<center><a href="http://www.thevirginiahouse.blogspot.com/"><img border="0" src="http://i843.photobucket.com/albums/zz360/jvc80/newlogowecan.jpg" /></a></center>

Ok dear followers and other people that lurk:-) This week I give my "We Can Do It Cheaper Award" (just made that up) to one creative gal. Give a creative round of applause to Pretty Handy Girl! She took me back to my We Can Do It Cheaper roots with a GREAT Ballard Design knockoff. Can we all say "Oooohhh-Ahhhh"? I think so.

Isn't this picture just the cats meow?
She's one of those creepily (huh?) creative and handy people that you love and hate at the same time.
You Must check out her post on how she accomplished this wonderful copy. Or just go see her blog and tell her howdy. You can click here, or here, or here. (now that you clicked on all of them then you realize they all take you to the same place. I really am a good traffic director eh?)


I am curious as to why one week I have thirtysomething links and the next week I have twelve. Let's boost that number shall we? There are 401 of you followers now. Link up PEOPLE! Uh, no pressure...

I'm sitting on the edge of my seat on the floor waiting to see what you bring to the table. Let's get some more great knockoffs like my gal did up there. I'm gunna go see what I can copy too. Be right back.

1. Only link your post URL, not your blogs address!
2. Be sure to take that button at the top with you so that everyone can know where you're linking up!
3. Please only link crafts, DIY projects like furniture, decor and such. I don't want to delete your link!

I did manage to pick up a few cool things for myself at Antique Alley. You know when you see an item and you feel something inside of you pulling you to it and you know you'll regret it so terribly if you don't go purchase that item right away? Ok, so sometime I feel that way and no matter what I feel, the price tag just doesn't feel the same way about me.
BUT, not so with my wonderful chippy table.

It was love at first sight.

I think you'll agree.

Inhale...Exhale. Ahhhhhhh.

That green light shade sitting on the table was a bargain for just 50 cents. Not sure where it will hang, but I love the color and the price!



I also found this very pretty old crate for a measly $5. It was almost a crime not to buy it.
Ahhh, this candy cane stool has lovely metal legs with touches of paint here and there. Though the material was cute, it just wasn't me. It is now covered in a scrap of drop cloth.

I also bought an old metal basket. I wish I had about 10 more of them.

Tomorrow I'm going to Canton, TX to one of the oldest recorded flea markets. Canton Trade Days is something that everyone should experience at some point. I can't wait to share my finds with you!

Don't forget to come back later and link up with We Can Do It Cheaper!

As I sat in our booth at Antique Alley, I kept looking around thinking "What in tarnation was I so busy doing these last few weeks?". As looked again the memories started lapping over me like little waves. Then giant tidal waves. (I even started to feel trickles of water but then realized it was sweat)

Ahhh, so that's what I was doing!
I took this plain old shutter and changed it up a little.

I found this picture at a yard sale and decided the frame needed some updating.
I painted it, sanded a little then glazed it with two different colors to age it.


This little table stumped me for a while. I decided the lines of it were a little french looking and dry brushed the top with white and the bottom with a soft gray. After a little sanding I was happy with the final look.

I showed you this chair makeover before. I am still on the hunt for another one like it. It was worth the money I made on it but oh how I miss this chair. (even if it did only grace my home for a few days)

I will NEVER try to redo another desk like this! I got this off of Craigslist and started ta workn'. It kicked me in the proverbial tail end. I hated painting all those flat surfaces and the whole back of it had to be painted too of course. The end result was good and I sold it on Craigslist again for just a little more;-)


I found this frame with the little hook thingies on it and a cracked mirror at Hobby Lobby on clearance. Decided to make it into a rustic chalkboard. I actually was not thrilled with the final result, but had no time to redo it and it sold it anyway.
In my spare time I worked on a few other things.
These numbered, deco balls which you can now find in my Etsy store.
A few pillows that I had lots of fun thinking of but hated every second of cutting them out!

So at the end of the day I did figure out what I had been doing. I also decided that if I ever do another show, I'll start working on stuff more that 3 weeks before. Maybe 3 years.

