Boring Post

Pardon the boring post - I have a lot going on right now and blogging is not at the top of my list. I promise i'll be back - soon!

These are just a bunch of projects i've completed in the past - my little side business.

Goodwill Goodies

My mom and I spent an ENTIRE day shopping - I can't remember the last time we did that. I can't remember the last time *I* did that.

It all started because I nearly forgot about 2 $20 Groupons I had for Old Navy. I ran across them the night before they expired - cuttin' it a little close there! So going to Old Navy turned into a full day of shopping. Old Navy, Ross, Avenue, Joann ETC, Goodwill, another Ross. Throw in lunch at Steak n Shake and dinner at Long Horn and it was a very successful trip.

Today - it's Goodwill. I spent $14 and got a large crystal bowl with a silver plate rim (stamped ENGLAND), an awesome metal three tier basket (perfect for the soon to happen office make-over) and a wood mug holder (which I've been looking for). Oh and a cool silverplate platter / tray sort of thing that I will post as soon as I get around to taking a photo of it.

Pardon the mess by the door. Mr. Paisley has been doing some work on the truck as well as some electrical work for one of the neighbors and well...he's been dropping his bag by the front door.

 The basket is super cool. It's heavy and the baskets are deep. Reminds me of a smaller version of the ones they have at Michael's with the $1 ribbon and stamps tossed in! It has that cool round loop at the top - i'm thinking I might HANG it from the ceiling so it's not sitting on the new work surface. We'll see what I come up with. The mug holder was Pinterest inspired.

My mug holder only has 4 pegs...I think it's enough for my decorative edge scissors. I don't have 5000 pairs of them or anything :-) and really, I only use 1 pair. I'm also totally lovin' the cupcake stand with little containers of embellishments. Super awesome.

This is from ALLSORTS blog

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!

So in Pinterest type fashion...

It's only been...ummm well, over a year since I posted about my FREE spindles that I snagged on Craig's List.


You can read (or re-read) that post and my ride on the emotional roller coaster HERE I've had some projects on my mind during this uhhh past year and as any good thrifty trash picker knows, you can't always get what you want. At least not right away. My procrastination wait paid off this week! CEILING FANS! What? Yes, ceiling fans. There were THREE sitting on the curb at a house across the end of our street when I came home from work one night. I know Mr. Paisley hates not being involved in all the fun (ha ha), so I walked in the door and said "I have a project for you! Go get me the fans that are on the curb down the road" - he gave me that WTF look...you know the one.

Yeah, that look.


Then he walked out the door and came back with my treasures. He's a good man...I promise honey - as soon as I dig the spindles out of the storage unit I will have the fan scraps in the trash!


I saw these dragonfly pictures awhile back and thought I'd do a couple of these and then I took some photos of some random things made with spindles at a local antique mall. 

I have a three day weekend coming up - so i'm thinking it may be a spindle kind of day off :-)

I'd do it before then, but we already have plans in place for the weekends between now and then.


Photos to follow...of course.

Happy Birthday!

Wishing my "little" brother a very happy birthday -

Please donate

'Tis the season -

Earlier this year the wife of one of my colleagues was in the hosptial and it didn't look good. We sent a card wishing them the best for a speedy recovery and offering any help we could provide.

I didn't hear anything else about it. A few months ago this colleague became a coworker. I still didn't hear anything, and frankly, months had gone by and I didn't even remember anything about it.

He attended our department Christmas party with his wife. This was the first time I met Jody Green. Seeing her bandaged up and in a wheelchair still didn't spark my memory of this past spring. She was all dressed up for the holiday, she looked beautiful, she was happy, bubbly and a complete delight! Her eyes sparkled - I remember thinking to myself "I need to tell Jack how sweet and adorable his wife is next time I see him at the office".

Jody is a miracle and she needs our help - as with many people in tight spots, they would never ask for assistance, even though everyone wants to help! She's already reached her lifetime benefit from her health insurance. Everything is an out of pocket expense now. Can you imagine? I can - my husband could have been in the same situation after his accident in January of 2003. I can totally relate to how Jack and his family were feeling when Jody was first taken to the hospital. If you haven't been in that situation, count your blessings.

You can read Jody's story here at The Jody Green Project - you can also donate there or you can contact me.

We were lucky to have Mr. Paisley's employer behind us - they took care of a lot of things while he was off his feet for 6 months - 6 months, try to imagine waking up one morning and going about your regular business and just a few hours later something happens and you can't do anything for yourself for weeks...then months. Add to that not being able to work during that time. Then your insurance runs out. What would you do? How do you choose what bills get paid? How do you pay for surgery? Medication? How do you pay for home renovations now that you have to use a wheelchair? (again, Mr. P was lucky that he got OUT of his wheelchair, but when he was in it, we moved out of the Paisley Cottage and moved in with my parents - taking over their master bedroom - why? A wheel chair won't fit thru doorways in a 1940's house -) Obviously, not everyone has that luxury and in today's economy, i'm not sure we would have had the same financial support from Mr. P's company -

Enough rambling from me - if you can donate anything, please do.