Shopping scores of the day

Picked up a few cool things today and thought I would share.

1) Pants hanger -

 I snagged two of these for $1.48 each at goodwill today. I bought them for my stash of ribbon, however once I put it all on here it will probably only fill up one hanger, so I guess the other shall be used for pants like it was intended!

2) Grill basket -

 I was in target with a friend today and saw they had marked down all of their summer clearance to 70% so decided to have a bit of a peruse and see if there was anything I needed wanted. When we grill we normally just do chicken or burgers and I do the sides and veggies indoors, however now that I have this grill basket I am hopping to try some veggie patties and maybe fish too, or perhaps line it with foil and try asparagus spears. It was marked down to $5.08 so not a BARGAIN bargain, but compared to what it was, and the usual price of these I feel it was a pretty good deal.

3)  Magnetic strips with mounting hardware -

Since becoming obsessed with  joining pinterest one of my many new loves is all things magnetic. I have so many little magnetic projects in mind, and hopefully these little beauts will come in handy. They were marked 70% off to only $1.78 a pack, so I grabbed four. This was one of those buys that I probably shouldn't have made because I don't have an immediate use for, But now that I have them I will make sure to work them into something!

Some recent retail finds and mini projects

Just a quick update to show some of my recent finds, in both regular retail stores and my favourite thrift stores too!

1. Candle piece on coffee table
 

I snagged the silvered plate at goodwill for 99cents, the two candles were bought at work (Hobby Lobby) on clearance for $1.89 each and then add on my 15% discount. The marbles were also bought from hobby Lobby, they came in a pretty big bag (about double what is shown here) for $2.99, and I then used my 40% off coupon and 15% employee discount too! A pretty good deal for a cute little table piece I think

2. Mini Christmas tree

I picked this up from Goodwill for $1.78, At work (Hobby Lobby) we have an aisle of ornaments called "tree for me" which are small and designed for the mini trees like this, so I picked up this tree in anticipation of buying some for it. Currently all Christmas decor is 40% off, so I am going to start picking up some things and getting ready to decorate! My little tree shall be displayed right by the front door on our little entryway table.

3. Doggie station

I had seen this on pinterest where someone used one of the modular storage boxes to keep dog food and just thought it was a genius idea! The medium modular box i used was $8.50 from walmart, The placemat I have on top of it was 25cents at goodwill and the dog bowls were $3.99 for both at ross dress for less.

I added the 3 drawer rolling black storage drawers next to it to keep their treats, grooming tools and medicines in. I plan to eventually mod podge the drawers and label them, but alas haven't got round to it yet!

To the right of those is where there dog toys are kept. The cute little basket was bought in England for about $10 when I was home visiting family.

(P.S Please ignore the messy carpet they had a new kind of cow hoof today which broke up way too easily, and thus bits ALL-OVER the carpet.... not buying those again!)

4. Bathroom storage unit
 

I had been trying to find a narrow stand or organizer for the bathroom for a while but had no luck, I actually bought 2 from Walmart but had to return both as neither fit right. This little one I bought from ross dress for Less for $10.99, It has a small shelf up top, a hanging magazine part and then a shelf across the bottom. It was exactly what I needed :)

Scarpbook paper covered drawers

This was a project I did a few months ago, and was my very first furniture modification. I completely forget to take a before picture, so the after is the only one I have.

I bought the desk from the Salvation army for the BARGAIN price of $8. It did have a drawer under the right hand side, however I took a turn to fast on the way home and it flew out from the truck and smashed, I wasnt too unhappy about it though because that drawer was in REALLY bad shape. So since the photo was taken I have sawed off the drawer's old tracks and it is now just an open space.

The scrapbook paper was from walmart, It was a small pack of 5 designs with 2 pieces of each and was only $1! I mod podged it to the drawers after cutting to size, and then applied a layer of mod podge over the top. I took the handles off and painted each one a different color, you cant tell in the photo very well but they are metallic colored paints, one pink, one purple and one green. I shall take a better quality photo soon!

The paint I won in an old contest, so it was no money out of pocked for that. The mirror was $5 from salvation army and I painted it in two of the colors I used on the drawer handles, then distressed it slightly.

