In which thrifting patience pays off

I mentioned yesterday that this weekend I finally thrifted an item for which I have been searching for five years. Are you curious what it is?

Blue ice skates! I do love to skate, but they're not for me (in fact, I haven't even looked at the size). I've been looking for a pair of these blue leather skates with the gray fur trim ever since this magazine came out back in 2006.

This was a special issue from back in the days of Country Home magazine, may it rest in peace. (sob!) One of the first few pages featured this image

and once I saw it, I was on the hunt! Several pair have come up for auction on eBay and I even bid on a few, but the prices always went over my limit because the shipping costs were always so high. I knew if i was patient I would come across a pair sooner or later. It took almost five years, but my patience paid off and I found not one, but TWO pair of these skates at an estate sale on Saturday! I literally squealed out loud when I found them in the basement and the other shoppers looked at me funny. I can't wait to decorate with them this winter.

I found some other goodies as well. There were three estate sales being held within blocks of one another, an extremely rare occurrence around here. In addition to the skates I bought some pretty china saucers (I have a project planned for these), a vintage plastic tree topper (wreath fodder), a pair of earrings and a packet of darling little woven flag picks. These were fun finds, but if I hadn't found anything other than those blue skates, I still would have been thrilled! Have you had an experience where thrifting patience paid off?

Field trip to the Butterfly Pavilion

This past weekend I found something at an estate sale for which I've been searching for FIVE years! But that will have to wait because it's rainy and gloomy today so I can't get good photos. In the meantime, I do have some pretty photos to share.

Last week Maren's class went on a field trip to the Butterfly Pavilion. It's way across town so we've never been before, and I wasn't sure what to expect. The highlight of the facility is the tropical room, which is full of amazing tropical flora and butterflies everywhere! I've never been anywhere like it; there were huge butterflies on every surface and even more flapping above our heads.

It was a great place to try out the macro settings on my camera! The butterflies were nice and big and most were very cooperative and held still while I was trying to photograph them. :)

Porter went with us. The humidity in the tropical conservatory made his frowsy, no-bath hair curl right up and gave me a reminder of what we'll be dealing with in Florida next week!

I'm planning like a madwoman for our trip. The last time we went to Disney World was in 2004 and we didn't have kids, so this is almost like going again for the first time because we have a whole new set of considerations. One week from right now, we'll be on the plane headed to sunny Florida!

Spark No. 3

Last September, my mom and I got Sparked:

Which sounds like a possibly illicit activity, but really was two days of friendship, creative inspiration, eye candy, real candy, and fun.

So it's no surprise that we're doing it again this year! A few things have changed (the date, the organizers, the number of attendees) but I'm confident that it will be just as invigorating and uplifting as Spark No. 2.

There's still room if you want to come too! This year's Spark 3 will be held October 21-22 in Lindon, Utah, which is a town just south of Salt Lake City. The Wasatch Front is simply gorgeous that time of year (amazing fall colors, warm days and cool nights) and I'm thrilled to have a good excuse to visit and spend time with my mom.

Won't you join us?

NASA & WDW: Two of my favorite acronyms

If everything goes right and the weather and technology cooperate, two weeks from tomorrow I will get to witness this with my own two eyes:

A Space Shuttle launch! And I'm so excited I could probably wet my pants a little bit!

My mom has a friend who was able to get us VIP tickets for the launch. That means that we get to view the launch from inside Kennedy Space Center, and attend a special briefing on the launch the day before. We actually had tickets to go a year ago but decided not to make the trip because it was right during Spring Break, so hotels and flights were either full or outrageously expensive. We crossed our fingers that we'd get another chance, and it looks like we have it!

The original launch was set to take place on April 19th but was postponed to the 29th because of a conflict with another launch. Launches get scrubbed all the time if the weather doesn't behave or if there's any kind of technical glitch, so we're FAR from being in the clear. It stinks, but it's a very real possibility, so I'd appreciate it if you'd all just keep your fingers and toes crossed for us that the launch goes off without a hitch!

