Finding treasures with found treasure

Big bummer! If it keeps on raining all morning I won't be heading out to shop the Mendon townwide yardsale event as planned.  This is an annual fundraiser event for the Mendon Senior Center and they organize it very well. I've been able to go a few years but weddings, work events and rain dates have prevented me from going too many times.

Last Saturday I took off of yard sale-ing so I could enjoy the beautiful weather and go for a nice walk in the woods with the family.


Approaching the historic bridge at Parklands in Hopedale.

 Darren and I love to walk and hike and anytime we go away by ourselves that's usually what we do (what we wouldn't give to go back to Glacier National Park!). Now that both the kids are old enough to walk a decent ways themselves, we want to do more nature exploring with them. And since our plan is for me to try homeschooling Kindergarten next year, I've been extra focused on raising kids who love to learn, finding ways I can make learning fun, and taking advantage of every-day "teachable moments."

Two week ago I scored some great treasures that will help my kids discover treasures for themselves. I hit the jackpot for educational toys when a woman that used to be a rep for some company (she didn't say what company and its not obvious on any of the packaging) was selling all her samples. I scooped up quite a few things for the kids (as well as some stationary for myself). I can't wait for us to use these books and toys to investigate the world around us over the summer and the coming school year.

This $2 Nature Watching Fact Pack comes with a nature watching book, binoculars, insect observatory, inspection jar with magnifying lid, tweezers and 2 informative animal charts. We'll definitely have to take this on nature walks and see what we can find.


This $2 Stargazer Fact Pack comes with a 32 pg guide, activity book, hand telescope, flashlight, stick-on glow stars (so we can put the constellations on the girls' ceiling), a planesphere and a moon map.
 

This $5 V-Tech globe is pretty cool. On one setting you can use the joystick to move the magnifying glass around the globe and stop it where you want. Then press buttons to hear about the music, people or culture of the continent, country or important landmark where you stopped. Another setting quizzes you to see if you can find certain countries or points of interest.  After fiddling with this by herself for a couple days my 5 year old has learned a bunch about geography and international culture.
 

 Both of these $2 books will be great for my kids to learn fractions and play math games and they come with flash cards to boot. Hey, anything that makes learning math fun...


 Next there is a $2 kit includes a Tree & Leaf Guide and a Leaf Collecting Album. This will be great to take along on our nature walks. I still remember doing my own leaf collection project in 6th grade I think. Below that is a $2 book is called Squashing Flowers & Squeezing Leaves - a nature press and book. My 5 year old loves to pick wild growing things (just like I do) so this will give us something fun and educational to do with what we collect.



 On top of these educational items, my kids also came home with Hungry Hungry Hippo - a childhood classic. I have to admit I actually found myself laughing and having fun playing it. My 5 year old also continues to add to her Toy Story characters collection. This same week she came home with a reproduction of the old Fisher Price rotary phone character and an electronic Buzz Lightyear.

Oh yeah, and here are the Papyrus stationary sets I got for myself for $1 each:



Papyrus price tag on back - $12.95 for 20 blank cards and envelopes in a lidded box



Papyrus price tag on back - $11.95 for 12 blank note cards and envelopes



Good things come to those that wait

What follows is the story of a shelf.

A couple of Christmases ago my little brother gifted me a pair of these Anthropologie shelving brackets that I had on my Elfster wish list:

We were still in the process of finishing our addition-to-be-family-room at the time, but I already had a vision for a decorating scheme and these brackets were a part of that vision. I like to accent a room with things that are old and worn and chippy and these new brackets were "aged" to perfection.

My next task was to find a shelf to put on top of the brackets. In my mind I envisioned the weathered look of old barn wood. Something along the lines of these old beams but darker:



Pottery Barn catalog image

 I thought I could round up some old wood and maybe use just some wax or oil to darken it. I called my father-in-law, who's a carpenter, to see if he had any scrap wood in the dimentions I needed, but he did not. So I ended up at the local lumber yard, had them cut me a piece of boring-smooth-pine-board, and I took it home to paint or stain. I really wanted a dark brown shelf but was too lazy and impatient to stain it so I just slapped on the same cream colored paint that I used on all the trimwork in the room. The result was a quick and easy shelf that fit on the brackets and looked okay but it wasn't really what I had in mind. (Warning, I took all these pictures with a smudge on my camera lense so pardon the "orb.")


