Goodwill to all......

December 30, 2009

Goodwill to all......

Ok, Goodwill for all. When I was starting to think about the tea this year I was trying to be way frugal **cough, cough, hack**. Reuse stuff I had. Try not to rent too much. Be clever. I began looking at objects differently. A framed mirror maybe could double as a tray?? Old candlesticks could be painted and used as stands for platters. Trust me, I have enough "crap" around here to get pretty creative. Not trying to toot my own horn here, (ok, am quite pleased with myself, but that's not your problem) but I'm not what people would call "crafty". I've had a long time view that glitter and glue and paint are for preschool. I'm not the type of person that sees a pipe cleaner and gets inspired to make crafts. Creative, yes. Crafty, ja, no!

First find....

A terrible photo take v. clandestinely by Claire from my iPhone. We were at Anthropologie and this three tiered dessert stand was $158. Perfect for our tea, including the cute bird. Slightly out of my price range.

My version:

I made three stands for nine bucks. Sure, I had a few of the plates. Then I supplemented with a few lone cups from Goodwill, Bed Bath and Beyond and salt and pepper shakers from Pier One ($3.50). So stoked. Mine were held together with superglue - the Antho version had been drilled with a metal dowel through it, but I only needed mine for a day!

Find #2

Since my theme was birds, I couldn't resist these babies...

Oh ya baby! Bring it. $1.99 at Goodwill! So stinkin' funny I almost left them as is!

Much better now, eh? We were in the city this week and at Rose and Radish they had porcelain birds for sale. Wanna guess how much? After you guess go to the link! Mine aren't exactly the same, but hey, close enough!

And in keeping with the chalkboard theme that I was loving before Christmas I found these:

Two hot pink frames from Marshall's. $16.00 for both. Add some chalkboard paper available at Paper Source for $18 or Home Goods for $12. (I got mine at Home Goods). Add a little spray paint and viola!

Tomorrow I'm re-painting them white for New Year's.

And my final favorite find were these...

Glass Snack Plates/Cups. Found the first 3 sets at Goodwill for $1.98. They totally reminded me of my Granny Ross. Then I went on Ebay and found 17 more sets from different sellers. I couldn't even rent glass plates and cups/saucers for that! I now have service for 20! My sweet neighbor Mary, who is 92 has quite a few sets herself. When I told her it was about $10 for four sets she was disgusted (she paid more...).