Thrift-Tacular!

I may have mentioned before that Wunderkind and I love to go thrifting.  The Mr., not so much.  But because today was Mother's Day, I gleefully guilted him into coming along with Wunderkind, Sweetie Babe, and and me.

The plan was to hit a whole bunch of rummage sales and end the day with a stop at one of our local Goodwill stores.  We struck out bigtime on the rummage front; apparently, most rummage sales are run by moms.  And as it so happens, most moms don't want to be running a rummage sale on Mother's day.  Huh.  Go figure.

Goodwill, on the other hand, operates under no such sentimental restrictions.  Wheeeee!

So, with Sweetie Babe in her stroller (just chillin' cause that's how she rolls) and Wunderkind bouncing maniacally from toy bin to toy bin like some sort of demented American Pickers devotee, The Mr. and I combed the racks of Goodwill in search of kick-butt deals.

Oh my-lanta did we ever hit it big.

We picked up a $200 2-kid bike trailer in near-mint condition for $9.99 (can I get a what-what for The Mr. and his eagle eye for deals???)

Wunderkind hunted and gathered (all the while delightedly trilling, "Lookit what I found!  Lookit this! Lookit over here!  Wooooah, tha'ss-a good deal!") at least $150 worth of toys for about $10 all together.

I came away at least $250 worth of clothes for me and Wunderkind for just under $20

Sweetie Babe scored a brand-new, still-in-its-packaging sippy cup (which she luuuuuuuurrrrrves, by the way... it sounded like she was making out with it.  Sloppily.) for $0.49 and a super-killer baby auto mirror that retails for over $20 (and I know because I've been trying to justify going out and purchasing a new one from our local Target store for months and months) for $2.

The Mr. even scored some supercool junk exceptionally useful items. 

It was one of those thrift-tacular days where around every corner, on every rack, something just stellar was waiting just for us.  The Gods of Thrifting smiled upon us today, my friends.  Nay, they beamed at us, and perhaps even patted us upon our stingy little heads, thus blessing us with boatloads of affordable awesome.

Re-retail therapy.  Ahhhh...  Feels good.

You Don't Have to Know What You're Doing, Just Get In There and DO IT!

Wunderkind and I love to go thrifting.  I love being able to say YES! when he asks me if he can have something.  I also love to bring home projects.  There ain't nothin' Wunderkind loves more than a project.  He gets that from me.

Last June, Wunderkind and I found this chair for $5 at Goodwill.

And I thought to myself, "This upholstery is hideous!  This finish is hideous!  This chair is beautiful!  This chair is $5!"  And so, I hauled it home.  Wunderkind and I were going to reupholster it.  Pretty ambitious project for a hugely pregnant woman and a 3 1/2 year old kid.

It sat in my basement.

Six months later, after the birth of Sweetie Babe, I bought some white spray paint and some yellow upholstery fabric (I don't know the actual technical name for the type of upholstery fabric, so don't ask me).  Wunderkind and I ripped off the light purple velvety stuff and I sanded down the wood portions.  I had The Mr. spray paint it white.

It continued to sit in my basement.

I was so scared of screwing up the upholstery portion of it, I just didn't start.  And didn't start, and didn't start... until finally today, I decided to give it a go.

Wunderkind is my self-appointed helper in all things.  He and I headed down to the basement workshop once Sweetie Babe was down for her morning nap, and we got to work winging it.  Wunderkind held the hammer and acted as my cheering section (you have not lived until you've had a 4 1/2 year old cheering you on whilst you staple the living hell out of a piece of furniture) for Phase 1, and he held the hot glue sticks and acted as my cheering section (again, you seriously ought to look into getting a cheering section for all your hot glue gun related activities) for Phase 2.  He also claimed responsibility for testing the buoyancy of all seating surfaces.

He declared the seat bounce-worthy and informed me that it didn't even break when he used all his muscles on it.  Sweet.  I love a bounce-worthy seat that is also impervious to muscles.  All of 'em.

It took a couple of hours, but we were able to get all of the reupholstering done during Sweetie Babe's naps. (We had to take a break when she woke up early from her morning nap.  That's OK though, 'cause Phineas & Ferb was starting.  We needed our Agent P fix.)

And now I have this beautiful "new" chair.

This little baby is far from perfect, but you can sit on (remember, Wunderkind even bounced on it) and it seems to hold up OK.  I love how it looks and for my very first try I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out.

Project costs:

Chair - $5

Fabric - $15 (excellent deal from Hancock Fabrics.  I love that place!!!)

Spray paint - $6 (it took 2 cans and multiple coats to get the finish right)

Tools:

Sand paper

Pliers (for ripping out upholstery staples)

Staple Gun 

Staples

Hammer

Scissors

Total time spent (not including the months and months it sat in the basement): 5 hours

- 1 hour to rip off upholstery

- 1 hour to sand it down

- 1 hour (total) to apply the spray paint (not including resting time between coats)

- 2 hours to reupholster

I wish I'd taken pictures of the whole process.  Next time for sure!