Friday's Faves

It is that time of year when I start looking forward to spring yard sales. Those wonderful days when everybody does their spring cleaning and bargains are so good to find. Last year was an awesome experience. It seemed like every weekend there were lots of good sales to visit. I got a lot of bargains and almost everything I purchased was $1.00 or less. I got a lot of great items for .25 and .50. Hope this year brings as many good bargains. I thought I would share a few of my favorite finds from last year. 

Since I am Aunt B and Mamaw B and simply B to a lot of my family and friends, I fell in love with this little bee. At another sale I found the little tea for one. I couldn't pass it up. 

This wasn't a yard sale find, but it was a great bargain for $3.00 at an antique store. I had been looking for one for over a year so I snatched it up when I found it. 

It was an awesome year for Pyrex. I found a lot of items at yard sales and some good deals when antiquing. I also have a friend who gifted me some cool pieces and my Facebook group helped with some trades. My favorite of it all was my Colonial Mist Cinderellas set. I ended up with all four pieces and none of them cost me a cent. Some of the cookbooks were yard sale finds as well. And I am still in love with my white Hamilton Beach Pyrex mixing bowl. I find myself making lots of cakes just so I can use the bowl. 

I loved my Pyrex restaurant dishes. The plate and little bowl get used quite a bit around here. 

And Mom gave me this gorgeous Corelle platter. I use it to put my bacon and sausage on when I fix a big breakfast or breakfast for supper. 

This chip and dip set for $2.00 was a bargain. It is Vintage Indiana Glass and hard to find all three pieces together. It was on Ebay one time for about $30 so you can't beat $2.00. 

I also wanted to find a Corelle plate in this pattern. I blogged I wanted to find one and then the next weekend found an antique store that has tons of stuff in this pattern. Only paid $1.50 for the plate. 

And I remember how excited I was to find these vintage looking potholders for .25 each. 

But was even more excited when I found this Nantucket style basket for just .25 to keep them in. 

I had looked and looked for good deals on a sugar and cream set in cut glass. Found this one for just a couple of bucks for the set at a yard sale. Found the little platter at another one for a quarter and the little tooth pick holder for .10 cents. Love it.

Was thrilled to find the snowflake Pyrex with stand. I use this casserole dish a lot. It makes a great blackberry cobbler. Still looking for a lid to fit it. Maybe this year. 

Two little cups I stumbled on at different times. They are Hazel Atlas which is rare to find around here. And I found one for .75 cents at a flea market and one for about $3 or $4 at an antique store. I will always snatch up Hazel Atlas cups. 

These are one my rare finds that I ordered from E-bay. I bid on them and won them for just $4 plus $5 shipping. So for nine bucks I now own a vintage set of Holt Howard kitty salt and pepper shakers. I love these. They were close to $40 bucks at a local antique store. 

Found this cup and saucer and was beyond thrilled. Mom had some of these when we were growing up. They were free in Mother's Oats. 

One of the bargains that thrilled me the most was the set of Swanky Swigs glasses that I found at a yard sale. Twelve to the set and the cost was just $4.00 What a bargain!

Some of my treasures are used for reasons other than what they were made for. Like this little teapot that is in my master bath. It sets by the corner tub and contains bath salts. I just pour them in when I'm going to take a bubble bath and soak. 

This little candy dish became a soap dish in the bathroom. 

And one of my most brilliant ideas if I say so myself was using this tea for one in my master bath. The top holds Q-tips and the bottom holds cotton balls. And I might add this was around a buck at a yard sale. 

I also love my little wooden shelf that holds recipes in the drawers. It was just $1.00. 

I love big cups for my hot chocolate and marshmallows. These are two of my favorites. 

I just hope this years finds are a great as last years were. 

A great idea....

I saw something the other day and I decided to try it. First, I found an old cassette tape that I didn't use any more. 

I took the cover insert out and was left with just the blank case. 

Then I got out a piece of scrap felt from another project. 

And measured the size of the spine on the cassette box. 

I cut out the strip the size of the spine. 

I placed it inside the spine and pushed it firmly into place. 

I sat it down with the box on the bottom and the flat part tilted upward and moved it to my desk.

It is now the perfect place to put my cell phone while I work. I have a bad habit of covering it up with paper when it is on my desk. This makes it easy to see. In addition, I have a land line I use at home, but when my cell phone is on the desk I have to move papers and pick it up to see who is calling. Now it will be put on the corner of my desk so when it rings, I can see who is calling and I can have it charging while I work so it is still near me. I love it. 

