Weekend Junk #3

It was so nice to not have any plans on Saturday. I’ve been really busy lately and it felt good to finally get a break. I found some great deals this weekend. Saturday was Half-off Day at Goodwill. I get really annoyed by crowds, so I usually wait until the late afternoon to go. I know I might miss out on some great things because I don’t go early, but I just can’t handle the morning rush.

I was lucky enough to come across a flea market in the parking lot of an antique mall Saturday morning. I would have liked to spend more time, but I hadn’t showered yet and wasn’t wearing any makeup…let’s just say, I bet everyone was glad I didn’t stick around.

Enough blabber, here are my finds:

[Please excuse the staging (or lack thereof). It was nearly impossible to find a place to put the mirror that wouldn’t reflect on my messy, half packed apartment.]

Plant Stand - Goodwill $9.99 $4.99

Window Mirror - Goodwill $12.99 $6.49

Tissue Box – Savers $7.99 $4.00 (half-off blue tag, baby!)

Mirrored Tray – Salvation Army $2.99 $1.80 (40% off entire store)

Dual Basket – Parking Lot Flea Market $4.00

Key – Parking Lot Flea Market $2.00

Mosaic Trivet – Parking Lot Flea Market $3.00

Glass Jar - East Valley Lutheran Thrift Shop $2.00 (bought on my way home from work Tuesday)

Not Pictured:

Lucky Brand Sweatshirt – Savers $5.99 free! (I had a coupon for buy 4 items, get the 5^th free…and the cashier gave me my most expensive item free!)

Gray with White Pinstripes XXL shirt – Savers $1.00 (to make another infinity scarf*)

I found some great pieces, but still no furniture. Such is life as a bargain shopper...you never know what you will or won’t find.



*Infinity Scarf Side Note: You should check out Jessica from My World - Made By My Hand’s tutorial on how to make an infinity scarf out of a t-shirt. It’s SUPER easy and quick. I made one a few minutes before I left for happy hour on Friday.

I’m completely inept at trying a scarf, so I’m loving infinity scarves right now.

And the Oscar Goes to...

I wish.

I won’t be winning an Oscar anytime soon, but I have been given 2 awesome awards: The Stylish Blogger Award and The Versatile Blogger Award.

  

Thanks to Courtney at We Three Dyes, Alison at Stuff and Nonsense, and Trac at Welcome to Our World. You ladies are great and I appreciate that you thought of me! Please check out their blogs if you haven’t already.

The Rules:

1. Thank and link back to the people who awarded you these awards.

2. Tell everyone 7 random facts about yourself
3. Pass the award to 7 lovely bloggers
4. Contact each blogger and let them know you have passed this award onto them

7 Random Facts About Me:

1.   I’m terrified of birds…all birds, including chickens. I’m afraid of anything with a beak that could peck my eyes out. I’m not joking.

But…I love bird decorations! And the Bird is the Word Family Guy episode. And playing Angry Birds on my phone.

2.   I’d never had stitches or broken any bones until 2 years ago. Then one fateful hockey game I took a puck in the eye…it fractured my eye socket, busted my face open (I needed a total of 10 stitches), scratched my cornea, and of course gave me a black eye.

      You’re probably thinking, weren’t you watching the puck? Let me explain: My parents have season tickets to the minor league hockey team in their city. They used to be on the glass behind the players bench (we moved after I got hit). They were awesome seats, but you couldn’t see the corners very well. One of the opposing players was trying to clear the puck out of their zone and ended up lifting over the glass and into my face. I couldn’t see it coming from the angle I was at until it was too late to move. BAM!

3.   I L-O-V-E avocado. I’ll eat almost anything if it has avocado on it. One time I was watching Bizarre Foods and he was eating this thing that was like a fried tortilla with guacamole and dried grasshoppers on it (think guacamole/grasshopper tostada), and I honestly would be willing to try that.

4.   I spend a ridiculous amount of time thinking about what I would do if I won the lottery. I’ve already picked out my house.

I know…I need to get a life.

5.   I’m on my 4^th week of Weight Watchers Online.

      I’m not overweight, but my weight has been slowly creeping up. My goal is to lose a few pounds, but mainly I want to learn to eat healthier. I tried doing it on my own, but without a structured program I was cheating pretty often. I’ve already noticed a difference when it comes to what I eat and not snacking because I’m bored.

6.   I hate it when people tell me how young I look and then tell me how I’ll appreciate it when I’m older. Thanks, I’m sure I will. But for now, it just makes me angry when I get carded buying an R rated movie.

