Christmas Tour of My Home

So rumor has it there is going to be a Christmas 2010 Tour of Homes hosted by The Nester. Also joining the tour at Kelly's Korner.

So I decided to give you a Christmas tour of our Home Sweet Home.



Hello there, I'm Santa Claus, a new addition to the household. ThriftyAnnabella picked me up this past Spring on a Dollar General Clearance aisle. You'll have to excuse my price tag showing. My owner forgot to clip it off in all her busy-ness. Come on in and let me show you around a bit.





Here I am dressed in my red suit, posing alongside my wife. We are standing in the curio cabinet giving it a little Christmas cheer.



Sitting beside us are some of our little Elf friends. The owner of the house loves picking my friends up any time she sees one at a garage sale and we're so glad she gives them a new home.





If you look around you'll also see some of our Angel friends in various places. The newest Angel to join to household is the one dressed in burlap.



The dining room hutch is also adorned in it's Christmas finest. Sitting in front of the homeowners holiday plates is the start of her Christmas village collection and we can't wait to see how it grows. You'll have to excuse the crooked picture, my owner is still learning how to take straight ones. :D



Of course, there are lots of little fun goodies for the kids lying around. The homeowner picked these fun snowglobes up at clearance sales a few years back and the kids love to see them blowing snow.



Last, but not least, is the Christmas tree, all adorned and sitting in front of the dining room window for all to enjoy. This was taken just after she finished decorating it so she had not had a chance to move the boxes yet.

Well, I sure hope you enjoyed my tour of Annabella's place. I'm looking forward to the start of Garage Sale season and all the clearance sales to see what new friends and decor will be joining me for next year.

Until next time. . .

Santa for ThriftyAnnabella

Another Birthday Party

December is not only the month we celebrate Jesus' birthday but also my baby girl, Clair's birthday. Happy Birthday Clair!!!




Until next time . . .

ThriftyAnnabella

Attention all Couponers

I was in line at Dollar General the other day and happened to be glancing at the cover of First for Women and was surprised to see it said $102.30 worth of coupons at the top. So I picked one up and was pleasantly surprised at the selection of coupons inside.




Breyer's YoCrunch Parfait $1/1 - expires 2/28/2011
Kernel Seasons $1/1 - expires 12/31/2011
Jimmy Dean Fully Cooked Product .75/1 - expires 4/30/2011
McCormick Spice, Herb, etc .75/1 - expires 1/10/2011
Welch's Fruit Snacks .50/1 - expires 1/18/2011
Crystal Light Candy .75/2 - expires 2/28/2011
Oregon Chai Product $1/1 - expires 6/01/2011
Snikiddy Fries $1/1 - expires 3/31/2011
Any Vicks Product $1/1 - expires 3/31/2011
Crest Rinse $1/1 - expires 3/31/2011
Rohto hydra $1/1 - expires 2/28/2011
Bed Buddy Hot and Cold Pack - $2.75/1 - expires 4/30/2011
Perdue Whole Grain Frozen Chicken Nuggets, Tenders, or Strips $1.00/1 - expires 3/31/2011
Amy’s Bowls .75/1 - expires 6/30/2011
Wholly Guacamole Salsa or Queso $2.00/1 - expires 3/31/2011
Green and Blacks Organic Chocolate $1.00/1 - expires 4/30/2011
Veet hair removal $3/1 - expires 3/31/2011
You Curl and You Style products $5/1 - expires 12/31/2010
Footpetals $5 off all orders over $25
K-Y Brand Intense $5/1 - expires 2/28/2011
Turkey Hill Egg Nog Ice Cream $1/1 - 4/30/2011
Turkey Hill Egg Nog .75/1 - expires 4/30/2011
Natrol Product $2/1 - expires 2/28/2011
Johnsonville products .55/1 - expires 1/15/2011
Dr. Kracker Products .75/1
Smart and Delicious 100 Calorie Products $1/2 - expires 12/30/2011
Pedia-Lax Fiber Gummies $1/1 - expires 3/31/2011
Rayovac Batteries $1/1 - expires 1/31/2011
Pur Flavor Options System $4/1 - expires 3/31/2011
Duck brand packaging tape $1/1 - expires 1/31/2011
Kiss Nail or Toenail kit $1/1 - expires 2/28/2011
$12 off 60 or more Organize It Order
$5 off next Overstock.com
$25 off First Order Nutrisystem
$10 off $50 purchase Wendell August
Midnight or Midnight PM $1/1 - expires 5/31/2011

Until next time. . .

