Sunshine Award

I was awarded the Sunshine Blogger Award!

A while back I was nominated for the Sunshine Blogger Award by Janiene @ A Bunch of Bishops 

and also by Jessi at Practically Functional

I feel so terrible that I am just now getting to this! Everything has been so unbelievably chaotic around here BUT better late than never right!?

The Sunshine Award is given from bloggers to bloggers.  It’s for someone “who positively and creatively inspires others in the blogosphere." 

First, you should thank the person who gave you the award and link back to them.  Next, answer the following questions about yourself.  Then, choose 10 of your favorite bloggers and link their blogs to your post.  Be sure to let them know that you are nominating them for the award.  Last, be sure to copy and paste the award to your blog!  

Some "Get to Know You Questions"...

1.  Favorite color-  

I don't really have a favorite color. I like pastels the most. Does that count?

2.  Favorite animal- 

One that will take care of itself and doesn't have to depend on me. Geeze, I sound so boring! I am just not a very responsible person so I don't like to have anything else that depends on me other than my kids and husband. I am doing good to keep them alive! ha ha jk!

3.  Favorite number- 

would be # 2 

I started playing soccer when I was a little kid. I choose the #2 because I was the second child in my family. I always tried to keep that number as I played on different teams through high school and on into college.

4.  Favorite Drink- 

Chocolate milk and not just the Hersery's chocolate syrup kind. It has to be a good quality with ice in it! My favorite would be Promise Land chocolate milk. It's so think and creamy. It tastes like your drinking melt chocolate ice cream! 

5.  Facebook or Twitter-  

Facebook

6.  Good book or good movie- 

I would have to go with movie even though I almost NEVER sit down and watch T.V. I can never find enough time to sit down and read a book. A movie is only 2 hours. I can spare that much time every once in a blue moon! 

7.  My passion- 

Obviously my passion is finding great deals. I also LOVE interior design, fashion and most of all my family and my beliefs.

8.  Giving or getting gifts-  

I love both of them. I love the feeling of giving someone something and letting them know I was thinking about them.  The same goes when receiving a gift. I love to know someone was kind enough to think of me!

9.  Favorite day-  

Any day with good weather, relaxation and fun!

10.  Favorite flower- 

I love the smell of gardenias! I have a black thumb when it comes to keeping plants alive though! (again with the responsibility thing) SO I am also going to say some of those succulent cactus plants that have no thorns on them. I LOVE the way they look and I don't have to water them all the time!

Now on to my nominees! I will be doing 20 since I was nominated twice but you only have to do ten!

1. Jenny @ Modern Modest Beauty 

2. Barbara @ Chase the Star 

3. Theresa @ Theresa's Mixed Nuts 

4. Barbara @ Decorating with Barbara 

5 Lissa @ Through The Looking Glass. 

6. Jessica @ Home Take 2

7. Meredith @ A Blessed And Blissful life 

8. Diane @ Mamal Diane 

9. Allison @ Two Infinity And Beyond 

10. Jeniffer @ Our Love And Our Blessing 

11. Megan @ Our Pinteresting Family 

12.Danielle @ The Beautiful You  

13. Michele @ Apples And Peanut Butter 

14. Amanda @ Life Experience Needed 

15. Sue @ House Pretty 

16. Pippa @ Shop with Pippa 

17. Rachel @ I Heart Crafty Things 

18. Carol @ Are We There Yet? 

19. Grammy @ Grammy Goodwill 

20.Kristen @ K Squared 

Show & Tell Saturday

Welcome to this weeks Show & Tell Saturday!!!

 Here is Barbara from Chase the Star to show you her amazing desk makeover, which she found at Goodwill for $14.99!

Hi! I'm Barbara and I write over at Chase the Star, a blog about crafting, decorating, DIY furniture upcycling, and more!  What a treat to get to be a part of the Show and Tell series here at Garage Sales R Us!  I've been a fan of this blog for a long time, so I'm really excited to be here!

