my favorite buy of the weekend

Yesterday my friend, Carrie, and I went thrifting. We hit a few estate sales. A few yard sales. And a few hobby shops. I was so tired when I got home that I didn't even unload my truck. So I didn't take any pictures. So I couldn't show y'all my favorite buy of the day.

Here it is. Can you guess what it is? I'm telling you; I'm in love.

When I found it, there were two other ladies ogling it. I felt just a bit sorry for them because I knew right away they wouldn't be taking this box home.

It's an enamelware camping/tailgating/picnicing set.  And I love it.

A 12 place set neatly packed in this handy crate. And they look brand, spanking new. And I love them.

I can't wait to be at the lake, drinking coffee out of this mug in the morning. And 11 of you are welcome to join me.  But someone better bring another pot because these mugs are huge. Did I say that I love these?

how was your saturday?

Carrie and I had been planning our thrifting day for over a week. It wasn't an extra early morning - I didn't leave home until after 8:00 a.m.

How did anyone find estate and yard sales before iphones and maps? We sucked the battery from two phones today between googling to check prices and mapping a route to a sale. And did either of us think to bring a charger? That would be a NO.

We had the addresses for a few estate sales when we headed out. We found a few more along the way. And we hit a few yard sales too.

As with all sales there are always things you hate to leave behind or the sale that almost was.

Carrie was looking for a small chest of drawers. At one estate sale we thought we had found the perfect one only to discover that someone had bought it literally minutes before we walked in the door. They hadn't even had time to put the sold tag on it. At the same place I found a small swivel rocker that I almost bought. After looking at it several times, I decided the seat back was a bit worn.

At another house I found some 1950's folding chairs. The guy had ten to sell. He had priced them at $8.00 each. I offered him $60.00 for all 10, but he wouldn't make the deal. They were cute. They were in good shape. He had more of an emotional attachment to them than I had want of them. They chairs stayed, and we moved on down the road.

After shopping for several hours, we finally stopped for burgers and onion rings. Yum! And then it was back to shopping.

It was a full day. Carrie's car was full on the trip home. So full that we almost lost it all after our very last stop of the day.

I've got some great projects to work on - I'll share them here as I get them done.

But tonight - I am tired. I haven't even unloaded my truck.

a valentine's project

Several weeks ago I saw these candlestick mailboxes on another blog. I thought I knew which one - and I have spent most of the night trying to find the post. I fully intended to link back to the original post, but I. Just. Can't. Find. It. (If it was your blog, or you know the blog please let me know so that I can give credit where credit is due.) But these are just too cute to not share.

Last year we made these great table runners. We bought red Christmas lights on clearance, picked up a variety of ribbon, and some Valentiney fabrics. We cut the ribbons and fabrics into strips. stretched the lights along a table top, and tied the ribbon/fabric strips around the string of lights. This was a great project for the youth kids to do. There is no right or wrong with the strips - no pattern at all. Then we just stretched them along the tables, running extension cords under the tables to plug them in.

The table along the right side and the back tables on the left have the lights plugged in.

I love the table runners. I borrowed them last weekend for our Valentine's dance at school. And when I saw the candlestick mailboxes, I knew they would look great with these table runners. So I went to the Goodwill store and bought 10 brass candlesticks in varying sizes and shapes. I got them all for $8.25. Then I found the mailboxes at Michael's.

They were a little bent out of shape so I got a 10% discount on each, knocking them down to $3.49 each. I spray painted the candlesticks with some black paint left over from another project and glued a mailbox to the top of each.

They've been sitting around on my mantle and several tables for the last few weeks - I think I'm going to miss them.

Half of the mailboxes are a light purple and half are red. Some of the candlesticks are tall. Some are short. Some are skinny. Some are fat. All are cute.

It was such an easy project and a useful addition to our decorations. Our mission project for this month is collecting change for Arkansas Children's Hospital. There will be envelopes in the mailboxes for everyone at the banquet to place his/her change.