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!

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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. 

Today, we woke up at 4am to volunteer at Crafty Bastards Arts & Crafts Fair in DC. This is one of our awesome gift bags! We worked the 5am – 10am shift, but ended up working until 11am. No problem though, because we were lucky enough to hook up with Art Whino around 7am and stuck it out with them setting up their MASSIVE collection of art. Did I mention I wanted to buy every SINGLE piece!? Susanna, Annie and Darrell were all really awesome people to work with too. I’m so happy we met them! We did end up buying the piece below for Dustin. It’s so fun, very different than anything else we have on our walls! 
 

“Danosaur” by Daniel Fleres.
 

After we finished up with the Art Whino Crew, of course we did some SHOPPING! I have such a hard time deciding what to buy. Everyone is so talented, with SO many wonderful items. Take a look at my new wares!
 

Recycled Skateboard Earrings by Claire Mcdermott.

Cute little yellow earrings by Jenny Wren.

Snazzy new bag by Barry’s Farm.
 

Detail shot of snazzy new bag by Barry’s Farm.

New clutch purse by Barry’s Farm.

Little felt button by Miss Chief Productions.

Did I mention that by volunteering Dustin and I were BOTH entered in a drawing for a FREE, UNJURIED BOOTH for next year’s Crafty Bastards! I’m trying not to get my hopes up too much, but man that would be flippin’ sweet! Especially considering they get like 400 applicants but only accept 100. *fingers crossed*

Oh, and stupid us… we were so tired this morning we totally forgot our camera! No pictures of the actual event… AGAIN! Maybe next year!

**Check out all the VENDORS here**

I’m not sure where I saw this idea for using contact paper to cover your old food cans, but I have been trying to find time to try it for a couple months.

Finally did and it was so easy… here I’ve used it not only as an organizing element, but also as a little flower pot on our “brand new” thrifted table we purchased this week for $8!! I love cool cheap furniture.

I wonder what else could I cover in wood grain contact paper… HMMMMM????

Alright, so I couldn’t just throw out that cute potato stamp. Instead, I got another use out of it. Not quite as cute as the skirt, but I thought it came out ok. I made this drawstring bag to house our fabric paints. I used an old khaki pant leg of my husbands. (it had already been cut off!) It’s sturdy enough to hold a lot of things! I am happy with it, although not completely thrilled. I do like the yellow dots. (made those with a pencil eraser)