Be prepared to hate me just a little…..and let’s have a linky favorite thrift party!

My friends,

You are looking at the BEST deal I think I’ve ever gotten in.my.life. I was searching Craig’s List a few weeks ago, and just typed in vintage ironstone for the heck of it……After I pressed enter I almost passed out…….

See all of this lurverlyness?? See the 12 dinner plates, the 12 salad plates, the 12 dessert cups??

Do you see the 12 saucers that go with 12 gorgeous cups??

Do you see those 12 soup bowls???

The soup tureen, the gravy tureen, the platter? the 3 veggie bowls and the coffee pot?

the 12 DIVINE cups with the gorgeous handles?

The darlin' sugar and creamer??

and the soup tureen one more time just because I CAN’T STAND IT?? Folks, I got ALL THIS LOOT for $100. Yep. $100. That’s about $1 per piece…. I know….it’s unfair…..not right….and ALL MINE! I can’t wait to decorate my Thanksgiving table with all this lurverlyness…. I know I’ve used that word twice…. I just can’t seem to help myself…..

and while I’m bragging about the fabulous things at my house let me show you the 2 MOST fabulous things that live in my house:

Whoo Hooooo Mommy!!! I LOVE it when you’re thrifty!

Here are my little preshies in their ROLL TIDE ROLL outfits mommy made them…..

I know they’re mine people, but aren’t they just the cutest little things you’ve ever seen in your life?? This mama is blessed.

Now that I’ve shown you my favorite thrift ever (and my cute kids) won’t you share your favorite thrift of all time with me?? I would LOVE to come visit you and see all your scores.

I wanna get my hands on this

and this:

That coordinate with this:

and this

and finally, this:

Isn’t this fabric true EYE CANDY? I LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE them all! I can just see a little dress and matching bloomer…..or a ruffled pant with aline top…..there are so many possibilities…. A cute apron to go over jeans or an apron skirt? A grown up apron for MOMMIES! Which are your favorites? I am going to choose 2 combinations to make new sets for my girls and to sell a few… I would love your opinions…… Which fabric is making you drool?? These are making me wanna go eat cupcakes….back away from the computer, Loulou……Back away!

Don't forget to scroll down to enter in the vinyl decal giveaway! The winner will be chosen on Friday night!

be a part of loulou’s first ever giveaway! Win a fabulastic vinyl decal!

Yes, I just made up the word fabulastic, BUT that is exactly how I feel! I am so excited to be hosting my first giveaway, and it is a great one! I know you guys know how much I loved this project I just finished, and you guys seemed to love it too:

The fabulous Leslee of hintofchicboutique has graciously offered a $25 gift certificate for you to use in her shop!

You can frame yours like I did or find some other fabulous use for the decal you choose. You can choose from something like this:

or this:

or this:

How precious is this ballerina?? TO. DIE. FOR.

this:

this:

or this?

Leslee has so many things to choose from, and they are all fabulous! To win this fabulous gift certificate all you have to do is leave a comment. To get another chance go browse at hintofchicboutique and come back and tell me how you would use your gift certificate. Get a 3rd chance by posting on your blog and posting the link in the comment section of my blog. You want a 4th chance??? YES, A FOURTH CHANCE? You get one if you're a follower of this blog. You're not?? Well then sign on up. Those are GOOD odds peeps! I’ll use random.org to choose a winner Friday night at 9:00 pm. YEAH!!! Isn’t this fun??? Let the commenting begin!

