Back on the road again...

So we got a message on Thursday morning..."we think we may need your help." The boyf's parents are renovating a house in Philadelphia and working themselves to the bone trying to finish everything by Monday (which is not happening, by the way). So, we dropped everything and left Friday morning to make the 6 hour journey to Philadelphia to offer our young blood in the fine arts of home renovating.

Yes, we followed a thrift store truck for part of the way. Was it frustratingly tempting and teasingly tormenting? Maybe. Did we stop at any thrift stores? No. Because I have some self control people. My boyfriend's family needed me and I wasn't going to dilly dally around! Yeesh!

Did I mention that neither of us (my boyfriend or I) have much experience in the way of home renovation? Pfff...experience schmexperience. Today, I skillfully (yes, I received a couple of compliments) painted baseboard, installed window blinds, and began installing laminate flooring (which is turning out beautifully, I might add).

Tomorrow I have to caulk (whatever that is...) in the new bathroom and finish the flooring. I'll probably do some more painting too.

The house is turning out wonderfully and is very close to being done. I'll be sharing some pics of my handy work later! Stay tuned!

Happy Sunday!

Thrifty Thursday - Serious Loot

Happy Thursday folks! This past week I had a pretty hefty haul of thrifty finds. Usually I spend around $10 per thrifty thursday but this time I might have gotten a bit carried away.....teehee.

Anyway, look what I found:

Remember this lamp I found a few weeks ago? I had DIY recovered the lamp shade it came with but then I realized that the size and proportion were all wrong. So, when I found this vintage lamp shade for 75 cents I didn't think twice and scooped it up!

I also found these gorgeous tulip cereal bowls. I love tulip bowls but could never find them in a set. I don't think they are vintage (there is a Pier 1 marking on the bottom) but they are pretty nonetheless!

Next, I had been searching for some inexpensive way to make/get curtains for the new apartment. Then, I saw these brand new Ikea curtains at the thrift store! They turned out to be the perfect length and look great in my living room.

This Spanish flamenco/festival poster with frame took me for $8. It's now sitting on my mantle and I'm loving it. It's relevant to my life too, since I lived in southern Spain for 5 months where flamenco is super popular =)

I have a very cute art project in store for these round frames - stay tuned!

In the end, I always have to throw in a little something for the boyf. This budweiser goblet will go nicely in his collection =)

Lastly, I also found two of these small, clear pyrex bowls. They'll be great for serving when I make my chutneys and dips.

Here's the total:

Hope you've had some good finds recently as well!

All That Glitters is Mostly Gold

I have a few silver, beaded, and other pieces as well =). But the point is, when we moved to a new apartment I had to find a different way to organize it all. My old jewelry box was becoming smaller and smaller over the years as I gained maturity and a lady's sense of style.... plus, it broke, womp womp. I wanted to find a way to organize everything so that some pieces didn't get lost in the pile and forgotten. Opportunity presented itself when we inherited my boyfriend's antique dresser that he grew up with and used as a child.

Isn't she a beauty? Anyway, I claimed the top two drawers and organized myself a little jewelry half-drawer. Using these images I found for inspiration (they have been pinned on my pinterest),

Top left: Vogue  Top right: Kelly Moore Creative Media  Bottom middle: Articlesbase

I concocted this:

I was lucky enough to find those little trays of cubes at a thrift store for about 50 cents each, so I grabbed them when I saw them. I lined them with some non adhesive shelf liner cut to size and then organized all my jewelry in them! It's working out great so far, I can see everything I own and I love to look at my pretty jewels =).

The only thing is, I hate the way my necklaces get all tangled when I store them together, so I'm thinking about a separate way to store those. Something like these from Urban Outfitters would be grand:

Left: Little Birch  Right: Modern Branch

And they would be even grander if I could figure out a way to make them myself. A DIY project perchance? Perhaps.

How do you store/organize your jewelry?

My Vintage Pyrex Collection

I started collecting pyrex early this year - probably around January - when I discovered three white milk glass butter dishes and one milk glass butter tub at a local thrift store. When I turned them over to look at the bottom, they all said Pyrex underneath. I was intrigued as I only knew Pyrex to make clear glass bakeware and the scientific glassware (yes...I'm a science geek) that I worked with both during and after college. So I brought these finds home and I did some research. That lead me to Pyrex Love where I discovered the plethora of vintage pyrex patterns that existed. Thus, my obsession with vintage pyrex began. Soon after, some how I stumbled upon the Pyrex Collective, and I became a member of the Pyrex Collective II where I first started my blogging escapades (I liked it so much that I decided to start my own blog!). Anyway, since then I've amassed a small collection of vintage pyrex that the boyf tolerates quite well (he grins and bears it ;) ).

