Thursday, May 10, 2012

DIY spray paint shirt

Okay, I cannot promise that this is my last post that will include items declaring my love of the UK, but I do promise it will be the last one today... :) The same day I picked up the frame from the last post, I decided I wanted a cool Union Jack shirt. I already had a white T-shirt, some tape, and a can of black spray paint, so.....







Finally, I cut the sleeves off and tied the back to make a cute tank top!


Keep Calm

So keeping with the Anglophile theme, last week I decided that I really wanted a Keep Calm and Carry On poster. I got an image in my head and went to the thrift store immediately, and surprisingly I found exactly what I wanted! An oval frame with some floral detail. $8



 A coat of grey primer...


 Added a print I made in Illustrator and some fabric...




Anglophile

Hello! I FINALLY finished the other piece I have been working on. I'm super happy with how it turned out, though I had a few snags along the way. Here is the piece I got, $35 at the Salv.:

Luckily it was in good shape overall. It has good bones, just needed some TLC.


I stripped the paint off the top...yes, it was painted. Probably done to cover up the pretty good size hole that had already been patched, but after a good sanding I noticed some spongy spots and I had to do some digging...literally.


Ugh. This process wasn't hard, just time consuming, and well, I'm really impatient. I had to use the filler about 5 times....let dry...sand...add more filler...let dry...sand...add more filler...you get the idea. Anyway, you can tell in this pic that there is a red dye bleeding through the filler. I just knew that would give me a problem when it came to the primer...and I was right!



That dye, whatever it was, gave me problems in a few spots. So I gave in and bought Zinsser's B-I-N spray primer, the ultimate stain blocker. And it worked!



 Here is my design for the front all taped off ready for primer and paint...


Primer coat...


 All painted and ready to reveal how well the tape worked....


 I must say, the tape worked might fine! It bled a little, but I had planned on distressing it, so that took care of it. The final product!



Before
After

Friday, April 20, 2012

Sorry, haven't posted anything in a while. I've been BUSY! I found this beauty at Goodwill last week for $10. Yep. Be jealous.



Not jealous? :( Where is your imagination, friend? 
Here is how it looks now:


Tons of storage!!

Close up of distressing

I absolutely LOVE how it turned out! I badly needed an enclosed something-or-other to keep my mischievous pup from chewing up any more books and/or movies. This does the job and looks good. I'm a happy gal. :)

Now, on to the next piece...stay tuned!

Saturday, March 24, 2012

 Heeeeyyy! I finally got to a thrift shop yesterday for the first time in a week. Felt like forever! I attempted to take some pics of the stuff I bought, but I found out my camera is kind of shitty and the quality did not come out as I hoped. My husband is fiddling with it now, trying to figure out if there is a setting he needs to change, if the lighting was just crappy, or if it was fault of the photographer...(him). We'll see what he comes up with. In the mean time, I will post the bad pics anyways. Not all of these items are from yesterdays outings, but all are thrifted!

Shirt: a.n.a., $3. 
Jeans: makers of true originals, $8. 
Brown mary-jane kitten wedge: no brand, $5

Boots: Diba, $6

Diba boots


Red flats: Adagio, $5

Black purse: Nine West, $5



           
 Red jeans: Bullhead, $2

Ok, I've got a story about these red jeans. I got these about a month ago, and I bought them mainly because they make my ass look great, and who doesn't want that? They are super comfy and they're different, I like that. I knew they were originally from PacSun because of the brand. So, I looked them up online, and I found out that they are GUYS jeans. At first I was like, WTF? I don't know if I should be embarrassed that I fit into mens jeans or if all MEN that fit in these jeans should be embarrassed simply because, well, they actually fit into these jeans. I'm going to go with the latter. I learned one thing, though, I wear a 29x32 in mens.


Levi's: (not pictured on) $7. 
Also Men's, btw! 




Meanwhile....




Sunday, March 11, 2012

Hello!


I've decided to make this blog because I have been thrifting for YEARS and I would love to share with you all the awesome shit that I find. When I go thrift shopping, I look at everything from clothes, shoes, furniture, home decor and much more. I mean I look at EVERYTHING, you just never know what you'll find. I don't really have the time to go through my closets and entire house to take pics of everything I've bought at the thrift store, so I will start with a few things I already have pics of and hopefully the rest will be new finds! Spring is approaching, and you know what that means: garage sales! Yay! And, also, lots more thrift store shopping because the weather is bearable. The old cliche 'One man's trash is another man's treasure' is SO true. Especially is this economy, we can all use to save a few bucks. What better way than buying used items. Hey, they're new to YOU.


I will start with a few of my all time favorite finds:




Reed & Barton Sterling Silver spoon ring. Monogrammed and dated 1911. Intaglio style, Peony. Got this at a yard sale when I was 15 (2000) and paid $0.10 for it.



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This Swiss-made Bernina Record 530 from the 1970's is probably my favorite item to date. I got it in 2009 at a Value World for...*drumroll please*...$5.00. Yes, $5.00. It wasn't working, but it had all of the parts including the case and manual...I couldn't pass it up. I took it to the local sewing shop and the woman at the counter was speechless when I told her what I paid for it.  It cost me $80 to fix, but it was so worth it. It works like a charm, is super quiet and does 20+ embroidery stitches. They go for $500+ on Ebay!


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This last item I actually picked up last week for $2.00. Mint condition besides the fold creases. Upon researching it, I found...well, not much. It is a 'tea towel' made in Ireland of Irish Linen by 'Warderlet by Ulster'. I only found one like it one the internet, but it wasn't exactly the same. It had a different boy and the red and blue outlines on the edge were opposite. I just think it's really neat.