This little light of mine.

I stopped by a little thrift shop with my mom today after her doctor appointment and picked up this little lamp. I debated with myself over its purchase, putting it back on the shelf four or five times. I finally bit the bullet and paid the lady $5.00 for it.



I am planning on giving it a coat of spray-paint in bright white (it's actually an off-white now), and painting the little flowers lilac inside... And putting a new shade on it, hopefully in lavendar or light green gingham. I think I will replace the little plastic finial on top with something else as well.

I am planning on sitting this on top of the girls' dresser. So my lovely internet friends, was this a find? Or should I have left it behind?

More pictures!









And for a special bonus, here's a sneak peek at the hardware for the dresser. I'm giving the handles a couple of coats of "dark bronze" hammered finish spray paint.

94/365

Below are some pictures taken of my "new" cookbook. I could not pass this up when I found it in the thrift store this afternoon! There's a lot of good information, and also a lot of laughs within this book. I love the kitschy little clipart illustrations, and some of the recipes just sound so disgusting that you can't help but laugh! I will post recipes as I try them out!

93/365

I went to class this morning, then came home and picked up my mom and Niko for a day of shopping. We went to two small thrift shops and an antique store. I have not been in an antique store in so many years that I can't even remember when the last time was! I saw a lot of lovely things that I would love to have in my home, but some of the stuff in there just made me feel old! I'm only 29... I shouldn't be seeing my childhood toys for sale in an antique store!
Between the two thrift stores I bought: long-sleeve shirt for Cecilia, jeans for Abigail, uniform blouse for Abigail, large iron wall cross, milk glass compote, and two wooden frames. Not a bad haul for a total of $10.13!

Here is one of the things that I did *not* buy today... but who could resist a giggle over an album cover like this?


This is the large cross that I bought. I am thinking of spraypainting it a hammered pewster or oil-robbed bronze. It's a bit too faux rusted brown for me right now.


I had this photo printed out last week at Walgreens. It's a 5x7 black and white print of one of my favorite photos from last summer. I spray-painted this frame today with satin black. I have been looking for nice frames in the thrift stores lately and have been coming up pretty much empty handed. Everything I seem to find is either those very simple thin oak rectangles without much character, or somehow lacking in some other aspect. It feels almost like someone is going through and snatching up all of the pretty ones before I get there! I like how chunky this frame is... I think it really gives it some presence.


I have been loading up my poor mantle with a lot of my recent finds until I can get them in their final homes. Frm the left there is the picture from above, sitting on a stack of Christmas cards that I need to put away until it's time for ornaments and crafts next year. The big iron cross from today, followed by my little Walmart cross. Our letter "K" - still in the box no less! My navy barn star... should I paint that black to match the K and the frames that are all going to be hung together on the same wall? Then my little spray painted bunny, and some of my milk glass/white stuff collection. I'm slowly amassing the things that I want to use to redecorate my house, but I am a long way from feeling like I have reached some level of completeness.

89/365

An afternoon trip to the thrift store with my mom, Dad, and the kids netted a few finds. A "cycling outfit" for Abigail (with genuine Pearl Izumi kids cycling shorts), a cute tank top for Abbi, a replacement Vermont Teddy Bear for Niko (his needs a trip to the Bear Hospital to have a seam repaired), a white eyelet bed skirt for the girls' room ... I think that's it.

Here is Abbi modeling her new cycling get-up:



Our strawberry plants are growing teeny tiny green strawberries!

71/365

Sierra got her stitches out today! She is healing very well from her tumor removal, and is back to being her darling playful self. While we were at the vet, I checked in on Nigel. He is breathing easier and appears to be more energetic, but still isn't eating much and hasn't had a bowel movement. The vet said that he wanted to do another enema, and it looks as though he is spending another night.

Since one of the only ways to get my mom up and out of bed for the day is to take her somewhere, I told her I would take her to the thrift store if she got up, ate breakfast, and took her pills. I was hoping to find more skirts for me, but came up empty. Of course, I did find two below-the-knee length adorable denim skirts for Cecilia and Abigail. They've been twirling around in them and talking about how girly they feel wearing them! $2.60 well spent.

I started this little preemie gown yesterday. I'm at 9.5" long and it is supposed to be 12" long, and then I need to do the little edging and trim around the chest and neck. I hope to finish it tomorrow.

Last night:


And tonight:


Once you get the hang of the skirt pattern, it is an easy project to pick up and take around with you to work on in those "little moments"... the waiting room at the vets, while giving the girls their spelling tests, or waiting for things to come out of the oven... Like the yummy cornbread I am about to go enjoy with my leftover pork and beans!

68/365

Inspired by Kimba's blog, A Soft Place to Land, I decided to head to the Dollar Tree to find myself a little something to spray paint. I found this chubby little bird with an awful paint job... the picture doesn't do his garishness justice. The yellow and orange were nearly neon.



