Thrifty Holiday Decorating

I am a big decorator at Christmastime.  I have boxes and boxes of decorations in my attic and I buy new ones every year too.  Some of the decorations I have on my tree I've had for 30 years.  Ornaments given as gifts, ornaments my children made, etc.   I love them.  And I love the new ones I find too.  Pretty soon I'm going to need two Christmas trees! ( I would actually LOVE that!)   Well I was at the Dollar store the other day and they had a Christmas Village display!  Now that is something I don't have.  I do have a display of an Autumn Village and last year I sprayed it with that spray on snow and used it at Christmas too.  But it doesn't have a lot of stuff.   Anyway, the Christmas Village at the Dollar store was very pretty and had a lot of pieces.  The bottle brush trees are a lot more money at Michaels, etc and here they were 3 in a package for 1.00!   There are all the different stores and lamposts, benches, people, even a skating rink pond.  I am going back ASAP to get all the pieces.   I can get pretty much the whole village for 20.00 and the whole thing will fit on top of my desk, the buildings are bout 3 inches high.  So pretty.  It has holes on the bottom to put in light bulbs and cords too.  If you have a Dollar store check it out!

I stopped in the 99 cent store too and found some really pretty things for Halloween a few weeks ago.  If you find something at the 99cent store you better get it and don't wait because things go fast.   I love owls and found the cutest owl tealight holders and glittery owl stand decoration this cute rubber mat and a black straw hat I'm hoping to turn it to a pretty Halloween hat : ) .    I usually go to the Sugar Plum festival which is a really nice craft fair here in SoCal that sells a lot of handmade crafts for all the Holidays.  I always buy something new and awesome for Halloween and Christmas there too.  Some of their stuff is pricey but alot of it is reasonable and I like to support local artists and crafters. 
  

Christian Dior score!

My sister came up to spend the day with me Thursday and we had such a fun day! Coffee at the beach at the Mermaid Coffee Bar, then we visited with our mom at her store around the corner. We visited our niece and her new baby boy and had lunch after that. Then we went thrifting! My sister (my twin) hardly ever goes thrifting because she can never find anything. So we went to a few of my favorite places and I put all my efforts towards finding stuff for her and I didn't buy anything. She took her things home so I don't have many pics but I did get her to photograph this bag and send it to me. The Christian Dior J'adore Hardcore poison punk saddle bag. Whew! That's some name. I looked around the Internet and it seems it came out around 2005 as a limited edition. And someone is selling one just like it , used, on eBay for 99.00. My sister loved it for her 13 year old granddaughter. It is pretty cute and she got it for 20.00.  That morning my sis tried on a tshirt at a retail store from Christian Audiger by Ed Hardy and it was too small. It was 99.00 too! She loved it though and was dissappointed. Well at one of our stops I found her a hoodie by the Same maker for 4.99, she couldn't believe it! She had such a good time we're going again in two weeks : ).
 We ended our day by picking up our mom and going for dinner. Perfect ending to a perfect day!

One week!

One week ago..........I got married! After 19 years together and one child we tied the knot. Yes, we were a little unconventional but that's how it happened. I guess we were doing the brad and Angelina before they did : ). Well what does this have to do with thrifting?? I will tell you, We had a civil ceremony at the courthouse but I still wanted a pretty dress. I thought I would buy a new one and went looking. I looked everywhere and could not find one I liked or fit right, etc. So I was driving and noticed a sign for a brand new thrift store in my area and pulled in. I immediately found a dress, within the first 10 minutes, and after looking a little harder found the perfect lite sweater to add a little color and wasnt too hot. There was a 30% off sale so I got my outfit for 16 bucks. I was so pleased and I thought the dress was perfect. If you're in the Orange County area check out What Goes Around Clothing in Costa Mesa for some great things : )