Westminster Thrift Stores

Went to Westminster MD yesterday and explored. Hit the Goodwill and found a cool Wooden trash bin $15 that I'm going to paint and fabulize. This goes with the other bin I found for $3 that I'm going to paint to put Pooch food in.

I will post pics when they are done. Still trying to figure out which colors. Probably Taupe, maybe white, hmmmm...not sure yet.

Really nice people at he Westminster Goodwill. Found this vase, didn't have a price, plus had a chip, but they sold it to me for .98. I know it's not worth anything with the chip, but I just like the prettiness of it. If I knitted, I would put knitting needles in it. Thrift Junkie Justification!

Arrrggghh, I still have two pieces of IKEA furniture to put together. Give me strength to dowl and screw all day long. Sounds dirty, the dirty version would be more fun than IKEA assembly. Hope y'all have a great day!

Erica's Consumer Reports #3

Finally got all the furniture, Holy *h%$, Way more work putting it together than I anticipated. We just came off of a 5 day run of sickness in the household....So I have a pile of IKEA boxes in my living room waiting for me. Antibiotics are finally taking hold on the germs around here, so I may be able to finish the furniture by Sunday.

IKEA is genius, it doesn't use written descriptions in the instructions. Just pictures since they're located all around the world. Their stuff is time-consuming, but easy to assemble. I had to assemble the top part of a dresser- bookcase combo from Pottery Barn. It was horrible, the instructions sucked! I injured myself by pinching my finger (not their fault). But the cool thing about Pottery barn was the dresser with drawers came assembled. Still not sure if it was worth the extra money, but I'm happy with it so far. Photos coming, I can't find anything right now....And Baby Oliver won't let me put him down.

My Dream House

I read about this guy in Huntsville Texas who makes low income homes out of recycled materials. Not recycled materials that are re-manufactured and neatly packed for you. These recycled materials are direct from job sites and the Dump. He has a true picker mentality. The article says he was so disgusted by all the ugly low income trailer homes, and he wanted to show people you can make something beautiful from tossed building materials. This fellow is my hero. I want to live in one of his houses. It looks like a work of art.

Read the articles, one from NYTimes; http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/03/garden/03recycle.html

 

The other from Yahoo News; http://news.yahoo.com/nphotos/slideshow/photo//110113/photos_ts_afp/a941d9c5de806778da3062134a2da91f/

Good Stuff!

Wallpaper Borders are the Devil

We are renting a townhouse in Mount Airy. It's very nice. I have one big complaint, the wallpaper border in the kitchen is so ugly. I'm going to email the landlords and ask if I can take it down.  Here, see for yourself.

I want to poke my eyes out every time I look at it. If you can't see the caption it says "My Kitchen and Me Welcome Thee"....Ugh gag me with a wooden spoon why don't ya?

Frederick Maryland Hunt for Thrift Stores

Monday I tried to find the Salvation Army thrift stores in Frederick Maryland. Apparently there aren't any, because after driving for over an hour, all I could find are the Salvation Army Churches. This made me very homesick. Luckily Annie didn't care, and Oliver slept the whole way. Annie is our Lab Mix, and this is a picture of her while I'm refueling at Starbucks. Another pet peeve of mine is the Starbucks here doesn't have dog treats for Annie. Can you see the disappointment in her face?

The houses in Frederick are just cool. Here's some pictures from my journey.

Consumer Reports #2

Got the first pieces of furniture yesterday that I ordered Saturday. That must be a record for online shipping for me. 3 days! Score Pottery Barn.

Super Easy to put together....Of course a bed would be. Two side rails and screwing in the slats. A monkey could do it. Took us all of 10 minutes, and Noah loves it. He said "I have never had a new bed before".  Once I get his room cleaned up and put together I will post a picture of the finished piece. It's really nice. I still choke on the price $399.00, but to be fair I did look on Craigslist for 3 weeks, and tried to hunt down some secondhand pieces at Thrift stores around here. Not as easy to find as the Northwest. Coffee's ready...

Oliver

Is there anything cuter than a baby. I don't think so. I'm a baby person, I am completely and totally in love with my 10 month old.

He woke me up this morning at 5am, hungry and wanting breakfast. He's my littlest and last guy, I think if it were a different time, or I had a different husband **wink**wink, I would have had 5 or 6 kids. My husband graciously gave me the last one, he would have been happy with 2, but he knew I really wanted another baby. Bless his heart. Then he promptly got fixed so we would never have the conversation again. Now Oliver is off to the races trying to get over to the stairs. I guess I'll begin my parenting duties, and save his life.

