A Lamp - Pottery Barn Style

While looking for baby girl inspiration in the pages of my Pottery Barn catalog, I came across these adorable lamps with a hefty price tag. The lamp shade itself sells for $99! Add the $50 lamp base to it and you are shelling out $150+ for a lamp! Cute, but not in my price range!

I found this mini-lamp at Target several months ago for $8 (yeah, I could have done better on the price but I just couldn't resist that curvy base...) and the plain white shade was just screaming out for something to jazz it up. I added some pink, mini roses with hot glue all around the shade....

The rose bushes were 1/2 off at Hobby Lobby and I used almost 4 full bushes to cover the shade.

Total for flowers: $14 ($3.50 per bush) + Lamp: $8 = $22

I love the way it turned out!

I think I could get used to this pink thing... :)

(The color is coming across more red in the picture, but it really is a deep pink color).

I think it will look simply stunning in baby girl Davis's room -

if I ever have a room to decorate for her... baby steps, baby steps.

Linking to:

Some pot froofing...

Froofing...is that even a word?

I have several projects I need to share with you, but since I have been battling the stomach flu, you get this pot update instead. Remember this $1 pot from a garage sale last year?

Here it is full of folliage next to the front door:

It makes me smile every time I walk by it :). I'm not quite sure what I love about it so much.

Maybe it's the sweet potato vine? I have been in love with sweet potato vine for quite sometime and I finally have some of my own! I imagine it spilling gracefully over the edge of my pot as it grows... The other plants I planted: dracaena spikes (the tall, spikey thing in the back), red petunias (love me some petunias!), and a small vinca plant in the front.

Is there something by your front door that makes you smile and welcomes guests to your home?

Thrifty Finds and Makeovers

I know, I know. This isn't the post I promised with details of the baby shower. That will be my next post. I promise :). For now I just wanted to share some thrifty finds and a few makeovers of my garage sale treasures. I didn't go garage saleing this past weekend due to the baby shower. These are my finds from last weekend:

3 legged table - $2

(see what I may do with this HERE)

gold star - 75 cents

bag of dominoes - $1

(I will show you what I did with these later...)

bag of corks - $1

(make great vase fillers/dollar store hurricane fillers!)

black frame - 50 cents

cute honey jar - 50 cents

And my favorite find:

Set of 4 platters with iron serving rack for $3! That's right. $3.

I was in love! I have a weakness for serving dishes. And with 4 different colors to choose from...wow. It was practically brand new. And the price...I could go on.

And just to give you a taste of what I have done with some past garage sale finds, and so you don't think I just buy random junk (at least that is what my husband says sometimes...):

Remember these finds from a couple weeks ago?

Here is the 25 cent green vase today:

Nestled in my Halloween vignette with a nice coat of Heirloom White spray paint, some spanish moss, and sticks spray painted black. And of course a Dollar Tree crow perched in the branches. I think this works just a bit better than the candle I had there previously (the candle found its way to the mantle).

Sigh...

It just makes me smile when I look at this :)

Here is the 50 cent chunky frame with a coat of Heirloom White and some calendar art above the toilet in our newly repainted bathroom. This whole piece cost $1.50 for the frame and the calendar.

Gotta love a thrifty makeover!

A Bathroom Transformation

8 months ago we started repainting our bathroom. FINALLY we are done! I hate painting... love how it turned out, but HATE painting. I still need to find some bath rugs and hang a couple things on the wall but I am very pleased with the results!

My inspiration for this bathroom came from none other than Melissa at 320 Sycamore (not surprising to you I am sure - she is my favorite blogger ever!). You can see her bathroom transformation HERE.

So here is the before: (please excuse the poor lighting - I took these pictures in the evening in January and it was getting dark...)

Lots of brown huh?

And here is the after:

I love how much brighter it is now!

Some of the details:

We used Rustoleum spray paint in Espresso for the cabinets.

Yes we spray painted and it was lovely. I HIGHLY recomend spray paint!

For the paneling and trim we used Behr paint in Cream Puff (Home Depot).

The walls are Smoke Infusion by Valspar (Lowe's).

The fixtures are all a satin nickel color.

We also spray painted the existing mirrors, which were a yucky gold color, with Rustoleum Espresso spray paint. What a difference a can of paint can make!

The new light fixture we found at Walmart for $30. I don't know if you have priced light fixtures lately, but that is a pretty darn good price...

My apothecary jar collection filled with soap, q-tips, cotton balls, bath pearls, etc. I think it makes the bathroom seem very spa-like now. Have I mentioned that I have a fetish for glass jars? Love me some pretty glass jars I can fill with anything and everything!

And there you have it! It took us 8 months to finally decide on paint colors and finish up painting. I am SO very glad it is over!

SO WHAT DO YOU THINK? I would love to hear your feedback...:)

Sprucing up my fall wreath

So my 50 cent garage sale wreath has had a bit of a facelift...

Here is the before:

Not bad for 50 cents huh?

But take a look at this beauty now!
For an extra $6 I "froofed" this wreath with pumpkins, pinecones, and more leaves from Walmart and Dollar Tree.
You can't beat $6.50 for a lucious, full, and colorful fall wreath.

Have you started displaying fall things in your home yet?

Beautifying Some Thrifty Finds

My Saturday mornings have been filled with garage saleing. It is such a thrill to bring home something average and transform it into something spectacular! Here are some of those transformations:

I found this cute, red chair at a garage sale a couple weeks ago for $5!

I loved that it was red.

Red is my color.

I pictured it in a cute display on the porch.

Here it is holding a wood crate I also found at a garage sale.

A little spray paint magic ("Blue Ocean Breeze" by Krylon) and a beautiful, overflowing pot of lantana transforms this porch area into a welcoming, cheerful sight as you come in the front door.


I LUV it!

Here's another garage sale find: a plastic planter for $1

It was quite dirty and needed a little elbow grease to get all the caked-on dirt off!

Add a little Black Satin Krylon for Plastics spray paint and the overflowing lantana pot and you have a sleek, black planter for the front porch.

I am picturing a stack of pumpkins for this pot come October...
Can you imagine?
3 pumpkins in 3 different sizes stacked on top of each other.
Oh the possibilities!

I am completely in love with these thrifty finds!
Lovin' the garage saleing excursions too!
You never know what you are going to discover!