I Decided to Invest in Gold

Not long ago, I was mailed this coupon from Coldwater Creek with a letter stating that the company had recently undergone a shift for the better.  The coupon was good for $25 off any purchase:

I browsed through the catalog that was attached to the coupon and found this pillow for $29.95:

I thought I would walk in, pay $5 for the pillow and then walk out, but when I got there I didn't love the pillow.  It was just okay and $5 is $5.  So then I found this elephant for $29.95:

I thought it would be adorable in Charm's room.  But then I decided it might be too 'baby' for him.  Then, I found this collection of giraffes in 3 sizes and priced from $19.95 to $29.95:

I really liked them, but I would only wanted to get one to maximize the coupon, and I preferred the grouped look.

I looked some more and found this book for $24.95:

I loved this book and considered framing several of the pages for artwork.  The illustrations are beautiful and the quotes are wonderful!

I also found this hand hammered gold bracelet (made of brass) originally $199.95.

It was marked $59.99 with a red tag indicating the price would be discounted another 40% off at the register = $35.99 after discount.  

I went back and forth between buying the book or the bracelet.  Book or bracelet.  The book would be free. The $200 bracelet would cost $11.  

Here's what I got:

I splurged on the bracelet!  I decided I could keep an eye on Amazon for the book to go on sale, but I probably wouldn't stumble upon this good of a deal on a beautiful bracelet for a long time!  I may never take it off!  

Here's my receipt for this crazy good deal:

Thank you for the coupon, Coldwater Creek!!  

Dollhouse Challenge: We're In!

Lucky has a dollhouse that she received for her second birthday.  It looks like this most days:

It's actually a bookshelf from....Target (seriously, where else do I really shop:)?).  Here is the link for it.  Over time, we've picked up wooden doll house furniture from Target as well.  I don't mind her dollhouse as it.  It is girly and sweet, and when picked up, it looks like this:

I've had thoughts recently about painting the pink colored roof and window frames and adding some general flair to it, however, like wall paper flair and flokati rug flair.  I figured it'd be pretty cheap with small pieces of fabric, scrapbook paper, etc.  Maybe some of the furniture could be revamped a bit too.

I was thinking I would start tackling this project when I got a few more rooms done in our real house, but then I saw this post from Jenny at Little Green Notebook and this post from Nicole at Making It Lovely and this post from Emily Henderson of HGTV Design Star fame who writes the blog Style by Emily Henderson.  All of these bloggers and several others are participating in the first annual "I'm a Giant" Dollhouse Decorating Challenge.

The bloggers listed above are big time design bloggers who have picked out amazing doll houses to start with.  I'm sure there results will be absolutely stunning, and I can't wait to see what they come up with.  I think I want to get in on the fun, but I'm timid about the 'deadline' of December 15th.  So my approach is going to be this:  Lucky's doll house is going to get a reno without a deadline:).  We'll see how far we get by December 15th.  We've decided to work on it as a team, so Lucky will be helping with the craft store shopping and general decision making (though I may guide her decisions a bit:)).  We've started talking about room layout already.  I'll be posting updates now and then as we finish each room.

Does anyone else want to get in on this with me?  I even found a fun pre-made cardboard dollhouse for $20 that could work for this project!

I Went to A Garden Party

Remember the floral garden stool from this post?

It was a $17.48 Target clearance find, but

I just wasn't loving the flowers.  I had to make them disappear!

Here she is after one coat of Krylon Dual paint and primer in one.

And several coats of spray paint later, here she is all white and beautiful!

Total Cost: Under $22 ($4 in spray paint and $17.48 for the garden stool)  

I should note that even though I used high gloss spray paint, the resulting finish was matte.  A bit of a bummer, but I'll take it to get rid of the funky purple flowers!

I've got a few more tweaks to make in our sun porch before we close it up for the season!

Autumn Garage Tour

We put up shelves in our garage a few weeks ago so that we'd have room to store all of our 'stuff' this winter.  The shelves are officially full.  See:

And after organizing our garage last weekend, everything was looking good for about 2 days until it hit me...it's fall in Minnesota.  Fall means it will be winter soon.  Winter means there will be no outdoor painting for a good 6 months or more.  This realization means one thing.  It's time to get my paint on!

At this point in time, our garage is a furniture refinishing factory.  It's also a waiting room for objects to be spray painted or in their post spray paint drying phase.  I'm not sure how many pieces I'm working on currently, but I'm determined to get them all done in the next week or so.  

While keeping the explanation behind these pieces a mystery, here are some pictures taken in our garage including furniture I'm working on and products I'm using:

A newly stripped piece

This piece is awaiting a color decision

Another piece waiting on a color decision

Products recommended by Jenny at Little Green Notebook!

New Color Options for Rustoleum Oil Based Paint!

Primed and Ready

Almost Done!

Here's a piece I thought was done until I took this picture...more green please!

The Gold Series

Talk about a busy day!  Here are all the empty spray cans:

Stay tuned for more details and finished product images to follow in the near future!

Fall is In the Air: State Park Fun

This weekend we enjoyed a hike at a nearby state park that borders the St. Croix River.  The weather was perfect and the kids had a blast!  The only bad thing was that I forgot the memory card for my camera in my computer at home....so I could only take about 10 pictures using the internal memory on my little camera.  I kept erasing and retaking pictures.  Here are the ones that made the cut:

It was just a gorgeous day and the views were breathtaking.  Bill and I both were snapping picture after picture (Bill used his cell phone) of our kids as they played away on the beach.  We had a picnic snack and then hiked back to the car.  It was so much fun that I think we'll be heading back again in more carefully coordinated outfits.  I'd love to get a nice family picture there!

And here are a few other pictures from the weekend.  (One of the things I love most about blogging is that I nearly always have a camera on hand!)

The Pumpkin Aisle at Menards:)!

Charm's new game.  

He lined these up all on his own.

Hope you had a wonderful weekend!