Hardware Switcheroo

So, I've never liked the drawer knobs for the pinkish red storage unit in Lucky's new room that we scored on Craigslist.

They were plastic looking up close and not my style.  Not horrible, but not great either.  Although, we're lacking a Hobby Lobby in our neck of the woods (which apparently has wonderful, cheap drawer knobs), I have been keeping my eye out for replacement knobs. 

I found a set of six blue ones on clearance at Marshall's for $10 a couple weeks ago, and I finally took the time to switch them out.  Now, the old buffet/current toy storage unit has 8 knobs needing replacement, so I also pulled out 2 green knobs that I had on hand already when I switched out our dining room buffet brown knobs for green knobs (they came in a pack of 4).  I figured I could use the brown pair or the leftover green pair for the remaining 2 knobs.

Here are the knobs all packaged up:

And here is a pretty bad after picture (soon I'll capture the entire room and I'll be sure to include better pictures of the knobs.):

It's another cheery addition for Lucky's Room! 

Time to Make a Switch (and Memorial Day Sale Shopping)

Here's a picture of our loft:

I decided that the round clock that was living in our loft area would look great in Lucky's room, so I needed to track down a new clock for the loft area.  Here is what I found at Goodwill:

It was a brand new clock from Target that originally retailed for $49.99.  (It's still available online at Target through this link.) I scored it for $6.99!!  Here it is hanging up in the loft area:

It's a little funky and fun.  I like it!

And here is the round clock in Lucky's room:

 And for a little more perspective, here is how the entire wall looks like currently:

Left side of window: photo hanging metal scroll.

Right side of window: round clock.

I picked up this metal scroll piece at Pier 1 awhile back with a 20% off coupon making it $8.  I first saw it at Copy Cat Chic here.

Can you sense that we're getting close to finishing up this room?

P.S. Happy Memorial Day Weekend!  It's a fantastic shopping weekend with sales galore...Old Navy has a storeful of finds right now with basic t-shirts on sale for $3 each and an additional 50% off clearance prices at some stores.  I may have checked it out last night, and I may have gotten a dress or two and a t-shirt or two:).  (I'm usually not so clothes happy.  I go in phases.  I probably won't buy any new clothes now until the fall.)  Also, Children's Place is doing an additional 40% off reduced prices.  Swim shoes are on sale for $6/pair, even the really nice big girl ones that are normally $19.95.  I also may have stopped there and picked up a pair of shoes or two.  And a hat or two. 

That's it.  Have a wonderful long weekend!

It's a Bird. It's a Plane. It's Actually a Yellow Bird in a Yellow Room.

So last week, I posted about a few Goodwill finds that were potential 'yellow' additions to our family room.  All three of you that responded picked the same one I did...no real surprise there:).  Here she is in all of her yellow glory: 

Does she remind you of Antonio from Design Star's Pink Ducks?

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Anyway, here is how the whole room turned out (See this post, this post, this post and this post for more information on my color of the month for May):

I realize that I seriously need to do some picture editing to get these images larger.  The idea of picture editing scares me a little.  Perhaps Mr. Sunshine can give me a tutorial this weekend?:) Hint. Hint.

I found this pear candle in our master bedroom.  I'm pretty sure I picked it up at Goodwill awhile back.

This little frame got a coat of yellow as well.  It was previously black and was a Target Clearance find from a year ago.  I like it better yellow:).

Could he get any cuter?

I don't think it's possible!

And for the Budget Breakdown:

Lamp and Shade (including spray paint): $11

Fabric for Pillow Cover: $5

Yellow Plant: $3.50

Lemons: $4.50

Bird Picture on Mantle: $4.99

Wood Bird: $1.99

Total: $30.98

Strawberry Patch Forever

So on Sunday night, Bill and I decided to transplant a lilac tree in our back yard to make room for a strawberry patch.  So far, so good.  The tree is doing well, and we have a nice little strawberry patch that hopefully, we'll enjoy for many years. 

Here's the before:

And the after:

I love that the tree is closer to rock bed and allows us to use this entire bed for a strawberry patch and herb garden.  (We did plant a few herbs in our main garden this year, because we hadn't planned on doing much here this year...but then we decided we wanted a strawberry patch, and then we needed to move the tree, etc.)  I love that we can quickly grab some basil or cilantro without having to walk the entire length of the backyard.

Here's our strawberry patch to the right that is made up of 4 plants.  I hope we get at least a couple berries this year!! 

Cost Breakdown:

Cilantro $2

Basil $2

Oregano $2

Chive Seed Packet $1  (I have no idea if this will work or not. I couldn't find any chives in plant form.)

4 Strawberry Plants $20 (They were big ones relatively speaking)
Labor: FREE!:)

Total: $27

Weekly Errands

Target:

I continue to have fun with my colorful butterfly gift card:

(See this post and this post for how I've spend a chunk of its $50 value so far.)

Here is what I picked up this week:

So it's my birthday gift card, and there were a few great deals on clothes this week, so I treated myself.  I picked up 3 shirts and the 4th black item on the far right is a Mossimo dress.

