Love Affair With a $5 Shelf

Back in December, during the holiday shopping season, I decided to stop into a local thrift shop to see if there were any hidden treasures there that could make good stocking stuffers for my kids (ornaments, books, handmade pottery, scarves, etc.)

While perusing the vast assortment of less than stellar items that day, my eyes suddenly fixed upon something tucked to the back on the lowest shelf.

It was a small wall shelf, perfect for holding little treasures I already had at home.

Thought it was covered in a layer of dust, I was immediately smitten.

I did not hesitate for a moment before carting it up to the checkout line and handing the woman $4.99 plus tax to take it home.

I wrapped it, added a bow, and proudly told my husband, 

"You bought me a $5 shelf for Christmas!"

To which he replied, 

"Great! Hope you like it!"

I most certainly do.

Yes, there is a throw pillow continuity error in my photos of which I am acutely aware.

À la vie et à l'amour

-Cortney

$40 Backyard Mini Makeover

Back in the spring I was shop-wishing at Target in their outdoor area and came upon some great outdoor throw pillows and accessories:

The colors coordinated perfectly with my existing outdoor rug and umbrella and at $15 per pillow, they were actually a pretty good deal.

Except I needed 8.

So I waited...

and waited...

and waited.

And then yesterday I was at Target and all of their outdoor stuff was 

ON CLEARANCE!

I picked up 8, yes 8, outdoor throw pillows for less than $40 with tax!

Here is what it looked like before:

Sure I could have tidied up a bit and made it look a bit less ugly but that would spoil the fun of a before and after.

And here are my fab new throw pillows in all of their clearance priced glory!

I love that even though all of the pillows coordinate, I was able to find 8 different prints.

Sadly, it will be a little while before we can eat dinner out here since temps in Texas are now eleventy trillion degrees but it's still just cool enough in the morning to sit and drink coffee with my husband and the mosquitoes.

And it's so nice to have great new throw pillows instead of old, faded, bird poop covered ones!

À la vie et à l'amour

-Cortney

Thrifty Thursday (on Friday): $2 Ottoman Slipcover

Once upon a long time ago my mom bought this ottoman.

She decided she didn't have a place for it so she brought it to me.

Although I like the vintage floral fabric and mid century style, it didn't quite fit with the style of the rest of my home so it sat in my bedroom for almost a year while I tried to decide what the heck I wanted to do with it.

Then, last weekend, I was at a local thrift store and happened upon a folded piece of dark denim fabric.

I unfolded it and there must have been at least 3 yards and it was only $2.00!

I knew immediately that it would be perfect for making a simple slipcover for the ottoman.

There's not really a tutorial because all I did was measure the sides and the top, sewed it together and gave it a nice hem then slipped it over the top.

It's pretty plain and simple and I might end up adding some embellishments across the bottom such as rick rack or ball fringe in a bright color.

Since it sits against these non-functioning doors in my bedroom, I also like the idea of topping it with a throw pillow and making it like a tiny sofa.

Gidget likes this idea, too.

You know what else?

I still have plenty of denim fabric leftover to cover a couple of small lumbar pillows I bought a while back.

Hmmm...maybe another Thrifty Thursday post about those soon.

À la vie et à l'amour

-Cortney

Simple Halloween Decorations

I really want to kick myself for not posting this several weeks ago since it's now only a few days until Halloween and if you haven't already decorated for this holiday, most likely you have no plans to do so.  

But...I am rather fond of my Halloween decor and the good news is that with only a few small modifications, my simple Halloween decorations become simple Thanksgiving decorations and I might even get around to posting about that somewhere around Christmas time or possibly Valentine's Day.

As my kids have gotten older and life has become busier and more complicated I have made a conscious effort to really simplify just about every aspect of life, including seasonal and holiday decorating.

Certainly I want to make our home festive and fun but if it's too difficult or complicated I lose all motivation because I really just want to be able to enjoy those specials seasons and celebrations with my family without too much fussiness.

Or clean up.

So, here's what our home looks like for Halloween.

And, yes, that is a real Ouija board on top of my dining room hutch.

I use it for decoration rather than summoning dead people because I'm fairly certain it's defective.

We totally tried to contact Elvis when we first got it and that little plastic piece just sat there.

Also, my son announced last night that he wants to be a rock for Halloween so if anyone knows how to make a rock costume cheaply and easily please let me know right away!

Otherwise my kid is just going to walk around in a gray sweatsuit with the words,

"I'm a rock"

on it.

If you're looking for some simple and inexpensive homemade Halloween costume ideas (other than a rock) be sure to check out my post here with 15 ideas for Cheap and Easy Homemade Halloween Costumes!

