Frugal, Fun, Fabulous!

For a while now I have been on the hunt for what I call a "pocket" to use on my front door. I have seem some really unique ones, wicker, metal, grapevine in many shapes.

 

My front door is a beautiful door but with the glass oval I am limited to what will fit.  I have hung wreaths from above but I just don't love the way it looks so I figured a "pocket" would be perfect. 

 

 When my friend Tammy and I went junkin a couple of weeks ago I was thrilled to find one that I could up do.  It was going to need some paint for sure, I could not handle the brass and there was a dent, but for $1.99 I figured I would give it a try.

 

I grabbed my trusty ORB spray and went at it.  After it was dry I rubbed on some copper accents and then stenciled a bit. 

 

I added a couple of floral picks and ta da.....

I think I love it on my door!

The colors are great with the wood.

 

I love the colors and texture of the florals.

 

 

The stenciling is subtle enough to be the little ump it needed.

 

There is a bonus to this Frugal, Fun, Fabulous project.....it has really gotten me excited about fall and inspired several other projects...that is a bonus, right?

 

Thanks for stopping by.  I am linking up with

Junkin Jewels - Goodwill

Last week my friend Tammy and I had a visit and a junkin day.  We managed to spend so much time at Goodwill that we had to jog to fit the others stops in before we ran out of time for the day!  It is all good though since I ended up with some finds and we plan to make time to do this at least every other week :)

 

The visit, lunch and junkin were all great.  This is a picture of my Junkin Jewels for the day.

 

I have been on the hunt for a while for a container like the brass one in the top of the picture.  My front door has the oval cut glass that isn't quite large enough for a wreath so this type of container will work perfectly....and at $1.99 the price was hard to beat.

 

I painted it with the old stand by, Rustoleum Oil Rubbed Bronze and then hand rubbed on some copper to age it.  I love how it turned out, I can't wait to fill it and hang it up, but since it is for fall I gotta wait till at least the Tuesday after Labor Day!

The other finds were the 4 white basket weave ceramic napkin rings for $1.99, 6 navy damask napkins for $1.99 and lastly the too cute fish napkin rings for $1.99.  When I got home of opened the packaging on the fish rings I discovered their Pottery Barn Tags. They were brand spanking new and tagged at $6.50 each. So for just over $8.00 I had a lot of fun and a brought home some jewels :)

 

Today I stopped in the ultra chic Le Dollar Tree in search of some plastic containers.  I really couldn't get in the door for all the boxes of merchandise.  One of the workers apologized for the mess and said she would be finished and out of the way so I that I could get inside in just a minute.  She was chatting, saying she didn't understand why they needed to unpack the boxes she was working on because the stuff would sell so quickly.  When I asked what was in the box she held this up.

Ummm....yes please, I'll take a box!

 

This is big folks....I don't impulse buy.   I am so glad I did, these are going to look great with my Fiesta.  I had to rush home and try them with some fall napkins.

 

If you overlook the wrinkled napkins I think they will look pretty cute! 

 

Now I am counting down to the next time we have a junkin jaunt!  Thanks for stopping in.
I am linking up with Southern Hospitality for
 

Oh the Places You Should Go - Etheridge/Lawrenceburg

Wonder Hubby's job requires him to travel several states and he is forever telling me about one town or another that he thinks we should visit and junk or antique. 

For quite a while he had been telling me that we needed to visit the Etheridge and Lawrenceburg, TN area.  Back in June we were hard at it shopping for Mini a car and Wonder Hubby happened to be traveling through Lawrenceburg and mentioned all the car dealers in the area.  So early on a Friday morning, Wonder Hubby, Mini and I loaded up and set out.  Our plan was to car shop and antique.

You will see lots of Amish in Etheridge. We have some Amish in our area but in the Etheridge area you will see them in their buggies everywhere.  I started to snap this picture and then realized they don't like to be photographed....good thing I had blown the shot (the buggy is almost out of the frame on the left)!

We stopped at a completely set up for tourist area to shop a bit.

Of course, Wonder Hubby zoned in on Fiesta right away.

There was a huge selection of birdhouses......I am always drawn to birdhouses :)

I loved the Tom's Gym house....the Guarantee is too funny!

Mini toyed with the idea of a geniune Etheridge, TN Amish t-shirt but ruled it out.  She has really come to enjoy antiquing with us....she is always looking for Blue Willow.

I had to drag Wonder Hubby out before he bought this cool churn.

Then we did a bit of car looking.....cause Mini was kinda beginning to not believe we were there to car shop....sigh.

After a break to car shop we headed to downtown Lawrenceburg.  Lots of neat shops on a very pretty square.  I love the peeling paint on this building.

