Weekend Thrifty Finds

I have been so busy I haven't been doing much shopping lately, especially thrift store and bargain hunting. I had some time to scope out a few good deals on Saturday morning though. So I'm linking up with Southern Hospitality's Thrifty Treasures Monday Party.

First I hit up Goodwill where I found this cute little hook thingie with fun little star cutouts. It was $7 which seemed a bit high, but our Goodwill always seems to be overpriced. There was a lamp there I liked also, but it was $14 and didn't even have a shade. So I just stuck with this guy. He will probably end up in our bathroom(which has a planned remodel coming up in a few months) to hang towels on the hooks. I may paint it or I might leave it as is.

The other store I found some good buys at was Garden Ridge. They had several clearance areas. I was tempted by some Adrionback rockers they had for $35 (originally $100) and a cute woven chair for $19 (reduced from $80) but I resisted chair temptation. I did snag this lovely candle vase at 75% off for $3.50.

In the art and frame section of the store, they had a small group clearanced down to 90% off. I picked up three of these white frames. I'm going to lose the milk art(even though I did live on a dairy farm until I was 10 so it kinda fits me!) and put some photos in. I could also use them as mini shadowboxes because of the depth of the frames. They were only $1 each.

The finaly item I grabbed was this tile art thing. It has a mosiac of tiles in a flower shape. I think this might end up in the bathroom also. It's a little different, but I thought it was pretty and it was only $1.50.

So those are the cheap treasures I managed to dig up this weekend. Did anyone else have some great shopping finds on a budget? If so check out all the other great finds posted on Southern Hospitality.

Build Your Own Desk

It's Thursday and that means DIY fun at A Soft Place to Land and Transformation Thursday at The Shabby Chic Cottage.


We have been wanting to give our home office space a makeover for awhile now. The paint color was too purplish tan and not as much warm, happy tan as I wanted. The desks were cheapo particleboard and were getting a little worse for wear. There was too much furniture and clutter and something needed to be done.

The main component of the office makeover involved our desks. We had been hunting for desks that we both liked for long time. Like 2 years. I like things white and light, hubby wants darker furniture. Hubby was insistent on a corner desk. I wanted something straight and simple. We looked everywhere including craigslist and IKEA, but just couldn't find what we wanted at a price we liked. So we decided to build our own.

After only one trip to Lowe's, and two to Home Depot, we managed to gather all the necessary supplies. We are not carpenters. We do not have special woodworking tools beyond a circular saw, cordless drill, and a power sander. But we were able to put something together that works.

We purchased 3 sheets of 5/4" birch. I think it is birch. I can't actually remember. It was $25 a sheet and was wrapped in plastic and called crafting wood or something like that. Hubby did some measuring and cutting to make a corner out of two of the sheets.

We used table legs purchased at Home Depot. The smooth legs were $8.15 each, the curvy ones were $8.45. We needed 4 of one kind and 5 of the other, which worked out to be exactly the number they had left. Hope no one came to Home Depot after us looking for legs. We purchased these metal bracket things to hold the legs on. I think they were $1.50 each. After the desks were assembled, hubsters gave them a good sanding with our new power sander.

Then came the staining part. First I applied a wood conditioner since our wood was more porous and a conditioner gives you a more even finish. I applied it with a simple foam brush. I'm all about the cheap disposable brushes when possible. I hate cleaning up paint and other messy, sticky stuff.

Then it was staining time. This time I used a nicer brush to get a smooth finish. I used a stain that contains polyurethane also. I'm all for cutting corners and skipping steps when I can. The color was the second darkest they had and was called "Antique Walnut." The sample and the color on the can looked dark and rich. Or so they claimed...

So I applied one layer of stain:

After waiting overnight for it to dry,(dry time is 6 hours), I gave it a light sanding, wiped off the dust, and got ready for a second coat. Because the first coat looks nowhere near "Antique Walnut". It looks more like an oak-maple hybrid wannabe.

And I decided I didn't really like the wood toned legs. I have pale legs and I didn't want my desk legs to feel different. Ok, I just really didn't like the way the stain settled on the indentations of my desk's curvy legs. And the whole look was a little blah.

So the legs got a coat of primer and white paint. And another coat. And one more. While the tops had their final and third coat of stain. I'm still not completely happy with the color because I wanted it darker, but I was tired of staining and sanding and wiping and staining again. However,I think it still came out pretty well for my first ever wood staining job. (And the walls are not this weird yellowish-green color, it's just bad lighting and camera usage. Also ignore messy tangle of cords.)

