Thrifty Finds

Well folks, while I'm hard at work on my Christmas mantle I thought I would share some of my thrifty finds over the last several months with you!

As I mentioned in one of my first posts here, my sister-in-law, Robin, has shown me some great bargain finding spots and has given me some great tips! She took me to one of her favorite thrift stores...the local Goodwill. We have gone quite a bit and have found some great treasures for cheap! We've also scored some great deals at local garage sales. So here are some of my favorites! I will try to remember the prices for you, but just to give you an idea, most of the things I have bought from GW were around $4. Sometimes less, sometimes more, but the most I have spent is $9. And that was on a good sized picture. Let me start with one of my more recent finds that I love!!



I scored two SLAH (Southern Living at Home) sconces at a garage sale for $3/each. I am a huge fan of SLAH (now Willow House) so I was thrilled! I'm using them as shelves right now, but you can also take off the tops and put flowers or whatever in them!! My SIL actually has these as well and she has flowers in hers:-) Oh and I scored the two plates for a $1/each at a garage sale as well to go above them! I love how it turned out. The plates caught my eye because the colors go well in my living room. I also found them neat because they have French writing on them. I got a pig and goose. I already had the artichoke candle holders and I think they go quit well with them! And I switched them out for pumpkins in the fall:-)



One of my first GW finds was the above candle holders. They were originally brass and I spray painted them. My SIL told me about the Rustoleum hammered finish spray paint that she uses a lot! I tried it and was in love! I have used it on several things:-) Update: I recently broke one of these candle holders so I will have to find the remaining one a new home:-( I see some rearranging in my future! But my SIL has given some good suggestions...putting it in a little nook or small wall, separating two pictures with it, or putting it in the middle of a grouping of shelves. I'll let you know what I do!



Ok, these candle holders from GW are probably my favorite treasure find yet. I just love how they look in my dining room! And they're not something you can just go out and buy! They were pretty easy too because they were already spray painted! And it's funny because they look like they were spray painted with the same Rustoleum hammered spray paint I had been using! So all I had to do was touch them up a bit in some spots where the gold color was shining through. They make me happy when I walk by!



My SIL encouraged me to get this guy when we were at GW. I was apprehensive at first; I liked it, but it was big and I didn't know where I would put it? I decided for $4 it was worth a shot! She even suggested putting it over the toilet! So, that's exactly what I did! And I loved it!! I think what I like most about it is how unique and different is.



Well, I'm not sure how these finds ended up together on my list, but here they are both proudly displayed above the potty (that's my mommy talk)! I love this green glass thing I found at Goodwill! I say "thing" because I'm not quite sure what it's supposed to be? Candle holder? Vase? Whatever, I love it! And I'm currently using it as a candle holder:-) Side note: the Eiffel Tower pic is from an Estate Sale I got a couple years ago and the shelf was 50% off at Hobby Lobby. I'm not sure you can really tell in the picture, but the shelf looks great over the toilet! How did all this turn into potty talk, lol?!

P.S. Sorry the bathroom pics are not very good - it is challenging with no natural light coming in!

Ok, I just realized these are all pretty much candle holders, lol! I am obsessed. I blame Robin;-) Stay tuned because in the spirit of candle holders I may just be giving a very cute, trendy one away soon!!! And don't forget to check back for my Christmas mantle and a little something extra - my mistletoe balls!!

Candle Coozies!

Here is a quick and easy way to spruce up your candles! I loved this project particularly because it was quick, easy, and free! I'm not exactly sure how I came up with it...maybe it was all those times walking past the candles thinking "they're cute, but could I add a little something to them?", or my recent obsession with burlap, or was it that vase I saw in passing on pinterest that was decorated all cute with some burlap tied around it?? Not sure, but here it is!

This project was free because I had the burlap, ribbons, and buttons on hand. I knew saving ribbon scraps and extra buttons that come on clothing would come in handy one day!

It was so easy there's really no need for a tutorial; here's what I did:

-Cut the burlap width by judging how much candle would show and the length by wrapping it around the candle
-Cut the ribbon the same length
-Hot glued burlap ends together
-Hot glued ribbon ends together
-Hot glued button centered on front

Here's a picture so you can see all the gluing going on in the back:



And here's a close-up of each one...you're probably wondering why they are different? Well I couldn't make up my mind which way I liked more! So I did one with the extra green shimmery ribbon and one without. When I ask my husband if he likes something he often says "let it play". Not sure if that's his way of minimizing the conversation of the topic (lol) or whatever, but it has actually been pretty good advice! If I'm not sure if I like something somewhere I just "let it play" for a few days and it really helps me make up my mind. So...not that this is a life changing decision or anything, but I like them both ways so I'm going to let them play for a little while:-)



Here's a good side-by-side shot for comparison. I like the simplicity of the one on the left, but I like the way the green shimmery ribbon creates an outline for the thinner ribbon of the one on the right.



I didn't set out to make candle coozies, but that's kind of what they are! I wrapped them pretty tight when gluing them, but they still slide off the candle pretty easily. I guess it's a good thing in case I don't like them anymore or want to change them out to another candle!



