Thrifting “lady date”

Hey all! Thanks SO much for all the wonderful comments and emails about our sweet Peanut! Many of you asked, and he’s a Chihuahua/rat terrier mix. They called him a Chia Rat. ;)

We had such a great day with him. He slept ALL night last night and didn’t make a peep! We had a great visit to the vet – and he’s really healthy. (That was a relief!) And tonight he “went” outside for the first time! (TWICE!) It was like potty training the Bub all over again – so exciting!! ;)

Anyway, we’re figuring things out as we go. One thing I know for sure is that he LOVES our son so very very much. OH my…they are nuts about each other. It brings tears to my eyes every time I watch them together.

I’m finishing up a few things in the basement before I show you the difference decluttering made. :) Until then, I wanted to share some finds from my recent trip downtown Indy to Midland Arts and Antiques:

Three girlfriends and I went for a Saturday “lady date” – as one of my friends called it -- (love that!) out to eat and then to Midland for some antiquing.

If you live near Indy and you love the thrill of the hunt…you MUST take a trip there. It’s an old (HUGE!) warehouse full of fabulous finds.

I snapped shots of a few things that caught my eye. As with most antique stores, you’ll find some good, bad and definitely ugly. :) You’ll also find real antiques, lots of vintage (especially mid-century modern right now) and also stuff you could also find at any Goodwill. :)

I found a few clocks turned cloches:

Do they look familiar?:

The only difference – I bought my 80’s clock-turned-cloche for $3 at Goodwill, and these were both over $40 if I remember right. :)

The fabulous light fixtures are endless! Some are funky:

If we had a wine cellar, I would totally put this there! But alas, we don’t. :)

Some just need some spray paint and they’d be a close Pottery Barn knock off:

And check out this one:

SWOON! It looks SO similar to the one hanging in our dining room:

And mine was a knock off of another Pottery Barn light. I think the one at Midland is even bigger, and is the same price as our Home Depot light (now $180 I believe).

I found a gorgeous mirrored tray that would be stunning on any dresser or buffet:

And this mirror would be beautiful as is, painted a bright white or even an unexpected color:

I loved these cane side tables:

And I kept going back to this chair and ottoman:

They were in fantastic condition! I could totally see them in hubby’s office in the basement – but as  you know, I’m getting rid of stuff down there right now (for the impending finishing off of the space).

You’ll always find the downright weird too. :)

Birds on display anyone?:

And these chairs in your dining room would be a conversation piece for sure!:

:)

I found a few goodies I took home from our trip, of course.

I loved this little bird cagey candleholder:

I won’t use it for candles though. I see a nest or something spring-like nestled in there. :)

I have wanted a vintage fan forEVER…and this one caught my eye:

It was my biggest splurge of the day by far, at $25. I cleaned it up and considered spray painting it. But I also love it as is. Hmmm…

I thought this two-sided mirror was so sweet and dainty:

It’s the perfect addition to my Mom Cave. :)

There were bins full of old Bingo cards:

I only grabbed three for an idea for the playroom. I’m thinking I could use more though.

And this little bunny letter opener was my favorite find of the day:

It was one of those things…I thought it was just adorable. It was only $2, so I couldn’t pass it up.

I had to leave midway through the shopping to get back to the sitter, but it was a good thing. I’m sure it would have been dangerous to stick around too much longer. :)

Sometime I’ll have to coordinate a shopping trip for local readers and bloggers – it’s a great afternoon of digging for goodies!

Have you found any great thrifting finds lately? Any good spots in your neck of the woods?

Introducing Peanut

Hello all! Hope you had a fantastic weekend!

It’s been a great one around here for more reasons than one. :)

I finally, FINALLY got the decrapification of the basement done. I mean, almost every single bit of it. There’s just a few minor things I want to go through, but the big stuff is DONE!

I even finished up going through the guest room closet, which has been on my list for about a year now.

The house feels like it may just float away it’s so light. :)

I was going to show you some of that massive accomplishment tonight, but then something came up.

This little guy:

We found him this weekend, and before we saw him, adding a dog to our family was the last thing on our minds. I mean, for a while I’ve been telling hubby I’d really like to get a dog for the Bub. But we’ve just been talking about it, here and there.

But lately, when I see a dog, something new has been pulling at my heart strings. It’s kinda been weirding me out -- I mean, we’re cat people. Always have been. We’ve both owned dogs in our life, but it’s been a long time for both of us.

