Sometimes the Stars Align

Sometimes in life the "thrifty" stars align! If you are an avid shopper and deal searcher they align more often, but sometimes it happens when you least expect it.

I was hosting a New Year's Eve party at our home. It was a murder mystery which required a little creativity in finding costumes for me and my hubby. Of course I waited until the last minute, but in my defense I was sick the week after Christmas so really New Year's Day was my only day to shop! I was searching the thrift stores in town, which isn't a hard job since there are only 3, and I found these really cute dessert plates.

I love to use cute dessert dishes, serving pieces, and any other utensil that can make a regular meal seem "fancy", as my daughter would say. They were marked $1.99 for 8, I had to do a double take to make sure it wasn't $1.99 each, sure enough $1.99 for the whole set! So I quickly snatched them up. Once I got to the check out they were having a special that if you would make the noise like a bell you got 50% off of one of your items. Since they were my only item my daughter and I rang like a bell and got all 8 for $1...

SA-WEET!

Then the obsessive compulsive part of me kicked in and I wondered if the person I asked to bring dessert that night would bring a beautiful dessert that would accent these lovelies, or should I just make an extra one just in case. Well my friend Kim did not disappoint. She brought a delish orange cake with fresh berries and chocolate sauce, not only beautiful but YUMMY. Only problem is we devoured the whole cake before I got a picture, dang.

Anyhoo, today I linked up to Frugalicious Friday over at Finding Fabulous, check out her blog everything she does is beautiful!

Maybe your day be extra Frugalicious!

So Cute and Cheap I Almost Wet My Pants!

Wednesday I was visiting my most favoritest thrift shop in town. I go about once a week just to check things out. You really never know what you will find there. I confess I used to be a thrift-store-snob, meaning I would NOT shop in one if you paid me $$$. Now I must confess that I'm a bit of an thrift shop "enthusiast", to put it mildly. While I was browsing the isles I happened upon a really cute antique window for $4.99. Let me just say that is a bargain! I bought an antique window at a local salvage warehouse a few years ago and paid $25 and I thought that was a bargain. The window at the thrift store had some really ugly flowers painted in the panes but I knew they could be scraped off really easily. I didn't buy the window right away, I was a little nervous about what my hubby would say since I already have an antique window, and really who needs two... ME! Well hubby did not really care about how many windows I bring home, so I fretted about it ALL NIGHT. I was sure the minute I left the thrift store 100's of people stormed it looking for that exact same kind of window. Lucky for me it was hidden in the back among all of the ugly art work and frames, cuz it was still there in the morning. I scooped it up and shoved (I mean placed it gently) it in the back of my mini-van (yes I drive one when you have as many kids as I do there are not a lot of choices out there) and took it home. My 5 year old was in the back fretting the whole time about it having spiders, and he was sad when I told him I was scraping the pain off, he really liked the ugly flowers.

Scrapping off the paint took about 15 minutes and now it has a wonderful home on my mantle. I'm not the best at decorating and accessorizing so I know it needs a little something and I'm sure one of these days on another trip to the thrift store I will find just the perfect thing!

Before:

After:

notice I didn't show the whole fireplace since all my sewing crap is still blocking the view!