I love garage sales and thrift shopping!  Even when I do have a little extra cash, I still shop at these places instead of at the mall or anywhere else.  Getting a bargain is sooo fun, and addicting!  So a few weeks ago I went in to my local Goodwill to find a piece I needed for a project  I was working on, when what do you know, I run into this old and very much in need of love yet full of potential gem:

I had to take a picture of it at the store right then and there, green plastic bin underneath it and all.  It was solid wood, no MDF anywhere, and believe me I checked.  The price tag said just $14.99, I claimed it as mine right away.

I didn't actually need a desk, until I found this one, then of course I 'found' a need for it.  It'll be my new work desk.  My future blog posts will be more enhanced, enlightening, and entertaining, because they will be written on this desk.  That's what I told myself-and I bought every word of it. HA!

Here's a quick tutorial on how this seen-better-days desk, got a makeover:

Outdoors with an orbital sander, and 60 grit sandpaper I sanded the top to remove all of the stains and water damage.

Lots of cosmetic damage

Much better!

Using Zinsser Cover Stain, which I adore, I painted the legs and body of the desk, leaving the top bare.

I didn't sand before hand because the cover stain is pretty good at gripping on to the stain without any necessary prep--this is why I loooove it!

Once the cover stain dried (about 10 minutes!), I did go over the whole thing with the sander to smooth it out completely.  I used 150 grit and it took about 5 minutes since I wasn't removing any stain or paint, just smoothing it out.

I bought a sample size of Behr paint in Bleached Linen (white) at Home Depot and with a foam brush I painted over the primer, and went over the top with Minwax Wood Finish stain in Dark Walnut. 

 

With a sanding block, I distressed just the edges to give it a classic and worn feel.  Lastly, I added a couple coats of polyurethane to the entire piece.

During the dry time, I painted the original brassy hardware with silver spray, which I already had (that's the best kind!)

That's it!

Loving the wood grain showing!

Super easy right?!  A few hours, some paint, and a vision..that's all you need to make something old and discarded, into something beautiful and timeless.

Here's a sneak peek at where it will be living..right under the large Pottery Barn bulletin board I got at a garage sale for a whopping $3.  Can't wait to fix it up and accessorize this space!

If you'd like to see more of my furniture makeovers or craft ideas, please visit me at Chase the Star.  You can also find me on Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest or check out my little Etsy shop!

A huge thanks to Garage Sales R Us for giving me the opportunity to share this with your readers!

Have a blessed day!

Fashion on a Dime

Here is my latest Fashion on a Dime. Dressing yourself and your family doesn't have to break the bank! I buy the majority of my clothes and my family's clothes at garage sales and thrift stores! I will break down each piece of my outfit and let you know how much I spent on it and where I bought it.

Financial stats for this outfit are: 

Gray shorts- $4.99 at Savers

White lace shirt- $3.75 at a garage sale

Gold belt- $2 at Deseret Industries (just like a Goodwill)

Gold sandals- $2.50 at Goodwill

My total outfit cost is $13.25! My DPWF was about $1.35!

Click here to find out what Dress Per Wear Factor is!!

I am linking to these parties:
http://raegunwear.blogspot.com/
http://thepleatedpoppy.com/blog/

June 23rd 2012

This is crunch time! We are running out of time to find things at garage sales to decorate for this wedding. There is only 16 days left! I found a few crucial things this week.

I paid $5.00 dollars for this basket of glass votives. We will be using these in our center pieces for each table. There were 58 votives in this basket! Here is a website that sells a pack of 25 for $24.75. Thats just under $1 per votive. I bought mine for a little less than .10 cents a piece! 

We are also looking for decorative balls to fill vases. I bought this box full of decorative balls for $4 dollars.

I also bought a bunch of vases. My mom had been collecting vases for quite some time now. There is a florist near her house that has a vase recycling program. If you bring in your old vases she gives you credit to her shop. For generic vases like in the picture above she gives my mom $10 dollars for 3 vases.

For nicer vases like these she will inspect them and price them out individually for. My mom has been doing this for about a year. She likes to have the credit to be able to send a friend flowers when they are having a hard time or for special occasions like a wedding! This will open up our options when it comes to bridesmades bouques and bootiniers.  I paid a total of $3.50 for 14 vases. We usually only pay about .25 cents for a generic vase sometimes even less. For some of the nicer vases we will pay about .50 cents or $1 if it's really nice. My mom took these vases along with 39 other vases to the florist  and got a $125 credit! At .25 cents  a vase for 43 vases our cost was $10.75. Definitely a good pay out for the wedding. 

