Give me some color!

We have a lot of brown in our house. Brown couch, brown coffee table, wood floors, brown kitchen cabinets....

I finally decided to add some color to our house. I think pops of color can boost your mood and even make a space appear more welcoming. I get intimidated by matching colors and patterns. I don't think I have a good eye for it. But I dove in!

First I made my own pillow case covers. They are removable, so I can change them up when I get bored. I had a few pillows at home, and I bought 2 pillow inserts at Joann's Fabric. They are so easy to make! This video explains it pretty well.

We don't have any lamps in our house, so I thought what a great way to add color. I bought this lamp and the shade (not pictured) for $8 at a thrift store.  

I had trouble deciding what color looked best. I panted the lamp yellow first and left the shade white. It was just too much. Then I painted it gray leaving a few yellow strips. Didn't like that either. This is what is looks like now. I still might add fabric to the shade instead of the yellow.

At the thrift store I also found this wood basket for $2 and this frame for $3. The color on the frame wasn't too pretty, but I knew when I spray painted it, the design on the frame would really stand out. 

The basket has been transformed into a red toy box for the dogs.  

I bought the frame specifically for a vintage hat advertisement that I bought a few months ago. It fit perfectly and is now hanging in the bathroom. I love it! 

I also found this candle holder at a thrift store. It was an ugly brass/rusty color. When I first bought it I painted it white, but now it is a beautiful red!

My other recent thrift store finds include this rusty/antique looking lantern ($3) and 3 chinese bowls. I grabbed the bowls as soon as the staff put them on the shelf right next to me. I think I paid $7 for all three. They are beautiful and have chinese markings on the bottom. 

First Look

 I thought I would give you all a sneak peak of the items I'll be adding to my Etsy shop this week. All these items were found at garage and estate sales. And if you see something you like, I can reserve it for you (because you are all fabulous and get first pick!).

In Other News

My fingers and toes were feeling a little left out of the summer fun, 

so they (I might have helped) decided to add some color to their nails. 

For those of you who are just joining my blog, go check out the co-post I did here with the amazing Janette the Jongleur. We discuss the wows and woes of living in Southern California (and there's awesome pictures too!) 

Thrifty Dress Score!

Let me preface this by saying, I don't consider my blog a fashion blog, and I am not a model, so please excuse my funny faces and poses :) 

I just wanted to share these dresses that I found in a thrift store yesterday. I bought 3 dresses for $12! I only have two pictured though. 

This dress is covered in tiny blue and red flowers. It was a prefect fit for me!

Lia wanted to join in on the fun :)

I'm not sure about this one yet. It's actually a jumper suit, so I'm going to have to cut and re-sew it to make it an actual dress. 

The lace bolero I'm wearing was what I wore in my wedding 2 years ago. I picked out the lace and a friend of mine made it. 

Brown belt- thrifted

Red belt- thrifted

Boots- thrifted

White sweater- Kohls

Shopping in thrift stores can be time consuming because you may have to go through a lot of clothes before finding something you like. But walking out of the store with something at an awesome price, makes it all worth it!

Do you go thrifting? What's the best thing you have ever found?

Have a great weekend! And happy 4th of July!

GRAND OPENING OF MY ESTY SHOP!!

After many days of pricing and photographing over 50 vintage items, I am pleased to announce the Grand Opening of my Etsy shop!! I've always loved antiques and vintage things and am so happy that I can now share this love with others. It also took me a few days to decide on the name (which is one of the most important things!), and I appreciate those of you who helped me in that process. I wanted a name different from my blog that fit both me and my shop. 

I wanted a country feel to my name. "West" for being a California girl and a wanna be cowgirl, "Meadow" because I love being out in the country and I want my next house to be in a wide open meadow (for realz!), and vintage for what I'll be selling :) Put that all together and you have one awesome Etsy shop!! (At least I think so!)

