The details of the deck.

OK, well if it tells you anything, it's midnight and I'm just now posting because I've spent the evening on the deck again. One of my best friends came over tonight to chill outside with us and we ended up spending three hours out there. Ahhhh...heaven.

I wanted to show you some of the details of the transformation so maybe you can grab some of these deals while you can. This is the only good thing about the summer stuff disappearing in July -- clearance baby. Run! Don't walk!!

The first deal was the lights I got for the pergola. They were in the Smith and Hawken section at Target, on clearance for $10 a set:

What kills me is I've had a set of these for years, but took them apart and don't know where I put the lights. (I used the twine balls for filler inside.) Ah well, $10 each isn't too bad.

I hid the extension cords down the columns by spray painting the cords (ummm...is that allowed??) and then using little bits of cord covers I spray painted as well. No one will never notice them:

I have to take care of the little details like this. It will drive. me. mad. otherwise.

The lighting on the table is simple, 50 cent Ball jars from Goodwill, filled with sand:

They had to be Ball jars -- in homage to my alma mater Ball State University! (Double pound to the chest.)

My little jars were in the dollar spot at Target a few months ago. Oh, how I love you dollar spot:

Kisses to you dollar spot. Hugs. Smooches.

The deck box is double the size of our old one and was another Goodwill find for $30. That's a lot for a Goodwill purchase for me, but this would be more than $100 in the stores:

Can I mention how perfectly it matches the brown paint? I mean, it was meant to be folks. I did a little happy dance when I found it. Over a deck box. Issues.

The rug was $13 (I think) at Lowe's -- love it! It was my color inspiration. Just wish it was a tad bit bigger:

The pots I already had and the flowers were clearanced out because they were about to die. (Look for these -- they just need water!) Did you know you can use stain on plastic? You can!:

I stained these years ago to make them a bit deeper and they've held up perfectly. Took about five minutes each.

The new light was from Lowe's and was $22:

Adorable!

These shutters were so easy I promise any of you could make them:

AND unbelievably cheap. I wanted them to match the cottagey shutters we have on the front of the house so they needed to be uber rustic. I found the perfect materials -- fence posts!:

They were something like $1.68 each and were six feet tall, just slightly shorter than what I needed. I used three on each side for the double windows and two on each side for the single window:

I just cut pieces of the posts to the size I needed and measured one foot from the bottom and top:I used liquid nails and a nail gun to attach the slats, but you could use nails and hammer them together. If you make your measurements, Lowe's or Home Depot would make your cuts for you. I love the detail at the top:

The planters were from Goodwill. Surprised? No? They were $2.99 and started out like this:I spray painted them with outdoor paint and they ended up like this:

I don't know if I'll plant anything in them this year or not. I may go ahead and do it because I know flowers will completely finish off the space. Loverly.

I hate when I love Walmart. I really do. I can't stand that place, but always find something I must have. Ugh. These were TEN BUCKS each on clearance:

Can you even believe it??? I'm sure I'll find a great spot for them inside during the winter too. Adorable. For now, I've just put tea lights in them:

Our "summery" pillows were from Wally World as well, for $10:

Just don't go buy any at my Walmart -- I need to go get a couple more. Back off!! Please.

Our tables are really plant stands. I didn't want to spend much and I didn't want them to be huge. These are perfect at $12 each:

I bought the cork thingamabobbers to put inside for a flat surface and they work great! I tied them down to make them a little more sturdy:

And for entertaining outside, you need plastic that looks like glass to drink cool beverages out of. These perfectly ca-uuute glasses were on clearance at Meijer for $1.25 each!:

No evening outside is complete without Summer Beer (at least for me this summer) -- it's soooooo good people! Equal parts Diet Squirt, light beer, tequila and one can limeade or lemonade concentrate. Amazing! I hate anything diet and detest beer, and this is my most favorite drink ever!

Many of you asked about the furniture and the pergola -- the furniture was from Craigslist and the seller got it through Amazon.com I believe. The pergola was from Menard's, but we only found two left and had to call two stores. So if you have one nearby, call NOW!!

Have a great weekend! I'll be back later with a big announcement I can't wait to share with you all! It won't be a big deal to you, but it is to me. And NO, I'm not pregnant! :)

I can't resist a par-tay!

I wasn't going to post tonight, but I can't stand missing a good party, so here I am! The Nester is having a Price Your Space party, so I wanted to share how I completed our entire master bedroom for what I think is a pretty good price. Many of you have seen this room about 15 trillion times, so bare with me.

Our four poster bed is one of my favorite pieces of furniture in our house. As we built our house, I stalked it at Bombay Company for about six months. Then I stalked it a bit more for about a year after we moved in. I kept asking the staff if it was going to be discontinued any time soon, my heart all a-twitter with fear that my budget constraints would keep me from getting it:

All told I waited almost two years. Ughhhhhhh people. I should get an award for that kind of patience. Bombay used to send out 40 percent off coupons and finally, I got one at the right time. I got this beauty for $600! King-sized, four poster bed folks. For $600. Yummy.

The bedside lamps in that pic are gone now though. I spent $20 each on new lamps, spray painted them and stenciled the lampshades for some bling:

Our fireplace used to be peachy grodiness and we spent about $115 to redo all the tile. You can see the before here but the beautious result is this:

Don't worry, I swear the brass in on my list to paint. (I know I keep saying that.)Speaking of the fireplace, I shared how I made my wallpaper art here. This filled the large space over the fireplace for around $20 (I already had the wallpaper):

This armoire was one of my first pieces of "real life, post-college" furniture, and it was a gift from my Mom. It was completely countrified, but I spent $10 to redo it and now we really love it: The dresser is an antique that was my great-grandmother's. Sorry you can't see it well here, it's beautiful. I would have taken a new pic but our room is kind of a pit right now, so there. you. go. The mirror was a $10 garage sale find, the lamp was around $25 at Hob Lob:

The wall thingys were free from hosting a Southern Living party. The bedding was a STEAL on eBay. I waited till the end of the auction and scored it (the duvet, two shams and two pillows) for $25. YEP. They lowered the price at the end of the auction, to get it sold. The other pillows were about $50 total at HomeGoods.

