Slowing Down...

Hey everyone!  So as of late, I have had a much harder time keeping up with shipping out orders for my Etsy shop.  I have made the decision to shut it down, as we are moving soon and having a garage sale where I will try and sell of the vintage wares I have picked up here and there.  I will also post some pictures here if any of you are interested in buying anything.  I have some Pyrex still and some other cool goodies that I would be willing to let go for some good deals!  I will post a big update after the garage sale of what I have left.
I will of course, NOT stop thrifting or Estate sale-ing, but I will be buying more items that are personal to me!  That is why some of my good friends' blogs are such inspiration for me!  Many of you are so stylish and have a knack for decorating, it really helps me be able to spot "the good stuff" that I can use in my own home!

Well, aside from that news, I went to the estate sale shop this weekend when I spotted some Pyrex, but I wasn't a huge fan of their selection when I got there.  They didn't have much else I wanted either, but they did have this, which really made me laugh:

It is a board game!!!  Isn't it hilarious?!  If the picture is too small this is what it reads "PUBLIC ASSISTANCE  Why Bother Working For A Living?"  Wow!  and the illustrations on the front are just priceless.  My boyfriend wanted me to go back and buy it, I may wait it out until it goes 50% off in a couple weeks, if it is still there.

Well, I have been studying my booty off for a big final tomorrow, but I had to work this weekend.  I'm a grad student, so research is my job, and I have become so lucky as to work with horses in my research.  They are wonderful and smart and have taught me so much, including to expect the unexpected.  So when I went to work and the barn manager told me to keep an eye on a pregnant mare because she was looking uncomfortable, I didn't think that would mean we would have a baby within a couple hours!

So I welcomed this little boy into the world on Sunday, right in the middle of the day!  (Usually they wait to have their baby until the middle of the night!)  He wasn't feeling too good at first and actually ended up having to go into the vet with momma later, but he is doing much better and standing and nursing on his own now.  Keep him in your thoughts though, he is still just a baby!

Anyways, I know this is a little out of the norm from my other posts, but I just thought I would share.  I hope to post an update picture about the little guy soon, take care!

-Chelsea

I've Missed You All!

Hey guys!  Sorry my posts have been scant lately, but we are getting to the end of the semester and it is definitely crunch time for projects, exams, etc.  I also started up my research project again, which is wonderful that I get to work with my favorite horses again, but it is time consuming!  I think it is going to mean earlier mornings for me again...

Anyways, I did get a chance to hit up an estate sale today, and a few other yard sales and a rummage sale, but I just cannot seem to ever find the good stuff at yard sales!  Here's a collective photo of what I picked up!

An antique suitcase (they had more, but I couldn't afford all of them, so I picked out the coolest one!  Hopefully the others will stick around long enough to go 1/2 off at the estate sale shop!  The thing in the bag is a trinket display of sorts, but I will be painting it and displaying my nail polish in there!  Cool, right?!  There is also a TV tray, I love the retro daisies!  On the tray in the middle is a pair of candle holders that are brass birds (cranes maybe?) standing on turtles!  And of course, Pyrex!  Here's some close ups:

Orange frigies from the daisy set, I love this color!  I don't see it too often online, but I found the largest dish and sold that on ebay pretty quickly, hopefully these will go as fast!

Gooseberry round casserole. This has a beautiful finish, but the handle is a little chipped!  Bummer, but I think it will still sell well!

Oooh, some non-Pyrex that I couldn't pass up!  This is a Fire King square refrigerator dish with such a beautiful etched pattern.  I love it so much that I won't be selling it, I will store some fun goodies in it!  Here's a view of the bottom.  I'm not well versed in Fire King, let me know if you know what this pattern is called!  I would imagine snowflake or something...

Here it is with some gold buttons!

Here's a little better view of the soon to be nail polish display!  I can't wait to show off its transformation!  **I'm still trying to see if I can get the inserts out and maybe put some beautiful paper in as backing!**

I found this fancy horse a while back.  It says "MADE IN BRAZIL" on the bottom.  I love his red eyes, so intense!

I have been very into silk scarves lately, they are so gorgeous!  I haven't come across many Vera scarves lately, but these ones were pretty neat!

This is one of my favorite finds lately.  It is a burlap pinto bean sack with such a cute design on it!  My plans for it?  Well, since my dog conveniently has the name "Scout", I will be making this into a rug for her food and water to go onto.  Don't worry, she's really clean, so it won't get yucky! (Or chewed!)

