Market Umbrella

Having just been introduced to the wonderful blog Southern Hospitality, this is my first time participating in Today's Thrifty Treasures and linking to Rhoda's weekly party. My "treasure" is this 9 foot market umbrella that I found at a neighbourhood garage sale this weekend for $5. It is in great shape, on a hardwood frame, and goes with our deck furniture nicely. One of my best all time garage sale finds.

Now, if I could only muster up some good weather so we could use the thing. We had a weekend of snow and rain and had to bring all our plants inside, but that didn't stop me from setting the umbrella up! I'm hoping June will bring the sunshine.

Thanks for popping by.

More Garage Sale Shopping!

ETA....linking this post to Nifty Thrifty Tuesdays !!




Please bear with me....I promise to post something crafty again soon but I really wanted to share my garage sale finds from this weekend. Char and I headed out bright and early (well, maybe not bright as it was grey and snowing!) this morning. Due to the weather we didn't find as many sales as we had hoped and decided to hit a couple of thrift stores. The picture below is of my "goods" from the day.

Not pictured is the golf umbrella I got for Jake and two cast iron planters I picked up for my sister for $5 each. Or should I say my husband picked up as those suckers are heavy! I found the same planters on Canadian Tire website for $80 each new. This pic is from the website.

So, all in all a pretty successful shopping day. I did find the thrift stores much more expensive than typical garage sales but with higher prices also comes better selection. My favourite finds of the day...the iron planter holder, vintage bag (thanks Char!), and umbrella.

Well, thanks for visiting and checking out my junk! I hope you are having a good weekend and that it is not snowing where you are.

Item details:
From top to bottom and left to right: wrought iron planter holder ($3), 9 foot market umbrella on hardwood frame (we really needed one for our deck but I haven't want to spend $50+ on that!!) ($5), stand up paper holder thingies (plan to use for packs of PTI CS) ($1), doilies ($1) wooden hangers ($2), vintage carry on bag that Char spotted but kindly let me buy) ($6), potato masher ($.50), diner-style sugar shaker ($.50), cooling racks ($1), wicker basket with handles ($3), drum lamp shade (oh, I have big plans for this) ($6), vintage Pyrex bowl ($.50), Pampered Chef batter bowl ($.50) and 2000 straight pins with ivory heads ($4).

Funky or Junky?

Confession time....I LOVE garage sales! Thankfully, my good friend Char also loves them and we often go together. We hit our first sales of the season last weekend and my favourite finds of the day were these two vintage Pyrex princess bowls. I picked up the orange one for $2 and the other was FREE. I love them both and they are the start of what I hope will some day be a fun collection.

I stopped at a few sales this past Sunday as I made my way across the city en route to my sister's house. Sadly, no Pyrex was to be seen but I did find this old roll top bread box for $1. I'm not sure what I will do with it yet, and whether I will even use it for it's intended purpose. I saw a picture on the internet where someone hung it upside down and used it as a shelf. I was also thinking it might be a good cubby for the bills and papers that often accumulate on the kitchen counter. Anyways, both my husband and son said it's "junk" but I really like it. Jake had a friend over who agreed with me it's kind of funky.

I also picked up these books in a FREE box at one sale. All are books I've always planned to read. I'll add them to the 50 plus that are currently stacked up beside my night table, many bought at the sales last year.

So...what do you think? Are garage sale finds funky or junky? Do you believe that one man's garbage is another man's treasure? Or you like my guys who think one man's garbage is just garbage. Haha!

Happy Birthday

I actually managed to make a card this weekend ~ although a knock off of an earlier one. I wonder when (if) I am going to get my crafting mojo back.

Love this October Afternoon paper.

Thanks for peeking!

Taco Cups

No card to share. Sadly, I haven't been crafting much. With the warmer weather my attention has turned to the house...spring cleaning and decorating, etc.

But I did want to share these fun little taco cups I made last night. I had my two oldest friends over last night for Mexican food and margaritas and made these as part of our fiesta. I used a biscuit cutter to cut out rounds from tortillas and my Pampered Chef mini-tart shaper, placed a small amount of cooked taco meat in each and baked for 20 minutes or so. I was so pleased with how they turned out. I think this would be a great appy to take to a party on a platter with sides of taco fixings. They were great with a little cheese and salsa....yum!

The next time I make tacos I think I will cook some extra meat to freeze just to have on hand as these would be so easy to whip up when Jake has friends over. I'm sure teenage boys would gobble these up in no time. Us 30-something ladies sure did.

Thanks for stopping by. I hope you are having a great weekend.

Another thank you card...

...using this fab sentiment of Ali Edwards for Technique Tuesday. I thought the type text worked well with this gorgeous October Afternoon paper. The other stamp I used was from PTI's Turning a New Leaf set. Not much to this one at all but I likey that OA paper alot-ey!!

Thanks for popping in.

Embellish Challenge

Just popping in to share the card I made for the Embellish Challenge. I meant to heat emboss the sentiment but totally forgot to. Does crimping the roof count as embossing? If not then OOPS! The blue background pp is October Afternoon and the yellow pp is Basic Grey. Pink cs is Bazzil. The green cs is PTI New Leaf, sentiment also by PTI from Boards & Beams. Rhinestones are Kaiser and I think the chipboard house is Maya Road.

I hope you are having a lovely weekend. I am on vacation for a week and heading to Vancouver Island tomorrow for a few days with a friend while my husband stays home with Jake. When I get home he is heading to BC himself for a short golf trip. Hopefully our next holiday will be together!

Thanks for visiting!