Halloween Inspiration

Oh, I can't wait to have my sewing machine unpacked! I am loving all the stuff for Halloween and Thanksgiving that are coming out right now. I want to make, make, make! Especially this Pottery Barn Kids costume of a ladybug. Madison wants me to make this for her Halloween party at school. Can't wait. Too bad all my stuff is packed up in boxes waiting to move in to the new house. Soon, I think.




I'm especially loving all the Martha Stewart decorating ideas. I can't wait to decorate outside the front door. We just bought some tiny pumpkins for the girls to paint. The following are some of my favorite ideas from MSL that I would love to try with my girls.


These mice would be super cute to put on the stairs leading up to my house.









This ones just for me. I love to spray paint!!!




HAPPY HALLOWEEN DECORATING!!

Scrapbook Expo 2009 Thrifty Finds

I went with my sister to the Scrapbook Expo today and I found some great stuff for decorating my new house. First off, DCWV, Die Cuts With a View always has the best stuff for super cheap. I got some of these last year, too, but this years are way better. These are vinyl lettering, as shown on the boxes. I'm so excited. These were only $2.50!!!!!! They have a retail price of $29.99 and the cheapest I've ever seen them in a store is $24.99. LOVE, LOVE, LOVE!




Then, DCWV also had these amazing wooden 12" X 12" shadow boxes. How much? Only $2.00 each!! Score! These will look great hanging on the wall in the basement staircase. Jealous yet?


And these cute wooden clothes pin clips. I'm going to cover them in a cute paper and/or paint them and attach them to one of my baskets in the bathroom. Or something like that.


All in all, I had a great time. I got a lot more stuff, but mostly scrapbook stuff, so I only showed my home decor finds. Can't wait to work on them. The best part of the whole day? I got bags and bags of great stuff and only spent $20.00. Eat your heart out!

Oldies, but Goodies from Around the House

I was thinking about all the stuff that I have acquired over the last few years, (while putting off actually packing something) and I wanted to show you some of my favorites. The armoire is in my front room and holds my tv, satellite, all our dvds, and madison's v-tech stuff, etc. Keeps everything hidden when people come over. I love it. I bought it at K-Mart a few Christmases back when I worked there for the holidays. It was the only one left and it was on extreme clearance. Lucky for me, they lose things in the back and then try to clean out everything and sell it for cheap. This was $125 on clearance and I had won a $50 gift card for something I had done at work and so it ended up only being about $75 dollars. Yay! It is uber-heavy and it took my husband hours and hours to put together. THEN - My friend who also worked there had bought one for $50.00 a few years prior to that and had never put it together. She was moving and didn't want to move it so I bought it off of her for $50.00. Double Yay!






K-Mart was good to me. I miss the great stuff I got with my discount and clearance watching skills. I got this set of wrought-iron stuff for $50.00 total. It came with the half-table, huge picture frame, gorgeous lamp, and matching picture frame.


I took one of my huge mirrors (K-Mart $50.00) and had a lady sand-blast our name into it. It says Skabelund est. 2002. I like how it turned out.


When I lived in Nevada, I found this little shop that I absolutely loved. They had this cute wrought-iron recipe holder and I got it for $15.00. I use it all the time in my kitchen. Love it.



My parents came to visit last month and I've been begging them to bring my middle school instruments with them. Well, they at least brought one. My old clarinet. It was also my oldest sisters too. It's like 50 years old and I love it to pieces. Can't wait to get it all oiled up and try it out again.



This is the last piece I bought at K-Mart. It's a super cute vanity set that I ended up going clearance and discontinued. It was $200.00 and I used my discount on top of convincing the manager to let me have it for even less because it was the last one. So, long story short, I used a coupon on top of all that and got it for $45.00. It was Madison's Christmas gift. She still uses it everyday to do her hair. I have some plans to add a pink toile skirt to the bottom or something like that, but my sewing machine is packed away and I have never gotten around to it.



I found this cute little wrought-iron wreath holder thingy at the same shop in Nevada for like $8.00.

