Giddy giddy giddy!

Once again, I've been away too long. Working full time and keeping up with TWO houses is over rated ;-)

I still have a post about CHRISTMAS in my drafts...stay tuned. It will appear...better late than never...

For now - I have to share my most recent find. A mid century, Danish modern, Lane record cabinet (record...as in vinyl...album...old school). Why would I want that you say? Well dear crafters - an album in it's cardboard jacket is 12"x12"...coincidentally, scrapbook paper is 12"x12". See where this is going?

My Christmas gift from the hubs was his silence and cooperation while I redo my office. Granted it's mid-March and I haven't started on my office yet, but it's because i'm working on a million other things. However, when I happened upon this cabinet, it wasn't going to wait for the redo...it was going right into the back of my truck to wait for that redo!

These are not my photos, nor is this my cabinet (although it is identical to mine - minus the labels for the slots - I guess that makes it mostly identical, but not really identical). These photos are from the website of a fantastic vintage shop over in St. Pete - it's called Paper Street Antiques the owners were recently featured by Apartment Therapy if you're familiar with that awesome website. At any rate, if you're ever in the Tampa area, you should stop by their store! You can look at their inventory online, and DROOL - they have the most fantastic stuff! I will be making a trip to the West Coast (of Florida that is) very soon to see it all for myself! They are selling it in their shop for $129.

So anyway, I bought this same Lane cabinet after it popped up at my not-so-local Habitat for Humanity ReStore. They were selling it as a magazine rack (kids...LOL what's a record?) Even though it's not something I grew up with, I knew exactly what it was - they actually had two (the second was smaller and very plain, and i'll probably kick myself for not picking it up as well at some point). I snagged this beauty for $30 + tax. 

I will be using mine to store my scrapbook paper and smaller photo albums. It could be used for magazines or cookbooks in the kitchen (the smaller one would have been great for the kitchen - it was bench height - put a cushion on top and your cookbooks in it - fab! Too bad my kitchen isn't big enough for it - and it was $25 at ReStore).

Anywho - I was SO excited about this purchase I had to share. I was thinking about painting it, but now I think i'll just clean it up - it's in great shape, so maybe i'll just keep the original finish (which looks just like it does in the above photos).  You'll see mine here once I take photos (it's still in my truck) and get it into my newly decorated office (whenever that happens).



Deals deals deals...

Would you believe I really haven't done any after Christmas shopping?  Today I went to Michael's with a friend at lunch time and bought a Christmas book for Georgia for next year...and some chocolate covered sunflower seeds for me. Then I met a girlfriend for dinner and zipped on over to Beall's afterward - not really to shop, but rather to see if they still had the Quiksilver flip flops that I got my brother for Christmas (a size too small). They did! $24, on clearance for what? $8.80. Sold. I actually bought 2 pair. The 2nd pair has the same design as the Quiksilver USB flash drive I bought him for his birthday - I just thought it was funny, so I bought them. Those were $6. Then I picked up 3 big containers of chocolate covered sunflower seeds - because they were 70% off and dang it they're yummy! Even at 70% off they were still $4.50 each. My annual treat :-)  I also snagged a woven / straw Quiksilver sun hat, a glittery 4th of July tee shirt for Georgia and a blown glass starfish ornament to put away for next year. 

I also conned Mr. P into popping into Pier 1 before we went to do the weekly BJ's shopping trip as I had seen a few Christmas things on their website that I wanted. The online inventory checker is not 100% accurate, but I did get some good buys and they had half the store on clearance, I stuck to my little holiday list though. I picked up some mini reed diffusers in holiday scents, lip balm, body wash, hand soap, and a couple other little things. They did not have the stocking holders that I wanted - I realized sort of last minute this year that my "stocking holder" was no longer available and I didn't have a place to put the socks this year! They used to get hung (via large twisted paperclips) on the three panel folding rattan screen that used to be in my living room...and now isn't. Instead I have a 4x4 Expidt bookcase. So now i'm on a mission to find stocking holders. If I don't find what i'm looking for without spending a fortune, I suppose i'll resort to Command hooks.

I hope you had a wonderful holiday season! Happy New Year!

The early bird gets the...

DEALS! Yes, the early bird gets the deals. It dawned on me the other day...I should be shopping year round for the various "drives" we have at work. There's always the food drives, sometimes a drive for the local BETA house, school supplies, and of course Toys for Tots. This year I was very last minute on my Toys for Tots shopping and I didn't get as much as I would have liked because well...it was expensive. So I've already started rounding things up for 2012.

