Thrifted

My new favorite activity: Thrifting!    Here are some of my recent finds.

Here is a strand of acrylic beads that I found at an antique mall for $8.  LOVE THEM!!!  Technically not "thrifting" but I still place it in that category

Here is a little carved wood peg shelf that I got at the thrift store for under $1...   I neglected to get a before picture so I took a picture of the back so that you could sort of see the dark wood color that it was before:

And this is after:.....  still not sure what I am going to do with it. :-)

I found this mail sorter at the same thrift store for $2.  It appears to be carved wood but is, in fact, plastic.
This is the before:

 This is the after:

This is completely not thrifting at all but since we are talking about spray painting...  I bought this "cut-out" vase (on the right in the picture below)  on clearance at Jo-Ann Fabrics for $5.  It was a dark hunter green and was really ugly (I also neglected to get a before pic on this one).  So I spray painted it with white primer and decided to leave it white, which highlighted the cutout detail:

A few years ago I picked up this "&" stamp printer block for $1 at an antique mall.  I have some that I kept their natural color, but this one I spray painted white.  I like how some of the old ink color shows through:

Here are 2 resin "plaques" (for lack of a better term) that I bought for $8 ea. at Good JuJu.  Not sure if this would be considered thrifting, but I do.   I bought them in this dark red/orange color with the intention of spray painting them an undecided color.  But when I got them home, they looked great with my wall colors so I left them orange.  I decided to split them up and put them in different rooms.

This one is in my master bathroom:

This one is in my living room:

I also bought this at Good JuJu...  I think that it was around $8, it looks better on, but you will have to wait for that picture.

I bought this dress at the thrift store for $3.  I think I am going to take off the bodice and just make it into a skirt:

I found this shelf at a "yard sale" that was being held at a Catholic School downtown.  It is made out of hobby wood or cheap pine and it was raw wood when I bought it.  I spray painted it white (which took many coats considering it was raw wood).  But it turned out great.  I have it in my son's room on a white wall and it houses his collection of GoGos.  I originally had these in an old printer tray that I hung on the wall, but I like the white shelf on the white wall so that the focus is on all the fun colors of the GoGos. 

Speaking of collections that my son has, here is another shelf that houses another collection.  I bought this shelf last year at a yard sale for $5 (I think?)  It was stained wood and I painted it green to match my craft room.  But when my son started this collection of Lego figures, I decided to move it up into his room.  I thought that I might have to repaint it, but it looks great on his orange wall and matches his night stand perfectly.  I hung it on the wall right next to his Lego table so that he can easily access his figures or "guys" as we like to call them.

I can't take credit for this one, but this is an old school chair that a friend of ours found in a dumpster.  SO we got this one for FREE and I love it!!!!

Here is another plastic "plaque" that I bought a year or 2 ago at Good JuJu.  I can't remember how much I paid for this...  I think it was under $10.  I didn't get a before picture,  but here is the finished product.  

The animals and flowers are still in their original colors.  the tree was a strange black/gray-ish color that wasn't pretty, so I taped off the flowers and animals and I spray painted the tree.  Here is the back that will give you a good idea of what the black/gray color looked like.

For the record....  the next 'upcycle' is a total RIP OFF!!!!   I completely stole this idea from Elsie on this post.  She has this same ceramic figure and spray painted it in this exact Watermelon color.  After seeing her original post about painting her figures, I stumbled onto the same owl ceramic figure in an antique mall that I bought for $4.  I bought the same color spray paint and made one of my own.  Do I feel shameful?  No... because I am fully willing to admit that I royally stole this idea...  down to every detail  :-)  And give credit to the person that I stole it from.

Here is the bottom, to give you an idea of what the figure looked like before it was painted.

This post shares with you 2 of my "loves": my new love: thrifting and an old love: spray paint.  I also like the idea that I am upcycling old things and trying to help save the environment with my decorating.... even if I am polluting a little with the spray paint :-)   Happy thrifting and spray painting!!!!