Get thee to Michael's!

I was at Michael's a couple days ago to get some ribbon and happened to wander to the back of the store where they keep their clearance section. I was thrilled to find 4 long rows of 90% off clearance merchandise. I'm a pretty responsible shopper when it comes to my house. I don't usually purchase anything that doesn't have a specific purpose or place in the house. I've learned for the past that if I buy without a purpose I end up with stuff I don't know what to do with. But really, you can't beat 90% off even if you don't have a grand plan for the item. I am looking at things with new eyes these days: I know I can transform pretty much anything with a little bit of paint and sandpaper.

So here's what I scored:

Footed bowl - imagine it filled with small pumpkins and gourds in a few weeks for fall - perfecto - $2 (this was my favorite thing I bought)

5 green candles - this might seem like overkill but these were .15 each! This is one of the colors we will be using in our master suite so .75 for all five seemed pretty reasonable! (And if I don't use them there, I'll add them to our food storage/preparedness stuff)

Wooden ducks - I've considered ducks like these at Target in the Smith & Hawken aisle but never wanted to drop the $$. These were .49 each and can be painted whatever color I want. I stuck them in my spring decor bin and will hopefully have figured out a color by next spring!

3 Red Candle holders - I really wish I would have bought a couple more of these. I will for sure be losing the ugly glass part of these and possibly repainting the bases. But I think these would look great as a holiday centerpiece with some kind of greenery and colored balls around them. Imagine the ambiance during Christmas eve dinner. These were $1.29 each

Two white mirrors. I was most hesitant about this purchase. I don't love these and would certainly not keep them white. But they were $3 each and are pretty big. I might use them in my bedroom/bathroom. If nothing else, I can pop out the mirror, cut off the sorta ugly scrolly thing and have a couple of cool frames.

Grand total $13.60

Not bad, not bad. You'd better hurry though. I went back today to get a few more things and almost everything was GONE. Bummer!

Ok, and speaking of our master suite. We're on hold for now. I had it budgeted to a certain amount that I felt was feasible for this year but now I've decided I want to spend a bit (or a lot) more money than I orginally planned for so I'm holding off so I can do it right! I'll be buying a bit here and there and continue to gather ideas for the next couple months. We decided as a couple at the beginning of this year that our extra money would be used for emergency preparedness. We are on track to have ALL of our food storage completely purchased by the end of the year (YAY!!!!!) I really credit Al for keeping us on track and cannot tell you how many times he has said to me, "Monique, you can't eat _________________" (insert whatever furniture, trip, house project I was pining away for at the moment).