My Creative Blog [Search results for thrifting] 

Ladies-and the approximately 1% of readers who are dudes-, we have awesome sponsors. They are the ones who make the rest of our posts and projects possible. Not only do they support us, but they have some pretty cool stuff in their stores. We've rounded up some of favorite items for a cozy Fall season. Make sure you don't miss the discount codes and special promotions!

1. We are digging on this Antique Thread Display Drawer from Nachokitty. It could serve so many different purposes: jewelry organizer, craft supply organizer, or pretty display for your tiny treasures. Don't stop there, though. You should definitely take a look at their Etsy shop- I could browse their finds for hours!

2. I love this Industrial Table Lamp from Lucent Lampworks! I can see it snuggled up to some pretty Fall decor on a mantel or side table. Love. it. To get 10% off your purchase use the code EC2TENOFF.

3. We're heading into the holiday season, and it's always good to have small gifts on hand for teachers, neighbors etc. Stock up on these Premium Soy Candles from CJS Eco Chic in the mini 4 oz. and you won't ever have to worry! And oh man, the holiday scents are to die for!

4. We love using non-traditional materials for headboards! How about this fireplace mantel headboard? Not bad, right? Architectural Antiques is hands-down our favorite place for incredible salvaged materials to repurpose.

5. Did you see Mandi's Epic Room Makeover. She used the Nova Trellis, from Royal Design Studio in the bathroom and well, it is fabulous. As a thank you to their 10,000 FB fans, RDS is offering 25% of all orders through Sunday with the code WELOVEU.

6. You've all been waiting for Monica's big patio reveal, and tomorrow, the wait is over! They couldn't have done it without Stone Depot, and their super helpful staff. Now's the time to build an outdoor fireplace or firepit, and they guys at Stone Depot have everything you need to make that happen!

7. We can't seem to control our love for photo canvases from Canvas People! Right now you can buy a 11 x 14 Canvas for only $15 from Canvas People and $1 of every order will be donated to help fight Breast Cancer! If you need some inspiration for what to put on a canvas, check out this post! 8. Not gonna lie, once the holiday season starts (right after Halloween, in my opinion), I often need a reminder to stop and be thankful for all that I have. This 1 Thessalonians 5:16 Print from Red Letter Words makes a perfect visual reminder of that very thing…and it looks cool, too. Check out the fun new turquoise color, too! They also have a really fun, very sweet Print of the Month focused on the value we women have, and you will receive 20% off this entire section through the end of this month. 9. We love Moo & Puppy digital paper so much, we even wrote a post about all of it's many uses! I'm really liking the fall-ish colors of the Retro Digital Scrapbook Paper. Use the discount code EC2blog20 for 20% off your order!

10. We all know that Thirty-One Gifts has cute and affordable bags, but the one item I've had my eye for over a year is this small Magazine Basket. I love it's shape and versatility! Plus, you can personalize all baskets for only a few dollars more. Right now, mention EC2Blog when you order any basket and get any second item in the catalog 31% off. To place your order, click here and shoot an email to Amanda with your order.

11.Liberty Thrift Store is hands-down our go-to thrift store. Did you know that we found the chair we reupholstered for the Nate Show there? You never know what you'll find thrifting, but it's always fun! -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Wait, one more thing! We're happy to announce that we're accepting new sponsors! We have a few openings that we would love to fill, so if you have a business that you think we'll love and can help you promote, send us an email at eastcoastcreativeblog@gmail.com! Seriously, what better way to sell your stuff than to have two loud, passionate, crazy women on your side?! For all the nitty-gritty info about our sponsorship opportunities, click here. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Have a great day, and be sure to stop over and say hi to our wonderful sponsors!

This week's fab find is pretty special to me.

Two weeks ago, Eric and I (Monica) had a chance to attend a benefit dinner for Liberty Ministries. It's a prison ministry aimed at transforming the lives of offenders and recently released ex-offenders. It was a really awesome night and it was amazing to hear the stories of the men whose lives have been changed through the ministry.

Liberty Ministries runs 5 thrift stores in Bucks and Montgomery counties. The money goes towards the operational costs of the ministry. You know that Jess and I love a good thrift store find, so we're thrilled to share these stores with you. Look at all those tables just waiting to be painted… or the chairs begging to be part of the 2011's decor!

This weekend is the GRAND OPENING of the new Quakertown Location and to celebrate, they're offering 50% off of EVERYTHING at that location.

I know that I'll be going Sat. to get some awesome items to DIY, but just to convince you to come too… We're giving away TWO $10 giftcards that can be used at any of the five locations anytime in the next year. Since the Grand Opening is tomorrow, this is a quick giveaway. We'll be choosing a winner at 11pm tonight and the giftcards will be waiting for you at the Quakertown location (unless you want it mailed to you).
Even if you don't win, check out one of the stores and if you want more information about this ministry, head over to their website here. Thanks for letting us share this with you, now come on local readers… Here's how to enter: 1. Leave a Comment on this post (1 entry) 2. Like Liberty Thift Stores on Facebook Here (1 extra entry)
Good Luck and Happy Thrifting this Weekend!

