diy play kitchen

i've known for quite a while that i wanted to diy a little play kitchen for ruby for christmas.
i had pinned some ideas on pinterest.
i had thought i would build something out of an old cabinet.
eventually i realized i needed to just re-do an existing play kitchen for time's sake.
i scoured craig's list and thrift shops for months until i finally found one from a neighbor for $40.
it is small and just perfect for her.  yay!

so this is what it started out looking like:

it was the perfect size and shape.
perfectly ready for me to sand and paint and update!
it sat in our attic for a few months until....you know...the weekend before christmas.
of course.
it needed a good amount of sanding and then i painted it with 2 coats of valspar paint {tropical spray, i think} that i had left over from her dresser.

most of these photos are from my iphone....sorry about the quality.

i used a silver drawer pull that we had on hand for the "towel rack."
i whipped up a little towel with some terry cloth material i had and some fun floral fabric.
and then added her name, because the cutsier the better, right?

all of the "oven knobs" are knobs from hobby lobby.
oh my gravy. have you looked through their knobs?
they are amazing.
they're often half off which is a far cry from their very similar looking counterparts at anthro.
i mean. she just needed crystal oven knobs, right??

the sink knobs are also from hob lob...i have a giant crush on mercury glass.

the "back splash" is scrapbook paper {also hobby lobby} that I just mod podged on.
i painted the burners silver with some silver paint that we had from painting ornaments. :)

seriously, we used so much that we already had.
i spray painted this hook that i found in my box o' odds and ends.
i made her the little pot holders when i was making her towel.
i love them...so little and cute and seriously probably took 10 minutes to make.

my mom got her the cutie pie red, wooden pots & some play food for kitchen.
she plays with them all constantly. :)

before and after!

christmas day!

it was so fun surprising her with this.

i'm not sure who was more excited, ruby or aj and i....or the boys. 

we were all so pumped to see her open it. :)

she did not disappoint. 

she loved it and got right to work playing with it. :)

this was such a fun and rewarding project.
i love it when what is in my head actually turns out. :)

what about y'all? diy anything fun lately?



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thrifted thursday

so....sorry, i kind of abandoned thrifted thursday.

turns out, being wife and mom to four kids and homeschooling part time, and feeding these people and making sure they have clean clothes and trying to keep our house picked up and be a good friend and daughter and love the people around me...and trying to do all of that well.... it takes a lot of time. ;)

also, as you can imagine, those things have to take priority over me sharing my thrifting adventures.
as much as i love blogging and it is therapeutic for me, sometimes it has to take a back burner to life.
and i'm good with that.
thanks for hanging in there with me. :)

so onto the thrifting.
now that school is back in sesh and all my kids are doled out around town one morning a week, i can do some thrifting again.

i *love* the feeling of pulling up at the ph thrift on a thursday morning right at opening.
there's always a line of people. always.
even better if i have a cup of coffee in my hand.

i am crazy over these vintage curtains i found...at a yard sale actually.
i haven't decided what i'm going to do with them yet.
the pattern and the colors are just so perfect that i have to really think this out.
such a happy find.

my mom brought this gorgeous old quilt for my booth.
i had to force myself to bring it to the booth...i l-o-v-e old quilts.

found these sweet old jars at the thrift.
i think they're about 2 quarts.
kept one, put one in the booth.
i think it will be the perfect juice pitcher. :)

i've been looking for a bed skirt for avery's bed for a while now.
last week i found this nautica blue plaid number that is perfect...now we don't have to see all the junk he's shoved under his bed from the door way.
i think it was $2. boom.

i grabbed this for 99 cents to paint and use to hang art work or photos.

i love finding ties at the thrift store.
AJ took one and i've been using one as a belt. :)

i usually don't look at the clothes because i don't love digging through so much but i did spot these levis that are so soft and comfortable and have pretty much been my uniform lately.

that was a super happy find. 

i also found that banana republic red shirt and that fun woven belt...that i wore on sunday....see below. :)

btw, ruby's entire outfit, save her headband, is from rhea lana's.
i really, really love having a dress up doll. :)
also p.s. my jeans are from plato's closet and my shoes are 17 year old j.crew heels from my senior year in high school.
wow. we are some thrifty girls over here. :)

soooo.....have y'all been thrifting lately?
i'd love to see your finds if you want to link up in the comments. :)


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Thrifted Thursday {with a link up}

hi y'all. :)


i have loved having a flea market booth for the last 9 months.