From left in a clockwise direction: Opal White Snack Server, Opal White butter tub (inside the snack server), red Holiday Casserole 1961 promotion, Verde bowl (inside red casserole), Town and Country 1 qt dish (bottom), 2 of the 3 in the bake, serve, & store set of Butterfly Gold, Desert Dawn utility dish (yellow), Aqua Butterprint fridgies, Old Town Blue gravy boat, and Opal White butterdishes.

These are a few of my first pieces: Early American cinderella bowls.

Spring Blossom cinderella bowls.

Bottom: Pressed Flowers (Cradled Decorator Casserole) 1957 promotion, Top: Golden Casserole 1959 promotion.

 

Pyrex mugs! bottom: Woodland, middle: Old Town Blue, top: Spring Blossom

Pyrex measuring cups: From left: Post 1990s measuring cup - you can tell by the fact that the handle is no longer in a D shape. The rest of the measuring cups are all older - with D handles. My pyrex guide tells me the 3rd one from the left was introduced in 1941, but I don't know it the others are just as old. there are subtle differences. The last one on the extreme right may not be a pyrex measuring cup at all, it has no markings on the bottom except an engraved "mexico". Does anyone have any clue about that one?

So there you have it! That's my pyrex collection. Do you have any collections? What do you collect?

Technology these days

Have you heard of Pinterest? If you haven't joined, I would highly recommend it. I just joined this weekend and can't stop using it! Pinterest is basically a virtual pinboard where you can organize all the inspirational images you find on the internet under specific categories. I find it super useful to pin all the craft and sewing projects I want to try - that way I have it all down in one place and I don't forget about anything! Here's an example of what your homepage may look like (this is mine) when you use Pinterest.

It's pretty user friendly - though I didn't like that it connected with my facebook account at first registration (you can unlink it later - I have a love/hate relationship with facebook). Anyway, go check out my pinterest boards! If you join, or you're already a member, be sure to follow me and I'll definitely follow you back!

Thrifty Thursday Returns!

I've been on a break from thrift store shopping recently as I have been traveling and visiting with family and keeping busy - I'm sure the boyf is happy about that. Nonetheless, I did manage to sneak in some vacation thrifting on the way up to the beach a couple of weeks ago. Here's what I snagged during our roadtrip!

This tin bowl was way too pretty to pass up. I think it will look grand on my yet to be purchased coffee table or in my entryway as a catch-all for keys, etc.

These jars were calling my name as soon as I saw them. The Atlas Wholefruit jar is missing the lid but looks awesome anyway. I think I'll use it as a pen/knitting needle/paintbrush/etc. holder on my (once again) yet to be purchased craft table.  As for the tiny Le Parfait jar,  I already have a larger one that I use in the kitchen to hold lentils and grains so maybe I'll use this one to hold some spices!

Next, I found these still-in-the-packaging vintage bias tapes and I thought they would come in handy one day or another so I grabbed the prettiest colors I could find.  Don't you just love?

Last, this necklace was in the 4th of July display case and I thought hey, I might as well show some patriotic spirit and buy myself some jewelery!

Here's the total:

I'm itching to get back into my thrifting game now that I need a few more pieces to furnish this new apartment, so stay tuned for more thrifting adventures!

A DIY Wedding (Travel Day 15)

I'm finally back home after a 2 week vacation/visit with the family (both mine and the boyf's)! We got back on Sunday night, but, being back home means continuing our move to a new apartment....and to put it politely....moving sucks! To save some money we're using my little 4-door, 14 year old Honda Civic to move all our stuff, so as you can probably imagine, it's been taking a bit of time... But that's okay because we've got 'til the end of this month to finish, plus, we're only moving a block away =). I'll be super glad when the back and forth is over though, that's for sure.

Before coming back home, we attended a wedding this past Saturday. The boyf's cousin was getting married and we'd heard that she was doing it totally DIY and on a SERIOUS budget. So, being a budget conscious gal myself I was super interested to see what she, her fiance, and her family had planned!

It was quite a small wedding with no more than 50 people in attendance. It took place in the bride's mother's backyard which was beautifully kept with a pool and all! Some of the kids who brought their bathing suits jumped in during the reception.