<center><a href="http://www.thevirginiahouse.blogspot.com/"><img border="0" src="http://i843.photobucket.com/albums/zz360/jvc80/newlogowecan.jpg" /></a></center>
This is one We Can Do It Cheaper project that is so easy and cheap you almost have to try it!

You only need three simple things to make this one:
1. Wreath
2. Coffee Filters
3. Glue Gun

I got the wreath and coffee filters from $Tree. So I really pulled out the big bucks for this one.


Put your wreath on something (like this handy piece of paper) so that you don't get hot glue all over your table. Or lap. Or pool table.

Stare at the wreath for a few minutes while your glue gun heats up. Keep pushing the glue gun button over and over until it has no choice but to spit out some lukewarm glue.
Open your pack of 5,000 coffee filters and think to yourself "there is NO WAY I will use half of these!". Uh, yes you will, but you only spent a dollar on them so you're ok with this in the end.
Try various ways to get the right look till you settle on this one... somewhat flatten the coffee filter together then pinch the bottom and give it a little twist. Pretend it's someone you don't like. Have fun doing this 4,789 times.
The rest is self explanatory (no offense), as was the first part. Sit back and enjoy your wreath. Or spend a weekend in 95 degree weather trying to sell it to people that LOVE it but don't buy it. I'm not bitter, it looks good in my bedroom.
Add something to the middle, like a starfish, a lock of your child's hair or something of the like...

You can also dip the edges of the filters into dye or tea/coffee to give it a different look. (this tip came from my MUCH older, much wiser sister)

If you hate it, well ya only spent $2!

1. Only link your post URL, not your blogs address!
2. Be sure to take that button at the top with you so that everyone can know where you're linking up!
3. Please only link crafts, DIY projects and the like. I don't want to delete your link!

The winner of the vinyl giveaway is Ellen from Creative Passage. Congratulations Ellen. Any of you who are in the need of a vinyl or two, stop by ACJInspirations and go shopping! She does a great job!

On to other great stuff. I mentioned before that we met some great people at Antique Alley. Just down the isle from us on the corner was a booth that caught all of our attention right away. In fact, one of my friends bought a highchair from them while we were all still setting up. They had the most AMAZING booth and the neatest stuff, plus the fact that they where a great buch of people. We all ended up with a few items from each others booths by the end of the show (more on that).


These are just a small portion of the pictures I took of their booth. I was like a booth stalker.
Everytime they turned around, there I was.
I did finally buy some stuff though.


I got the most amazing (have I used that word before?), chippy table from them. I'll show you soon!


They had a TON of these old wooden spools starting out, they were snatched up like cupcakes on clearance so that just a few remained. A couple of them made it home in my van though (yes I paid for them. They just didn't "hide" in my pockets right)


They will be back to Antique Alley in the spring. Same spot and all! I can't wait to go stalk see them.

So I kinda left you all hanging in my state of depression there. Sorry:-(
Good news though! Saturday was much, much better and we even got some business Sunday despite the Cowboys game. The best part of the whole time though was that we met some really great people! We made a lot of contacts, passed out a lot of "business cards" (our info was hastily written on some price cards)! Some of you readers even stopped by! I was especially glad to meet Gina from this lovely blog. Gina is the one that inspired me to try making signs, so I owe her a big thank you! She also bought one of my numbered stools (click over to her site and see her project room reveal, with my humble stool in it)!

Ready for some pictures? Today I will just share some shots I took of our booth. Come back tomorrow and see some pictures of what we called "our favorite booth". We all came home with a souvenir from their booth;-)



Remember, I did this with two other friends, so a lot of the great stuff you see is theirs!

One of my friends is a photographer, and she and her husband took these pictures and made these amazing frames! You can find their blog here.









Remeber seeing this desk before? I redid it and it turned out really nice. Unfortunitly it is once more sitting in our garage, waiting to be listed on Craigslist.
The other couple that did this show with us made decor and furniture. He is a cabinet builder and made some really, really beautiful furniture for the show as well as these "EAT" letters above.

So anyway, though we probably won't be doing that show again we may try a different one someday. We will always go back to shop at Antique Alley though!!!

This is the last day to enter my vinyl giveaway, so if you have yet to do that, then go ahead!