Painting brass

Have you ever been in a thrift store or at a garage sale and saw something cute, but it was brass?  Yuck, right?  It's super easy to change it...here' s a quick tutorial on how easy it is to change it.  Don't be afraid!

And they shopped 'til they dropped! Ladies Boutique {part 4}

We chose to have the boutique on a Sunday afternoon from 1:30-4:30 PM.  It was all first come, first get!  So, I had a line of ladies waiting at the front by 1:30 PM.  I chose that time so they could go home and eat and several of them live a distance away so they could go to church, eat lunch with their family and come over!

We opened the doors and the ladies came in and began shopping.  No clothes' shopping trip would be complete if you didn't have dressing rooms, right?  So, I made SIX dressing rooms - three of our bathrooms and three bedrooms.  All but one had full length mirrors in them, too.

 {via freckle fotography}

At one point we even had a line of ladies waiting to try on clothes.  It was fantastic!  

Some of the ladies only had one or two items in their hands and so I stepped in and became their personal shopper!  These clothes were free, why not try on anything?  

Many ladies left with bags and bags full of clothing.  I requested everyone bring their own bags, since I had to use all my extra bags to put the left-over clothing in for charity. I had some ladies post-pregnancy there loving that they could get free clothes for that transitional time until they could fit into their normal size again, too.  Some just didn't have much, others just wanted to look, and still more teenage girls got so many cute things (their Moms were grateful for the LARGE savings not having to buy them clothes).

I let everyone know via email and such, that the following Monday morning between 10 AM and Noon, they could bring a friend who didn't attend our church.  Again, I didn't want strangers showing up, so they had to accompany their friends who came to go through the left-overs.  It was also open to those who couldn't make it the day before.  After noon, I closed up the "shop" and packed up all the left-over clothing.

I only had about a quarter of the clothing and accessories left to leave on my porch for the charity truck the next day.  I had booked that truck a few weeks before the boutique, knowing there would certainly be left-overs.  My hubby helped me load up the porch the night before, and that was it!  The picture above I took from my van as I was leaving for the day.  It was gone when I returned! (Note: I will not take a "tax credit" since I did not personally donate these clothes).  

So, there you have it.  That's HOW to plan a FREE Ladies Boutique.  Easy?  I thought it wasn't so bad.  Fun?  Yep.  Organizing with lots of ladies was a great opportunity to fellowship with others they may not have seen around church.  Would I do it again?  Yes, but not next year.  I have plans for a DIFFERENT kind of boutique next year!  I know, I know...I'm crazy!

If you missed any of the other posts about the boutique, here you go:

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

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Speed Clean your house

I found this great link to help you speed clean your house:

Speed Cleaning: Real Simple

{click link}

{via}

It's a free guide that they will send you to your email.  You can print it up or keep it on your email.  If you print it up, stick it on the back of your cabinet or inside your pantry. 

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Pretty in pink...

One of the things I decided to get done on this house, was to have all the closets organize with closet systems.  However, I cannot afford to do that all at once.  I did my best with each one as I have slowly been saving each year for the Elfa systems, from The Container Store.  They go on sale once a year at the same time (right after Christmas until mid-February)...they even design it for free online and you can call and talk with someone to help you.  My daughter's closet got the first closet system.  I wanted a system that could move around and change as she grew older and her clothes got bigger. 

You can see, above, that I had her closet as organized as I possibly could do!  Girls have lots of dresses, generally, and being that she is the only granddaughter of six grandchildren, her Grammy LOVES to buy her dresses!  So, I put in all my measurements on the website and then they sent me a sketch.  They follow up with a phone call and you can make some final decisions.  I was very happy!  I have also done my own closet, here, that I was quite happy with - two years ago - and my hubby's closet in our office, here, last year.  I have one clothes closet left to do...my son's.  He actually has the biggest closet of all of us (funny, since he hardly has any clothes hanging in it, but mostly Lego's and science kits).  He gets a new closet system after Christmas this next year.

Here is a picture of my daughter's closet right after it was done three years ago (this is shortly before we put the doors back on).  Here is what it looks like now.  Notice how I've moved stuff around already, since she's grown taller and her dresses are longer now!

Since we're in her room...I thought I'd show you what we did to her room too!  It's so precious!  

Her bedding was all bought on Ebay or clearance, even the nightstands were from Ebay!  Ikea was where we got her pretty hanging net, and my Mom converted some Target curtains into something unique!