Thrift Store Finds

This is the project that I'm working on for my husband. He found both of these pieces at the DI for a total of $15.00. He wants them to use as map drawers for all of his fossils. So, I get to fix these up for him. He wants the top and the drawer fronts to be stained an oak color and then the sides of the dresser are formica, so they have to stay black. It has taken forever to sand down just this much, but I'm slowly working on it. I have already filled in the holes in the top of the dresser with wood filler and sanded it down, and then fixed the front edging that was falling off. It might be a while before this is done, but I'm working on it.


This beauty is also from the same DI that I got the desk from. I love it! It needs nothing done to it but a new drawer pull. I hate gold stuff and that was the first thing I took off. It does have very tiny/few scratches, but this sofa table is perfect for only $20.00. It's something that you just can't pass up when you find it.


This is the desk that I found at the DI by my sister's house. It was $45.00, way more than I usually spend on anything, but I have been looking for something exactly like this to go in my laundry room. I love it and it is the perfect size and shape for the narrow room. It is really old and sturdy, too. It has great molding around the bottom too. I have sanded down all of the dent and scratches from the top, but I haven't decided what color to make it. I'm not sure if I should do it off-white or if I should just restain it. I hate staining, I'm horrible at it and it is very messy. I really am trying my hardest not to just paint it black since that would match everything else in my new laundry room. Ackk!!! I can't decide.

Thrift Store Finds & Makeovers

This cute little silver-rimmed condiment tray was only $5.00 at DI. One more thing to add to my collection of real silver. It came with three silver plated italian spoons. The whole thing just needs to be shined up and it will look great.



This is the pencil cup that I found at tj maxx. It just needed something to make it pop, so I painted the "S" white.


I've been collecting these little stacking baskets. Every time I see them I grab them up. I have four so far and they all fit perfectly together. I want to put them in the new pantry, I think. Each one was $1.50 or less. I've priced them at wal-mart and they are close to $9.00 each.


This small pitcher was only $1.00 and the two glass caraffes were the same price. These will actually stay in the kitchen because they are glass and the hubby wouldn't dare take them to the garage. At least, I hope so. It has worked so far. Then, there is the four cute glass jars that I'm going to put into my kitchen on the counter. All were under $1.00 each.




The lazy suzan was only $2.00 at the DI. It needed the bottom bolt tightened, because it was lopsided, but it works great now. I painted it black and decopaged the paper cutout onto the top. I want to add some sparkle or silvery paint over the top, but haven't gotten around to that yet.




I found all these fleur-de-lie and other stuff at Hobby Lobby's 80% section. They ranged in price from $1.90-$2.90. I wanted them to go on my mantle above the new fireplace. One was a mirror and I still want to add a silhouette to it, and the other two were gold. I hate gold stuff! So, black spray paint is what they got.

Thrift Store Finds & Makeovers

I found some great stuff that I just needed to spray paint. Boy, I love to spray paint. The whatchamacallit thingy's that support a bar, finials?, are going into my laundry room so I painted them black to match the desk I'm working on. These only cost me .75 each so eat your heart out!



Then, there are the pillar candles that I found for $1.00 each to add to my collection. They were painted black and so were the salt and pepper shakers. Only the outsides, so yes, I can still use them for food. They were only .50 each.




The little side table we acquired somehow, can't remember, when we were first married and it has been floating around the house for years. I painted it black to match the new reupholstered chair and the cofee table in the front room. Does it look like I paint everything black? I don't really, but that is all I've shown you so far because it is the fastest way to finish a project. I always have a .97 can of spray paint on hand.



There are the completely gaudy gold plant shelfs that I scored for .75 each and I also spray painted them black. I wanted something to put some greenery into at the new house.




The crazy lime-green cabinet door that I found for $2.00 is destined to become a message board. I spray painted it black, no suprise there, and haven't gotten around to actually adding the coarkboard to the center. I think I'll put it above my desk in the kitchen - at the freakin' new house when I move in - if it ever gets done!!!!!?????



I also found this cute little cupcake holder for $2.00. Not sure if I ever will make that many cupcakes cut enough to display, but it will come in handy someday, right?