Who's Been Good To Me?

Goodwill's been good to me.

And a few other thrift shops and consignment shops, too.

( A very, very good day at one single Goodwill!!

The most expensive item was the Bombay platter at $6.96. I know!!)

I like Craigslist and Offer Up.
( I can scroll through in a very few minutes)

(Listed on Offer Up for $50.00. Seriously?? Must pick up that same day! I'm on it!)

(A Craigslist find. It cost more in gas to go get it than the shelf was priced at. Such a deal!!)

I'm all about recycling and re-purposing, so thrifting works for me.

(Adorable bamboo table with flip up shelf. So many uses.

 And a perfectly styled shot! LOL #nicevacuumcleanerlady )

I have had a lot of nice comments on social media about all the goodies

 in my last two One Room Challenges, the Black Is Back Library and the #motherdaughterorc Chinoiserie Meets Boho Chic bathroom. 

(There's more "stuff" in this room that any other in my house

. But it seems cozy to have all these fun things in a Library.)

The large bamboo china cabinet replaced a simpler one-

 that I bought at a thrift store years ago-

 which I sold at a consignment shop for more than this beauty

 I found at the Salvation Army Store.

The bamboo coffee table cost $5.00 at a yard sale- glass and all.

 The bench in the foreground came from Goodwill.

The ORC library chairs - before. Goodwill. $14.91 with ottomans 

which they mistakenly resold before I came back to pick them up. 

So they gave me $14.91 back. Two chairs for $14.91. 

But I'm sad about the ottomans.)

Someone asked if I spend hours thrifting everyday.

I wish I had time like that, but not so much.

(Only thing that didn't come via thrifting is the limes!)

I have a pretty crazy schedule everyday, I live in a metropolitan area where it can take an hour to go 10 miles in the middle of the day (not even rush hour), and I don't actually like to shop. And I am a complete failure at returning stuff.

(This one barely fit in the car! But it was half price furniture day at the Salvation Army!!

Which I totally didn't know before I got there.)

However, and this is the biggie, I can be in and out of a Goodwill in 10 minutes including checking out.

I live near quite a few thrift stores  Goodwill, Salvation Army, and a variety of thrift stores.

This helps. And a lot of people donate what I think is really good stuff :)

One man's trash is another man's treasure and all that.

(Check this guy out after a little gold spray paint!)

So this is how I go about finding the "good stuff!"
(And please know that I can visit 10 times and find nothing and then...  yowza!
Something amazing is sitting there just waiting for me!!)

I grab a cart on my way in.

I know I'm "supposed" to check the 50% off color at Goodwill
 but that doesn't really matter to me.
 I don't base purchases on that and what I want never seems to be the color anyway!

Then I head directly back to the furniture, where ever that is in the particular store.

I also scan the top of the shelves from a distance as I walk to furniture. That is how I have gotten all of my globes and a couple of amazing lamps.

 I check the furniture, pull the tag if I am interested 
and then move on to smaller housewares like dishes, etc.

 ( $2.00 worth of bamboo garden stakes repaired this chair that was marked down to $10.00)

Then I look through the decorative items and dishes for blue and white 
(luckily it's easy to spot.)

(All my blue and white has been thrifted!)

I move down to baskets and such because I am after wicker hampers and picnic boxes to use as storage for two spots in my house.

 ( I can pack a car!! Still think KIA needs to use me in a commercial!!)

I run by frames because I usually purchase any bamboo frames or mirrors that I find and can potentially use. I have some I bought 20 years ago at a garage sale!

So basically I am only looking for what I specifically want.
I am not shopping to resell
 although I'm tempted because I have to leave good stuff behind all the time!! #thestruggleisreal

I can be quick because I know what I want and I'm pretty focused on that.

If I find something great that I'm not sure whether I "need" or not I will take a few moments to think about what I can move or replace.
 The full cycle is donating something that I have used and am changing out with a new find.

I don't feel bad if I find a "better" lamp and donate one back when they both cost $4.94 :)

(This came home with me yesterday. You'll see this project in a future post, I'm sure!)

And, full disclosure, sometimes I find something so amazing for such a deal that I will grab it and figure out what to do with it/where to use it later.

I honestly have a bamboo bench, in the way, on the back porch that I cannot for the life of me figure out where it should live but it was less than 20 dollars,
A similar one is on Craigslist and Offer Up for over $100,
and it's awesomeness is too much to part with.

