Pretty blue platter

I love dishes, especially blue dishes.   I love dishes as much as I love a  bargain.  So when I found this Italian ceramic beauty at a yard sale for the princely sum of 50 cents, I could not refuse.   The platter is 12 inches in diameter and 3 inches in-depth.  The perfect salad bowl for a large gathering.

This summer I have been much more selective with my yard sale purchases.   If I buy it, I have to pack it, so not everything passes muster. Not only did this bowl pass muster, it sang to me “take me home:”.

My friend J makes ddecorative serving  trays using a colourful plate as the centerpiece.   I may ask her make a tray, but for now it is sitting on the dining table for all to admire.  Not bad for 50 cents.

Recycled loveseat

10 year old love seat before

And after.

For $200 and a bolt of fabric which I had on hand, we have a newly covered  love seat.  I didn’t want to invest on a new one as I prefer to wait until we are in our next home.  According to the upholster if a piece has “good bones” it just makes more sense to recover it.

Now if I can just keep the cat off it.

Happy Saturday

Live your life in such a way that when you wake up in the morning and your feet hit the floor, Satan shudders and says,

” Crap! She’s awake!”

We are off to Fredericton to meet the amazing Isabella.   And spend time with Sarah in her new apartment.   Sarah will be  the happy recipient of  a lot of our crap junk yardsale items stuff.   Between stuff for Sarah and gifts for Izzy, the truck is loaded, and I do mean loaded, and we are ready to hit the road.

Have a great Saturday, I know we will.

The find of the week

As my family knows I love thrifting, and this week shopping was especially good.  We are downsizing and even though what I buy I will end up packing and moving once we sell the house…………………I just love a bargain.

My first find  was this whole cloth vintage beauty.    Double bed size, hand tied with a wool blanket batting.  The knots are very tiny, perfectly clipped threads.

There is a small tear at one end which I am hoping to sweet talk my friend Win into mending.  I am not a fabric expert, I am basing my opinion on the colours – orange, green, yellow and blue.  If you can identify the print please leave a comment.

At first glance I thought these were dolphin earrings.   I really need to start wearing glasses.  When I got home and opened the plastic bag which they were in, I was very pleased to find a  jewellers mark on the  ring on the left.   Can you say 14kt.

Always on the lookout for new cloth napkins, I was excited to find his set of four Vera Bradley `Bali Blues` with tags still attached. These will be used for the fabric and not as napkins.

Care to guess how much this week`s thrifting cost me?

The total was $5.15 cents before taxes.   The most expensive item?  The quilt, at a whopping $1.95.

Date night can`t get any better

My DH out did himself this evening for date night! He accompanied me to the opening day of Guy`s Frenchy.

$52.00 later, we left the store with (for him) 2 pairs of Eddy Bauer jeans, 3 pairs of khakis, and 2 shirts (one a Land`s End). For moi, we found a pair of pants with embroidery on the legs, and a pair of Old Navy yoga pants with price tags and labels still intact. Last week I paid $20.00 for a similar pair of yoga pants at Mark`s Work Wear house.

Being an avid reader, I also picked 4 novels.  At $1.35 a novel, I will have plenty to read.

For the sewing room I found  J C Penney stagecoach  style cotton blinds in this  butterfly print .

The fun did not end with the shopping.  We then went to Subway! No small wonder I love that man.

Guy`s is about 1 km from my home.  My new exercise regime will include a nightly walk with my exercise buddy Win to and from the store.  We have made a pact that we  can only buy what  we can carry home.   If you see either one of us  pushing a shopping cart along the main drag some evening, then we are  either considering being  bag ladies or buying too much.

I love a bargain

During the summer months, I spend Saturday mornings going to yard sales.  Best selling books from 2 years ago I buy at the Great Canadian Dollars store for $3.00.  When I finish reading these, I trade them at Reads in Fredericton towards other books.   Most of my clothing comes from Value Village or other type of reassigned clothing stores.  I shop for the best price and rarely buy anything that has not been discounted.  Groceries shopping is no exception.    Today was an exceptionally  good discount day at the local Sobeys, including 10x the Air mile points on orders over $50.00.

I am a big fan of the Europe`s Best Frozen Fruit and vegetables line, especially the frozen raspberries.   This past summer I found coupons for $2.00 off a bag of frozen fruit.   This morning I came across a coupon for a free bag of vegetables with every purchase of two bags of frozen fruit.   Not only did I get a bag of vegetables free, I also received $2.00 off each bag of fruit I purchased.  For a total of $12.00, I purchased $27.00 in frozen fruits and vegetables.   I prefer fresh fruit and vegetables, but during the cold months of winter frozen taste better than  produce trucked in from California.  Besides deep dish berry pie or Pavlova will help warm these dark winter days.

My china collection

Remember the blue and white china dish fabric I showed a few weeks back?  Here is the same dish pattern in a brand new style.  The dress is entitled `Memories of Beijing`.  Talk about recycling.

I`ve been saving my broken dishes to make a collage, never thought of a dress.

To see more of the artist`s work, go here

Another sign

This morning at the local mall I noticed a huge sign announcing `Coming Soon! Guy`s Frenchy.   Now that sign brought joy to my heart.  The highlight of my trips to Fredericton, Moncton and Saint John is always a shopping spree at Guy`s.

Sometimes when I digging through a bin of clothing, looking for brand names, I ponder why I don`t shop at the malls.   For $5.00 I can buy a Coldwater Creek blazer (often with the original price tag still attached) compared to buying one for 20 x the price at the mall or on-line.  Whether I pay $5.00 or $100.00 for an article of clothing when someone compliments me on my clothes, the compliment is just as sincere.

Still having problem with pictures, but I`m sure it should be resolved soon (hint, hint, Andrea).

Raise a glass to planet earth -throw away the plastic

Due to the controversy on the use of plastic containers I decided to throw away the Tupperware, and zip-lock plastic storage bins.   Every time I opened the cupboard an avalanche of plastic would land at my feet.

Luckily I found the Anchor Hocking glass storage set at Canadian Tire.   The sets cost about $20.00 but I was lucky to hit a half price sale and purchased two sets for the price of one.

These handy BPA-free glass containers are stackable as each one fits snugly into the other.  They  are perfect for storing leftovers as you can see at a glance what is in the container.  No more wondering if the green lid is the container or something past its prime.  Plus you can reheat the food right in the dish. The tempered glass is freezer, microwave, oven and dishwasher safe.

Growing up any leftovers were stored in glass bowls or mason jars.  Isn’t funny how everything old is new again?

November cottage block

This has to be the prettiest block yet! I love how Yvette used the tone on tone fabric, reminds me of the brown maples carpeting my yard.  Or should I say our leaves which are now carpeting the neighbour’s yards.  Our house is surrounded by maple trees on three sides.   Each wind storm leaves less in our yard and more scattered through the neigbourhood.

We mulch any leaves left, but our neighbours dutifully sweep their lawns and bag the debris.  I keep urging my husband to go over and ask for the leaves back to use as compost.  Sometimes my DH just doesn’t get my sense of humour.

To see more of her talent, check out Yvette’s BOM blog.