painted pine "for now" shelf



Ever since then I've had my eyes peeled for just the perfect piece of wood to show up somewhere. I haven't gone out of my way to hunt for it, I just figured it would practically drop in my lap eventually. Well good things come to those that wait. As I've mentioned several times I'm a big fan of Bernat Mill Antiques and I keep up with their news on Facebook. Just last week they announced that a shipment of barn wood had come in and would be available for purchase soon. We-e-ell, didn't I march myself right down there to find the perfect piece of wood for my shelf. For $5 I walked out as happy as a clam with this winner:



This piece of wood was almost perfect. The patina was exactly what I wanted. It was perfectly worn and rough and filthy dirty. The length was just right. The depth was about an inch less than ideal but I could make it work.


A close-up of the beauty :)



One of the best features is the tongue and groove, but the groove was packed full of old dirt.



I gave it a good power wash and left it in the sun to dry.

 After cleaning up the barnwood, switching out the shelving was as easy as lifting the old one off the brackets and placing the new on on top. Now this is what I had in mind!



The depth of the shelf doesn't quite come to the edge of the brackets if its flush against the wall. I ended up having to pull it forward so there's a little space between the board and the wall but it works. And in real life, the end is not green.



I power cleaned the groove side so well I apparently neglected the tongue side - I can still see lots of dirt stuck to it! I should probably head back out and take care of that.


Naked new shelf - LOVE it

 Here is the barnwood shelf with my "dust collection" placed back on top:




I think I'm due to freshen up what's on top. I'll probably switch around accessories that are already within the room. But that's for another day. This is for now.


For more background information on the bird stuff and the books, read this previous post.




While I couldn't didn't wait to find old barn wood before I originally put up the shelf and brackets, I knew that in time the perfect piece of wood would show up somewhere when I'd least expect it. I could have just paid $70 per foot ($280 total) and had a shelf like this right away but that's insane.


apartmenttherapy featured this reclaimed wood shelving from an Etsy shop (that no longer sells it). Etsy is great and I'm all for supporting the little guy. Which is why I supported a local "little guy," but for only $1.25 a foot, thank you very much.

Two things I ask

My girls are blessed with the treasures of beautiful children's Bibles that their great-grandmother gave them for Christmas this past year.

They often ask me to read them. My oldest, at night before bed, especially enjoys having me look up new things to praise God for based on scripture. This morning my youngest brought me a stack of books to read, including her Bible, so I started with that. I randomly opened it to Proverbs 30 and started reading in verse 5. I actually really like the simple language of the International Children's Bible version -

"Every word of God can be trusted. He protects those who come to him for safety. Do not add to his words. If you do, he will correct you and prove that you are a liar. I ask two things from you, Lord. Don't refuse me before I die. Keep me from lying and being dishonest. And don't make me either rich or poor. Just give me enough food for each day. If I have too much, I might reject you. I might say, 'I don't know the Lord.' If I am poor, I might steal. Then I would disgrace the name of my God."

What a treasure those four verses are!

"Every word of God can be trusted." We can't be reminded often enough that EVERY word of God can CAN BE trusted. When I read the Bible I don't have to wonder if it is true, if he will keep his promises, if it is really relevant to me. IT IS!!! The more I read and learn and know Him and experience Him I can attest that he is a trustworthy God. Since the beginning of time Satan's biggest lie and temptation is that God cannot be trusted. To this day he tries to tempt us all in the same way. I do not want to fall for that lie.

"Do not add to his words. If you do, he will correct you and prove that you are a liar."  I laughed to myself reading this verse. All I could think of was that crazy Brother John/Family Radio guy predicting the end of the world last month. The Bible is SO CLEAR that NO ONE knows the "final day" and for anyone that dares to come up with supposed new revelation, God will prove him a liar. Yup, that's what happened!

"I ask two things from you, Lord...Keep me from lying and being dishonest. And don't make me either rich or poor."  The more I thought about these the more I realized they sort of boil down my own priorities. To keep me from lying and being dishonest - my character and integrity are so important to me. Not because of who it makes me but because of my how life reflects Jesus. He is always true, always right, always just. If I claim to be a follower of him and I am not like him than I am a hypocrite.  I ask that God would continually make me more and more like him.

