~MY TWENTY-FIVE CENT FRAMES...SWEET GIFTS FOR CHEAP~

~MY TWENTY-FIVE CENT FRAMES~

For those of you who love WHITE DECOR (or who have friends who do!) and are looking for sweet Christmas and Holiday gifts on the cheap inexpensive side, I hope you'll check out my PICTURE PERFECT POST from a couple weeks back (found HERE) just in case you missed it!!!

If your funds are tight this year there is no need for despair!  With a little paint and just a few hours of thrift-store shopping (or less if you are truly fortunate!) you can scratch many co-workers, family members and girlfriends off your Christmas Shopping list...and for only a few dollars!  Much less than the price of a single Christmas Card and postage stamp!

 ~MY MOMMA'S CHILDREN~

Sweet for a Cottage or Farmhouse Decor)

Everywhere I go I hear about the poor economy and it has certainly affected my family just like it has so many others.  Since I'm blessed to work with my hands full time I'm almost always able to come up with some little gifty thing for those special people in my life.  No matter how challenging the days are, how little the time I have left or how long my gift-list may grow, I can generally stay within budget and on schedule if I plan ahead.

I promise you, you can too!

 ~US KIDS WITH OUR DADDY 1973~

I don't know a person out there who doesn't like picture frames and they make lovely gifts.  I'm constantly scouring the shelves at Goodwill and our Bargain Thrift stores for sweet little frames that will serve me later on in the year.  Now that the Christmas Season has begun my transformation plan has kicked into high gear!

 ~MY RECENT HAUL- OLD ITALIAN FRAMES and MORE~

A couple of weeks ago I showed you a grouping of some petite photo frames I purchased at one of our local thrift stores.  I sought out and found LOTS of mini frames and made Christmas ornaments out of them.  They proudly hang upon my Christmas Tree this year!

 ~FABULOUS FINDS MADE IN ITALY~

Well...a few days ago I stumbled upon a few more super-incredible

FABULOUS OLD FRAMES

that are truly lovely!

Six are from Italy...how sweet is that?

Vintage Italian finds for a wee bit of my cashola!!!

(LOVE IT!)

 ~MORE PICS FROM MY PREVIOUS POST~

 

I'll be sharing more pictures of my FAMILY CHRISTMAS TREE soon!  Promise!

~TEN FRAMES for $5.00~

Sooo...here are pics of the ones marked .99.  I found them at Bargain Thrift and snagged them for half off (or .50 each) and the other ones (one being truly vintage) were only .45 each and from another thrift store.  The three frames at the top were found at a garage sale find and were only .25.  They were hunter green (ick) and had gold accents (much like the burgundy frame you see peeking out above).   

Anyway...just had to encourage you again to not despair over gift-giving for Christmas just in case you are.  I printed old one-of-a-kind photos out of my siblings and I (and one of my paternal grandmother) and once inside a special frame I plan on giving them as gifts this year to my two sisters and brother.  We don't exchange large gifts and we haven't for years so these sweet little mementos are perfect.  Besides...we all know it's not about the money...it's about the thought and planning than goes into each special gift.

Hope you are having a wonderful week.

I'm off to my studio to do more work play...

Love to you...

 

~~~~~~~FOR THE ROMANTIC BATH~~~~~~~ Sweet Bottle Transformations For You

~ROMANTIC BATH and PERFUME BOTTLES~

Vintage Millinery Blooms and Fancy Frills

A couple of weeks ago I shared with you a bit about my Garage Sale Sins.  In that post I showed you some sweet bottles I stumbled upon at a recent tag sale...

YIPPEEE SKIPPEEE FOR ME!

Boy did I SCORE BIG that day!

Remember all the clear glass beauties I found with those amazing glass stoppers?  Below is the picture of them once again in case you forgot!

 ~FABULOUS FINDS BOTH NEW AND OLD~

Incredibly, even though the larger of the bottles are not vintage (you can tell as they have a protective plastic sleeve on the stopper) they still have that old world charm that truly makes them inviting!   I absolutely couldn't wait to fancy them up and had so much fun decorating them with antique millinery blooms as well as newer and vintage finds!

 ~MY FAVORITE BOTTLE~

Because I found sooo many bottles I had fun playing around just a bit transforming them.  The one you see directly above and below is my favorite by far.  It was fashioned with fabulous white roses from the 1940's and the most awesome vintage millinery florals in a soft sepia tone.  This one includes an old chandelier prism and shimmery rhinestone accents!

 

~JUST LOVE THAT VINTAGE CHARM~

The one you see below includes a precious pink rose and vintage pink satin rayon ribbon...that ribbon is truly my weakness!  I hope to have the few bottles I've finished uploaded to my website sometime today or tomorrow! 

~YUM...Sweet Pink ROSES!~

In the midst of making over the bottles, I've decided what I want to do with the vintage laundry hamper frame I picked up a couple of Saturday's ago for one measly little buck!

Remember this great find?

~REPAINTED IN COTTAGE WHITE~

Last weekend I repainted the frame with my new favorite spray paint (Valspar) in Churchill Vanilla.  It is very, very close to the color called COTTAGE WHITE by Behr Paint!  Swooon!

If you haven't tried this paint then 

GO FOR IT!

You'll love it, too!

PROMISE!

Anyway...I've already cut out a new liner for the old frame using a lightly textured cotton (in soft white).  This weekend I'll be sewing it together and trimming it with some fabulous extra wide vintage crochet lace I've been saving back for something super special!!  Can't wait to finish it!  I'm sooo going to use it as my new clothes hamper!  

As soon as the liner is in place I'll upload a few pictures in hopes they'll give you some inspiration...

Just in CASE you find one for a dollar, too! :)

(You never know!!!)

Hope your day is wonderful.

Love to you...

~GARAGE SALE SINS and some SIMPLY AMAZING FINDS~

 ~FABULOUS BOTTLE FINDS~

OK...the plan was to just take a very quick sneaky-peaky at my neighbors Garage Sale a few days ago!  I didn't plan on buying one single solitary thing.  Nope.  I'm trying to be a GOOD GIRL and since I'm working hard at saving money for our kitchen makeover I was truly wanting to ONLY LOOK!  Honestly, these days it's a tad bit hard to pry my hubby's hard-earned cash out of my hands and I let go of it ONLY when I'm absolutely forced to!!!!

Now...I totally admit my frailty here. 

~SWEET OLD BOTTLE~

(Remember This Great Find?)

Estate, Garage and Tag Sales are my weakness.  I confess upfront I'm the crazy-woman-driver in front of you that breaks as she approaches every single yard-sale sign she happens to come across...

(Forgive me if I've caused your Big Gulp

to spill onto your floorboard!)

Since Sherry's sale was only four houses down from mine I figured it would be OK to stop in since I wasn't ACTUALLY driving anywhere...

Good argument, don't you think?

Well...I ended up having to make four trips to and from her house to bring home the SIXTEEN GLASS BOTTLES with GLASS STOPPERS I really didn't want she was begging me to take off her hands!

Seriously...the deal was TOO GOOD to pass up!  I'm quite sure you'll see these amazing little finds again in the very near future!  Currently they are patiently waiting for their close-up...  They will surely be fancied-up for the lover of all things feminine and romantic!  Can't wait to show you!

PS:  DON'T FORGET MY GIVEAWAY THAT STARTED YESTERDAY!  VISIT THE LINK ON MY TOP LEFT CORNER OR JUST CLICK HERE TO FIND OUT MORE!

Love to you...