Thrifty Miss Priss

This is the Life!

When my daughter was about 5, there was a moment that is etched in my brain forever.  I'd taken her to rent a block buster movie and get a McDonalds Happy Meal.  As I drove home I heard her say from the back seat "THIS is the life!"  It struck me because the innocense of a little child can sometimes remind us to see the little things.

 

Fast forward about 20 years.....I saw this sign somewhere on the internet.  When I clicked on the link It was over $100.00.   

I decided to try and make the sign myself.  I went to our local Habitat Store where the cabinet doors are around $2.00 - $5.00.  I liked this one in particular because it had the raised detail aroun the edges to "frame" the words.   I spray painted the sign in Heriloom While, as this is the color I wanted the text to be.

I printed out the words to see if they would fit.  Then I taped my words to a piece of contact paper and CUT OUT the individual letters.  I know this sounds incredibly time consuming but honestly for these 4 words it took about 30 min. max.  You are also probably thinking "use a cricut machine" ....well I personally do not like how perfect those machines cut letters.  To me, it makes the sign look like it was something purchased new in a store.....made in China type thing.  I wanted slight imperfections in the lettering.  

I adhered each letter to the White Cabinet door, then I spraypainted it in black.  The paint bubbled up in a lot of places.  After about 20 minutes I peeled the contact letters off and this is what I had.  

I felt like it was an EPIC FAIL and decided this would be going straight into the trash.  I was so bummed because I had this in my head forever and it looked awful.

I finally went back to it, and with a lot of sanding, adding some black paint wash overtop of everything, and finally a coat of wax, it looked a little better. 

On Christmas morning I still didn't know if I would give it to her.  My younger daughter convinced me it was PERFECTLY imperfect (like I wanted) and convinced me to give it to "baby mama".

Here it is...hanging in her house.....

And she too has never forgot that time in the car...when all it took to make your life complete was a rented movie and a Happy Meal.

 

- inspiration for old distressed signs started a long time ago when I first discovered Donna at Funky Junk Interiors!

Beverly Hillbillies go shabby chic

one load down about 20 more to go

The space isn't "ready" yet as we'd hoped.  We are waiting on final permit and final carpet removal specialist (ie family members) but we started moving in just a small portion of what we've accumulated.

Yesterday after a quick stop at the Habitat Re-Store I scored some great wood pieces to make a few more signs.  Last night while watching Dear John on my ipad I painted this

I'm so in love with it I want to keep it.  I can always make another but I keep imagining it hanging over my kitchen sink.  This is a huge piece of heavy plank.  I remember seeing this one a long time ago in country living magazine.  I could not find the image online so I just searched around for some inspiration.

Do you all know Donna?  From Funky Junk Interiors?  SERIOUS DAILY inspiration over there.......if you visit her you'll be gone for a few hours....just warning you!

I was eager to get started after the purchase of the wood yesterday.  I printed out the letters on cardstock and cut them out.  My older daughter bought a Silhouette but it hasn't arrived yet.  So I did this the old fashioned way.

I lightly sanded the board.  Then i dry brushed a cottage white on to it and wiped most of it off.  I taped down the letters

This was just for blog purposes.  As I said, I'd painted the board in a dry brush technique, then taped the letters on.  I traced around with a pencil and lifted off the cardstock letters.  Then I sat and watched "Dear John" and painted away.

This morning after it had dried really well I sanded the whole sign down by hand and distressed it.  I wiped on walnut stain and let it sit for a few minutes then wiped it off.

So thats all there is to it.  It's so gratifying to have something turn out the way you pictured it in your head!  Today my husband opened the back door when I was loading the truck and said "hey!  I CAN'T GET OVER that sign!"  Guess he didn't see the vision like I did originally!

Last week I made a sign for our store (WHEN WE FINALLY GET IT OPEN).  I used an overhead projector to do this one

Stay tuned for more Faded Farmhouse goodness in weeks to come!

Different Day Same Story

A really cool cabinet with drawers on the left, and a place to hang things on the right. 

