weekend recap: motherly love

As expected, I had a perfect weekend with my mom. I didn't take any good pictures of us while she was here, but picture a tall, pretty, smiley lady and you'll be good to go. We ate a lot, drank a lot of coffee, walked a lot and just enjoyed the beautiful weekend. And she brought me this gorgeous vase from Hawaii, where my parents went for their anniversary trip last month:

You can't tell from this picture but it's an iridescent purple with splashes of blue and green. It's so pretty! That mom, she's so thoughtful.

One item on the agenda while she was here was to visit the Habitat Restore. She's heard me talking about ours for months, but she hasn't experienced the joy of shopping in one. I changed that for her :) It's been a while since I've been and they've since reorganized and put a lot more out. Um, wow.

This beautiful carafe was only $0.50. I'm going to use it for olive oil.

Can you believe this mirror? I've been looking for something to put on top of the dresser in the guest bedroom and I think this is perfect. I might spraypaint it white because it's a little dark for my taste, but it's so gorgeous! And only $2.

Christmas stuff was already out. Yessss. Here we have 17 feet of garland and a bag of bells. All for about $3.

Be still my beating heart. I love, love, LOVE this vase. And it goes perfect with some flowers I picked up from Hobby Lobby for our bedroom. That's the current room on my list, so stay tuned for the big reveal in the coming weeks.

I hope your weekend was as good as mine! Did you find anything good? I think I've convinced my mom that shopping at thrift stores/Goodwill/Habitat is the way to go.

Sorry, Dad :)

weekend recap: sweet shutters

Napoleon Dynamite's definition of sweet. Like, saaaa-weet shutters. I made a secret decision not to spend any money this weekend, because I maybe want to save my monies for a Hobby Lobby stock-up-for-fall trip. Maybe. But then we just had to go to the Habitat Restore to see if they had any plywood for another project. And they happened to have these shutters and they just spoke to me. They spoke to me, I tell you.

I've been spending a lot of time trying to figure out what to do with our mantel. I've always had a painting hanging over it - a wedding gift from my in-laws. I love that painting, but I wanted something a little more unexpected. And it looks better in the dining room here anyway :)

But in all of my "mantel decor" google searches, I didn't find a single thing that I loved so much that I wanted to copy it I felt inspired. It was either too traditional or too modern or too bold or too boring or too not me. [I did, however, make note of several Christmas mantels. Yesssssss.] So I stuck with my lantern and some greenery, and my spray-painted mirror. And I told myself that I could live with it.

I didn't hate it. It just didn't feel bold enough - it felt too pastel and bland compared to the rest of what I have going on in here.

But in all of my mantel searches, there was one thing that kept jumping out at me: two, vertical panel-like objects [i.e. art prints, shutters, molding] placed side-by-side on the mantel. I love it. I gravitate toward symmetry but this isn't candles on either side of a mirror and I love the non-traditional twist.

So when I spotted these two weathered and worn black shutters (for $6 each) perched in the corner at the Habitat Restore, my mantel vision finally came together. I stood there, staring at the shutters, imagining them in my living room.

I imagined them decorated for Christmas [never a good sign] and I even tuned out the creepy Habitat worker man who told me that they were "Charleston Green." No, honey. That's black, but thank you. And please leave me alone so I can figure out how to string Christmas lights around these.

Oh, I just love them. They COMPLETE this room. This pic doesn't even do it justice, but they're perfect.

Pitter-pat, pitter-pat.

I'm linking up to a partaaaay:

weekend recap: it all started with a wrong turn

Greetings, citizens! I hope you enjoyed your weekend, wherever you are. As I type, I'm rocking on my front porch watching a rain storm finish up. It's nice to take a breather and enjoy resting in something as simple as that, no?

Totally unrelated: we had dinner this weekend at a great Thai place downtown [thanks for the recommendation, Whitney!] and I'm totally obsessed with how cute it was. I'm a sucker for a good atmosphere. I think it makes the food taste better :)

Before I show you what I picked up this weekend, let me preface: I did some thrifting on Saturday morning, but wasn't terribly impressed with anything. The Boy was preoccupied with Navy things for the day, so I meandered around town, watched some HGTV and caught a little nap. By 5:30pm, I was feeling restless. I needed to hit the fabric store to make a return and stop by AC Moore for a few things and since it's in the same shopping center, I figured I'd run into the Dollar Tree to see if fall stuff was out yet any of their seasonal items were on clearance. That was the plan. I would be back by 7pm. We live about 25 minutes from said shopping center, so it's not a quick trip, but I was feeling good about it.

