Thrift Store Score: Vintage Postcard & Storybook Stamps

Okay, I should really be in bed because I'm sick and haven't gotten more than 5-6 hours of sleep a night in the past 3 weeks, but...I had to share something I'm bursting with excitement over. So, a couple weeks ago I was at a thrift store (shocking, I know) and was walking out after I'd paid for the items I'd purchased. Just before I exited the building I noticed a table over in the corner that said "FREE". Well, c'mon, who can pass up at least taking a peek if there's a FREE sign on something. I wandered over and nearly wet myself once I realized it was a bunch of old books. Instantly my mind began swirling with all the lovely things I could create with these gems. I scooped up an armful of them and went on my merry way, obviously thrilled that my thrift store stop had basically turned in to a 2-for-1 kinda deal.

Now, fast-forward about 3 weeks to this evening...I took dinner over to my in-laws and we had a nice time eating and visiting with them, brought the kids home, did homework, and then got them in bed. My husband opted to hit the hay a little early and I decided I'd better attack the stack of freelance work that's been building in my office. So downstairs I went. After a few hours of 'real' work, I had a random thought and remembered my free books I'd shoved in the closet. I pulled them out and started paging through a few of them and out dropped some papers. When I looked down at them I'm pretty sure I squealed out loud with delight. Thankfully no one upstairs heard me and came crawling out of bed, but I seriously was like a kid in a candy store...there on the floor was a complete collection of vibrant vintage stamps. As I looked closer I realized that there was a postcard to return with your 3 choices of storybook classics you'd like for a whopping $1.49. There was also a poster and a couple of other postcards for a different mail-in offer. Oh my goodness gracious. Think of all the fun things these stamps could be used for - eek!!! :)

So tonight, my faithful one reader (thanks, Mom), I share my "Thrift Store Score"...that I didn't pay for, but absolutely L-O-V-E. Now, for your viewing pleasure *drum roll, please*....

Time for bed.

Read More

Bedroom Makeover

This is something that actually happened over the summer, but whatever - I'm just now getting my act together and am ready to share about it. So, we built our house about 9.5 years ago and the very first room we ever painted was our bedroom. We've had hodgepodge furniture from craigslist and a bed headboard/footboard/frame from JC Penney that we bought because that's all we could afford when we first got married. Well, this summer we finally bit the bullet and decided to get ourselves some ADULT bedroom furniture (and a new mattress set...which we ended up WINNING as part of the Mattress Giant "Bed-a-Day" giveaway - CRAZINESS). We shopped at every furniture store we could think of after looking around online and finding something we loved. Unfortunately, the set we found online came with a $4,800+ price tag - definitely NOT in the budget of a teacher & freelance graphic designer. After shopping at about 8 different stores I was at my wits end, ready to just be happy with our "pieced-together-like-a-college-dorm-room" bedroom. My husband suggested we stop by Slumberland because it was on our way home. I've typically NOT been a fan of Slumberland because I feel like many of their styles are outdated and not really my taste. I reluctantly agreed and got out of the car after we parked. We opened the door and I kid you not - it was as if there was a light shining down from heaven on the first set we saw inside the front door. It was magical, really. Okay, maybe that's a bit of an exaggeration, but the set was ridiculously similar to my "dream" bedroom set I'd seen online...and at less than HALF the price. Wowsers. The set was pretty much sold the second we opened the front doors, but after we completed the necessary paperwork, we finally headed home happy with our findings. Once we got home I started to panic a bit about how much money we'd just spent (even though I knew we'd been saving for it). So the next couple of weeks while we waited for the furniture to come I went on a clearance bin shopping spree to find pieces that would coordinate for our new room. It really is crazy the deals you can find if you really know how to bargain shop. So, without further adieu, here are the before and after pictures:

And here is our newly painted & decorated bedroom (still need to put a few more things on a couple of walls, but this is close enough):

Beautiful custom made-to-match-our-color-palette café mounted artwork from Red Letter Ink (another artistic venture of mine):

When I was little, my Grandma Grace had this cute little jewelry dish that sat on top of her dresser and I always thought it was so fun to stand and look at all of her jewelry - now I have my very own!! :)

Love my necklace with my two kidlet's names on it!

Now for the fun part...the breakdown on the various decór pieces:

• Nightstand distressed teardrop candle holders - $4.98 (larger ones)/$2.48 (smaller ones) (70% off clearance - from Target)
• Circular Metal Wall Art above the headboard - $39.99 (with a giftcard from Pier1)
• Round nightstand "runners" (they're actually place mats) - $1.99 each (Bed Bath & Beyond)
• Set of circle mirrors above dresser - $19.99 (with a $5 giftcard from Target)
• Circular pattern curtain set - $17.99/panel (on sale 60% off from JC Penney)
• Jewelry holder (actually a candle holder) - $4.99 (on clearance - with a giftcard from Pier1)
• Vase, rocks & reeds on dresser - $12.99 (on clearance - with a giftcard from Pier1)
• 3 Accent Pillows on Bed - $21.99 for all three (60% off from Kohl's)
• Runner on dresser - $7.99 (on clearance - from Marshall's)

And there ya have it, folks, our bedroom re-done! I absolutely LOVE walking in to our room now - hip, hip, hooray for a matching bedroom that I can't get enough of!!