À la vie et à l'amour

-Cortney

Trunks

While my oldest daughter has been diligently working on college applications, I have been diligently working on finding great ideas for her future dorm room.

As I mentioned in a previous post, my college dorm room pretty much sucked.
I couldn't possibly have her share the same fate.

My plan is to find cool, durable pieces that she can use now while she is living at home that will be perfect for small space dorm room living a year from now and will also work when she lives on her own in her first apartment.

My top pick is a large trunk or foot locker. 

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A trunk is perfect for storing extra blankets and bedding, out of season clothing, books and toiletries, a large stash of non perishable snack items, a collection of cats, dead bodies, or whatever it is that you want to take with you to college but you maybe don't want to look at every day.

But, in addition to the obvious storage functionality, I like that there are so many ways it can serve as a piece of beautiful furniture.

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For her birthday, my daughter received this fantastic crimson red trunk.

She's using it now to store items she is planning to take with her to college.
We topped it with a small sheepskin from Ikea (also a birthday gift) and now it's a super soft seat in her room and I can sit on it and talk to her about important things like sloths and New Girl while she tries desperately to kick me out of her room.

But mostly she just throws crap on top of it that she doesn't have time to put away.

Which I suppose is also a perfectly legitimate use for a trunk.

À la vie et à l'amour

-Cortney


 

Life and Love Lately... a picture story

I'm foregoing any long diatribes about what I have been doing over the past few weeks and submitting, instead, a photo summary so that you can rest assured that I am still alive despite a 10 day boxing match with a certain cyclospora parasite which finally ended with me kicking that parasite in its parasitic testicles and emerging victorious!

Behold...my life over the past few weeks.

I celebrated my 39th birthday and ate yummy cupcakes!  My fave was a salted caramel chocolate cheesecake.  But I managed to choke down most of the others, too.

Me on my birthday.

We have been visiting colleges with my oldest daughter who will graduate this year.  This school is ranked #1 for cute boys. It's also #1 for being a school you will pay loans on for the rest of yours, your children's and your grandchildren's lives!

Us at the Horned Frog statue at TCU.  Students supposedly rub his head for good luck on exams, although I never did that once when I went there.  Maybe that's why I never did so well on tests...hmmm

I finally got around to polishing the brass hardware on several pieces of vintage furniture I inherited more than 15 years ago.  If I had known the difference a little polish would make, I probably still would have procrastinated for 15 years.  Because that's what I do, sadly.

I painted our entryway/foyer that I have been pondering and thinking about for several months.  You can see some of my ponderings on the wall here.

Yes, it's black.

And I am totally in love with the end result!  My favorite part is the enlarged photo of my grandparents during their early years of marriage - more on that in a later post.  I still need a new rug, of course, but that will have to wait until I find something perfect.  Which, if you know me, translates to 'cheap.'

I also painted my bathroom black which has been my plan for a long time.  The bathroom is going to be a big, costly project but having new paint for now makes me feel less 'I-live-in-a-crack-house' -y.

A rare moment of relaxation with the love of my life.  And my husband.  Bahahahaha!  I love that man more every day!  I love my dog, too but she poops on the floor too often.  My husband almost never does that so I love him more than her.

My favorite summer dinner.  Because sometimes it's just too damn hot to eat a big meal.  And sometimes I'm too lazy to cook a real meal.  And sometimes eating a light meal means you can drink less wine and still have a lovely intoxicated evening.  Which means I'm saving money and conserving resources.  Man, I am so green and frugal it's not even funny!

I've also been spending lots of time with 3 of my favorite people in the whole world.  They're total swaggy gangstas as you can see by this picture.

After chiseling off the layer of dust that had accumulated since the last time I cleaned these shelves, I styled them up all pretty and properly.  Which took me about 2 hours because shelf styling is something at which I am completely inept.  I used these pictures as my inspiration because there was no way I was attempting this on my own!

I also got around to staining my bar shelves that I installed several months ago.  I styled these, too, but obviously am not quite done - updated photos for that gold frame are hopefully getting done today.  Unless I can find something else to do to put that off for a while. 

I know - a pile of ribbon is probably not the most exciting thing you ever imagined.  But, I just bought a huge bag of remnant ribbon for a little over $1 and it's my inspiration for my next project which is this...

It's my really ugly sunroom which currently serves as a steam sauna/mosquito sanctuary.  I've got some good stuff planned for this room but it's definitely not going to happen overnight so you should come back soon to see how things are going.

 

Okay, so that's what's I've been up to in a nutshell.

If you're already following me on Instagram then you've probably seen several of these photos so I apologize for the redundancy.

If you're not following me on Instagram but want to see some of my daily 'Life and Love' then feel free to follow/stalk me.

See you soon, peeps!

À la vie et à l'amour

-Cortney