Gone Junkin'

i'm off to go get some junk!  want to see what i could come home with? 

Go HERE: estate sales

if you take a look at this auction, you can sign up with your address and get a notification of when and where you can go get your own bunch of junk!!! i bet your mister will be as thrilled to hear this as mine was last night! he could hardly stand it!  i think visions of "hoarders" danced in his head!  if you are on pinterest.com you KNOW why i have got to get to this auction and buy as much junk as possible! i mean, look at this stuff:

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if you're not in on pinterest, let me know! email me at chinamommy_04@yahoo.com and i'll send you an invite, 'cause you gotta be invited to our special group!!

xoxo

wish me luck with the junk gods!

Burning a hole in the ozone 1 spray paint can at a time...

Ok, here i am skiddin' in on 2 wheels... i promised i'd show you some on my spray paint goodness and... it's the 11th hour so here i am.

1st, junk waiting for paint!

2 little gold frames, now pink shabby chic goodness ready to go in the perfect little girls room!

(now in the the shop: chinamommy )

 set of 2 vintage shelves with perfectly aged mirrors!!

was ugly gold plastic (to the right of the pose doll in picture #1), now lovely lavender.

(soon to be in the shop)

Mmmmm, lovely brass chandelier from the late 80's, early 90's....

 now, ivory! 

 waiting for crystals and the hook up in my soon-to-be fancy laundry room!

In the shop NOW, teal wall shelf

no before picture, but it was gold...and it WAS ugly!!

again with the gold....

now with the orange and soon to be in the shop!

so, there ya go... a little of my sprayin' goodness!  we've had sunshine and low breezes here in MI, perfect spray painting weather!!

10 Random Things Friday...

1. My friend came over to spend a day with me crafting and talking.  The clock in my studio WAS an hour behind.  I looked at my watch and realized it was 1 minute PAST the time darling gets off the bus, I screamed and RAN up the stairs and out into my driveway (Darling gets dropped off at the private drive right before ours that is at the top of the hill) where my lovely neighbor was waiting with my sweet girl! Whewww!  As I stood chatting and explaining that a friend was over and we were distracted, said friend came out, pulling the door behind her and thus, locking us out!  I won't tell you how we got in, I don't want my secret to get out!

LOVE my crazy friends!!

2. I listed 3 re purposed Vintage Birds in my etsy shop yesterday...

3. I need to put myself on a strict schedule, this free-stylin' life is makin' me CRAZY!  I'm going to take a class at the local art college

I realize I am very fortunate to not have to work, but not having any structure at all is not so good for me...anyone else struggle with this?  

4. 

My buddy, my pal, my mental twin, my BFF is FEATURED in this magazine

~Christine~

go ahead, head over to her blog viewsbychris.blogspot and tell her 

CONGRATULATIONS!

5. I caved on my "no fake chemical laden creamers"

plus I had a .55 cent coupon!

6. When I was a kid I wanted to be a truck driver when I grew up because of this man and his monkey

BJ and the Bear!  Anyone else?

7. How were these pants EVER popular?

you can thank this man...

I'm proud to say I never even attempted this "style"

8. Taking our sweetie to see this movie tonight

9. Can't believe how FAST time flies when you are a mama!

Last week we went out to eat.  Darling announced she had to  go to the bathroom and she got up and went.  She went WITHOUT me...she didn't need my help!!  I said to the Mister "she's going to be 8 this summer, then she's going to be 10, then she's going to drive, then she's going to go to college and then some boy is gonna want to take her from us" then I burst into tears...

LOVE this girl more than I knew was possible!!!

10. If you ever see me wear any of the following shoes, please smack me

Have a GREAT weekend everyone!!

Yeah, I'm fancy and you can be too...

I got a new dress for the wedding we went to last weekend in WI.  It was a fitted jersey dress, the kind you gotta gotta GOTTA have a good slip for!  It's cute, it doesn't look so cute on the hanger, but it is!  I'd prove it, but i didn't TAKE ANY PICTURES.....

I wore it with my new necklace

So anyway, I got a really nice thick, fitted 1 piece slip and...left it hanging on the hook in my laundry room! Grrr!  The town the wedding was in had 1 store...Walmart.  The only 1 piece slips they had were XL and XXL,  I'm XS....

So what's a girl to do?

Buy a 2 pk of tank tops for $5, a pair of scissors for $3.27, and a sewing kit for $1.23.

Take the tank top and cut it right below the armpits.  I didn't do a DIY, this is the other tank that was in the pack...I used the black one for my slip.

stitch around the top (crappily, if you're like me!)

I bought another spandex tank top to go over the top of my "slip" to cover the seam and.... it worked!

Don't mind the hideous venetian plaster treatment behind me, that is going away THIS summer!

If that's not fancy enough for you, here's a little manicure tip if you don't have polish remover.  You know how your nails start looking like a white trash French manicure after a couple of days...

Here's my tip...CLIP!  

No remover?  Just clip the ends off!

FANCY!!

Tomorrow I'm headed out for a WHOLE day of thrifting!!  I've started painting some stuff, but the weather has NOT been cooperating.  I do have a couple things in my shop now...

a pink poodle

 and a 2 set collection: a love bird and distressed picture frame in aqua.