And the whole process of making it was faster than what it took to take the pictures. 

Wednesday's Wish List

It has been so cold and windy lately that I haven't spent any time going to the thrift stores or antique shops. So I thought I would do a little Etsy window shopping to see what might catch my fancy. The first thing I saw was this set of three Butterprint mixing bowls. I see the Cinderella bowls a lot around here, but I have never found the mixing bowls. These are one of my dream items. 

(Shop)

Another casserole dish. I have yet to find one with a lid, but I don't care. I love this style. I have the pink flamingo but would love to find it in other colors. A lady on another blog found the turquoise one for $3.99. What a deal. 

(Shop)

I love this mixing bowl. And at $4.95 it is not a bad price. It is the $13.56 in shipping charges I want to avoid.

(Shop)

Still trying to find something from Arcopal France in this pattern or something similar to it.



What is on your wish list this year?

Scrap Fabric Ideas

I have a basket full of beautiful material that I don't have a clue what to do with. I was looking on Pinterest for some ideas. Here are quite a few good ideas. Unfortunately, people who pin don't always show a link back to directions so you would have to figure out how, but most of them look easy enough.  This is cute for entertaining a baby. 

I never thought about coasters before. 

This would be a good home school project to learn the states. Looks like it would take a while, but could be fun. Of course you could also do this with scrapbook paper and make it like a puzzle so they could learn the states.

This is too cute. It could be made from scrap ribbon. 

I love this. It reminds me of Thirty-One. It's a good idea on what to do with some of those sample swatches when they discontinue patterns. 

These were some note cards. 

Some more note cards. 

If you don't mind sewing, these are some really cute bookmarks.

But my favorite was these necklace charms. I love wearing solid color tops and sweaters. How cute would it be to make some of these showcasing some of my favorite material. They would show up really well on solid tops. 

I have some of the old sample swatches from past Thirty-One patterns. These would make some cute necklaces to wear to my Thirty-One events or for giveaways to my hostess and her guests. 

Weekend Wrap Up

Had a nice weekend but didn't do a whole lot. I went to a birthday party with my daughter for a girl at church. When we came home, we had to stop for about 10 minutes on my daughter's road. It has recently become a deer crossing as this is the second week we have had to wait. The one on the road just stood there until all the others came out of the woods. There were 6 altogether. It was really neat. They just watched us as closely as we were watching them. 

I was fascinated since I never see any near my place. I made the comment I was going to blog about it and my 9 year old grandson said that I always want to blog about everything. I agreed and told him I was so going to blog about him saying that. He just sighed and shook his head. 

I had bought these little cheap shower curtain rings at Family Dollar for $1.50 the other day. 

I had seen an idea on Pinterest (of course) that I wanted to try. 

My spare closet doesn't have any clothes in it so that is where I have chosen to keep my purses and bags. I had some odd and end mismatched hangars that I would hang them from so I could get to them easily. But it has always bothered me because they looked so messed up and not very neat. 

So I decided to try this idea I saw where you hang your purses and bags from shower hooks. You can use the hook kind or the circles. I didn't want to try the hooks because they mostly had decorative hooks and looked a little frail if you had a lot of weight against them. So I tried the rings and I am beyond thrilled with the results. I still have some more to hang up, but I didn't get to finish Project Clean the Closet. But I wanted to show you how it was going. 

Now my purses are easily accessible without knocking down hangars every time I want to change purses or bags. I am loving the fact that the closet looks so much neater with just this one little change. 

While I was on Pinterest, I decided to look around. The new Chevron pattern is all the rage. I said I would like to have a lap quilt for the couch with this pattern. Of course, since I can't quilt I don't see it happening. But I do love it.



I love this necklace for spring have several outfits this would look good with.



I have a wing back chair that I would like to have reupholstered with a different material since it is in a spare room and doesn't need to match the couch anymore. I liked this look especially with the throw pillow. But I worry that I would get tired of it in time.



Then I found this one. I am in love. The various patterns and different fabrics just hit me the right way. Plus I love the fact that it is pastel. If I could refinish it like this, I would move it into my office and put a sofa bed in the kids room. I love this.



I stopped at the magazine rack in the grocery store yesterday while I was waiting on them to put some hamburger meat out. We were having chili for supper and they had run out of hamburger. As I was browsing, I found several magazines I had never seen before. I may have to go back and get a couple of them.

Well, it is Monday and I promised myself I was going to set some goals for the week so I could stay focused. So I guess I better get started on it.