Gold Dipped Vases

Here's how I turned these cheap yard sale vases, into a beautiful gold dipped delight.

Here's what you'll need:  Masking tape, paint brush and brush on gold leaf.

Mask off the area you don't want to be painted.  Make sure to run your fingernail over the tape really well, to help prevent the tape from leaking under the tape.

Simply brush on the gold leaf (I used 2 coats) and enjoy.  I love these quick and easy projects, that make a big impact!

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DIY Christmas Chalkboards

Over the weekend, I turned cheap yard sale frames into these chalkboards.  Total cost for all 3, $2.50.  I even got the chalkboard paint from a yard sale!

I had fun turning them into a Christmas themed chalkboard quote, and a deer head silhouette.  Stay tuned for the full tutorial on how I used an easy method to "cheat" to get perfect lettering every time!

O Christmas Tree!

 Behold the Christmas Tree!

I love going over board with the ornaments.  The way I see it, I wouldn't mind if the entire tree was made out of ornaments, so it's impossible to put too many on.  Ornaments are a GREAT thing to stock up on during yard sale season.  You can find so many, for pennies on the dollar.  I even got my Christmas tree from a yard sale. I wish I had kept track, but I bet I got everything seen here for under $60, and that's including the tree!   I also have some fun ideas for DIY ornaments I'm excited to try out... so stay posted.

In a perfect world, I would have a freshly cut Christmas tree every year.  My tree is pre-lit, I like to add on a couple more strands of lights to give it even more sparkle. 

And there is no rule saying you can only have one Christmas tree.  In my living room alone, I have four.  Here is Christmas tree number 2:

 And here are trees 3 and 4 (on the piano):

Even the doll house is in the Christmas spirit!

 And last, but not least, let's see what crazy antics this guy was up to today:

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Shelf Above the Potty

Searching to find the perfect something to put above the toilet, I remembered I had this old shelf I had picked up from a yard sale.  It was super dusty, the cute wire grids were falling out, and it needed painted.  But it was well worth the effort, because I love the end result.  It also gives me a place to display some fun things I have found at, yes, yard sales.  The plant and black and white frame where given to me.  Other than that, this whole thing (including the shelf) cost me around $10.

Adding this shelf, with all accessories really changed the feel of the whole bathroom.  

Side view of bathroom "above the toilet" shelf

Scrabble sets are another thing I am always on the look out for when I go to yard sales.  I got each set for around 75 cents. This jar holds 3 sets.  I thought they would take up more room, but it turns out each set really doesn't have too many tiles.  My secret, I put a paper bowl in the bottom of the jar to take up more space.  I covered the bowl with the tiles, and you can't even tell it's there!

Globe Love

I started collecting these globes about a year ago.  It didn't take long to work up a good collection, and I love how they look displayed together on my planter shelf.  Most of them came from yard sales or thrift stores.

  

I'll never forget that summer day when I found the big globe in the center.  I pulled up the the yard sale, and spotted it before I even got out of my car.  It was beautiful, and only $7!  Did I mention how much I love yard sales?  I was so excited, that by the time I was leaving, I could not find where I had placed my keys.  It took several solid minuets of searching to find I had placed them in some obscure purse pocket.  It was a good day.  I'm always on the look out to find globes that aren't just standard size, but to find one that was much bigger was a real treat!


The blue globe on the far right was one that I altered.  I had two blue ones that were so similar, I decided to paint all of the pink sections on one of them red, and do a brown glaze over the whole thing.  This gives it an aged look.  I love the result.  The small black one was also altered.  In fact, it was just a cheap plastic pencil sharpener (the sharpener is in the base).  Again, I just painted all the parts to make it the way I wanted it to be.    It went from looking cheap, to looking like something really special.

The two on the right are the ones I altered by painting.
The brown one was a lamp.
I just took apart the parts that made it a lamp, and tilted
the main pole to give it the axis.

 The paint jobs aren't perfect, but it does the job, because I have these up high on my planter shelf, where nobody will notice the imperfections.  My other trick is (since a few of these have dents or rips on them), I just turn those parts toward the back wall, and again, nobody even knows.  I also used blocks of wood to set some of them on, to stagger the heights, adding visual interest.  It's fun to have something you're on the look out for when your going to yard sales.  I have several things, but globes are one of the most fun.  It's fun to find different sizes and styles, but even if I find repeats, I know I can just alter them to my own liking.

Katie (5) shares my love for yard sales. We were at one and she found a caboodle that she just had to have.  I tried to talk her out of it.  "Katie, you really don't need that".  She turns to me and says, "Mom, you have a globe collection, and I have a caboodle collection".  Needless to say, she came home with the caboodle.