Today's Thrifty Treasures

Thanks to Rhoda @ Southern Hospitality for hosting this fun event. Be sure to go check her blog to see a list of all the treasures everyone has found this past week.

I don't usually do garage sales because I usually either see mostly clothes or furniture and I couldn't fit another piece of furniture in this house with a shoe horn. However I passed one the other day that had a big table of dishes, so of course I had to stop. I found a few treasures that I just had to have.




Look at these wonderful candlesticks. I've seen similar ones at Home Goods and Ross but they were usually pretty expensive and I didn't want to spend that kind of money. These beauties are huge and were $3 ea. I think they're great on the dining room table. Love them.


Now this was my REAL TREASURE!!! I am just crazy about it. A birdie topped cloche and glass plate. It is also huge, over l4 inches tall. I have been wanting a cloche and they are always really expensive. I know I've seen this one somewhere, but I don't remember where. I got this one for $10. I think that's a really great price. Ok now ladies, I don't know what to put inside it, so I need lots of suggestions and help.


This is what I've done so far, a little birdhouse and some forsythia. It's ok, but I think could be a whole bunch better. Now since I see so many of you ladies have these wonderful cloches and have them decorated so beautifully, maybe one of you will do a meme and have everyone post their cloche and ideas on how to decorate with them. That would be a lot of fun and give everyone a lot of inspirational ideas. So, ok, who's game?


I also got this small cloche and plate with the little figurine in it for $2. It is really small, but I just couldn't pass it up. I love the finial top on it.


She also had these 6 bowls that are brown and white with a pretty farm scene on them. They say English Ironstone Ltd. I don't know the pattern name. If any of you do I would really appreciate it. You can enlarge the pic to see the details.


They are wonderful soup bowls and all in perfect condition. These were $2 for all six.So my total came to $20 for the lot. I was really proud of myself. She had a lot of pretty furniture also, not my style, but obviously this lady had great taste.


I love this pretty dish. It is my latest GW find. I think it will be gorgeous to serve rolls in or maybe napkins rolled with the silverware for a buffet. It was $4.

That was my weeks shopping and thrifting treasures. I really think I did good.
Thanks for stopping by, I so enjoy your visits and hope you'll come back soon.

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Lampapalooza Party!

Thanks to The Nester, http://nestingplacenc.blogspot.com/ , for hosting a lamp party! I was very busy this week and didn't put together the post I had planned. However, I'm dropping in at the last minute with this quickie.


Two of my favourite lamps are these I assembled with old blue Crown canning jars. I love the wavy effect of the glass and the blue colour. I bought the cord and lamp kits at a local country store and with a bit of adjustment they fit the larger size jars well. I like the narrower shades I found, the wider style I originally tried seemed too wide. I'm keeping an eye out for similar sized shades in a more rustic style (or I may try covering these in burlap or something.) They are in my undecorated hobby room at present waiting for final placement in the room after I finish painting and decorating (this is taking waaaay longer than I had planned.)


No before pics of these lamps I picked up for $10 each at Canadian Tire. They were a rusty brown colour with a cream and rusty shade with a rose pattern. Nice toile shades, but not really my colours. I spray painted the bases black and added new shades. Please ignore the skimpy tassel. I need some Nester tassels for sure!


I hope you enjoyed my quickie post and be sure to stop by The Nesters for some more Lampapalooza Party fun!

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Cleaning up and Organizing

I wonder why it is you can look at something and it doesn't bother you and then all of a sudden one day you just have to do something about the big mess you have going on. I keep most of my crafting paints, glues and that sort of stuff in the laundry room, and I also have a cabinet that holds my sewing machine and accessories in there. It seems that as I collect more and more stuff, there is no place to put it. I finally decided it was time to organize this "stuff".


I have two double door cabinets above the washing machine and as I looked at one of those cabinets, I thought I could better use this space and also clean it up at the same time. Do any of your cabinets look like this? lol Kind of open the door and throw it in.


Then the cabinet that sits across from it looked like this. Yikesssss! What a mess. It has the two doors and then below two drawers. I think this needs cleaning up too. I know there is room to put more "stuff" in here. So I got myself really busy, emptied both of them out and cleaned the shelves really good and started to organize a little bit.


Now, this is 100% better. I put all the light bulbs on the top shelf. (I don't know why we have so many.) Then I took the left side of the cabinet and organized all the vac bags, belts & sponges on one shelf, then below it all the cleaning rags. Yippee, I had the right side free. Empty and clean as a whistel. So I decided that the spray paint, stain, tape, brushes and all that sort of stuff could go there very nicely. Much better. Now onto the cupboard across on the other wall.


Wow, I gained so much room I can even store some of my knick knacks and seasonal things. Plus I can put a lot of the candles and other things I use for my tablescapes in here and have them all in one place.


Plenty of room for some seasonal items, candlesticks and candles. These things take up so much room and I previously had them stuck in a cupboard with some of my dishes, now I have room for more dishes. Hurrah!!!!!


