Free food, Cats, & Fun Finds

Hope you all had a lovely Valentines Day. I got some pink roses from the hubby. He hates to shop more than an ice pick to his eye, so whenever a holiday rolls around he heads over to Walmart (literally across the street from our house)  and grabs something on the day of the holiday. Well except Christmas, then he goes on Christmas Eve. But I didn't get him anything, so it's all good. They are actually very pretty roses

He also hates crowded restaurants as much as he hates shopping so no fancy dinners around here. But we gotta eat and since it was a holiday and all, we decided we would splurge on Chipotle. Ooh big spender! Of course I went to pick it up and when I got there they told me they were out of chicken and it would be a 5 minute wait. I said no problem and they gave me a free soda while I waited. When the chicken was ready I ordered our food and when I went to pay they said no charge, it's free because we made you wait. Wait, what did you say? Free? Really? I'm so glad I added the chips and Guac onto our order, suckers! So free Valentines dinner. On a sorta related note, a few weeks ago some of my hubby's family was in town. We went to eat and asked them if they wanted to go to Chipotle. None of them had ever been there! How is this even possible? Who hasn't been to Chipotle? We eat there once a week!

Nyx and Luna (that would be my kitties) were both spayed last week. They moped around for a day or so but are both back to their nosy selves. The day after they came home this is how poor Nyx was laying

"My tum tum hurts" haha 

My mom came over today for a visit. She has been complaining about a pain in her side for a week so today I dragged her to the quick care clinic. Turns out it's just a pulled muscle and she's fine. The doctor made me laugh though. She told him where it hurt and that she thought it was her pancreas. He said "well I don't think so since your pancreas is waaaay over here" clear on the other side. Ha!

After she left  I decided to hit the thrifts right before closing, see if I could find anything. Zach, my oldest son, said he would go with me. He wanted to see if he could help me find anything cool. He found these right off the bat

Marble bookends with little globes on them. So he was pretty pleased with himself. They are headed to eBay. I was wandering around, not finding much. It was close to closing time and they usually stop bringing out new merchandise from the back about an hour before closing. For some reason tonight the were still bringing stuff out. So I was trying to inconspicuously loiter near the golf clubs in case they brought out something awesome. And guess what? They did! 

Vintage Taperlite train case

And a vintage town craft suitcase! I was just looking for a smaller light colored suitcase last week at an antique mall and couldn't find one so today was my lucky day. The train case was $4 and the bigger one was $5. 

Zach was also happy to have found a tech deck ramp. 

He is a hardcore skater, has been since he was 10 years old. He used to collect Tech Deck stuff when he was a kid so a little nostalgia purchase for him. 

The only other thing I bought was a lamp, so brought out from the back

So not my thing, but it's pretty and I'm sure it will sell on eBay. 

So that sums up my fun weekend, how was yours?

Happy Valentines Day

Mapping It Out

The other day I was cruising around on Pinterest and came across the coolest idea. It was how to make your own pull down school map. I've wanted one of those forever but as you know they are crazy expensive. So last weekend when I was out shopping with my mom and I came across a big USA map I knew right away I was going to try this. Here is the map when I bought it

Nothing special, I think it came out of an atlas book. It had fold marks and was a bit yellowed with age. Cost was a whopping $6.00. Perfect! Here is how it turned out

Awesome right? 

Now the blog I found this on has an excellent step by step tutorial on how to make this. You can find it here http://ourvintagehomelove.blogspot.com/2012/04/vintage-map-new-bed-and-little-guys.html?m=1. 

She does a great job and I pretty much followed it step by step. The only thing I had to purchase for this project was gloss Mod Podge . You need to use the gloss, not the matte, it gives it a little shine and a more authentic look. I mod podged both sides of my map to make it a little sturdier. For the poles I used a closet pole for the top and an old broom handle for the bottom. Both found in my garage. The poles were cut down to the same size (mine were 54" long) and then I spray painted them with Oil Rubbed Bronze by Rustoleum (also had on hand).

 She added caps to the end of her poles but I didn't have any so I skipped that step. I may add them later because it does look better with them. 

