So, I’ve been majorly lusting after this Philosophy Jump Starters Kit for a while. I’m 26 now, which I know is still young, however I am starting to see that it’s time to put more effort into my skin care in a preventative sense. The wrinkles are starting to appear, and if I can postpone it a while that would be really nice. But at the same time, if I try it, I might love it so much that I’ll want to keep using it. What’s the problem with that? It’s a bit out of our budget. Hm, maybe I’ll stick to the thrifting for now, what with the state of the economy and all. Speaking of thrifting, check out these goodies I picked up last week. 
 

I’ve been wanting a fondue pot for a while, and Dustin bought me a new one for Christmas. It’s nice, it’s new, it was very thoughtful of him. However, this one I found for a whopping $2 has a lot more character than the brand new one from Christmas. I don’t normally go for brown, but I couldn’t resist this little guy. Dustin is insisting I keep both so we can use one for chocolate and one for cheese at the same time. We’ll see, I could get a lot of little gadgets for $20 at Bed Bath & Beyond if I return it. 
 

And, oh, how great is this fabric?! I adore it. Not sure what I’ll make from it. Looks like a child’s duvet cover, so there is a decent amount of fabric there to use. It was about $3, maybe $4. How sweet are those purple trees? VERY!

Hope the weekend was as lovely for you as it was for me. The 60some degree weather was certainly a nice change!

So, I’ve been waiting and waiting and waiting to paint the condo we are renting. It took me a while to settle on the colors, but I’m so happy I finally decided to just dive in! Most of the painting will be shades of gray, however, I wanted to throw a pop of color in to make things a little more interesting. Yellow certainly brings that POP! Not normally one of my top color choices, but I’m very pleased with how it turned out. I like that when you walk into our condo now, it’s like you are bathed in sunshine! It makes me happy. I hope it will make our guests happy too! This color is called “Mellow Yellow”, but it’s anything but mellow! Here are a few really less than great photos to share with you. I just couldn’t wait any longer!
 

BEFORE :: In need of some color.

AFTER :: LOADS of color! 

I’m not certain yet if I will put anything else on the walls. 
This “Hi” sign is one of my favorite thrift store finds. (Thanks, Amanda!)
It was only $1.00. Not only offering a lovely greeting to guests, but
also reminds me of Hawaii where we lived for the past 2 years. 
 

Have you ever tried photographing yellow? It’s mighty difficult. These came pretty close to showing the true color, but it does look better in person. I’m thinking of doing some sort of interesting nature inspired graphic on this wall. I think it would be interesting and maybe break up a little of the yellow. For now, I’m happy with this, especially since I’m off to paint the living room now… it will be “Manhattan Mist”. What a lovely name. 

Hope you are having a splendid week so far. It’s almost the weekend!! 

Jar for Email signups., originally uploaded by sewtrashy.

I wanted to share this photo with you. I really have a soft spot for glass items. Bottles, jars, anything really!! It seems I can always find something to buy when I go to thrift stores, and it’s usually something of the glass variety.

Now I must get back to Craft Show #2. It’s pretty dead again this weekend. How does one pick the right shows to sell at? Hmm. Must figure this out. Any tips?

Well, this past weekend was my (our) first craft show. I would not call it a complete success, however it was a great learning experience and proved to myself I can do it! In that sense, I would say we were successful. First off, the show was only about 30 vendors in this Ukrainian Catholic Church. Most of the people that came (all 150 or so) were quite older, and just didn’t seem to be interested in purchasing anything! Not from me, not from any of the vendors. It was beyond slow, but like I said before, the experience was a good one. I am now prepared to take on another show, to put myself out there again and again.
 

Dustin was incredibly supportive through the whole process, telling me how proud he was of me over and over… especially during the two days we sat behind our completely dead booth listening to what sounded like Ukrainian Ska music on one side of the room and Carribean Steel drums on the other… yes, it was interesting to say the least. So, again, we’ll chalk this one up on the side of experience. 

Here are some photos from the weekend. And oh, did I mention? My cousin got me into a show this Friday at an Art Gallery, hopefully more of our crowd. We will see how that one goes! Enjoy! 

My “wibits” and a tshirt pillow. We sold one of the plaid guys.
Made from an old pair of Dustin’s pants. The others are made from
thrifted or donated old fleece blankets.
 

Close up of the Wibits.
My little sister wants this one. 

My $5 Display rack from local thrift shop.
Gave it a quick coat of white, looks good as new.
I think it was originally used to house sewing patterns. 
 

Detail shot on the display rack and cards. 
 

Extra Gocco cards for sale. Picked up the blue metal container
for .69 cents at my local thrift store. I have another matching
SUGAR one that is quite larger for .99 cents. I love the color.
 

One of my new designs I created for a Gocco Swap.
I love this one so much. I think I’ll make it into a tshirt!
 

Make these from glass chips and magazine/junk mail clippings and a little felt.  

Detail of one of the shirt designs.
 

 Tiered Dessert Tray I made from thrifted and donated vintage items.
 