Since I have been away for such a long time, let me know what you have been up to?  What have been some of your favorite finds lately that you will keep? (like my Fire King dish!)  Thanks for stopping by!!! :)

-Chels

Linking Up to My Favorite Parties!
Vintage Style Link Party (Knick of Time)

I'll Be Back Soon, Promise!

Hey guys!  I know I have been on a little hiatus, but yes, you guessed it, there is an exam coming up!  After I am done I will be beginning my research again, but I hope to get in some time for crafting and thrifting!  Thanks for bearing with me, I can't wait to be back!

In the mean time, here is a little what I am keeping my eye out for.  My man and I just signed the lease on a new house and I am SOOO excited!  This means we will be able to get out of the little box we are in now and get into a classic little red brick Tucson-style home.  I can't wait!  We have decided that we will have a garage sale when moving time comes to get rid of most of our stuff so we can start fresh!  That means, I will be looking for new furniture like this:

 A kick-butt mid century modern credenza/buffet thing that will be used as a TV stand/DVD hidden storage solution.  This one was on Phoenix Craigslist, but waaaay out of my price range, isn't it neat-o?!

Another cool mid-century modern piece of coolness like this totally cool coffee table.  Simple, slender, and solid.  Our current coffee table is from target and one of the cheapest ones we could find.  We are students so money can be hard to come by.  We hope to thrift, Craigslist, flea market all of our new furniture so we can get quality pieces for a low price!

A super cool mid century modern desk.  I love the legs of these, and this is my favorite color of wood.  I want to use this in my craft room.  Yep, that's right, no guests at our house, because our 3 bedroom will contain a master bedroom, an office for my man, and a woman cave (craft room) for me!  We decided we really don't have many guests, and we really don't want to sooooo, we sold the guest bed.  It's not that we're antisocial, we just enjoy our household privacy!  Not to say we won't have some get-togethers to show off all this fine furniture though!

Are any of you re-decorating?  What are you on the lookout for?

It's the Little Finds

Now, maybe not so little, but little in terms of worth.  What I am talking about are those little finds that you always have in the back of your head, that you hope to see in the thrift store every time you go.  Something that you collect for yourself that puts that excited smile on your face!  Well in this post I showed off the vintage Reader's Digest Best Loved Books for Young Readers series that I picked up.  I have volumes 1 through 9 consecutively, and I decided I liked that rainbow, so I didn't really *need* any more, even if they were from the same series.  I figured it had like 20 books or something so I shouldn't really invest much in completing the collection.  As my boy and I stopped at the Saver's on the way home from dinner last night, I crossed through the book section and spotted these (along with some of the ones I already had):

These are volumes 12 and 14, their colors are so beautiful and they were in great condition, just like my others!  I couldn't pass them up!  I paid the same for them as I did the rest ($2 each) so I wasn't out too much!  Here they are with the rest of their family:

So of course, when I got home, I had to google it to see how many there are in the whole set aaaand: 14!  That means I only need 3!  I need volumes 10, 11 and 13.  I see these around occasionally, so hopefully I can find them on my own before I feel the need to seek them out on Etsy and Ebay!  There are also some on Amazon, but with shipping, they are still more expensive than what I would pay at a thrift shop.

Soooo, Reader's Digest books are super awesome, right?  Well, I got some from other sets that had some really beautiful covers.  I knew I wanted to use them for crafting, but I was so nervous to actually ruin it. Then I finally dove in, and I did it.  I defaced a book.  But I made it into a different kind of book, so is that almost okay?  Here is my finished product:

So I know you can't really tell what I did from these pics, but a little background.  I really wanted to have a journal for Instagrams.  I love taking them, and I wanted a place to keep a year's worth of them.  I was really inspired by this post on one of my favorite blogs, A Beautiful Mess.  It really is a post that gives you inspiration on printing your digital photos!  How much fun are pictures if nobody else can see them but you?!  So here's what I did on the inside:

I wanted it to be so simple.  Scrapbooking overwhelms me.  I have a scrapbook that I started last summer that I have still yet to finish because there is a lot to it.  I really wanted this to be just pictures, and maybe writing in some fun little captions.  