I love him so much more now, all in a pretty coat of glossy white.


After the Dollar Tree, I went through the Goodwill and found myself a new skirt. I've really been wanting to wear more skirts lately (dresses are pretty much a lost cause with my shape), and so I was excited to find one that I liked. It's a pretty floral skirt with green, blue, purple and white... and it was the half-off color tag so it only cost me $2.50!

When I got home, my mom asked me to take her out to a thrift store too. We waited until the girls got home and had their snack, and then we headed out. We ended up going to two thrift stores, but the only thing I bought was this little bunny for 45c. He's getting a coat of glossy white spray paint too!


It is pretty fun to go poking around the thrift stores, trying to look beyond the ugly to see what can be made pretty with just some spray paint. And all of this fun only cost me $4.00 + paint that I already had!

42/365

Hubby told me to take it easy today. He said that I was too wiped out when he got home yesterday and didn't like seeing me like that... so I only did dishes around the house today! I went to the thrift store this morning with Niko, then when we got home I had to take my mom to pay her cable bill. Then she twisted my arm and talked me into taking her and all the kids to another thrift store.

I found a lot of great stuff!
First stop this morning, I got (for $19 total): 3 shirts for Abigail (2 Cherokee, one Limited too), 3 shirts for Cecilia (a tinkerbell with attached hoodie shrug, OshKosh, and some other brand), brand-new brown boots for Cecilia (score!!), and a pillowcase that I am going to make into a dress for Cecilia (really cute dainty floral print!). Then at the 2nd store, for $9: 2 more shirts for Abigail, black boots for Abigail, and a milk glass vase. And Cecilia bought herself a pair of jeans for $2. There goes all the money I got from recycling yesterday!

40/365

It rained really hard today, off and on. I had just called my dad to tell him that I was getting all of the kids ready to go to the store, and it suddenly seemed like the clouds had just opened up. The rain was roaring down. Thankfully it lightened up when it was time to get in the van, and by the time we came out of WinCo it was pretty clear. We decided to take a break from shopping and have some lunch, and it started pouring even harder. Thunder, lightning, pea-sized hail. The rain stopped and we made it to the second market, then we came home and dropped off the groceries and picked up my Mom to go to the thrift store.

Today turned out to be a good sale at Goodwill. All kids clothing was 99c, except for stuff over $3.99 - that stuff was 50% off. We got a lot of great deals! I got new hooded jackets for Nicholas and Cecilia since theirs were really too small for this year (and it was only 47* today! Plus we're planning on going up to play in the snow next weekend). Now their sleeves actually go all the way down to their wrists! Niko's was $3.50 for a Rothschild jacket and Cecilia's was 99c. The rest of the stuff that I got was also only 99c each: a pink turtleneck for Cecilia, a denim skirt and a corduroy trench coat for Sabrina ("It makes me feel like Nancy Drew!), and 2 sweaters and a pair of fleece Old Navy pants for Abigail. With my mom's senior discount, I spent less than $10.

Here's some more pictures of our snowy mountains after last night's snow fall. The snow level was down to 4000 feet last I heard!

30/365

I saw a chiro this morning... got iced, hooked up to an electronic muscle stimulator, and an adjustment. Another two completed projects (pix later), another trip to the post office. We took my mom to the thrift store to get her out of the house for a bit (two frames, a shirt for Abbi, and 2 books, for $6). Stopped by the park for twenty minutes to let the kids run off some steam. Came home and the kids played with the other neighborhood kids until hubby got home. Went to Fry's, picked up sushi for dinner, and settled down to watch American Idol. A nice Friday.

When we walked out of the house to go to Fry's, Niko looked up in the dark sky at the stars and said, "Hey look! God made tic-tac-toe three in a row!" Cuteness.


Toe to toe with Mommy ~ waiting in line at the post office.

Cheesing with the package we were mailing.

Relaxing in the van with my mom while the kids played.

6/365

I have found that the downside of breaking a four-year-old from the finger sucking habit is that his already chatty nature becomes even more chatty. I am not sure there was ever a time today when Niko was quiet for longer than 2 minutes. On the plus side, that foul-tasting No Bite nail polish is working quite well.

We hit the thrift store today. With the impending CPSIA stuff looming ahead, I figured that I had better stock up on jeans and such while I can. I came home with 4 pairs of size 6 girl's jeans, 1 adorable Gymboree sweater, a new crock for the dogs' dry food, and a box set of American Girl short stories for $21. Abbi spent the last of her Christmas money as well, scoring 2 long-sleeve shirts, a small leather purse, and a new-with-tags stuffed horse for $8. If this regulation stuff goes into effect as planned, I really don't know how I will swing buying all the clothes that these kids go through. I probably get at least 75% of their stuff in thrift stores.



Lego Boy!

Zucchini-Pineapple Muffins