Thrifty Pier One "Fall" Dining Room Tablescape

It's a great day in Thriftyland!

Have you ever been in a store and just had a "squealing bug" over something really cute? By the way a "squealing bug" is another word for a come apart.(LOL). I went to Pier One the other day and they had their fall decorations out. There were so many cute things but the peacock design just flew in my face.(LOL) Now I have never been a fan of purple, teal or some green colors but for whatever reason this seemed like a good fit for fall. I know a lot of people use peacocks as part of their Christmas decorations but here they were incorporating some fall stuff in with them and I thought this could be really good.

I stood there so long the sales lady thought I was a mannequin but some ideas along with my current fall inventory were all running around in my mind. At this point it was time to consider my thrifty status, the cost in connection to the jingle in my pocket. After much consideration I bought the peacock paper plates for $5.95 (for 10) instead of the individual ceramic ones for $8.95 each. I also rummaged around in the clearance box and found 4 napkin ring holders for $.98 each.

When I got home I pulled out a brown tablecloth from years ago, some bronzie- gold- brown round place mats, added the green chargers and the peacock plates. Someone had given me a piece of teal sheer material so I laid the napkins I had on top and cut out 4 pieces to make napkins in one of the peacock colors. I wrapped that sheer fabric over the rusty orange napkins added the $.98 gold napkin ring holders. I also set some goblets that have a brownish tint to them beside the peacock plates. Now what to do about the center piece? The beautiful peacock sequined table runner at Pier One was a whopping $50.00 so pretty but way past my thrifty self. So I took the rest of that teal sheer material and placed it in the middle of the table along with a hurricane candle stand, put a few little pumpkins on it as well as an orange candle and called it done. Here are some pictures of the process. Total cost of the new fall table scape...$10.78 pretty thrifty!

  

You Thrifty folks be blessed today as you enjoy this fall!

Dollars for Books

Good Morning to Everyone!

Are there any readers out there? If you are one of them you've probably accumulated a lot of books over the years. You may have so many of them there aren't enough shelves to put them on. You may even have them packed away in boxes stored in the attic or basement taking up space you could use for something else.

Well those books are dollars sitting there waiting for you. There is a place in Nashville called McKay which will give you cash for your books or give you a credit to purchase other books in their store. Don't think this is just a little hole in the wall place. This is a warehouse neatly organized by subject and there are a lot of the most recent titles available for a fraction of the original price. So you can turn your old books into new ones with a trip over to McKay. They also have movies, video games and books on tape.

This is a great way to do some decluttering, generate some cash and keep up your reading for just the cost of the trip to McKay.

 Happy Thrifty Books to Y'All!

Thrifty Spa

Thrifty Day to All:

We all long to be pampered. It doesn't matter if that's a bubble bath, a massage or a manicure/pedicure. Except for the bubble bath most of these things can send a Thrifty Sissy to the bank to get a loan.

Everyone likes to get their nails done but $35.00 to $40.00 to get a manicure/pedicure plus the tip is not something we can afford to do as often as we would like. So the Thrifty Sissy in me just decided to do it myself. I know our left handed painting is not very good sometimes.(LOL) But if you will choose a polish in a really light color the mistakes don't show up as bad. Just like anything else the more you practice doing your nails the better you will get. There is another benefit in using a lighter color. If you chip your polish it doesn't look really bad until you get a chance to fix it. Since you did your nails yourself you will always have the color to touch them up.

Even if we are Thrifty folks we can still pamper ourself.

Thrifty Candle Tip

Good Morning Thrifty Folks,

I hope you all are having a great week and getting ready for the fall season fast approaching us. I don't know about you but I really enjoy having a great smelling candle burning while I am at home. One of the things I learned about candles is how to make them burn evenly and for as long as possible. It all has to do with the wick. Before you light your candle always trim the wick. The wick should only be about 1/4 inches. You can see from the picture below what happens when you leave the wick too long. It smokes up the side of the jar. If you trim the burnt part off the candle each time if will burn evenly and cleanly.

We have all bought candles which smelt really good when we stuck our nose in them. Then when we got them home and began to burn them you could hardly get a whiff. That is very disappointing. We want to smell what we paid for. The amount of fragrance a candle puts off is called "throw". So when you are ready to purchase a candle ask about the amount of throw it has or at least buy one that you can really smell while it is burning in the store. Hopefully this thrifty candle tip will help you.

Stay Thrifty!