Dollar store thrifty

I do check out the Dollar Tree and 99 cent store from time to time. A lot of times there are brand name products to be found.  My brother works in the produce and market industry and a lot of times a whole palette of merchandise will be turned down by major stores simply because of a torn box or something equally simple and wind up at the dollar stores.  Sometimes discontinued and other reasons. But there are several bloggers and vloggers on utube who try products at the different stores and write reviews on products.  Very helpful!  I have used Milani make up products before from the drugstore and have found this brand at the Dollar tree several times. Recently I found these pretty glittery eyeshadows. I am making little Easter baskets for my nieces with beauty products and very little candy. 

They are very pretty colors and come in beautiful packaging as well. 

These compacts of Physicians Formula powders are 13.95 at CVS. I gave this one to my mother and it works great for her. 

These little paper/cardboard boxes. Are so pretty, I am going  to use these for the Easter baskets and then cover them with cellophane. 3@1.00 

Got both of these lip glosses from L'oreal Paris color riche, just a hint of color, perfect for young 20's. Got them both free as Dollar Tree accepts manufacturers coupons.  

Plastic baskets can also be used as Easter baskets. 

More make up and polish. 

This PF powder I got for myself and I think it works great.  I usually spent 30 on Urban Decay and I'm sure I will again but I really like this one and there is just the right amount of shimmer. 1.00!

Beautiful glittery nail polish by Milani for my sister.  She loves glittery everything so she will get a basket too.  She is a ballroom dancer and really glitters up for her dances so all the soarkles are perfect.  It's fun to be able to give more presents with the help of the dollar stores. 

Great dollar tree finds!

Well I love all kinds of thriftiness and I do check the dollar tree and 99 cent stores every so often for deals on name brand products.  Last week I was pleasantly suprized at the dollar tree when I found Milani eye shadows for 1.00 each.  Milani is a very nice drugstore brand, they have a beautiful website and are made in Italy. I bought some eyeshadow at my CVS drugstore and really liked it so I was excited to find it for 1.00. These colors are very bold and colorful and glittery.  I am leaving for a 2 week cruise on Sunday with my sister and my mom, there will be dress up dinners and a luau in Hawaii and new makeup will be fun : ) definitely opportunities for glittery, colorful eye shadows !  Aren't the colors gorgeous??  6 eye shadows that retail for 7.49 a piece, 6 dollars!   44.94 for 6 at retail means a 38.94 savings.  Very thrifty don't you think?  We were in Hawaii last year at the exact same time on the same cruise and we had so much fun we are doing it again.  Of course while in Hawaii we hit the thrift stores there too.  We needed Hawaiian garb for Hawaiian night on the ship so while everyone else headed to Hilo Hattie's for clothes we headed to the thrift store and found our Hilo Hattie dresses for 6-9 dollars instead of 40- 60 and up for dresses at the store and they were just as beautiful ! It left us with more money to spend on the edible treats at HH's instead and coffee in Kona for souvenirs and gifts : )

A little thrifty Christmas decorating

I have been looking at some amazing blogs with some gorgeous decorating with thrifted and vintage items and mine doesn't even come close but I am going to share anyway.  I like it even if it is very simple.  This is just a little corner off of  my kitchen bar.  I thrifted the white shelf for .99cents at the Salvation Army and have been holding on to it trying to decide what to do with it.  The same with the vintage thermos.  I love that thermos and thought it was perfect for vintage Christmas decorating.  99 cents too.  The four little mugs were mugs we had as children so are 50 years old or so.  (!)  The tea towels are vintage, I picked them up at a thrift store up in Lake Isabella when I was visiting a friend.  The are so precious, appliqued reindeer with rhinestone noses and embroidery.  I got them about 8 years ago for .25cents a piece.   The snowman cookie jar I picked up 10 years ago or so at a church rummage sale for 1.00.  He had a few chips on his black hat but I just added a little black paint and you can't tell.  The little tin has the cutest vintage looking Santa on it, it came with cookies in it from the .99cent store last year and of course I kept the tin.  I think it is a cute little corner : )  Total decorating cost- 4.50.  

