Mommy’s Day Weekend Thrift-Hauls

This last weekend was Mother’s Day and we had a wonderful day!  After breakfast @ our favorite neighborhood cafe I was given my present of what else?…….. a Goodwill gift card!!

So, we ventured out to find some goodies and came up with some great items!

First, I found a very-hard-to-find Star Wars T-shirt for one of our PEPS friends having a big 1st BDay pretty soon, which was awesome!  We also found another T for my little guy and I scored some brand-new shorts from Banana Republic!

We also came across a set of Ikea children’s chairs that my little one just LOVES and pushes around the kitchen all-day-long!

And of course, we found something pretty practical (and much needed at times!) a plunger!

I also have an update on my upcycled flower-holder made from a used light fixture (remember the ones I saw @ the Fremont Market?).  I attended the BDay party Saturday night in which I had made one of these flower-holders as a gift.  First I had to purchase an item from The Home Depot (16 gauge wire) because Goodwill did NOT have something this specific, then I twisted and turned the wire into a great little gift!

And here is the lucky BDay girl… Adrienne (a florist too!) loving her DIY Goodwill gift!  

So there you go, our holiday weekend in a nutshell…

DIYing…

BDay partying…

Mom-Day eating…

Goodwill SCORING!…

and a toilet-bowl plunger.  🙂

This mommy couldn’t be happier!!

Mom’s the word!

It’s the beginning of May and we’ve already started our Goodwill Garden, our TOY donation drive (PLAY it FORWARD) is gathering steam and this weekend is MOTHER’S DAY!  So with all Mother’s that might be harder to purchase for… or if you are just a last-minute-shopper who wants to get something unique for mom… well this post is for YOU!

This first item you can usually find @ any Goodwill quickly (if your the last-minute-shopper type) and it doesn’t take any time to put together.  Just insert a photo, put in a bag and VOILA’!  You have a great Mother’s Day gift!

This brand-new frame I picked up a couple of months ago at the Seattle Dearborn Goodwill knowing I could use it for a Mother’s Day gift.  But you can usually always find a brand-new frame to put a recent photo of you, your family (or heck, even your dog?!) into for mom as a gift.  I’m a mother and every photo I get I look at often so when I get new images, I love it!

This second item is for those DIYers that want to reuse/recycle something and make it a unique gift for Mom…

I came across these brilliant reused glass light fixtures @ the Fremont Market last weekend and wanted to immediately put this idea to Goodwill use!  So because flowers are often a great gift for Mother’s, I thought I’d try this week to gather a couple of these lights and repurpose them (add a strong hanging wire on the top) for my own Mother’s Day gift (and for a friend’s Birthday party this Saturday).

No matter how you celebrate the important women in your life this weekend try some of these last-minute tips from your local Goodwill and definitely have a HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY from Beautiful and her boys!

Make-Over Mama

This weekend I was so happy to have a girls-day-out with my sis and mom @ the Seattle Goodwill.  But after posting our family picture I started to realize that maybe mommy was letting herself go a bit to much (AND I have not had a hair-cut since November 2009!) so I decided to endulge a bit and get a mini make-over.

Now since I make a monthly $1K AmeriCorps stipend, a luxurious Gene Juarez day of beauty was out of the question.  So I found the next best thing… a cut, dry, style @ the Seattle Aveda Institute. (http://www.gmaveda.com)  If you have 2 hours to kill and you don’t mind instructors schooling your artist with your hair, it’s a great-cheap way to get a fabulous new do! (and who couldn’t use more money now days?!)

I had the pleasure of being styled by Akin, a very nice man who (hopefully) will be working @ a Rudy’s near you SOON!  But really, all the student-artists were really sweet to us and any little mistakes get caught by the instructors so the only draw-back is the time involved.

(Me BEFORE the cut… SCARY!)

Now since I couldn’t very well expect to just post about my little salon adventure on a Thrift blog, you KNOW I had to go get me a new accessory to show off with the new style!  Luckily I found a creamy-white Roxy knit-cap to embellish with buttons (the only accessories I have sometimes now days) and share with you.

Being a mom sometimes can get you in a “rut” for feeling sexy.  You always have wash-in-wear clothes on, you don’t wear jewelry that can injury your little one which often means little to no accessorizing and after a long-day playing on the ground, packing the tyke around, making the errands to the grocery… you only want to put sweats on and relax.  Not always the cutest look.  So it’s always a good idea to do a little something every once in a while for a Pick-Me-Up… like a cut, style and a new cap!  Especially if all three still allow you to go to Whole Foods and get a couple of items for the family menu afterwards!

(this is MUCH BETTER!)