worth putting my codes in the computer. I think this will handy for eating out, too.

Groupon: Savings: $50 so far. Verdict: fun! We purchased $75 worth of wine for $25 and look forward to getting more local deals through the power of group purchasing. My dear friend and reader, Lisa G., gets all her manicures and pedicures through Groupon.

Mouse Poop: $30. Verdict: Gross but useful. When Molly found an object of dubious origin in her can of refried beans, we complained and received coupons for free Old El Paso and Betty Crocker products. When we sent the poop in for analysis, Old El Paso called and said it was likely a wayward bean. Hmmmm.

Hail Damage? Hail Yeah! Savings: $6-11,000. Verdict: Not finished yet, but a freak hailstorm we had in May will probably result in a brand new roof for us! This is good news because having just bought a new HVAC system, spending big bucks on another practical (read: unsexy) project was at the bottom of our list.

When we saw roofing signs springing up in the neighborhood after the hailstorm we thought it wouldn't hurt to have our insurance come out for a look-see. Turns out we qualified! We'll end up paying our deductible (1,000) and for any upgrades we want, but getting a new roof for a few thousand dollars will be a huge help to us. Not that you can plan on a hail storm, but it's worth being aware of what's going on in your neighborhood.

No thrifting: Savings? About $100. Verdict? Mama wants to shop! Even though I save a ridculous amount of money by buying my clothes at thrift stores, I 've realized I have too many clothes. Soooo, I'm gathering donations together, being honest about what doesn't fit (too much ice cream) and trying to decide what I really need before I let myself go back to the store.

Homemade Birthday Cakes: Savings? About $35. Verdict? Yum. For Tom's birthday I made a gorgeous ice cream cake (ice cream sandwiches, 3 flavors of ice cream, crushed Oreos), and for Molly's I used a free cake mix and icing tub (thanks, Mouse Poop!) to the tune of big savings.

Covering my roots at home: Savings? TBD. Verdict? Thumbs up. I don't want to start coloring my own hair because I love what my stylist, Donna, does. But as someone who is almost 100% gray, and not a pretty gray mind you, I've started buying Nice 'N Easy Root Touch Up to stretch my appointments from 6 weeks to about 8. Tom applied it for the first time tonight. Doesn't he look excited about saving money in that picture up top?

Beach Trip Off Season: Savings? $1-2,000. Verdict? No longer loving it. For years we have gone to the beach the very last week of the summer, after most kids have gone back to school, to the tune of BIG SAVINGS. This allows us to go in with another family for a beautiful beach house with a pool and a hot tub.

I think this may be the last summer for this strategy because the kids have activities in late August. I also don't like having all of the school supplies purchased before I even get to put my toes in the sand. What worked GREAT when the kids were preschoolers isn't working as well now.

So I'm wondering, do you have any money saving strategies to share?

Before and After

Thrifty Decor Chick is having a Before and After Party today.

Here's my contribution:

I found this old buffet at the thrift store for $24.00 and threw it in the back of my minivan. It had green paper stuck to it and lots of scratches.




Two coats of white paint later, and I now have a great storage piece for my laundry room turned office. In the picture below, the furniture looks microscopic, but that's just the angle of the photo. The buffet is more than 5 feet long and my desk is almost 5 ft. The desk is a yard sale find from my childhood, painted white.

My laundry has moved into that little closet you see in the corner. While I would love to have a big laundry room, I love having an office more. And since my kids share this computer, I like that it is right off the family room. Adding the french doors and hardwood floors has made it seem all the more office-y. My husband made me a big bulletin board (3 ft x 4ft) out of wood trim and I covered it with linen fabric.

I hope you enjoy it. If you like Before and Afters as much as I do, check out the other contributors at Thrifty Decor Chick.

Also featured on: Southern Hospitality and Between Naps on the Porch.

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