How my $5.00 Thrift store find cost me $150.00!!!

If you know me, you know that I love to go junkin. It doesn't matter if it's a thrift store, a garage or estate sale, or an awesome flea market. I am a junkin junky! 

Last week I was at my local thrift store when I spied some delicious linen ruffles hanging amongst all the other polyester shower curtains. I ran over and grabbed it up so fast it would have made your head spin! (Thankfully, no one was injured in that epic "yoink!")

I looked at the label. Yep, Pottery Barn. Not that labels matter, but it does show a certain amount of quality. Then I looked at the price. My heart was pounding! $4.99!!! What???? That shower curtain is a hundred bucks at Potterybarn.com

I brought it home, washed it and hung it. Heavenly. That is the only word I could use. There was only one problem... The wall color. I wish I had a "before "pic to show you.  The walls werent terrible, they just werent "me".

You see, we have this peach tile all over the bathroom. When it was my sons bathroom, we did everything we could to counter balance all the peach. We settled on blue because there is a tiny bit of blue in the design in the sink. After my son moved out I decided not to fight the color anymore and painted the walls a peach color thinking that if I just embraced the color, I would grow to love it... NOT!

So the shower curtain was the catalyst to finally paint the walls again and go back to one of my never fail  and beloved whites. The beige color of the shower curtain actually looks really pretty with the peach tile.

 I love this room now. It doesn't get used much except as a guest bathroom, but I see it every time I walk down the hallway.

And that brings me to why the $5 shower curtain cost me $150....

You see.... I loved that hall bathroom so much I decided to redo my master bathroom, which I have hated since we moved into our home almost 20 years ago! It is tiny and has a very ugly step down shower in it. What was necessary for me to love this room too?? You got it... another Pottery Barn shower curtain. Unfortunately, this one was NOT $5.00!!!

Once again I tried to embrace the color of the tile that I was stuck with and went with a creamy yellow, grey and white color scheme. It actually matched my bedroom quite nicely!

 In addition to the new curtain, I painted the wood cabinets and added door casing around the mirror. And of course... I have to add pretty vintage details and architectural salvage to every room in  the house!

I am beyond thrilled with the results and still get a smile on my face when I walk into either room!

A Little French country in my space at Rusty Saturday

 I got a little of my own interpretation of what French Country looks like to me over at my space at Rusty Saturday.

 I love this old plate rack I found, and that Bakery sign is pretty sweet too!!

 This is more of the great stuff I found on my trip to Pennsylvania this Spring.

I have 2 of these chairs. They are are the sweetest little farmhouse chairs and are definitely quite old.

 I love all the shutters and those vintage molding picture frames are yummy! I also have a thing for white pitchers. (Can you tell?)

 The vintage egg basket is really sweet too.

 I love these old crates. They are so much nicer for storing things than a plastic one and they lok soooo much better too!

Isn't that such a sweet little rush seat stool? I got it from a lovely old man who said it belonged to his grandmother.

There are lots of wonderful goodies to be found. If you are in the Phoenix/Metro area... come by and say hi!!

My Junkin' excursion in Pa.

 Last month my sweetie and I went back to his home state of Pennsylvania to visit his family and do a little junkin' while we were there.

 We were able to go to the big Renningers Antique fair and also a great one in Shupps Grove outside of Adamstown Pa.

 The weather before we arrived and after our 3 days of shopping all day outside was beautiful. Mid to high 60's. HOWEVER... the 3 days were going to be at the shows were miserable!! A cold front came in and it was in the 30's with wind and snow flurries!!! I was cold down to my bones but we trudged on because after all... we were junkin!!!!

There were lots of vendors selling all kinds of things, but if you like primatives the east coast is definitely the place to find them.

 Another thing you find everywhere... Glass insulators!! You can also see them all up and down the train tracks where no one has "collected" them yet. :)  The turquoise ones sure are pretty when they are all together!

 The unfortunate thing about flying is that things have to be able to fit into a suitcase to get them home!!! This old apothecary cabinet was only $250!!!

 However these cabinets for sewing notions were closer to the $500 dollar range and they weren't very big. (There pretty fabulous though)

 I really have a thing for boxes right now. These old sewing machine drawers were great.

 This piece was in one of the antique shops we hit in Adamstown. There were 2 them. They came from a very old pharmacy in Pa somewhere and were dated to the 1890's. They were stunning and only $1900 each! :)

 Lots of cabinets every where, but none came with me.

This was the most amazing piece I have seen to date. It wasn't for sale, but isn't it fabulous??

 So here is my haul.. all laid out in my sister in laws living room!!