This is what I first saw when I walked into the church. LOTS of sausages.
 

LUNCH! Those potato ravioli type things were SO YUMMY! Pyrohys? 
 

Dustin thoroughly enjoyed every bit of his food. 
Isn’t his hat great?  
 

I’m excited for the next show. I hope things pick up. I did get a lot of great feedback from other wonderful vendors at this show, so that was very encouraging. Oh, did I mention, we definitely spent more at the show than we made! But that’s ok. We found some great vintage items. I’ll share those next week. Until then… HAPPY THANKSGIVING!! 

Just taking a quick break from my making for this weekend’s craft show to share some finds from my thrift store outing Saturday. This is my first show, as I’ve mentioned before, so I’m not sure exactly what I was looking for, BUT I think we snagged some great finds! (Thanks to my cousin, Amanda and my husband, Dustin) We’ll see how they work out for the actual show. By the way, all this cost just $14!! (It should have been more like $17 or $18 but the the cashier gave us a discount!)

*My apologies for the horrid photos, I’m swamped right now. 

Green Suitcase = $5.00  *will be open on the table housing my stuffed creatures.

Black metal shelves = $2.00  *displaying smaller items. 

Picture Frame = $1.00  * used for pricing or a small piece of my art.

Small brown plastic basket = .50 cents *holding some of my individually sold note cards.

Green and Yellow String = .25 cents each   * used for attached price tags to items.

Small metal magnetic board with magnets = $1.00  * maybe for pricing? 

Glass milk jug = .50 cents  * not for show, I couldn’t resist it!!

Small wooden shelf = $1.00  * Maybe used for some cards, not sure.  

Corn on the cob plastic yellow holders = $1.00  *these are so fun, and I love the yellow. Used for business cards I think.  
 

Revolving Display rack = $5.00  * Found this right before checking out. After a coat of white paint, this will be good as new to house all of my notecard packs. 

Along with the above rack, the wooden shelf, black metal shelves and picture frame will all be painted white. And EVERYTHING will be getting a good cleaning before using! I’ll be sure to share “after” photos and of course photos from the show!

Back to making, but did I mention it SNOWED today? Only flurries, but it was still wonderful. My first snow in about 3 years. Hope everyone is having a lovely week so far.

As promised, here are some photos of our amazing finds at our local thrift shop. We picked these up about a month or so ago. Long story short, we needed to get new furniture because the movers destroyed much of our stuff. However, we didn’t have the money to buy that new furniture. One day, we were dropping off a load of items at the thrift store when we decided, what the heck, let’s see what they have. Little did we know we hit the jackpot! We picked up a couch and 2 chairs for $120… total! We knew they looked like they were worth more than that, but little did we know, quite a bit more. 

After a lot of web searching we finally were able to get an estimate of how much each of our pieces might be worth. (Not that we were selling, but we were just curious.) These Sling Arm Lounge Chairs we found were designed by Finn Juhl for France & Sons, Denmark, circa 1950s. We found a pair of them in “good” condition for $4200! We bought them for $10 each!

Bonsai enjoys our super cool Danish Lounge Chairs, too. Although, his little white hairs like to get stuck in that wool fabric. Very irritating. These orange cushions may or may not be original. I am not able to tell based on my research. They need to be cleaned, but in good shape otherwise.

And, here, we have our $100 “couch” which turns out to be a Peter Hvidt daybed, by France & Sons, Denmark, 1960s. We found this online ranging from $800 to $1000. Still a great deal. This daybed is not in perfect condition, but it in pretty good condition. We actually took off the rectangular backrest so the back cushion would sit flush with the wall. It is more comfortable this way. It looks as though the backrest is tilted too far forward, but we can’t figure out how to fix that. We love it still!

Again, Bonsai’s hairs like to get stuck in this wool! I’m considering recovering these cushions to make them more comfortable to sit on. Wool is a bit itchy for me. But, that will have to go on the back burner for now. 

France & Sons logo on each of the pieces. This first tipped us and my cousin, Amanda, off that it might just be worth more than we paid. She was able to identify that it was France & Sons, which narrowed things down quite a bit for us! Thanks, Amanda!

All three pieces are teak wood. The chairs look like they need a little bit of TLC from, well, being over 50 years old! I’ve done some research on how to care for teak, but any tips or advice is more than welcome!

I just have to mention that I fully and completely attribute this amazing find to the fact that God adores all of us so much that He even cares to bless us in these seemingly insignificant areas of our lives. Sure, us finding this furniture dirt cheap doesn’t change any lives, but it does show me that God loves who I am, and He cares enough to bless me with something He knew I would ADORE! How cool is that? I just think it’s awesome. Don’t overlook these little things in your life. 

As promised, here are a handful of old, thrifted pictures frames to match the “new” mirrors I shared here. I really love how these turned out as well. I wish you could see them in person. You lose a lot of dimension adn detail viewing them via my blog.

