New addition to my collection

I'm not much of a collector, but one thing I have always loved is vintage glass Christmas ornaments. I have one Christmas tree entirely dedicated to them.



This last week, I found a box of vintage Shiny Brite ornaments like I've never seen before. They are children's ornaments and have sweet little characters on them, such as lions, giraffes, bears, etc.



Though they aren't in the best of shape (a lot of the mica is flaking off), I love them nonetheless. And they were a good price at $8/box of 12. That's less than $1 each. Can't beat that.







Do you have a favorite ornament collection?

hodgepodge

Hello internets! Things have been crazy around here lately. Still no luck with the job search. It's been exactly one year since I was laid off. I'm trying to have patience and know that God has a plan, but I'm really starting to wonder what the heck it is and why it's taking so long. :( I'm beginning to get a bit worried here.

Last week my hubs and I went to Indiana (him: business, me: visit family). We stopped in St. Louis along the way and visited with my inlaws. Hubs was able to catch up with some friends from high school. It was a nice visit! But I'm glad to be home. Driving through 5 states in one day, from 8am to midnight is just not my thing.



Isn't my grandma so cute? I stayed with her while hubs was down in Indy for his convention. She lives in a small town of about 2,000-3,000 people, and I swear I'm related to every single one of them somehow. Every time I am there, I meet people I'm related to that I've never met before.

My grandma now lives one block off the courthouse square in town. I had forgotten my hair dryer (yipes!), so it was nice to be able to walk two blocks and get to a CVS. My hubs took off for Indy with my make-up bag in the truck, so I was stuck there with no make-up for the duration (yipes). Not a good look for me. ;)

If you know me, you know I love thrifting. So while there, I walked the one block up from my grandma's house to the square to a little thrift store run by a local church. I didn't think I'd find anything good since it's such a small town out in the middle of the corn fields, but believe it or not, I did find a few scores!

I found two 4-serving snack sets (each has four plates and four cups). One was a pattern I already have. This one came in the original box! And the best part was that it was priced at $3!!!





I also found this snack set. I don't have this pattern yet. It was only $2!





{LOVE!!}

My grandma has always made quilts, and I used to love wrapping up in them when I was a kid. I have a couple of them (one she made for me when I was in school, the other she made for us for a wedding present). While visiting, I told her I'd like another one, so she let me pick one out. They aren't fancy by any means, but they are made with love, and she does all of the stitching by hand. She had a few with interesting patterns, but I chose a simple patchwork quilt. It reminds me of her, because when I was a kid, those are the ones we'd use. She uses any scraps of fabric she has, and I think that's really cool.





While we went to Indy, we took the two old dogs and my inlaws kept the two younger ones. I guess they were spoiled rotten, because when we drove back through St. Louis to pick them up, they didn't seem as excited to see us as we were to see them.





It was a nice trip, but I'm glad to be home, in my own bed. I'm not glad that I have about 8 loads of laundry to do, but I guess that comes with the territory. ;)

It was a dark and stormy night...

You Have Been BOO'd!

The air is cool, the season is fall,

Soon Halloween will come to all.

Ghosts and goblins, spooks galore...

Tricky witches at your door.



The spooks are after things to do,

In fact, a spook brought this "BOO" to you.


The excitement comes when friends like you,

Copy this note and make it two.


We'll all have smiles on our faces,

When we see who Boo'd who's places.

I was Boo'd by Candy, the Junk Sophisticate


The following 4 ladies have been officially BOO'd...

Sunny at All Things Sunny Love Sunny's positive attitude even during difficult times..you are an inspiration!

Kendra at Domestic Princess in Training Another frugal girl like myself, Kendra is a thrifter like myself, always on the lookout for a good deal.

Carrie at Carrie's Little World Such a sweet girl with lots of cute ideas

Leah at Just Me, Leah My dear friend who I love very much!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This BOO party was started by Toni@The Tattered Cottage. Please keep the fun going by following these instructions.


1. You have 24 hours to work your spell

2. Copy and post the Halloween Boo Poem with the instructions for playing.

3. Pick 4 blogs you enjoying visiting and tell why you enjoy visiting them, with a link to
their blog and remember to link back to me.

4. Go to the original BOO Party post at the Tattered Cottage and add your MckLinky.

5. Let's see how fast and far this spreads between now and Halloween.


Happy Halloween!

