Shelf Re-do

Please forgive me for posting some iPhone pics! My camera is broken! Accck!

I found this shelf at Goodwill and looked past it's old "country kitchen" appearance to see it for what it could become!

I sprayed it with Heirloom White, then mixed a few differnt blues, watered them down and brushed them on with my Purdy brush!

I left the top part under the shelf blank while I painted the rest and thought of what I should paint there. I thought a word would add a little more interest!

Decided on OCEAN, cut it with my Silhouette, and painted over the letters with the blue after placing them on. Then I peeled off the letters and smeared a slight bit of blue back on top of the letters!

I sanded the whole thing to bring out some of the cream beneath. It was soooo easy to sand since I'd watered down the paint!

I'm loving how it turned out and pretty sure this will go in the guest room. Got company coming in a week and hoping to have it a little more fixed up by then!

Linking up...

Thrifty Decor Chick's Before and After

Thrifting Trips

I stopped by Goodwill today and an antique store this weekend. Pretty sure nothing that I picked up was an actual antique, but I'm happy about my scores all the same!

GOODWILL

A cheese dome and marble platter, cake dome, jar with cork, and two fourth of July-ish buckets that match the 4th of July decor I already have!

The cheese dome and buckets were half off and the cheese dome was the most expensive thing at $3.50! I'm probably not going to use the marble platter under the cheese dome as it was kinda ugly and VERY heavy, but I've been looking and looking for one I was willing to shell out the $$ for! I think I can find a round wood block to put under it and stack on a candle stick to make a cloche! I know, I'm soooo late to the cloche party it will be out of style by the time I get it made, but I don't care!

There was no platter for the cake dome, but pretty sure I can make any big plate work. I think I may actually use it to display a cake/cupcake or some other goodies. It made me want to bake as soon as I got home! The tall corked jar will surely get some shells, rocks or sand stacked in it!

Total spent= about $8

Antique store

A large planter, two lighthouse lamps + shades (one was already displayed on the night stand so couldn't make it to the picture party!), a Reader's Digest book, and a chippy/beachy picture frame.

Total= around $30

I've recently started collecting the Reader's Digest collections that match my decor, and the lamps were the hubby's pick! We weren't even gonna ask about them since they weren't marked, but they hubby really liked them. $7.50 each! He was sold on that, but I was worried about finding shades I liked. Turns out the shades were right behind the lamps and came with them, we just didn't see them!

I tried to get a good pic of the crackley finish on the planter, but didn't really succeed! It will perfectly match my front door decor, and I'm hoping I can revive my gerber daisies to replant in it. I just noticed this evening they were severely droop! Ooooops! We've had lots of rain lately and I thought it was getting to them!

*Hopefully* I'll be sharing what I did with some of these finds soon!

Wilmington Thrifting/Antiquing Trip

We just got back this week from vacation in Wilmington,NC, visiting with my BFF, her sister and their little girls! It was a blast!

I'm soooooo blessed to have a hubby who puts up with my love for shopping! But perhaps its because instead of visiting all the expensive botiques, I'd rather go to the little antique shops (and mostly just browse!) and hit up all the thrift stores!!

We made out pretty well!! The hubby even picked out some stuff!!

We hit up several adorable antique stores, BUT we went to the thrift stores first!! That made the prices of some of the adorable antique stores seem outrageous!

Here's some of my cute antiquing finds, that I loved but didn't purchase!
(click on the names of the stores for more info on them!)

Shop of Seagate

This was my favorite store. On the small side, but gorgeous stuff, some expensive, some super affordable! I wanted to buy almost EVERYTHING there!!

Adore everything in this window display!

Gorgeous, chunky, shabby blue frame! (Hubby thought it was a mirror at first glance!) I could totally see this surrounding some starfish, sand dollars, or something else beachy/nautical! I might even have to make something like this for myself! And there's a peek at a cute bench to the right of it!

They also have a separate room of just furniture that was fantastic! I loved this cute little writing desk!

Thrill of the Hunt

Wish I'd snapped more pics, but I was sooo busy looking! They had amazing displays plus areas you really had to dig through to see all the great stuff! They had tons of brightly colored furniture with starfish on the knobs! So much gorgeous and funky stuff!!

The Ivy Cottage

This place has THREE buildings plus a warehouse, jam packed with gorgeous vintage and antique stuff!! Sorta pricey but some stuff was definitely affordable! There's soooo much to look at! Lots of china, glass, furniture. Beautiful stuff!!

I adored the chippiness of this multi-colored cabinet, and saw several pieces like it!

