Thrifty Finds

Wow - it's Friday already and I am getting ready for another great weekend of yard sales...but I forgot to show you what I snapped up last weekend!

I was on my own for sales, McG went fishing with his Dad and brother.  He has really been a lucky charm for me, but I was hoping for some luck on my own.

I found a few things - and spent a total of $14.00

First up - an antique bevelled mirror - $5.00  (didn't really need a mirror, but for that price I wasn't leaving it there - you never know when a mirror might come in handy)  It's a bit dusty - but I was anxious to get my pictures taken!!

A garden plaque - 25 cents!

A lamp - black candle stick base and gold shade with black trim - $1!!  I asked if it was working and they said it was - it even had a working bulb in it and it is a touch lamp tri-lite! -  BONUS SCORE!!

A purple purse, brand new, with the tags still on - $2!  I picked this up for my daughter, who at age 23, still loves purple!

A wooden sign - $1 - I was excited to find this...needing something for along the fence on the side of the garage...

I got it hung as soon as I got home - no wasting time on this one!

and finally - the find of the day...drum roll please!!!

 

A 4 ft brand new piece of counter-top for...wait for it....$5!!

McG has been wanting a place to clean his fish and is going to build himself a fish cleaning station in the garage, because I don't want him doing it in the kitchen!  It was marked $10 but when

I asked if they would take $5 they said YES - another great SCORE!!

We are set to visit some friends at their campground about an hour's drive from here this weekend.

AND GUESS WHAT!!! 

The campground is having a YARD SALE!!

I am hoping that my lucky streak continues - I'll let you know next week

Until then!!

HAPPY WEEKEND!

Cheryl 

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The Frugal Homemaker 

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Hey there!!

Just want to remind you that Google Reader is officially off-line on Monday.

So that you don't miss any of the great things happening here - don't forget to follow McG and I on

Blog Lovin!!

Click the link on the sidebar and it will take you there!!!

We've got some good things coming up - so don't wait - follow us there today!!

Cheryl

DIY Water Feature

It seems that the dog days of summer are upon us here in Ontario.  Spending time in the garden is something that I really enjoy.   Years ago, when the kids were little, we had an above ground pool to keep us cool.  Once the liner went, we made the decision to take the pool down, since our kids weren't really using it anymore.

We turned the pool deck into a pergola (which is another post to come) and added stone and a patio table to the area.  I wanted to add the soothing sound of water back into the yard, but didn't want the upkeep of a pond.  There was still some wood left from taking the deck down, so I designed a water feature for McG to build.  It centered around a pond pump and a large Rubbermaid tub...

YES - a plastic storage container turned water feature!

McG drilled a hole in the upper right-hand corner to allow the electrical cord for the pond pump to go.

He then built a wooden box to house the container with the left-over wood from our pool deck to pergola transformation.  It has a 6 foot high back to hide the copper pipe that cycles the water from the plastic storage container.

I re-stained the wood once he built the frame (that was a couple of years ago, so it could be done again).

Once everything is in place there is a wooden frame that sits on top to hide the edge of the plastic container.

Once it's filled with water, it's plugged in to a ground-fault electrical plug and we are able to turn it on and off with an outdoor timer.

McG used plumbing fittings to make the "shower head" that brings that lovely water sound to the garden.

Here are a few shots of it running.  It is so soothing to hear.

This picture shows too the pergola that used to be our pool deck...and my solar chandelier - a Pinterest project I made.

This is probably my favourite DIY project in our yard...it was a lovely gift from McG to me!  It gives all the sounds of a pond and waterfall without all the work - and would work in a small yard or even on a balcony!

Don't you just LOVE it??!!

Cheryl

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Craftberry Bush

What's Blooming - Week #8

WOW - can you believe that we have had eight weeks of blooming already and its not even July!

I must admit though, the bloomers have slowed down quite a bit - there are only three "new" things blooming this week.

First up - the Belle Flower - this one is a real self-seeder and will take over the garden if you are not careful!

But don't you just love its vibrant blue-purple colour!!

Next up - the purple Clematis.

And finally the Brown-Eyed Susan - this variety is native to our area and blooms much sooner than the type you buy at the nursery.

It's been HOT here the last few days and they are predicting these temperatures to stay with us for awhile.

  I am hoping that I can keep these blooms lasting for more than a couple of days!

Cheryl
Linking up @:
A Pretty Life in the Suburbs 

Thrifty Finds - Weekend 4 (and Confessions of a Garbage Picker!!)

I have been having some really good luck on the garage sale circuit lately.  My last week's finds were featured on Embracing Change this week as the most popular link!!  Thank you to Stacey for the feature this week!

This past weekend I went yard-saling by myself.  McG wanted to go fishing since the weather was so good. I teased him saying he was going to miss out on some good deals, but I couldn't sway him.

There weren't too many sales in our area last weekend - I think I had only 8 to hit - and I'm pretty sure that was because it was Father's Day weekend.

Pickings were not too good either.  I found two fishing nets for McG (which I didn't get a photo of before they went in his boat) and two lovely bird pictures (shown below).

They were $1 for the set of two and I really thought they would look good in our bedroom.

Saturday afternoon once we were both home - I HIT THE JACKPOT THOUGH!!  We saw the neighbour putting an old metal gazebo to the road.  I didn't need the gazebo since we already have one,

 but what I was interested in were these...

These metal panels were part of the sides of the gazebo...I thought they would look great painted up and possibly used as garden art or as trellises for some climbing plants.  I talked McG into carrying them home for me.  I think he was kind of embarrassed since the neighbour saw us take them, but I didn't care - a good deal, is a good deal, and if I had to carry them home myself I would have!

They are about two feet wide by 8-9 feet tall!!  SCORE and they were totally free since we just picked them out of the neighbours garbage!!  Do you do that - do you "pick" from someone's garbage???  I have to confess, I do it all the time.  I think its in my blood, since I can remember my parents doing it when I was young.

And that's not the best garbage find I got last weekend.  On Sunday afternoon, those same neighbours put these out to the road...

I checked them out and there was nothing wrong with them - no scratches on the metal and although the fabric is fading on the chairs, there were no tears or rips anywhere on the chairs.  Another SCORE!!!  I had McG carry them home for me - he joked with the neighbour - that maybe we could just go through his house and see what else they wanted to get rid of!!  The neighbour laughed and said that was all he was getting rid of.  It seems they got new patio furniture and didn't want the other chairs.  I'll take FREE anytime - and look, they are very similar to some of our own patio chairs...

I am hoping that my streak continues and now I am looking forward to this weekend with such anticipation - wondering what great things I will find!

Thanks for coming along on my weekly Thrifty Excursions!  Until next week...

Have you found any good thrifty things lately?  I'd love to hear about them - please leave me a comment!

Cheryl

Linking up @:
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Creative Cain Cabin 
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What's Blooming Week 6 and 7 - and some Garden Visitors!

Again I need to apologize for being tardy at getting this post done!  It seems that life here is a bit crazy with all kinds of fun stuff going on - and that translates to PROJECTS GETTING DONE!  YAY!!!

But while some projects are getting finished up, others get left to the wayside - and this morning I find that I forgot to post last week's "What's Blooming" - so I have decided to combine it with this week's!

I find the garden is slowing a bit and all the rain last week took a toll on the peonies (whew - glad I snapped a picture beforehand!)  So here we go with the pictures...

First up - the peonies

The Big Blue Hosta

The Blue-False Indigo

The Evening Primrose..the yellow looks lovely with the purple of the Spiderwort

The Rose Campion

and a close up - this is one of my favourite flowers in the garden and a hardy self-seeder

Lady's Mantle

this one is the flower on my Black Sambuca shrub - a lovely contrast to the dark lacy leaves

and the Lime coloured spiderwort

We also had a few visitors to the garden this week.  This past weekend we noticed that a wren family had been taking up residence in our bird house.  I was able to snap a few photos before they all flew the coop.

Hope you all had a good weekend!

Thanks for visiting!

Cheryl
Linking up @:

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Thrifty finds...weekend three

This past weekend, McG and I spent another Saturday morning hitting the yard sale circuit.  He has been lucky enough to have had the last couple of Saturdays off from work and we have enjoyed the time together.

We found a few goodies and spent less than $7 - total!!

The 2 electric coolers were FREE!! (but that was because they weren't working)

The Chandelier, the urn and the cone shaped planter were $2 each

The Yankee Candle was 10 cents (the scent is Hazelnut Coffee and it had only been lit once)

The brass crab was 50 cents

THE TOTAL SPENT WAS $6.60!!!

Here's a close -up of the urn. It's made of plaster and is more for indoor use, rather than outdoors.

McG got the larger of the coolers working and all he did was plug it in - LOL!  The other cooler was a no go - He thinks that they may have overheated the larger one and it shut itself off and they thought it was broken.  The smaller one needed re-wiring but even after that it didn't work so he is thinking the free-on cube was the problem.  It's no loss really since it was FREE!!

The chandelier was marked $5 but when the woman told him it wasn't working, he haggled her down to $2 - he's good at that - Me not so much!  She apologized for it not working and he told her it was okay because I wanted him to take the wiring out and use it for candles in our gazebo.  She said WOW I never thought of that - I can give you your $2 back if you leave me the chandelier because I have a gazebo!  He said sorry and chuckled.  I'm sure she was kicking herself for not thinking of that.

Once we arrived home, he stripped the wiring out of it and I washed up the glass hurricanes.

He put it all back together and added a length of chain so that we could hang it from the center of our gazebo.  It's been raining here pretty much since then, but I was able to get out there today and get a picture of it with some tea light candles in it.

The metal was a rusty brown colour, so I just left it that way, no painting required.  Here's a closer look.

The glass hurricanes have a "seeded" or wet look to them.  It really looks lovely and is a great addition to our gazebo and a steal at only $2!!  That's my kind of budget project!

We really have been finding some good things in our Saturday morning travels.  

I'm really looking forward to getting out there again this weekend!

Cheryl

Linking up @:
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Colours of the Rainbow

I was recently tagged by Chelsey of My Beauty Full Adventure in a Colours of the Rainbow challenge.  She featured her favourite beauty products in each colour category - red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet and then she added pink.

I have chosen to feature my favourite things around our home in each of the colour categories!  Hope you enjoy them!

The red urn on our hallway table...

An orange owl dish on our bathroom counter...

 

The yellow bucket we store our kitchen utensils in...

 

My collection of green glassware...

 

The blue in our bedding...

 

A great indigo purse I recently purchased at a yard sale for $2...

 

The violet/purple of my daughter's bedroom walls...

 

and lastly, the pink roses my father-in-law brought me last week from his garden!

 

This was a fun challenge - I'd love to see what fun things you can find in your home for each colour category!

Cheryl

What's Blooming - Week #5

I apologize for being a little late with this post.  These pictures were taken last week.

I will let the photos do the talking today.

The Siberian Iris

The perennial Geranium

Clematis

The Wiegelia bush

The Roses (I can't remember the name of these, but they start off yellow and mature to a coral pink).

A bearded Iris

Here's a closer look - a lovely burgundy brown flower

Thanks for visiting my garden this week!

Cheryl

Linking up @:
Embracing Change 
Creative Home Expressions