All Things Thrifty

I have never been much of a thrift shopper. I would walk into the D.I. as a kid and instantly tell my mother I had to go sit in the car because the smell was horrible...let's just say I was a little bit of a drama queen. So thrift shopping was never my thing...until recently. I can't go by without stopping in. I think to myself, "OHHhhhh what if they have something so vintage-y or a super cute top?"

Anyway I scored recently from the D.I. and Savers and seriously not one of the items was more than $6.99! I love me some good deals for some stuff I really like!

// J. Brand Skinny Jeans - $6.99 //

// Vintage Pyrex Casserole Dish - $4.99 //

// Mirror/Frame - $6.99 //

I am actually going to convert this to a tray for our ottoman by redoing it and staining it.

// Oxblood Blouse - $5.00 //

You know you love my profesh mirror picture.

Top: Thrifted / Pants: Joe's / Necklace: Banana Republic / Boots: Steve Madden 

If you ever have some good Thrift Finds, I'd love to hear about them! And where from so I can go search. 

DIY American Pants

I saw this DIY project pinned on Pinterest (follow me on Pinterest here. My username is just ericatanner) and I just knew I had to make them. So a couple days ago I made em.

I obviously didn't make shorts like she did, instead I went for the pant route.

The woman's tutorial that I pinned, was super good and had some helpful hints. So I guess I am more of a testimonial saying that the tutorial I pinned is good! BUT I thought I would throw in some of my own helpful tips on what worked for me and what didn't.

I followed all of her same tips except:
1. I did not use a star stencil bought from the store, instead I used a Cricut to cut out our star shape.
2. I didn't use "Old Shorts", I went to Savers and bought some $3 old Eddie Bauer "Mom Jeans" but they kind of look like high waisted boyfriend jeans.
3. We used the same brand Simply Spray fabric paint, except our craft store was out of blue Simply Spray brand fabric paint so instead we used the Tulip brand blue spray paint. It didn't spray on as evenly but I actually ended up liking it a lot. Just spray far away because it sprays on in bigger drops.
4. I did not use a normal paint brush to do the stars. I used a foam craft brush which worked good. Less paint is better (this stays true for the whole project)!
5. For the stars I used normal house (wall) white paint that we had laying around. But I am sure even acrylic or any kind of white paint would work. I just would not spray the paint on.

I made these mistakes: 
1. Really really really really make sure that you cut out some cardboard or something to go in between the pants/shorts so that it does not go through. Cardboard that fits completely across the whole width of your pant legs.

Cardboard between legs when spray painting so it does not leak.
Then also for the stars so you have something hard to press against.

See this is my mistake. Cardboard didn't go all the way across.

2. I bought the Simply Spray brand for white but it said "Textured White", which may be the only white that the Simply Spray brand has. It seriously came out textured and dried kind of bumpy. I would not use this again. I instead would buy the Tulip brand white paint or maybe your craft store has just a plain white (not textured) Simply Spray.

Me wearing them this morning.
Yes, I cut my head off on purpose.
You don't wanna see my morning hairdo.

One thing I really learned was that not every stripe or star is going to be perfect. Just go with it and it will end up cute! Mine is definitely not perfect. The mess ups are ok! I can't wait to wear these all day today.

Happy 4th of July!

A Bottle of Spray Paint

Two days ago my mom, sister, and I were at Wal Mart. We picked up some spray paint for a project my sister was doing. I instantly thought of a very plain basket I had at home that we keep our blankets and quilts in.

The Plain Basket

So I bought some spray paint. And bam! The basket looks so much better especially up against our plain white apartment walls.

The Painted Basket

It's crazy what just 5 minutes of spraying spray paint can do! If you have any ideas about how to make this basket any cuter, I'd love to hear! I thought a bow but it made it look like an Easter basket wannabe.

Welcome to the 70's.

Like I have mentioned before, my sister and I have been cleaning out my mom's entire house. My parents have lived in the house they are currently living in for longer than any other house they have lived in so before my mom would just clean out every time we moved. But since it has been a decade (or possibly longer?) that they have lived in this house, she decided it was time to move or for a deep clean out. Moving wasn't an option...

This is where the "Welcome to the 70's" comes in. Where have these beauties been hiding?

My sister on the left is sporting the beautiful shirt my mother wore while she waited for my Dad on his mission. And I am sporting my mother's cheer shirt! So ballin'. This shirt is now in my closet instead of sitting in a box marked "Mom's Memorabilia".

My mother's very attractive cheer outfit. Jumper with overalls. So cool. And I can't forget to mention these little cheer statue versions of my Mom.

I know I have offered this idea before when we cleaned out my Grandma's house earlier this summer in this post, but people seriously go clean out your grandma's, mama's, aunt's, random neighbor's you get it whoever's closet slash house. It creates some true hilarious laughing moments and fun new things! Or you can just have a garage sale like my sister and I are having this weekend...Friday and Saturday. If you want the info let me know. Just comment with your email and I will email the times and address and such! Lots of good stuff. For reals. My family's junk could be your new shiny treasure.

Before I leave I thought I would leave you with one more picture treasure from cleaning out this past week. We were cleaning out my Dad's side of the closet it needed it badly...like 8 suits with dust an inch high and very outdated polos & such we were just throwing my dad's old clothes out of the closet when we found our little pup like this...

One man's junk is another man's treatsure.

a while ago, our neighbor had some chairs outside on their lawn with a sign next to them that said $1 each. my mother and I just HAD to check these chairs out. In the random quest of being creative we purchased them. there were 4 kitchen table chairs without the table but still you could paint them and find a cool antique table to go with and one family room rocking/cushioned chair with horrible white leather-ish fabric but yet had much potential if you got some new fabric and such to spruce it up. 

then a couple weeks after that we bought some good chair fabric that would match the colors of my family room, from a cheap fabric store sorry do not remember the name of the store we decided to give the rocking/cushioned chair an extreme makeover.

then a week after that my cousin M*, who is quite crafty herself, she actually has a blog where she shares her crafty such things but I think it is private came over to my mom's and helped us pull apart this chair. All the fabric and such things hidden in this chair came off with much dust and who knows what rising in the air of the garage (such things in the chair=money ok maybe only a few cents, food, crumbs, and yuck). 

Next, we put on the new fabric. We all had never done this before so we started just wrapping the fabric onto the chair like a present almost. It was sometimes a challenge but we got pretty far all on our. 

Then we were stuck. We had gotten to the hardest part of the chair which is the top slash back of the chair. Then my Aunt C* who had done this many time before came into town one weekend and she had some time to rescue us and the chair! With her help the chair was finished! 

I wish we had a BEFORE picture of the chair, but here are the AFTER pictures of the chair so just imagine the before pictures...and if you can't do that just OOOHH and AWWW at my amazing chair that is now sitting in our little apartment as an accent chair! 

TAA-DA...the new (yet old) chair! I am still looking for a cute pillow to go on it.

Armrest. I polished the wood but kept it antique looking and we put the little pins (I totally forget what they are called) in for some fun decorative look!)

Different Angle.

  All in all...fun little crafty project. I learned a lot. It is a fun piece and just goes to show you don't need to spend lots of money to add a new piece of furniture to your home.

"One man's junk is another man's treasure."