Four Books For Five Bucks





I love to read, I read anything from Jane Austen (love her and the movies) to John Grisham. I often read up to 45 mins per day, How? I take the train to work which allows me to read at least 45 mins a day. So last week I stopped in a local Goodwill looking for thrifty finds, and I didn't find anything! On the way out my son wanted to see what books they had, he was hoping to find a few Captain Underpants (great book series for 4th grade boys) books he doesn’t have. When I started browsing books for myself and came across a bunch, I've wanted read or looked interesting to me.

I was able to buy four books for five bucks!




The Books

Baby Proof, by Emily Giffin
Knitting Under the Influence, by Claire LaZebink

In her Shoes, by Jennifer Weiner { I love this movie! I've always wanted to read the book }
The Nannie Diaries, by Emma Mclaughin & Nicola Kraus

I can't wait to get started on one of these books (I'm currently reading The Gold Coast). Have you found any great books from Thrift Stores are used books sotres lately?


Bench for My Bedroom: Before and After




A few months ago I mentioned I was planning on making over a little bench I've had for a while for my bedroom. When I first started thinking about redoing the bench, I picked this fabric from Calico Corners  in white only to discover they discontinued it a few weeks ago. I was back to square one, which turned out to be perfect. I love how the bench turned out.

Here's a reminder of how the bench looked when I purchased it in 2003 ( green fabric) and recovered it with fabric that used to be oh so me (purple). It was cute, banged up  though




 It's amazing how pretty the after became becasue of paint from Sherwin Williams and the fabric from Calico Corners. Without further adieu, here's the lovely after.





~ Here's what I did ~

Paint Steps


1. Primed the bench with two coats of primer using a brush, lightly sanding between coats.

2. I painted the bench with Three coats of Satin Paint by Sherwin Williams, Color: Aqua-Sphere - I applied the paint with a mini sponge roller. I waited 24hrs between each coat of paint, to apply the next coat. Becasue there is so much detail with this bench I also used craft brushes to get into the tight spots.

3. I applied three coats of Clear Poly by Behr to get a shiny gloss to the paint, it worked perfect - I lightly sanded between each coat of Poly. I waited 24hrs  between each coat, before applying the next coat. Poly takes 48 hours to harden, so after the final coat I did not handle it for 48 hours

{ I cleaned  the bench with mild soap and lightly sanded to remove chipped paint }
Simple Upholstery Steps


1. I removed the old fabric and used it as a template for my new fabric, and cut out my fabric. I choose not to add new padding to the bench since its already nice and soft

2. Center the fabric on your board. I started in the middle of the bench and used a staple gun to sercure the fabric, then did the other side. I smoothed out wrinkles before applying the next staple
3. Last I re-atttached the the seat to the bench.


Here's my budget breaksown for this ReDo
   4.99 - 1 qaurt of paint - Sherwin Williams sells 1 quart sample paints on Satin!
19.99 - 1 yard of fabric 10% sale discount, + free shipping  (I have plans for the leftover fabric)
  2.99 -  mini roller from Sherwin Williams - perfect for small areas
no cost -  Primer already had
no cost - Clear Poly already had
no cost - Craft brushes already had



 27.97 not including tax


Money well spent, I love how this turned out, my first project completed for Master Bedroom.