I made the drapes myself with silk fabric. I used a coupon and even with a ton of yardage (to make them super long) they were waaaay less than $100. I don't remember how much they were, but I know I would never spend more than $60 on window treatment fabric:

Our side table was another after-graduation Target purchase, but I have no idea how much it was. We used to use it as an end table. The chair was a garage sale find for $15. I've never bought anything upholstered second hand, but this one I just fell in love with: My cutie fringy pillow was $7 on clearance at Sears. And my lamp was a thrift store find that I redid with spray paint and ribbon. It was $35, which is waaaay higher than I'll usually spend on a lamp, but I loved the shape of it:

(Sorry for the hodge podge of pics -- I'm taking them from a bunch of posts!)

I looked high and low for an affordable storage bench for the end of the bed, and finally just found these rattan chests on clearance for $55 each at Tar-jaaay:
Oh, and no bedskirt. Just a $10 fitted sheet. Thrifty is my middle name!!

The whole room adds up to a grand total of under $1200. It taken about five years to get it to this point. Not too bad to make our room the cozy, warm space that it is. OH! And paint -- so let's add on another $40. Please don't check my math skills, it's late. I'm not so good at that anyway.

To see more pics of the room, go here. And if you missed my last post, check out my table runner pillows! Lurve them!!

Retail therapy.

So I was in a deep dark depression the day after the concert. OK, it wasn't deep dark but it was like a shallow grey depression. I know. I know. I've already heard enough slack from my Hubby. I know.

It's just all the build up for months, looking forward to it, had a fantastic time...then it's done. Kaput. Sayonara. Kabosh. Buh bye. So on Tuesday, I took the Bub to daycare and decided to treat myself to a few hours in one of my favorite places to search for treasures.

Midland Arts and Antiques Market in downtown Indianapolis is absolutely amazing -- a massive warehouse, two huge floors chock full of all kinds of dreamy items you can spend hours and hours drooling over. I walked away with a few goodies that I'll show you at the end of this post, but I had to share some of what I found:

Isn't that fantastic? It was labeled a wine jug. I don't care what it is, I loved it.

I've seen these spritzer bottles all over lately, and this one was just loverly:
You like a bird cage, eh? Reheeeaally like them? Check this one out:

Wow. Just wow. It's like the Taj Mahal of bird cages.

Check out the handmade island it was sitting on. Ooooo la la!!:Those corbels and molding are killing me. I could die. Just. Die. (Die! Die! Die! Name that show!)
One shop had these huge letters from an old store sign:

Be still my heart:This pitcher and bowl were only $26 for the set. It killed me to walk away from them. Just beautiful. I had to pass them up, especially not knowing exactly where I would put them.

I loved this X bookcase. Looks like it belongs in the Ballard Designs catalog:

(It had a price to match though.)

Another massive bird cage:

I lurve the iron work on the base of this table!:

And on the front of this wine cabinet:
It was one of my favorites. I'm a sucker for any scrolly and old combo.

I thought this grape cluster light fixture was absolutely adorable!:

This old dress form was so cool. And look what the generic size for women's clothes used to be:

Funny how things change.

The place was overflowing with beautiful cake plates:

These glass orbs were another one of my faves. I was thisclose to getting a few for the guest room, but I'm still not sure on the color I'm going with. I hope they will be around for another week or so just in case:

This apothecary was breathtaking. It was $8600 and I can't even imagine how old it is:And finally, the biggest bird cage I've ever seen:

I find you have to spend a good amount of time in an antique store -- you'll find a lot of (way overpriced) junk. You'll find many items you could find at Goodwill, (overpriced again.) And you'll find a few odds an ends thrown in you could get just about anywhere. There's also real antiques that are completely out of your price range, but if you take your time, you'll find some really great deals as well.

My routine is to case the whole joint, find a few items I love, then go back to find my favorites. (If they are not there anymore, I cry a little and then move on -- my mantra is if I was meant to have it, it will be there for me when I get back.)

So what did I get? Squeal!! I love them! Check out the milkman bottles and carrier I found for $26:

It even had flowers in it, but I added some wildflowers from the preserve in our neighborhood and some lillies from our yard:

GORG! I thought about spray painting it for a split second (quit yelling at me! I don't know what I was thinking!) but really love the rusty parts of it now:

It is antique, after all. I love that I'll have to be good at keeping fresh flowers in the house with this baby in the kitchen.

I had to get a big metal "S" from the old sign -- the front was missing, but I have a few ideas in mind:

I soooo wish the front looked like the back:

I love how chunky it is! And it was only $5!

And finally, you've seen them all over blogland and I couldn't resist these:

I don't even know if I like the whole fork and spoon thing coming back. I mean, I like it in all the other houses I've seen on blogs, but I don't know if they are me. Aren't they adorable though? I figured if anything, I'll sell them on Ebay. :)

Hope you enjoyed the tour! If you ever get a chance, get over to Midland. (And call me if you do!) You won't regret it!

Have a GREAT Fourth of July!! I'll be back later this weekend to either share our basement transformation or the start of the deck transformation -- we'll see what I get done first. ;)