 

LOVE THIS HEADBOARD!

Cute little music cabinet I got from my moms house.  It has a tiny mirror for the top that attaches to the back

The inside of the music cabinet had damage on the door so what to do?  Cover it with old music!

This baby rocker was pretty awful looking when I found it...agree?  I had some opinions from my husband and a male co worker...not to paint it!  Put a DISCLAIMER ON IT NOT FOR INTENDED use!

 

I think it turned out pretty cute!  I put the little Sally Emblem on the back...it needed something (Sally from Dick and Jane)

Cabinet being primed

My prototype of the burlap runners I want to make.

We are trying hard to get everything done and do our "soft opening" the first weekend in December!

I doubt I'll be back here before Thanksgiving.  I hope you and your friends and family have a wonderful day filled with good food, love and laughs!




 

 

Groundhog Day

Ever see that movie?  Every day is the same....day after day....after day?

well that pretty much sums up my life right now!

We had beautiful weather in Virginia today so it allowed us to get outside and spray a bunch of furniture!

Have a nice relaxing weekend!

A paint booth!

I now have a paint booth in my basement!

and here's what I'll be doing for the next several weeks.....

Have a great weekend!

Pottery Barn Cubby Storage-KNOCK OFF

Have you seen these in the Pottery Barn Catalog?

pottery barn

I just love these wall mount cubbies.  I've been in PB several times petting them but think their prices are ridiculous.  I figured it couldn't be too hard to make one...but I'm not good with power tools except maybe a drill and a glue gun.

I've been on the hunt for a few weeks for something I could use to make a knock off cubby shelf like this one.

I thought about using a crate and adding my own dividers...again, not good with a power saw.....

so yesterday I was in the thrift store and saw this.

(do your animals have to sniff everything out that you bring home?  mine do)

 It only has 9 compartments and NOT 20...and it doesn't have a backing on it....but for $15.00 it could be mine.  Now I'm not really complaining but I think $15.00 is CRAZY insane for this chunk of orange-ish wood.  But yesterday was my lucky day and everything was HALF OFF so I got it for $7.50.  After I got it home I realized it even has the exact SAME SHAPE at the top as mine.....with those little curved side rails at the top and bottom.

I spray painted it heirloom white and distressed the edges with a butter knife before it was completely dry.

so this is MY version.  What do you think?  I was pretty happy with it.  I hot glued a piece of burlap to the back, and stenciled the numbers with a fine sharpie black pen.

So here's their version:

pottery barn

and here's MY version again:

all the little white pitchers have been picked up here and there for less than $1.00 each, including that Anthropologie Cup with my husbands initial!  The old crusty Virginia License plate dated 1958 is my husbands birth year and I bought if for him at the DC Big Flea last time it was in town.

I can just see changing this out with different themes.  RIght now I've got all whites in there because I refuse to admit that Summer is leaving us fast.  It's a reminder to me of warm days and cool nights and crickets and fireflies and air conditioning.  

But come November I might be ready to try something like this

pottery barn

Is this not the cutest?  I love the little packages and that tiny little squirrel down there peeping out from the cubby!   

So for an afternoon of spray painting and a little stenciling I got something that I've wanted for a very long time!

Another thing that I've always drooled over is this

It's an Apple ipad.  It's basically a mini flat laptop that you can take anywhere, it's as thin as a notebook. Since I'm so addicted to reading blogs my husband kept saying "you really need an ipad".  But thrifty me kept replying that I was perfectly happy with the desktop computer that we have.  Sure it would be nice to lay on the couch and surf blogs...or take it outside and lay in the hammock....but really.....such a luxury!

Well....my husband and kids chipped in and bought me one for my Birthday!  At first I was insistent they take it back!  The frugal thrifty side of me didn't want my kids parting with their hard earned money for something so extravagant.  But my daughter pointed out that by the time everyone bought me a gift combined it was more practical for them to do this!  So I ripped that box open and I've been glued to it ever since!

