$5 Fix

We only have one bathroom, but it's a pretty good one.  There are a lot of things I like about it;  it has entrances on both ends, making it feel bigger and there is plenty of room to sit on the floor and give the boys a bath.  We haven't done much to the bathroom since we moved in.  We're hoping to at least paint in the near future, but we often talk about changing bigger things down the road to make it more our style.

Unfortunately I am a terrible blogger and took no pictures of the before of this project.  When we moved in over 5 years ago, there were some light fixtures in the house that were outdated, one being in the bathroom.  There is a small pendant in front of the shower that had a glass shade with flowers and bows painted on it.  We never changed it and eventually just got used to it.  It didn't start bothering me until we got the shower curtain we have now.  So, I took off the glass shade and replaced it with a small white shade from an old table lamp.  It looked kind of ridiculous but at least the flowers and bows were gone.

I decided it wasn't necessary to replace the whole fixture and after some research realized we could just get a new glass shade.  I loved the look of this one from Schoolhouse Electric but did not love the $35 price tag.  Plus, it would cost $17 shipping!!  Here' s a little fact about me, I hate paying shipping on things.  I will do everything in my power to get free shipping on things I order online.  So paying half the price of the already expensive shade for shipping was never an option.

I started to look around on Etsy and Ebay and then I had an idea...why not try and find something at Goodwill?  They always have random fixtures and shades, so I thought I will try and keep my eye out for something.  Sure enough, the first time I looked I found something.

Again, I forgot to take a picture of exactly what I found.  It was a gold hard-wired sconce and it was pretty ugly.  But, it had 2 glass shades that were in perfectly good condition.

This is one of those projects that was cheap, and minimal work, but literally looks 100 times better.  Plus, now I have an extra shade, just in case.  It only cost me $5 total and I couldn't be happier with how it turned out.

 Rob and I both agree we like the vintage look of the fixture and the shade goes along with that.  So, again, another positive Goodwill experience!  I also bought 90% of Aiden's fall/winter wardrobe there and most of it was brand new stuff from Target.

So, always check out Goodwill- you never know what you might find!

Goodwill Love

This past weekend I got to putz around Goodwill by myself, which was a treat.  We have one right down the street but I don't go very often.

I always beeline it to the housewares section to see if I can find anything good.

I got super excited when I spotted these crates:

Our Goodwill actually gets a lot of things from Target, brand new.  I believe these were from Tarrget by the looks of the tags, but I am not totally sure.  Goodwill had them marked at $12 each and the original price tag was $25.  

I've been looking for something to replace the other crate-like containers we've had in these shelves for toy storage.  We've had them for about 3 years and they were starting to fall apart, being made of fabric and cardboard.  So I've been looking for something sturdier. 

So, you can imagine my excitement when I spotted these. 

And you can imagine my even greater excitement when I was only charged $6 for them...FOR BOTH!!

I love a good deal, it makes me giddy.  So, I couldn't shut up about these on Saturday.  I think Rob was getting sick of me saying,  "can you believe these were only $3 each?!!!".  

Anyway, I love them.  They fit perfectly, they're solid since they're made of wood and I love the rustic, vintage look of them.  

I also scored some clothes for the boys.  

I need to stop in to Goodwill more often.