Read More

Football + Ribbon + Hot Glue Gun = Heavenly Crafting

Yesterday after we got home from church the kidlets and I did some sledding out back with the neighbors, then came inside just in time for dinner and the start of the Pro Bowl. For those of you who don't know me, I'm kind of a sports nut (yes, one more 'weird' thing, I know). I absolutely LOVE watching or playing pretty much any sport...probably has something to do with the fact I grew up with 3 brothers. Well anyway, as we sat down to watch the game I had this genius idea to throw together another craft project. I've seen all these cute flowers made out of fabric & ribbon and the other day I scored some big rolls of ribbon at Michaels out of their "after Christmas clearance" bin. Can't pass up $1 rolls of ribbon, right? So there I sat with my TV tray, rolls of ribbon, hot glue gun, container of old buttons from my Grandma's sewing kit, and, of course, the game blaring in the background. Talk about perfect (minus the 50 interruptions, "Mom,  I need help with...")! It took me about 1 quarter of football to throw these 3 flowers together and put them on alligator clips - not too shabby, huh? I'm pretty sure I could've made several more if I hadn't been interrupted a bazillion times, but it was fun to try something new. And talk about simple - or as my little guy would say, "easy peasy lemon squeezy!" - and SO cute!!

Read More

A Thrifting We Will Go

Today was a whirlwind of client meetings and running errands. While I was out and about I stumbled upon this FABULOUS thrift store. Oh my goodness. When I walked in, the first thing I saw was a stack of old Saturday Evening Post magazines. EEEK!!! I started paging through them and the graphic design nerd in me was loving all the old ad layouts.

I snatched up a couple of them and moved along. Next I found some gorgeous antique books. For some reason I've always loved old stuff. I'm not sure if it's the history that intrigues me or what, but I was mesmerized paging through all the shelves of old books. And having a background in the print industry, I couldn't help but notice all the special details of each book - the type of paper that was used, the old type that was used on the front covers, the ink coloring for the cover designs...so many details to absorb!! I decided to grab a couple of them because ya just never know when you might want to throw a few old books on a shelf for decoration, right? The two I chose were these ones:

Check out the fantastic detailing on the spine of one of the books:

 And on the inside, one of them had an inscription that read, "To Idella Saltvig for perfect spelling - "1913". Wow, that's old!

As I looked more closely once I got home I found this tiny copyright disclaimer on the bottom corner - Copyright 1911. Again, wow!

Since I love typography, I couldn't help but admire the neat font that was used for this book's cover:

Okay, enough about the books...but they are pretty stinkin' cool, aren't they? Well just when I thought it couldn't get any better, I turned the corner and found another fun old hard-sided suitcase. Yipee! I think the classic colors are super cool.

There were a few other things I picked up, too, but they weren't really blog worthy. :) Now, here's the best part...the price breakdown:

• The Saturday Evening Post - $1.99 each

• Antique Books - $1.99 each

• Vintage Suitcase - $0.99 (can you even believe it???)

All in all, I think it's safe to say, I had a very successful shopping experience. And I now also have a new favorite thrift store to add to my list!

Read More

Project Time: Crafting On The Go

Anyone who knows me has come to the realization that I absolutely LOVE thrift stores. Go ahead, call me all the names you want...I don't care - thrift stores rock. So, a few weeks back while I was perusing a local thrift store I ran across this gem. When I first saw it I had flashbacks to making mix tapes and thought, "Oh my word, think how many Boyz II Men mix tapes you could fit in there!". Errr, I mean, I picked it up and was SHOCKED that they were only asking $2.00 for it. But wait, it gets better. When I checked out, the elderly woman behind the counter told me that purple tags were 50% off. Excitement. This beauty was mine for a measly $1.00. Wahoo!! I brought it home and had so many fun ideas of how to use it, but finally settled on having one semi-organized place to store all of my crafting supplies & tools. And how great that it could be mobile. Again, major score.