Just last night Darren and I were discussing our finances. You know when you get to those financial crossroads and have to make big decisions that will seriously affect your future. Being a financial advisor, he is very thorough in planning for all of our considerations. He's got a great handle on our monthly budget, our net worth (personal balance sheet - assets vs. liabilities), considers current and future value of money in every decision, how it affects cash flow, etc etc etc... While all his spreadsheets and illustrations are very helpful to me in understanding the big picture and all the details, I sometimes find too much information confusing! Just when I start to feel a leaning in one direction, he brings up another angle for consideration and then I start my processing all over again. I just have to ask God to give me assurance and peace about the right decision. And he does.

Quite a few times last night we discussed what we could do vs. what we should do. If we can afford a bigger house, should we? If we can afford a new car, should we? What truly are our priorities? Reading these verses really confirmed some things for me. "Don't make me rich or poor...If I have too much I might reject you." I can't see money causing either of us to reject God but it provides the temptation to rely it instead of God. One of our decisions last night involved discussing our cash savings - how much of a "buffer" are we comfortable with? We are both pretty conservative and like to keep our savings account nicely padded.  But to what degree are we relying on that buffer instead of God? Maybe the wisest decision is to invest more of that than we are comfortable with and trust that God will provide should emergencies arise?

"If I am poor, I might steal. Then I would disgrace the name of my God." I've never been truly poor. I've lived very modestly but never have I wondered where my next meal would come from or how we'd make our rent or mortgage payment. I am truly blessed. As we have saught God's wisdom concerning our money, he has always provided for our needs.  But the attitude of the author (Agur son of Jakeh says verse 1) is one I found interesting. The reason he does not want to be poor is not because of the difficulty he will suffer, but because he will be tempted to sin and thus disgrace God as a result. No matter what my financial position, I want the way I use my resources to glorify Him. I don't want money to cause me to sin.

The end of verse 8 says, "Just give me enough food for today." Sounds familiar...oh yeah - as Jesus taught his disciples how to pray in Matthew 6, verse 11 says, "Give us this day our daily bread." Or in my daughter's Bible, "Give us the food we need for each day." That really is the perfect position. To have what we need and trust God for the future.

Today my prayer is the same as Agur's. Two things I ask of you God: 1. Keep me honest. 2. Provide what I need for today and give me wisdom to make financial decisions that honor You. (Okay, so that's sort of three things, but whatever.)

Why my mom can't quit her job - Part II

As I discussed in a previous post, one of the perks of my mother's job working at the local Salvation Army Thrift Store (aka Sally's by those who love to shop there) is all the treasures she finds for me. However, another perk is all the clothes she's stocked my kids' drawers with over the years. While my second daughter is all set with hand-me-downs, my oldest needs new clothes as each season rolls around. I refuse to pay a lot for kids clothes. They wear them for such a short time and ruin them so easily, and I can think of 1,000 things I'd rather spend money on. A few weeks ago my mom switched departments at work from linens to children's clothing. So of course I knew this would benefit me directly and I asked her to be on the lookout for the sizes my oldest daughter is in now and will be in next year. Since then she has had me to come to look at quite a few stashes she's collected.

This is just one stash - 13 bottoms for $17. Boo yeah!

I don't care if my kids wear brand name clothing but if I can find quality used pieces for so cheap, then so be it!

Lot 1 of adorable summer dresses from Sally's, including one of my favorites, an April Cornell dress that probably cost about $50 new.

Lot 2 of summer dresses, including my least favorite, a My Little Pony sundress. I'm not a fan of most character clothing but I knew she'd love it so what the heck.

I was in Gap the other day picking up some maternity tanks for myself and found myself oogling over the adorable infant boy clothes (this was the morning before my ultrasound when I still had hope of dressing a boy and decorating a nursery like this.) I resisted tempation to buy this ADORABLE little giraffe one-piece "just in case" I found out I was having a boy:

Giraffes are my all-time favorite animal and this is SO CUTE! But $25 for ONE item of baby clothing???? Even with the 40% discount I would have enjoyed that day, $15 for something so easily stainable that would only be worn a few times would have been a big splurge for me. I'm sure I can pick up tons of gently used & beautiful infant girl clothes at yardsales for 25 cents to $1 a piece.

