Thirty Yardsales

Today, my mom and I went to 30 yard sales. We went to every single one (plus some not advertised) of them in the town we live and the adjacent city. I got some great deals. Beautiful dresses for some of my friends little girls, presents for the future, some home decor, a dog sweater, a GREAT deal $4.00 ( I talked her down from $8.00 ) for black curtains for the kitchen (I'm so glad we didn't go ahead and buy them new, we found them at the LAST yard sale) and 1.00 for 6 rolls of drawer liners that we almost bought at walmart earlier in the day for 5.00 a roll, ect...
I would like to share with you my weirdest purchase and favorite purchase.
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First...
The weird.


Yes this is a coffin pinata. It was .50 cents. I got it because in a little over a week we are having vacation bible school. The theme is Museum @ 12627 The Mystery of God's Great Plan. The kids are broken up into three groups and Amanda and I need to make a special container for each group (the kids bring in coins to donate to world missions). For one group we are going to make a sarcophagus ( I definitely HAD to look-up how to spell that word). I wasn't not sure how that was going to happen, then I found this wonderful coffin pinata that I THINK ( I stress the word THINK) I can make/transform it into a sarcophagus that a mummy would be found. Wish me luck.
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Next...
My Favorite.


This purse was $5.00. It feels really nice, like maybe its real leather. It just FEELS expensive and unwalmart like. Right this second I am in love with it.
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Now for something just plain interesting.
A couple of days ago we went to our local thrift store. My brother wants to get a new mattress and this thrift store they sell new mattresses and a lot of times they sell the beds with them.
Let me introduce you to the 'Samurai Bed'




I hope you enjoyed.
It cracks me up!

Things are happening!

The past few days the kitchen doors and drawers

have been the vain of my existence

First...

they needed sanded, my wonderful mom did that

then...

I painted, painted and then painted some more

three coats worth. it was hot and humid outside

so they dried really quick
then...

I spray painted the handles, hinges and light covers this

hammered muted silver color, they turned out really nice

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Last week...

I bought four yards of this vintage fabric off ebay.

I thought yeah...those kinda look tail shaped

but I really like the graphic qualities

and the colors are

PERFECT for the kitchen.

Today...

I got this in the mail. MARLIN on the fabric...
LOTS AND LOTS OF MARLIN

funny right? I hope you are laughing

do not despair dear friends, I have made

lemonade out of my marlin

This is my friend Amanda, she came over to help us paint in the morning and then she and I tackled the fabric project. I particularly like this picture because we are clearly watching HGTV while doing our own DIY project.

After the cardboard was cut...

we used copious amounts of mod podge and spray adhesive.

disclaimer...If you have never used spray adhesive I would like to be the one to let you know that it is flippin' sticky. Now I know this should be a given it is a spray ADHESIVE. But seriously our hands were sticking to EVERYTHING it was ridiculous. The stuff REALLY works!

OH, you want to see what the heck we are making?

Sorry that is for another time.

I promise it will be worth the wait!
After all the excitement of the day....

Little Bit decided to take a nap.

She had paint on both her ears and a streak on the side of her body. She was busy chasing a fly around the kitchen while we were painting.
Before...

Amanda left she gave me this incredible screen print she did in one of the college art classes. It looks amazing! She made 8 of them and mine is signed 3 of 8. One day she may be famous and I can say look...I have all this stuff she made just for me.

This was just a more artistic shot of the piece
My room...

has an African vibe...she made the giraffe mosaic for me for Christmas three of four years ago and it is one of my favorite things I own. She was able to make that scene out of mosaic tiles it has the sun, trees, sky and the giraffe. This picture doesn't quite bring out all the beauty but it gives you a good idea. I can't wait to frame my new piece of art and give it a place in my room. Maybe one day I will post some of the other great things Amanda has made me. Like the beautifully crafted bowl I got for Christmas...

Wait for it!

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Tomorrow we are getting up butt early to go to like 75 yard sales.