Well, in my free time (*snort* - refer to this post to read about my luxurious life that provides me with countless hours of free time) I started my project.  When I opened the briefcase I found it was partially covered in a burnt orange velvet. How glamorous! Ish. I ripped that out and cleaned up the inside to make sure it was ready for it's makeover. Next, I measured the inside dimensions and found some scrapbook paper I'd had laying around for, oh, ya know, 3-4 years or so. I cut my paper to size and then glued the pieces to the inside panels of the case. After that I had a genius idea - a while back in the dollar section at Target they were clearancing out organizational items for 75% off. I decided to use the little accordion organizer and attach it by putting velcro on the backside of it and then adhering the other piece to the inside of the case. This way I can pull the organizer out if I want to look through it or reorganize anything. I figured I could store a bazillion types of things in this, so I was super excited at how well it worked. Another one of my clearance bargains came in handy to attach to the top of the case, too. Last fall when Target was clearancing out their back to school stuff, I found a bunch of fun items I'd been waiting to find a use for (see photo below). Well this was the PERFECT project to use the Post-It pockets - talk about a cool way to be able to store paper scraps, felt, etc!

After I had my organizers attached, I began pulling together all of my supplies...and then I realized I needed some sort of container to put my scissors, exacto knife, fabric cutter, mini-stapler, etc. But have no fear - a few years ago I bought a big pack of batteries at Sam's Club. The batteries came in this slim rectangular container that snapped shut. Once we used up the batteries I just couldn't bring myself to throw the container away, so it's been in my office with a bunch of random junk in it. Well this bad boy fit like a glove inside my new 'lil crafty briefcase...but I didn't like that it said ENERGIZER and had that obnoxious bunny on the top of the container. Naturally, I took some leftover scrapbook paper and covered it up so it matched the inside of my case. Yay! I finished gathering the last few of my supplies, figured out the best way to organize everything in the case and VOILA! I've now got myself a pretty schnazzy little compact case of craftiness just waiting to be taken along wherever my little heart desires. I seriously am giddy about this - how stinkin' FUN!!!

Thanks for reading my ramblings...I better run, I'm sure there's a child or two to pick up, a client to call, and lots of housework to be done. Yikes. Until next time.

Read More

Yep.

This explains a lot. Really.

Read More

The Beginning

Welcome to Gracefully Gifted! I figure it only makes sense to start off by explaining what the heck 'Gracefully Gifted' is all about, so here goes...

My name is Aimee, and I'm one of those crazy people who always have 500 things going on at once - you know, the ridiculously uniquely dressed lady you see in the the grocery store who's responding to a client email on her smart phone while reading her shopping list, pulling items off the shelf and tossing them into her cart, and corralling her darling children who are running laps through the aisles nearly knocking the elderly shoppers over. Yep, that's me. I have a problem saying "no" to people, so not only am a wife, mom, friend, sister, and small business owner (actually, I own two: Libby Design and Red Letter Ink), but I also co-lead Women's Ministry at our church, sing on the worship team, help with marketing (did I mention I can't say no?), co-lead a small group bible study with some friends, help out filling in for people in Children's Church, etc. Oh, and then there are all those fun field trips/classroom projects where parent helpers are needed at the kids' schools...I sign up for them ALL. "What? There's no one to head up the Harvest Party?? Sure, I'll find a friend and we'll pull it all together!". And this past fall when the local school district was trying to push through an operating levy to maintain our wonderful schools, my dear husband lovingly nominated me to help him head up the community committee (the levy passed - yay us!). My latest endeavor has been helping head up a Special Olympics chapter in our area - SO excited about this one!! I forgot to mention that our oldest daughter has special needs and usually has 3-4 therapy appointments each week. I'm sure there's more, but my brain is malfunctioning so that's all I can think of right now.

Well now, I've decided it'd be good to have somewhere I can ramble and post my craftiness that I whip up in the wee hours of the morning all my free time (*snicker*). I was trying to think of a fun, catchy name and then it came to me...Gracefully Gifted. Besides my Mom (who is amazing and was often my partner in crime with craft projects), my Grandma Grace was always a huge supporter of my desire to make things. She taught myself and my 3 brothers how to crochet when we were itty bitty and that's something I've loved doing ever since. Grandma always made me feel like the gifts I made for her were EXACTLY what she had always wanted, and she did such a great job making me feel like a big shot interior designer. Her house was full of all my little crafty things my brothers and I made for her...a grapevine wreath I'd made, complete with a small piece of cardboard I'd sloppily written "WELCOME" on then glued to it - classy, and how about this custom embroidered gift I made JUST for Grandma - she framed it in this fancy schmancy frame and hung on her wall prominently displayed. This is one thing I was thrilled to have after Grandma passed away because even during her final days my little craft project from many years ago was hung sweetly on the wall for her to see.

The more I thought about a name for my blog, the more I liked it... Gracefully Gifted. Pretty cool that it's got Grandma's name in it, but it also speaks to the gifts God gives us. This verse about God-given gifts makes me smile every time I read it...


"Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms."  ~ 1 Peter 4:10

And so, I will use my gifts to serve others...which will more than likely often include craftiness!

Read More