Scottsdale Estate Sale Saturday June 29 7AM

Great estate sale. Tons of amazing furniture, jewelry, kitchen items, clothing, and so much more.  Visit:  http://www.estatesales.net/estate-sales/459984.aspx  For address and more information.  Auction tomorrow after the sale at 2pm to completely clear the house.

Summer Thrift Store Shopping

The first few weeks of summer have been a great.  Everyone is staying on task with piano practice, scripture reading and other reading (this is how they earn money for school clothes), jobs, service and eating somewhat healthy food (ice cream sundaes and homemade cinnamon roles may not count in that equation).  We've picked tons of peaches and plums from our fruit trees, freezing the fruit in gallon bags and then using them in smoothies, waffles and cobblers.

But, the kids!  It has been so much fun and so far, the heat hasn't bothered us much.  The boys do tennis in the morning and basketball camp (thankfully indoors) in the afternoon.  

Eden starts every day with a little dancing. 

It's no secret this little girl loves to dance, so I'm always on the lookout for cute tutu's and dancing characters when shopping thrift stores.  

Eden and her dancing 

and

more dancing.

No doubt her favorite twirling partner is her Uncle Sam.

Reef and Eden also are having fun with the puppy who had a near-death experience a few months earlier. 

 Read more about Parker and his NDE here.

Reef and Mayer have taken an interest in puzzles.  

We have shopped every Goodwill in Mesa for more puzzles.  

Sometimes the hunt is more fun then actually doing the puzzle.

Like when Eden and I find gorgeous dresses and end up paying around $10.00 for both.

Thank you Goodwill.

On Thursday, we found this $1.00 dress and the little puppet became a must-have accessory.

You may see more photos of this little kitty in upcoming blog posts.

Payson is helping with Eden and finding fun games to play inside. The little wagon was $2.00 from Goodwill.

Chandler experienced his first scout camp.  I'm not sure who had the harder time letting go.  

Ok, I may have cried the first night during family prayer and the second night too (thanks to Mayer for letting me cry on his shoulder).  

I love that I found Chandler's sleeping bag a few weeks earlier at a garage sale for $3.00.  That came in handy.

He left a boy and came back smelling like a full-grown mountain man, that's for sure.

I was able to spruce up my entry way with these .99 cent milk glass vases.

And don't get me started on Eden's reaction to playing UNO.

She was a bit disappointed when she realized there were no pink cards in that stack.
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Dresser Love

Every once in a while I find a really, really big dresser at the thrift store.

A dresser that if I stood it up, would be taller then my 6’5 husband.

Every once in a while I find a really big dresser that looks like it’s been through a domestic violence dispute.  It’s scratched, dinged and bruised, but lived to tell. 

And every once in a while the drawers of this really big dresser weigh more then my five year-old son.  The large metal fixtures one each drawer could be removed and used as weapons of war.

Seems like a big project, like a humongous hairy dog sitting on the side of a busy road that needs a good home.  Everything points to the answer no, don’t do this, this won’t be worth it - so why is my heart swooning laps of love around the idea of taking this really, really big dresser home and taking care of it?

And then later that day, something interesting happens at Home Depot.

I find the color.

Every once in a while I find a paint color that actually puts me in a better mood.

A paint color that makes me want to redo my kitchen cabinets.

A paint color that I’m certain will be the next big thing and I have to have it.

But, normally -- maybe not ever -- have I found a really, really big dresser and a great can of oops! paint on the same day.

And then, like the moment you realize your best friend and your cousin (who happens to live in another state) would be the perfect couple and you make a mental note to set them up on a blind date next times he's in town, yes, just like that moment when you realize these two would compliment each other and you have to see them together. . . 

Look who ended up together?

Ok, so I have to apologize for going all Gillian Flynn on you, but I'm reading Gone Girl and I'm so taken by how this girl can write.

I mean the metaphors and descriptive writing literally blows my mind.  I've never read another author, ok, maybe Dan Brown, who has such a command of the English language.  It's like "Is this girl even trying?" because she makes masterful writing look so easy.  So, I'm all caught up in this world where it takes a page and a-half a page to describe the texture of a pink cashmere sweater and I wanted to try a bit of writing like that on my own.

Thanks for bearing with me.

They can't all be $1.00

You know of my love affair with great thrift store clothes.  For me, it's the only way to shop.  I've realized I have a short attention span for clothes.  I want it, I buy it and wear it a few times, but really I just want to get back out there and buy a bunch more stuff.  That's the beauty of thrift store shopping.  I donate money to great non-profits in our communities, help the environment and spend pennies on the dollar if I were to shop retail.

I search out blogs to see what other people have found too.  I love the creativity, the beauty and expression of what others are doing out their with their finds.

Whenever I receive a compliment on something I'm wearing, I always break it down.

-"I got this for $1.00 at Goodwill."

-"My shoes were $4.00 at D.I."

-My necklace was from a garage sale."

I don't even breathe between sentences.  I just get so excited.  One day it occurred to me maybe everybody doesn't want to hear everything about where I got all my trash and what I paid for it.  I'll compare it to an experience I had with my son Payson when he was younger.