Mirror, mirror on the wall (before and after)

A few weeks ago I shared this mirror I found at a garage sale for $5.



What I like about it is that it's an antique...meaning it's heavy duty with a real wood backing. This sucker probably weights at least 20 lbs.

However, I don't really need another plain old mirror. I wanted to jazz it up a bit.

I started with this F that I printed out from my computer. F being the first letter of my last name, though I guess it can stand for anything really, like friend, fabulous, freak... Then I cut it out with an X-acto knife.



I used a combination of redline and painter's tape to make frames around the monogram. I would have liked to have done something a little fancier, but I wanted this to be as quick and painless as possible, so straight lines it was.



After a few coats of Valspar Frosting spray, this is what I got.



Who knew it would be so difficult taking a picture of a mirror? The middle square is slightly tilted. Which really irritates me because I measured and measured again before spraying. Eh...I'm still fairly pleased with how it came out.

But since it's so heavy, hubs had to hang it with some sort of special toggle bolt. And he said he's not moving this thing EVER. So I guess it's here to stay. ha!

A quick little "crappy to happy" project

I went to Ross the other day. I usually stay away from that place because the one here in town is sort of...well, gross. But sometimes I can find little treasures hidden on the back of a shelf somewhere, needing a new home.

On the clearance shelf, I found this little sign.



Because it had been roughed up somewhere along the way and had a little chunk missing from the top, I got it for $2.99.



And while I'm sure some of you would just take a brown marker to fill in the broken area, I'm far too ambitious for that. (ha!) Besides, while this bronze color is nice, it didn't really do anything for me. So I gave it a quick coat of white paint.



And added some raw umber glaze I had from previous art projects.



I like how it turned out, but...I don't know. It still doesn't feel right. It almost seems too "girly" for my tastes. Any suggestions?

Cissy and Sammi say hi!

Frugal beauty: dry shampoo

You know how some people have combination skin? I seem to have combination hair. My scalp tends to get oily, yet the rest is dry. I've been making an effort to wash my hair every other day (instead of every day) to remedy the dryness, but then I get oiliness near my temples.

A friend of mine mentioned dry shampoo. She uses it on the days where she doesn't wash her hair. I tried it and liked it quite a bit, but at $25/small bottle, it's not something I can justify.

After doing a little research, I found that Sally Beauty Supply sells a brand called Batiste that retails for about $7/can. I've seen some good reviews and decided to try it out the other evening. I didn't have anywhere important to go, so I figured if it didn't work, I wouldn't be a huge embarrassment to myself. ;)



Since this comes in an aerosol can, it tends to come out heavily. The trick is to apply just a little at a time. Simply spray, wait a few minutes, massage in and then brush out.

Results: very pleased! My hair was instantly refreshed. So much so, that the next day I skipped washing my hair again (I had a lot of work to do around the house and was going to wait until the evening to wash) and yet it still seemed clean.

I think my friend's $25 version may have been a little bit better as far as results go, but for only $7/can, Batiste is worth it, especially if you are in a pinch and need a quick refresher.

A little bit of domestication thrown in for fun

So I was a little inspired this week. I don't know why. I should check my temperature and make sure I don't have a fever. Because not only did I bake, but I baked from scratch. AND! I made enchiladas for dinner twice. From scratch. Go me!

But this is such a good, tasty recipe that is especially appropriate for this time of year. It all started with two mini muffin pans I found at a garage sale. I was going to use them for paint wells, but decided to try and use them for their intended purpose.

I saw a recipe online (complete with video with a crazy old lady) for mini pecan tarts. Here is the result.



And if you want to make them yourself (and I know you do!), here's the recipe. If I can do it, anyone can do it (this coming from the girl who caught her stove top on fire. Once.).

Shells:
*3 oz. cream cheese (I used fat free so there'd be less guilt as I shovel these into my mouth)
*1/3 cup butter
*1 cup flour

Mix and put in fridge for an hour. Make little balls and spread out to fit mini muffin tins.

Filling:
*1 egg
*dash of salt
*3/4 cup brown sugar
*1 tbsp soft butter
*1 tsp vanilla
1/3 cup chopped pecans

Mix and fill shells (about a spoonful of filling each). Add a whole pecan to the top of each one for cuteness.

Bake at 325* for 20-25 minutes.

Makes 24 tarts.