The Squirrel Gets a Makeover

Awhile back I picked up a squirrel at Goodwill that I fondly named Mr. Squirrel.  I had every intention of giving him a makeover that involved white spray paint, and I finally got around to the project.  Here is the side by side shot of his before and after.

It took around 3 light coats to get his color to a crisp white where the icky “before” orange wasn’t showing through.  So the outcome wasn’t too shabby for a $2.00 goodwill find turned sleek and charming nut-eating accessory.  I have been working on accessorizing my long and bare set of dressers and used Mr. Squirrel as a jumping off point.  I sat him on a stack of books that coordinates with the amazing quilt my hubby’s grandmother made us for our wedding.  I love the titles of the vintage books: “Jellybean”, “The Green Coat”, and “The Amateur Photographer’s Handbook”, they make me smile!  I threw in my Ball canning jar of sentimental wine corks from this post, and topped it off with some vintage letter tiles perched on a scrabble tray.  It looked a little something like this:

It’s not perfect yet, but it is a start!      

Diamonds in the Rough: Another Goodwill Success

Yes, they are out there!  The diamonds in the rough of the cluttered goodwill shelves, and I have proof!  On a recent goodwill excursion I picked up some pretty sweet finds, and the price….even sweeter! I have become quite an expert at perusing through shelf upon shelf of other people’s donations to find some real beauties.  Exhibit one: give me some salt n’ peppa!

I found these two shakers for $1.00 and snapped them up! I absolutely adore the raised S and P on the top and the versatility of their shiny white finish.  Also a plus was the band of texture on the bottom.  I can see these on my table for both fancy and casual affairs.

Now in the words of Jay Z it’s on to the next one, or four.  I’m talking plates people! 

I found these wonderful salad plates for 50 cents a pop!  It’s becoming quite the trend to stack your plates for your place setting using mismatched plates.  However, as it always goes, if I can be trendy for $2.00 I am there!  I absolutely love these yellow china plates and there were 8 available.  However, the two I picked out were the only ones with good coloring that hadn’t faded into a weird brown color, boo!  Anyhoo I also picked up two mismatched blue plates and now have made it my personal mission to search for more eclectic blue salad plates.  My dishware is white and many of my serving trays are light blue so I think the dark blue and light yellow will make a nice pop to any tablescape!   

Last but not least is another creature I picked up with all intentions of giving him a fabulous makeover. 

I have named him Mr. Squirrel.  I don’t know why I feel the urge to name all my animal accessories, like Hootie, I guess I am weird like that.  I also name all the fish I catch ice fishing…..it could be an obsession. Mr. Squirrel came with a price tag of $2.00 so he was sold, done and done!  So for a grand total of $5.00 for the whole day I didn’t do half bad if I do say so myself!