with my crazy busy life, full up of taking care of four kiddos and all that comes with that, i was a bit nervous to add anything extra to my plate.

it has turned out to be exactly what i hoped it would be....easy, fun & profitable.
yay. :)

the only hard part has been that it is on the complete opposite side of town from where i live.
that wouldn't be a huge deal, but i literally have nothing else going on over there so it just feels like i'm driving out to half of forever to get there.
always had to make a special trip.
every time i drove out there, i would pray that God would open something up closer to me.

so a few weeks ago i was standing outside talking to my neighbor friend about all this and she told me that she saw a sign for a new place opening up.
!!!!!!!!!
yay! just what i'd been praying for! :)

anyhow, i got right over there and signed up.
i cleaned out my old booth a few days later.
it was hard to leave that place since they had been so good to me but i am so excited about the new place.
it's really close so i should be able to just stop by when i'm out and about. :)

sooooo, if you're in northwest arkansas, it's called fayetteville's funky yardsale, and it will be open august 15. :)
i think it will be a great place to shop...it's huge and there are some great vendors that i know of already. :) yay.

okay...so since this is thrifted thursday, i want to show you a fun little project.

so this really cool frame isn't technically thrifted but my mom brought it back from my grandpa's house earlier this summer.
it's old so that counts. ;)

i knew i wanted to do something fun with it.
then when i had my annual college girls' weekend, my friend jackie, gifted us each with a 1corinthians 13 art print so i knew that would be a great piece to use with this frame.

i had a spray painting party in the front yard and gave the frame a few good coats of teal.

thankfully the print fit perfectly and gave that old from a new life. :)

i love having scripture on the walls and i had been wanting to have this particular verse up for a while.
the kids and i refer to it often. ;)


have y'all been thrifting lately? show us your scores!


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Thrifted Thursday #3!

hey friends!  it's time for thrifted thursday!!


so i braved the thrift store this morning with 3 of my kids.
we had a big pep talk on the way over.
2 of the 3 got with the program.
little miss ruby was in no mood, so i did what every great mom does and stuffed candy in her face.
in my defense, one of the candies was an organic sucker.
so pretty much a health food. pretty much.

okay onto the thrifting!!

first up....suuuuper exciting.

i found this {what looks like} a vintage school house light fixture.

if it's not vintage and you can get it at home depot, don't burst my bubble.

i love it.

anyway....i'm hoping we can rig it up somehow for one of the light fixtures in our house.

anyone know how to do this?

if not, it will go to the booth.

but i had to get it because it was....wait for it.....

50 cents. boom. 

next up...beautiful, coral, round table cloth.

i had to get it because it's coral...so that's a given.

but also, it was $1.50.

i'm thinking i will use it somehow for ruby's birthday....which is coming up next month!! {holy cow, baby girl will be two!}

okay this is not super exciting but we always need flashlights and i'd rather pay 50 cents for it than whatever it costs at walmart. i have no idea.

plus we have a campout next month and flashlights are obviously a necessity. 

can't pass up a nearly full can of spray paint for 99 cents.

hello lover.

what have y'all thrifted this week??? 

i'd love for you to link up your posts.

*link up your specific blog post 

*i'd love for you to link back here with either a text link or a button from my side bar. :)

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thrift store thursday {kind of} and real thoughts on summer

okay, so summers are crazy, right?
i lovelovelovelovelove summer time.
love the weather...the hotter, the better.
love the laid back days, the grilling out, eating dinner outside, swimming.....i could go on and on.

the hard part is. . .
i do not have a moment to myself.
i feel like someone needs me or is talking to me every moment of the day.
i feel conflicted because i love having my kids around and i love doing activities with them....seriously it is my joy in life.....but....
i also need some alone time.
i have realized over my years of mothering that i need some consistent alone time to keep my sanity.
and honestly, i'm not getting much of that lately.
on one hand, i feel as happy as i've ever been and i love my life.
truly... i told AJ the other day, i think i'll look back on this time {with my kids at home} as the happiest time of my life.
on the other hand, i really really really need 5 seconds to take a breath. :)

also, i love writing and i love blogging.
writing has always been so therapeutic for me and i am struggling to find time to sit down and blog.

so there you go. those are my honest thoughts right now.
my goal is to just be in the moment this summer.
enjoy each and every day and make the most of them.
i'm praying that what is most important for that day, rises to the surface and that i will let the other stuff go.

