GRANDPARENTS

I have wonderful news!!!

My husband and I are grandparents for the first time.  We have a precious new granddaughter

  born on 

October 26th 

she weighed 8 lbs and 10 ounces

and 22 inches long.

It has been a bit of a roller coaster ride around here because just when the high of being a grandparent hit along came a low.  After a few short hours of being born she developed breathing problems and had to be air lifted to a near by hospital to a NICU.  

I have no photos to share with you because we aren't allowed to take photos,hold or touch her.

The hospital is an hour and half drive from our home. If you notice that I'm MIA for a little while, you'll know we are spending time with our precious grand baby and her parents.

We are thankful for the Lord watching over her so far and praying for healing to this precious little girl.

GETTING READY FOR THE HOLIDAYS WITH TRHRIFY FINDS

With the holidays fast approaching, now is the perfect time to begin collecting items. Thrift stores are wonderful places to shop. You can find high end items for low prices. This morning I had the opportunity to shop at my local thrift store, and they were putting out Christmas items.

Last year I started a collection for our living room using silver and blue.

I was very happy to find more items to add to my collection. Here are a few of the things I found.

 

Snowflakes, icicles, ribbon and noel ornament.

I also found another mercury glass snowflake candle holder.

Last but not least napkins, they'll work great with the dishes and chargers from last year.

 Have you found any great deals lately?  Have you started your holiday shopping and planning yet?

LIVING ROOM REVEAL

It's been almost a year since I told you about the search for a new couch for our living room.  For the most part the living room has been done for a few months already. I've been waiting to reveal the room to you because I'm still working on reupholstering the second wing back chair.(We've had a busy summer and fall.)  I've kept you waiting long enough, and will reveal the room to you almost complete.

I wanted a sofa in a neutral color, one that won't go out of date as fads come and go. After much searching here's what we finally found on sale with an additional 10 % off the sale price. 

The sofa came with geometric design pillows,

ugly according to my taste.

No problem.... I just whipped up a few new pocket pillow covers.  Read my diy instructions for making pocket pillows if you'd like to make your own.

Here's the old and new sofa.

The first thing I found that gave me a jumping off point for the room was this rug from Tj Maxx for $29. I wanted to incorporate some new colors. It also gave me the idea for adding circular items to the room.

 

This purchase inspired me to apply a new paint color to the two existing burgundy colored walls.

Using the "what you have" motto: I decided to use left over paint from our master bedroom makeover and the beige that was on two of the exiting walls in the living room.

 New paint color for the walls.

Yah! Much softer cooler colors!

The next thing was new curtains for the room.
After shopping, I found some that would work great for the room, but now I needed new curtain rods. Since I'm thrifty this gave me another DIY project ... the curtain rods .

You can imagine the excitement I had while shopping a few months later, when I found a smaller rug with the exact pattern of the rug under the coffee table.

The next large purchase to come into the room was a Christmas gift from my husband, a new coffee table.

Now for the accessories:
Adding the accessories to the room was fun and added the finishing touches.  Most of the accessories for the room where from garage sales and thrift stores.

Wall Art

I found these plate chargers for 99 cents at a thrift store and thought they'd work great above my newly reupholstered chair.  See the repeat circular element in them.

This $2.99 Goodwill shelf was hung in the entry area for guests to hang coats on. Once again, I was excited to find accessories just perfect for this self second hand for a total price of three dollars. The little lamp was the perfect circular shape as well.

New art work ($29) for above the sofa was discounted because of a small ding in one corner, nothing that a little touch up paint couldn't take care of! 

Lighting

The Goodwill lamp that got a makeover, 
take note of the circular/swirl pattern on the shade.

More Accessories

 This display was placed on the the cedar chest and curio cabinet.

Here's a glimpse back to what I started with. 

and the after.

After with a few fall accents.

A few simple changes of pillows and table top change the look for fall.

Thrifty Parsonage Living

BABY SHOWER DECORATIONS

Recently I told you that I'm going to be a grandmother soon.  Yes! both of our daughters are expecting

BABIES.

We had a baby shower for our youngest daughter a few weeks ago.

I was asked to help with the decorations for the event.  I thought it would be fun to share a few photos from the day, along with a diy anyone can do.

Close up view of the banner.

Guest Book Table

The guests were asked to guess the number of almonds in the baby bottle as a little game.

The trees and tent arbor where decorated with

hanging lanterns.

The table sat under a tent that was decorated with lanterns and a clothesline hung with baby clothes.  I used little buckets to place mints, animal cookies and chocolate covered pretzels in.  The gender of the baby isn't known yet so I used pink, green and yellow for the colors.

The pretzel sticks were a big hit.  They were coated with melted white chocolate and then rolled in sprinkles.

I've made these cute mints for other showers.  

They are a simple DIY project.  All you need are the ingredients shown below.

I used powder sugar and a little milk to make the glue to hold them together.

The diaper cake I made as a gift for the mother-to-be was also part of the table decor.

We are anxiously anticipation the birth of our

first grand-babies.  I'll keep you posted on their arrival.

Have a great day!