Let the thrifting begin!

Being at home for Christmas break has made me realize how much I want to change in our house. Unfortunately, I’m not someone that likes to spend a lot of money. That has its advantages and disadvantages. One advantage is that it allows me the creativity to find new and inexpensive ways to spruce up what I already have with just a few new to me items.

Before we left for town yesterday, we ate lunch at my mother-in-law’s house. We go there every year on New Year’s day for black-eyed peas. I still think they taste like dirt, but it doesn’t keep me from eating a few (3 to be exact) so I won’t be the only one that misses out on good luck and prosperity.

Cole, my mother-in-law & Audrey

Cole, Audrey and me

Audrey sporting the new shirt that her daddy lovingly chose for her. They call it a ‘cat’stronaut.

Cole about to dive into the banana pie if he doesn’t get a second piece.

Begging….Puss in Boots adorable eyes trick style.

Audrey and I had to visit Chick-fil-A before we left town.

We ended up making a trip to a thrift store and Hobby Lobby. I only brought home a few things. I found this ceramic urn marked down to $1.98. The picture doesn’t show the true color. It was a pale shade of sage green. It looked really strange. The top and bottom are both metal.

I used an Elmer’s school glue crackling method to paint the urn. First, I used brown craft paint for my base coat. I only used one coat, as you can see. It doesn’t have to be perfect because it’s just going to be the underneath color that shows through when the paint crackles.

Then, I divided the urn into thirds and brushed on Elmer’s glue.  I let it sit for about 1 1/2 to 2 minutes. Then, I painted over the glue (while it was still tacky) with my top coat of ivory craft paint. I used an embossing gun to dry the paint to create the crackle effect.  You could probably use a hair dryer if you don’t have an embossing gun.

The color is completely off in this picture because there was so much light streaming in the window, but I ended up putting a plant in the urn and setting it on my computer desk.

I didn’t like the looks of the fern in the white pitcher on top of our piano, so I picked up some new greenery at Hobby Lobby.

I spent about $11 on the different floral stems and dark red bouquet. The price of floral arrangements is crazy! This is my first real floral arrangement. My sister-in-law, Niki, had made one for me for fall, so she showed me a few tricks. Mine is by no means perfect, but it’s better than the fern.

It looks better in real life, but here’s an idea of what it looks like now. We will be giving the piano back to my parents soon, so it should free up a lot of space in our tiny farmhouse.