A Little Finial Makeover

Hi everyone!

Last week I posted a fun thrift find of a bucket of cool stuff for $1.00. If you remember, there was a brand new package of ivory finials in that bucket.



These were designed for curtain rod finials. But, I wanted them for lamp shade finials. I didn't want the ivory color. Instead I wanted them to look like old abused wrought iron. So, that means playtime with paints!



First, I painted them flat black.



When completely dried, I added the Burnt Umber. This didn't need to be neat because it was getting blotted off. This is the layer that is going to starting giving it the rusted look.




Then on went a coat of Old Gold. And dabbed that off as well. Just a bit here and there in the crevices.




They turned out exactly how I wanted them. But, for the life of me, I can't get a really good picture to show the "aged" look of them. I just glued the finial to the little cap that holds the shade on. Now I have to redo the lampshades. Geez, one thing leads to another doesn't it!






Just a Reminder!! The month of September is "Steal Diann's Thrift Finds" Giveaway!! Just check out this post to read all about it!

I'm joining these fun parties!



Debbiedoos B & A Party!



Power of Paint Party



Creative Share Wednesday


Show and Tell

Steal Diann's Thrift Finds!!

Hi everyone!

Well, I can't believe today is the last day of August! Tomorrow is my birthday and I decided to have a fun month long giveaway party!

There has been so many amazing wonderful people I have met via this blog. The mere fact that so many of you take the time to drop by and leave a comment warms my heart! I can't thank you enough!

So, I wanted to do something fun for all of you that drop by and leave comments. This silly month long giveaway is very different than most giveaways. It's for all you wonderful folks that drop by here, take the time out of your busy schedule's and leave me such kind comments.



Are you ready to hear how you can "Steal Diann's Thrift Finds"?

Here we go! I hope I explain this correctly because it is kind of convoluted. LOL

Every day during the month of September, any post I publish on this blog may or may not have a "secret" hidden thrifty treasure that you can steal. How to tell if the item is "steal-able"? Any time you see something in one of my posts that is in RED, it is stealable.

At the end of the month, you will get to pick 4 items that were posted in red throughout the month to steal from me!



Say during September, 16 of my posts has RED items, you get to go through and chose the 4 you want to steal from me as your gift!

Does that make sense?

Okay, now how do you enter to have a chance?

Because I wanted to do something for all of you that take the time to stop by and leave a nice comment, I am simple going to throw every comment that I receive on any and all posts during the month of September into a hat and a name will be drawn sometime during the first week of October.

So, if I write and publish 20 posts during the month of September and you comment on all of them, you have 20 chances to win. If you comment on 10, you have 10 chances to win. It doesn't matter whether that post has a RED stealable item in it or not, ALL comments during September will count.

However, only ONE comment per post will count. This isn't about if you are a follower or not. If you want to become one, that is wonderful but, this is my thank you to all those of you who do stop by and leave such sweet comments. It really makes my day when I read them.

How will I determine the winner? I am going to literally print out each of the comment sections of each blog post during September and cut them all apart into individual comments, fold them and put them in a big bowl and have the princess reach in and pull out a name. Phew, I will have my work cut out for me at the end of this party! LOL



So, does that sound fun? I hope so! Even I can't wait to see what will be stealable! I will tell you up front that I will have to keep in mind shipping costs so, don't expect to see any cast iron skillets posted in RED! LOL

And, unfortunately, due to shipping costs, only residents of the USA will be able to steal 4 treasures from me. However, since I have so many wonderful International readers, if one of you win, I have a special prize for you! I didn't want to exclude any of you!

Now, this all makes sense to me in my head, but if I left you with any questions, please feel free to comment on this post any time during the month of September and I will answer your questions in this post as well.

So, are you all ready to become thieves? Good! It's time to start casing the joint known is The Thrifty Groove! What little treasures will catch your eye?

Happy Stealing!!

No Fancy Schmancy Tea Today

Hi everyone!

Well, today I thought I would just show you my tea tray that I make for myself almost every evening. Yup, you get a dose of my reality today instead of a prettified tea.

First of all, I always drink decaf tea at night. I am just not the youngster I used to be. Until just recently, I could drink a pot of dark roast caffine ladden coffee before bed and it wouldn't even effect me. Oh, how I miss those days! LOL

And my absolute favorite tea is English Breakfast tea. The past few days, troy has been adding a leaf or two of fresh lemon verbena and a few peppermint leaves to my English Breakfast tea. Since we grow and sell our herbs, we really use a lot of fresh herbs for differnt things other than cooking. These two herbs are wonderful for their calming effect and they help the nervous system. They have really been helping me at night with my stupid flaring up gall bladder.




This is our peppermint right now. As you can see it is starting to flower. We will need to harvest the rest of the plants soon. To learn more about mints, read Troy's post here.




