Anthropologie Knock-Off- Quick and Easy

A while back I saw these number tiles on Anthroplogie;s website.  I loved the bight red numbers on the colorful tile.

Unfortunately, they are no longer available and even when they were, they were way out of my price range.  Of course the DIY mantra began drumming through my head...."I could make that."   I finally tackled the project and loved how it came out.  I started with subway tile (16 cents a piece) and house numbers ($1.98 a piece) from Lowe's.

 I broke out the Sharpie Markers and started coloring away using Anthro's design as template.

 I sprayed the numbers red and glued them to the tiles.  I love how they turned out.  Since I intend to use them inside, I am done.  If I put them outside, I will give them a coat of poly. 

At the cost of $2.14 a piece, I consider this project a huge success.  Start to the finish the project took less than an hour.  Cheap, easy and quick....now that's the mark of a great project.

P.S.  The numbers 143 is our family code for I love you.

I am linking up at:
320 Sycamore

Style Sunday- The Senator's Wife

Life in America is pretty casual these days.  Most of the time, people even wear jeans to church.  I don't have a lot of reason to dress up....an event I really miss.  I still love a classy outfit and have been known to wear one for no reason at all.  It used to tick me off when in college people would say, "You won't dress like that when you are in the classroom."  Actually I will and do. 

 

 

The shirt and shoes both came from Goodwill.  A good black pencil skirt is a must have staple in any closet.  Now I just need to find a senator!

Thrift Chick

Easter Decor Part 2

Besides the mantle, I have springified a few more corners.  The past few years I have been on a white kick, but this year I wanted more color. (Besides I found a great vintage pink spray paint on clearance at Big Lots which went great with the pink hydrangeas I found at Goodwill.)

 ThriftChick has a thing for owls.  This owl was a Salvation Army find and formerly looked like this.

 

This piece I got last year at a thrift store to use at a baby shower.  It was brown and this time it was ThriftChick who had no vision.  She thought it was ugly.  We did a bird theme and it made a great centerpiece.  ThriftChick had to eat crow (pun intended.)

 These are eggs from my childhood...circa 1960-70's.  We had an Easter egg tree.  I have vivid memories of my mom turning beet red in the face as she blew out eggs for us to decorate.  The various designs represent the trends in Easter egg decorating that spanned those decades.

May your holiday weekend be filled with tradition, love and the joy of a risen Lord.

Too Many Knicknacks, Too Few Seasons

In the last two years, I have been rotating my decor throughout the seasons.  Previously I had an aversion to knick knacks.  My mother is the queen of knick knacks.  She and my father never met a souvenir they didn't buy.  She has saved and still displays all of our lumps of clay artwork.  As a child, dusting was an extremely tedious chore.  However, blogland has reformed me.  I have developed a need to have perfectly styled corners here and there.  That means I need to have unique and beautiful pieces to place.  That means I need to go thrifting, junking and antiquing.  It is a win-win situation...almost.  Storage is a bit of concern.

Here we see my beautiful buffet that my husband and I found years ago in a thrift store.  I have loved it forever.

 Open the doors and it is a different story.  Stuffed in there are all my knick knacks and decor items.  It is a bit intimidating and certainly not very organized.

I'd like to say that is it, but there are eight totes in the basement full of Christmas decorations and my pantry runs more toward baskets, vases and containers than food.  It might be an obsession.

Spring Mantle

I have been a little slow to put away the winter decor and get ready for spring.  I think it was because the small peek of summer we had put me in the mood for barbecues and lazy summer days, not lilacs and Easter eggs.  Our weather has returned to more spring like conditions so I decided I had better get with it or I would miss Easter entirely.

 The mirrored frames I got from an estate sale for $2.00 a piece.  They are really dresser trays.  I spray painted them white.  I have a thing for dresser trays.  That same day, I found an oval one at a thrift store.  I just love when I score multiple times in one day!

A tip about writing on chalkboards.  All over blogland, I see chalkboard items with great quotes written in creative and beautiful handwriting.  When I try it, mine looks like a first grader wrote it.  It slopes and is never centered.  I wipe it off and rewrite it a million times.  This time I used the brains God gave nine year old me.  I printed off what I wanted from the computer.  I took my pencil and colored all over the back of the paper.  I centered the paper on the board colored side down and outlined the letters.  The graphite on the back acts as a carbon and gave me a very light guide to write over with chalk.  I was quite pleased with the result especially since this was just one try.   Sometimes, the ways of the ancients make a lot of sense!


I am linking at:
Very Merry Vintage Style

Sorry for Being MIA

It has been a few weeks since we have done a post.  We have to get into the swing of working full time, attempting DYI and posting.  Work has been crazy because of this:

   

Statewide academic tests, state third grade reading tests and quarterly curriculum tests...our legislators have gone a tad overboard on assessment, wouldn't you say?

 We have also been a bit distracted by this:

Summer like weather in March.  Woo Hoo!  We broke out the flip flops and skirts.  We walked our river greenway with both puppy and grand baby in tow.  Of course, we took the wee one to her first park visit.

Some things are just more important!

Hope you've had some sunshine in your life recently.

Style Sunday - Teacher's Pet

It has been a busy week...no time for projects and postings.  We promise to do better next week.  This past week has been round one of our state wide assessment.  Both Mama Thrift and I proctored the test for students. We are both so glad it is done.  In honor of all the brains cells that were working hard this week, today's outfit is some of my favorite "teacher" clothes

Everything came from my local Goodwill stores.  Total cost for for the outfit $12.  Such a deal! With deals like this, I ca afford to spend more on things for my classroom!

Thrift Chick