i am a changed woman

Thrifting has changed my life. Seriously. It’s opened up so many doors and a whole new way of life. I look at things differently. I actually LOOK at them….I try to see what it CAN be….The old Loulou used to think nothing of dropping down cash (or credit) for anything that struck my fancy. I had TONS of stuff but stuff that really didn’t mean ANYthing to me. Then life changed…2 international adoptions…one disability…..one early retirement…..2 NICE incomes to 1 nice income….a 3 yr. fight with social security. I’m sure you get the picture. I had resigned myself to the fact that I just couldn’t have things anymore. I had to make do with what I have….that was fine for a while, but I got bored. My house got boring. I lost my zest. Then you know what happened?? The fog lifted. I started visiting Good Will and thrift stores that I would have just ridden past in my old life. Now I stop. I stop, and I look, and I dig. Sometimes I find treasures….sometimes I walk away empty handed (except for my hand sanitizer). The result is a house that I am making a home. A house with beautiful things that I take pride in….things that mean something to me. They mean something to me, because they’re things I’ve worked on….things I’ve restored or revamped. They’re my things. I love this life. I love not wanting to pay $3 for something that I know is worth only $1. I still splurge here and there on pieces that really speak to me, but even those things mean more……If you don’t get everything you want then the things you get are more precious, more appreciated. I hope I am teaching my children lessons….We need to look around us at the things that are already here….Brand new doesn’t always mean better. Good Will isn’t a store for “those poor people”. We are those people now….We are the ones who are careful with our money trying to make every penny count, and you know what?? I LIKE being this person.

You all have been such an inspiration to me….showing me all the wonderful things you’ve done and the places you’ve been. You guys are my inspiration and have played a part in who I am today. Thanks for sharing and inspiring me, and thanks for following this journey with me…….

I thought I’d share some of my favorite thrift finds and show you the befores……The afters will be revealed in a few posts this week.

 

This baby came from my favorite antique store….. Price? $3. It’s been painted and antiqued….thinking of making it a stand for a cloche…..

I found this piece at an antique store downtown. It’s a smaller version of a piece my mom had and redid YEARS ago….That woman has been a furniture rehabber for decades…. I did pay $300 for this piece, but it is SO worth it. Solid wood construction….velvet lined drawers, and the bottom line was that I loved it. It now looks like a million bucks.

I got these iron crosses on clearance at Hobby Lobby. They were around $2 each…..They’re sitting on a diaper box my spray painting area…..they look fabulous now……

$2.12 clearance. Enough said. I’m thinking about painting the frame and covering the back with scrapbook paper…..

I think I ran into my antique store when I saw this sitting up front…price? $6. Look at the precious details……

$12 old window in perfect condition…. I have some vintage botanicals just waiting to find their new home in here…..

This FANTASTIC urn?? $4.99 at GW. You can’t tell in this picture, but it was a hideous pukey yellow….You’ll croak when you see it after it’s redo……

My $5 oil painting from Sister Julie’s

2 wrought iron wall hangings all dinged up and on sale for $3 each….

A year ago I would’ve walked right past these things and driven right by most of these stores….. I would’ve missed out on all this wonderfulness….. Let me tell you something my peeps: Change. Is. Good.

The best lookin’ $40 I’ve ever seen

I am SO in LOVE with my newest project that I HAD to share pictures with you IMMEDIATELY. People! LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE is pouring through my veins for this wall art. I got this vinyl monogram about 6 weeks ago from A Hint of Chic Boutique. With shipping it was $25. You’re supposed to put these babies directly on the wall, but I am too cheap fickle for that.I saw over on Joys of Home that she didn’t want to have hers in such a permanent place either….. I’ve known for a while what I WANTED to do with it. First I considered painting a large canvas then applying it…. I was worried it wouldn’t be smooth enough for the decal. I wanted something that I could change here and there. Then it hit me…..

I’ve had this idea brewing for a while….. I’ve been searching at GW and Sister Julie’s every week with no luck for a frame with glass big enough for this decal. This week I headed to the good ol’ Hobby Lobby to search for my frame. They had the wall frames with glass on for 50% off…. That would put me around $25….Not bad, but I really didn’t want to pay that. I went back to that section at least 4 times last night….looking and looking again…..Then I started digging. I found an 18x24 in an ugly dark finish with a ding on it. I took it up to the counter and demanded asked the manager sweetly if she would consider a larger discount on this one , since it was in SUCH BAD SHAPE. She knocked another 10% off, so I got this big baby for $15! SCORE. I brought it home, sanded it, and rolled on a couple of coats of Behr’s antique white. After that dried I glazed it up with Ralph Lauren’s smoke glaze (thanks Shanty2Chic).

I then covered the cardboard that came in the frame with a scrap piece of burlap that I had laying around from another project….. My handy dandy Andrew CAREFULLY placed the decal on the glass for me, and I slapped that baby back together…. I think I cried when I looked at it put together for the first time….. Ohhhhhhhhh, come to mama, baby!