The floral shirt on the left was on clearance for $2.50, and I used a $2 off any women's top coupon printed from Target's website to score it for $0.50.  The grey t-shirt was on sale this week for $6 (down from $8) and I used a $3 off any Mossimo apparel item coupon (printed from Target's website) to purchase the t-shirt for $3.  The floral tank top was also on sale for $6, and I used a $2 off women's top coupon to purchase it for $4.  The black dress was on clearance for $6.24 and I used a $3 off Mossimo apparel coupon to purchase it for $3.24.

I also picked up two Revlon Nail tools for -$1.82 using a $5 off coupon.  (I've been making this purchase almost weekly, and every time I do, I get a new $5 off coupon that prints at the register.)  The Degree Deo was $0.24 with a $1 off Target coupon combined with a $1 off Manufacturer coupon.  The scarf in the picture was on clearance for $3.24.  And I got a pack of these super cute napkins for $0.48 on clearance:

I also picked up two more packs of gum for $0.04 each with a $1 off Target coupon per package:

In total, I spent $12.96 and I have $9.89 remaining on my gift card.  I heart Target!

Walgreens

There were some great deals this week at Walgreens! 

The Complete Lens Solution was on sale for $7.99 with a $8RR, making it free and I had a $1 off coupon making it better than free.  Little Swimmers were on sale for $6.99 and using the Walgreens $2 off coupon from the May coupon book with a $2 off manufacturer coupon brought the cost down to $2.99!  The Thermacare was on sale for $5.99 and the Advil was $4.99.  If you purchased both you received a $5 RR and I had two $3 off manufacturer coupons making both items FREE!  The Scunci Hair bands were on sale for $2 with a $2 RR= FREE!  Finally, there was a Revlon sale and RR deal this week, and I had one manufacturer coupon, so I essentially paid about $10 for 2 bottles of makeup that are regularly priced at $13 per bottle.  I paid $12 total for everything pictured! 

Rainbow

Was expensive this week.  I spent about $100 and saved about $92.  No pictures because I had to get the food put away fast after grocery shopping so we could have a picnic lunch on the sun porch!

Another Pier 1 Deal!!

I'm just loving Pier 1 lately.  Yesterday, I saw this pillow online for the clearance price of $2.98:

It's normally $29.99, and would make a great holiday throw pillow, I think.  When I saw on their website that if you use your Pier 1 card this month on any purchase (through May 30th), you can receive a $20 Pier 1 Rewards voucher, I knew I had to make the trip in.  Here is information on this promotion which is open to new and existing cardholders.  (I became a card holder when I bought my chairs for the dining room last year, and I believe this was the second time I used the card....we like to stick to one credit card (with the exception of Target and occasionally Kohl's because it's much easier to keep records straight with fewer cards)).

While in the store, Lucky also spied that Easter clearance was 90% off now, so we picked up a package of easter eggs for 78 cents, which we'll use to decorate next year.  Here's what we purchased:

Here's what we paid:

And, I'll be receiving a $20 voucher in about 6 weeks for more Pier 1 fun.  I feel like I just made $16!  (And remember from this post that Pier 1 has a handy dandy feature on its website that allows you to check inventory of stores in your area, which is really nice too!)

My Unoriginal Wall Art for Lucky Girl

I thought I was being so original when I saw this in a thrift store for $1.50 and dreamed up using it as wall art with fun fabric in it.

It's a big one!

My idea morphed into using all round embroidery hoops when I found it easier to track down round hoops at thrift stores.  Here was my stash that I was collecting over the last few weeks. (I paid $7 for 8 hoops.  I never priced these at craft stores, so hopefully that was a good deal:)):

I ironed out the extra fabric I had from Lucky's room (chair, window seat cover, headboard) along with a few pieces I had picked up for other projects.  That's where this picture came in from my weekend recap post:

I  placed the fabric in the embroidery hoops, and then I trimmed up the fabric and hot glued each piece within a hoop. 

Here are all my hoops together:



Next, I laid out the hoops in a pattern I liked and included a few other round items and traced their outlines on a big piece of paper. 

The brass mirror was my Grandma's.  The woven charger was a $2.48 Target clearance find from awhile back, the round chalkboard was picked up at the same time that I wrote this post for $1.50, and 2 wooden plaques were $0.80 each at Michael's with a coupon.  I plan to personalize the wood plaques and chalkboard eventually, and I may even try my hand at embroidering one of the fabric pieces. 

The paper was taped to the wall and all I had to do was put about 9 holes in the wall and attached some 3M Picture Hanging Velcro to some of the pieces. 

Here is the end result:

I just love it.  I think it's my favorite part of her whole room.  Total cost was $7 for the 8 embroidery hoops (all on sale at thrift stores), $2.48 for the charger, $1.50 for the chalkboard, and $1.60 for the wood plaques = $12.58 for some impactful, pretty wall art.

In the meantime, between dreaming up this project and completing it, I discovered that this isn't original at all.  When I was writing my window seat post, I found this image:

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I then discovered the blog called Domestic Adventure and found this image:

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And then, to top it off, one of my favorite bloggers, Jen, from IHeart Organizing wrote this post.  She made this wall for her mother-in-law's sewing quilting room.

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Ah well, it's not original...I guess it just means that great minds think alike, right?  And more importantly, I love it.  And even more importantly, Lucky loves it!