Frugal Friday

Frugal Friday

It's a frugal Friday "on" Friday. What do ya know? LOL! Looks like hubby has returned to a five day work week. No more Friday's off. Ah well, nothing lasts forever. It was nice while it lasted though.

So early in the spring I posted a nice little lantern I which I hung from my limbed up pine tree. Well since then I found 2 more little mini lanterns for $1 ea. I used the green check hopespun gift ties from my Primitive Heartstrings pear pinkeep to hang them in the tree.

This is the original lantern I got in the spring that started it all. I just can't turn down a lantern of any size.

This vinyl fence was a great Craigs List find I got last saturday. I was the 3rd caller but callers one and two didn't have a way to pick this up. Caller #1 dared to aske the guy if he would deliver the free fence, LOL. It's 2 sections of vinyl picket plus the 3 posts and post caps. It's exactly what I wanted for the front of the house but didn't plan to spend the $$$ on till next spring.

I've got mixed feelings on this next one. My hubby's co-worker asked if we would like to have it "free" for our grand daughter's since his children have outgrown theirs. We are making great use of it for sliding into the pool but....... it certainly isn't very pretty to look at out there, LOL.

Sewing Room Progress Report

I made a lot of progress on the sewing room yesterday. It was too cool and breezy to swim so what the heck.

But here is the most impressive part of todays efforts

A clean and organized craft closet.

and closet doors I can actually close all the way

and here I am all ready to post Frugal Friday with 2 minutes before Friday has even arrived. Now to sit and wait for Friday to arrive so I can post .......................................................

Pear Pinkeep Arrives

It's Here!!!!!

The gorgeous velvet pear pinkeep I won on the blog giveaway from Julie at Primitive HeartStrings arrived yesterday. Can you believe it is even more beautiful in person? I never would have thought to use velvet but it was a perfectly amazing choice of fabric. And the little berry hanging from it is adorable. Julie even included the cutest little ball of darning thread, a thimble, and some buttons and everything was wrapped in brown tissue, & tied in homespun. It even smelled wonderful, like cloves I think. It was like Christmas morning!

So, now the confession, those were the pictures of the clean shelf. Below is a peek at what the rest of the sewing/ craft room looks like. Humiliatin' ain't it? A combination of too much time buying second hand "projects", too little time working on said projects, and too much (if there is such a thing) in the pool. Actually, I was standing in the middle of this mess, cleaning away, when the mail lady arrived with the pear. I was making great progress. But when I opened the door to Cam Lin to recieve my parcel I discovered how hot and humid it had gotten. So...., I took just enough time to open my pear, oooh and aaaahhhh, perch it on the shelf, and then.........Splash!!!!!!!!!!!

Well, back to the project at hand.......... cleaning the sewing room. Who knows what forgotten treasures I might discover under that pile?

All my thanks to Julie at http://primitiveheartstrings.blogspot.com/
for the beautiful pear and the much needed inspiration to clean up my mess.   ;o)

All is Well

I just wanted to drop a quick note to say "disregard" the request in the post below please. Julie from Primitive Heart Strings found it last night. Whew! Just in time for me to get a good night's sleep, LOL. I just don't want her to get a flood of notices about the giveaway now. You should drop by and check out Julies fall pumkins. They are gorgeous and displayed perfectly in an old prim tool box. http://primitiveheartstrings.blogspot.com/
So you know what this means? I must go and clean up the sewing/ craft room for my new pear. I'm afraid the closet in there erupted (a couple months ago) all over the room. This is just the boost I need to go in there and face up to my mess.

 Hello. My name is Mary, and yes I am a craft supply/ fabric hoarder.

I Can't believe I won!

I Won! I Won!!!

In case you haven't already heard...... I WON!!!! I won the pear giveaway from Primitive Heart Strings!!! As a great blogger (Cranky Crow) once said to me (and I have found myself saying it every since) "Oh My Heck"!!!! I never win anything. Well, almost never. There was that beautiful ruby and diamond ring I won once (20 yrs ago)

but otherwise, nothing. And now my finger is too fat for the ring and in photgraphing it I realize just how old my hands are really looking, LOL. I even use to get my house all spotless and gussy myself up on Superbowl Sunday just in case Dick and Ed turned up at my door with a camera crew and a giant check from PCH. I didn't want to be caught on camera braless in my robe. But they never turned up. Anyhow, I'm sure the only reason I won is because I rubbed Robin's lucky crow when she wasn't looking.   ;o)

Now, I can't begin to tell you what a frustrating and disappointing day this has been. I had wonderful plans to start my day at a season end sale at the nursery and then spend a hot sunny afternoon in the pool with my gorgeous granddaughters. The pool is perfect and the weather is perfect and the construction mess is almost cleaned up. And then.......

My day began - with an early morning phone call while I was laying there stretching and contemplating getting up. It's never a good sign when the phone rings at an unreasonable hour. I won't go into the who, the what, or the why. But, I had to cancel my glorious day. Especially painful because it had been so cold and rainy that I hadn't been in the pool in nearly 3 weeks. By the time I do get home to swim it is nap time for the grand daughters, so they won't be coming.