I remember one day Payson was making faces at his little brother Mayer.  At first Mayer was amused, but very quickly became irritated.  I asked Payson to stop once, then again.  He continued squinting his face into silly shapes with googly eyes and strange sounds.  Finally, I had him come to the bathroom and look at himself in the mirror.  Upset at him disobeying me, I told him to make the faces at himself. He seemed quite amused and didn't seem to get the point I was making.  Finally I said, "Payson, why are you making faces at Mayer? Would you want somebody to make faces like that at you."  He looked at me and honestly answered "Yes."

So, there you have it.  Yes, I love telling others who/what/where/when of all my trashy finds (and thank you for bearing with me).   Of course Goodwill's $1.00 day totally rocks.  Check out this gorgeous dress I paid a $1.00.  Eden's dress was $2.99.

It just gets me all motivated to go shopping again when I find $1.00 dresses like this one.  

I like to make hair clips out of vintage silk flowers I find.  The girl is handy with a glue gun!

Occasionally I find something for my son Reef.

Just kidding, I buy him all sorts of stuff.  Check out his great Sunday attire he wore last week, all from thrift stores, even down to the Kenneth Cole leather shoes.

My 100% silk dress was $7.00 and worth every penny (hey, they can't all be $1.00).  My vintage beads were from a garage sale (there I go again)! 

F.Y.I. New favorite song alert:

Let My Words Be Few by Phillips, Craig and Dean

This song comes on and I spy Eden across the room. Without saying a word, she runs into my arms and we start twirling.  That's what this world needs; more spontaneous twirling.  It makes us so happy.

Project Madness

We're trying to crank out as many projects as we can on our last day of preparation for the Walla Walla, Washington Love Of Junk Vintage Market.  We already sold the white bead board dresser I posted last night so we really need to keep going.  Here's two signs I just finished...

Let me know what you think.  Love, Kelly.

3 Days Til the Walla Walla Vintage Market

We'll be hitting the road at 3am (if we leave on time) Monday morning for Walla Walla, Washington for the Love of Junk vintage market.  I just finished touching up this super cute dresser.

 Knobs are courtesy of Hobby Lobby!

My real camera is currently not working, so I'm definitely lacking in the pictures of the items I'm taking category.  Hoping to snap some pics with my daughter's camera as we're packing the truck.  We're getting super excited!  Love, Kelly.

My Latest Thrift Store Finds

While vacationing in California, I hit up the Goodwill in Newport.  I've been there before, as it's where I like to find my souvenirs.  Year after year I bring home great trash.  This year, I found this cute little antique table.  

Here's the before:

And here's the after:

I’m surrounded by Goodwill thrift stores.  There must be over a dozen here in Mesa and many more in the Phoenix area.  I don’t know if the thrift store industry is booming because of the poor economy or perhaps because we all have so much trash we want out of our homes and willing donate.  Whatever it is, every few miles, there’s another Goodwill store to find.  I have certain stores that are my favorite and I always find something I can’t live without.

Yesterday was Thursday; $1.00 day, so my first mission was to look through the clothes.  I was in the kids section when I noticed plenty of great toys too.  Toys can be hit or miss.  Most of the time they are broken or dirty, but yesterday I was looking at beautiful toys, many still with the tags on them.  With the kids out of school, I was excited to bring home a few things for them to play with.

A few weeks ago while shopping at a Scottsdale Goodwill, I found over 30 Littlest Pet Shop toys, each priced at .25 cents each.  

Goodwill has orange bins in the kids section full of old toys, Lego’s and other little toys lost from sets or not very useful.  Most of the time there’s nothing good to find in these bins, but I appeared to hit the jackpot.  I picked out the kitties & puppies and was ready to check out when I figured for .25 cents, I should bring them all home; fish, seal, caterpillar, piggy, etc.  Well, I’m so glad I did because these toys are all Eden wants to play with now. 

So while at Goodwill yesterday, I found a My Little Pony Ferris wheel priced at $2.99, perfect for littlest pet shop toys too.  

While at Knott’s Berry Farm, Eden loved the Ferris wheel so she knows exactly how this thing worked.

Reef, Mayer and their cousin had fun with this new 100-piece puzzle of the Mesa Temple I picked up for $1.99.  It didn’t take them long to finish it up. 

Reef is totally into dinosaurs, so he was so excited to have this stamp set to play with.

A few weeks ago while out at yard sales I found this darling child’s settee couch.   Eden is using it for her new Goodwill babies.  She's such a great mommy.

 

Yesterday on the way home, I drove through my neighborhood and stopped at a house that appeared to be having a garage sell.  The yard was full-I mean entirely full of household items, clothes, Christmas décor, etc.  I was interested in a few things, so I knocked on the door.  The owner said she was moving and I could take anything I wanted for free.   

Here’s what I came home with. 

and these Neimen Marcus Lenox Kate Spade champagne glasses.

I can’t to start working on redoing the little antique U-shaped table I brought home, all while the kids stay entertained  with their new toys (hopefully).   

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