Every week I say I need to give it away and every week I hang on to it for
 "just one more week because it will come to me!!"

#bamboohoarder

#forreal

I try not to let that happen but sometimes it just does :)

My favorite rooms on the internet and in homes I visit always
 have a variety of items including thrifted items
 and/or furniture and travel or family momentos.
My favorite rooms in the most recent ORC are the ones from the guest bloggers who had to get creative and use that creativity to design amazing rooms of color, texture and depth. I felt like a lot of the "chosen" designers spent massive amounts of money designing rooms that showed off a bunch of sponsors or had very few creative ideas that the rest of us could learn from or use. I am not bashing the One Room Challenge. I love that Linda has created something that gets us motivated ( Goodness, knows this self professed 85%er needs it) but I'm just not feeling the "reveals" that read like the shopping guides from a swanky design magazine. I'm probably the only one but that's my two cents worth. Maybe I'm just grumpy because I don't have sponsors :) Anyway, I hope you checked out all the guest bloggers and saw some of the amazing things they found to use in their rooms.
#thriftingforthewin

You can see many of my "finds" in real time on Instagram !

Hydrangea Love!

(taking a little break from all the ORC chatter!)
I love my hydrangea bushes.

A lot. Probably more than I should.

 I had to dig them up and put them in pots a few years ago because

 I really love my two big Goldens as well and they are not easy on gardens.

The hydrangeas outgrew those pots and this year my handy husband

 used pallet wood and a plastic bin to create some great big planters.

An aerial view: We decided to build around the plastic bin to help the wooden framework hold up better and to allow for legs on the bottom so that we could level the planters on sloping ground.

We looked at a lot of ideas on Pinterest and then just went for it.

 I'm sure there are some good DIY's to follow if you want to make some. 

We didn't take step-by-step pics because there is a ton of info out there already!

They are very simple and rustic. 

We knew they would be covered by the plants and 

we really didn't need anything too formal or fancy. 

I just needed a very economical way to get really big planters. 

The pallets were free and the tubs were less than $5.00 at Wal Mart.

 Seriously, nothing swanky going on here.

And look at how the bushes have taken off!! 

They are covered in blooms about to burst into color!!

I'm obsessed!!

The hydrangea behind the pond is in a huuuuge pot and is loaded with buds this year, too.

I add something to the dirt to convince my blooms to be blue but I have lavender and pink blooms this year anyway! I think it must be all the extra soil added to those huuuuge planter boxes. I'm just happy to have so many blooms - whatever the color!

And this hydrangea bush is Limelight and makes all the other bushes green with envy!

#summerinthesouth

Reveal: Black Is Back Library One Room Challenge!

I'm late posting and super impressed with the 150+ bloggers who posted bright and early on "reveal day."

I hope you like the quote above and I hope you agree that while the post is late,

The Black Is Back Library did not arrive "ugly!!"

At least we don't think so.

We are #obsessed.

Some things changed, some got dropped, some evolved,

but let's face it, at my house everything is a work in progress... including me!

Enough with the chatting.

Here goes photo overload.
(and this room was tough to photograph - it doesn't get much sunlight and it was pouring rain when I finally got it together to take some pics. 
Oh well, #cozy )

The walls were already black (and it was a Dining Room in it's previous life.)
They have been black for over 10 years. In a house with white walls everywhere else!
But I painted the trim, including window trim,
 the same glossy Sherwin Williams Tricorn black.
#gamechanger

Everything is black including the bookshelves.



The view into the Library from the front door!

There was a plan for a certain art project to hang above the family heirloom desk.
 It didn't happen yet so the big gold frame is going to hang there for a while until art happens.
 It's kind of like the unfinished portrait of George Washington except way less impressive.

Well, the unfinished part is the same :)

We had the books but pretty much everything else was thrifted!! I know, right?

We painted the existing chandelier a fabulous Rustoleum pinky-coral and updated it with round bulbs.

The zebra rug from the original plan was awesome but Mollie and I found this rug a few days ago and she said, "Get it now. It's perfect for the room!!"

 I did not know that the coffee table or the bamboo bench would end up in this room until one week ago today. They just worked and both were currently homeless and needing new spots in the house. Who knew?
#usewhatyouhave

And a little teaser of how cozy it will be to read a good book in front of the fire 

when Winter rolls around again!