In another corner of the dining area is my little silver tree with teal/turquoise ornaments.  This little tree reminds me so much of spending Christmas with my great grandmother and her sister and niece in Dallas, Texas in 1965.   My grandma's niece (my 3rd cousin) had a big silver tree and one year she had all blue balls and another year all red.  Good memories.  I picked up my tree at Micheals after Christmas a few years ago for 3.00 and the ornaments are mostly from the .99cent store except the adorable vintage elves. The new ornaments have a vintage feel anyway since they are old school Christmas bulbs.  Also a vintage Ideas magazine from 1977.  We grew up with these Ideas books for all seasons and used to pour over the Christmas ones with pretty pictures, poems and stories.  I found this one on ebay. 

My Santa and Snowman collection aren't all vintage but are mostly from the thrift store and yard sales and I'm pretty sure I didn't pay over a dollar for most of them.  Except for the black Father Christmas I got at Michael's years ago for about 10.00.  

The Santa doll in the back right corner my great, great aunt made for us when we were kids.  He's seen better days but he's 50 years old and we used to play with him. Other than black Santa and the canoeing Santa all were thrifted.

I love my snowmen too. They are mostly thrifted except a gifted one and a 99cent store find, the ceramic guy in back. 

Thrifted choir boys

I thrifted the choir boys this year at a yard sale for 2.00.  They are vintage and made in Germany.  So precious!  The terra cotta pot and pine cone to the left were spray painted by my sons when they were young, about 20 years ago!

This photograph is of the Sentinel Hotel in Yosemite which was built in 1896.  I think the picture is from the 50's.  I thrifted it for 1.00 at a rummage sale.  I really love it.  My boys and I spent many Christmas vacations in the snow at Yosemite.  

I love decorating my mantle.  The garland greenery I got for 1.00 at a thrift store and I found a whole grocery sack full of about 20 gold and crystal pears and apples at a yard sale for 2.00.  This beautiful wreath I made myself from the sticker balls in the backyard that fall all over my yard and in my pool : ) Talk about turning lemons into lemonade! I love my wreath.  A few years ago my youngest had pneumonia in December and we were at the hospital for about a week and then housebound for 2 after that.  So I used that time to make this wreath.  It wound up being one of my favorite Christmases, we couldn't do much, I didn't get out all my decorations, just kept it simple.  We got together every evening at the hospital around a tiny DVD player and watched a Christmas movie and ate snacks out of the vending machine.  It really slowed us down, we didn't worry about all the trimmings and events. We just felt grateful for health and family.  I enjoyed sharing my Christmas, I hope you enjoyed it too. 

Saturday thrifting and yard saling!

I had some really good finds today!  First off I went to a community garage sale. I picked up this rely cute dress by BCBG Nordstrom for .50 cents 

I love it!  I found this very cute T by ROXY 

For .50cents.

Very pretty graphic, front and back.

Pretty and fun!  I picked up a couple  of toys there too, really cute, clean, like new!  

I found 4 of these cute ribbed tank tops with the Eiffel Tower in rhinestones, brand new. I will put these in my ebay store along with a few other things. 

Cheshire Cat from Walt Disney .50 cents and a Care Bear, .50cents

Then I swing by my favorite Salvation Army and got lucky there too!  It was 50% off everything but collectibles day.  I found a brand new set of Crate and Barrel old fashion drink glasses for 2.50 still in the box!  If you've ever shopped Crate and barrel you know that was a find 🎅

I love these, the go perfectly with my Christmas decor and will be perfect for my annual Christmas party. 

I found this pewter wine dish for 2.05 from Wilton Columbia. I love it! It's in French, it says a dinner without wine is like a day without sun.  I have to agree!

I thin my favorite thing of all is this bird and feather scarf I found, 1.48. Sooo cute and so in style right now.  I'm seeing bird prints and feathers everywhere and I love birds! And feathers 🎄

I picked up this cool pair of UGG leather boots for my older son, he's in college but he loves it when I pick up cool stuff for him.  I bought him the suede UGGS a few times for Christmas and they go for 150-200 so these are probably not cheap either. Score!  I had a great time, I love to look and found some things too. 