I currently have 12 items listed and will be adding multiple items daily. I have put a lot of work into this shop including cleaning and researching items.  I compare what others are charging for similar items and try to keep my prices reasonable and low. I've also designed my own shop banner and button.

Grab the button!!

<center><a href="http://www.etsy.com/shop/WestMeadowVintage "><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3157/5817562560_41b9f80843_m.jpg" width="160" /></a></center>

Now here's your chance to help me and save some money at the same time!!

Even if you're not interested in anything in my shop, I would be sooooooo very grateful if you could share my shop with your lovely readers. I will be your best friend forever!!! And if you already have a best friend, then I guess I'll be your second best :)

You guys are awesome! Thanks for reading and supporting me!

Thrifty Goodies

That's right, everything pictured in this whole post cost me $30 from 4 different stores! 

1. Blazer that will dress up any outfit (I need to take it in on the sides a little)

2. I'm a sucker for a gray sweater, especially a long one like this

3. Cute bracelet, and I'm going to make a necklace out of one of the earrings

4. Two sweaters (gray of course!)

On my thrifty adventure I was also on the look out for t-shirts. All my current t-shirts are for exercising, so I wanted one's for casual days. 

And finally, for those who know me well, know that I have to check out the book section. I found two vintage books: German in Context, 1964 and A Book About A Thousand Things, 1946, which is exactly what is says it is. It talks about random things like "Why do bees hum?"  and "Why are policeman called cops?" Seems the 40's version of Google! 

I also bought the first two Harry Potter books because I've been wanting to read them, The Hours (love the movie), and a book about Psychopathology, which will be useful in my future career. 

Thanks for taking the time to look through the goodies I found. If you have any thrift store goodies to share, leave your link in the comment, I'd love to see them!

Thrift Store Treasures

Hey everyone. I lost some of the blogging motivation this week. Things are getting a little stressful at my practicum, and I'm not even getting paid for this stress! I even have two reports I need to work on this weekend as well as my own school work. At least I'm getting a lot of experience out of it, but sometimes its hard to see that silver lining........

Ok, I just needed to vent a little.

I've been so tired on my time off that I haven't been to a thrift store or garage sales in over a month. Soooo I decided to take some time for myself and go thrifting this week. My goal was to find some clothes for me to wear and not focus too much on finding vintage items for my future Etsy store. Here's what I found for under $20.

Vintage apron (I never knew they had an apron section at this thrift store!)

Once I shorten this dress it will look good with leggings, a belt, and a sweater. It has a flower design on it, but it's hard to see in this picture with wrinkles. 

Cute yellow tank top. Got to get ready for summer!

At this particular thrift store, there's always a section with random pieces of wood items. I found this neat game that is from the 1950's. It didn't have a ball with it though. Neat thing about having an iPhone, I looked it up on the internet before I bought it and found the same exact one on sale for $35. This one cost me $1

I bought these two little trays that I will DIY into something pretty for storage around the house.

Well those were my lovely finds this week!

Here's what we are doing around the house today! Nap time!

 This is Lia and Evie is below. My pretty ladies. 

As you can see, the wall behind Evie is dirty from them playing and laying against it. They've been getting really dirty with all this rain we're having. We really need to repaint that wall!

Weigh In Wednesday & Thrift Store Finds

I'm joining Grin & Bear It for her weekly Weigh-In Wednesday. We both have similar weight loss goals and I want to give her my support. As some of you may have read here, I've started counting calories using a helpful iPhone app, and exercising 4-5 times a week.

 I started my weight loss journey on January 29th. Here is my first weigh-in since that day:

- 4 pounds

Woohoo! It makes me feel so good to see all my hard work show in the scale. 

Now for some lovely thrift store finds from Monday's shopping trip. 

This vintage glass is so cute! With different animals on it. 

A whale!

And a Liberty Eagle! I love it!

Of course I couldn't pass these books up. A botany book from 1884 and two architecture books from 1939 and 1947. 

Happy Wednesday! The week is half over yay!