Oh my goodness - I discovered Goodwill!

To say I didn't know about Goodwill would be a lie.  

I have been there once or twice in my lifetime.  The last

time I was there, 3 or 4 years ago looking for

furniture to refinish, they had nothing but junk that

I would not take home for free.  And so,

I never went back.  My mom recently recommended I look

for furniture there, but I blew off her advice.  Today

while visiting numerous new blog sites, there was 

the reoccurring theme of the good deals people

were getting at Goodwill.  So, I looked them up in the

phone book and found two stores nearby.  One, I visited on the bus 
ride home.  I had to go back with my car since I couldn't carry 

everything with me on the bus.  Mostly the furniture I

saw was in bad shape or very overpriced, or both.

What I did get, was some dishes for myself.  Here is what

I brought home all for around $14.

These are the four soup bowls I found, so pretty in fall colors.

I thought they'd look especially nice with Chili or Sausage 

Tortellini Soup in them.

There was only one of each of these, but there is only one

of me and I live alone, so that works.

There were four of these green plates and I love the little

vase.  It was the only thing I bought that was over $.59.

I only purchased two of the raspberry plates, but they had two 

more which I will probably stop back and get tomorrow.

There were two of each of these plates, so I could serve my daughter

or a friend for dinner.  I love dishes with bumps on them.

I wasn't able to get any real sets, but over time, I know I

will acquire enough to mix and match and hopefully soon I'll be able to

participate in the Thursday Tablescapes hosted by

Between Naps on the Porch.  I can hardly wait!
~

Last, but not least, I bought these little fellows.  

They were 5 for $1.00.

I thought they'd make great toys for Moby, my grand puppy,

when he comes to visit. He's a miniature dachshund and he loves
stuffed animals.  At that price, it's no big deal if he tears them up,
which is what he loves to do most.

I'm afraid I will probably be frequenting Goodwill quite 

often now, especially since one of the clerks filled 

me in on the details of the best times to shop.

Market Day

Market Day has now come and gone.  It has been a long time

since I was a vendor at an outdoor show and I forgot how 
exhilarating and exhausting it can be all at the same time.

The good news is I sold many of my lovely treasures and 
they all found loving new homes.

The first piece to sell was the dark wood cane chair that was also

my first day, first blog and finally finished blogs. 
One of my favorite pieces, a picture I found at a yard sale is
going to a wonderful home in Missouri.  

Everything on this piece is new except the picture and the frame.
The matting, hardware and even the glass (which I 
accidentally broke) had to be replaced.  Gale, the lovely
lady who bought it is going to hang it in her lake
house in Missouri.  Gale was here in town for the Country
Living Fair, as were several of my other customers.  It
was so kind of their hotel to refer customers on down to our
fair, which didn't have an admission or parking fee.  Gale also
purchased my darling white cedar chest, which will be 
traveling back with her.

What follows are more pictures of our booth.  My sister, Lynette,
did all the beautiful paintings and boiled wool purses.

This little gourd topiary was also one of my favorite things
and I was thinking I would get to bring it home to set
on my mantel, but a lady snatched it up right at
the last minute.

This is a cute arrangement I made just using an old rusty
muffin tin I found at a flea market and adding some moss and
precious little pumpkins and gourds.

Here are the twins displayed amidst other pretty things.

I'm sad to say, only the pink paisley twin found a loving home
with a little girl.  The green chair came home with me.

All in all, it was a very good day.  Now I can relax a little and
catch up with my own home and garden.
Unfortunately, I think my daughter will be chomping at
the bit for me to start on her duvet cover and bed skirt.  She keeps 
reminding me how patient she has been and I respond 
with, "remember it's a Christmas present that I am graciously
not making you wait until December 25th for". I would bet
she'll be over today and inquiring as to when I'm going
to start on it.  More about the duvet cover in future blogs when I
get it finished.

Country Living Fair

The good part ~ a very lovely show with lots of

varied and talented venders.

The bad part ~ a horribly hot, windy, and draining

September day.

Anyways, back to the good part ~ for those of

you who could not attend ~ lots of pictures to share that

speak for themselves.

 

Flea Market Finds

I promised I'd share the treasures I found at the 

Springfield Flea Market last Friday, so here they are, all

decked out in fall attire and ready to go

to Market Day on Saturday.

 

This credenza came already painted black and was lightly distressed.  Unfortunately, the paint job was not the best quality, with lots of 

brush marks and a bumpy finish.  I sanded it when I

got it home, but much to my dismay, my sanding did not

remove the brush marks, but did remove more

paint, so now it is heavily distressed.  I actually like it better now.  

It seems to have more character, even if it has the unsightly brush marks.

  I really love this piece, so if it doesn't sell at Market Day, it's

going to get a thorough sanding job and will be

painted a cream color and find a new home upstairs

in my guest room that I'm redecorating.

The other piece I found is a small desk or maybe it could be a phone desk.

  It came with a small chair and both were the color you see in the picture.

 

I will probably try to sell them as a set, but I would also separate 

them if someone only wanted one piece.  I think the chair would look 

nice with a teddy bear sitting on it, especially at Christmas time.

Here is a picture of my credenza that I altered by fooling around

with the image filter in Photoshop.  I didn't get quite

the abstract look I was going for and maybe it's not even that 

noticeable, but it was still fun.

This is the colored pencil filter.  Weird colors, but still kind 

of pretty.

And another filter.