Thrifty Finds!

This space is reserved to show off all my thrifty finds found at yard sales, garage sales and antique stores in their original beauty! 

These planter boxes I found at a Yard Sale for $5.00 each. I made a sad attempt at growing flowers in them (after they were fixed up of course) but didn't work out as well as I hoped. FAIL.

This cute iron rod bird bath was found at a Antique Store in American Fork.

I found this chair at my community yard sale for only $5.00! Click the link to see the before and after.

Thrift chair DIY-before and after

My sister and mom were with me when I found this cute vintage blue fan at the same community yard sale as the $5 thrifted chair. I paid $15.00 for it, my mom and sis swear that I got ripped off! I tell them that you can't put a price on love!

Always remember--when thrifting, it is important to bring a best bud with you. My nephew Cale made a great Yard Sale buddy!

Indoor Herb Garden

Indoor Herb Garden

This year I truly RACKED my brain on what to get my mom. Something that was meaningful and important to her, but also something that made her realize how special and important she is to me. She is the type of woman that does everything for everyone else, fulfills all of her (many) responsibilities, opens her heart and home to anyone in need, and is able to do all this and more flawlessly. I commonly refer to her as "Superwoman" or SuperMom" because that's truly what she is. I'm constantly amazed by her. 

She had briefly mentioned that she had wanted to do a herb garden, but wasn't sure if she wanted to start one outside due to harsh winters and her inability to use the herbs during those months. One night while walking through Ikea, the heavens parted and I ran into a cute white green house sitting all by its lonesome on a long shelf. I scored when I found out that it was the last one they were carrying and because it was the floor model-they gave it to me for half off! 

I ran by the dollar section at my local Target and found a couple brown flower pots, and lime green metal buckets. I made sure to drill holes in the bottom of each pot/bucket and decided to decorate the brown pots with jute and added letters. The buckets were wrapped with scrap fabric and extra buttons from my craft stash.

Went to my local nursery and found the herbs that I assumed my parents would use the most. Plenty of Oregano, basil and garlic in Greek cooking!

No herb garden can be complete or helpful without the use of herb markers! I bought a few knives at the D.I. for 50 cents each and stamped them with metal stamps. When they say to buy vintage silverware-that's not a lie. It is much easier to stamp those, but is usually more expensive than the local DI. These were extremely hard to imprint but were worth it. This is a good site to learn how to make 

these- http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/10-diy-seed-markers-for-your-garden-169269

I added a few decorative items including a cute birdhouse and a saying especially for Mother's Day in a vintage listerine bottle.

The look on my mom's face was priceless! I was so excited that she loved it so much, and being the big boobs that we are, she even shed a tear or two. I would put that in the win column! 

The $5 Thrift Chair Re-do

I couldn't believe my eyes when I found this cute cane back chair at my local community garage sale. And what was more unbelievable was that it was just 5 bucks! Only five smackeroons! You can't even buy a decent lunch for that.

I have never reupholstered anything before and figured no better time to start than on a five dollar chair, where there is room for mistakes.

I started first by removing all the staples. That's right, one by one. I tell you what-it's quite a tedious process. There were thousands of them! The manufacturer must have gone staple crazy too because there seemed to be groupings of three or four staples in one exact spot. Let's just say this chair was not poorly put together.

I tried to be as careful as possible when removing the staples and the chair pads so that I could use the pads as patterns for my new fabric reupholstery. 

Opie even wanted to help! 

I then spray primed the chair using Rustoleum Spray Primer. The stuff is amazing, even with one coat!

I taped off the side portions of the chair and painted the cane grey. The frame was painted blue. I used my Mouse Sander to distress the chair, making sure to distress the edges of the chair the most, as this is where the aging would show the most if it had aged naturally. (Pictures are missing at this point mostly due to some apparent frustration at this stage)...

I then used the old pads to create patterns for the new fabric. I used my upholstery staple gun to secure the chair pad, and sewed the back pillow together and tacked in to the frame with the same staple gun. 

The chair took quite a while to accomplish, but was so worth it! I love how it looks in our front room and it definitely seems to be the focal point now. 

Its amazing what light can do to change colors-so I took it outside for the pic! It's more turquoise-y (we're going to say that's a word) than the royal it looks in the pictures taken in my house.