Happy Spring!

What a busy weekend!  Rhonda's wedding was on Saturday so that meant the rehearsal and rehearsal dinner on  Friday night.  Everything went smoothly and the wedding was beautiful *sigh*.  It went by so fast so I can only imagine what a whirlwind it must have been for the bride and groom!

I wanted to post my mantel earlier this week but I was working on last minute wedding details and didn't get to it until today.  The candle holders came from Ross and were $6 each.  The adorable Easter egg vase is a thrift find for $2.  It's by Teleflora and other than needing a good cleaning, it is in perfect condition.  The wooden bunny came from Target and the blue oil lamp was also a thrift find for $1 --I'm a sucker for clear, colored glass and for $1 there's no way it wasn't coming home with me :)

The hurricane lanterns came from Home Goods and were a steal at $20/each.  I added the flowering branches (Michael's) actually as a decoration for the cherry blossom bridal shower I hosted for Rhonda a few weeks ago but I liked how "springy" it looked and decided to leave it up I left it.  The ceramic basket and bunny are also thrift finds.  The basket was in rough shape.  It was painted with some sort of glaze but it had yellowed which made it looked stained --and not in a good way.  It also had floral foam glue inside with what looked like a pine-needle bed stuck to the foam.  It looked like some sort of weird Easter/Christmas arrangement which I'm guessing is why for $3 it sat in the thrift store for a few weeks before I finally decided to bring it home and try my hand at a re-do.  I scrubbed it down, dug out all the floral foam from inside and sanded off the glue, then spray-painted 3 coats of Krylon white gloss paint with primer.  It looks fabulous!

The bunny was $3 and besides a small chip on the bottom of the mold, it is otherwise perfect and I love the pink bead eyes!  The grass mat inside the basket is from Hobby Lobby and my sis bought the eggs (Hobby Lobby too --Thanks again Shell :) ).

I hope your week is a good one!

Thrifty Finds! *AND* Our New Kitten :) - ***warning - pic heavy!***

Happy Spring All!  Although here in Virginia it's more like summer -- 80 degrees --this is some crazy weather!  I have some great finds from this weekend to share but first I have to show you the latest addition to the family, our new kitten, Sushi:

Sushi - 7 months

Technically, he's Jenna kitten but since she lives with us, I get to play with him and snuggle with him but Jen has to scoop the litter pan - LOL - so really, he is like my grand kitty :)  Jenna adopted him from "Last Chance Rescue" and under the terms of the adoption, Sushi cannot be declawed and he must be an indoor cat.  He was already neutered and our vet has given him a clean bill of health.  No feline leukemia so no worries bringing him in and around Lily...although Lily isn't sure about him either way.  We also have three dogs and Sushi loves them!  He was not at all afraid of them and of course they are great with cats so I didn't worry about them terrorizing him.  I haven't posted pics of our pups before so here they are:

Bailey, our 11 year pomeranian:

and Bixley, our 7 year old rat terrier:

and Denny, our 4 year old boxer:

and of course, I can pass up the chance to post a pic of Lily!  Here she is perched on the back of the recliner in my craft room:

and just for fun, here's Lily with laser-eyes - YIKES!  Jenna snapped this with her cell phone and, yeah, it's a little unnerving - LOL!

Lily doesn't like to "play" with the new kitten but she is really interested in everything he does.  He pretty much ignores her but every once in awhile, he'll chase her for sport - LOL!  But Lil' always comes back to keep an eye on him so I think that in time they will be friends (I'm hoping, anyway). 

Ok, so enough about our furbabies and on to my thrifty finds this week!

I totally had the luck of the Irish on Saturday!  My first fabby find of the day was the 1936 hand-painted peacocks:

and this is what is written on the back:

Isn't that so neat?  It's also a little sad; to think this may have been something very sentimental and treasured and there it was just thrown in among all the other discarded home decor :(  It's 76 years old!  It should be treated with more respect, no?  ;)  This is why I brought it home and it is now displayed in my living room.  I did remove the matting because it was water-stained and the painting looks far more vibrant without it.  

The next finds were the vases.  I mentioned last week my obsession with colored glass and vintage glass so these were right up my alley.  The pink of the FTD vase is really subtle but so pretty.  I see lots of Teleflora, FTD, and Edible Arrangements items while thrifting and they are some of the prettiest and cutest designs!  I have two other vases (Telefora) that I picked up awhile ago (before I decided to blog about it!) and I will be sharing one of them this week when I do my "spring mantel" post :).  The other vase is vintage hobnail milk glass by Brody.

Next up is the casserole dish:

Isn't this graphic so simple and cute?  And it's milk glass - win/win!   Now I want the whole set ;) 

Finally, I walked into the Salvation Army thrift store and these beauties hollered my name - "yoo hoo, Lisa, look at our teal gorgeousness - we'll look great in your kitchen..."  NAB...that's me grabbing them off the shelf in a death clutch - Ha ha :)  I also scored an aqua glass mixing bowl (seen in the pic of the day's haul) and it's stamped "made in France."  I don't know anything about it other than it's super heavy and AQUA :) oh, and it was $2.  

I hope you have a lovely week!

Lisa

  

Thrifty Finds!

So I thought it would be fun to start sharing pics of the things found on my thrifting excursions.  It's amazing the wonderful things you can find and for such little cost.  One man's trash is another man's treasure - Yup, that's true :)   Here is my latest haul from Goodwill:

The picture is particularly special to me as it is the same one that hangs in the guest bedroom at my sister's house :)  It was $20.  I'm leaning toward hanging it in the guest bedroom too because it has such a peaceful feel to it but I enjoy looking at it so the family room is also a contender.  What do you think?

It's probably better if I come clean now and tell you that I have an obsession with aqua Ball jars.  I love colored glass and look how gorgeous aqua jars look against the backsplash in the kitchen:

Here's a closer look at the ones I found today.  The tall jar was $2 and the small ones were each $1--oh such joy for $5 ;)  The baking dish was $1 and so was the cross-stitched chicken sampler:

The little duckie is in perfect condition and just in time for Easter :)  He was $1.  The ornament made of resin hydrangeas was $2 and while I'm not 100% sure how to display it, I liked it and decided I would figure it out.  My other weakness is vintage glass - depression, milk, cut, carnival  - I love it all.  So, when I saw the Brody hobnail bud vase for $1 I knew it was coming home with me as was the pedestal vase!

  

I am looking forward to the weekend.  I will be working on the programs for Rhonda's wedding.  What are you up to?

Happy Thrifting (and Crafting!) ;)

Lisa