The groom's father is a pastor so naturally, he officiated the evening ceremonies. Great way to save some cash! When it got dark, the lights and candles were lit for some romance.

The center pieces were simple with a mixed bouquet in jars. Some of the food was home made and some of it was catered. There was plenty of beer and wine on hand in coolers too. It was a great wedding, fun and casual which totally matched the personalities of the couple.

Hope everyone is having a great start to the week! As soon as we're finished moving, get ready for some budget decorating posts!

Jerry the pug (Travel day 11)

It's been a while since I've been able to post. My apologies! But, being at home with the family keeps me pretty busy...busy getting spoiled rotten.

Mostly I've been going on shopping sprees with my mom at the outlets and the mall (There are such great sales going on right now it seems!), eating my mom's fabulous cooking (I totally ate way too much today - there goes my diet...), and enjoying some good 'ole parental lovin'. Thus, I'm being spoiled rotten, still, at the ate of 24 (going on 25). But I'm totes loving it!

And the best part is I get to spend some Quality Time with him:

This is Jerry, our family dog. My brother and I brought him home when I was still in high school (with some aiding and abetting from our father) and thrust him into our mother's life (a former dog-o-phobic who now sees him as one of her children, the most spoiled of the lot I might add). He's now 8 years old and from time to time I can see his age catching up with him, which makes me extremely fearful. But, I shake that feeling off quickly and just dump a whole lot of loving on him (I mean how can I not? Look at that face!).

Sometimes I feel if Jerry could talk, he would mainly engage me in conversation about bread and what he could possibly do to acquire more of it (bread happens to be a four letter word in our house - it must be spelled out as to not let Jerry hear its name, or he will come running). Then we would talk about how I might be able to help in this acquisition of some kind, any kind (!) of food as well. The conversation would slowly progress into passionate arguments about the benefits of excessive amounts of sleep to animal-kind which would eventually lead into how sleeping in someone's lap has been proven to be significantly better for the psyche than sleeping anywhere else. Finally, I think he would conclude with a talk on how urinating in every possible location is important so....you know....so you can smell it later and remember you peed there.

I <3 you Jerry.

Travel Day 6

Yesterday was beach day! We enjoyed a day at the beach, swam in the ocean, and rinsed off the salt in the pool.

We even ended the day with quite a few dolphin spottings!

They were swimming uncharacteristically close to shore. The picture doesn't show it very well because it was hard to capture with the 'ole point-and-shoot. But, they were beautiful!

Later in the day I headed off to the parents' house (where I am now) while the boyf stayed at the beach. He'll be heading off to his own parents' house tomorrow. We'll meet back up again next Friday for a little Harry Potter and a wedding!

Look what my parents gave me upon my return home - a graduation/getting into med school gift. I love them so much!

 

Enjoy the weekend!

Travel Day 5

Today was pool day

But then these rolled in

and now we're having a good 'ole summer thunderstorm =)

Happy Hump Day!

Happy 4th of July! (Travel Day 3)

Hope everyone's having fun!

Travel Day 1

Earlier today we left for some fun in the sun and family time

Barges waiting to get into port. Apparently there's a back up...

My baby girl, Ginger - always up for a trip!

Hope everyone's having a great start to the long weekend! Happy Fourth!

It's Moving Day!

Or I should say, the first of MANY moving days.... *groan* but *excited groan* too because I'm SO pumped for the move! It's also the beginning of a VERY busy two weeks. We'll be picking up the keys in about half an hour and since we only have to move 1.5 blocks away, we'll start moving the little stuff. Plus a new couch gets delivered today (I got a great deal on it, too)! Tomorrow, we leave the city for the next two weeks. With lots of fun family visits and a wedding (and unfortunately even a funeral in the middle of it all) moving will have to wait until we get back. We have a month to move (our leases overlap by a month), thank goodness, because no one could've foreseen all of the busy-ness that these next two weeks will bring. 

I'll add pics of the new apartment as soon as I get in there!

Happy Fourth of July Weekend!!

EDIT:

Here are a couple pics from MOVING DAY #1!

The living room so far....The chrome and black sling chair: $30 bucks at the Room Store on sale

New couch! It's corduroy velvet and so soft and the perfect firmness/cushiness. $299 at the local warehouse furniture store. Those pillows that came with, will be getting makeovers, mark my words!