My First Venture Into The World Of Goodwill

After constantly reading about all the great finds other bloggers come across at Goodwill, I made my first trip to the local Goodwill this morning. I believe the term you veteran GW'ers {look at me, still a newbie and using the acronym!} use is SCORE!

I took $40.00 cash with me and wanted to see what I could get for that amount or less. I had a few items in mind that I was looking for but, of course, I found none of that. I did find this:



I swore I wouldn't buy another Halloween decoration at this point, but I couldn't resist this witches hat for $.99. The amber colored dishes, which I thought would make a nice way to serve pudding or fruit salad, were $2.99 for the set of 4. And the badly done fruit urn {which, contrary to what you may believe, I bought for the urn and not the fruit} was $2.99. This will be de-fruitified shortly and painted.

But this. This was my real score! Two pre-lit Christmas trees in black urns for $14.99 each! You couldn't even get something like this at Home Goods for $14.99 ~ it would be at least twice that. And ~

. . . . the lights work! The branches need to be fluffed a bit, but I had been planning on getting smaller trees to put in other rooms in my house this year {besides the larger main tree} and I couldn't have asked for better.



Here's a close-up of the urn. I can just picture reindeer moss peeking up over the top of the urns.




In total, with tax, I spent $40.14. So, veteran Goodwill hunters ~ how did I do?

Hooking this post up with Frugalicious Friday over at Finding Fabulous.

Giveaway Winner{s}

The winner of the Pixie Dust Decor Giveaway is . . . .

# 9 Emi of The Cloth Diaper Report

Congratulations Emi, and I hope you will love your aprons!

You may have noticed I said "Winner{s}" in my title. The winner of my previous giveaway is not a blogger and did not leave a contact email. I did a post announcing the winner and haven't heard back. It's been a week now and a new winner is being chosen for the Pattern Design Company Giveaway.

Back to random.org I go to get a new number ~ and the winner of the Design Pattern Company Giveaway is . . .#31 ~ Shannon of Posh Pieces!

Congratulations Shannon!

A new giveaway is scheduled for tomorrrow, so I hope you'll check back to see what it is!

Frugal Finds For Frugalicious Friday

Another Frugalicious Friday link up! A couple of weeks ago when I hit the dollar store {I shared those finds last Friday}, I had also been to Michael's. I picked up a few regular priced items {I thought they were still a good price}, but I also made my way to the back to check out the clearance stuff.

• I got cones to paper and decorate ~$3.49 for a package of 4. I may get another package or two and decorate them with a Christmas theme, using some ribbon as a hanger and hang them on each dining chair.


• The letters were $.79 each.


• The keys have black and white designs and were $3.99 for the set of three. I could use these on any number of projects {honestly, I couldn't resist getting them}.


• The pink and black things ~ I had no idea what they were when I bought them ~ that's always the sign of a good shopper, even if you don't know what something is, pretend you do. They are tab clips, good for marking pages in a magazine or book, but I may use them to just clip papers together. They were on clearance for $2.49.

The other little item is this anniversary tag. I thought it was a pretty little tag for $.28.

These rub ons were $1.49, and I liked the fonts and the words. These would be small enough to use on smaller craft projects.

I'm sure they thought I was a total weirdo because I found most of the clearance stuff just tossed in a box. I sat down on the floor and took stuff out so I could get to the stuff on the bottom ~ which is where I found the letters. Hey, sometimes you literally have to search for great deals!

I can't wait to see everybody's finds!

The Pixie Dust Decor Giveaway ends Friday at midnight! Make sure you enter for at least one chance to win this cute apron set.

Future Tablescape On Order

Thanks to Manuela at the Pleasures of Homemaking, I visited Kmart online today, because I loved her Country Living collection dishes. While I love Manuela's red dishes and accessories, I was more interested in this series of the Country Living collection:

Salad plate

I just fell in love with this pattern and am a fan of the "faded" look. You can't see it on the dinner plate, but there is a nice little pattern on the edge along with the brown band.

Dinner plate

Love the idea of using this bowl for serving vegetables. A platter would be a lovely addition to this collection, too.


Bowl

You wouldn't believe the price ~ $38.00! 4-salad plates; 4-dinner plates; and 1 bowl! I may even be able to interchange this out with the dishes I got on clearance from Pier 1 a month or so ago {although I only purchased 2 table settings of those dishes}.

My Pier 1 plates

What a great buy for someone just starting out on their own or newlyweds' everyday dishes.

Although this isn't a tablescape, I'm hooking this post up with Tablescape Thursday at Between Naps On The Porch. Can't wait to set my table with these and share them as a real tablescape!

Also hooking up with Frugalicious Friday at Finding Fabulous.

Don't forget to enter our very cute Pixie Dust Decor Giveaway!

5 Things You Didn't Know About . . . .

Welcome to another chapter in the "5 Things You Didn't Know About . . . . " series. This week we visit with the lovely and talented Kristen of Kristen's Creations!

Favorite music at the moment: I love country songs that tell a story or have meaning...like "Don't Blink" and "Your Gonna Miss This" I also love contemporary Christian music.

If you didn't live where you do, where would you live: Definitly Florida!! I love the beach.

Favorite cocktail: I hardly ever drink, but on a special occasion I will have an amaretto sour.

Best advice you ever received: Seek God first and everything else will fall into place.

Person you most admire: There are 2...My mom and dad

Thank you, Kristen, for sharing 5 Things We Didn't Know About . . . . you!

Check back next week when we have another blogger buddy share about themselves.

Our current giveaway is from Pixie Dust Decor. If you haven't entered yet, you will definitely want to before it ends Friday!