Pardon me while I go dance around my bed for a bit ;) Dance dance dance….sing sing sing…..

This is the view from the door of our bedroom…. Don’t you like that sock sticking out from under my bed and the white pillow that still needs a cover? Real life, people. Real life. I absolutely LOVE it above my bed. I’ve been adding more antique white pieces in the room to pull it all together. The beauty of this is that I can change the entire look of the piece by swapping out the burlap with another piece of fabric. The possibilities are endless….. That’s my kinda art people….Gorgeous and cheap. Fabulous and thrifty…. Pardon me while I wipe another tear from my eye…. ;)

love and hugs,

Linked to:
Between Naps on the Porch's Metamorphosis Monday
and
It's so Very Cheri's It's so very Creative Party

I linked this to Show and Tell Friday, Frugalicious Friday, and

Linked to:Between Naps on the Porch's Metamorphosis Mondayand It's so Very Cheri's It's so very Creative Party

who says $5 can’t be fabulous?

I had one of those moments today…..You know. One of those moments where you spot something that just seems TOO good to be true….One of those moments where you spot a GORGEOUS oil painting for $5…. I had that moment today. I try to make it  a point to visit Sister Julie’s Resale Shop here in Fairhope every Thurs. morning while the girlies are at playschool. Does anybody else still call it playschool??? Anyway, Sister Julie is only open on Thurs, Fri., and Saturdays….. I went in today and wasn’t really seeing anything I wanted. I decided to browse through a box of crappy old pictures looking for frames….That was when I spotted this:

Yep, see the $5 sticker??

That sticker went with this painting….Isn’t it adorable?? The pictures really don’t do it justice….Those pears are to die for, and the colors go with just about everything in my house…. I immediately went to the counter to pay. I wasn’t giving Sister Julie a chance to change her sweet mind!

So here she is….. I haven’t decided where I’m gonna put her yet….. Probably in the kitchen or dining room…..maybe the den….Do I frame it or just glue some ribbon over the canvas sides?? I don’t know, but I do know it will look fabulous where ever I decide to put it. $5 people. $5 DOLLARS and fabulous. Would you frame it?? I would love to hear your ideas for hanging/displaying….SHARE. ;)

Oh, and you may remember these fabulous folding chairs from my front porch…. I’m bringing a couple in for a while for some extra seating around the holidays…. I’m planning on making a cute fabric skirt…..Let’s just add that to the other 999,999 projects I have in mind….Guess that puts me back at a million.

What great find have you found lately??

when good ideas turn bad….then turn into something better ;)

So, I had this dark mirror… It did nothing on this wall. I have SO much dark stuff, and I’m trying to lighten things up. I decided one night that I would do an ivory paint wash over the frame to lighten things up……

Hmmmmmm, didn’t turn out so hot……

Honestly, it was fugly. Seriously fugly.

I have WAY too many things going at one time. Redoing our master is one of the million projects. One night last week that giant idea light bulb went off…. I took this mirror into my kitchen craft area and gave her a couple coats of Halycon green….love that stuff. Then I painted it with some smoke glaze to age it a bit…… Painted on….wiped off….hit more in the crevices…..

Now, she’s PERFECT in our master.  I love the way this mirror looks leaning on this antique chest.

It has JUST enough brown from the glaze….

 

Now, I’m in love with this mirror. I never thought I would use it here, but it’s like it was MADE for this spot. Now it shares the bad flash lighting  spotlight with my $6 rustic pitcher from TJ Maxx filled with sticks from a plant I killed  saved especially for this project. That gorgeous dove? $5 clearance at the Maxx…. I LOVE ME SOME MAXX! Slowly but surely this bedroom is becoming a place I love to be….. It’s so much fun turning things you already have into “better” things. I love the feeling of pride I get when I look around my house and see the things I’ve made…the projects I’ve undertaken. It makes it so much more MY home.  Isn’t that our overall goal?? To have US in our houses…..

On another note: that wall where the brown mirror was hanging has had a TOTAL redo….I guess that means that I’m now down to 999,999 projects. Well, at least one’s outta the way! ;) Happy homemaking!