ThriftyAnnabella

Christmas Decor

Here in Louisiana we have some of the craziest weather during the Fall months. One days is freezing cold and then the next it's in the 80's. Due to all the changes in the weather we know these as the sick months. Unfortunately, sickness did not skip our house this year. This past week the little guy had Bronchitis, I was down with a bad case of the flu and DH and DD are coughing up a storm.

We did manage, however, to get the tree and curio cabinet decorated before Mr. Sickness came to visit.






During one of my "I'm tired of looking at clutter and it all needs to go to Goodwill" sessions a few years ago I lost the cord to my digital camera. I've since replaced the camera but never got rid of the old one because I had some pictures on there I didn't want to loose. My sweet DH was digging through a box of old cords the other day and actually found a cord that would work with my old camera so I could transfer my pictures to my computer.

I always thought this was the cutest picture. You can guess we had just finished watch the movie Signs and my kids were in desperate need to protect their thoughts LOL. You'll have to excuse my dirty kitchen please - I tried to camoflauge it :)

Birthdays and Holidays

Ahh, the Holidays. One of the busiest time of the year for most people, myself included. Last weekend we had a big birthday party for my little guy who turned 7. He loves dinosaurs so we had a dinosaur themed party. It turned out great.






Today has me busy taking down all the fall decor. DH and I decided to go ahead and decorate for Christmas early since it takes so long to put it all up. So I've got the Christmas music going in the background and hopefully will have lots of pics to share soon.

Until next time . . .

ThriftyAnnabella

Fall Decor

Ahh, Fall is here and procrastination has reared it's ugly head. I've been meaning to share my Fall decor with everyone since the first of October. However, every time I start to do it something else comes up and it gets put off again. I actually can't believe I only have two whole posts for October. I've been procrastinating big time :)

Today I was going to share with you some of my finds from Dollar General's 90% off rack yesterday. However, as soon as I went to take the pictures my camera decided that it's batteries were dead. Glad I found this out before my little guys birthday party Saturday, but, since I don't have any batteries in the house it will have to wait until I go shopping tomorrow.

So, instead I'm going to share my long post-poned Fall decor photos.

Here's my scarecrow couple standing by the door greeting people. That is along with Miss. Sugar. She's always there to great passers-by. This may be the last year for my scarecrow couple though because the cats are having too much fun with them.




Here's my Goodwill candy dish. It's sitting next to me on the couch and is now full of Nerds for a TV viewing snack. :)



My hutch is all adorned for Fall with all my various pumpkins and scarecrows purchased last year at the end of Fall clearance sales.



Lastly, here's my dining table all adorned for Fall. A good friend of mine gave me this candle holder a couple years ago and it makes the perfect Fall accessory.



I haven't got everything photographed though. Also I have a candy dish sitting on the counter full of Mallow-Creme Pumpkins (my favorite). Then there is the scarecrow wreath that I purchased at an earlier garage sale hanging on the door. Funny thing about that is that I'm not used to having a wreath on the door and every time I peek out the peephole I get a good scare - that is until I realize what's there.

Until next time . . .

ThriftyAnnabella

Garage Sales Oh MY!

Earlier this week DH and I had discussed whether we wanted to go to garage sales this week. However, the closer it got to weekend the more tired I got and decided I really didn't want to hear the alarm clock going off at 6 a.m. so we decided to sleep in. After getting up around 9:00 we decided to head into town to pay a bill. We never made it to town though before we had to go back home to unload the car. There were garage sales everywhere.

As I pulled into the first one the lady hosting the garage sale came up to me and said everything is $1 unless marked otherwise. Something I always like to hear. She had a leather top end table with a hinged lid on top for $10. I thought about it long and hard but finally decided I didn't have anywhere to put it. I did end up purchasing a hat and a couple things for DH. My single purchase for myself at this sale was this double heart jar filled with oil for $1.



The next garage sale was hosted in a small porch with barely any room to walk. I was getting really aggravated trying to get around people to look at items and finally decided to give up. The homeowners prices were a little high anyway so I figured I wasn't missing much. The kids were with us and they were the only ones that ended up finding anything. DS got a stuffed Bullwinkle for .50 and DD found a Disney Princess clock bath set for $4. I was tempted not to purchase it though because it was in a box full of Christmas gift sets with a sign to say 1/2 off original price. DH and I both figure that someone purchased all that stuff when WalMart had it 75% and was trying to make a little money off of it. DD also got 2 dresses at this one.

The next two sales were being hosted together. It was already after 10:00 and I did not figure that anything good would be left but decided to stop and look anyway. I was so glad I did. Here's a preview of my purchases.



I actually had this exact same washbasin and stand when I was married to my first husband. He took it when we were getting divorced and I've always missed my stand. So imagine my surprise when I saw this yesterday. I told DH I wonder if this is the same one I had before because I found out later my ex sold everything he got out of our old house. For $20 it came home with me - maybe even again :)



For $2 I fell in love with this vase. I actually thought it was an antique until I got home and noticed the Made in China sticker on the bottom. Oh well, it's still beautiful.