To hang it I added this wide cloth string with a brass tack. 

You attatch the map to the poles with heavy duty Velcro strips. The only thing I wish I had done different was on the bottom pole I should have put the Velcro on the back side of the map instead of the front. You can kind of see the Velcro but it's not that noticeable. I also added some tape strips on the back between the Velcro strips so it wouldn't gap out. Does that make sense? 

So there you have it. My very own faux pull down map for under $10.00! I love, love, love how it turned out. Bonus, it is a quick project.  Took me 2 hours start to finish. Which  is about how much patience I have so that worked out well.

Whatcha  think?

New "Vintage" vs True Vintage

So the other day I found myself cruising the aisles of Hobby Lobby. It was an innocent enough trip, just needed to pick up some embroidery floss for my flour sack  project. I haven't been to Hob Lob in forever and let me just say dang girl! They have some CUTE stuff right now. I don't know how you all feel about the influx of fake vintage stuff, but this store is the Queen of fake vintage. I have mixed feelings myself. While of course I would like all my stuff to be true vintage (I'm a snob like that) sometimes you can supplement your decor with a little of the fake because

A) it's cheaper

B) it's plentiful

C) it's cheaper

I do think it's gotten a little bit crazy, seriously every time you see a new trend or idea on Pinterst, Hobby Lobby has it in their store the next freakin day. Bakers twine on old (fake) spools? Check. (Fake)  locker baskets? Check. Old (fake) clothes pins on a (fake) feedsack garland? Check. The list goes on. BUT (and that's a big BUT for you Sir Lance-A-Lot  fans) some of it is very cool and well done. Where am I going with all this, besides rambling? I bought some stuff of course.

This cool old looking (aka fake) wooden storage cubby. Complete with distressed wood and brass numbered labels. It's big, heavy, and sturdy. By the way, I have no where to put this but I had to have it. Go figure.

This distressed (fake) Flea Market sign currently hanging in the bathroom because all bathrooms should double as flea markets. 

Also got this cute little sign for my laundry supplies cart. This cart has original Chewing Gum metal labels on it. It must have been a store display. I thought Laundry was more appropriate. 

Now Hobby Lobby is the Queen of fake vintage but they certainly are not the only ones that sell it. I was at Tuesday Morning the other morning, although sadly it was a Saturday not a Tuesday, and I found this

Fake red striped grain sack runner. I love it! And in case you were wondering, those apples are also fake, got em at Goodwill years ago.  Yes, my dumb family likes their fruit cold, from the refrigerator, so I'm not allowed to have real bowls of fruit hanging around :(

So how bout you guys? Are you a true vintage/antique only kind of gal? Or do you supplement your vintage with a little fakey? If Shara would have won that dumb Powerball like she promised, I could buy everything original. Until then I'll keep on sneaking in a few cute fakes ;)

Three Day Bender

I've been a good girl for far too long. Cleaning, tossing out, organizing, and very little shopping (aside from resell eBay items) I thought this weekend I would treat myself to some retail therapy. I went Friday, Saturday & Sunday! Somebody stop me. But everything was super cheap and super cute so it's all good right? Here's what came home 

Not too terrible. Laurie would have found this at one estate sale! (that's just my jealousy talking)

Friday I went to downtown KC for First Fridays. A little disappointing honestly. I went to at least 8 shops and I found ONE thing. Maybe I've just seen every vintage thing out there? Hopefully not.

I bought this flour sack. I'm going to attempt to embroider it. Have you guys seen those (I think it was in Country Living) anyway, now that the feeling has come back to my fingers after making all those Valentines, I thought I'd give it a try.

We'll see. 

Saturday found me at a a little antique mall that I hardly ever go to. I found the feedsack quilt top, valentines and girl silhouettes. 

A bag full for 3.00. Most places around here try to charge $5 for one (um, no) so I was happy to find these. 

These sweet girl silhouettes for my gallery wall. I've had this collection forever, I hang them with black and white photos of my kids in the dining room. I didn't have any single girl ones. Here's a pic of the wall (albeit a crap one, it's dark outside)

Trust me it looks better in person.