We do have a Plan B if the launch gets scrubbed:

Hello, House of Mouse! The fine folks at Disney are running a deal for military families in which we could purchase 4-day tickets to Walt Disney World for a greatly reduced price. Normally I'd want to wait a few years for a trip like this because dealing with a wild 18-month-old is going to be a challenge, to say the least. But under the circumstances, I think we're going to give it a try and just set our expectations low. The Mister and I have been to WDW a couple of times before and Maren will be thrilled with anything she sees, so there's no reason to feel like we have to do and see every single thing in this one trip.

And now, I have to plan a major cross-country trip for us in less than two weeks! Heck, I don't even think we have appropriate clothing for the kids--we're still wearing sweaters and jeans around these parts, and we're basically catapulting ourselves ahead one full season so I'm going to have to do some quick shopping for shorts, t-shirts and sandals. I can't wait!

Good junk and cupcakes

As I last posted, I was headed out the door to an estate sale for the first time in months and months. Both sales I visited were on their final days so things were really picked over, but what remained was 50% off so I managed to find a few things. On Friday morning, I stopped at a garage sale up the street and found a few items as well, so although I didn't hit the mother lode this weekend, I found enough to satisfy my jones for junk:

The folding yardstick & clip earrings were from the first estate sale. The two empty vintage frames, cute framed motto and antique flocked Christmas postcard were from the garage sale, which is a reminder to me that I should always just get out of the car and have a look, even at sales in young suburban neighborhoods like mine! From the street, this one looked like your standard baby clothes, toys & misc. household junk sale, but it turned out that one of the ladies holding the sale loved vintage and shabby stuff and was off-loading a few things. Score!

The chippy piece of wood trim was also from the garage sale. Don't know what I'll do with it yet, but I'm hoping to channel Jane from Mamie Jane's and make it into something fabulous! I picked up the tart tins and cookie cutters at the first estate sale; I'm already stocking up so I can make more of these this Christmas. The vintage ornies were from the second estate sale and aren't anything amazing but they were cheap and make good wreath fodder. The cute red, yellow and blue letters were also from the second estate sale--they're made of flexible plastic and they snap together so you can make little phrases. They're just darling, but I laid them all out and there's only one R, so that may limit my spelling choices.

The rest of Saturday I spent working on these:

I made 12 dozen cupcakes for a wedding on Saturday night. Thankfully I had helpers to do the baking for me, but I made all the frosting and did all of the decorating. The bride's main colors were yellow, orange, and chocolate brown, so I chose to make chocolate orange cupcakes with chocolate orange buttercream, and lemon cupcakes with citrus cream cheese frosting.

They really did look pretty cute. My forearms are still sore from squeezing my big piping bag full of frosting!

Did you find any good junk this weekend?

I found it!

I found Flea Market Style! I checked Home Depot (nope) and Walgreens (nada) and finally got lucky at Safeway, so thanks to Heidi Ann for her suggestion!

Today I'm overseeing/decorating of 12 dozen cupcakes for a friend's wedding reception this evening. Yesterday I made 9 batches of homemade frosting, and went through 6 bags of powdered sugar in the process. What a mess! Hopefully I can get photos of all 144 little yummies lined up and looking fabulous. For now, I'm off estate sale shopping for the first time in months! Hooray!

I'm on the hunt for...

...the Spring 2011 issue of Flea Market Style Magazine! Last night I checked at JoAnn's, Barnes & Noble, Michael's and Wal-Mart with no luck. The Flea Market Style blog says I have a few more options, so I'm not going to give up on finding a copy just yet. If you've already purchased the newest Flea Market Style magazine, will you leave a comment telling me where you found it? I'd like to increase my odds of success and decrease the amount of places I have to drag my kids with me. ;)

Remade vintage curtain valances

I mentioned yesterday that I'm in the process of decorating my office. I can't really call it REdecorating, since it wasn't decorated to begin with! In fact, it was the only room in the entire house that still sported the original builder's paint. This is significant because the previous owner was very much into decorative painting, and when we moved in, there were all manner of murals and faux finishes adorning every single wall of this house. I have to wonder if perhaps the husband told the wife that she could have free reign over the rest of the house, as long as she left his office alone!