If you want to try this project I used this tutorial (w/even more references) and this tutorial.  Here is what I used:

-120 sheets of thick(er) paper, I think it was 50 lbs I just know that it is in between cardstock and regular printer paper

-Paper Cutter

-Old Reader's Digest Book

-Button Thread

-Large Craft Needle

-Hot Glue Gun/Sticks

So I improvised a little and I think my book still turned out great.  I think the hot glue actually does a decent job of attaching the pages to the spine, especially since it is so thick.  One of the tutorials I read said that hot glue would work just fine, so after a failed attempt with E100, I stuck with hot glue. (Ooooh pun!)

*Things I would do different next time:

-Pull tighter when threading the "folios" (folios are the little packets of pages that you folded in half, my folios each consisted of 8 sheets folded in half, creating 32 pages front and back for each folio.  I used a total of 15 of these 8 sheet folios making a grand total of 480 pages front and back.) I had problems with the connection of the folios being too loose, I think I can do better next time as I got better with time.

-Don't bother with a fabric backing between the folios and the spine.  It was hard to get my alignment correct and I ended up tearing it off anyway. 

-Use a better condition book.  This one was a little crusty and the cover cracked when I first opened it.  It's okay if it is fragile though, I've not head of any glue shortages lately ;)

- Cut about another 1/2" off of the length of the pages.  For this book, I cut pages down to 7.5 x 10 and folded that in half.  I think it would fit better if it was 7.5 x 9.5

I would like to try another one soon, it really didn't take that long!  If I get good at them, I will totally offer them to my readers for only cost of materials + shipping.  But I doubt a lot of people would want them if you can just make them yourself!

Oh and happy spring by the way!  It's baby season at the farm!

Today I went with a friend to look at a horse that she works with that the owners want to lease.  We had lots of fun even though the horse tested me quite a bit when I was working him!  It was fun though, he seems like he won't be boring!  Haven't made the final decision yet, I still need to ride him!

Have a great week everyone!

-Chelsea

Linking up to some of my favorite parties!  Check them out and visit some new friends!

Made You Look Linky (Made in a Day)

Treasure Hunt Thursday (From My Front Porch to Yours)

Freestyle Friday (Happy Hour Projects)

Catch as Catch Can (My Repurposed Life)

Shine On Fridays (One Artsy Mama)

Anything Goes Linky (Bacon Time with the Hungry Hypo)

Thrifty Love (Cap Creations)

Get Schooled Saturday (Too Much Time on My Hands)

Saturday Night Special (Funky Junk Interiors)

The Penny Worthy Project (Hey What's for Dinner Mom?)

Flea Market Finds (Her Library Adventures)

DIY Project Parade (DIY Showoff)

Restyled Sundays (Stylish Once Again)

Sunday's Best Party (My 1929 Charmer)

Vintage Style Link Party (Knick of Time)

Thrift Share Monday (Apron Thrift Girl)

Busy Weekend

Hey everyone!
I went to a wonderful estate sale this weekend and I was really glad I went.  It was kind of far but worth it. There really was only one item I was kicking myself for not getting, a box of sewing supplies that included a button snap applicator!  The guy in front of me in line got it, and I was just ogling it the whole time I waited to pay!  Oh well, maybe there will be one this week!

This is what I found:  A train case, a starburst pan, a vintage clicker counter, a set of 5 owl cups, am apron like thing with that awesome print.

I am so glad I finally found a train case for a good deal in nice condition!  This one was only $4 and it came with its little key!  I love the blue color, too!

These mugs are adorable!  They have a neat little owl face on one side and "Have A Nice Day" on the other side!  They are all very light, but they will make such a neat set for someone!  I actually got these at Savers last Monday, Customer Appreciation day, so they were 20% off of their original $0.49 each!

An old clicker counter.  At just $1, I couldn't pass it up!  The lever on the right goes down to count, and you reset it with the knob on the left.

I saw this pan on another blog and I fell in love.  I couldn't wait to find my own, and I saw it out of the corner of my eye so I grabbed it quick!  I can't wait to put all kinds of goodies in there to organize my craft room!

This is the skirt/apron thing I grabbed.  It was such an amazing pattern I couldn't pass it up.  It is really interesting, and so beautiful!

So in addition to waking up at 5am to get a good spot in line at the sale, I went to the Desert Museum afterwards.  Here's some of my favorite shots:

This river otter is just the cutest!  He's always playing!

The Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum is one of my favorite things in Tucson.  They have lots of animals, including all of the endangered species (including Red Wolves, my favorite!) in Arizona, and those animals that you will probably never see because they are so good at hiding. (i.e.- Mountain Lions and Black Bears!)  The plant life is beautiful, don't let anyone ever tell you the desert is ugly, look at these pictures!  Anyways, if you ever end up in Tucson, AZ, the Desert Museum is an absolute must!