Goodwill in Frederick Maryland

My boys and I went to breakfast at Waffle House in Frederick, then hit the Goodwill on the way back to Mt. Airy. We've never been to a Waffle House before. It's an old school breakfast joint. I wanted cheese on my hashbrowns so they just melt a processed cheese slice on it. It wasn't bad, it was good, just usually it's grated cheese :) The kids loved it.

The Goodwill was great, it's well priced. Half off clothes on Sunday. And it had lots of furniture, would of been helpful to know that before I spent gobs of money of furniture for our bedrooms. Live & Learn! I need to set up my sewing room today to get 'crack-a-lackin' on projects.

Erica's Consumer Reports

I have an idea....I have ordered $1500.00+ worth of furniture from IKEA, and I have ordered $1000.00+ worth of furniture from Pottery Barn. We didn't bring our bedroom furniture from Spokane, and I haven't found any good furniture finds over here thrifting. So we are buying new. Unusual in our household. I'm curious if Pottery Barn is worth the price. The Barn order consists of a bed, dresser, and nightstand for my 6 year olds room. The IKEA order consists of 2 beds, 3 dressers, 3 nightstands, and one bookcase for our room and my 10 year old's room. I have to put it all items together, so same there. I will let you know how long it takes to ship, how hard to put together, and overall quality of items. My dad always said "Buy Cheap, Get Cheap", I have proven him wrong in the past, but that has always been secondhand.  Will he be right with the new stuff? What do you think?

vs.

West Coast Ellavines: Now for the find of the week!

West Coast Ellavines: Now for the find of the week!: "Found this little number at the thrift store for a great price! Can't wait to get started on it :)"

Art Glass from the Salvation Army

My new collecting passion is art-glass. I want to start making flowers out of them. My husband saw this and said it looked like a woman's body part. He has no artistic vision :) This was $4 at the Salvation Army. He has a point, but I still think it has potential.

It's My Birthday!

My greatest presents ever....My three boys!  Of course the oldest wants to stay home from school and go thrifting with me and baby. Heck no, I love him, but God Bless School :)  I'm hoping to get a Kindle for my birthday, but no biggie if it doesn't come this year. I went to New Market yesterday, but forgot the camera. Not much to see anyhow. Lots of Rowhouse Antique shops, but nothing interesting for me. It didn't look like it was even open, must be hoppin' in the summer.  But not much traffic in the winter.

Today we are going to try and find the Salvation Army in Frederick. Will take pics and let you know what I think. Maybe I may find a birthday treat.

Ebay is out, Etsy is in! I need to special fabric to start making makeup bags to sell in Spokane and on Etsy.

Mount Airy Thrift Store

This cute little Thrift Shop is right downtown in Historic Mount Airy, Maryland. Their prices are not rock bottom. They do have some nice collectibles, and a great picture selection. There's lots of Glassware. And a really good, affordable, clean kids section. They have lots of volunteers so everything is orderly and easy to get at. I think they will dicker with you if you find something you can't live without. I will find out. I met one friendly lady named Deb...and James is the a young man that will carry your finds out to the car. Awesome service.

Moved to Maryland from Washington State

My name is Erica, I'm a mom of 3 boys. We just moved in the last 3 weeks to beautiful Mount Airy Maryland from snowy Spokane Washington.

Back Home in Spokane my sister Kersten and I had a little shop called Ellavines Whimsey Inc. The name Ellavine is from my Great-Grandmother. Her name was Ella Ellavine Lee. She was an amazing woman from Norway. We took her name as the name of the shop because she was a creative do'er, and we are too. My Poppa and Grandma Jeanne could never resist a bargain, and always picked up pieces secondhand to fill their lovely home. We learned early to decorate on a budget.

I plan to share some of my tricks and tips on how to find the best deals and greatest items at Thrift Stores and Garage Sales. I've been doing it for over 12 years, and must say am working on perfecting my skills. I will be talking about how to dicker, what to look for, what makes it a bargain. And what you shouldn't ever buy secondhand.

I want to explore the east coast, and share some good picking spots. I'm also planning on posting finds of the week. My friends back home now will have to look at my goodies digitally rather than stop by the house to see them.

The adventure starts. I'm off to New Market Maryland today with my little Guy Oliver. He's my hunting buddy. I start them young.  Carpe Diem!