I got the harebrained brilliant idea to paint the room the day before the carpet was to be delivered--we had to pull out all the furniture anyway, and we didn't have to worry about getting paint on the carpet so it seemed like an ideal opportunity! My long-suffering husband went along with me and although painting in the semi-darkness at 10 pm on a Sunday night is not his idea of a good time, I think he'd agree that it looks much better now. We used the only nearly-full can of paint I had, which just happened to be the ever-popular Sherwin-Williams Rice Grain.

Now that we have new paint and new carpet, I've been inspired to actually decorate the room and make it look pleasant, instead of the stuffed-to-the-gills catchall room it had been previously. The large window in the room provides lots of light but it was bare, so I wanted to add a curtain valance just to soften the edges and add some color. I purchased the curtain rod on clearance and with a coupon from Bed, Bath & Beyond, and I knew exactly what curtains I wanted to use:

I bought this set of four vintage curtain panels back in 2007 at a thrift store. I absolutely adore the red, yellow and gray print of windmills, tulips and little Dutch girls! I've never used them because they were too long to be used as valances but too short for any of the windows in my house, so I've kept them tucked away in a dresser for nearly four years.

For my office window, I started out thinking I could just shorten each panel and call it good, but the more I looked at them I realized that I was going to have to completely start over. Whoever sewed them originally did a really poor job, and that's coming from someone who can barely sew a straight line! The seams were all in different places, the lining was sewn differently in each panel, the selvage edges were (unnecessarily) hemmed--it was bad. Armed with my trusty seam ripper, I laboriously removed all of the original stitching until I was basically left with raw fabric once again.

Stitching up the valances was unfortunately not as easy as I had expected, and I have a bit more compassion for the original seamstress now that I've fought with the fabric myself! The side edges of the fabric are selvage but when you fold them to meet, the fabric is not even and the pattern doesn't line up. That created significant difficulties in measuring and sewing to keep the pattern straight and trying to make all four panels uniform.

Even though they're not perfect, I like them--I'm happy that they finally get to see the light of day after four years! They liven up the office and add softness and color around the window, so I'm going to call this project a success--just don't measure the hems. :)

March Tension Tamer challenge update & thrift store jewelry

Way back on February 21, I posted that I was going to set a challenge for myself for the month of March to tackle my out-of-control piles of stuff to be sold on Etsy & eBay. My challenge was taken from Peter Walsh's book Lighten up, and was to last from February 21 until March 31. My goal was to spend that time listing like crazy on Etsy/eBay/Craigslist and whatever hadn't been listed by March 31 had to be donated.

I'm ashamed to admit it, but I didn't do so hot! I did have some obstacles during the month of March: I spent 11 days out of town plus a day on either side of that for prep/cleanup. Two additional weeks after that, Maren was out of school for her break, meaning that during those days I got zero hours of kid-free work time. Also, we decided to repaint and recarpet our office and family room, which meant we had to spend several days moving every single item out of those rooms and then back in, and the office is where the computer lives so it's where I do all listing, shipping, etc. And then we had Maren's birthday party to plan and execute as well. I'm just full of excuses, aren't I? But truly, I don't feel that I had a fair amount of time to work on my listings. I did get some things listed and sold and that felt great, but I know that I could have done more if I'd had more time to devote.

Because of that, I've decided to extend my challenge a bit longer. I'm still in the process of redoing the office, where all of my inventory had been 'stored' in big plastic tubs sitting in the middle of the floor. When we pulled everything out so we could do the paint/carpet, it was so refreshing to have all the junk *gone* that I've been loath to bring it all back in. Having a new, pretty space definitely motivates me to keep things cleaner, and the way for me to keep things clean is to sell my stuff!

Another part of my challenge was that I would not bring in any new inventory during that time--which meant NO junking! I adhered to that rule until March 26, when Maren's birthday party was over and I needed to relax a bit. I hit the thrift and found a few fun sparkly things:

The cute vintage poodle brooch has green sparkly eyes, and he's for sale in my Etsy shop. Also for sale in the shop is the cool vintage Chicago souvenir brooch--the round bit is really a tiny perfume bottle! I'd keep it but I've never been to Chicago, so it holds no sentiment for me and it has to find a new home. My other finds are a big sparkly aurora borealis brooch, a tiny vintage bunny pin with sparkly red eyes, a homemade pin made with antique buttons, and an antique bullion piece that has been made into a brooch. Not a bad haul to end my thrift store diet and get me back on the wagon for a little while more!