I got in the car and in my distraction to try and get the flippin' FM transmitter to work on my iPhone, I turned left out of our subdivision, instead of right. [Left is the direction of the grocery store, bless my heart.] Instead of turning around, I thought I could "follow my nose" to the interstate, but I haven't fully acclimated myself to this place and that was a big fat FAIL. By the time I realized that I needed my GPS, I was in the boonies, with no cell service and the GPS couldn't pick up my location. And I think I heard banjo music somewhere in the woods off the road. I drove and drove and drove until 40 minutes later, I was less than a mile from where I'd started, back in the right direction. Oh...and it was raining.

Did I mention that this shopping center is not in the most desirable of locations? One should definitely be packing heat before pulling in. Which helps with the get-what-you-need-and-get-out mentality. So it's 6:40pm and I park the car and run [in the rain] to the front door of Hancock. Only to see that they close at 6pm. If I hadn't turned left out of my stinkin' neighborhood in the first place, this wouldn't be a problem. And who closes at 6pm on a Saturday?? Un-BE-lievable. I muttered and grumbled, plowed through AC Moore and headed into Dollar Tree.

All of that to say, the trip was not a total flop. Because look at these cuties [all to be spray painted white]:

Don't judge! You know you want to buy stuff for fall.

Presh.

Now listen, I know that everyone and their mom has blogged about these Dollar Tree birds, but I'm here to tell you that MY mom scored a set of these about a year ago. And I've been trying to find my own ever since. So this, my friends, is not just a bandwagon incident. At least not this time :)

By 7:30, I was a bit frustrated, but turned the evening around by talking my hubby into renting a movie [Valentine's Day - it's cute, if you haven't seen it!] and ordering a pizza. I was GROSS from the I-just-woke-up-from-a-nap-and-didn't-brush-my-hair-and-then-I-got-rained-on look, so I was pulling for delivery. But to save a buck, I agreed to pick it up on my way home. Good call, because when I stopped by the Italian restaurant [owned by hardcore Italians] the piano man winked at me, the owner called me Bella and some other guy gave me a coupon for a free bottle of wine for the next time we dine there. Maybe they felt sorry for me?

And who cares if they were all pushing 50? If THAT isn't a score, I don't know what is.

weekend recap: thrifty findings

This beautiful little southern town we've recently found ourselves in is crawling with thrift and antique stores. I love it. Our Saturday morning has turned into this: breakfast, coffee-to-go, the farmer's market and thrifting. We'll do a quick run [not literally, let's be honest] through the neighborhood looking for any yard sales and then we'll busy ourselves with chores around the house. Or just opt to enjoy the sunshine in downtown Charleston [Chaaaaalston]. If the Navy owns my husband for 60+ hours during the work week, it just means we have more reason to play hard on the weekend. Right? Right.

So what's better than thrifting? Thrifting in a store that's going out of business and has everything marked 70% off. It was AMAZING. I give myself about $20 every weekend and once it's gone, it's gone. But boy did I stretch it this week :)

As a bonus, my sister-in-law was in town and I couldn't wait to introduce her to my habit hobby. And let me just tell you, she can hang with the best of them. We'd been in the store 5 minutes and she said, "Just so you know, I've already staked my claim on those [beautiful McCoy pottery] bowls and those yellow plates. So don't get any ideas." Girl after my own heart.

Here's how I racked up:

Warning: Shield your children from the picture below.

I've been looking for a chunky picture frame to turn into a tray for my soon-to-be constructed ottoman. Little did I know that the perfect frame would come with the most terrifying picture.

He's been face-down since the second I put him in the cart. I'm not kidding. He's propped up in my craft room right now, facing the wall. I can't wait to cut that creeper out.

These wooden candlesticks set me back a whopping $0.33.

Not pictured: a beautiful silk tie [never been opened] and a CD for the boy and some great glassware that I plan to use for holiday decor [yes, it's the first week of August and I'm planning for Thanksgiving/Christmas].

Now ladies, brace yourselves for the score of the century. I actually said, "Omigosh, score of the CENTURY" when I spotted this across the room:

Cue the hallelujah chorus. This picture doesn't do it justice, but it's a GORGEOUS gray wool Kate Spade tote and it's in great condition. You guys...I only paid $4.50 for it. Eeeeks!! That makes me so happy. I can't wait for the appropriate season to rock.it.out.

Also not pictured [because it's already in the garage waiting to be painted and I was too lazy to go take a picture] is an adorable old window that has the PERFECT weathered look. I'm not quite sure what I want to do with it, but I'm thinking I'll put pics behind the panes of glass and hang it in the guest bedroom. Pics like this:

That's from our stroll downtown on 4th of July weekend. Love it.

That about does it! Oh and the best part? I only spent $15 :) Hollerrrrrr.

I'm linking it up to support a fellow blogger today. This lady keeps me laughing all.the.time.