On these two shelves I was able to put all the staple guns and staples plus the hot glue gun and glue sticks behind the iron, and then I still had plenty of room for the basket that holds all the small glues, exacto knife and all the little stuff you just have to have. Plus I can find the tape now too.
Below that I still had plenty of space to put my sewing machine and my sewing caddy with room left over for a couple other accessory items I'm not using at the moment. I can really see and find things now and it won't all fall out and hit my toes every time I want something. lol


The two bottom drawers were a mess mixed up with gift bags, ribbons, tissue, wrapping paper, cards and tags. I took it all out and organized all the bags on the bottom of the bottom drawer, the wrapping paper next and then the tissue. Can you believe it all fit so nicely and nothing is crushed. Now I had an empty drawer. What a great place to keep all the ribbon, candle holders, rocks, sea shells and all kinds of little things you need for crafting projects and tablescapes. Yip-skip!!! I love it. Now I can see and find all my "stuff"

Thanks for stopping by and excusing my mess. It does make me feel so good to have something a little more organized. Now on to the kitchen cabinets. Now that will be a much bigger job!!! lol

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Hooray, Camping season is here!

After a long winter our family is really looking forward to camping soon!

(Photo: our 2007 Palamino Yearling, our kids and cousins, stopping for lunch last August after we arrived.)


Ontario is a very large province with awesome lakes and great places to camp. Ontario Parks system covers over 78,000 square kilometres (30,460 mi²). We also have national parks and hundreds and hundreds of quality private campgrounds. Growing up, my family spent most of each summer at a rental cottage or camping.
(photo: our oldest and two great-nieces)


My husband and I decided to buy a large tent trailer in the fall of 2007, right after an extended family camp where the zipper on our second tent broke and the NEW airmattress (my husbands) lost over half its air each night. Oh yeah, it ALWAYS rains, no, pours, the majority of the long weekend when my brothers and sisters, grown neices and nephews and I (and our families) decide to camp together. We have just come to expect it. Funny thing, the rain does not slow the kids down at all!


We bought our Palamino Yearling brand new in the late fall to take advantage of after summer pricing (and saved lots.) We made sure the new trailer fit in our garage (with just 2 inches to spare!) for winter storage protection from snow and ice, and summer protection from sun and heat. And from the kids and neighbours bikes smashing into it :( By storing our trailer at home we also save the $40-$70 a month for renting outside storage. I did tons of research and price comparisons (both on the internet and at an RV and Trailer show) before narrowing our search down to a few. With specific prices in hand I went to our local RV centre to compare one last time. The sales manager told us he would like the opportunity to beat whatever price we had been given. He also added some upgrades, ceiling fan/light combos and an upgrade to the trailer hitch. We still have a good relationship with the local RV centre and get our winterization and any servicing done there. It has worked well for us to shop locally. If we have a problem, or need to pick up an accessory or part, they are just 10 minutes away.


Our trailer sleeps eight, has a table with two benches that converts to a bed, another u-shaped bench and table that converts to a bed, a queen sized bed on one end, and a king sized bed on the other end. We have a heater (often needed with our changing weather) a small fridge, stove and sink. The best part was that our Chevy Venture van pulled it easily. We bought a new truck this week, and although our trailer works for us, hubby and I are tossing around the idea of trading up to a full trailer. Not too big, but with a bathroom and a bit less work setting up and putting away. But, that is still to be decided. For now, our little family will be off soon to check out even more great parks here in Ontario and a multi-family trip to Darien Lake, NY State. In the near future we hope for a trip to Canada's fabulous eastern provinces and possibly one day to Vermont or Maine. Do you have any summer plans?

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Let's Go Shopping

I had to run to the store for a few things today, and everytime I have company from out of town, they are always fascinated with this store. I had my camera, so I thought I would take a few pics.


I love these pretty yellow plates. I think I have to buy some of them. They have beautiful flowers embossed on them. (Remember to click and see larger detail.)


Here's another yellow choice. I can see a really fun tablescape with these.


Love the colors of these. Can't you just see a summer or garden tablescape.


Maybe these for an outdoor BBQ.

Have you guessed where we are yet? We're at my local grocery store. No wonder I have a hard time trying to remember to buy food. lol It's a store called Fry's Marketplace. They really do have food, but they have so many wonderful things that you can spend hours just browsing. Sort of like a Walmart, but nicer and more upscale. However the prices are just about the same, and the food is actually cheaper.


How about some basics.


More basics.


Love the yellow.


Beautiful seafoam green. Can you see the little chef plates. I had to buy the square salad plates.


Love the plates with the grapes, and the gorgeous raspberry dishes.


Gorgeous blue and white and look at the vibrant dark blue. Aren't they great.


How about Southwestern Design.


These plates could go with a lot of various styles.


Sorry this is so blurry, I just love the colorful little pig platter on the bottom shelf.


Contemporary.


Tropical.


Do you need a new pan?


Clocks - Candles


How about some new linens?


Furniture.


Accessories.


More accessories.


Lamps or Picture Frames.

The pictures below show it really is a grocery store, but that's the normal dull part of it.






Hope you enjoyed shopping with me. It really is a fun store.

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