And here's what I did purchase!

Shop of Segate

I loooooved this little bouy bird house!! The hubby was actually the one who pointed it out! It was way up high on a shelf! The shopkeeper actually said she had just noticed it and marveled herself at the $9 price tag! It's worn, chipping, rusty, and just wonderful!! That cute rusty plaque on the back says "BARNSTORM."

Goodwill and Salvation Army finds

I noticed Goodwill prices in Wilmington to be SOOOOOO much cheaper! While they seemed to have less homegoods stuff to go through, and it wasn't that organized- it was MUCH better selection that my stores at home- or else no one in Wilmington has my taste like it seems people in Nashville do!

Here's the breakdown:

Salvation Army

• $3 -Elephant picture frame (great chunky frame that I'll prob whitewash)
• $1.99- Teapot (can anyone tell me what this is? my mom has bowls like this which is why I loved it but I don't know what it is!)
• $.49 ea Milk glass vases (eeewww dirty, but cleaned up perfectly! I saw the same ones at my Good will for $1 more!)
• $.29 Widemouth Ball jar (hello cheapo!)

Goodwill

• $1.99- Cream and sugar pots- that perfectly match the teapot! What luck!
• $1.59- Wine bucket
• $.59- Halloween candy bucket- perfect for Baby Girl this fall!
• $.69- Snowman bucket
• Lighthouse welcome sign (a little rusty painted part but cleaned up great!)- $2

Vintage Values Finds

This store was GREAT!! It's Goodwill-ish looking and prices on vintage stuff!! Some stuff is a little more expensive because they KNOW it's vintage, but it was still a much better deal than true vintage/antique shops! These stores in Wilmington benefit domestic violence shelters, so that makes it even better!

While I liked all of the stuff from Goodwill and Salvation Army that we bought, I LOVED all of these things!

I'm not sure what the cute little boats are made of, aluminum? They are really cute though! They say Nina and Pinta, but there was no Santa Maria or I would've bought it too!! I just saw bigger boats like it at my Goodwill for quadruple the price! The books are old and amazing- good tiltes even! The little coke canister is from 1992- so practically vintage and it was a steal! The hubby picked out the beer stein- much better than the $40-$65 ones we saw at antique stores! And I think I will shabby up the wooden shell candle holder!

Price breakdown:

• $2 each- Vintage books from 1945-1952 (there will be no tearing up of these! They are still readable classics!)
• $1.99 each- Nina and Pinta boats
• $4.99- Beer stein (steal!!)
• $1.99- almost vintage Coca-cola tin
• $1.99- wooden shell candle stick

I'm sooooo happy with all of our purchases! I really feel like I got more bang for my buck too with finding things in thrift stores vs buying from antique stores! (They just may have had to wipe up more of my drool over all the antique stuff!!)

Most of these things were unusual purchase for me, but they were all things that I loved! I picked up so many more things that I liked, but if I didn't know what I would do with it or if it didn't go with stuff I already had, I put it back! I think I made out pretty well, what do you think?!

I'll soon show how I'm using some of these things!

Linking up!!

Goodwill Glass Treasures

I've been meaning to post about my Goodwill finds, some of which I've already been displaying!

I found these lovely aqua glass sweeties a few weeks ago and used them in my Valentine's decor and now in my spring decor........

The bottle was only $1.99 and the little candle holder was $.99. It acutally has a sticker from World Market on the bottom!


I also found this adorable tiny apothecary jar at the beginning of the year that I plopped on a Goodwill candle holder for my winter decor, and then put it here for my spring decor.....

Then yesterday, my heart literally pitter-pattered when I came across this beaaauuuuty!

(I got too excited styling it and forgot the before, before picture! This is not how it ended up, you'll see that soon!)

I've been dyiiiing for an apothecary jar! A real one! But didn't want to fork over the dough! I praaaayed it was going to be something I could afford! Now, I'm not really sure what the going rate on a good "deal" for one of these is, but I was thrilled with the $3.99 price tag!

I snatched it up, wrapped my arms around it and carried it through the rest of the store while still searching! It ended up being the only thing I walked out with yesterday, and I was happy as could be!

It is actually much larger and sturdier than it appears here. It seems like a quality piece!

Next up, how I am using this beautiful apothecary jar, and how I'm transforming the small one to match!

I've got a few more Goodwill treasures that I still have to makeover before I show them off!

Linking to Centsible Saving's Thrifty Thursday (after all it's HER fault I got into this thrifting, home decor world!)