 I bought a lot of vintage Blue Ball jars with zinc tops. Some of them I am keeping for myself and some are going to shop. They are just so much cooler than the modern jars with the plain lids.

 A lot of wire came home with me too. I found of couple of great old egg baskets, and all these chicken wire cloches.

 I brought home lots of small boxes too. We just cant find these out here in Az. Many of them were vinatge cheese boxes but several were just cute little drawers too. The big drawer with all the dividers in it came from a vintage hardware store. I brought 3 of them. They are super cool in person!

 I love scales and always buy them when I can. Both of these went into the store already and sold in the first week!

 Another of my favorite finds were these frames made from vintage mouldings. They are fabulous!!

I bought 4. Only 3 of them made it into the shop!! LOL!

 Another find for me. This fabulous hanging scale. My sweetie bought it for me and it is happily hanging in my living room!

 I found lots of beautiful yard sticks in colors I am not used to seeing!! These did not fit into any suitcase we wrapped them up, and I carried them on the plane.

 I loved the graphics on this vintage soldering paste can.

 And one more find for me... I love these vintage marmalade jars from England. This one had the paper packaging and a lid!! It is already being proudly displayed with the others I have collected so far.

Well, that's my trip! A lot of this stuff is already in my space at Rusty Saturday and I will be bringing more of it in a little at a time.  Next time I'll show you pics of it in the store!!

Painted Chair Makeover-Before and After

Well I finally tried my hand painting an entire chair with chalk paint and I have to say... I will totally do this again!!! It is a lot of work, but I was very happy with the results!!!

As you can see it started out with wonderful bones. I love these channel back style chairs but the fabric was dated and well,  just not my style!

It had a raised chenille type texture so I wasn't sure if it was going to work because I had always heard that flat weaves work best.

After a lot of research on line and many opinions on paint formulas I decided to forgo the fabric medium method and just dive in with my home made chalk paint. I was hoping to achieve a leather like appearance so the fabric medium wasn't needed to keep the paint soft.

This is what it looked like after the first coat of paint. As you can see, the fabric really sucked up the paint on the first coat. I did use a lot of water though because I read that was better than applying really thick coats of paint.

This is after 3 coats of paint. As you can see, the texture of the fabric really came up. At this point it was very stiff and uncomfortable to the touch. The next step... sanding!!!!

I took my hand sander and went over the whole think using an #80 grit paper to start and then switching to #120. Some of the green fabric started to show through, the the texture of the paint completely changed. It really started to feel like leather at this point.

I put one more coat of paint on it and used AS clear wax, and then dark wax to bring out the texture. I love how it looks and feels like tooled leather now!! I worked the wax in well and made sure to wipe off all the extra so nothing would come off when someone sits in it!

Here it is in my space at Rusty Saturday!! I painted the wood an off-white and I just love the finished result. If you have been afraid to try painting fabric chairs, I say go for it!!! (Just don't use your grandmothers heirloom chair!!)

Long Beach Flea Market

 This last weekend my sweet man and I made the 6 hour drive from Phoenix to Long Beach for their monthly flea market.  We drove in on Saturday, stayed the night and then got up bright and early in the morning to shop till we dropped!  This was how my day started... with a lovely sunrise and lots of vintage treats!

 There are lots of vendors at this market, so there really is something for everyone!

 I  really want to find an unfinished dresser like this one so I can paint it myself!!! (although the finish that was done on this one was gorgeous)

 There were lots of things I wanted there, but most things were reasonably priced at retail and I needed to find inexpensive things that I could put in my shop!

 Around 11 we both needed a little pick me up so we indulged in a soft pretzel. (There are no carbohydrate restrictions when on a road trip!!)

 Got crates???

 Here are some of my purchases ready to load up in the car and on the flatbed trailer we brought.

 Most things will be repaired, painted or made into something else.

 She will go to the shop just as she is, the sewing cabinet will get a new paint job. I think it's height will make it a great entry table.

Got some great iron bases for tables, some cool baskets and these fun chalk board slates!

It was a wonderful weekend and I would definitely go back and do it again.  We did the Rose Bowl flea market several years ago. That was fun too, but the prices at Long Beach were much better.

 I could not have done it without my hubby. He made several trips to the car with my treasures whenever they wouldn't fit in my cart or if the cart got too full. He worked his but off for me. I am truly grateful to be married to such  wonderful and supportive husband!!!

(If you are in the Phoenix area and would like to follow along as I bring new stuff into my space at Rusty Saturday, you can follow me on Instagram (@mydesertcottage)! Everytime I redo the space or bring new things in, I post them there!