Here's my favorite spot to relax and visit you

  

 Have a wonderful week!

  

Chandelier

I've wanted a little chandelier for such a long time.  I have ceiling fans in all my rooms so there really isn't a place to attach one to electricity.  

I found this at Goodwill a few weeks ago....and wasn't quite sure I could make it work.....

I knew right away I would never put candles in it.  I'm famous for lighting candles and walking away and forgetting about them.

Starting to have a vision......

I was going to buy little chandelier light bulbs and hot glue them in, just to fake it a little.  I couldn't find them in Walmart and it was too hot to drive everywhere looking for them.  When I got home I remembered a little box of baubles I'd bought at Target at Christmas.  They are supposed to be ornaments.  I cut the string off them and hot glued them into the candle cups.

  you can see that it's now heavily distressed.  I also tried to drill holes in the candle plate thing up there...so I could string wire through it.  No Can Do......so I just tied a piece of string around it and hot glued it into place so it wouldn't shift around.

I had the chandelier prisms for a long time, hoping one day to be the owner of a chandelier.....so now I guess I am...(kind of)!

I could not get a good picture of it hanging in my bedroom.  The room is so cool and dark and shaded by huge trees.

So I took it outside and hung it above my hammock from a branch.  What a cute spot for it!  If I had another I'd certainly hang one right here!

 Even though it's not "real" and doesn't light up.....I'm still happy with how it turned out.  My daughter immediately said, "oh thats CUTE!  CAN I HAVE IT?!".....UM.....no...

I put a little dab of hot glue on each candle "plate" thing and stuck the hanging prism on.  I can remove those if I ever want to re use them for a REAL chandelier.

I'm linking up to Just A Girl- Show and Share Day   and The DIY Showoff project parade

Have a great week!

I'm lazy and don't update my blog enough

 

I won a fabulous giveaway at Natalea's blog Kandeland!  It's a whole box full of fun things she selected from her art studio for me!  There's beautiful ribbons, laces, millinery flowers....oh so beautiful!  I just kept pulling things out one by one....it felt like Christmas.  What a fun thing to do...and a fun thing to receive!  It was truly inspiring on so many levels.......one being I had no place to put the beautiful things she sent me...because my art room was a MESS.  I didn't want to just plop the box on my desk...only to be never seen or used again.......so I blog hopped and looked at everyones fabulous studios.....and the very unique storage solutions many bloggers have come up with.  I was particularly inspired by Karla's studio, as she's taken so many pieces of furniture and incorporated it all for storage into her studio.  It's very calm and cohesive.  

I went to sleep that night dreaming of a prettier more organized art room.  I woke up and hit the road looking for a few yard sale signs...hoping to find some type of storage to cram into my already tiny art room.

I followed a sign down a long and winding road and ended up at this house

I kid you not!  I about fainted when i walked up the 200 yard private wooded gated driveway.  This home is less than 3 miles from where I live but it looks as if it's right out of a magazine.  

Most of the furniture was sold and there were just a lot of odds and ends left.  The inside was just stunning.  I got the impression the owners were "walking" away from the house.  It's for sale for 3 million dollars.  No joke.  Can you guess how many square feet this baby is?  13 THOUSAND.  I got to go all through the house....and my mouth was hanging open the entire time. It's absolutely stunning.  But with a $13,000 mortgage payment each month...uh...no thank you very much!

I was determined I was going to take SOMETHING away from this beautiful home.  I really wanted to ask if I could go out to the pool and cut the stunning hydrangea bushes that surrounded it (not shown in this pic. from the real estate website)  the blooms were the size of dinner plates! I thought they'd think I was a little weird for asking them, but I came "this" close to asking.

So all I could find were some old kitchen cabinets out in the garage.  They were oak...and old...and spider webby.....