 These bookcases are meant to house our books but they also work as my command center to handle all the details and mounds of paper that are part of everyday life. The bamboo office organizer and baskets were bought at thrift and consignment shops to hold all of our "stuff" in an attractive way.
So our shelves aren't just for books or shelfies - they are hard workers.

This chairs' seat fabric was inspired by the "palm leaf trend"
(I'm  always about palm leaf fabric trend or not!) all over One Kings Lane  right now. 
And by the fact that I already had it and have dragged it out for 2 previous ORC's. #usewhatyouhave

The curtains are a Bermuda Triangle type event where bad math done while rushing through a store, IKEA curtains that shrunk unevenly and blue ikat fabric that I already had intersected. Even though the bottoms were supposed to be the coral buffalo check I am very pleased with the post- Bermuda Triangle curtain disaster :)
#usewhatyouhave

I knew I wanted to cram the mantel full of blue and white but since each chair needed good reading light I knew a lamp would have to perch on the mantel as well. It is "camouflaged" with a new chinoiserie shade in blue and white!
#tricky

The chinoiserie pillows are made from fabric that I fell for at a local warehouse.

I wish the pictures really did this glossy black library justice but we love it and can't wait to use it on a regular basis. 
If anyone is interested in sources I'll be happy to post them soon. 
Whew!!!! This ORC is finally finished!

Thank you Linda for such a fun "challenge!!!"

Elephant Rescue!

One of the things on Mollie's wish list has been an elephant garden stool.

We actually thought about one for the #motherdaughteroneroomchallenge

but there wasn't room and the Thrifting Gods did not offer one up!

We popped in to a favorite thrift shop the other day to take a look around

and tucked in a corner....

... blending in with a white cabinet behind it...

was an elephant that needed rescuing.

He needed rescuing because he had been living with someone who had never thought to spiff him up in any way (he was still in his raw plaster state)

and then donated him to a thrift store where he was pushed into a corner!

"Nobody puts baby in a corner."

( That movie keeps showing up during ORC season!!)

Well, we grabbed him and took him right home with us,

 grabbed our favorite gold paint for elephants and got busy.

I forgot to take a picture before I started spraying him gold*

 but it was a gray day and we were worried about rain.

(And dying to seem him all painted up!!)

Looking better already and he's only lived with us for  few hours

 at this point!



*I don't spray paint everything gold but I will spray paint just about  anything!!

Week 5 One Room Challenge!

 Week 5.

Cannot bear to type that!

I have finished painting the windows and window trim but not all of the trim in the room.

 Windows are scraped. Yay.

#no small thing.

Are you a taper or a scraper?

(aaaaand I need to get in the front yard and pull some weeds...)

Bamboo blinds found, purchased and hung. Check!
Deal of the century at Home Depot.

Looked there for the #motherdaughter ORC and couldn't find a thing.

This time major success!

 I have been tweaking the original fabric choices a little.

And changing my mind on the window treatment situation just a little.

 I'm still starting with inexpensive IKEA curtains. They were purchased yesterday.

 Some sewing still has to happen.

#fingerscrossed

(Does it concern anyone that black zip ties are part of my window treatment plan??)

My panic item on the"to do" list is that I have not even begun painting
 the white shelves black.
See still white. And still full of stuff!

That is major.

 We need some serious drying time in our humid weather

 before we put books back on freshly painted shelves.
 I just don't know y'all!
The luxury would be to buy 2 more of the basic black IKEA shelves to match the ones on the opposite wall. However, the white ones are perfectly fine except for the fact they are white and not black. #firstworldprobs
So frugality will win out and we will hope for a painting miracle :)
cause no humidity in Atlanta in May would take a miracle!

Waaaay less has happened than should have.

I was in charge of two large events at work in the last 3 weeks. 
Both occurred on  weekends so not much happened at home.
 I'm not sure how "finished" this room is going to be next week :(

(War zone pics to make everyone else feel better!!. You're welcome!)

And photographing a black room is proving to be tricky!

Any tips??
And if it wasn't tricky enough we took down the brass chandelier ( light source)
 last night on a whim.
#unplannedproject

 (cause I'm not behind enough already!!!)

Look at that glossy black trim, though!!! It's killer!

Check out the rest of the ORC Guest Bloggers.
 Many of them have waaaay more interesting things to report than I do :)

See you next week to "reveal" whatever is ready!!!