7.   I went to college in a city that has a ski resort, but I’ve never been skiing or snowboarding. I don’t like the snow and I’m uncoordinated…it’s an accident waiting to happen. If I have to go out and “play” in the snow, you’ll find me sledding, building a snowman, or snowball fighting.

(that's me in the blue jacket and that's my snowball exploding in my friend's face)

Now it’s time to pass the award on. Rules were meant to be broken so I’m only picking 3 bloggers. I wanted to feature 3 great blogs that I’ve found recently and haven’t received an award yet (that I know of).

Quincee Taylor

Redefining Domestic

painted fresh

Stop by their blogs and leave some love. Don’t forget to visit the 3 lovely ladies who gave me this award.

Guest Bedroom Inspiration

Walls

I’m ditching the pink; blue wins! However, I’ll be replacing the bright blue wall color with a pale, icy blue. Such as this room:

Or this room:

Bed/Bedding

It’s time for me to upgrade to a queen (or maybe king) sized bed. So, the full bed I’m currently sleeping on will become the guest bed. I love my Ikea headboard/footboard, so that’ll be moving to the guest room as well.

I already have a great bedding set; it's reversible! Right now I’m using this side of the comforter:

But for this room I'm going to flip it over:

Nightstand

I’m undecided about the nightstand. I currently have one of these (also from Ikea):

I haven’t decided if I want to keep that one, find a pair of nightstands or buy a small dresser for one side.  I love this piece from Always in Wonder:

Check her blog to see the transformation from beat up Craigslist dresser to the stunner pictured above.

For now, we’ll say Nightstand: TBD

Dresser

Every bedroom needs a dresser, and I love this one from itz mitz (another awesome transformation):

And this one from Cottage Instincts (check out her blog of the “painting like a drunk person” tutorial):

I think it’d be such a fun pop of color. I’m on the lookout for a dresser that just needs a little TLC (and a fun new color).

So, that's my master plan for the guest bedroom. I'll decide on accessories and artwork once I get the room painted and furniture situated. What do you think? Any suggestions?

 

Battle of the Sexes

As promised I’m showing off "before" pictures of another room in my new house. I’m sure you all remember the Purple Pooh Room; now it’s time to show off the Battle of the Sexes Room!

This is the other spare bedroom in the house and it will become the guest bedroom. I’m upgrading my bed from a full size to at least a queen, so my current bed set will be going in here.

*Note: All the rooms in my new house are not painted crazy colors, just the spare bedrooms and guest bathroom…Maybe they didn’t want guests staying over, so they painted the extra rooms crazy colors to scary them away?

If you look past the bright pink, this room has a really nice closet and is a decent size.

Yes, the room is painted half blue and half pink…

Tomorrow I’ll be sharing my plans and inspiration pictures for this room. I’m choosing sides…will I go with the blue or with the pink?

Weekend Junk #2

I’ve got a lot of goodies to show off this week! I’ll start with the items that don’t have a complicated story attached to them.

I made a quick stop at Goodwill after work Thursday. I was feeling really indecisive, so I only ended up with 2 items.

Glass Jar $0.99

Hook Board $0.99

The board with the hooks will be an easy project. It looks a little sketchy now, but it was worth 99 cents just for the 2 hooks.  

I realized this weekend that I don’t have any casual jackets; they are all long and dressy.  A quick trip to Savers on Sunday and my problem was solved. Of course I couldn’t leave without looking at the frames.

Jacket $5.99

Frame $1.99

The frame is 1 of 5 brass items that I acquired over the weekend. They all have a date with a can of spray paint in their future.

On to the "junk" with a complicated story:

My grandpa is getting re-married in a few weeks (long story). His new wife is starting to move her things in, so they are cleaning house to make room. I’m going to be completely honest; I don’t know how I feel about the whole situation. I really don’t like the thought of some other lady going through my grandma’s things and keeping her treasured pieces.  Anyway, my boyfriend and I made the trip up to look through the things they were planning on getting rid of. They weren’t getting rid of much furniture, but I did snag a china hutch and entry vanity (Is that what it’s called? I have no idea).

My parents have graciously offered to bring these 2 pieces down to me after I’ve closed on the house.

My mom forced suggested I take my grandma’s china. It’s a beautiful set and is in great shape. I only noticed chips on one plate and one saucer. It will look great in my new china cabinet.

A pair of lamps (2 more brass items from the weekend) will look great on nightstands in one of the bedrooms.

