"Rocking" deal!

I was shopping at a local furniture store...

It's actually not a store, it's more like an old garage with really nice scratch and dent furniture jammed in it.

Anyway, I was shopping around and noticed two identical, really great rocking chairs.  I've looked at the prices of rockers and they aren't cheap.  They want at least $100 at Lowe's and Home Depot and then of course I need 2, so yeahhh, too expensive.

These particular rockers were listed for $39 each.  I knew in this type of setting it was acceptable to bust out my negotiating skills.  I asked if they were willing to go lower and the gal working there had to call her boss to find out.  He told her to ask me what I was willing to spend and I went for it!  I was like a pro, I said, even without thinking they'd ever take the deal..."$50 for the pair."  He said YES!

I brought them home and knew I was going to sass these babies up.  I sanded them, wiped them down, and painted them plum.  Ahhhh so gorgeous.  I painted them plum because that is the same lovely color my shutters will be!  I actually had the paint lady at Home Deep do an exact match of the shutters.

Keep in mind they are still a work in progress because the seat to the chair needs a second and third coat of white exterior spray paint.  I am thinking I might monogram the top panel of the chair too.  Ya dig?

Dear Craig, I heart you!

This is going to be a short post, but I couldn't resist sharing the good news with my followers and viewers.  This past week, Brian and I decided we wanted to buy a new stove, with the kitchen looking all snazzy now and our new countertops coming tomorrow, the big bright white stove just wasn't cutting it.

We put some stuff of craigslist, specifically an airconditioner that was a gift (free), our current big bright white stove (free from my uncle), and spindles that we purchased and decided not to use (broke even). 

We ended up pulling in $400 smackers!  Woot woot!  I don't know you Craig, but I love your list!

We looked online for some good deals, visited Home Deep, visited Lowe's, compared prices and found one we LUVVVVV!  It was on sale from $629 to $584, plus all energy star appliances were 10% off plus we had a 10% off coupon so the total came to...$510.27.  We handed over the $400 in what seemed like free money and ended up paying $110 out of pocket.  LUVVVV.

We ended up with a five burner, gas range, in stainless steel, made by Frigidaire (which I also luvvvv).

Here is a pic, eat your heart out.

It's just lil' ole me hitting up Salvo's...again...

It's late but I couldn't resist sharing the gems I found at Salvation Army today.  I was just there yesterday, but today was a really nice day and Brian and I thought taking a walk would be nice, so I convinced him we should walk down to Salvation Army. 

I must add that the prices at Salvation Army are all over the place, probably due to the fact that different people price things and they all have a different value of worth.  Whoever priced this stuff did me a big favor by pricing things cheap.

My Salvo's finds of the day are (drumroll...)

All three candle holders, 5 candles and 3 wreaths for around the candles...$8.99

Close up.

How amazing is this little dazzler to hold pillar candles? Only $2.99

Close up.

So cute, look like they came from a little girls room.  Probably going to paint them to match our bedroom (when the time comes).  Only .99 cents a piece!

Close up.

Green: my favorite color since childhood :)

 

Check out the before and after on this bad boy.  So much moooore to go!

I see the light!

Picked up some lamps at Goodwill about two weeks ago.  I went there with my grandmother to peruse and as soon as I walked in I spotted the most gorgeous lamps.  I couldn't believe these puppies were just sitting there waiting for me to buy them.  Now, let me tell you, they were a tad on the dirty, rusty, in need of looove side, but that didn't stop me from scooping them up A-SAP.  I hadn't even grabbed a cart yet and I already had the lamps in tow.  My granny grabbed a cart and we were on our way to look for more goodies. 

Mysteriously, there were no price tags on the lamps which I will say certainly worked to my advantage.  Now, keep in mind most of the lamps ranged from $10-$15 bucks from what I could see trying to ballpark how much my lamps were going to run me.  I approached an employee and batted my eyes and I inquired about the price.  Please work, please work, please work, I was thinking.  And to my surprise (but not my grandmothers) it worked!  He informed me the lamps were $7.99 but when he labeled them...$6.99!!!  Could this really be true?

Despite the fact that my grandmother disliked the lamps, I went for it anyway.  The price was just too darn good to pass up, plus I had already fallen in love with them.

Took them home, took them all apart, sanded the base, spray painted all the brass to nickel, and bought a couple shades.


Lamps are expensive.  Mucho expensivo.  My total investment:
2 Lamps with tax:  $15.13
New plugs: $3.80
2 New shade holder thingys: $7.48
2 New shades: $30
Silver paint: $0
Total: $56.41
Divided by 2: $28.21

Salvaged some great lamps and saved some money in the process.

Now this is a kitchen reno I can afford!

Kitchen renovations can cost upward of $30,000 (for the folks with a wad of cash) and we just don't have that kind of money under our mattress or in our bank account for that matter.

I hated our cabinets, hated. hated. hated.  Yes, I felt that strongly.  Some were the old tall wooden ones and some were metal.  Not the greatest combo for our kitchen.

We painted them once, taking the easy way out, thinking that we would at least like them a little bit better.  Yuck!  Major fail.  I kindly told Brian that I thought they were ooooookay because he helped pick the color, but I was barfing on the inside.  Brown. Dark chocolately poo poo brown.  Yeah, I'm totally being gross today, sorry.

Enough was enough.  I already hate to cook and being in there was making things worse.

I made a trip to Home Dep. Oh, I'm too lazy to say Home Depot now, so I think it's cool to say Home Deep.  Nerd Alert!  So, I made a trip to Home Deep and bought some creamy vanilla paint.  I didn't tell Brian that I was also buying trim because once it was bought we'd have no choice but to DIY the cabinets.

After sanding cabinets, painting trim, adhering the trim, caulking, antiquing, and a million and one other tasks, they are finally done and they are FAN-TAB-ULOUS.  No clue what that means, but my friend Melissa has got me saying it all the time now.  Fan-tab-ulous!

Major success!!!  And more pics to follow

Made me some wall art!

I was given a bunch of really old advertisements for combs, Tide, Quaker Oats, etc.  I loved them right from the start for many reasons (mostly, I love OLD stuff and I teach advertising) but wasn't sure what I was going to do with them.

Finally while finishing up my kitchen, I decided to run down to Salvation Army and buy a couple frames to see if I'd like them framed.  I just happened to have to mats lying around so I painted them the same color and the kitchen and slapped those puppies inside.

I love them.  End of story.

My blog condessed in a really cool way! Think wall art.

Just a sneak peek...

Well wow, wow, wow!  No really, WOW!  It's not every day that I DIY something and actually loooove it when I'm done.  I usually look at my DIY project and say "ummmm, yeahhhh, okay, that's not that bad, but...hmmmm" and then I over analyze it and I'm left feeling like I've busted my hump for no good reason at all (sighhhhh).  Truth is I just have really high expectations.

Today is a different story...my cabinets are looking all jazzed up and I'm feelin' fine!  Here is a little tiny sneak peek...(mind you this was taken with my phone at about 10 o'clock at night)  Scroll down and look at the before pics.  This DIY was quite a success :-)