Dollar Store Decorating

For the most part anyway!! Our mantle is nothing to write home about, I actually do not like how much wall space our fireplace consumes and don't get me started on the knotty pine yuck that composes the face of it. But my husband loves himself a fireplace and I love him, so there you have it!
For the bulk of the year family photos and candles span the length on the mantle, but now that it's Christmas I thought I should play up what I've been handed right? Enter a trip to Dollar Tree and literally 30 minutes of time and what you see is what you get =) The glassware came from DT or Goodwill or was repurposed from elsewhere in the house. The green garland and ball ornaments I purchased after Xmas last year for 80% off. The Pottery Barn deer in the center is a gift I received a few seasons ago and the candle holders all came from Goodwill. Not that I can actually light them since they are tucked into the greenery (me thinks firefighter husband would NOT understand!)
It got a thumbs up from Arielle =)

Another Goodwill Project....

So ever since I started Parker's bedroom re-do about a year ago, I knew I wanted to hang a set of clubs on one of the bigger walls in his room. I've been keeping an eye out and finally: SCORE!!!! I spotted a complete set of 11 clubs in a nasty ol' bag (which went straight into the trash) for-----$5.99!!!
Of course, in my mind I never got to the part on how I was going to hang them!! I went to Menard's and ran into my Dad--how funny is that?! He directed me to the 3M command hook section and I found exactly what I thought would work. After spending $21 in hooks (anyone see the humor in that?! Yeah, didn't think so-HA!), Parker helped me measure out the distances we needed for placement, helped me hang the hooks and then he got the clubs up in the proper order and I painted the white parts to match the walls.
I think we may have started a TOUCH high, but we're still loving them as they are =)

More Goodwill Makeover Magic

I've been wanting a shelf to put in Parker's room to display some of his golf goodies, but knew I'd be painting it to match some other pieces in his room. That means I didn't want to buy NEW, but new to ME would be just perfect. Enter Goodwill!! I've been looking for awhile now, and the bulk of remote possibilities contained details like heart cut-outs straight from the 80's, but patience was rewarded when I picked up this floating shelf for a whopping $1.99.
Once home I sanded it (it had a nice cherry finish, but not what I wanted in this case), sweet-talked my husband into wrestling the lid off of the paint can and gave this bad boy 3 coats of paint. I hung it up, accesorized with (currently empty) golf ball photo frames and metal sculpture pieces from HL and called it done!!

Apothecary Jars on the Cheap!!

It's been a while since I've shown off any of my highly skilled projects (wait, that's never! Highly skilled is not the phrase I'd use!!) I. Am. In. Love. With apothecary jars!! LURVE them, I say! I have a few I picked up at Goodwill or Hob Lob (50% off of course) and have seen other creative bloggers putting together some of their own with "parts" from here and there. Total lemming that I am, I convinced myself that I could do that too =)
I started with 3 lidded glass containers from, you guessed it, Goodwill. Next I pulled out 3 glass candlestick holders that decorated the tables when Kurt and I married. Some super-duper glass glue and 24 hours later and they were complete!! Here is one of them filled and on display, the others just currently have spanish moss in them, waiting for a FAB idea to bash me over the head--HA!!

I <3 Goodwill

Another stop at Goodwill, another SCORE for this bargain shopper!! A couple of weeks ago (I've been keeping your eyes hopping with Xmas posts--saving this one) I found myself perusing the housewares aisle (yes singular--small Goodwill store!) and my eyes landed on 15 cut glass tumblers that I think were second cousin offspring of my last stemware purchase. I LURVE them! You can bet I scooped up all 15 of them--and I didn't even need an emergency consult from my Mommy =) The price? These were $.69 each. I "heart" Goodwill!!!

My Goodwill SCORE!!!

On Saturday, while out running some errands, I was pulled into Goodwill--can't explain why, HA! Anyhow, I was cruising the housewares area and my eye spotted a group of pretty cut-glass stemmed glasses. A quick count came up with 12--exactly how many place settings I have of my good china (which is a GREAT story, I'll tell that one soon!) I looked over a bit and down a shelf, and there are MORE of these same glasses, only a smidge smaller in size. More counting and there are 14 of these! I bee-lined it back up front, grabbed a shopping basket and ran back to those beauties and started loading up! Then I called my Mom real quick and asked her to bee-bop out to where I was so I could get her opinion on them (this will make sense even more when I tell the aforementioned story). She thought they were gorgeous as well and told me to buy them all. She, myself and my MIL believe they COULD be crystal (we're no experts), but even if they aren't, I LURVE them! The price you ask? $1.69 per piece! They needed some up close and personal time with some soapy water, but they are now at home in my china cabinet and have even been used once so far!!!