But today, I picked up that shaking little guy and he cuddled his wet nose into the crook of my neck, and something in me just absolutely melted.

He cuddled into me, as if to say, please don’t let me go.

It was the same thing this one did the day I found him:

And it was hard for me to shake that feeling. I put him down. Walked away, went back, picked him up. He hung onto me again. Put him down again…walked away. And went back again. This time, I had tears in my eyes.

It was so incredibly hard to walk away from this pup. That last time I put him back down, trying so hard not to cry.

And after that, all I could think about was him. I couldn’t figure out what in the HECK was wrong with me. I had absolutely fallen deeply in love with that face. Hubby thought I was losing it. I thought I was losing it.

After making MANY phone calls to friends with dogs, doing a ton of research online and much discussion with the hubby…we brought him home:

Look at that SQUISHY face.

I can’t believe we own a DOG.  :)

The cat’s are adjusting amazingly well. He’s nuts about them. (For real!) So funny.

Peanut has made himself right at home:

He ADORES my hubby. We adore him.

Now excuse me, as I head to bed extra early tonight. It could be a long one. Wish this new Momma a restful night. ;)

But seriously…isn’t he the sweetest thing you’ve EVER seen??

10,000(!) and month in review

Hey all! First of all, before I say anything else – I need to say a huge THANKS and a WHOOHOO!

Tonight I hit 10,000 followers:

I had to take a screenshot, just to remember that milestone! (I really, really hate that “followers” term by the way.)

But it’s pretty cool to hit five digits. I now have 10,000 of you Squeezies! Squeezays. Squishes. :)

Crazy!!

Anyway, I want to try to bring back the month in review I started doing last year. It’s been a while since I did  recap of the month and it’s kind of fun (for me anyway, you may be snoring already) to see what I accomplished around these parts every month. (I link to each one if you want to check it out.)

The start of this month was an especially special one. We became debt free (except the house) for the first time in our adult lives!!

It’s still so surreal. I find myself thinking about a bill and it hits me -- and I’m grinning from ear to ear. :) We haven’t called in to Dave Ramsey’s show yet – we’d like to take a trip down to Nashville instead. I’ll let you know what we end up doing!

And I’m SO SO excited about an idea that Dave’s peeps have been helping me out with. I hope to announce it in the next couple of weeks.

Next up this month, I took an unused spot in our loft and turned it into functional (and cute!) storage wall:

At the February Before and After Party, I showed you how I took a $5 Goodwill pitcher and transformed it with spray paint:

Can you believe there were 499 posts linked up? Wowza! How cool is that?

Since we’ve become debt free, we are now researching our first “cash” furniture purchase in a long, long time. I’m so excited about a new sofa, I can barely stand it:

There was a great response to that post – I’m pulling all the info you shared together and will do a recap post soon. Lots of great info!

I worked with the folks at My Design Guide to provide my readers an affordable online consultation resource:

I’m not able to do these anymore, so I was thrilled that they were able to help me and my readers out!

My friend Beki shared the love with a fantastic giveaway over at The Rusted Chain:

And then one thing led to another when I took down the drapes in our living room and the transformation started:

When the ice storm of the century hit (that’s what I’m calling it anyway), and we couldn’t leave the house for days, I passed some time by decluttering a linen closet:

You won’t believe how much STUFF was in there. (Many of you asked about the light I used, and a very helpful reader put a link in the comments!)

Next, I showed you a total project FAIL – my beautiful painted pitcher didn’t hold up well, in more ways than one:

Boo. I found a pretty and affordable replacement though. :)

At the Organize It shindig, I showed you how I’ve been using Ziploc bags to organize games and puzzles:

LOVE those things. I used more of them in the basement today! (Check out the nearly 300 links at that party too.)

And finally, this week I shared how I use photos as art throughout our house:

Of course, I’m so thankful to all of my wonderful advertisers…over there to the left. :)

Whew! What a month! Thanks so much for coming along for the ride -- can’t wait for a great March!

Have a wonderful weekend!

Photographs: My favorite art

Well hello all! Can you believe it’s almost the weekend already? I swear this week has absolutely flown by.

I got one project completed this week that I’m really, really happy with. (GLEE!!) And I did most of it with what I had, which is always a bonus in my book. :)

When it comes to filling wall space, we don’t have much real art in our home. OK, let me rephrase…we have ZERO real art. :)

An outlet Ballard Designs piece is the closest we get to actual art. Instead I’ve fill our walls with a bunch of molding and lots and LOTS of pictures. Bunches. Gaggles. :)

Photographs are my very favorite art. They’re cheap (most of the time I print them out at home and almost all frames are from Goodwill), they’re easy, and they add a personal touch to our home that no art could.