on that note...haven't been able to do much thrifting lately either.
my mom did bring me another load of vintage goodies this week for the booth.

i love this vintage teal candy dish.

fun vintage nut choppers.
love those red lids

a whole stack of vintage cookbooks.
they have such neat covers and i love reading through old cookbooks.

for whatever reason, my booth has super slow lately.
this past month was my slowest month yet...pretty discouraging.
from the time i started {november} through march, it had steadily increased and done better and better....then spring hit and it has slowed way down.
i still love having a booth....but it sure was more fun when stuff was steadily being sold! ;)

i did pop into the thrift store quickly today....with 5 kids {i had meliyah}....i was quickly looking for some water shoes for ruby...did not find them.

also, good news/bad news.
bad news, the store is stuffed to the gills full of stuff....seriously more full than i've seen it in a long time.
that is bad news because i don't get to shop there on thursday mornings! ;)
good news....for my kids....they found a cool marble run set for 99 cents.
sold.
:)

okay friends...have a great thursday....happy summer! :)


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thrift store thursday {mid-century edition}

well....my thrifting is such a hodge podge lately of stopping in at yard sales or thrift stores when i can.
taking all four kids into a thrift store is not really the most fun.
i don't like feeling rushed when i'm thrifting. ;)

thankfully my mom loves antique malls, flea markets & vintage finds so she has been my personal shopper lately.

she bought me a whole slew of goodies last week....here are some of my faves.

vintage, mid-century "serving oven."
also known as a bun warmer.
love this...really hard not to keep for myself.

another mid-century gem.
gold cracker basket.
so sassy, i love it.
{p.s. mid-century is my fave}

perfect condition, probably never taken out of the box, probably saved for "fancy," juice glasses.
are these the cutest little glasses ever? the answer is yes.

oh my word.
i LOVE this tray.
she brought two.
i HAD to keep one. had to. no choice. it's amazing.
corally red, gold, scandinavian-esque, also looks like it'd never been used.

oh these tables.
again she brought me a pair and again i snagged one for myself.
metal, folding, pink chippy tables.
i'm a fan.
but i am thinking about painting mine....can't decide.
what do you think...should i??

so that's my little booth. :)


also...unrelated...remember how our trampoline ended up in our neighbors' woods last week during the tornadoish weather?
AJ thought it was done.
it looked rough.

but hip hip hooray, that thing lives another day.
aj and our other neighbor friend were able to roll it out and back to our yard.
we got the poles & net back on...it's a little worse for the wear, but it works!
yay. that was a happy surprise.

happy thursday friends....what treasures have y'all found lately???
please share. :) Pin It

thrift store thursday

hey y'all. :)

welp. i missed thrift store thursday last week because it was the boys' last day of school slash field day.
busy day.
i'm not sure how my thrifting schedule will go now that school is out, but rest assured it will get done.
one way or another.  :)

so here are a few of my thrifted finds from the past week . . .

i have a thing for old hymnals.
i grew up singing out of a hymnal and i lovelovelove hymns.
i am so glad that i have 2 hymnals from the church that i grew up in.
i found this pretty vintage hymnal last week for the booth.

vintage moustache mug, was actually my grandpa's. . .  also in the booth.

vintage button collection {another one of my favorites} also in the booth. :)

and now things get weird.
are you wondering what the heck i was thinking?
first of all....i think it's kind sad/weird/creepy when people donate old frames with the photo in them.
surely someone wants to keep that pic???
oh well....to each their own, i guess.

anyhow....i actually paid 50 cents for each of those frames.
i needed an 8X10 piece of glass for a frame that i already had but the glass broke.
and i needed a square frame for another pic....and obviously i spray painted it. ;)

this is a the frame that needed the glass.
the print is from jones design company....and this is also heading to the booth tomorrow. :)

i stopped by an estate sale last week and found these gorgeous vintage pillowcases.
i love the hand detailing.
 they are in perfect condition and were 50 cents each!
such a happy score.
these went to our bed. :)

also at the estate sale, i found this beautiful vintage frame for 50 cents.
love the antique gold. so pretty.
i found this frame in a box of frames...the majority of which were not pretty.
this goes to show you, you have to be willing to dig!
you never know what treasures you'll find. :)

i had this one year pic of ruby printed at sam's and i plan to add it to our gallery wall. :)

okay so those are a few of my finds this week.
yay for thrifting!!!


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