Thrift Store Finds and Thinking Outside of the Box

When I saw the following comment on my last post this morning, I laughed so hard that my Skinny Vanilla Latte nearly came out of my nose.

Jenelle said…

Yo, whoa, Lady. That was a fantastic post. I was laughing at your usage of “bendy” and “eleventy billion.” And I was impressed at your mad sewing skills. But what I’m REALLY intrigued about is in your last picture… on your crafting table… is that a cake stand with a tin planter and bird??? Can you take another picture of that close up? I want to drool over it more and then run home and create something like that for myself!!!

Ha! Thanks, Jenelle. I really needed that this morning. Just keep your drool to yourself, as I have a three year old who’s cutting a molar and have more than enough drool to go around right now. Your comment, however, reminded me that I hadn’t shown off my most excellent thrift store find in the history of the world.

A couple of weeks ago during my weekly thrift store visit, I came across a matching mint green cake stand, coffee & tea canisters, and a sugar shaker. They were listed as a set for – get this – $6.99! I took them to the front and asked the cashier if that could possibly be right, and she said the price was correct. I wasn’t really sure what I was going to do with them, but clearly, I couldn’t leave them at the store.

After giving it some thought, I decided to use them in my craft room since they coordinated with the fabric I used in there. I put the coffee and tea canisters on my bookcase nestled between a chippy bird and my vintage rabbit cotton ball dispenser. There’s nothing in them right now, but I’m sure they’ll be used for storage in the near future.

Let’s take a moment to discuss the vintage rabbit, shall we? It actually was used in *my* bathroom when I was a little girl. There is a hole with a rubber stopper in the bottom. You fill it with cotton balls and pull them out where the bunny’s little cotton tail should be! Have you ever heard of anything more adorable? No, you haven’t. My mother actually bought it years and years ago at an estate sale. I found it when I was visiting them over Spring Break and reclaimed it.

Okay, back to the green kitchenware.

I took the top off of the sugar shaker, stuffed a little bit of floral foam inside, and added some green moss and one of the $2 Pier One bunnies on a stick that Rhoda made me covet.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I’m working on my photographs. My great friend JJ sent me some tips for shooting into a window, and sadly enough, this is way better than it would have been otherwise.

And lastly, just for Janelle, here is the cake stand. I added a white plate I found at Ross for $1.49, a small galvanized bucket that contains my colored pencils, and another chippy bird. It makes me smile, and that is what decorating my home is all about.

Don’t forget to think outside of the box when you find great things for super cheap! You can easily turn them into treasures when you put your mind to it.

Speaking of turning super cheap items into treasures, did you take a look at the entries in the Five Dollar Challenge? Folks, I was just floored. I cannot believe the wonderful creations that people came up with! It took me so long to get through the entries because I was amazed with everyone’s creativity. Well done!

After all was said and done, I plugged the number of entries into a random number generator and this is the little number that hatched:

Congratulations to Infarrantly Creative! You are the Grand Prize winner! Send me an email at LivingWithLindsay [at] gmail [dot] com and we’ll chat about your prizes.

I had so much fun with this challenge, and I hope you guys did, too. Anyone up to do it again in a few months? I have a new idea in mind that’s really going to stump you…