Ruler of the Elves

I’m still working on getting some photos from the wedding corralled, so I thought I would share my quick thinking shoe project. Sometimes you have to be imaginative, as in the case of shoes for Pinky, possibly the cutest flower girl ever. Did you realize that it is extremely hard to find ivory colored shoes, anywhere? I didn’t, that is until I searched and searched and cried to store clerks at about a dozen shoe stores. Apparently, it isn’t the right time of year for ivory. (I thought that white shoes rule only applied to those dates after Labor Day.)

So, I became resourceful and found this cute pair of pink shoes at Walmart with the intentions of a makeover. They are cute, but kind of casual. Plus, pink shoes may look like sore thumb, er… toe, at the bottom of a beautiful ivory dress.

Enter stage right: a pair of scissors and a seam ripper. To make these kicks look a little more dressy, I gently removed the stitching along the bottom of the straps and carefully cut them off, trying to get as close to the shoe as possible, without actually cutting into the shoe. That wouldn’t have been pretty. Then, I took painters tape and secured it around the black sole of the shoes to keep the paint off. Yes, you heard me correctly. Spray paint. Ivory spray paint to be exact.

After several coats and a few questionable hours of waiting, they were finally finished and looked surprisingly good.

Sadly, they weren’t as comfortable as they were cute, so after a few minutes of wear and a sizeable blister, they were tossed aside for an old pair of white sandals.

Hey, you win some, you lose some.

This post is long over due and unfortunately, due to current events, I don’t have much time to update. Pinky has been under the weather with some kind of wicked bug (and no it’s not due to too much hard partying this past weekend. *wink*) Between the continual washing of bedding, clothing and child, added to school stuff, I have had little time to due much else.

This past weekend, we attended my cousin’s wedding and had a great time, which came and went by way too quickly. Pinky was the flower girl and although she was giving us a few worries during the rehearsal, she sure came through on the big day. Oh, and Ben & Katie did good too!

Hopefully, I will have a few more photos to share in the upcoming days.

Today we are headed out of town for a wedding in which a certain member of my little family is the flower girl. No, it’s not Chris you sillies. I hope that everyone has a great weekend! Good luck to Ben and Katie!

In the meantime, I leave you with this great wedding procession video. If you haven’t already seen this, there is really only one word to describe it. AWESOME!

At the beginning of our vacation, when we visited my sister, aka ATM, she shared with me a bunch of great deals she had picked up recently. Of course, being the thrifty girl that I am, I was totally envious of her fabulous finds.

First up, we have an amazing white bird cage (aviary anyone?) from Arhaus. Since ATM used to work there, she snagged this awesome piece for only $10. It was originally $40, but had been majorly discounted due to part of the top being smashed in. A few painted wooden dowels later and voila!

She also shared with me her brainy idea to make a 3 tiered serving dish. By grabbing a few pretty plates from the local Goodwill ($.50 each) and 2 shiny crystal candlesticks ($12) at an antique shop, she assembled this chic little server.

I was so excited about this $4 chair that she bought at an auction. It looks a little shabby right now, but with a little paint and some new upholstery, the baby will be a looker. I’ll make sure to get some photos of the final product, once it is finished.

ATM also grabbed this cool old window at an antique store filled with piles of ancient goodies. Lucky for her, the salesperson gave her a deal and dropped the price from $15 to $10. Score!

In addition to the stuff that I’ve already mentioned, there is more! Aren’t you jealous now?

-Approximately 60 discontinued fabric samples from Arhaus for free. (Normally they cost at least $40/yard at the store.)

-Deep blue magazine rack/table. Originally $199, but on sale for $134. However, she got it for $5 because one foot was broken and all it took to fix it up was some wood glue and a sharpie of similar color.

-Oh, and also a lamp and a glass bird vase which were both super cheap as well!

All of this talk about sweet deals makes me want to check out some of my own local antique/thrift stores to see if I can scrounge up anything fun. Have you found something cool for only pennies? Tell us about your frugal finds!