It just boggles my mind the amount of money people dole out on new brand name kids clothes (I'm not judging anyone, I just can't understand it). It's money that could be used to bless others in need, boost a retirement/savings account, pay down a loan or put towards a hobby. I love the feeling I get when I pay under $2/piece for gently used brand name clothes at consignment shops, thrift shops and yard sales. I can usually almost complete my kids' wardrobes this way (along with occasional hand-me-downs from friends) and what I don't find used I fill in the gaps with at WalMart or Old Navy sale rack. And then I only pay $3-5 an item. Between a few yard sales this year and last, a few trips to Sally's, and one trip to The Blessing Barn, I'm pretty much all set with clothes for my oldest to last her through till Christmas (when the grandparents buy them adorable new outfits) and even into next summer.

On one recent visit into Sally's I had my kids with me and after much begging I agreed to let them go look at the toys and books. I'm so glad we did! I came home with a big lot of mostly educational books...including a few about the human body, random trivia/facts, ideas for things to do on rainy days, one about grandparents with Alzheimers, even one about the legend of The Old Man in the Mountain (so when we take the kids up to NH and show them where he used to be...sniff...sniff... they'll understand what we are talking about).

We also scored a few new games and activities including Jenga, an electricity lab kit, and a Ravensburger game called Hip-Hop Hooray (includes charades, funny stories and silly drawings). Oh yeah and two VHS tapes - The Never Ending Story (my hubby's all-time childhood favorite) and Beauty and the Beast cuz our old one broke. I didn't pay more than a couple bucks for any one item.

Of course I spied with my eagle eye another small green glass jar I can use as a bud vase and scooped it up, because I never have enough of those...it was a big splurge at 40 cents. :)

So while continuing to work at Salvation Army Thrift Store, my mom has been seriously hunting for a job in medical coding for a while now. She recently went back to school for coding and is officially certified, but coding is a very competitive industry with hardly any job openings right now, especially for people without previous experience. I joke with her that God isn't ready for her to quit Sally's just yet. I'm half convinced he wanted her to get transferred to the kids clothing department to help stock up our kids closets first and then he'll provide her with a new job. :) 

I'll be very happy for my mom when she can finally start her new dream career. I'll still shop on the cheap at Sally's but instead of reaping the benefit of my mom's 1/2 off discount every day, I'll just have to plan to go on Wednesdays when the whole store is on sale 1/2 off for regular customers. When my kids aren't in tow and I actually have time to browse, I can score some pretty amazing deals on brand name and unique clothes for myself as well.

Photo/plate wall

Last September I went on a weekend retreat up to Mt. Monadnock along with some of some of my favorite friends.



Here's me in the middle surrounded by some of my best buds. I am SO blessed to have such great friends and the opportunities to go away on beautiful and inspiring retreats with them!

 On the Saturday afternoon of that weekend during our "free time" we did some treasure hunting in downtown Jaffrey, NH. I think we could have spent all day in Elaine's Antiques and Collectibles.



This is Elaine, the owner, standing behind the counter in her most awesome curiosity shop. I can't wait to visit her again this year!

 Elaine's shop was such a fun place to poke around in and we each left with a bunch of little treasures and tons of inspiration for what we would do with our wares. I'd spent the most of the time sorting through her stack of individual butter dishes and other mini plates and ended up getting these five:

As I left the shop, my plan was to pick up a few more mini plates over time on other treasure hunts until I had enough to create a small arrangement on a wall. Here are some pictures I just found online that give you an idea of the type of display I was imagining, only on a much smaller scale:

So that was almost nine months ago and I haven't found any more mini plates to add to the initial collection but I didn't give up on the idea altogether either.