A little Early Christmas Thrifting

Well I guess it really isn't that early now is it?  Especially for decorations.  I didn't get much today but I did want to share this beautiful cranberry wreath I found at the Salvation Army.   It was 30% percent off on Bric-a-brac day so I got a great deal on it too.  It is Pottery Barn and still has the tag with it and the hanger ribbon is still wrapped in plastic so I don't think it has ever been used.  It's very pretty, reminds me of a Martha Stewart cranberry wreath project a few years ago that I wanted to do but the beads for it would have cost about 80.00.    Too much for one wreath for me.  This one is so pretty, the berries are glass so it is a solid wreath and the beads are strung on wire.
It's 12 inches across.    It was priced at 1.69 with 30 percent off so I paid 1.11 cents for this wreath which would be a great deal on a napkin ring at Pottery Barn, lol!

A little update:  This exact wreath is being sold online at EBAY for 44.00 plus 8.00 shipping! Nice to get mine for a little over a dollar ; )

Being Thrifty, not just thrifting!

I have been wanting to get a pretty gel manicure.  They are a little pricey though, aren't they?  And I wonder about a product that I have to soak my fingers in for any length of time.   So I was looking around and have found the Sally Hansen Miracle Gel.  It is a gel that does not require a special curing light or soaking to remove the polish.   I received a bottle for my birthday last week and I thought I would give it a try.  At around 9 dollars a bottle for the color or 15.99 for the bottle of color and the necessary gel topcoat, it is a pretty nice deal compared to a salon manicure.

I liked this teal color my son picked out for me : )  I guess he noticed the teal I have been using around the house for decorating and remembered I liked it!   I probably would not have picked this color out for myself but I'm glad he did because I wound up really liking it.  

I always try to do thin coats so they dry really well even if I have to do an extra one for coverage.  I wound up doing 3 coats of this polish, shown below. 

I used the top coat to cure it and sat for awhile waiting for it to dry.   I did it in the evening and was up for a few hours so it did have a chance to dry.  Still the next day I wound up with several dings and scratches.   

 I smoothed them out with polish remover and then applied another coat to the ones that were damaged.  I had checked out a few websites and read that it helps to go outside for a few minutes so I did that.  That must be the trick because they held up very well this time.  

This is after 5 days, picture below and I think it did pretty well.  I actually did a lot with my hands, washed dishes, worked on beadwork, combed my dogs and kitty, my regular stuff.  I don't see it looking that great at 14 days but for me regular polish and topcoat usually starts chipping off in a day or two.  

I will definitely give Sally Hansen Miracle Dry another try and get some Red polish for Christmas.  Here is the link for a lady named Karen Falcon at imabeautygeek.com who blogged about it and shows all the beautiful colors there are.   She reviewed every other polish brand you can think of too so it's a lot of info!!  Probably too much for me.  

 (PS.  I am not associated with Sally Hansen in anyway or Karen, I just thought it would be fun to post my process and that someone might find it useful and a way to save some money : )

 

After 5 days, just started to chip a little at the thumb and the cuticle area on my index finger.  

Some thrifting..............found a treasure !

Oh my gosh I was so excited to find a pretty piece of Pyrex in a pattern I already had a piece of!! I had the mixing bowl which I found at the GW for 2.99 which was a great find about 10 months ago.  Today I found a small casserole in the same pattern at a different GW for .99 cents!  It is just adorable and I was thrilled.

  I had no plan to go thrifting today but I was running an errand for my husband and wound up right next to the GW and of course had to run in for a peek.  That's when found this piece, what luck !  Well I had to take a quick scan of dresses and shoes and found one of each.  I found a pair of brand new Sperry Topsider boat shoe wedge heels for 9.99.  This was such a great find, this shoe retails for around 90.00-100 dollars and I found a brand new pair for ten bucks.

One of the reasons I love thrifting : ). I found this dress too, I really like it and it was yellow tag so it was 50% off, yay!  It's a nice soft fabric in navy with the front hem shorter than the back. Very cute. I have faux top siders in navy sequins I got at target that will go perfectly with this dress.  Not a great pic but the dress really is very cute and is perfect for the weather we're having.  

Now I am really on the look out for a smaller china hutch to keep all my Pyrex and other pretties in.  It's a shame to keep them in the cupboard but for now that is where they shall remain.  I am hoping to find one I can paint a teal/turquoise blue.