Hooray for Overstock!

Today was a VERY good mail day at my house! Not only did I receive the foxy red dress I ordered from Modcloth.com,

 but my chair from Overstock.com showed up as well. I just barely ordered it on Monday and even though it only had to travel about 600 miles from the warehouse in Utah, I'd still say that was an exceptionally fast delivery, especially when shipping only cost me $1!

Here's the humongous box that was left on my doorstep:

Maren is thrilled because I've told her she can have the shipping carton to turn into a clubhouse. The weather is supposed to be gorgeous this weekend, so I think we'll move it out to the backyard and I imagine she'll be spending a good amount of time in it!

I did have to do some minor assembly on the chair, which I expected. It came in two pieces (the back and the seat) and I had to attach them with the long bolts provided. It took me about 15 minutes, tops--and I had my chair all ready to go!

Well, more like 99% ready to go--I do want to hit it with a good coat of Scotch Guard to protect the beautiful fabric. I will say that it's a bit larger than I had envisioned, and because of that I'm not entirely sure where I'm going to put it in my house. I purchased it with my front room in mind, but now it might even end up in my master bedroom, which I'd also like to redo soon. In fact, I've got my eye on another little treat from Overstock for that project:

I can't wait to replace the ugly ceiling fan over my bed with something pretty and sparkly like this! Add a chain cover and a dimmer switch, and I think we'll be on the right track towards creating the beautiful retreat that I have in mind!

The Scooby Gang in felt

Maren got such lovely gifts for her birthday party--I love being a mom to a girl, because even though I'm 32 and most certainly far too old for such things, I still really get a kick out of Barbies, Polly Pockets and American Girl dolls. :)

One of the most delightful gifts that Maren received was a labor of love--and felt!

This set of puppets was designed and handmade by my amazing friend Rachel. Aren't they incredible?

Seriously, the details slay me. These are finger puppets, folks--so they're only a few inches high. She made the Scooby gang, plus a mummy and a zombie to chase them.

She even made a Mystery Machine carrying bag for the Gang to ride in:

Rachel is so talented and creative. She has an Etsy shop called SprinkHaus. It's empty at the moment while she catches up on orders but I'm sure that you could convo her if you were interested in purchasing something--maybe she'd even make you a set of Scooby-Doo puppets!

The Scooby-Doo birthday party

The three things Maren loves most in this world, in order of importance:
1. Her bedraggled and well-loved Sea Lion stuffed animal.
2. Scooby-Doo.
3. Her family.

It was a no-brainer that we'd have a Scooby-Doo birthday party; I've been planning on it for months, but only in the last week before the party did I really get my inspiration. Thank goodness for all the creative people who share things online, because I took a bunch of the Scooby-Doo party ideas I read and stitched them all together to make our party. This post will be lengthy, but I wanted to share what we did in case it can help anyone else!

It wouldn't be a Scooby-Doo party without a mystery to solve, so we decided that would be the main activity for the kids. I hired my neighbor to make a Scooby-Doo cake for Maren--she did a wonderful job and as much as I love to bake, it was SO nice to not have to worry about the cake!

When the kids came over, we seated them at the table and let them work on Scooby-Doo coloring sheets I had printed. Once all of the guests arrived, I told them that we were going to do things a bit differently and eat the cake first, since I had this wonderful Scooby cake. I brought over one of my vintage cake aluminum cake domes and pulled it up to reveal that there was no cake! Instead, there was a note from the Birthday Phantom with a poem and instructions to follow the clues to solve find the cake. (I found the poem when Googling, but I didn't save sources for everything so unfortunately I don't have links)

For each clue activity, I made a Clue Card. I printed them all on bright green cardstock and copied and pasted appropriate Scooby-Doo pictures I found using Google image.

click to enlarge

The Clue Card had the instructions for the activity and on the back, there was an envelope. The envelope contained part of a coded message and instructions on where in the house to go for the next activity. The coded message was made using a simple A-1, B-2 cipher and was printed on purple cardstock. Because we had four activities, I wrote four rhyming lines and cut it into four pieces. The message told the kids where the Birthday Phantom had hidden the cake.