This isn't the actual cabinet...I found it on the web but they looked just like this.  I purchased two of them and wrestled them into my car.  On the hottest day of the year.  I came home and spent the rest of the day outside on the hottest day of the year priming and painting them.  Then I dragged them inside and started organizing my un -air conditioned art room (I don't want a window unit hanging out of the window on the front side of the house so I suffer) 

This is what I ended up with

 

  I placed them on top of a dresser that I use for fabric storage.  and on top of the cabinets I put the book case thing.  It goes straight up to touch the ceiling!  I have to use every square inch of space in this room and I think I'm getting there.

 
ah.....one whole cabinet that will be dedicated just to journal supplies....

  

 
 a sweet little collage plate that Natalea made for me!

 storage inside the cabinets...tins from my moms house

more storage...sewing machine drawers from Goodwill

 More goodies from Natalea

a glimpse of my messy work desk

So all those beautiful goodies I received from Natalea really inspired me to get more organized in my art room.  Don't let the pictures fool you though.  As you've notice there are no "wide angle" views.  Thats because it's still at "hoarder status" as I slowly get organized.

Now for some more beauty.....

a beautiful Catholic House Blessing...that I picked up with the intention to re sell...and don't know if I can do it.  It's just so gorgeous I want to keep it.  There's an inscription on the back...it was for someones first home...from their parents in 1952 so it's quite old and WAY before my time...!!!

pages in progress.....

And this is what I gave my husband for fathers day.  It's an old piece of wood that I found and made into a sign.  The address on the sign is where we met in Georgetown (a very trendy hip area of Washington DC) way back in 1982.  It was a club called the Bayou and it was "THE" place to be in the 80's.  It's since been torn down and I thought it would be fun to have a little daily reminder of where we started way back when.

It's quite rustic, but it's the exact look I was going for.  I sure hope he "gets it" and doesn't wonder why I gave him a crusty termite infested piece of board for Fathers day.

Have a wonderful weekend!      

My mirror is probably famous....

 

  

 

 

I've been glued to the computer watching these videos..... it's all about the process and not so much about the "pretty". I've been spending way too much time on this stuff...but having lots of fun!

I went to see my mom on Saturday and it dawned on me that she probably doesn't really know who I am. She has a faint look of recognition but I'm not sure she knows me or my sisters anymore. I think she knows we are "familiar", she listens to the conversation and laughs at appropriate times but I'm not sure she knows us. I take her a hamburger and milkshake every time I visit, she loves those milkshakes! It's fun to watch her expression when she takes her first sip. My daughter frowned when she read the page above about my mom...she said "you need to stop writing all the sad stuff about Grandma" and focus on all the happy memories you have of her...... maybe she has a point....but after all, it is for ME and not to please anyone else...

In other news...remember this?

found at a yardsale a few weeks ago and now hanging in my bathroom?

Well my husband and I were watching American Pickers and he noticed that Frank was walking around holding the  same mirror at a junk place!  They never mentioned how much he paid for it but I'm betting I got the better deal!  

I've been busy making lots of pillows and more are on the way! I've been lucky enough to sell some in my Etsy shop...that makes me so very happy!

Have a wonderful week!

Drab to Fab...bathroom re do

Two weeks ago I was searching at yard sales for items to use in my "beach bathroom makeover".  I found some cool coral and some shells and a nice mirror.  I already had a whole wall of black mirrors in the bathroom, but anytime I find them at yard sales I usually buy them.

This was my wall of mirrors a few years ago in my bedroom at my old house.  I've added to them since, and kept painting them black.  

After the decision to re do the bathroom into a beachy look I knew the black would not really work.  I repainted all the mirrors white.  

I got a box of waverly wallpaper at a yard sale last year for FREE...and tucked it away and forgot I had it.  When I re-discovered it a few weeks ago it started my mind twirling about putting it in the bathroom.  I knew there wouldn't be enough for the entire room.  I also didn't want to hang it the traditional way, which is vertical.  The stripes are SUPPOSED to go up and down.  But me being me, I like to ask "what if?" and do things totally outside of the box.  So I hung it horizontally.  