This is the Lemon Verbena. If you have never used Lemon Verbena before, let me tell you, it is the strongest flavor out of all the "Lemon" herbs. A little of this goes a very long way. And to learn more about Lemon Verbena, check out Troy's post HERE.

This is what my nightly tea tray looks like. Occasionally, I have the tray downstairs while I watch some tv but, more times than not, it goes upstairs to our bedroom for relaxing and reading before bed.

I start with this metal apple tray that I got this past summer thrifting. It is just the perfect size.



I always throw a dish towel down on the tray. I seem to be rather clumsy at times. And these are my favorite towels that my friend Linda sent me.



I grab whatever teapot that happens to be handy at the time. I also seem to always use this white weave pattern china creamer and sugar. Both the teapot and the creamer & sugar sets were bought thrifting years ago.



And then I just pick out one of my teacups. I never worry about going through and washing all my teacups that I display because I use them all of time. I just rotate which ones I pick each day.





This pretty little burnt orange and yellow floral teacup set is one of my oldest ones. I don't remember when I bought it, but I remember buying it at a flea market somewhere. This one is "Phoenix China T.F. & S LTD, Made in England"



T.F. & S stands for Thomas Forester & Sons.This pattern was made from 1925-1959.

Thomas Forester started business at a small works in the High Street, Longton, he took additional premises in Church Street. These he demolished and built the Phoenix works which he completed in 1879... In the beginning of 1883 he took his sons into partnership.

Here is an advertisement placed in the Pttery Gazette in 1882 for Thomas Forester Pottery.

This last picture was the original Phoenix Pottery factory.
Source: The Potteries.org

I have several small misc. china saucers from thrifting adventures that I use to rest a spoon on. I just grab one. I rarely do a "matchy" kind of thing for my nightly tea.



And since I always have this crystal carafe filled each night with ice water for my nightstand, I just put it on the tray as well. This carafe set has etched tulips on it. Troy bought it for me for Christmas years go.




And I am one of those bad people, I have a snack at night while I have tea and read. I have tried and tried cutting out nightly snacks, but I just can't seem to do it. I am a major night owl. I could go all day without eating and then just eat at night. totally unhealthy I know. Oddly enough, I rarely have "sweet" treats with my nightly tea. It is generally crackers or toast. I grew up have tea and toast when we weren't feeling good. So, that is a comfort thing for me. Today, however, I am having graham crackers.



So, folks, this is a look into my reality nightly tea tray. No real "pretties" just noraml stuff.





Okay ladies and gents, you will want to check back tomorrow to get the low down on the month long "Steal Diann's Thrifty Finds" giveaway party!

Now, join me in these fun Tuesday parties!



Nifty Thrifty Tuesday



Table Top Tuesday



Tuesday Trivia Tie in

And the "Tea Parties"

My Favorite Tea ladies....
Tea For Two/Tea Time Tuesday/Teacup Tuesday/Lady Katherine's Tea/

TJ Maxx Clearance~Love it!

Hi everyone!

Well, I have been a bit slow on writing posts lately. I haven't felt up to par. I spent this past weekend mainly laying in bed or on the couch. And that is a very comfortable thing for me. I swear, that put more stress on me than the pain. LOL I am one of those people who are up and down and all around all the time. Oh well, I am slowly starting to feel better so, here I am! LOL

The big thing is, due to pain, I did not do any thrifting this past week. Whoa! Hold the presses! Diann REALLY must have been in pain! LOL But, hey, that means this week I have $30.00 to thrift with if I so desire!LOL

But, of course, I still have a couple of things to show you today that I thrifted while ago.

Now that Fall is fast approaching (Yippee!) I am stopping in some of my favorite "clearance" stores. For some reason, I don't shop a lot during the summer. Oh, I do the thrift stores and yard sales but, regular stores, not so much.

One of the stores I enjoy making regular visits to is TJ Maxx. I popped in there a couple of weeks ago since I was in the neighborhood doing a mystery shop at a different store, and looked around. I didn't find a lot but, I didn't walk out empty handed either.

Here are the few little fun finds I got.

I love to find some leftover items from the last holiday. Since that was the 4th of July, by the time I got to the store, these cute ceramic flag canape plates were really discounted! I got each one for .50 cents (half off the lowest sticker price).




And then I just couldn't pass up these pretty teabag/spoon rests! I love the sky blue background and the bright fun sunflowers. They were $1.00 (half off the lowest sticker price)!





And last but not least, this beautiful Royal Stafford black and white transferware dinner plate. I have been trying like crazy to pick up the black and white pieces here and there when I find them under $2.00. This one ended up costing me $1.00 (yup, half off lowest sticker price).





Can you believe that I walked out of TJ Maxx only spending $3.00! Woohoo!

I hope you all have a great day!

Check out these fun parties:

Blue Monday

Today's Thrifty Treasures