Her desk was given to us free from some friends - we just painted and spruced it.  Ikea chair...the chandelier was an ugly brown one from Ebay that I spray painted and added crystals and my Mom used scraps left over from the curtain to cover the cord.  The closet doors I spray painted with frosted paint to break up all that glass, and painted the brass to silver!  It's held up fairly well the last few years!

 

 I took old lamps from our family room and added pom-pom fringe around the edges.  The "Rachel" I made and drew in - piece of canvas from Michael's craft store.  And her little ballet picture was from the thrift store.

The dresses are both special.  I took canvas and left over paint and painted them.  The dress on the left was my "going home" dress when I was a baby.  The dress on the right was Rachel's "dedication" dress when she was dedicated at church.  

Parties:
Thrifty Decor Chick

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Organized and ready to go! Ladies Boutique {part 3}

Part 1:  Crazy Idea

Part 2:  Organizing all the clothing

The organizing of the boutique was amazing!  Every lady that showed up, came wanting to really work hard!  I was able to assign one lady to oversee all the living room - which was the hanging clothes.  She had her work cut out for her, but had lots of helpers in there.  We had hundreds of wire hangers donated, so we had plenty of those.  

I assigned another lady to help me organize the pants/capris, tops to be folded, camisoles, and other folding clothes in the kitchen area.  I also asked one other lady to organize all the shoes in my music room.  

So...here are the results!  I apologize up front that there are SO many pictures, BUT there was SO much to photograph!

{Large table in my kitchen filled with pants and capris}

{Can you tell what I used to hold these signs? I had to be creative}

{Purses, tops, shorts, camisoles}

{My mantle full of sweaters of all sizes}

{Racks and racks of dresses, skirts, and blouses}

{More racks with jackets, trousers, and blazers}

{Jackets and button up sweaters of all kinds}

{We used two vintage suitcases to display jewelry}

{We hung shoes from the other mantle and had rows and rows of them}

{We dubbed it the "Shoe Department, as my music room was overflowing with shoes}

Isn't it beautiful?  This is all set up for the wonderful ladies of my church to come and take part in this FREE boutique.  There were scarves, belts, purses, shoes, pants, tops, camisoles, dresses, and so much more!  It was amazing to see the generosity of everyone who gave from their hearts.  There were some who gave the very little they had and others who gave their very best and nicest things.  We mostly had beautiful clothing, not nearly so much junky stuff.  We had a few things that we found stained or not really worthy of setting out, but most everything was in great shape and beautiful.  

Next week, is the conclusion to this wonderful boutique!  See how many ladies showed up and all the stuff that was taken!  If you missed last week's post, click here to see that one, too! 

Part 4:  Shopped til they dropped

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Mail, mail, mail!

A typical day of mail came today - about 8-10 pieces.

This is how much mail I got (above).

And here is what I kept - but I only kept it for a short time!  This is really all my hubby even sees. The rest is junk!

 

Here is where the other 80% went...

When mail comes in, throw it out!  Stand over your trash can.  Only keep absolutely important stuff.  Even the two pieces I kept, one got shredded and the other eventually got rid of.  This is an example that you just need to stay on top of the paperwork right away!  Don't save stuff for too long.  Have a basket for coupons or important grocery ads that you save.  When you make your grocery list, pull out your grocery ad and write down what you want to then throw it away (or take with you to the store, and then throw it out!)

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Stylish and functional, magnetic art board!

I got this great idea from a blog called "A little of this, a little of that".  It made me think....My daughter loves to have her artwork on display.  I just don't want it all over my frig!  I want to see it.  I just don't want to have it be the only thing you see!  So, I came up with, what I think, is a great solution!

The clothes come in...Ladies Boutique {part 2}

If you recall last week, I told you about how I challenged all the ladies in my church to get rid of any clothing that didn't fit, they didn't wear anymore, or simply just had too much of.  We have a couple of ladies that started a free cycle group on Yahoo several years ago that is now nearly 200 people in that group.  I sent out my email to all of those ladies, all the ladies on my facebook friends that go to my church, and all of our Sunday School class.  I encouraged them to pass along the email and tell everyone else in their church groups - Bible Studies, Sunday School classes, women's groups - and get on the wagon!  The response was amazing!  They left stuff on my porch, in my van while at church, and even handed some to me! 

I sent out weekly reminders to all the ladies so they would get motivated to get rid of their unneeded stuff!

 {This took up half my living room}