The first activity was called Daphne Disappears, because it seems like in almost every Scooby-Doo episode, Daphne gets kidnapped by the bad guys. I printed out a coloring page of Daphne and had Maren color it in, then cut it out and hid it in the family room. I used a series of rhyming clues (also found online) that led the kids all throughout the house and front and back yards, then finally back to where they started, where they had to find the picture of Daphne. Once they found her, we took the coded message and followed the instructions to the next room.

The second activity was Velma Loses Her Glasses, another standard occurrence in every Scooby-Doo episode. I got the idea for this game online as well. All of the kids sat close together on our huge sectional couch with their hands behind their backs. One kid was Velma, and had to turn her back and count to 15 while the others passed a pair of glasses back and forth behind their backs. Then 'Velma' got to turn around and had three guesses to see if she could catch who had the glasses. If a child was caught, then he or she had to be Velma.

Because we had so many kids, it was hard for Velma to guess correctly, so in the interest of time we just had each child take a turn at being Velma even if they didn't guess correctly. We played until the kids got bored, then opened the envelope to get the coded message and followed the instructions to the next game.

The third activity was Snack time for Shaggy and Scooby. In every Scooby-Doo episode, Shaggy and Scooby get hungry and find themselves something to eat. For this game, I drew a huge Scooby head on a piece of cardboard and Maren helped me color it with crayons.

I altered the picture slightly so that his mouth was open and we and taped it to the wall. I printed out a clip art hamburger from Microsoft Word for each child, and we played Pin the Hamburger on Scooby's Mouth. Everyone got a turn, then we took our coded message piece and followed the instructions outside for the final activities.

Thank goodness the weather was sunny so that we could go outdoors! For the previous two years, the weather had been terrible (cold and snowy) on the day of Maren's party so we were limited to what we could do inside. Being able to go outside (even if it was chilly in the shade) was so wonderful and made the party much more fun!

The fourth activity was Run from the Phantom. The Scooby Gang does lots of running from the bad guys in every episode, so the kids had to practice running from the Birthday Phantom by playing a game of "Scooby, Scooby, Phantom!" AKA Duck, Duck, Goose.

They played until they got bored, and then we moved onto the next activity. At this point, The Mister slipped away while the kids were busy and headed out to the garage, where he dressed in the black robe and mask from a leftover Grim Reaper Halloween costume and waited for his signal.

The final activity was to Make a Disguise and Set a Trap. I brought Maren's big bin of dress-up clothes outside and let the kids dress up in disguises.

Once we had our disguises on, we had to set a trap to catch the Phantom. We used a long piece of rope and the cargo net from the back of our car and the kids decided how we would capture the Phantom if he showed up. While they were busy, I surreptitiously sent a text message to The Mister, and in a few moments he ran into the backyard screaming and yelling, straight into the trap the kids had laid. :)

I handcuffed him with a pair of plastic cuffs, and then the kids got to unmask him and find the Phantom's true identity--and of course he had to say the classic line, "And I would have gotten away with it, if it weren't for you meddling kids!" He surrendered the key to the code, so we all trooped back inside. I divided the kids into four groups and gave them each a copy of the key, and they worked together to decode the messages and put the lines in the proper order.

The message led them to the garage, where they had to enter a numeric code on the keypad and eventually found the cake in the back of the car. We all went back inside and had cake and lemonade and Maren opened her gifts.

For party favors, I purchased purple and turquoise paper sacks at a party store. In the sacks were Scooby-Doo fruit snacks, Scooby-Doo Band-Aids (I broke up a box and gave each kid a few), Scooby-Doo Silly Bandz (again, I broke up a larger package and each kid got a couple), Scooby-Doo stickers, a little plastic magnifying glass, a ghost sucker made from a Tootsie Pop and a white coffee filter, and a gummy hamburger.

