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).

Meet my new BFF

Yes, I'm having a love affair with a can of black spray paint!! Seriously, I never knew how versatile one little old can could be. Here are some examples. Remember those white shelves that everyone and their dog had from PB? Yeah, I have a stack of them sitting in my garage... I'm pretty much over them.

Before:

After:(Melissa, do you recognize that far right F?! I saw your blog post about the wire letters this morning!)

Need more convincing? Check out this step stool. It sat outside by our trampoline the entire year we lived in Seattle. Needless to say, the rain took it's toll. But it's the perfect size for my little half bath and I wanted to see if I could resurrect it.

Before:

After:

And I don't have a before picture of these topiaries. The bases used to be shabby chic white. Like I said, I'm over the white so I made them over with more black spray paint:

Dear black spray paint, my husband and decorating budget sincerely thank you!! (I prefer semi gloss for a nice finish). And since I'm too lazy (as usual) to edit my pics, rest assured that none of the above projects remotely look like they've been spray painted.

I'm having a big shin dig at my house tomorrow night, hence my absence. Nothing like a party to make you finish a million little decorating/home improvement projects. Stay tuned for details.

Until then, you MUST go see Mamma Mia! I went out with a group of girlfriends last week and absolutely LOVED the movie. It is the most fun movie I've seen in a long time. I am a huge ABBA fan so it was especially great. The soundtrack is awesome too! (My only beef with the movie is that Colin Firth's character is gay - I just don't buy it. I guess he can't be perfect Mr. Darcy forever)