WOO HOO!

Clarification

I feel I need to clarify a post

I made a couple of weeks ago.

In the following excerpt when I use the word THEY,

I meant THEY in the sense of trying

to be gender non-specific.

Not THEY in the sense of

being more than one person.

I can see how it could be read differently.

In the interest of any following

posts not being confusing.

I will just say that J is a boy

(boy in the sense of boy and girl,

I may be 27 almost 28 but I have a hard time

seeing people my age as men)

There really is no reason to be cryptic.

I could have referred to him as a girl named

Kathleen and people would have known

I was talking about him.

The latest is last week. I worked last Sunday and J was in town for Mother's Day. I did not go to church because I had to work that night and was really tired. J and I talked that morning and J was going to come and say hi/bye/I love you/hug, before leaving town. I woke up at 5:00 p.m. with a message from J saying they had been on the road for a 1/2 hour and just remembered they 'forgot' to come and see me.
*
Unfortunately, they do not, at this point in time, have the LUXURY of 'forgetting'.

Garage Sale Finds and Painting Progress

I'm tired, we painted all day yesterday and preped the kitchen today.

I am excited to share the pictures of that progress but first...

(disclaimer there are a lot of pictures in this post)

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The great yard sale finds from last week

a fantastical modern headboard

it was 10 dollars
I've been wanting a headboard for a long time and
I am glad I waited until I found the 'right' deal

a computer chair for $5.00
we have been needing one of these for a while
a dining room chair just doesn't do it
my brother sleeps downstairs and the rolling is
much quieter

something about this $5.00 table appealed to me
I am going to lightly sand the top and stain it
we'll see what it evolves into

finally...this is a $7.00 shelving unit

I thought it would be good in the redone kitchen since

there isn't a whole lot of room and this is tall and thin

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Now to the transformations that are occuring here;

This is my mama. We went to the depo to get all of that paint

you see on the counter

This is a break after the first coat was finished

in the living room. Taping wasn't hard but took a while

so I am glad that I did it the night before

Here I am with paint in my hair

and on the top of my mouth

the mustache is from the hammered

silver spray paint we used in the kitchen.

Doesn't Little Bit look SO tired behind me.

All the activity of the day wore her out.

She did not come out the job unscathed

She had paint on her ear and chin

Here is a shot of the 'final product'

the tape is gone and do dad's replaced

looks pretty good I think, much better than the dingy

white that was here before

behind the stove before and...

after

This is the pantry door.

Mom painted it with chalboard paint

so we can put the grocery list up there

I've never used chalboard paint before so I we will

see if it really works.

While we were at Home Depot we saw

that they also have white dry earase paint

never seen that before, it looked interesting

Here is the work from today.

I took all the doors off the cabniets

then took all the handles and hinges off

then the drawers

then cleaned all the doors and drawers

then a bit of clean up cause it was getting overwhelming

tomorrow my goal is to sand and paint the doors and drawers

then thursday we paint the walls and FINISH the kitchen

WOO HOO!

And the winner is......

The winner of the custom matte is Kristen @

Working Moms Can Blog Too

CONGRATULATIONS!

(I will e-mail you to get to know you better and find out what great picture you want a custom matte for)

Thanks to everyone for visiting my site and entering the contest.

It was fun.

I hope you enjoyed your time here.

Come again, I'm sure I'll to another giveaway sometime soon...I'm unpredictable baby!