Today I went to Beall's Outlet hoping to snag the remaining FL Gator flags, but alas...I snoozed and losed. No flags. But I snagged a cute sweater for myself - it was 50% off. I had to wander the clearance aisle of course - you just never know what might be there. Frankly, not a lot today. Then I saw the rack of kid stuff on clearance that didn't have a giant "Clearance" sign on it. Sweet!

I picked up a backpack for $3, 3 themed school supply sets for $1.25 each (Spiderman, Dora and Disney Princess), and a mesh bag full of sand toys for $1.79. In the Christmas clearance section I picked up a cute toddler book for Georgia next year. It's My Little Pony Christmas something or other and it has little tiny lights that light up and twinkle in the back. It was $1.49. Picked up a couple of other things for stocking stuffers.I figure I did well - I mean my sweater was originally $16.99...throw in the tax and you're at the $18 I paid for all of it. 


If you support Toys for Tots or pick Angels off the tree, or fill shoe boxes for the homeless or to send goodies overseas for our troops - I highly recommend peeking at what is in the clearance section of the stores you shop in - stores don't always clearance "junk" they clearance "last one" and "returns" and "making room for more new stuff" you just have to look thru the junk to find it - make some one's Christmas!

All that glitters...

All that glitters is not gold...except when it is! I needed shirt boxes to finish my Christmas wrapping so I hopped in my trusty blue steed and ran up to the Dollar Tree to pick some up - as luck would have it, the shopping plaza wasn't particularly busy and I parked right in front of the store. Crazy!

After grabbing my boxes, I decided to bebop on in to Ross next door and see what I could see. Good decision on my part - I scored a Quicksilver tee for my brother for $6.99 and 2 Guayabera shirts for my grandfather - he loves those things. Both on clearance for $13.99 ($60 retail for each). One is black with 4 cream stripes in the front, the other is dark brown with 2 cream stripes. Nice looking shirts I have to say...and can't beat the price. 

  

 

 Evidently these are like a Charlie Sheen thing? Maybe he wore them on whatever that show was that he got himself booted off of...I never watched it.

Moseying on down the plaza I checked out the Beall's Outlet and scored myself a new Florida Gator flag - funny, just this last week I said "I need a new Gator flag" - my blue and orange flag is now faded purple and peach - compliments of the Florida sun. I found my new one in the men's underwear section in a bunch of clearance items. It had a pink "dot" so it was 50% off...$6. Sold! I will probably go back up there Friday (I get an additional 15% off on Fridays) and pick up the other 2 if they're still there - hello e-bay :-) 

After that, I went to Goodwill - because you never know. I made my regular rounds looking for my usual items of interest and found nothing...then I was sort of forced down the chrome rack "aisle" because of the party of 12 that shops together and stands there not knowing what to do. This aisle usually has broken stuff, open packages and the stuff from Target on it. I stopped in my tracks. A pair of sparkling gold finials (not sure what else I would call them) - sort of like mercury glass. $1.99 each. MINE! 

 

 

 Not overly exciting (to most) but I also scored 3 bundles of wood "clip" hangers - the type for pants and skirts. I hang most of my clothing to dry to keep it from shrinking, to save money and to keep the color longer and using the plastic hangers that the stores send home with you is all well and good, but the Florida sun is a killer on the plastic. They get brittle and break really fast so when I spied the wood and metal hangers - 3 bundles of 5 for $1.99 each bundle, SOLD. Love them - I found them on a website for $2.95 for a set of two. 

Hangers make me happy. :-)

Get your GroupOn....

Do you shop Groupon? If you don't you should.  Go here to sign up - it's FREE, it just gives you access to good deals. Trust me - totally worth it!


I used Groupon to do some of my Christmas shopping. What? Yep - they had a deal for 50% off at Old Navy. Well, really it was pay $10 for a Groupon worth $20 in-store. Gladly! I bought 2 (there was a limit).


Groupon - it's a cross between Group and Coupon. Basically, they throw an offer out there and when enough people buy into it, it's "on" - in the event that there aren't enough people buying in to it, you just don't get charged for it. They also have awesome customer service, so no worries!


Mr. Paisley and I will also be going over to Deland to visit the reptile house - with a Groupon that is good for 2-for-1 admission. 