Here are some of the other things I bought this week.

I bought these two life vests for our boat for .50 cents a piece. 

 I bought this camera tripod for $5 dollars. 

 This pack of two lightbulds for our outdoor lights on the back patio was only $1

I bought these DVD's for $1 a piece. Jaysa just got the movie Cars for Christmas  from her Nana and Papa who paid about $20 dollars for it!

I have been wanting to get my girls some of these bikes. Kids LOVE these. I found the yellow one for $1. When I came home C.J. had gone out to a few and found a nicer one at a garage sale for $1. Now we have two and we only paid $2 dollars for them!

This would probably be my deal of the day. I love this chair. I only paid $5 dollars for it! I want to recover it one day but until then it makes a cute accent piece in my living room.

I also bought two more gallons of paint for $2 dollars a piece. These are a really light teal and a pale mint green. These will be perfect for the wedding since these are her colors!

I bought Paisley some winter boots and Champion tennis shoes. I only paid .25 cents a piece for these!!!

I got these three pillows for .50 cents. That's almost 17 cents a piece!

I also bought this decorative plant for .25 cents!

 I found more centers for bows! I bought these for .50 cents for all three.

I bought all of these bracelets for $1 dollar.

I bought all of these kids clothes for $10 dollars. It was more than I wanted to pay  but they were in really good condition. How do I always manage to loose one shoe!!!!! HA! I have found it since then. I promise!

 I bought this bag of  beads for $1. I have used beads like these as center pieces for bows before but what I really like to use them for is binky holders. They look so cute in a binky holder for a little boy. Here are some I just made for a friend.

OTHER AWESOME DEALS

This cute yellow and black LOVE sign was only $3 dollars.

 This pink twin headboard was only $25 dollars

 There are two lawn chairs stacked on top of each other in this picture the seller only wanted $10 dollars a piece on these teal chairs.

 This is where I picked out a few DVD's for my girls. They had some really good movies here but C.J. and I don't watch a lot of T.V. so I picked out a few for my girls and passed the rest up. The seller also went down to $1 a movie!

 

This wrought iron decor was $10 dollars.

This smaller one was only $5

This cute welcome sign was only $3.

$3 dollars for the set of 3 cowboy hat hooks. These would be so cute in a little western nursery!

These little brown sandals are from the GAP! they were only .50 cents per shoe.

 Here are some more cute kid shoes. I love the pink boots!

How stinking cute is this stapler! If I had an office job I would have definitely bought this! It was only $1.

 This bike was only $35.

 Here is a Swiffer with the pads for $3 dollars

 Plastic storage bins are another thing that I don't buy in stores. A bin like this is close to $20 dollars in the store. This one was only $3!

The seller onlly wanter $15 for this car seat

 Here is a stroller that was at another garage sale for $25!

These Laguna Beach skinnies were only $6 dollars! 

Here is a yellow lamp for $2 dollars! You could recover the shade and it would be so cute!

These fun dog bowls are only .25 cents a piece.

Here are a bunch of door handles. I totally forgot to ask on these but the seller had some good prices.

This is a large candle holder for $45

Decorative wall plates. These weren't real plates but they were made to look that way. They were $3 for the bunch of them. I almost bought these. This is the color scheme I am thinking I might want in my guest bedroom but I am not ready to tackle that job and I might change my mind by then!

This is such an AWESOME old trunk! I LOVE it and wanted to buy it really bad but the lady wanted $75. Thats not an outrageous price but still just more than I wanted to spend so I passed it up.

This pack n' play was only $3 dollars!!!!!!!

It had two small holes in it but for three dollars it would be nice to keep at grandma's house!

 I would love to feature you on my Show & Tell Saturday! You can post about a certain project you recently completed, your garage sale week, or just some of the amazing things you have found over time. Please email me at garagesalesrusblog@gmail.com if you want to guest post!