Sunday was a great day because I accomplished a huge goal, I ran my first Half Marathon race!  I was so proud of myself!  We got there really early, but I was able to snap this great sunrise picture!

Here I am at about Mile 3, things are great when you are only just at the beginning, right?!

Check out the change in my energy at about Mile 10!  That's a smile through the pain!

But then, the finish line!  That was such a great feeling!  Hooray!

I was really proud of myself for how I did!  I originally estimated my finish around 2 hours and 30 minutes.  On my long runs I usually run about 10 minute miles, and I get slower in the last 2-3 miles.  I finished this race in 2:06:05!  Wow!  That's an average of just over 9.5 minute miles for the WHOLE RACE!  My goal for my next one is to go under 2 hours.  That extra 6 minutes will be hard to shave off, but I will try my hardest!

Well, as Wednesday ends I am looking forward to another amazing weekend!  No plans are certain yet, and the estate sale pictures come up tomorrow, so we will see how it goes!  Take care everyone!

Linking up!
Thrift Share Monday (Apron Thrift Girl)
Vintage Style Linky Party (Knick of Time Interiors)
Time to Shine (A Diamond in the Stuff)
Pearls and Lace Thursday (Faith, Grace, Crafts)
Thrifty Thursday (Thrifty Decorating)
Time Travel Thursday (The Brambleberry Cottage)
Vintage Thingie Thursday (Coloradolady)

Where's the Sun?!

Hey everyone!  While we were enjoying some beautiful 80 degree spring weather, as we normally do in Arizona in March, a freak storm hit Sunday and Monday!  In northern AZ, they got a ton of snow, and here in Tucson, this is what we got:

It's hail!  Cool!  I think we got a little non-sticky snow here and there throughout the day, but this was what I could take a good shot of.  I know those of you who live in heavy snow areas are probably laughing at this, but us Arizonans don't get to see much of it. (well, besides Northern Arizonans!)

I also stopped at the Savers on my lunch break to find this little treasure.  I am a little addicted to clocks now, uh-oh!

This is a Seth Thomas travel alarm clock.  I have one other travel alarm clock and I love them both so much!  It is just so neat how they fold into and out of their little compact cases!  My other one is round, so now I have a little shape diversity!

Well, off to bed, thanks for stopping by!

Suitcase n' Lace

Hey guys!
So I promised you last time that I would show you the product of my current "thrift to craft" phase!  Well, here are the befores of the suitcase.

This is the suitcase before it's transformation, Scout was also feeling photogenic.  Anyways, you see that color?  I think I'll call it blue-gray blah.

Here's the inside.  It wasn't stained or anything, but it just was not my taste.  I'm not a fan of frills.  And the material was that plastic-y kind that is usually found on baby changing tables.  It needed to go.

This is after I had ripped out the bottom of the inside fabric, there were some staples, then I just pulled it all off...

Well, more the just a few staples...

Here is the finished product!  I was so nervous about the fabric I chose, but I think it turned out rather nicely!

I like the patina on the buckles, and the handle on the case, it is so retro looking!

Here is the inside.  Yep, it is plain jane, but I like it!  I used the pieces I pulled out of the original lining as a template for this.  The backing was just a single cutout, and the sides I had to do some sewing, then I hot-glued them in.  No close ups on this one because it isn't super clean and awesome looking when you see it close!  It's not too bad though, and I am happy with it.

I've also mentioned to you guys about the monster bag of lace I recently picked up at the thrift shop.  It is huge, like the size of a bag that a comforter would come in.  Take a looksy:

There is so much more!  Some many colors and types of ribbon, lace, rick-rack.  I can't wait to use more of it!  I thought I would display it in my newly renovated suitcase!

Now wasn't that fun?  A nice, colorful post again!  Let me know how you think everything turned out!

I'm linking up to some great link parties, go check them out, there's always some great Pinterest material!
Make the Scene Monday (Alderberry Hill)
Flea Market Finds (Her Library Adventures)
Restyled Sunday (Stylish Once Again)
Saturday Night Special Link Party (Funky Junk Interiors)
Get Schooled Saturdays (Too Much Time on My Hands)
Penny Worthy Project (Hey, What's For Dinner Mom?)
Vintage Style Link Party (Knick of Time Interiors)
We Did It Wednesday (Sew Much Ado)
Rock n' Share (The Shady Porch)