Other recent deals I have taken advantage of:


$5 for $10 at our local Dairy Queen
$10 for $20 at our local Dairy Queen (will be using that for a birthday cake - mmm ice cream cake!)
$10 for $20 at our new Twistee Treat (this one you actually take the Groupon and they give you a gift card, most of the time the Groupon is used more like a coupon and you have to use the full value in one transaction)
$10 for $20 at Bento Cafe (I got here for lunch frequently, if I get a Bento Box and a side of edamme it's $16 so even if I don't spend the $20, I still saved $6)


They do all kinds of offers, in cities across America - see if they're up and running near you! I check out the deals here in Central FL and near the Robin's Nest in TN.  


Some deals I've gotten thru Groupon for TN have been 2-for-1 admission to Country Tonite show and $10 for 2 adult movie tickets, 2 large drinks and 1 large popcorn at the little movie theater right down the street (which is awesome by they way - not only are the concession prices reasonable, but they also have $.25 refills on the drinks AND popcorn - ANY SIZE! - I don't know about your part of the world, but here in Central Florida - it would cost Mr. Paisley and I $30 for 2 movie tickets, 2 drinks and a popcorn - which is why we never go LOL)


PS today's Groupon is $10 for $20 at Old Navy again ;-) RUN

I love moments like these...

Mr. Paisley and I were out Christmas shopping and we popped into a super fantastic store that i've mentioned here before - Lightstyle of Orlando. Aside from the most amazing selection of lighting, they also have artwork, some furniture, accessories, rugs...you really never know what you're going to find, but it will be great. There are also some smokin' deals to be had in the clearance section. This particular day there were some fantastic pendant lights for under $20 (among many other things). I was looking for candle sconces, but didn't find exactly what I was looking for...but I did find this -

Look familiar? Unexpected Score - indeed.  Please note that Lightstyle had it on sale for $49.95. I bought it back in July...for $6.99 at Ross.

I love finding things that give me that "atta boy!" affirmation of my mad shopping skills...

Garden score

So we stopped by Lowe's and they had some really great stuff on the clearance rack. I went looking for mums for my three large flower pots sitting in the front flower bed. Large mums are crazy expensive in Florida and they weren't out when I was in TN.  Imagine my surprise when there was a 7' rack stuffed with 1 gallon pots of lavender mums! For $1 each! ONE DOLLAR. Now the lavender ones don't scream fall to me, and they are a little dull as far as color goes, but hey, Mr. Paisley chose to do the flower beds in a bunch of shades of purple with a little white thrown in for good measure back in May and being Florida, everything is pretty much still growing well. The multi-colored petunias that were in the pots is what crapped out and that's all I was replacing.  Why were they $1 you ask? All the "current" blooms were dead, however the plants were full, lush and LOADED with buds for the next round of blooms. Sold. I loaded up 6 in my cart, plus a flat of some little fringe petal flower in purple and white that was $3 (18 in the flat) I don't know why these were on the rack, maybe it was the one that looked a little wilty - the rest were just dandy. Into my cart they went and for a little more height I paid full price ($3.49) for some multi-color leaf plant that sort of resembles a Croton, but the leaves are a dark green at the edges with pinky purple streaks in the middle. I ended up putting these in the middle of my pots and surrounded them with the flowers from the flat. The mums ended up in my new urn and in the tree line flower bed. 

Here are photos as of 6:06pm - a lot of the blue daze flowers have already closed up for the day, but you can see how much of the May plantings are still there and doing well!

Recent finds...Updates, the usual.

I've been away too long. Lots going on. Not enough hours in a day.

There's some drama involving Robin's Nest. There's issues with the truck. I got rear ended - so now there's issues with the car. On top of that, my parents have been in and out of town and when they're out, we keep their dogs. 

I haven't had time to shop...not a bad thing really. However, I do have a few things I picked up somewhat recently that I thought I would share.

How about a pair of Ralph Lauren (Chaps) throw pillows for under $4 each?


One is a hunter green cable knit sweater pillow.


The other is a large square pillow - cream with leather trim.

