Goodwill Hunting

I love Matt Damon and Ben Affleck!  Robin Williams makes me laugh so hard I could pee! But, I am talking about the good ole GW (we pronounce is jee-dub).

We live about 25 miles from Wichita and sadly it isn't as easy for me to make it to GW as often as I'd like.  Which is a good and a bad thing.
Good-I don't end up buying a treasure I didn't even know I needed until I saw it at the GW.
Bad-I don't end up buying a treasure because I didn't even know it was there!!!

It's easy to get caught up with all the things people make in blog-land (It's like Candy Land, but without the fancy outfits.)   I think I can make cake plates out of stuff I could pick up, or a starburst mirror for every room in the house.  I can make Apothecary jars out of mason jars and candlesticks.  Or redo as much fantastic old furniture as I can possibly find.

But the truth is, am I really saving money and cutting back if I buy something I don't REALLY need?!?

Most of the time I walk around with it in my cart and if I still love it 15 minutes after my "I got it first nan na nan na boo boo!" high wears off, then I can justify owning it.  I went to the GW yesterday (and a few weeks back) and I am going to share my scores with you!
I found like 20 other things that people would love in blog-world, but I would have been mad at myself for buying after I got them home and they would have been re-donated back to the GW at a later time.

I found 2 trunks/suitcases. They were super cute!  I love old suitcases and trunks.  They were $10 for the big and $12 for the small....sometimes their pricing is crazy.  I like to think that some days the pricing fairies are back their drinking and they just say mark whatever on it!!  I put them in my cart!  I got them first nan na nan na boo boo!!

Then I found a red feather wreath!  This went in the cart!  I had seen one on a door in blog-land and thought it was soooo cute!  $5

I found an hour glass-technically a half-hour glass (it goes for 30 minutes)  I had wanted one of these FOR-EV-ER!  $10

I found a pair of black corduroy Marissa Fit Victoria's Secret pants....$4 Super Cute, no they don't look like that on me because momma has a little junk in the trunk.  But in the cart they went.

I also found a pair of North Face Kaysey Shoes for $5 (Retail for $85-I don't think they have ever been worn, they are perfect!)

After my crazy lady "I got it first nan na nan na boo boo!" high had worn off I evaluated what I actually NEEDED....

The suitcases really have no where in my house to live, see I am trying to de-clutter my house and life and I don't need 2 more suitcase/trunk things taking up more room.  (sidebar-had they been large trunks I would have bought them for that price! But alas, they were little guys-like very large purses.)

Back to the shelf they went :(  Someone else will love you, I assured them!

Red Feather Wreath-who am I kidding?  What the hell am I going to do with this?  I only put a wreath out for Christmas.  I don't have anywhere to store them for having seasonal one's and the most decorating for seasonal purposes I get done is on the dining room table.  Hopefully, we can put in a fireplace one day and I can decorate that too!!

I bartered with myself....suitcases or hourglass...I am not leaving ALL cool things behind.  The hourglass at least has a purpose at my house.  I tell the kids it's time to clean and we flip the hourglass.  We put on some music and clean like mad until the last grain of sand falls.  Then we take a break and the girls switch who gets to flip it!  This usually works a few times, then Hayley finds somewhere to hide while the rest of us clean.
PURCHASED!

Although, I have a little junk in the trunk, it doesn't need to be accentuated with huge wide-leg pants.  These pants were too good of a deal and I have already made them into capris and taken enough material the girls made tube-tops out of the scraps the excess off and made some pretty cute pants!
PURCHASED!

The shoes are so cute and super comfortable!  I bought them because during the summer I hate wearing shoes-unless they are flip-flops!  Which Mr. TSL tells me are killing my feet and back and are terribly impractical.  (He's right, I accidentally power washed my foot and split it open.... tennis shoes would have prevented this.)  However, slip-ons are a happy compromise and these are cute.  I will still be wearing the flip-flops almost all the time, but if we got for a walk or to the zoo, I can rock these!
PURCHASED!

