My On-Going, Ever-Growing Thrifting Search List

I've been bitten by the thrifting bug. I was previously kind of meh about it because thrift stores always feel seedy and dirty to me, but I'm on the fence no more. I just scrub my hands real hard when I get home. 

How could I turn up my nose at all this goodness??

Anyway, since there's always just an absolute ton of crap to sort through at these places, I end up deciding that I desperately need another plastic animal to {spray paint and "ceramicize"} so my house/life crush on John and Sherry of Young House Love can move ever closer to creepy. Or, you know, I need that broken down plastic child-sized tool bench even though I don't even have kids but-when-kids-come-to-visit-it'll-be-totally-awesome...

So I'm putting paper to pen (metaphorically) and beginning a list of stuff that I want to keep an eye out for when I'm shopping. That way, if I find something that's not on this list, I'll know that I better think long and hard about whether it needs to come home with me.  

• Rolling cart for in between washer and dryer
• Really big drum lamp shade
• Actually, any size drum lamp shades
• Great lamps
• A not-deep shelf or table for entryway
• Great blankets (particularly plaid and wool)
• Mini lacrosse stick
• Good small, storable toys to have for visiting kiddos
• Vanity set
• Old, round-rung wooden ladder
• First edition hard cover Harry Potters (stop laughing)
• Prettily-covered Readers Digest books that I don't have
• Brown leather messenger/tote bag/briefcase
• Two three-drawer filing cabinets

Welcome February!!

Stunning weather this weekend means extra-long Saturday walk with the puppies.
We walked down to the trail and then all the way down and back. 

That resulted in lots of steps! Big accomplishment!

The spoils of my trip to the Goodwill. I got that woven chevron blanket for $1.99! And Hilary's autobiography for $1.29, which turned out to be a very apropos purchase because apparently she retired as Secretary of State?!? What rock have I been living under that I just found out about that this evening!

Got some good lovey-snuggles in with the puppies, very important stuff. 

Oh, and I finally finished the "command center" in our laundry room. My board was inspired by {this design}, but I used foam board covered in fabric
and mounted into a $1.99 frame from Goodwill instead of plywood. 

{McKenzie} provided a couple of printables with her tutorial,
which I gratefully used on my board. 

Did you know that you can write on glass with dry erase markers (and {dry erase crayons}) and it wipes right off when you need it to? These frames were a dollar each from Dollar Tree. 

One of the snacks I made for the Super Bowl were these {PB&J Thumbprint cookies} from Emma at A Beautiful Mess.
She used blackberry jam in hers; these ones are made with strawberry. Delish. 

Got some good Parcheesi playing in before the Super Bowl.
These crazy Texans call it something else, but it's the same game ;-)
And this particular version is home-made and vintage-y, and I love it. 

Clydus needs a mani-pedi.

Salvation Makeover: Magnetic Makeup Drawer-Shelf

I took a break from kitchen organization this weekend and actually finished a project! And it was one that I can really use, because my bathroom is out-of-control messy. It's a little better now though! ;-)

Using an old drawer that I got at the Habitat ReStore, I created a magnetic makeup shelf for corralling all my makeup and keeping it accessible to me. I wore eyeshadow that's not taupe to work today because I was able to get my hands on my other colors! Read on for the details and how to.

A couple months ago, my friend Erica (check out her blog here!) and I went to the Habitat ReStore on our lunch break, and Erica had one of her brilliant ideas: take one of their million old, mismatched drawers and make it into a shelf! I immediately fell in love with the idea and decided to take it one step further. I had seen this framed magnetic makeup board on Pinterest and wanted to incorporate that concept into my drawer-shelf. 

I scrubbed it down and removed the probably 30-year old contact paper lining the bottom. Then, using my handy-dandy birthday sander, I got to work sanding and smoothing.

I filled in the holes where the pulls had been, then re-sanded after the spackle was dry. 

I asked Big Tex to remove the little lip that hung over the bottom (now back) of the drawer. That way it would lay flush against the wall once I hung it up. 

I sprayed it with three coats of Valspar Premium Spray Paint (I think the color is called Exotic Sea). I sanded lightly between coats. Then I sprayed it with a coat of clear acrylic sealer. 

I cut out a piece of this cute fabric I got on sale at Hobby Lobby and Mod Podged it to the bottom of the drawer-shelf. Then I totally dropped the ball on my photo documentation and forgot to take pictures of the metal I put on the inside back of the shelf. It was decorative sheet metal that I got at Hobby Lobby. It was really easy to work with (I was able to trim it with scissors, but I would use tin snips if I did it again because it was hard on my hands to cut it with scissors). I hot-glued the metal onto the back of the shelf but, as usual for me, the hot glue didn't really work, so I had to rely on the screws that I used to hold the shelf on the wall to also keep my metal on (no biggie really, the screws had to be there anyway!). 

Ta-Da! My finished makeup shelf! I got a roll of trimable, adhesive magnet to put on the back of my makeup, but supplemented the adhesive with super glue because the adhesive backing on the magnet is not very strong. But now those little magnets aren't coming off my makeup and it's living happily on the shelf!

I also Mod Podged some scrapbook paper onto two little tin cans (I've become a hoarder of tin cans and it finally paid off!), and put my makeup brushes, lipsticks, etc. in them. And there's plenty of room on the inner and top shelf for my perfumes and pretty smelling lotions and sprays! 

I love my new makeup shelf! What do you think?

Salvation Makeover - Quick Hit

Shower Caddy Under the Kitchen Sink

This shower caddy didn't fit quite right in our shower, but it's perfectly good. So I spray painted it and hung it under the kitchen sink to hold sponges and stuff.

To keep it from swinging when the door is opened and closed, I secured it with these nylon fasteners (I found them in the "Hard-To-Find" bins in the hardware section of Lowe's). 

Salvation Makeover: Goodwill Lamp

Treasure hunting at Goodwill is one of my new favorite Saturday rituals. A few weeks ago, I found this lamp and shade combo that were functionally perfect, but kind of blah to look at.

I bought some gray spray paint and painted the base. Then my friend Heather helped me make a shade template and cut out a piece of fabric using that template. I don't have good photos for the process right now, but I plan to make another lampshade and I promise I will document the process better and post it on the blog.  I was a little nervous about getting the whole thing right and didn't think to take photos! Anyway, this is the semi-finished product:

Why only semi-finished, you ask? Well, I'll show you why:

Arghhhhh! I left too much fabric folded under and it showed through when the lamp was on. It bothered me to no end, but I had that feeling when you finish a first-time project that's taken a long time: I just want to be done with it! So I didn't do anything to fix it right away. But it bugged me so much that I never turned the lamp on; I just let it sit on the table like it was a knick-knack with no function. And I'm not too much of a knick-knack girl. So this morning I decided to make the fix. I ran hot glue around the very inside of the roll that goes along the inside of the shade, then secured the fabric to the glue. When it was stuck really well, I went along the entire shade and trimmed down all of the excess. The result?

SO MUCH BETTER! Now I can actually leave the lamp on. I thought this was a good example of a DIY project that turns out kind of disappointing at first, but is completely fixable. 

Approximate Project Cost

Lamp: $7 at Goodwill

Shade: $3 at Goodwill

Spray Paint: $4 at Home Depot

Fabric: $5.50 at Hobby Lobby (with 30% fabric sale that week)

Total: $19.50, plus the cost of other stuff I already had (hot glue, wrapping paper, etc.)

What do you think of the makeover? After is quite a bit prettier than Before, isn't it? ;-)