My last garage sale purchase of the day was this Burberry purse for $1.

When we did finally make it to town we made a stop by Goodwill to drop off a few things and while in there I found this beauty for $1.99



Until next time . . .

ThriftyAnnabella

Dress for Less

I didn't make it to any garage sales this week. I did find out the DH's cousin was having another storage building sale Wednesday and Thursday but I had already promised another family member that I would help them with a project so I wasn't able to make it. :*(

Last night we made a stop by K-Mart to pick up some Christmas items from Layaway. While there I browsed through the clearance racks set up throughout the entire store. They are having their end of summer clearance right now and the prices are great. If you have a K-Mart store near you I'd definitely recommend checking it out.

These 4 dresses were marked at $4.99 each but imagine my surprise when at the register they rang up $2.99 each. Even DH was encouraging me to go get some more for that price.






You can see I don't like to wear sleeveless dresses so I always pair them up with a turtleneck underneath and they work out great. I paired them with a black one for the pictures but I'm thinking a couple of them would look better with a white one.

Next stop was the purse racks. They had several with purses marked down to $3.99 each. The only one I found that caught my eye was this blue beauty. Okay I do have to admit I was tempted to buy a Betty Boop purse but DD convinced me not to do it.



Until next time . . .

ThriftyAnnabella

Happy Birthday to Me!!!

I'm a couple days late in posting though. I always have the best intentions to get online and make a post or do something one day and procrastination rears it's ugly head and it doesn't get done. However, I did take a picture of my delicious strawberry cheesecake to share with everyone.



Until next time . . .

ThriftyAnnabella

Vintage Donald Duck

Curiosity got the best of DH and I this morning and as mentioned in yesterday's post we decided to go back to his cousin's garage sale to see what other treasures she had unpacked. However, when we got there we realized that she had not got a chance to unpack much of anything else because of being so busy with customers. There was one item that was new and it caught my eye and ended up coming home with us.



This Vintage Donald Duck bank was only marked $1. I absolutely love Donald and love watching cartoons of Chip and Dale fighting with him over their tree. Upon getting home with him though we realized that due to sitting out in the sun too long his feet are a little warped which causes him to keep falling forward. Hopefully, once we put some coins in him that will balance him out and he'll quit being so tipsy LOL.

Until next time . . .

ThriftyAnnabella

Water Fountain Lamp

Today DH and I decided to go visit his cousin. As mentioned in an earlier post she is having one of her monthly storage building sales this week. The sale doesn't start until tomorrow, however, she doesn't mind too much when family comes and snoops around the day before. Her sales are very popular and most of the time that is the only way to get the goodies before they're gone.

Today I learned one valuable lesson though - don't ever sit anything down regardless of whether the garage sale is open yet or not. I picked up a bottle of perfume priced at $1 that smelled so good. I set it down on the stand of my purchase that I'm about to show below and this lady stopped by to take an early peek also and that was the first thing she went for. I played nice and went ahead and let her have it without saying anything and later told DH I was glad I did because the scent faded really fast and didn't last any time.



My only purchase today was this 5 foot tall water fountain/lamp. She was wanting $40 but let us have it for $30 since the pump on the fountain wasn't working. I told DH that it didn't really bother me that the pump wasn't working because I would have never used it as a fountain anyway. Water fountains in the house + kids = TROUBLE.

Here's a close up shot of the inside. I absolutely fell in love with this. I spotted it from far off and practically ran to it. LOL



DH's cousin showed us the inside of her house and a couple of other spots that were stacked with boxes still waiting to be unpacked and we're very tempted to go back tomorrow to see what other treasures she has.

Until next time . . .

ThriftyAnnabella

American Pickers and more

Sunday there was a marathon of a show I had been hearing a little about but had never seen. So, curiosity got the best of me and I scheduled my DVR to record it. I spent hours yesterday watching and even got the hubby to watch with me. We both loved it.

The show is called American Pickers and it airs on History Channel. For anybody who loves junking and flea markets you have got to check this show out. You will be hooked. To find out more about it visit their site at the History Channel by clicking the link below.

American Pickers

As I mentioned in earlier posts I am on a mission right now to get my home organized. I may even make room for more goodies. LOL, I know, typical junker always thinking about the next find. I did complete one project this week that I had been putting off. I was hoping to find one of those nice three drawer plastic bins at a garage sale this summer but alas it didn't happen. So, instead, I finally broke down and picked one up at WalMart and now my leftover linens that I had stacked on the bench at the end of my bed now have a place to call home. Now, my bench is cleaned off and we can sit down when putting our shoes on again. Yah!!