I got this quilt top for a song because it's in rough shape.

Lots of dark brown stains. It's soaking right now and if the stains come out I'll keep it as a quilt, otherwise I will cut it up and make pillows. But lookie how cute some of this fabric is

Ok all you feedsack experts, is this feedsack fabric? Well either way I love it. 

Today my mom and I found an indoor flea market halfway between both of our houses that neither of us knew about! How the heck did that happen? Mostly junk but I found a few things

These are old clothes pins. Stork and alligators. Odd or awesome? I'm going with awesome.

I got a Night Before Christmas book and this Merry Mailman book. My grandpa was a retired mailman so I love mail stuff.

I have one of these little dolls with a pink crocheted dress and I found her sister! But this one has holes in the top of her head and is filled with powder. She's a powder shaker, fun! 

Our last stop was the antique store we used to have a booth at. 

This is made out of tin. I loved the colors and the graphics.

Couldn't leave this behind could I? 

And a cute little bird planter. Maybe a stork? A heron? A seagull? No idea but he's cute.

The last thing I got was this vintage shelf trim. I've only seen this on blogs, never in person. And it's red and white gingham! I had to people, I just had to. 

So now my binge is over, my chakra has rebalanced, and I'm done thrifting (at least until next weekend ;) how was your weekend?

They Said it Couldn't Be Done

Sit back and grab a coffee kids cuz today I'm going to tell you a little story. 

In 1843 a brave group of souls decided to take a journey west in search of promised lands. These people were known as Pioneers. I too took a journey over the last month or two. My promise land was a clean, organized house and a sane mind. Our stories are very similar.

The pioneers started their journey in Independence, MO

Well how bout that? I'm only 30 miles south in Overland Park, KS

Great town of OP,KS

The Pioneers knew it would take many months and they would have to overcome many obstacles

Um yeah, remember the garage?

But they were determined, and so was I.

Day in and day out they trudged on. Sometimes things went well, other times notsomuch.

They faced herds of wild bison 

Could ya move please?

Their covered wagons would hit ruts and rocks sometimes making the Pioneers fall off the wagon

I too "fell off the wagon" once or twice (or 4 times)

But still they pushed on. When they hit the Rocky Mountains they had to lighten their load to make it across the rough terrain. They dumped a lot of their possessions. 

One of seven loads taken to the thrift 

They often ran out of food and water

AAK! Who drank all my coffee???!!!!!

Sometimes they even got injured

Stupid #%!*@ weight bench!

And while at times they questioned why the HELL they even attempted this...

Crap, more tubs.

They knew it would be worth it in the end.

The craft cupboard

The garage

(See ya next year Santa!)

The butlers pantry. Lookie at all that room!

Other side. Still full but gone through, and organized!

Mailing supplies.

Boxes!

The eBay closet

The basement. All my mens eBay was moved down here after these shelves were emptied. 

The Desk and crafting area

Even behind the curtains is clean and organized (I pinkie swear)

Under the stairs, doesn't look like much but trust me, it was all pulled out, cleaned, much crap tossed, and organized.

The Pioneers were so happy to have made it to Oregon (well, the ones that lived anyway) but they knew that much more work lie ahead of them.

Someday I will tackle this mountain of Christmas (but not today)

If they could do it, if I could do it, than anyone can do it!

I have to thank several people for making this post possible

-GOODWILL for taking all my donations and not looking at me like I was a crazy person when I went there 3 times in one day!

-MOTHER NATURE for giving me several 60+ days in January and Febuary to work on the garage

-MY HUBBY for putting up with me and all my stuff and never complaining. He even let me donate some of his stuff as long as I didn't touch his baseball hat or  t shirt collection. (What he doesn't know won't hurt him)

-INTERNATIONAL DELIGHT for making the best coffee which KEPT ME GOING!

APARTMENTS DOWN THE STREET who happen to have a giant dumpster and a cardboard recycling bin that I visited several times (under the cover of darkness)

-ALL OF YOU I showed you all my hidden shame and you all gave me encouragement as well as tips to GIT R DONE!

Have a great week! If you need me I'll be hanging out in my garage :)