I’ve grouped framed pictures in almost every room in our house. The playroom:

See that squishy face? That’s my baby:

The cowboy is my Dad as a boy. I could die. :)

That wall of photos is getting a redo soon. I may move the shelves around and am definitely adding new photos throughout.

I filled an empty wall on our stairwell with photos as well:

Don’t worry…the mice are gone. As much as I HEART them. :)

And I used photos in a wall in our bedroom as well:

You can see they’re usually hung willy nilly. I like the scattered look when it comes to framed photos, which is REALLY weird for me, since I’m the symmetrical queen.

When I started the impromptu redo of the living room, I knew exactly how I wanted to fill the space between the windows. I took at look at the colorway on the fabric I picked for the drapes for some color inspiration:

I big fat LOVE when they do that! It makes it so easy to work with. You’ll notice there’s 16 different colors in this beautiful fabric, which gave me plenty of options to choose from.

And it turns out, I already had exactly what I needed. :) About eight months ago, I started collecting frames at Goodwill for an idea I had for the living room. I even spray painted them months ago – I bet it’s been about six months.

But when I tried my idea in the room, I didn’t care for it (more about that later!) and left it sitting for months. And wouldn’t you know it – the colors I had already painted the frames worked perfectly for my new idea:

I love using what I have. And I love it even more when the spray painting is already done. ;)

I started finishing off this spot with a Goodwill lamp – it was blinding me with it’s brassiness at the store, but I knew it could be a beauty:

Doesn’t it have the loveliest curves? Oh, she’s so darn pretty. :) I sprayed it with a primer and then a couple coats of Rustoleum’s Heirloom White. I had the shade, and added a ribbon from my stash around the bottom. I love how the color in the ribbon is an exact match to the light brown in the drapes.

That is what I’m talkin’ about! Totally by accident and it worked great. Whooeee!!

I kept the accessories in the HomeGoods tray simple. I didn’t want them to compete with the art:

The rattan ball was a couple bucks on clearance at Pottery Barn years ago. The books are those faux books, and I covered them with a linen fabric last year.

The art is my very favorite part! They’re all shots I took (with my point and shoot camera by the way) last year:

I used a few of the wildflower shots (from our neighborhood) and a leaf from a hike last fall. I was going for bright colors that worked with the drapes. LOVE.

I don’t even use mats most of the time – I just cut out white paper and use spray adhesive or double-sided tape to mount the photos right on top. You can’t even tell they’re not the real thing!

Like I mentioned, I usually print my photos out at home (and usually just on basic printer paper), but this time I splurged a little bit. I uploaded them to Walgreens.com and picked them up an hour later.

Uhh, hello?? How have I missed this fabulousness all these years? I knew about it, just never did it. And I’m now hooked. I think the five pictures were about $12.

The new art is the perfect finishing touch for that part of the room:

I’m so in love with it. I smile every time I walk in this space.

There’s still much I want to do – not sure that mirror is staying on the right (it’s a little small). You’ll see a peek of a Goodwill coffee table that’s waiting for a redo. And there’s pillows to make as well. (I am going to attempt to make a pillow with a zipper people.)  ;)

And if you look close enough, you’ll notice the drapes are different lengths, still aren’t hemmed (will they ever be? I don’t know, I don’t know!), and there’s a few holes in the wall I need to paint over.

I was able cover most of those with the frames though. YESSSS.

Because you know I’m a lovah of before and after pics, let’s check out the difference so far, shall we? The dark before:

And with new drapes and a little reworking, the now:

BOO.yah. LOVE it.

I know many of you are loving the fabric as much as I am – I got it from Calico Corners and it’s P. Kaufman fabric:

I’m trying to find it online and haven’t come up with anything yet. I’ll let you know if I find a link!

So, do you use photos as art in your home? I know one thing – if we ever sell our house, the realtor is going to have a heyday with us. Aren’t you supposed to depersonalize? We’ll have LOTS of empty walls! Or they’ll just have to deal.  :)

P.S. The lamp shade on the side table was a vintage find years ago. Isn’t is perfect?

P.P.S. The spray paints/colors I used on the frames were Rustoleum’s Heirloom White and Espresso and Valspar’s Everglade.

**Adding this to my friend Melissa’s party: