More Outdoor Mini-Makeovers

Maybe I'm alone in my thinking, but lately I've been feeling that you don't have to spend a lot of money or have a huge-gigantic-enormous transformation to makeover a space and take it from blah to "aaah."

We're a long way from "aaah" here at the T house, but I did spend some time in the back yard this weekend, just in time to link up to the return of Kimba's DIY Day and a new party over at Craft-O-Maniac.

There's a particularly blah spot just to the left of our deck.

If you have a spot at our patio table, you have a stunning view of our fancy chain link fence, a rocky patch, and a random bit of black tarp that the old trashy ghetto neighbors left nailed to our side of their fence. T's stick pile provides a nice ambiance as well. (We live in a neighborhood with tons of large old trees, and stray branches after big storms are a given. I'll give him a pass.)

I decided to do a little something with the rocky patch, so I picked up two plastic lawn chairs at Wal-Mart for something like $10 apiece. I liked that they had a bit of "woven" texture on the backs, and I also liked the color. They're not new adirondacks, but they'll do.

I looked everywhere (thrift shops, yard sales, WM, Target, Joann Fabric) for something small and metal and cheap to use as a side table, but no luck. I ended up splurging and buying a hot little white plastic table from Target's summer clearance aisle for $7. Stuck a little lantern from Target's Dollar Spot on top just to fill up space and detract from the stick pile, honestly. Is it working?

I figured the fire pit would be more suited to the rocks as opposed to the flammable deck. A nice spot to make S'Mores or to sit by the fire when the weather grows cool.

The patio table was feeling a little blah too.

I used some of my birthday money to buy the set from Lowe's in the Spring, but the all-black look was getting old. I snatched the last 4 cushions in this pattern from Target the other day:

Wal-Mart had some neat tiki torches for $6 each. This one still has the plastic on it, but you get the idea:

A strip of burlap and some "fluff" round out our picnic table.

Finally, our poor, battered back door needed a little pick-me-up, so I made this wreath:

This post is getting way too long, so I'll share how I made it another day. It involves pizza, so it must be good.

So...nothing earth shattering, but it made things a bit more homey in the back yard.

If you have Progress to share on a project (whether it's decorating, crafting, or a personal venture), I hope you'll think about linking it up to the next Show Me the Progress party!

Thrifty Treasures: Summer Clearance Shopping

Linking to Rhoda's Thrifty Treasures today!

I've added a few things to my Thrifty Wish List over the summer, namely a metal shelving unit or etagere for my deck, but I haven't had much luck lately with yard sales or thrift stores. I refuse to buy thrift store stuff just for the sake of *stuff*, so the girls and I have been leaving Salvation Army empty-handed lately. If they don't have a decent looking buffet for me to makeover, we make the rounds and then head back into the parking lot.

I have found some great buys in local department and super stores, so I thought I'd share a few of those with you today. Like I said last week, it doesn't have to be from a yard sale to qualify as a thrifty treasure...in my opinion, anyways.

Although it annoys me when stores start hauling out Christmas displays in October, I was delighted to see most summer items at Target marked down or on clearance this week. By marking summer stuff down now, we have plenty of time left to enjoy it!

On a mission to buy toilet paper and shaving cream for T, I hauled the girls in one of those giant 3-seater carts (their choice, of course) around the store...because it is Target, after all, and it's not fun unless you browse!

The Dollar Spot was sporting some cute Back to School items, and we picked up this Kitty Cat Travel Pillow for Michaela Byrd for $2.50.

Natalie has a pink travel pillow (also from the DS, several years ago) that causes much wailing and gnashing of teeth on long car trips. Now we have two, and I'm sure they'll fight over the kitty cat, but at least my kids won't have to nap in their car seats with their necks all tilted at odd angles. Who knows? Maybe that $2.50 will save us from visits to a chiropractor someday.

As we rounded the corner (it's really hard to round corners in those giant carts!), I gasped when my eyes fell upon a 50% Clearance rack end-cap. This 1 quart ice cream maker came home with us for $12.49. It was originally $25.

I know you can find ice cream makers relatively easily at yard sales and thrift stores, but there's never a guarantee that they're not on their last leg, or (even worse) already broken.

I decided that $12.49 was worth the cost to play around with our own flavors and have some more summer fun with the kids. My sister bought her own ice cream maker recently, and she gave me some tips over the phone. I can't wait to play around with this baby!

My last purchase wasn't particularly thrifty, but I snatched up the last 4 patio seat cushions in a pattern I'd been eyeing all summer. They go along with a little post I have planned for tomorrow, so if you stop by you can check them out.

What about you?

{Have you had any thrifty luck lately?}

Am I the only one who has lost her thrift store mojo? Or maybe my local shops are just experiencing a shortage of donations....either way, I'll keep looking for items on my list, but I'm trying not to bring home any more *stuff.*

In other news, our next Show Me the Progress party is coming up on Wednesday, July 28th!

I originally planned this party as a way for Decorating Dilemmas participants to share updates on their Dilemmas, but I think it would be fun to hear about Progress you're making in any area of your life!

This is going to be your chance to celebrate the little steps you've made lately, whether it's updating a design element in your home, working on your reading list, losing the last 5 pounds, losing the first 5 pounds, tackling that 6 foot tall pile of laundry, or finally finishing that craft project you've been holding off on.

You don't have to have linked up to a Decorating Dilemmas party to share at this party, and you don't have to have a completed project to link up. If you want to post about the best ideas you received for your Dilemma and ways you plan to implement them, that's fine.

This party is all about encouraging each other to meet those final goals. I hope you'll consider linking up!

::Weekend Bloggy Reading::

Hellooooo, Friday! Are you ready for some great links to check out? Leave me a little comment love and let me know which ones you enjoy most!

Before I get started, I wanted to thank Gina for featuring a project of mine on her 12 Days of Handmade Christmas series. Check it out if you have a chance--it's not too early to start planning for Christmas!

Thanks also to The CSI Project for featuring my Salvation Army Chic Craft Table Makeover!

~Rachelle got creative with the big fork and spoon because everyone else has them..

~A lovely sunroom with Painted Floors.

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~Majorly adorable Dollar Store Plaques Turned Laundry Room Signs.

~Lindsey gave her couch A Little Kick.

~Isn't this Ruffled Table Runner from Stephanie Lynn cute?

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~Kate's kids get to Play in Style.

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~Want some reading in book form? Check out my recent Dishing It! party for some awesome Summer Reads! We had some links added later in the game, so I hope you'll go and visit.

{What's going on with you this weekend?}

My girls are going to play at T's parents' home for awhile this morning. Should give me just enough time to head to the 'Bucks with my new giftcard from Laura (thank you!!) and run into Joann Fabric to check on something for an outdoor project I'm working on.

Much to Natalie's dismay, tonight is the last swim lesson for the summer. In two weeks, she has progressed from not wanting to jump into the pool by herself to diving (belly flopping) in and swimming (!) to her teacher! One of these days, I just might get into the pool myself without anyone hanging on me or asking for a ride. I might even get my hair wet!

Stay cool this weekend, lovelies!

Thrifty Thursday: It's Chic to Be Cheap

This month's Dishing It! party (open for more links until tonight at 10 pm--come on over!) is all about {Your Summer Reading List}. Since we've all added to our "to-read" lists after the party, I thought it might be fun to chat about inexpensive ways you can acquire books. Several readers mentioned thrifty book venues in their posts yesterday that are worth discussing.

There's something to be said for walking through the hallowed doors of one of my favorite retreats, Borders.

Seeing the neatly organized racks of books just sends my heart racing. I feel positively gleeful once I hit the magazine aisles.

But spending $17 on a new paperback isn't always within one's budgets, so today we'll talk about some more cost effective ways to save on books.

1. Library-
Um, this one's kind of a no brainer, people. Ben Franklin totally knew what he was doing when he started America's first subscription library. In addition to borrowing as many books, tapes, and DVDs as you like, many libraries also offer great community events. I mentioned in my kids' summertime activity post that our library hosts an excellent storytime for kids each week. The key to using the library is to return your books on time so you don't incur fees every month. Don't ask me how I know about that. 

2. Used Bookstore-
Dropping by a used bookstore is a great way to get rid of those books that totally sucked you know you won't read again and to find bargains on new-to-you books. I've noticed that used books typically run about half off of the publisher's price. The shop closest to me allows customers to use full store credit on purchases, so I can often bring home a book or two for free after leaving a stack for the store to sell.

3. Hit the web-
I've purchased through Amazon and Half.com. I found a book once for something like 3 cents (really!), so shipping ended up being more than the book...but still substantially less than patronizing Barnes and Noble. If I'm buying through a seller, I am very careful to read that person's feedback, the same as if I were purchasing something through eBay. Nadir and my sister also mentioned something called Paperback Swap that sounds like it may be worth checking out.

4. Yard Sale It or Thrift It, Baby!-
On more than one occasion have I blogged about the joy of finding a neat book for practically nothing. One example that comes to mind was the Vintage McCall's Sewing Book I scored at an estate sale for $1.

This actually came in handy during a recent sewing project! If you buy the book for 10 cents and hate it, you won't feel guilty for passing it on to Salvation Army. I find the best Little Golden Books for my girls at the Salvation Army...some old, vintage favorites that I am dismayed people would pass on. But I don't stay dismayed for long because those treasured books become ours for just 50 cents!

5. Swap-
Kendra wrote about swaps and something my MOPS group is planning on doing this Fall is starting a Book Swap Club. I like this idea even better than a regular old Book Club because there is no pressure to read a book you may or may not like, or to pretend like you've read it and then sit and nod your head knowingly as important passages are discussed. I did enough of that in college Philosophy class.

A Book Swap could be as formal or casual as you like. You could assign points for the number of books members bring, ask people to give a quick plug for their favorite book they brought, or just throw the books on a table and let everyone go to town like a pack of wolverines.

6. Find Some Friends with Similar Literary Tastes-
My friend L has the uncanny ability to make things sound like lots of fun until you want to do them, which is how I got stuck doing Strive at the gym and also how she convinced me that I would love Twilight, which I did. Another friend talked up Gabaldon's Outlander series until I was convinced that I was missing out on something huge, which I was. Good friends lend books!

7. If you really want the Borders-Barnes and Noble-Books a Millon experience, sign up for a frequent reader card or something.
Borders sends me at least one coupon a week. I once coupled a 40% off coupon with a gift card and some clearance items and came home with a bag of goodies for next to nothing!

If you have any more thrifty ideas for book buying, please feel free to leave a link to your post in the comments!

Now...anyone want to join me at Borders with a mocha?

PS. Holly is having an IKEA party today--go link up if you have an IKEA post to share!

Dishing It! Party (Your Summer Reads)

Welcome to the July edition of my Dishing It! party! I'm so glad you're here, and I hope that you are planning on having a lot of fun visiting around some other great blogs. I'd love it if you'd taken a minute to read about my Summer Reading List too!

I planned this party as a way for bloggers to not only share a little bit about themselves, but to also make an effort to get to know some of the other wonderful people out there in Blogland. New bloggers and seasoned pros are all welcome!

I do have a few quick rules that I'd like you to stick to if you're planning on linking up with me. Nothing crazy, just basic blogging etiquette, but it would help me out so much if you'd follow through so I don't have to delete links.

1. Please be sure to enter the link to your specific party post.

2. Please include a link to THIS post somewhere within your own post. 

3. Please leave me a comment with your party link as well as checking to see that your link posted successfully. This helps tremendously in case there are problems with the inlinkz system. Send me an email if your link won't go up after a few tries. I can get your post linked up!

Also, I love comments. (wink)

4. MINGLE. A party is not a party unless you visit! Please take a few minutes to visit at least one or two other links on the list and leave a thoughtful, genuine comment. It is totally okay if you need a day or two, but I'd like for each participant to visit at least one or two of the other blogs by the end of the week. I think that's a doable request.

If you're new here and missed the party info., here it is one more time:

Our topic for July is

{Your Summer Reading List}

Please feel free to use this as a question and answer post, or use it as a loose guide to write your post however you like. Add or omit any questions you like, and feel free to embellish with photos! (Note: If you're a mom and haven't read anything except Goodnight, Moon in three years, think back to when you used to have time.)

~Give us your list of top 5 picks for summer reading.

~What genre of literature makes you want to pick up a book and read (biographies, chick lit, Christian fiction,  historical fiction, etc.)?

~What are your favorite magazines?

~If you had to be stuck on a desert island with any fictional character, who would you choose?

~How do you make time to escape into a good book?

~What's your favorite place to get your books?

~What's next on your "to-read" list?

Here's the code for the cutesy new party button. I'd love it if you'd add it to your post.

<a href="http://www.serenitynow4amanda.blogspot.com/" target="_blank"><img alt="Photobucket" src="http://i523.photobucket.com/albums/w351/laurenjh04/Custom%20Designs/Amanda/150dish.png" /></a><br/>
Link up right here (email me if you have trouble and I'll help you out), and don't forget to do some visiting! The party will be open for new links until Thursday at 10 pm (ET).


Here's my contribution this month:

Y'all know I love Fluffy Books.

I used to read *smart people books* in college. But then I had kids. And I think I used up a lot of brainpower. Marlowe just doesn't get through to me like he used to. So Fluffy Books are right up my alley these days, and summer is the perfect time for light reading. Better Homes and Gardens, anyone?

I'll have some time to myself next month when I fly to Florida for the annual MOPS Convention. So this month's topic was slightly selfish, as I'm hoping to get some good tips from you guys.

Some of my favorite books for Summer Reading-
1. Anything by Mary Kay Andrews. I've dished about her work before. She is funny, she has style, and her characters are interesting. May I recommend The Fixer Upper or Hissy Fit? Both delightful, as in I neglected my kids while I read a chapter or three.

2. Emily Giffin's Something Borrowed. I would never have guessed that an author would make me cheer for the girl who cheats with her best friend's fiancé, but Giffin makes this story work. If you like NYC, you'll like this book!

3. Liz Curtis Higgs' Thorn in My Heart. Christian fiction can be tricky because I sometimes feel like the characters are a bit too perfect and the stories can wrap up just a bit too neatly. But this novel, set in 18th Century Scotland, is based on the Biblical story of Jacob, Rachel, and Leah. Higgs allows the characters' flaws to show, and she makes them believable.

4. Meg Cabot's Size 12 is Not Fat. Heather Wells, the main character, is a former pop singing sensation turned Assistant Dorm Director in NYC who falls into sleuthing. Heather is honest and funny. And she likes Twinkies.

5. Sophie Kinsella's Can You Keep a Secret? This is possibly my favorite of Kinsella's novels. Emma spills her dirtiest secrets to the man sitting next to her on a very turbulent plane ride. Little does she know, her seatmate is going to turn up in her life and her secrets won't be so secret anymore.

If I had to choose any fictional character to be caught on a desert island with, I'd choose Jamie from Diana Gabaldon's Outlander series. I didn't even have to think twice about that. He has an accent. He fights off the bad guys. He's outdoorsy, so he'd know how to survive. And in my head, he's mighty good lookin'.

Since I don't live on a desert island, I don't have an awful lot of time to read, but I do try to carve out a bit of time before bed. This is sometimes not a good thing, because my bed is comfy and I tend to get wrapped up in stories; but it's better than reading while my kids tear the house apart during the day.

I've mentioned before that I love browsing Borders, even when I'm not in the market for a new book. I like to grab a to-go mocha from Panera Bread and just meander through the bookstore. There's also a great used bookstore near my house that lets you use full store credit on purchases, which I love.

Next on my to-read list is The Zookeeper's Wife, by Diane Ackerman. It's a true story about a married Polish couple who saves several hundred people from the Nazis by hiding them in empty animal cages after the zoo is bombed. Not exactly light reading, but I just found it tucked away and decided to dive in next.

{So...what does your Summer Reading List look like?}

Salvation Army Chic

As I searched my house yesterday for something to feature on The CSI Project's Thrifty Makeover day, it occurred to me that the question was really, "what shouldn't I feature?"

Thanks to the empowerment I experienced after reading about other bloggers' victories with cans of spray paint and glue gun sticks, I started finding my own treasures to remake and blog about. Many of my favorite things are thrift store makeovers!

My $8 Salvation Army Desk Makeover is, to date, my biggest thrifty makeover. You can click that link to read about how I did it, but I'll share some before and after photos here today as well as some updates I've made to the space.

Before ($8, glass top table from the clearance aisle at Salvation Army):

After (Salvation Army Chic):

I frosted the entire glass top except for a small fleur de lis cut-out, and made a pleated muslin skirt that attaches with heavy duty decorator's velcro:

The back hallway stayed bare for awhile until I hunted down the items I wanted to accessorize with:

The chair (a $4 thrift store find) needs to be recovered, but most everything else is a thrifty find:

A $1.50 madeover planter holds craft supplies, a Wal-Mart ribbon-embellished lampshade lights up the area, and all sorts of other thrifty pretties make up this spot.

Don't you just love my Chalkboard Quote Tray?

So that's my biggest Thrifty Makeover...so far. If you keep reading, maybe I'll have more.

Happy Thrifting!


Linked to Tatertots and Jello.

Braving the Food Processor (Zucchini Bread)

A few years ago, I spent a week in San Antonio helping my aunt go through some things in my grandparents' house getting my O'pa ready to move to Houston. One of the items that caught my eye was my grandmother's 1977 GE food processor. I didn't have one of my own, so my aunt said I could take it home to Virginia with me.

The thing is, I have a slight phobia about appliances with blades and spinning attachments. It was 7 1/2 years into our marriage before I broke down and used the Kitchen Aid stand mixer T and I received as a wedding gift.

You'd think a successful run with that piece of machinery would've cured me, but a glance at the sharp blade attachments for the food processor scared me away for the better part of two years.

It took a generous neighbor with a box top full of fresh veggies for me to overcome my food processor fears.

I did a little internet searching and found a recipe for zucchini bread on allrecipes.com that had a couple thousand good reviews.

A little chopping, a little noisy shredding, and we were on our way!

The bread turned out delicious: dense, moist, and sweet.

Here's the recipe:

{Zucchini Bread}

Ingredients:

• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 3 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 3 eggs
• 1 cup vegetable oil
• 2 1/4 cups white sugar
• 3 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2 cups grated zucchini
• 1 cup chopped walnuts

Instructions:

1. Grease and flour two 8 x 4 inch pans. Preheat your oven to 325 degrees F.
2. Sift flour, salt, baking powder, soda, and cinnamon together in a bowl.
3. Beat eggs, oil, vanilla, and sugar together in large bowl. Add sifted ingredients to the creamed mixture, and beat well. Stir in zucchini and nuts until well combined. Pour batter into prepared pans.
4. Bake for 40 to 60 minutes, or until tester inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool in pan on rack for 20 minutes. Remove bread from pan, and completely cool.

So it was totally worth risking my fingers for! A great treat to pair with a homemade mocha when friends come over for a playdate.

{Any recipes or appliances you've been holding off on trying?}

Linking to Tutorial Tuesday at Hope Studios and Tasty Tuesday at Balancing Beauty and Bedlam.

Hope you'll join me for the next Dishing It! party this week. Click here for the topic!

*Special thanks to today's Sponsor, one9designs!*