I grabbed a few kitchen items. You can never have too many glass serving bowls. And I love Pyrex!

This is probably my favorite item from the weekend. Isn’t it beautiful?

Finally, a pair of birds and a pair of candlesticks (the final 2 brass items). My grandma had a whole collection of different bird and animal figurines similar to the yellow one below.

It was a great weekend for “junk”

Coming up this week: I'm showing off one more room in my new house!

Free Paint!

Quick Note: The gumbo and chocolate fondue turned out A-MAZ-ING! I had a request for the gumbo recipe, so I’ll post that next week.

Valspar is giving away free paint samples! In case you haven’t already heard, I thought I’d let everyone know that Valspar is giving away 100,000 free paint samples (1,000 a day). All you have to do is ‘Like’ Valspar on facebook and then be one of the first thousand to request a sample each morning (9 am CST).

The kits go pretty fast every morning, so don’t hesitate. I finally got one last week and it arrived in the mail yesterday!

Along with an 8-ounce paint sample, the kit also comes with a mini roller/tray, the coordinating color chip, and a $5 off coupon.

(Don’t mind the carpet. I like opening packages on the floor, so I can spread all my goodies out)

I chose Nautical for my free sample. My mom doesn’t know it yet, but she ordered me a Sweet Mustard sample this morning : )

Valentine's Confession

I have a confession to make. I ditched my boyfriend on Valentine’s Day to go to a hockey game with my mom. In my defense, we had the tickets long before my boyfriend and I got back together. My mom and I are hockey fanatics, so we couldn’t pass up the opportunity to see one of the best players in the league, Alex Ovechkin (I still cheered for my Coyotes though).

To make it up to my boyfriend, I offered to cook him whatever he wanted for dinner tonight. He picked my Chicken and Sausage Gumbo. It’s delicious, but takes forever to make (especially on a week night). Last night I got all the veggies and chicken chopped up, so I’d have a head start after work today.

I hadn’t decided on a dessert until I saw this gem at Savers. The box looked even worse on the shelf. I should have taken the picture before I cut off all the excess tape and beat up cardboard. Oops!

I’m a curious person, so I have to check out everything in boxes. I’m glad I did because inside was a heart shaped fondue pot complete with dishes and forks; it was marked $3.99. Originally it was from Macy’s, so I know it was fairly expensive brand new.

So, for only $3.99 I have a fun, new dessert idea to go along with my gumbo. Chocolate fondue! I bought strawberries, bananas, marshmallows, graham crackers, and angel food cake for dippers. I can’t wait for tonight!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Valentine’s Day. Did anyone do anything special?

Happy Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's Day Everyone!

I hope you all have a wonderful day full of love and chocolate!

Side Note: No Weekend Junk today...My mom came to visit this weekend and we only made it to Goodwill. She bought a shirt; I bought nothing.

***edited 2/15/11 to replace the generic heart picture with one of the teddy bear my bf left for me at my front door (awww!)***

Office Inspiration

Walls

I’ve been creeping around blogland for a couple days looking for some office inspiration. I found some great looking rooms, but when I saw Ten June’s striped office I knew that was exactly what I wanted.

I love, love, lurve this room. The stripes make me want to squeal with excitement. They posted the link to the painting tutorial they used and even shared their paint colors (Olympic's Dusty Trail and a complementary off white).

So long Purple Pooh; Hello stripes!

Desk

I also need a desk for my office. I don’t have one now because my apartment has a built-in desk/office area. I’ll be on the lookout for a desk like the one in my inspiration picture (LOVE it!) or one like this:

Oh, Pottery Barn…I love you, but I’m not paying $599 for a desk!

The plan: Find a fugly before desk and turn it into something amazing with a little paint.

Such as this refinished beaut that I found at Christina’s Adventures:

Storage

Next I’m going to need something to hold my TV (a necessity if I plan on actually using my treadmill) and all that other junk an office collects. I think a small armoire would be perfect. This armoire is larger than I’d probably want, but is the perfect color.

Because I don’t want to pay $1,299 for a glorified TV stand/junk holder, I think this will call for another refinishing job by yours truly.

Chalkboard/Bulletin Board

I’m currently on the hunt for a couple fancy frames to make a chalkboard and a bulletin board. These will be small enough projects to start as soon as I find the frames. Hopefully I’ll find some soon!

It seems like everyone has a frame makeover on their blog; it’s time for me to jump on the band wagon.

That’s all I have planned so far. Let me know what you think!