I love Pottery Barn and a few summers back I saw these:

 
I LOVE them!!!!  I have been thinking about these since I saw the pic in the catalog!!  I want them sooooo bad!  A few months back, I had a coupon from PB and was going to break down and buy them.  6 glasses for $24, that's $4 each! (Yes, I taught math ;))  I ordered them....I know, I know, don't lecture me. Cringe-2 sets.  I needed enough for everyone for Thanksgiving.

They were on back order until late December....  I quickly called back after I had come to my senses. Why would I pay that much for glasses???? and canceled the order.  So sad, though.

Skip to now, still thinking about them and low and behold I found 3 at the GW for $.50 each...yep!  No, I don't have all of them, but I have some!  And when I got home I washed them and loved them!

(Have I mentioned that the previous owners of our house left behind some really cool things for this junk-lovin girl!)  I have 4 boxes of mason jars various sizes and such and all kinds of canning stuff.  I threw my parents an anniversary party and used them all for centerpieces.  I found another matching jar with a handle for FREE!!!

Now, I have 4 of these beauties for $1.50! 

Then I decided to google mason jars with handles:  You can buy these for way cheaper in complete sets!
12 for $16.50 here.
$2 for individuals  here.

Come on PB, who are we kidding on the prices!!

One more GW tip, they offer a 10% off coupon for $2...buy it!  I used mine and saved an additional 10% on all my stuff and it paid for itself-like 5 trips ago!


I leave with you with a cute pic of my little helper and partner in crime!

Make your life beautiful!
-Kari

Tile-Looking Carpet---Seriously?!?

My name is Kari and I have carpet in the kitchen....Oh no, I said it.  Now everyone knows!  It looks like tile, but it's not!!  I also have very plush gray/blue extremely stained from the previous owner and maybe a little from my kids carpet in the dining room.  NEVER NEVER NEVER put carpet in a dining room!  With that being said I was at an impasse for what to do with the kitchen and dining room floor.  In a world where money is no option and dollas' freely flow from my wallet which would never happen because I am too frugal I would get wide-planked hand-scraped hardwood flooring!  Eventually, I will (over many years) save up for my dream floor.  Until then, I had to find another alternative.

Here are some pictures of my dream floor:

I love the brick too!!

Swoon!

This floor is so fantastic! I want Walnut flooring, I love all the multiple colors!

  Until then I have found a few alternatives and I think these are cool too!!
Plywood flooring, I know plywood.  I thought, "Are you kidding me?"  Then I researched it and was very surprised! 
I first came across the idea when I found Quarry Orchard from another blog (yes, I skip from blog to blog like a monkey swinging from the vines!)  They actually made a planked floor out of plywood.  If you click their name it will take you to a tutorial about  it!!  Here are some of their pics:

Awesome, this cost them around $1 per sq foot!  Then I was intrigued and decided to google plywood floor.
Check these out:

plywood tile

 

Fantastic!

lovely!

$1 per square foot isn't bad....but I can do better than that.  All of these people just added plywood to their subfloors.  My subfloor is plywood.  Why would I add more plywood, if I could just use that?
Then I googled subfloor to see if anyone else had ever done this as an alternative.  They had, check these out:

Little Blue Chairs' Blog

I love the huge checker board pattern!

Coastal Living

Design Sponge

Another Large Checkerboard

Oooo Diagonals!

I like the border around the edge, definitely doing this for ours.  It looks more finished.

Loving this!  I'm thinking I like the colors and worn look for this floor!

I like the idea of striped too, because this would be much easier than checkerboard.

This could be an easy alternative to checkerboard, because you could just use really wide painters tape!

This is nice and I love the ceiling!!

So what do you think?  I am still looking for more ideas, but I am pretty sure I'm going with one of these!

  But, which one????

Make your life beautiful!
-Kari

What have I been up to you ask?!?

Okay, you didn't ask, but I'm going to tell you anyway!! :)  The entry way is done for now (Mr. TSL is building me a bench and I am super excited about it!  The one sitting there is only temporary and will find a new home on the sun porch when the new one's finished!)

Before entry way:

Remember-not my picture! 