I think I mentioned we just had the the three main rooms of our house repainted (a LONG awaited project) and I've held off on a lot of decorating updates until that was complete.  Aside from a plate wall, I've also been wanting to do a new photo display for family photos - something a little random and eclectic along the lines of these images I also just found online:

I decided to start with a frame display on a big empty wall in my dining room. I collected together some frames I already had and then picked up a few more at Ocean State Job Lot during one of their 1/2 off already-cheap-frame sales. My most expensive frame was $5. I tried to stick with all the same wood tone, then I painted a couple black ones off-white and threw in a green one I had as well. As I started to plan out the frame arrangement on the wall, I liked how it was coming along but I wanted something more creative with additional variation in color and shape. Then inspiration hit me - I grabbed my stack of mini plates and started tucking them into some of the corners around the frames. I used four of the five plates I bought in New Hampshire last fall and I added three more yard-sale finds that I already had in use elsewhere or were still waiting for the perfect spot.



This is the collection of plates that I used on the wall, with the exception of the top left plate. That one, the coralbell china passed down to me from my Nana, is actually my inspiration for the whole room. I'd like to keep the room fairly neutral with little bits of green, pink and crimson here and there. Each of the other plates coordinated with this color scheme well enough to include. The bird plate, previously mentioned here, has finally found a home. :)

 I've never been able to find plate hangers (the kind with springs that stretch around the back of the plate) small enough for the mini plates but these tiny stick on DISChangers work perfectly. I've used them before to hang and display other items that didn't have a hook. The discs are cheap, don't show from the front and work like a charm - not to mention they are easily removable.

So after tucking the plates in around the frames, I added some typography:



Over the years I've found myself picking up letter games at yard sales to create and place words here and there around the house. I like to use the wood Scrabble letter blocks and holders but my favorite letters to use are from an old Anagrams game.





The old Anagrams letters are a nice bold cream on black with great patina. They are also thick enough to stand up on their own without having to be propped up in a Scrabble holder.




I used number blocks to make our anniversary date above a wedding photo. I thought these were Scrabble blocks but does Scrabble use numbers??  If not, I have no idea what game these came from.

 So this is how the arrangement looks with the frames, plates and typography all put together:


The typography was an afterthought so they are a little squished, but not badly enough that I want to remove them or move the frames further apart. If I'd thought of it when I was hanging the frames I would have made more room between them. Good thing I'm not OCD, he he. (Since taking this picture I took the Anagrams letters out of the Scrabble holders which helped with spacing.)




This is a picture of my hubby devouring a Ghirardelli chocolate sundae we got in Ghirardelli Square in San Fransisco last year (I was also eating one as I took this picture!). I dug out one of the maps of the city I'd saved for eventual scrapbooking or memento making and used it behind this picture as a matte. I was careful to make sure that Ghirardelli Square on the map is showing.

 I really wanted to get pictures in the frames right away but I didn't have many 5x7s printed to fit all those size frames. So I decided to make some custom "mattes" so that I could use the pictures I already had printed in 4x6. I mounted some pictures on patterned wallpaper to create a little border:


This is one of two frames where I made "mattes" out of a pink and green floral wallpaper I had on hand. It brings in a little bit of the colors that coordinates with my inspiration china.

 Allow me to sidebar on wallpaper for a moment. Any time I've found interesting wallpaper at a yard sale I've gotten it.  Here are some of the patterns I've picked up over the years:

Wallpaper is very useful. I've never actually papered a wall with it but I've wrapped countless gifts with it (you just gotta stick the tape on really well).

It's perfect for lining our dresser drawers:

And wallpaper always comes in handy for crafty projects:


Before I updated my bathroom, I lined the inside of my medicine cabinet door with this Laura Ashley wallpaper. So as promised, here's one bathroom cabinet opened for you. Besides the wallpaper, the other yard-sale treasures within are the little blue ceramic pitcher that holds our toothbrushes and the little tins (mini jello molds? tart cups?) that hold our Q-tips.



I used the same wallpaper as a matte for these silhouettes of my kids last year. I had the silhouette prints done by Susie Harrington at Petite Prints. She did custom square prints per my request. (This reminds me its time to update Faith's silhouette. She was so young then, hers looks like a boy!) Their names are spelled out with some of the old Anagram game letters.

 So that concludes my wallpaper sidebar.

As satisfying as it was to create the arrangement of frames and plates on my freshly painted dining room wall, the best part of this project is having pictures out of boxes and on display. Not only are they great conversation starters with friends and family but most of all I love the memories they spark on a daily basis. I wonder if the frame/plate display will expand across more of the wall over time because there is enough room to grow: