Garage sale find

On my way to church this morning for our worship team rehearsal, I stopped by a community garage sale. I think they do it fall and spring, but I've always been out of town.

Bought a loaf pan and this fun quilt:

Stopped at several other estate/garage sales on the way home and picked up a couple of things, but this was by far the winner of the day.

Now I'm watching baseball on TV for probably only the second time on my life (first time being yesterday) as I'm cheering on the Texas Rangers in their bid to beat the Yankees in the ALCS.

Thrift store find

On my way back to work today from an appointment, I detoured for a moment into the Central Dallas Ministries Thrift Store. I've seen it several times on my way to and from donating blood, but it was never at a time that they were open or I had time to stop. I wasn't really looking for anything or expecting to find anything, but it never hurts to look.

Well, of course, I did find a treasure. Look at this fun cabinet!! It was a steal and is nice solid wood. It does need a little cleaning up - and will probably get a coat of paint at some point. At the moment it is living in my kitchen and will provide overflow storage for large canisters, pitchers, etc......we'll see if it stays there.

Spring Saturday

For the past few weeks, I'd hear about something, mark it in my mental list of things to do and then move on. When I finally started writing all those "somethings" down, they were all happening today! So, I made a list and headed out (after sleeping in, of course!)

1. First on the agenda - early voting at the Civic Center. I'm going to be with my family next weekend and wanted to make sure my vote would make it in.
2. Heights Recreation Center to pick up my 2 free rolls of blue recycling bags from the city (anyone need some? I still had 3 or 4 unopened bags from before!) and buy a box of trash bags.
3. bank
4. local high school band fundraiser garage sale - saw a cute snowman salt/pepper set with a spoon rest. alas, they wanted more for it than I wanted to spend.
5. church youth fundraiser garage sale - score! new end table for $10 (Ethan Allen in great condition!)
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
6. A few Saturdays ago, I scored a Scrabble game (it's our family's newest obsession) at a garage sale for 50 cents. Amazingly, it was only missing 2 letters!! One of my favorite stores, Junkadoodle, usually has a bowl full of Scrabble tiles and tile racks. I went last Sunday and they were completely out of letters! Ugh - apparently someone else came in and literally cleaned them out. The guy told me that Betty Ann was out that weekend stocking up on new stuff and would probably come home with a new stash. So, I called last night to make sure that she had success. A quick trip and 45 cents later (for two letters and one tile rack), my Scrabble game is complete!
7. Leisurely driving through neighborhoods on the hunt for more garage sales. Found a few, but nothing interesting worth bringing home.
8. A stop at Lowe's to try and think about finding some flowers to plant in my front flowerbeds left me completely overwhelmed! So, no plants today. I've sent off a note asking for help from my high school huddle leaders who own a landscaping company in Abilene.
   
9. Last stop was the Cottonwood Art Festival. I have discovered that I really love buying interesting and unique things when I can get them direct from the artisan. Last year I got a funky handblown glass bowl. This year, a fun metal flower sculpture!
   
   
   
   
   

Whew.....and then of course, there are the typical weekend chores....laundry, dishes, etc. I'll sit down to read or watch a movie here in a little bit.....maybe!

Saturday

Catching up a bit.....last weekend Heather & Emily came for a visit. It was so much fun!!


The ACU Today magazine features pictures of alumni children in their free onesie that is provided by the Alumni Association. So Friday evening we got Emily dolled up and went outside for a photo shoot.....it was so fun!











































Saturday, we boarded the DART train and went to the Dallas zoo with some free passes that I got from work and enjoyed some beautiful sunshine and cool breezes before the rainstorms blew in. I think Emily had lots of fun....course it will only get more fun as she gets older and can really talk to us about what she is seeing!






















So, to today....nothing much on the agenda, except heading over to Ft Worth in a few hours for a wedding....still not sure what I'm going to wear since it is outside and it is CHILLY today! Might have to suffer for fashion. We'll see.


But I did do some running around this morning:

• Chick-fil-a --- treat for two weeks of following WW exceptionally well, and having points to spare this week


• Wal-Mart --- normal stuff, plus a couple of surprises for Emily


• JoAnn --- more floral wire to finish a project, plus on sale plastic box to house audio cables


• Junkadoodle --- semi annual flea market -- some GREAT finds! total $30.....highlights are a glass punch bowl + 12 cups ($4); jingle bell Christmas tree ($4); and safety pin + clear bead lighted Christmas tree ($18)


• Hobby Lobby --- Sharpie paint pens

(some of my treasures......)

Second Annual First Day of School Dinner

Tonight I had my friends Sarah and Kelly over for the second annual first day of school celebration dinner. No, I'm not a school teacher, but they have both been teaching (7th grade math and elementary music, respectively) for around 10 years each! Last year we gathered at Sarah's and this year I volunteered to host. Of course, what I really needed was Kelly's husband, Adrian, to help me hang my trellis! But, whatever the reason, they all came over and we had a great evening.

On the menu tonight was a stir fry mix I had in the freezer, purple juice salad (served in my new thrift-store parfait glasses - found three more this past weekend at the Goodwill store for $0.79 each!), brownies and leftover home-made ice cream. Since they are family to me, it was a very low-key dinner -- which included me making the brownies as they were walking in the door -- very unlike me. I usually plan way ahead!

Here is the couch wall....before:

And as a reminder, this is what the trellis looked like when I bought it:

My amazing trellis-hanger, Adrian! (He really is quite the accomplished carpenter, so this was WAY beneath his skills.....I just didn't have enough arms and hands to do this alone!)

And the finished product, on the wall.....it will be so fun to see what different things I can do! I painted the solid portion on the left with chalkboard paint, so that should be very fun to play with.

And, of course, no project in my house is ever complete without a new tool or some addition to my hardware closet. You've already seen my new sawhorses, plus I picked up some more screws and anchors. Gotta have the correct parts to do the job right!

Weekend

Who ever said the weekend was supposed to be restful?

So, last night I decided to go ahead and start painting that trellis from last weekend....it was as close to cool enough as it gets in August in Texas, so I set up shop in my garage. See those nifty things under my trellis? Folding, plastic sawhorses! So great. I've been *needing* sawhorses for a while - they just make solo projects so much easier. But, I didn't want to buy big heavy bulky ones. And I think my grandpa made my dad's eons ago - I sure didn't want to do that (or even know how!). So, when I saw these, I knew it would be exactly what I needed.

Another recent find is these Tornado hooks that screw straight into drywall without having to use anchors or find studs. Perfect for my garage. I got a hook for my push broom several weeks ago and it is perfect. So, when I bought my sawhorses, I went looking for hooks to hang them on the wall....voila! Perfect size. Measured the span that would be right (used painters tape to get them reasonably level) and hung them while I was waiting for paint to dry.

See how perfect they are hanging up?? This is why I have a garage. Plus, of course, to house my car.

The other project of last night was to illuminate my gazebo. I've flirted with the idea of hanging lights for a while. Even bought a ton of cuphooks last Christmas intending to hang lights out there (because that is how lights are hung on my parents' house). I abandonded that idea as too labor intensive. Finally, after seeing some cute dragonfly lights on my friend Cindy's patio hung with staples, I decided to just bite the bullet. So, I bought some basic round lights and stapled them up around the perimeter. Yes, I ended up with slightly more length than I needed, but I just pulled out the bulbs from the doubled over section and have them as spares (which is good because I did break one while hanging them!). Ever try to hang lights by yourself? Thank goodness for a long extension cord and electric staple gun!

I also decided to hang one row of cuphooks on the front and use that for seasonal fun lights....these little chinese lanterns jumped out at me and I couldn't resist. I'll probably see what fun lights I can find at Christmas time - and might even see if I can change out every other bulb in the regular string to be red or something.....we'll see.

And on to the fun of today. I unintentionally woke up early and just decided to get up. So, I was out the door about 8:30 to run some errands and find what I could find. Lowe's was the first order of business. I've been wanting a hammock to hang between the two posts in my yard for a while....found one (on sale 50% off!) and got it home, but it was too big. Boo. So that goes back to the store.

Then down to Target to get another string of lantern lights - one wasn't enough. En route to the estate sale that was the ultimate goal, I found a thrift store and scored several treasures. A set of white shelves that are very sturdy - the openings are about 15x15x6 and it is about 30" high. Could be great scrapbook paper storage, except that I have mine stored in other ways. Basically, I don't know how I'm gonna use it yet, but for $4.94, I couldn't pass it up. I also got a pair of ice cream sundae dishes for $1.91.

The estate sale was a bust, but as I was driving aimlessly pointed in the direction of home, I stumbled across many more garage sales. I don't usually stop just because of the hassle of in and out of the car and I'm usually on more of a mission. But today, that was my mission. I found a couple other treasures - a fun snowman to add to my collection for $2 and a ribbon plate for $1. Plus I bought a book for 50 cents.

Once home, I unpacked all my treasures, hung the second set of lights, tried to hang the hammock (which required a trip back out and all around town because I didn't have the right hardware), repackaged the hammock to return, painted part of the trellis and salvaged boxes with chalkboard paint, painted a spot on the bathroom ceiling that was damaged when I had a A/C vent installed earlier this summer, and unloaded the dishwasher.

Now, I am gonna go season my steak for dinner, then chill for a while.....probably pay some bills and maybe run a load of laundry. Maybe I can rest tomorrow afternoon!!