Hubby's desk:



My desk:



The brackets that hold the legs on:

Here's the cost breakdown:

3 pieces of wood for desktops: $75
5 plain table legs: $40.75
4 pretty table legs: $33.80
9 bracket thingies to hold on legs: $13.50
Wood conditioner: $6
Wood stain: $12

Total Cost: $181 for two desks. Not super cheap, but not bad I guess for two solid wood desks. And now we can pretend to be talented carpenters and DIYers even though we are winging it half the time. We still have a lot of organizing and decorating to do in our office, but the desks are the first start. I will have more pictures when the room is more put together.

Colorado Vacation-Part 3

I'm back with the next installment of our trip through Colorado. After our drive over Mosquito Pass, we spent the night at Siverthorne. (Where I browsed through some fun outlet stores.) The next day we set our bright and early and headed towards Georgetown.

In Georgetown, it was time to take the Jeep up another trail. This time we headed up Saxon Mountain. We quickly climbed high above Georgetown.

The road was just as rough. as the day before.

Look at all the many switchbacks we drove up:

The views were just as wonderful as the day before also.

After about 2 and half hours of driving(and it was only 6 miles!) we finally reached the top.

This little guy was busy gathering food for winter which comes early in the mountains.

After a long drive to get back down the mountain, it was time for lunch and a little shopping in the quaint and historic downtown area of Georgetown.

After leaving Georgetown, we hopped back off the interstate at Idaho Springs. We continued on an unpaved country road known as the "Oh My God Road." Actually it was probably the least scary road we drove on and while the views were nice, they weren't anything amazing.

We did pass through the ghost town of Russel Gulch. There were many abandoned buildings and mines in the area. I had to laugh at the "Home for Sale" sign in front of this "fixer upper". It's pointing to a different house, but I thought it was not the best sign placement.

Once we reached Central City, we hopped on the "Peak to Peak" scenic byway and followed that to Estes Park.

Late that afternoon we finally approached Estes Park, our final destination for the remainder of our vacation.

I have more photos to share later from Rocky Mountain National Park so stay tuned.

Colorado Trip-Part II

We've been busy tackling a redo of our home office space so I've been without a computer and Internet for a few days. Therefore, the lack of blog postings. But I will have some new projects to share including building and staining desks and a new paint color on the walls.

For now, I wanted to share the next installment of photos and stories from our grand trip around the lovely state of Colorado. After a couple of nights hanging out around Colorado Springs, it was time for the next leg of the trip. We left Colorado Springs and headed towards Leadville. The scenery along the way was just as gorgeous. I can only imagine the view from up in a hot-air balloon like those in the second photo.

We took a slight detour on the way to Leadville to visit the ghost town of St.Elmo. St. Elmo is one of the best preserved and most visited ghost towns in the state because it can be accessed by car, no 4-wheel drive required. The town is nestled near the Collegiate Peaks. The town boomed when silver was discovered in the area. Now there are many preserved buildings remaining and an operating general store. You can purchase sunflower seeds to feed to the chipmunks and squirrels that hang out around the area. They will eat right out of your hand. I didn't feed them, but I had fun taking pictures of their fun antics and watching some children feed them.

We stopped at rushing stream just off the road outside St.Elmo before continuing on to Leadville.

Leadville is at an elevation of 10,152 ft. The Leaville Airport is the highest elevation airport in North America. The downtown is full of historic buidlings housing shops and restaurants. We stopped for lunch at the Delaware Hotel which continues to operate as a bed and breakfast. After lunch, we stopped for a quick visit to the Mining Museum and Hall of Fame.

After the museum, it was time for a real wheeling adventure. Just outside of Leadville is rough road you can take over Mosquito Pass to Fairplay or Alma. The route passes the remains of numerous mining operations in the area. The views are so worth the rough ride.

They aren't joking with this sign either. I think we went up the pass at about 4 mph.

The road climbs higher and higher, and the views are breaktaking. If you are afraid of heights, this is not the route for you. Actually, Colorado is probably not the state you want to visit if you have a problem with heights and steep drop offs.

Finally, we arrived at the summit. I don't know how they managed this route back in the 1800s, especially with snow. There were still some remains of ice and snow around during September.

Time to continue on down the pass. The road wasn't any smoother, but the views were just as amazing.

We finally made it through to Alma and continued on past the lovely towns of Breckenridge, Frisco, and Dillon. So many cute towns all begging for an afternoon of exploring.