What do you think of the candle coozies? Which do you like better out of the two? Are you thinking about making some for those naked candles in your home??:-)

Gold is Old

I want to share my latest spray painting before & after with you! It just so happened the last few items I collected to spray paint were gold! And no offense gold, but you are kind of out:-/ I'm talking the bright, shiny gold. Anyways, I loved these finds, but they needed a makeover!



From left to right; I found the candle holder at Goodwill for $2.52. I envisioned painting it red or silver for my Christmas mantel! I found this Fleur-de-lis bookend at a garage sale for $3. It still has the tag on it and it was originally from Outrageous Bargains (now called Outrageous Interiors) for $12.99. That is one of my favorite stores so I was thrilled! And the last item on the right is another Goodwill find I scored for $3.93! And it still has the tag as well. It was originally from Wal-mart for $13.96! I was excited because I've been getting more into maps lately. My SIL (sister-in-law) has some in her house that I've always admired, so I was very excited to purchase my first framed world map!



Here's another shot of everything before the paint-a-paloosa! I wanted to show you how I did the painter's tape and used aluminum foil to cover the larger area of the glass. I got this great tip from here.



I decided to do the candle holder and bookend red. I already had the red spray paint and thought it would make them pop a bit! As for the map...the picture itself is very gold and I like it, but I wanted to tone down the gold frame a bit. My SIL suggested bronze spray paint, but I couldn't find any so I decided to try this brushed metallic caramel latte satin spray paint I found at Hobby Lobby (I think Wal-mart has it too). I liked the color, I just wasn't sure if it would go with the picture.

And now for the after shot!



I love how the red candle holder turned out! I'm probably going to use it on my Christmas mantel, but I also figured red, as opposed to silver, would be a color I could use elsewhere in the house for the rest of the year:-) The red Fleur-de-lis bookend looks good, however, it's a little bright for my taste. I told my SIL I was going to do some gold on top of the red and she said there is a crackling spray paint I should try! She thought it would help the red show through and I totally agree. I think I'm going to give it a try next spray paintin' round. If I do, I'll certainly update you! As for the map picture, I really like how it turned out! No, the golds don't match, but I think that's ok. I like how the frame is still shimmery like the picture, but not so loud. And I love the mocha tone. I'm pretty happy with it!



Here is a side-by-side comparison for you. What do you think? What colors would you have done?

Baby Shower Favors

My MIL (mother-in-law) recently helped give a baby shower and I helped her with the favors! The shower was Mexican themed so I searched pinterest for some ideas...I found these cute bottles with tags, which are originally from here.



My MIL liked them!! We came up with Hot Tamales for the candy (since the shower was Mexican themed) and the saying "Sugar & Spice and Everything Nice..." for the tags since the new baby will be a girl and the candy is sweet and spicy! It was perfect!! We also thought it would be neat to personalize them a bit and put "Brittany's Baby Shower" and the date. So we did two labels per tag and did half of the labels on the bottles facing one way and half facing the other way so that both sayings would be on the front:-)



First, we went out to get our supplies:

Michael's:
-Bottles $4/12 pack (with coupon)
-Silver charms $1.99/20 pack

Wal-mart:
-Hot Tamales candy $.98/box (1 box fills 2 bottles)

Hobby Lobby:
-Card stock $.59/Sheet (we bought 4, but only needed 2)
-Ribbon $1.99/roll (we needed 2 rolls for 20 bottles)
-Hole punch $1.99
-Craft punch $7 (with coupon)

Here's what we did:

First, we punched 10 pink and 10 red scalloped circles....



Then printed circle labels...the formatting was a little difficult, but once we got it figured out it was a breeze...just make sure to pick up the right labels (pictured below). In case you can't read it in the picture they are Avery 8293.

We filled the bottles with candy and tied the labels and charms on with a bow. We found that filling the bottles a little over halfway was plenty of candy per person and just fine for the presentation since the tags were going to cover the top of the bottles anyways.

We wrapped the ribbon around the bottle and held the two ends together as pictured above.

Side note: We could not believe we found pink & red ribbon that says "It's a Girl!"!!! It was perfect:-) The only thing we didn't love about it was that it is one sided, therefore, making it more difficult when tying in a bow and getting the right side to show. Something to keep in mind when choosing your ribbon!

Then we took the ends and folded them in half to fit the tags and charms.

And pulled them close to the neck of the bottle.

Then we tightened them by pulling each end of the ribbon at the same time.

We tied the bow and voila! We loved how they turned out!:-) My MIL said they were a hit at the shower and I was so glad!!!

Here is a pic from the shower:-)

And that's not all for the craft punch...

I have lots of plans for my craft punch so it was a good investment indeed! In fact, I've already used it to make some kitchen canister labels! Check them out:



They are kind of hard to see, so here's a close-up:



No more wondering what's in them, lol! And I like that I could incorporate my green and yellow kitchen colors:-)

Happy crafting, creating, and punching!!!