I'll be back to share my new treasures soon...

Got a dumpster? I'd like to dive in it....

You know that funky smell at Goodwill and Salvation Army? 

Kind of a musty, old shoe smell... Well, that's the way I smell right now! 

I've been hanging out at those places this week; me and the rest of the hoarders in town!  Now that I've been watching the show "Hoarders" on A&E, I look at everyone in those stores differently, you know, watching for the person with their cart full of butter tubs!  I will say that the one frustrating part of thrifting is not being able to walk in and find 25 things I'm looking for!  IF I find a couple, then it's a good trip!  It's not that instant gratification I happen to like...but then again, don't we all?

I just keep telling myself the hunt is part of the fun, but with gas going on $946,582 per gallon...it could put a damper on my daily hunting!! 

Here's a little sneak peak ...

from this:

(yep, that's grout in the tile!! Yeah for the Mister!)

To this:

The start of something really cute...

I should have taken a before....but here is a little turquoise eye candy

a couple ugly ducklings ready to be transformed

and

a couple new colors...

Do you like Satin or Gloss better? I'm kinda loving GLOSS right now...

Time to go get my kiddo off the bus... This day flew by and even though I started this post at 9:30 am.... it's now after 3:30! Gotta love the camera battery dying mid photo shoot!

Happy Hump Day!

Big Changes coming...

I thought I'd share with you some changes that are coming to chinamommy... not the blog (well, maybe some) or the person (ok, I AM getting my hair done tomorrow) but chinamommy the etsy shop!  My shop has NEVER been a great success.  If we had to count on my income we'd be wrapped up in the bubble wrap sleeping in the shipping boxes.  It's always been more for fun, but suddenly it wasn't fun anymore.  I would make and make and make stuff and then watch it sit and sit and sit... It was like my shop saying to me "Hey, very few people like what you do".  I don't say this as "Poor Me", I just say this because it's true and I needed to DO something about it.  When you see people that are highly successful it's almost ALWAYS because they are doing something they are totally passionate about.  Although, I have always liked what I've made, I've always had a nagging feeling that if I had to make 5,000 of whatever it is I'd end up in the fetal position!  Last week when I painted that orange mirror for our bedroom,

Darling said to me "Mom, we (WE!) should re-do stuff like that for your etsy store".  Have I told you what a genius my daughter is?

So, that's a little hint as to what you're going to see coming to 

chinamommy

I love the hunt, I love dreaming up the color combinations and I love makin' stuff!

Tune in tomorrow for a really cute tutorial and then on Wednesday I'll have some sneak peak's of new items headed into the shop!

I wanted to

Thank everyone for reading my blog, sharing it with friends and making comments!!  I REALLY appreciate it!

~Happy Monday~

Random Friday...

1. This is my backyard this morning

the picture is pretty bad, it's on super-duper zoom, but those are 5 deer in my backyard!  Yesterday 6 doe's ran down our drive! Theodore wanted to go show them who was boss..

2. It's 32 here, it's like a March heat-wave here in Michigan.  Did I mention it's raining also... and that my running partner just called and asked if it was ok if we skipped today.  BEST running partner EVER!


3. Cadbury eggs... love 'em or hate 'em?  

I happen to be in the 1st group... LOVE THEM (but only 1 at a time, they are sweet overload!!!)!  And at this fabulous website called "Instructables" they have a recipe to make your OWN! SHUT UP!  She even says it's easy!!

Homemade-Cadbury-Creme-Eggs

Check out this site to learn how to make EVERYTHING!

4. Are these the UGLIEST boots ever?  

No, they are not mine, nor will I be seen with the owner while he's wearing them.

Of course he wears them while ice fishing and you all know, chinamommy doesn't do sitting out in the cold on ice!


5. I am VERY confused by the show "My Life as Liz", is it a real show or is it a show that is pretending to be a reality show?  I know, if I have to ask I'm too old to be watching it and I am!  Plus it's on Mtv and didn't Mtv use to have music video's on it and do they even make "video's" anymore?  I have it on this channel because the local news girls are on and they make me want to put my head in an oven...


6. I'm going to let you in on the beginning of my slow decent into spray paint collecting

Don't worry, you won't catch me writing "chinamommy" on the side of trains, but you may see some repurposed items soon!

7. I found a couple of vintage children's books at the Salvation Army yesterday.

they are full of really cute illustrations!!

8. I spent yesterday at:

Hobby Lobby

Salvation Army

and

Goodwill, can you say GREAT day?!

Craft supplies at goodwill....for .99!

and if you could see the shelves of stamps that I already own, you would probably slap me on the back of the head.  OR, if you're also an artsy fartsy, you'd try to high-5 me, but remember, I just SHAKE!

9. Is this the life or WHAT?

10.  Speaking of "the life": Cashmere undies on etsy!

 get them here: sartoria

Have a great weekend! We're headed to a fish fry tonight with friends, which was insure an evening of IBS...

Saturday the Mister will put on those horrid white boots and I'm headed to a scrapbooking store with friends to spend the day working on the 9.2 billion photos of Darling I have!

Hope you have something fun planned!!