I lost the curtains for some bamboo blinds. Mr. TSL and I made the coat hooks and I made the letter/number art for above at my New Years Party....yes I said AT...I know, the party was off the hook.   I couldn't drink and no one else was drunk enough for board games yet (that came later).  I had wanted to complete it prior to every one showing up, but I was cleaning for-e-ver!!!  Apparently having two big kids, a baby, a neurotic border collie who likes mud puddles and eating 2x4's, and Mr. TSL and I, our house can get messy quickly!
So, without further ado..... here it is!

Okay, a break down of the costs.  Most of this stuff I've had for a looooong time, so I am trying to remember it all.

1. Picture Frame Art-$3 each (Dollar General Frames) $15 total
2. Art inside-$.75-(It's just poster board!)  I use poster board as mattes in pictures because it's  über cheap! 
3. Bench-Free (it was a gift from my mother-in-law!)
4. Umbrella holder-$15 on clearance at The World Market (It has handmade kites from my mother-in-law in it, a few umbrellas and our racket ball rackets.)
5. Coat hooks- $2.50 each (from eBay like 3 years ago, I lost them for a little while and found them while we were moving!) $15 total
6. Clock-my aunt use to sell Home Interiors (I did too...well mainly I just bought discounted stuff) $10
7. Frame with post card- $3 (Goodwill)
8. Hanging Giant Keys- $5 clearance from Hobby Lobby
9. Metal Locker Baskets-FREE (Their were 6 in the garage cabinet holding old spray paint when we moved in!)  Pottery Barn sells some like it, but they are way to expensive for my tastes!
10. Potted Plant-FREE (mom gave me the fake plant and the crock was here when we moved in holding a fake plant with real dirt-strange)

Total cost- $63.75 (It didn't feel like that much because the only thing I've bought since we moved in was the frames!)

I know your thinking, "What else could she be up to?"  Well, thank you for asking. I would love to show you!

In an old post I told you that Mr. TSL and I have dreamed of moving to Colorado for a very long time.  We found a house out there a while back that was in Red Feather Lake, CO.  At the time, we were no where done with college and knew it wasn't going to happen, but we still looked at it and we still talk about it.  So I made a sign from a piece of wood I saved from the burn barrel.

Cost-FREE   We had all the paint leftover from other projects.  It's kind of warped because it sat outside before it's life as a sign, but I still love it just the same!

Oh wait, there is more!!  This is my favorite.... 
I had really ugly faux Tiffany stain glass butterfly lights in the kitchen-I hate them!  They remind me of a cheap version of the lights that hang above the tables at Scrapplebee's (that's Applebee's for those of you who don't speak kid).  They looked like this:

 
Here is another view:

Not my picture!

Here they are done!!

I LOVE THEM!!!! 
Cost- I scored the bases for both lights for $10 each on eBay (No shipping charge!!)  The Mason Jar is a half gallon blue mason I picked up at the flea market for $8!  The other blue jar is currently housing homemade pickles in my mom's fridge, but she's bringing it to me this weekend and then they will both be up!!  Right now, Mr. TSL put my big clear jar up from my beachy tablescape.

And a sneak peak at the front bathroom redo.  The rest is getting done during spring break!!!!
It looked like this before:

Just a sneak peak-remember?

I can't wait til it's done!!  :) 

Make your life beautiful!
-Kari

Violet is turning Violet!- Part 7 of Add Some color to your life

What's that movie?!?!-----Charlie and the Chocolate Factory! :)
In the house we just moved from the girls room was purple, I let them pick the color and they each wanted a different color purple.  Compromise-accent wall.  Needless to say when I was done painting, they were happy.  I was a little overwhelmed.  They also had a closet that was open to the public for viewing and it was Watermelon pink!  I don't think I have any pics of it...so sad!


Here are some purple kitchens:

Love it!

Easy way to add color, but not be permanent!

Dining Rooms:

I like it paired with white!

Can you tell the legs on the chair are purple? Plus there are purple dragonflys on the underside of the glass top :)

Bathrooms:

Very Modern

 

I thought this had wallpaper at first glance. That is a fabulous shadow from the window scroll!

 

Bedrooms:

Cute!

Very cool!

Living Room:

The couch looks like it's floating!

Oh fireplace!!

one more for fun....

So sleek!

Make your life beautiful!
-Kari