I have since bought a small chair too which I scored at goodwill for $3, photo coming soon! I am not really a huge fan of the paint color, however this was my first real furniture re-do so for a first attempt I am quite happy with it.

DIY "I love you because" frame

I have seen so many of these cute "I love you because" frames on Pinterest and wanted to create one myself! So I set out to find a frame, I didnt want anything too fancy, just something with an easel back. I scored this basic one at the Salvation Army in my town for the bargain price of only 49cents. (I always forget to take before pictures, so this one was taken shortly after I started painting it, d'oh!)

I picked up the paint from Walmart. It is a 2 fl oz bottle of "Apple Barrel" acrylic paint in the color 'Laguna'. I already had dozens of brushes on hand so didn't have to buy any more. I could not decided whether to distress or not, for right now I didn't, but may change my mind later.

I normally sand down wood before painting or staining it but this frame was pretty rough so didnt bother, and just cracked straight on with painting. After the frame was painted (I used 3 coats) I set it aside to dry and began working on my actual board itself.

The paper I picked up from work ( I work at Hobby Lobby) it was regular price 59cents, on sale for 50% off and I receive a 15% discount too. The letters came from a pack of punch outs I purchased from Big lots for $3.00, the pack comes with various letter styles and in a variety of neutral colors. I was going for a fancy swirl letter but decided against it, and went for a basic black letter. So I arranged them on my paper, and then glued them in place. I contemplated doing a line in the lower part of the paper where we could write, but in case we wanted to do longer messages I just left it all blank.

Then it was time to get everything together, So I cleaned my glass and put it all back into the frame. The dry erase markers I purchased from Hobby Lobby too, these are them. I used a 40% coupon on them, and then used my 15% work discount. They are great, so many different colors to choose from! So there you have it, my little message board for the hubby and I.

I'm Baaaaaack !

Havent been using this blog for a while, But I am back again!

I now have my green card, and am back living in America with the hubby and our doggies. I have a new job at Hobby Lobby, which I am LOVING ..... It is rather dangerous though for me to be working there, because it feels like a good chunk of my paycheck goes right back into the store haha!

Anyway, I shall be updating more often with a few tutorials, pinterest projects and other randomness so stay tuned!

Another lipstick inspired post .... some of my newest faves

Someone asked me earlier ... what my current go-to lipsticks are, so here they are !!

Left to right in all 3 photos is:

1) Sonia Kashuk Luxury Lip Color - 'Mauvey'.... (not 100% on this, it is about a year old, and i know it had the word mauve in it somewhere lol) - I adore this lipstick, and am sad its nearly all gone!

2) Revlon Renewist in 'Pink Peony' - As you can see this has a moisturizing strip running through it, which means it is so soft and smooth wearing.

3) Maybelline Color Sensational in 'Pink Plaza' - This very long lasting and durable, and I love the pink colour.

Sally Hansen Natural Beauty Lipstick - Review with swatches and photos

I have been spending some time at home in England, which Im loving, and one thing especially is being able to order from fragrancedirect.co.uk. They offer brand name cosmetics and beauty products for great prices. I decided to try out these sally hansen lipsticks, inspired by what not to wear make up artist carmindy.

Left to Right - Sangria, Garnet, lilac, rose bloom, pink blossom, plum shimmer, seashell nude






These Lipsticks are selling at £1.50 each on www.fragrancedirect.co.uk, and I believe you can pick them up in America from some CVS and Walgreens for about $4.00 each.

Below are some applications of each colour so you can see what they look like on my lips.

Top - Sangria








Bottom - Garnet

Top - Lilac








Bottom - Lilac

Top - Pink Blossom






Middle - Plum shimmer






Bottom - Seashell nude


All in all I really like these lipsticks. They are extremely moisturizing, rather long lasting and very good value for money. The packaging is simple, yet cute and you get a good amount of product.

I would certainly recommend these to people, and may even buy some more so when I run out I have back ups!

If you are in the UK here is the direct link
to where you can buy these from, on the Fragrance Direct website.

Disclosure: I was not paid for this review, nor where these products sent to me free. I paid for them myself and this review is honest and unbiased.