We managed to shop in one store......that's right....one store, New Moon Antiques!  We did spend 3 hours there, but still I had hoped to cover more territory than that!  I didn't get a single photo....now remember I had to just glance about since I was under a tight time frame and had to save time to car shop.

 Three hours let me catch the highlights, I could have stayed all day in this store :) We did have Mini onboard so we finished car shopping.  Mini fell in love with this car.

The dealership had just gotten it in and didn't even have all the paperwork on it yet so we couldn't purchase that day.  So we walked away to think about it and drove on to Muscle Shoals and comforted ourselves with Popeyes chicken.  I would love to review our food....but I will just get hungry thinking about it and we don't have one close.

Bless Mini's heart, she is being very good natured for a 15 yr old that just found her dream car and can't buy it.

Guess what happened next?  The dealership called and told us we could purchase Mini's car on Saturday morning.....yeppers....another 2 hour road trip back the next day. Ugg.....after being gone from 7 am to 9 pm on this trip we were all dragging.

So early on Saturday morning we headed out again...and purchased Mini's car.  We purchased from Williams Auto Sales in Lawrenceburg.  They were incredibly accomodating and easy to work with, I would certainly recommend them if you are in the market for a vehicle.

Hard to believe but Wonder Hubby looks happy parting with cold hard cash!



Mini and Bri patiently waiting.....Mini is driving the 2 hours back home....this was a big day!

Now, you didn't think we went all the way back just for the car did you?  After closing the deal we headed back to New Moon and snapped up the goodies I had seen but couldn't committ to on Friday!

We picked up a couple of tablecloths and some napkins.  I have already used some of them in the tablescape here.  They were so cheap!  Wonder Hubby found some Fiesta we needed to complete a set....I cant wait to do a 50's inspired turquoise and pink table.  Lastly, I landed some awesome bedside tables.  I have been looking for just the right ones for years to replace the highly fashionable 3 legged cloth covered tables we had!  I will be posting pics soon.

We were all worn out by this time so we packed up the vehicles and headed toward home, but not before we saw this little place and had to stop in.

This place was just the coolest!  It was an old general store/bus station with lots of vintage goodies to look at.  You could relax at a soda fountain and catch a bit of tv.

I can't tell you what we are watching, it is a bit before my time :)

Bus service ticket office.

The porch areas were filled with antique tools.  We never got to the side porch or the outbuildings.....but we will go back!

I loved the manequin in the truck! 

It was a very rushed but fun trip, I can't wait until we can go back and take our time. There are SO many more places I need to check out.

 If you get the chance, spend a day or two in Lawrenceburg and enjoy not only the scenery but the great shops.  Thanks for riding along. 

Uggggglee Chair Makeover

I have had this chair around the house for a couple of years now.  My brother salvaged it from a remodel at the Belmont Mansion in Nashville along with 3 others.  I have made over the others but this one had managed to escape. 

It was sitting in a corner in our master bedroom patiently waiting to be pretty.  I finally got around to giving it some TLC and trying my hand at making and using homemade chalk paint.

I used a 40% coupon at Michael's and purchased plaster of paris.  I also scored the fabric at Hobby Lobby for 40% off....yeah!

First The Nana and I recovered the seat.  With my new power nailer (love them, Wonder Hubby did good spending all that money for the big ole set of 5 of them!) the job was easy peasy.....10 minutes start to finish and she is purdy.

Then it was time to paint.  I was worried about how this would go, but I am so glad I gave it a try and didn't spend the big money on the commercial stuff :)

I marked off a mason jar with 4 equal marks 1 inch apart.  I filled up to the first line with plaster of paris then mixed water in a bit at a time, stirring until the mix was smooth.  After that I filled up to the 4th line with my paint and stirred it all up.

I found that initially it was very easy to work with.  It flowed on nicely and covered well.  After 15 minutes or so it did seem to "set up" and become more grainy.  I just dipped my paint brush into water then the mix and that seemed to work to even out the grainy texture.  After letting it dry I began the sanding process.  I LOVE this part!  I had to restrain myself from sanding it all off. 

After the sanding was all done I wanted to add a bit of age.  I had read on a blog to use Old English furniture polish/scratch repair but at $5.50 a bottle at the local grocery I was going to skip this part!  After thinking about it for a while and cleaning up a pot of tea that had dripped onto my counter instead of into the pot.....I realized if tea will stain the counter it should work on the chair.  Eureka.....I lightly rubbed a used tea bag over the whole chair and it left just the right amount of "age."

After aging and drying I waxed the old girl with some Johnson's Paste wax...and here she is all prettied up.   She will be a perfect spot for slipping on shoes, if only I can decide where she will live, hmmmm........

Thanks for stopping by.  Have a great week.  I am linking up for
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