With the start of September coming up this week I'm also contemplating getting all the Fall decor out of the attic and getting busy putting it all up. In a way I'm actually excited and looking foward to Fall and all the things that go along with it. I noticed the other day while driving my kids to school that the leaves are starting to change colors. However, I'm not looking forward to the freezing cold days of Winter.


Sorry this wasn't the best shot I could get. Hopefully, I'll get some better ones later.

Until next time . . .

ThriftyAnnabella

Goodwill

Sorry all. I got a little trigger happy and realized I had deleted my blog. Thankfully, all is restored before it was too late.

I haven't made too many trips to garage sales lately because we've been so busy getting ready for back to school and such. However, I felt a trip to Goodwill was in store Wednesday. DD found plenty. However, I only found one thing. This Alf brings back lots of memories. Alf was one of my favorite shows growing up and he only cost 99 cents. He will now sit in my DVD cabinet.



I also have a trip planned for DH's cousin's monthly storage building sale next week so hopefully I will have more goodies to share.

DH brought home a friend from work the other day and we now have a new family member. His name is Fred after one of my favorite movies Smokey and the Bandit.



Until next time. . .

ThriftyAnnabella

More Rain and Garage Sales

We weren't even sure there were going to be any garage sales this weekend. Rain was in the forecast and most of Friday evening that's exactly what it did. However, Saturday morning, even though the skies were cloudy, the rain held off until 9:00. Since most garage sales around here start at 7:00 we managed to hit a few before it started.

Today's finds not pictured are 4 bags of Shock N Swim for $1 each and a few little toys and a Spiderman mug for DS.



Steve Madden heels - $5



Tommy Hilfiger sandals - $1



Guess purse - $5



Coach purse - $5

This is DH's purchase of the day. . .



DH actually picks these up every time he sees one at a garage sale. During hurricane season if the power goes out he'd much rather use these coal oil lanterns than the propane ones. $3



I also had a bag of stuff to drop off at Goodwill and I just couldn't resist going in for a quick peek. I love glass canisters for storage and I found these three for .99 a piece.

Until next time. . .

ThriftyAnnabella

Garage Sale Fever Cooled

Sigh :( It's raining again. After three weeks of rain every day I was getting some serious garage sale fever. However, today the skies were pretty - well at least until after noon. As a result the newspaper was full of garage sale ads and DH and I decided to get out of the house and go see what we could find.

I always make it a priority to stop at the estate sales first. There was one advertised and it was being hosted by a company we're familiar with for having pretty good prices. Another thing I like about this company is that they always have boxes outside for you to bring inside with the hopes of you filling them up. :) There was a cabinet with a lot of Pyrex in it. However, they were $4 a piece and since I was on a tight garage sale budget this week I limited myself to only one. I love the blue Pyrex better than the autumn colors so this is the one I grabbed. I also found this muffin pan for $1 and this bag of toys for $1.



There's a reason I wanted the toy bag and if you're familiar with my earlier posts you can see why. Can you see it in there? Maybe this will help. . .



A ceramic Brainy Smurf. Happy Dance. The rest of the items in the bag weren't any good so in the trash they went while Brainy joined all my other smurfs.

Next we hit the garage sales. We managed to finish filling the box up with all our finds. I found a Kirby vacuum for my brother for $5 and DS found a BMX style bicycle for $5. Also I found the kiddos some more clothes. Our other finds are below.



I have a thing for magnets that are different. I picked these two up for .10 a piece. I love the cute little kitty laying beneath the stove.



I manage to talk the homeowner down to $2 on the Autumn wreath. The purple basket with Easter decor in it was .50. I'm going to trash the Easter decor and maybe replace it with some Spring flowers for the front door.



All this stuff came from different garage sales. I found the Sims 2 Nightlife for $1. I'm so happy because this is one of the expansion packs I had been wanting. DD found all the hair bows for .50 a piece. The homeowner originally wanted $3 for the shoe but she let me have it for $2. I picked up the ornament for .10 cents. I didn't like the bow hot glued on it but it easily peeled off.



I found these at a garage sale hosted by a teacher. The books were .50 a piece and the months of the year signs were $1. I'm going to used the signs for my Sunday School class.

Unfortunately, I didn't manage to make it to DH's cousins storage building sale this past week. When she has it at her house in town I usually don't go if I have both of the kids with me. Taking an 8 year old and a 6 year old to a garage sale by myself if just asking for trouble. LOL. However, when she has her sales at her mom's house in the country it's not as bad because they normally play around the front yard with all the puppies.

Until next time . . .

ThriftyAnnabella