Goodwill Finds!

I often browse at our local Goodwill, but rarely buy anything. I'm pretty picky what comes into our house and I rarely buy anything I wasn't looking for already. For example, I am currently looking for
1. Picture for our bedroom
2. A few lamps for various rooms in our house
3. Butcher block table top

Imagine my delight when I walked into Goodwill and found this delightful little oil painting that matched the colors in our bedroom perfectly! It's signed and dated 1983!
It's a bit brighter in person which I really like. Our room is a bit dark and had a lot of hand-me-down 70s furniture. The picture matches the style of the bedroom perfectly! I paid $8.00 for the oil painting.
Next, I found this lovely floor lamp with a fantastic milk glass shade. I love milk glass and buy milk glass serving bowls for daily use for serving food and displaying in our kitchen. The base is also pretty heavy in comparison to many of the floor lamps I find in thrift stores(or regular stores for that matter!). I paid $15.00 which is what our Goodwill charges for all floor lamps

This lamp is perfect for our bedroom as it provides a light source for us as soon as we enter into our room (there are no light switches).

And finally, I found this adorable little desk lamp. I've got a few ideas on where to use it, but for now, I'm still undecided.
I paid $4.00 for this little beauty.

Notice that my lamps were antiqued gold? I am so glad this color metal is coming back. While I like the chrome/pewter look that we've all seen in the last trend, it matched nothing I owned (unless you include our faucets). Yeah for old becoming new again!

The Playhouse Part 6: The Budget

Like all home projects, we set a budget for the playhouse project. I set the budget at $300.00 Sounds kind of expensive, doesn't it? I thought so, but dang, good quality exterior paint is expensive (and worth the extra $$ IMO).

So, here's the cost breakdown (rounded)


Exterior
Paint $74.00
Plants/Potting Soil: $66.00
Planters $25.00
Trellis $12.00
Furniture $28.00
Mulch: Free
Total Cost (Exterior ONLY) = $205.00

Interior
Primer $50.00
Exterior Paint $52.00
Deck Stain FREE (previously on hand)
Curtain Rods $3.00
Furniture: Free-(previously owned)
Accessories: Free-(previously owned)

Total Cost (Interior ONLY)= $105.00

Total Cost of BOTH Exterior + Interior =$310.00



One of the reasons it's taking us so long to update our lovely home is that we are slowly saving for all repairs and paying in cash (or check as is usually the case). Since we were already over budget by $10.00, we decided that the extra little touches like trim mouldings (or gingerbread), hooks and mailbox could just wait. The kids don't miss them, so why should I. Rest assured, as soon as we update the playhouse, I'll provide a new after picture.

Exterior Cost $205.00. Interior Cost $105.00. Years of fun and play for the kids, priceless.

Find of the (Mid) Century!

Last Friday, during my lunch break , I drove on over to our local Goodwill for some fun. I'm only looking for furniture [right now] and was on a very limited schedule, so I carefully avoided the clothing and book sections. And there it was. Have you ever experienced that moment when you found your it? The exact item you never knew you needed, but knew you needed?

There in all it's glory was this entertainment center.

Oh dear. It's exactly the style my husband likes and wants for our family room-mid century modern. I approached the piece slowly lest someone else realize how awesome a find this was. The piece was in good shape. It even had dovetail joints and groovy 70s drawer liner. And we needed a new entertainment center to hold games and toys. The last one we owned (a horrible shabified yellow monstrosity) met up with our son in a dark room and didn't come out alive. Oh, it gets better. Total cost? $12.00. Yup, my pulse started to quicken. This was it! And it must be mine!

But wait. I didn't have the truck, nor does Goodwill hold anything. I rushed back to work, called Carl (the husband who owns a truck)and begged him to pick up this fine piece for me after work. This guy, he didn't even ask why. He just went to Goodwill, bought me that $12.00 entertainment center along with a bouquet of wild flowers and brought it home.

Truly, I don't know who was more excited, me or the kids. They knew exactly the purpose of the entertainment shelf as soon as they saw it-our new toy and game storage. The spent the rest of the night putting all their toys into the unit and exclaiming over its awesomeness. I may have created monsters.

Simple Pleasures-Kid Art

What happens when you give two kids 4 jars of finger paints, a pad of paper and hours to create? Awesome kid art! I am the proud owner of many original pieces of kid art. I just pop the paintings into a frame with a mat. Instant wall art!

I love how it keeps the house more fun and casual-just like us!

Pepper Steak Stew

Yesterday, I decided to make a batch of leftovers stew. Leftovers stew is a stew (or soup) my husband and I will make when we want to use up the food about to go bad. Leftovers can come from previous meals or produce/dairy waiting to be used. Nothing edible is excluded from leftovers stew. Well, I generally don't add sweets, but I'm not sure if my husband ever has.

On this lovely Sunday, Pepper Steak Stew was born.

Ingredients
1 lb thinly sliced steak, sliced and diced into bite sized pieces
1/2 cup flour
salt/pepper
2 tbs olive oil
3 small green peppers, sliced
1/2 onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic chopped
2 large tomatoes diced
8 cups water
2 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
4 tbsp soy sauce
2 tbsp pepper
1 bunch of fresh parsley, chopped, (dry will work too)
2 large potatoes, diced (I used red potatoes, but any will do)


Heat olive oil in a large sauce pan. Combine flour and salt/pepper into a small mixing bowl. Toss in steak pieces and coat with flour mixture. Brown the steak. Add onions, garlic and tomatoes into pan and brown a few minutes (about 4). Add the water, Worcestershire sauce, soy sauce and pepper. Let simmer about 20 minutes. After 20 minutes, add the parsley and diced potatoes. Let simmer for another 10-15 minutes. Serve.

The best part about this soup is that the amounts of each ingredient is purely up to the cook. The cook can also add or subtract from the recipe with good results.

I managed to use up the steak, green peppers, onion, garlic, parsley and potatoes that were about to go to waste. I'd say mission accomplished!