Thrift Store Dress Haul

I've managed to knock out two of my 31 in 31 goals in one fell swoop:

#5 - Check out Liberty Thrift & #23 - Find and purchase a couple cheap summer dresses.

Dan and I stopped at Liberty after work. We've been meaning to check out this thrift shop for a while now (it's only about 5 minutes down the road), but this is the first time we made it. It certainly won't be the last!

I was really impressed. The place was a lot bigger than I expected, the prices were good, the store was clean, and they had a pretty big selection. I could have easily spent a couple hours browsing through the clothes. But since I had the husband in tow and limited funds, it was a pretty quick trip. But, successful nonetheless!

Here's what I ended up with - two cute summer dresses and a great short-sleeved cardigan (which was originally from Target!):

The photos don't actually do the dresses much justice - they look rather shapeless. However, they drape nicely when they're on, and they're in like-new condition. I especially love the pink one, with the ruffle detail. It goes great with the sweater and will look perfect with pearls!

The best part? Altogether, all three pieces were just over $10!

Minty

Please meet my mighty mint plant:

I call her Minty. She is one tough herb!

When I bought Minty last year, she was in a tiny little pot and I'd used most of the leaves by the time summer was over. Since I've heard that mint is a pretty hearty plant, I was hopeful that spring would bring new growth.

Then winter happened.

I was worried about our little porch garden during the abundance of snow. I really didn't think that any of our plants stood a chance after being buried in the white fluffy stuff on three different occasions (as a side note, I'm so thrilled to be referring to winter and snow in past tense).

But, Minty has proved me wrong. Just look at that plant! It's ginormous! And it's growing flowers! I didn't realize that mint was even a flowering plant! I'm so pleased.

She's like a cute, little minty monster.

Anyway... now I'm anxious to find some recipes to use my mint leaves in, aside from my go to summer party food: watermelon salad with mint leaves and feta or gorgonzola cheese (yum!). I'd love to hear some suggestions!

And after my luck with Minty (and because of the money she's saved me!) I will also most definitely be expanding my herb garden this year.

Oh, Beans!

Holy cow - we had more snow last week. But, it's kind of starting to feel like old hat, you know? Admittedly, I could get use to all these snow days ;)

Anyway, this time around, I decided to make some warm, yummy comfort food while I weathered our latest storm. The Pioneer Woman and her absolutely fabulous cookbook, The Pioneer Woman Cooks, provided the perfect recipe: beans and cornbread.

As much as I love beans, I've only ever eaten them from the can. But, after cooking them from raw, I may never go back. It's certainly more economical (I halved her recipe, which called for 4 cups of beans, and still have plenty to freeze), and it's super simple. In a nutshell, you boil the water and beans, then lower the heat, cover the pot, and forget about them for 3 hours. Season to taste, and done. Fabulous!

Wait, let me back up. Did I forget to mention that the recipe calls for bacon? Yes ma'am! One of my favorite things about The Pioneer Woman Cooks, is her unashamed love of bacon. All you need to do is cut up the raw bacon and add it to the beans before boiling. Of course, I had to fry up the rest. You know, just to make sure it would taste ok.

And here is my glorious pot full of beans. Just scoop those suckers into a bowl, add some shredded cheese and sour cream, serve with cornbread, and you have the perfect, simple, comfort meal. Yum!

Paper Fan Wall Art

I've alluded to my thrifty wall art a couple of times in previous posts, and finally, it's time for the "grand unveiling".

*Ta-da!*

The idea came from the lovely blog, Blue Cricket Designs. As soon as I saw her paper fan post, I knew it needed to happen in my apartment. It's such a quick and easy way to add interest and a pop of color to a bare wall.

I'll skip the step-by-step instructions, since they are already detailed over at Blue Cricket, but here are a few shots of the process:

In addition to her instructions, however, I will add I had to use a lot of sticky tack to get them to stay put! In the interest of conserving my sticky tack, I started with just a couple little dabs, but after the majority of the fans fell off, I realized that I really had to gob it on there (it works best placed in the center of the fan).

This is definitely project that you can accomplish in an hour or so. But, what I love most about it is how darn cheap it was!! I happened to have all the supplies on hand (scrapbook paper, glue gun, and sticky tack), so it cost me $0.00 (my favorite price!). Even if you need to pick up sticky tack and scrapbook paper, the project would still be well under $10 - doesn't get much better than that!

<3 Brittany