She Saw The Potential When No One Else Did

It's nice to have thrifty and crafty savvy friends. And I am lucky that I have two that enjoy DIY as much as I do! It's neat to see what the others come up with since we each have our own style.

 

My friend Cole found this really cool lamp while we were out thrifting yesterday. She knew it was destined to be something great!

 

So she took it home and made it happen.

 {Photos courtesy of Cole}

 

There were a few chipped areas so she used a textured spray paint to help hide the blemishes. She is still on the hunt for the perfect shade but I think it's looking pretty darn spiffy so far!

 

Lamp base: $1.75

Textured spray paint in white: $5.76

Shade: already owned

 

Total investment so far = $7.51

My Punny Valentine

Two fun facts about The Foxy Thrifter:

1. I am not a big fan of Valentine's Day.

2. But I am a sucker for puns.

Don't get me wrong, I am not a total jerk when it comes to Valentine's. I just feel that romance and doing nice things for someone shouldn't be reserved for only one day a year. So in my mind there's no better way to celebrate Cupid's day than with complete and utter silliness.

 

The following gifts are for my coworkers- so if we work together, don't act surprised at how little I spent on your gift. This is a blog about my thriftiness after all!

 

I found these great cups at my local Goodwill about a month ago. They are from Target and were originally $1 each. Goodwill had them for 75¢. Not a huge savings but I thought it was reasonable enough since I wanted to use them for gifts.

{Raise your hand if you HATE this. *raises both hands*}

 

I ended up scouring Pinterest for some Valentine pun ideas and came up with a few that I liked. This is what I did. I bought popcorn, honey roasted peanuts & mints for the gifts. Odd combination but the puns made it worth it!

 

 And here come the puns! I made handwritten notes to attach to the popcorn packets: I'm gonna POP a CORNY question... Will you be my Valentine?

 

 The same went for the cups. After layering the mints and bags of peanuts inside the cup, I inserted the handwritten note: I am NUTS about you! You and I are MINT to be! <3 Heather

 

It's super easy and cost very little to make!

 

Cups: 75¢ (each)

Popcorn: $2.56 (for 6 packs)

Peanuts: $2.99

Bags for peanuts: free (left over from last year)

Peppermints: $1.79

Paper and Sharpies: free (already owned)

 

Total for 6 gifts: $11.84

Total for each gift: $1.97

 

Not too shabby if I do say so myself. Do you celebrate Valentine's with your family, friends, or coworkers? What types of gifts do you buy/make? Let me know down below in the comments!

Music and Lyrics

For some strange reason the song 'Afternoon Delight' is stuck in my head. But instead of the cheesy, yet oh so lovely lyrics by The Starland Vocal Band, I have changed them to my own:

♪ ♪ Gonna find my bargains, gonna hold them tight

gonna grab some thrift store delight ♪ ♪

I'm not really sure why. And it really has nothing to do with this particular post.
On another note, for those of you who have pets... Do your pets ever give you the stink eye when they are laying on you but you need to move because you are uncomfortable yet your moving clearly is a bother to them and their comfort level? Yeah. That just happened to me as I am writing this post.
Anywho.

Here are the great items I found on my recent Goodwill trip Friday evening.
 I hope you enjoy!

 {Fairly new black satin peep toe pumps: $5.75}

 {Small Express purse: $4.25}

{Yellow bead necklace: $2.25}

 {Silver earrings: 75¢}

 {Watch- in need of a new battery: $6.25}

{Owl ring; $2.25}

 {Cute polka dot button up: $4.25}

{Various shirts for myself and others: $1 each}

Snow Day Shenanigans

Well we finally got our snow! It started late last night shortly after 9pm. And man was I excited! I am such a kid when it comes to snow. I absolutely love it!

Being the smart gal I am, I made some preparations for the Snowpacolypse of 2014. I bought 2 bottles of wine, some Havarti cheese, pita crackers and spinach dip. I also bought some inexpensive canvases should the wine spark my creativity.

Luckily it did!

 

I love the colors of this SUPER expensive Ikat print throw pillow. I thought it would be cool to replicate the colors onto a canvas. So I busted a sweet freestyle and went to town.

The inspiration: This $230 pillow

 

 

I apologize for the crappy cell phone quality of these photos. I am no Picasso, but I think the finished product looks pretty darn good!

 

8x10 canvas: $1.69 

acrylic paint in various colors: already owned

paint brushes in various sizes: gifted

 

Total cost of this art project: $1.69

And here's a few shots from our snow day!

{Snow. Yipee!}

{Jorge wondering if that's a squirrel he hears.}

 



 {Nosey Nancys}

 

 

{Foxy serving you snow realness.}

No Tea, No Shade

"Girl, no tea, no shade but you need some curtains!"  - me, every time I look at the windows in my house

 

I bought my house in November 2012 and have yet to buy curtains for my massive windows. Shameful, I know. Partly because the windows really are huge and I was intimidated. Mostly because curtains are expensive! I wanted something fun and playful but I've noticed that curtains are a lot like bras: the larger the size, the more expensive the price, the uglier the bra (or curtains).

{my living room currently}

 

I've seen tons of DIY curtains on Pinterest. But something you should know about The Foxy Thrifter: I. Cant. Sew. So obviously that eliminated most of the DIY tutorials. Well, enter my BFF. We met up at our local Goodwill to see what we could find. The first stop was the linens section where we she found this. 

Being the thrifty and crafty lady she is, she hands it to me and says, "Curtains?" Well duh! Of course she would look at them and see curtains. I don't know if I told her this at the time but I saw these tablecloths at Goodwill almost a week prior to our outing and it never even crossed my mind before she suggested it.

There were 4 brand new tablecloths in the same pattern so I bought all of them since I was unsure how many panels I would actually need. Turns out I only needed two.

It would also turn out that the tablecloths were about 2 feet longer than I needed. And since I am no seamstress, I hemmed them the easiest and laziest way possible: with safety pins. I measured out the extra length (23 inches) and then pinned 3 safety pins on each side of the panels. Next I attached the curtain hanging clips and they were ready to go!

 {Jorge helping me with measurements while Foxy played with her toy.}

 

 

The tablecloth packaging came with these fabric bands to hold it together and make it look "fancy".

 

 I thought, "Hey! I can use this to tie back the curtains when needed!" So I did.

 

What it cost

Two tablecloths from Goodwill: $9.50

Curtain rod from Big Lots (20% off!): $8.80

Two 14-clip packs of curtain hanging clips from Big Lots (20% off!): $12.80

 Total = $31.10



Hanging Around

 

"I can't even look at it. It is so plain. It is so boring. It is just so blah."

 

I'm talking about walls, people. We all have 'em. Maybe you are one of the lucky ones who doesn't currently suffer from Boring Wall Syndrome. But if you do, don't worry. The Foxy Thrifter is here to help. There are so many solutions to overcoming Boring Wall Syndrome. And the best part is that you can do it the thrifty way!

 

This is wall happens to be in my kitchen. It was bare for over 6 months until I stumbled upon my solution.

 

Vintage copper jello molds!

 

I started my collection with 5 that I found at my local Goodwill back in Summer 2013. I recently found 3 more. I am always on the lookout for more pieces to add!

My investment so far is $8! That averages to $1 a piece! Not bad for decorative wall art.

 

 

If you are still stumped, here are some other solutions I have found on Pinterest.



Via Craftiness Is Not Optional

Via Close 2 My Art