*TIP: Picture frames and mats can be so inexpensive. I think it is pretty ridiculous. I always scour thrift stores and flea markets for interesting or basic frames that I can revamp to fit my taste. You would be amazed at how many cheap picture frames are out there just waiting for a facelift… and your photos of course! 

BEFORE: Picked up this large frame at a the Salvation Army in Hawaii before we moved. Replaced the photo, but never got around to painting it. This photo was at the top of Haleakala on Maui. I love this shot, but it was not quite right for the freshly painted frame. I replaced it with the shot below!
 

AFTER: This is our little Jack Russell Bonsai. I took this shot of him after an evening at the park where he decided to roll around in the mud! This is in the bathtub before Dustin gave him a bath. I just can’t resist that little face! I think this REDO turned out quite nice!
 

BEFORE: Two more thrift store finds. The one on the left was only $1!! I could not resist. I love the character of the frame too. I think the one on the right was between $3 to $5. Check out the after. There’s that chair again! Just a little tease. I will share them soon!
 

AFTER: This is not one of our favorite photos together, but one of the only “professional” ones, if you can call it that. All of them we are cropped off in weird places. Ah well. It’s still a memory!

AFTER: This one was a great REDO. Do you remember all the gold, even on the mat? Well, I salvaged the mat too! Just painted it white, and it looks great! This photo Dustin took while at the Honolulu Zoo. That was a fun day. 
 

BEFORE: Gold Frame, $3.25
 

AFTER: Clean ad crisp with my sister’s artwork! 
 

AFTER: Detail shot of the frame. 
 

AFTER: This is a collage I created from moving stickers a while back. Blogged here. This frame came from IKEA, but I didn’t think the natural wood was quite right for this collage. I’m glad I decided to paint it!

/////

I would love to see your photo frame revamps! It really is super simple. And, don’t be intimidated by larger pieces that have been professionally framed. It only takes a little bit of work to disassemble these. I’ll be sharing a tutorial on just that hopefully tomorrow! I have a great trick for removing the mat from the photo or artwork without damaging the mat. Stay tuned!

Mirrors and frames I picked up from different thrift stores.

Two mirrors on our $4 thrifted chair.
This find was by Dustin! 
 

I shared a while back that I totally lucked out with some recent thrifting. Well, as promised, here’s a little bit of what I got. 

I have been wanting some mirrors for our place. But not just plain old boring ones, something with some character, and affordable! I came across these mirrors at a local thrift shop and had to snatch them up. The larger one was $8 and the smaller one $5. I think that’s pretty darn cheap for mirrors! The big mirror looked like a pretzel or some sort of bread. It was pretty bad. 

My plan was to slap some glossy black paint on them (along with a bunch of thrifted picture frames that I’ll share tomorrow). I think they turned out exactly as I imagined! Can’t wait to hang them!
 

Here’s a close up of the large mirror drying!
  

 
Big mirror. Let me just say, taping this off was FUN! ha!
Totally worth it, I think it looks a million times better! Not sure
if I want to hang it this way, or flip it upside down.
Any thoughts?
 

Small mirror. Maybe I should have wiped down the
mirror before taking the shot! oops.
 

Can’t wait to share the rest of my finds! Including that orange chair up there. Wait until you hear the story behind that furniture! I’m still in shock. 

I can’t believe I forgot to share this with you! About 2 weeks ago,
Dustin’s 1963 Coke Machine was delivered to our front door. He
purchased it when he was 14 from the money he made as a kid while
shining shoes at a barber shop in El Paso, TX. 
 

The machine is pretty old and in need of a facelift… we have some plans,
first to swap out that old plexiglass sign for a nicer one. We are toying with
whether or not to paint the “wood portions” Coke Red. Any thoughts? 
 

We picked up the yellow coke sign from a flea market this weekend.
It was meant to be used on the old wooden crates. This one was never used! Only $10! 
 

Along with the coke machine, Dustin’s parents sent us a crate of
Mexican cokes! FYI, they are SO much better than “the real thing” here in the US.
They use real cane sugar in the Mexican cokes, no High Fructose Corn Syrup here!
I’m not even a Coke fan, I’m a Dr. Pepper fan, but these are really good!
There is just something about a coke from a bottle!

And yes, we do pay for them, even though we can just open
up the front and grab one. Weird? No, fun!
 

We opened the front of the Coke Machine and
found this note from Dustin’s mom. How cute is that? 

We also had a sign from Dustin’s step-dad that said “NO BEER,” but
unfortunately, my photo of that was unusable. It make us laugh! 

I just love IKEA fabrics. And, I REALLY love browsing their AS-IS section. A few weeks ago, I picked up 5 Dining Chair covers in this great black and white fabric. Not sure what I would use them for, but I couldn’t resist at .99 cents a piece! 

Well, my cousin had a housewarming party this weekend and I thought it the PERFECT time to use one! So, for about $2 total this 14″ throw pillow was born. Hope to have photos for you soon of her place! Trust me, you’ll want to see it!

Pillow photographed on our “new” orange thrifted $10 chair. Wait til you see the pieces we got! What a steal!