I have a very late lunch, suit up, and I am on my way out the door for a late swim. Again the phone rings. UGH!!!! Foolishly I answer it. Then.... I turn around and go get dressed to run off and handle catastrophy #2.  No swim for me today.

So I get on the computer and decide to visit blog world since I hadn't been on in over a week. And what do I find? I can hardly believe it! I actually won a blog giveaway! Julie's primitive pear is just gorgeous and will be positively perfect in my sewing room (or maybe even my diningroom). Right away I go to comment and leave a Woot! and a thank you on Julies blog to tell her how this has been the one bright spot in my very dismal day. I click to post my comment and I get "Your current account (MaryOs@comcast.net) does not have access to view this page". I try signing out and back in. I comment again. Again it says no access to view. I went and commented on a friends and a cousins blogs to test. No problems. Back to Primitive Heart Strings - rejected! I click to send an e-mail. I get a message my mail client default is not set. No surprise because I get it every time I click on an e-mail link. Hubby comes home and we spend an hour trying to figure out how to set it properly. We fail. I reached that point - Do I laugh or do I cry. Well, I did neither. Instead I decided to blog about it, LOL. So, Julie, if you see this, I am beside myself with joy that I won. I am also beside myself with grief that I can not contact you to claim my beautiful prize. My only solice is that I am in good company. My bestie has the same trouble not being able to comment on my blog for a few weeks now so I know it isn't just me, LOL. Because...... I HATE when it is just me having an internet issue.  ;o)
So, if anyone is passing by Primitive Heart Strings you might want to mention this post by poor me and that I even included my e-mail here for her. I just don't know what else to do.

Frugal Friday

Frugal Friday

Ok, I know, it's Saturday. Once again I missed the boat. Hubby has been working 10 - 12 hr days, Mon-Thurs for the summer. That sometimes screws up my Friday posting. So I either wait till he goes to bed and post late or, if he is working Saturday for over-time, I wait till then.

So this week I got an amazing steal at the re-sale store. I had been eyeing this trench coat for a couple weeks. But, it was a size too small and $15.00.  But, this week they were having their season end sale and all clothing in the store was $1. So I was standing on the door step when they opened Monday, LOL.  Really, they should have held on to it to put out with the fall/ winter clothing. It has a wonderfully soft warm flannel zip out lining and will be plenty warm for winter errands, even in MI. It's so well made with lots of nice little details and looks as though it was never worn.  Now I just need to stop eating ice cream and get back to business on the diet. I am down 30 lbs and one size but I have a ways to.

I was complaining to my hubby one day that it had been much too long since I got a curbside special. Don't ya know the very next day, while garage saling, I find a weathered old wicker chair!!!!! I couldn't wait for hubby to get home so I can show off my new treasure.

I planted a clematis along side the chair. Hoping next summer or maybe the year after it will climb up on the chair. The ox yoke hanging above the chair is a garage sale find I got for just $10. It is in pretty rough shape but then it wouldn't be prim if it wasn't, LOL.

When hubby got home he was pleased as punch. Not because I found the chair but because he found me 2 old divided wood windows. I have to say they are terrible color but I love the size of 'em. Just means I will have to paint and age them myself. I am going to print off some pics of the grand babies in sepia tones, put one in each of the window panes, and hang them in the new pool house above a daybed once I find one I can afford.  I would go out and take a picture of the windows but it hasn't stop raining all day and they are out leaning against the side of the house. Instead, here's some craigs list beds that are priced a bit too high for my budget or are too far away. But either one would be perfect.

Only $160, but three hours away and needs a custom mattress.

But I LOVE it!!!!

This one is local, $300, and it's great too with new custom mattress included. But, too much $$$ for my frugal budget.

And this is the pool house in progress. Very slow progress. One day it will turn up on a Make-over Monday edition.

Thanks for stopping by!

Till next time.........

Aunt Betty's Garden

Auntie's Garden

Last week, after my shopping spree at Saltbox Farm, I drove over to my aunties house who lives just a country mile from there. She has always had a green thumb for both veggies and flowers. I wanted to get a look at her garden in all it's summer glory.

Make-Over Monday

Finally!!!!! This project has been a couple years in the making. I was about to give up hope.

Before

This is a picture taken of the built-in china hutch the day we moved in. Yikes! I lived with this for a year. A very very loooong year. Then hubby let me hire a cabinet maker to make me a new door. Yeah!!!

During

I lived with the new door and no shelves for over a year before I convinced the husband that I needed it done. It's maple and he HATES working with maple.

After

Then I broke it to him that I really wanted crown moulding above the cabinet. Yep! Another year he kept me waiting. When he finally realized that a  happy wife equals a happy life is when I got the crown moulding. There's a trick to cutting the stuff and it took some trial and error to get it right. But got it he did!

I told him now that he got it figured out it's time to start warming up to the idea of crown moulding in the livingroom. Afterall, we don't want his new found knowledge to go to waste.    ;o)

And just so you don't think he is doing ALL the work, he does the cutting and I do the sanding and stain and poly finish. Then we install together. All's fair in love and war, and remodeling!   :o)