Thrifty Treasure Thursday

Edited Note: MrLinky disappeared. I have no idea where he went. Maybe he takes Mondays off. I tried finding out what happened but the site will not even open in my browser. If you played along thank you so much! If you are planning on playing along this week no worries I have signed up for McLinky and already have the code generated and ready to go! Hopefully it will work.

Hey y'all! Sorry it has been a week since my last post. Nothing much was going on and I did not want to bore you. Now we all have a cold and this mama has not been sleeping. Oh well that's how it goes.

I do have some exciting news or at least exciting to me! I just made a new bloggy friend...Marla's daughter Mindy...and we agreed to a swap! I would include a link to her blog but its by invitation only. Trust me though when I say she rocks! I now have not one but two new bloggy buttons! I am so excited that you can now go over to the sidebar....go on over ya know ya want to.... and just grab my button for your blog! I have dreamed of my very own button so thanx Mindy!! Mindy also made me a button for Thrifty Treasure Thursday! You can go over to the side and grab it as well if you like. I am sooo determined to figure out Mr Linky but for now if ya wanna play along just leave a message in the comments section and I promise to stop by!

Now on to Thrifty Treasure Thursday! Back in the fall I fell in love with this initial wreath from Ballard Designs. I just loved it but the price and the fact that it was not a year round wreath kept me from purchasing it.

Back before Christmas I walked into Kirklands and they must have been reading my mind because low and behold what did they have!? They had boxwood initial wreaths! I was soo excited but that quickly turned into disappointment. After several weeks of checking back in they never received an 'F'. I finally asked and they said they were not going to get one in in an 'F'. Well this past Monday I went in and they had their big 40% clearance sale and they had the initial wreaths on clearance. Why would I get excited you may be wondering since they did not even carry an 'F'?

This is why I got excited! I have no idea why it did not dawn on me before that I could easily make the 'E' into an 'F'. So for the price of one wreath I purchased two for $11 and change and quickly drove home to make my new 'F' boxwood wreath!

All I did was take a pair of scissors and started chopping away. Little did I realize there was a thick piece of metal supporting the initial so I had to get the pruning sheers out since I do not own wire cutters.

Now I have a perfect initial 'F' that I can use all year round! To secure the vine at the end I just used some floral wire. It was green but I sprayed painted it brown so you can not see it. Isn't it beautiful! Please ignore the several different paint colors on the wall. Its a project in the works!;) I just placed it there so you could see the finished product.

What treasures did you find/make this past week??

Thrifty Treasure Thursday

I love to decorate but with a tight budget it is sometimes a challenge. I must say though I love the challenge! It takes a bit longer to find what I need but in the end I feel victorious....if that's a word!Ha! So with that being said I have decided to try a weekly posting called Thrifty Treasure Thursday. If I can figure out Mr Linky then I will add him. I thought we all could make a post about what we found this past week that was a steal of a deal or just something you found that you treasure. I think it is always fun to see what every body's treasures are don't you? So come on in and I will share my treasures for this past week!

I have been trying to figure out paint color and fab for the dining room. What was throwing me of was the rug that I had already picked out. I am thinking it maybe easier to pick a rug after everything else has been decided rather than before!? I do love my rug though! I think it was a good choice. I had ordered some toile and gingham fab to make some curtain panels. I got such a steal on the fab over at Fabric.Com. Two 109' panels were going to cost me $53 with free shipping! I was excited. Well that was short lived once Littliest and I visited Tuesday Morning. I had a $5 off coupon and thought that maybe there would be something. I have never had much luck there. Well low and behold look what I found!

For $30 after coupon I got a set of La Petite Ferme Waverly panels that were 98' length! They are normally over $100 if you can even find them. I almost put them back because I already ordered the fab but my gut said no take um home. I am glad I did! Keep in mind that they are only tacked to the wall right now. Then there is still that paint issue. I also will be taking the hem out of them so they make a small puddle on the floor.

Here is an up close of the subtle print. I think it is perfect for my french country theme I am trying to create in our home. They were truly ment to be mine because Faric.com said send um back he fab at no extra charge!

Now on t o more treasures! I sold our old coffee table for $50 on Sunday. Glad I did because I would not have had the money for all of these treasures! I found a gal on the local yard sale site who was redoing her bedroom and she had some fantastic items! I was only going for a few but ended up bringing home a pair of lamps with shades, a full length mirror, small topiary, large topiary and an antique rooster lamp! All together I spent only $6o on it all!

Here is a closer pic of the rooster lamp. The Hubster hates it but I am in love. So fr though I can not find a home for him since he is so large. I also need to find a shade. I actually took one off of those lamps and have it on him but not sure it goes. That and I think I may need both of those lamps for our master redo.

So there ya have it! Come on and share along! If you make a post of your own please leave the link in the comments so we can all stop by and ohh and ahh!;) Now off to get Littliest to school! Have a great day!

Dumpsta Diving

We have new neighbors down the way. They moved in right around the holidays. Last week on the way home from dropping Oldest off at school we drove by their house. Its on our street. As we drove by I noticed their trash waiting to be picked up. We continued to drive by. Then we drove by our house and back around to their house. We stopped. Littliest wondered what in the world we were doing. I said no worries and jumped out of the car. I then began to stuff our....my treasure from our new neighbors trash into the minivan and over Littliest. Again he wondered what on earth we were doing.

This is what we got! Well it had something else in it of course.

This huge "faux"....faux makes fake sound so much classier....palm. When I saw it I immediately knew it would be perfect for the back porch. Something I would not have to water or feel guilty if I killed it. I transferred it out of its ho hum basket to this decorative planter that actually did hold a live palm on our front porch at the last house.

Then I wondered what to do with the basket. This is what the fire pit looked like.

This is what it looks like now! A perfect use for just a ho hum basket!

So not a real dumpster dive but my first time ever rummaging thru somebody's trash. Littliest kept telling me I was stealing it. I kept explaining that they were throwing it away. He then said that it was for the trash men and not me. Its hard trying to explain treasure hunting to a 4 yr old. What is one mans trash is another mans treasure! Anybody wanna come on over for some sweet tea!?;)

This is my next project to tackle since the weather is getting nicer. As you can see I have already started on it. Stay tuned for the finish!