The walls in this bathroom are really damaged and need lots of plaster work.  I'm not into plastering so I just slapped the wallpaper right on top of the damaged areas.  Also....all those mirrors are meant to hide MAJOR wall damage where a big ugly bathroom mirror once hung.

Then I stopped at the Habitat for Humanity re-store and discovered a GIGANTIC warehouse full of every possible item you'd need for a home remodel.  I found some white shelves perfect for my beach bathroom, for only $2.00.

So I started bright and early Saturday Morning wallpapering.  By myself.  With no air conditioning.  With one and sometimes two dogs under my feet, in and out of that tiny little hall bath.  I often asked myself why on EARTH did I start all this nonsense on a holiday weekend when I could be laying in the hammock drinking diet coke.

I also let my mind wander to a few weeks ago when I found a bunch of old dirty wood down in the barn on this property.   Because I have decorating ADHD I ran down there to re-discover the old dirty wood.  It was PERFECT for shelves!  So forget about the cute white ones I just BOUGHT!

I scrubbed it all down with oxy clean and then hosed it off and let it dry in the sun.  

Then I went back in to do more wallpapering.

When I got sick of that, I went back out to find more wood.  And play with spray paint.  I found these hooks (what I thought were hooks) at the Habitat Re-Store. My husband laughed and thought I was SO CLEVER to use the braces meant for a stair rail as hooks!  (I confessed that I thought they were hooks and had no idea they were for a stair rail!)

They look like hooks to me!  Wait until you see what I did with them!

I also rediscovered the dock buoys that I dragged home from my parents house a few weeks ago.  I thought they'd be perfect in my beach themed bathroom!

The one on the left belonged to my parents, and it was personalized with their names on it.  They had it hanging on their dock.  A woman at the yard sale tried to buy it and told us she was going to "slap a coat of paint on it and hang it on her dock"  well....my sister said "oh sorry, we can't sell that" then made me take it home.  I had no idea I was doing a beach bathroom at the time and knew it would be jammed in my basement never to be seen again.  I'm glad I have a place for it now.

So back inside to finally finish the bathroom wallpapering.  Reminding myself to never do this again.  ever.

Then I looked up and saw that ugly light fixture.  YUCK.  What on earth can I do with this thing?  

I bought these shades at the Habitat Re Store for $1.50 each.  

I wanted to use them long ways to cover the fixture, but they are meant to be used vertically.  Again, I was thinking outside the box.  So I removed the white round thing at the bottom so it was an empty shade.  I then built a little "frame" around my light fixture

So I could "hang" the shades from the "frame"

     

I went from a plain white bathroom with no charm or character at all to this- (and let me tell you....everything was FREE except the shells from the yard sale and the $4.50 I spent on the shades 

So here you go

  
Don't you just love the FREE shelves I found in the barn?  I coated them with poly acrylic so they wouldn't peel or flake.  Check out the towel bar hanging Vertically on the wall....it's an old flaky board that I scrubbed, varnished and added my "hooks"

   

I just love the horizontal stripes.  So unpredictable.  How do you like the light fixture now?

And I think the buoys look really great stuffed into this old dirty crate....

I just love this bathroom now.  It went from completely DRAB to totally FAB!  My daughter is the primary user of this bathroom.  She was completely against a "beach theme" and wanted to keep it black and white.  She was afraid it would be "too beachy" When she returned home she ran in the bathroom and could.not.believe.it! I think by using the "found wood" it makes it a lot more natural looking and not like I was "trying too hard" to make it beachy. 

Another old board, that was already chippy white.  I used a piece of rope off my clothesline that has weathered for two years to tie the starfish on.  They were a souvenir from my Ocean City Beach Trip last Summer.  I just screwed the hooks right into the wood after I had cleaned and varnished it.  This wall is the one I left white since I didn't have enough wallpaper.

So this is absolutely proof that you CAN re do an entire room for FREE by using what you have, or costing you mere pennies!      

Linking up to

The Shabby Chic Cottage

and for hours of endless inspiration visit:

Nesting Place

The Inspired Room

DIY Showoff