I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that they are leftover stock from last year because I can't find the sweater pillow in the rectangular shape online (nor the dark green color) and the leather trim pillow has gone from tan leather to dark brown leather for this season. Actually, I can find either of them anywhere online. They are CHAPS Home - which I did find mention of - evidently earlier this year it because a Kohl's exclusive line...who knows. I just liked the pillows. It comes in cashmere or linen. On the RL website it's $395 for the linen and $595 for the cashmere! WHAT?! I mean, they are LARGE as far as throw pillows go, but my goodness. I'm pretty sure I paid about $600 for my entire bedroom furniture set...DELIVERED. $600 for a single throw pillow? Yikes.

You can see the leather trim pillow HERE on Ralph's website. I do love his designs. I love them even more at $4.


What have you found lately? Point me to your blogs!

Another contender for Nifty Thrifty Tuesday over at Coastal Charm!

Score! Showing off my mad shopping skillz again

Today I took a friend of mine shopping. We did AWESOME!

A little back story - my friend is going thru a rather unpleasant divorce and there are young children involved and it's just bad. She hasn't worked full time since she had the first baby and has only had a couple of short term part time jobs in between - then the out of the blue divorce nastiness and the economy she hasn't been able to find a job, the not soon enough to be ex isn't giving her any money. She's just having a really hard time right now. So last week I get a call for an employment reference for her - she got the job! So excited for her! Of course will the toll the divorce and not seeing her kids has taken, she's super skinny now and none of her work clothes fit. Lucky for her, the new job is business casual and it's full time, but they only work 4 days a week (seriously? *I* want that job!) so as a celebration - I asked her to let me take her shopping for a couple of new outfits. 

So in preparation for today's trip, I went thru last week's newspapers and scored 2 $10/$25 no exclusions coupons for JC Penney. Now if you've ever shopped at JCP you know they practically give away stuff with their clearance prices. Plus they were having door buster deals from 9am-1:00pm today. Sweet - that was our first (and turns out ONLY) shopping stop! I also found a 20% off 1 item coupon for Stein Mart and a 20% off purchase coupon for Macy's - all good on sale items. Macy's was also valid on clearance.

She texted me that she was on the way over at 9:38am - she arrived around 10:05, we left the Paisley Cottage around 10:20. We were done shopping (including drive time from my house to the mall) at 11:33am and then I took her to lunch at Smokey Bones for some yummy BBQ (and free Kettle Chips from checking in on Four Square on my phone - I love free...).

Back to shopping. I swear we spent 15 minutes in the parking garage trying to adjust the seat belt in the stroller for her toddler. We finally walk into JCP and as luck would have it right into the women's section - woo hoo! So we head to the clearance racks first - they had some super cute stuff I have to say.

After 1 quick trip to the dressing room - she picked the following:

• silver gray dockers pants ($6.70 after the clearance discounts and coupons)
• green / gray plaid peasant Henley top (sort of a cross between a peasant blouse and a button front Henley) $9.52
• gorgeous sheer magenta / purple top with cream color crochet trim (ANA brand) along the neckline and double layer flutter sleeves $7.15
• total for that purchase $24.89
• khaki Levi's pants $5.96
• ANA brand beautiful emerald green silky tank top with a keyhole neckline and ruffle edge along the neck (will look amazing with those silver gray pants) $5.60
• ANA brand tan chino skinny pants $4.97
• total for that purchase $17.60

Are you serious? 


$42.49 for 3 outfits!  


JCP also prints your total savings on the recipes - #1 was $101.47 savings! #2 was $92.63 savings!


Grand total of savings $194.10


That's 83% off - I was totally planning on spending $100. She wouldn't pick out anything else. She hates "charity" - I don't see it as charity, she's a friend, I can afford to help her out, so of course I want to. The fact that I can put her in 3 outfits for less than it costs me to fill up my gas tank every week is just CRAZY! I know she will enjoy them and wear them proudly to work next week and of course I wish her the best with the new job - I know it will make a HUGE difference for her and for that, i'm thrilled and excited for her.

I'm also super stoked at the savings! Proof that just because you aren't rich, doesn't mean you have to shop at Walmart, you can buy brand name clothes for next to nothing, BRAND NEW for less, you just have to know where to look. 


Here are stock photos from the JCP website of some of the items (some aren't found online)

 these are the Dockers silver gray pants -

 The emerald green tank - love it... (with a little cardigan or blazer of course for work)

The crochet trim sheer top - this is the funky periwinkle / cobalt blue color, the don't have the purple on the website. The store had it in yellow, peach, a floral print, the blue and the purple. I must say, the blue was prettier in person LOL.

The Ana skinny pants - they have some super cute top stitch details too.