At Home on Orange BlossomTrail

WOW! Life has been busy on Orange Blossom Trail!! Since my last post, I've had surgery, my FIL has had surgery, my mom has been in the hospital, my baby has been sick, my MIL is having surgery tomorrow....and the list goes on!! Shew! (as my friend from KY likes to say) Thought I'd take a breather and share some goodies I got recently!

One day last week I was able to slip away for an hour and I went to the Christmas Tree Shops. Weird name for a store that carries everything! LOL Anyway, I scored some awesome deals!!

My first steal was a welcome mat with our last initial on it. I've wanted one for eons but refuse to pay $20 at Bed Bath & Beyond for one. The rugs below are the ones at BB & B. The rug itself is $20 and the black mat frame is another $20...gulp. Not interested in paying $40 for something that will be out in the elements all year!

Here's my rug from the Christmas Tree Shops:

Did I mention the price? No?? I'm so sorry! It was $5.99!!!!!!!! Woohoo!! The black mat frame was $9.99 and I plan to go back and get one soon. $5.99. I love saying $5.99 instead of $19.99!!

Here's the "nice" rug the previous owners left us:

And here's my new $5.99 "P" rug!!

I think the mat that goes under the rug will be awesome too! The topiary thingy I got from HomeGoods last year.

My next steal that day were these vinyl cling things. They came in a huge package (16 X 26) for $1.29. Yep! A BUCK TWENTY-NINE! So, I had to buy 3! They had tons more to choose from, but these are the 3 I bought: 

 Then, on a clearance end cap, I found these nifty white plates for 97 cents each!

 The yellow tags say "As is". The only thing wrong with the plates were a couple raised bubbles in the surface. No big deal!

I washed the plates real good then had the hard task of choosing which vinyl things I wanted to use first. I decided to go with the Faith Hope and Love clings from one package. Although each cling is precut, I trimmed each one down just a bit and put one on each of the plates. The end result:

They are just leaning on my as yet undecorated fireplace mantle, but I want to get some plate hangers and hang these babies up! I see a couple of air bubbles in them too that I need to smooth out. The grand total for all 3 plates is way less than $4!!

Needless to say, I've been scouting my stash of stuff to use the other vinyl things on!! Nothing is safe if it has a smooth surface! LOL


Hopefully I won't be so long in between posts this time! Happy Spring!