It really was fun--even The Mister remarked on what a good time he'd had! It was pretty inexpensive--the only costs were the cake, balloons and the party favors, which weren't terribly expensive. I found the Scooby-Doo cups, plates and tablecloth on 75% off clearance at Target, so they cost literally pennies. I used cardstock I already had to print out the clue cards and used free images I found online. The coloring pages were available online for free. The poster board was actually the back of the insert from a poster frame I bought a few weeks ago. Clean-up was a breeze too, especially compared to last year's cupcake decorating frosting-and-sprinkles mess!

I know Maren had a great time, and I'm proud that The Mister and I were able to put on a creative, inexpensive, and memorable party for her!

My Ballard Designs knock-off chair from Overstock.com

Hello, friends! I survived Maren's Scooby-Doo birthday party and a blog post about it will be forthcoming. It was a success and we had such fun, but I'm glad it's over. :)

Right now, I'm giddy because I just ordered the cutest chair from Overstock.com! I first saw the Signature Tan Linen Slipper Chair in an ad in the February 2011 issue of Victoria magazine. When I went online to check it out, I was disappointed that the current price was $30 higher than the price printed in the ad--boo! So I put it in my Wishpot and forgot about it.

This morning, there was an email from Wishpot telling me that the chair was on sale, for $60 off the regular price. I also did a quick search and found a 10% off coupon code here, which saved me another $23 and shipping was only $1! I recently sold my Bosch mixer to a friend, so that will fund my new chair.

So, ya wanna see it?

When I saw it in the magazine ad, I thought immediately of the fabulous Document Brown printed fabric from Ballard Designs that I've long ogled in their catalogs:

The armless Brockton chair is the closest to a slipper chair that Ballard offers, and you can order it covered in Document Brown fabric for a mere $467.00, plus an extra $40 for oversized item shipping. The Overstock chair was half the price and is a very similar look!

Overstock also offers the Phoenix Signature Tan Upholstered Bench for $198:

I actually would have ordered the bench instead of the chair, but it was just a bit too long for the space I wanted it to be. It would be cute to place at the end of a bed, in a hallway or under a mirror or painting to anchor the space. And what room couldn't use more seating?

I've never ordered furniture from Overstock, so I'll be sure to give you all a review when it gets here!

Petite Inspiration Box swap

Even though I've largely sworn off swaps, I couldn't resist signing up for Speckled Egg's Petite Inspiration Box swap, and boy am I glad I did! Heather's Petite Box swaps are perfect--all you have to do is embellish a kitchen matchbox according to the theme and then fill it with goodies. Small and do-able, right? The theme for this round was Flea Market--right up my alley!

I was paired with two lovely ladies: Barb from 123 Lavender Lollipop Lane and Tammie from My Art Soul Wings. We each made two boxes and each received two. Here are the boxes I received from Tammie and Barb:

Aren't they pretty? And the contents were wonderful too:

Doesn't this look like a game of Vintage I Spy? All those yummy little bits and trinkets, just waiting to be stashed away until the perfect project. You won't think I'm crazy if I admit that I enjoy the organizing and the having just as much as the using, right?

Sweet Barb also included a pair of the most fabulous kitchen towels that she made, embellished with rickrack, vintage fabrics and vintage buckles:

You had better believe that I'm not letting anyone wipe their dirty hands on these beautiful things! Barb also made the most adorable little pillowcases to match my kids' bedrooms.

As usual, I didn't get a photo of my boxes before I sent them because I was in such a hurry to get them into their shipping boxes. I was putting them together at the very last minute, as The Mister was literally moving things out of the office around me because we had new carpet installed the following morning. Here's a photo that I swiped from Tammie's blog of the box I sent her (the box for Barb was nearly identical with a few differences in contents and a similar flower on the top):

I was feeling kind of clever because the silver flower that adorned the top of the box is actually a pin that I made, so it did double duty as an embellishment for the package and a gift for my partners to wear as well. I also made each lady a charm bracelet using vintage and new buttons, jewelry, and charms. I hoped that it might look like it was made with trinkets you'd pick up at a flea market.

I loved this swap! I got to "meet" two really fun ladies, enjoyed putting together their packages and received two outstanding packages in return. I'm so glad I participated--thanks to Heather for hosting!