Symptom: Lists~ Diagnosis: Anxiety

Lists
I have been wanting to make lists all week.
My jaw is tired from being subconsienly clenched.
I seem to get the urge to make lists when I am anxious.
And...
I when I am anxious my OCD starts.
I feel the need for everything to be perfect....I need everything to go the way I picture it in my head...I don't feel like I can sleep until everything I have control over is perfect. I can't sleep when I should and sleep when I shouldn't.
Here is a list of things of which

I have control over
*Laundry
*Dishes
*Organization of the attic
*Organization of my closet...hall closets...any closet that gets in my way
*Swiffering the floor within an inch of its life
*Rearraging anything I don't FEEL is in its proper place.
*The symmetry, spacing, and look of things on shelves
*My tonails being painted nicely
*My time (usually means holding up in the house)..I am SUCH a homebody even on none anxious days.
The list goes on and on...
Grrrrrrr....
I think this is a time I should up the dosages of one of my meds. My psychiatrist wrote the perscription in such a way that I can increase it when i'm having weeks like this.
Good thing I started writing this post. I may not have come to the medicine option. I knew I like blogging for good reasons.

Bankruptcy

The last step has been taken. Only a 300 hundred dollar fee is in the way of my filing for bankruptcy. Relief is the feeling of the day. Don't get me wrong, this process has first shamed, and then left me humbled. My post bankruptcy budget looks great. I will have…

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ENOUGH
Enough to pay all my bills.
Enough to pay for my medicine.
Enough to live a modest but comfortable life.
Enough to implement the things I’ve learned.
Enough to rest.
Enough to hope.
ENOUGH
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Great Giveaway from I ♥ Faces

I am posting about this fun giveaway because I want as many chances as I can get to win.

The ladies at I ♥ Faces (click on their name to send you to their site) are giving away a print (worth 85) from

Click above to go to their site

Go to this site and check out all the great ways they are make your pictures POP.

Who doesn't love unique.

Possibilities

Possibilities
Next week holds nothing but possibilities.
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Mom will be on vacation all next week.
By no accident that happens to be my week off as well.
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This gives us seven days to execute our plans.
Plans to paint, paint, paint.
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Almost every room in the house has been stripped of awful 80's wallpaper and painted.
Every room except the living room and the kitchen. There is really no good reason the living room hasn't been given a fresh coat of paint. No reason other than there were rooms that were far worse...needing far more attention. Seriously, the laundry room used to look like something out of 'Golden Girls'.
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The kitchen is a whole separate situation. It is just BAD! Pale pink and baby blue I don't believe were ever the IN color but I could be mistaken. Judge for yourself the design value in these colors. Mom hates the floor. I really like it. Once the new color scheme of black and white (with red accents) is implemented, I hesitate to predict that the floor is going to look really good. And...the cabinets. Do I have plans for the cabinets! Plans that include a large amount of frames from the thrift store and yet to be discovered fantastical knock your socks off fabric
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These are baskets that are the inspiration for the colors

the fabulous floor

the splendor that are our cabinets, pink/blue/white

the wall behind the stove we want to do stainless steel tiles

the living room. we are going for a light but rich tan color

the only problem with this room is ALL the molding, we will

be doing a lot of taping!
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Oh, yeah! Yard sales. We are going yardsaling (is that a word?) for the first time this year.

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Yardsaling a verb.

Meaning getting up ridiculously early, to thrown on your best sweatshirt spending the morning going from home to home searching through others leftovers....for that illusive good deal that you can brag about later.

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Yes, some may call it a sport....some may call it luck...I say it is just something you are born with.

I ♥ Faces week #19 Blurb Book Photo Contest

It is week #19 over at

(Click on the above box and go to their site and join in the fun!)

This week the theme is "your best face photo EVER!"

The ladies at I ♥ Faces are making a book of the best face photographs their followers have to offer. I don't have any delusion of being choosen for their book. I've been participating in these challenges the last couple of months. It has been nice getting to see how others see the world. I believe how you frame a picture is kinda how you frame life.

This photo is of my friend Amanda. She was married just over a year ago and I was a bridesmaid. It was a special day to be part of. This is while she was being laced up into her dress.

(I am submitting this photo into the www.iheartfaces.com Blurb book photo contest. If chosen, I grant I ♥ Faces permission to use my photo in a printed version of a book for commercial use and possibly advertising of a photo book on both the Blurb and I ♥ Faces web sites.)