P.S. Jess and I are super excited to finish taping our Nate Show segment this weekend! We can't wait to share all the details with you soon! Also, if you're in the NYC area, we're taping our live show this coming Thursday, so you should try and get tickets to the taping. It would be awesome to have a little RHBC posse!

Well, well, look what I found:

Remember my post about the game plan for my bathroom? I really wanted a ladder for the space to as a stylish way to hang a few hand towels and other little things we might need in the bathroom. I found one this weekend while visiting my sister in Lancaster. There is a house that we pass on the way to my sister's that has hundreds (no exaggeration) of old windows and other random junk in their yard. Of course, that's like the jackpot for a cheap DIYer like me, so we stopped by. Lucky for me, they had a few ladders like this one and I was able to buy it for $15! (Talked her down from $20. Oh yeah, I drive a hard bargain.) Out of all the things I've bought for my house, besides my statement piece, this one is my favorite. It captures the feel I'm going for in my home (and no, that feel is not old paint shop in case you were wondering.) This really tall little beauty needs some loving, as in, a good sanding and maybe a few coats of a water-based polyurethane to bring out the wood tones. There's just one too many different colors of paint on her for my liking, so once they're sanded out, she'll be perfect.

In other news, we bought a mirror at Lowes for the bathroom. Originally, I planned on thrifting a cheap, unique mirror, but we came across this one marked way down on clearance at Lowes, and I'm totally loving the shape of it.

(Yes, that is my garage filled with lots of old barnwood for my various projects. Yes, my husband gives me the stink eye because of it.)

And how do I like the color of this mirror? Umm, not so much. Black with red undertones? I don't think so.

I'm planning on painting the mirror frame and then doing an antique glazing treatment on it to make it look weathered and well, antique. Something like this:

I've finally chosen my paint colors, Olympic Whispering Wind and Quill, which I'll have color-matched in Valspar paint (that covers better with less coats). You can't tell in this picture, but they are very neutral beiges that are almost gray. LOVE them.

And finally, the lighting. Thanks to some suggestions by our awesome readers (who knew to look at outdoor lighting??!!), I've narrowed down my choices to this large bronze wall-mounted light fixture that is actually meant to be outside. It's from Lowes and costs $39.98. I really adore everything about it, but I'm not sure the color is exactly the feel I'm going for.

Lowes

My second choice is this Raw Steel outdoor wall sconce from Lowes. It costs a little bit less than the other light $24.95, but is smaller. The color is definitely in the cooler tones.

Lowes

So, now, will you help me? The finish of the light will really direct the direction of the other decorative items in the room (bronze= browns & creams, silver = gray, white and black). It's your chance to tell me what you think would work best in my bathroom redesign.

Create your free online surveys with SurveyMonkey, the world's leading questionnaire tool.

Thanks so much! My husband tried to sneak his own decorative touch into the bathroom, hoping I wouldn't notice.

Sorry, babe, the Phillies hand towel is oooooutta here! Nice try.

Happy Monday!

Hey! If you're new around here- welcome! We're super glad you found us and we hope you'll stick around a while. Use the icons on the right to take the plunge and follow us. We love all things DIY and we'd love to share our projects with you!
-Monica & Jess ********************************************************************************
What a bittersweet day… we’re so excited that our fourth episode airs today, but we’re also bummed that our crazy Nate Show journey is coming to an end. It has been such an amazing ride! If you’ve missed any of our episodes, you can check out some clips here.
Since we spent a good amount of time in the studio this year, we really had a lot of work to do behind the scenes.

Haha! Kidding! We totally snuck these pictures in the control room when we were waiting for our mics. Yup, we’re dorks. Want to know the funniest thing ever? When we were taking these, there was another woman waiting to go on for her segment. We didn’t know until she was on that it was Christiane Lemieux, the founder of Dwell Studios! We LOVE Dwell! Can you imagine us taking these pictures while she was watching. OMW we’re Dorks!
Thrift a $250 room that looks like a Million bucks! This time Nate gave us a seriously tough challenge. $250 to design an entire room including furniture is insane! We never could have done it without an awesome thrift store. Liberty Thrift is a personal favorite and they have 5 locations in PA. We love the mission behind Liberty and it makes shopping there even better! They’re our newest blog sponsor, so if you’re in the area, go and check out one of their stores! Since you’ll get to see the finished product on the show, we’re going to highlight just a few of our favorite projects this week. We don’t have a ton of process pictures, because it was about 19 degrees in our work area and we were so tight on time, but we’ll try and give you the main gist. Here’s all the furniture pre-DIY… oh man it was in rough shape!

Our very favorite piece in the room was the Navy buffet. Something we love to do is to look at a piece of furniture and think of what we could turn it into. The minute I saw this dresser, I envisioned it as a fabulous buffet! When you’re working with thrifted pieces, don’t be afraid to try something a wee bit daring, the worst thing you can do is ruin it and have to head back to the thrift store to try again! Here’s the pretty darn dramatic before and after…

We don’t have process pics, but we do have some process video outtakes! WARNING: These are totally unedited and really goofy, but we’re all about keeping it Real and this lets you see just how the navy beauty came to be!
Step 1- The Game Plan!
Step 2- TV makes it seem easy!
Step 3- To Mold or not to Mold?
Step 4- Oops Still looks like a Dresser!
So you're getting the idea right? Good, because we don't have any more process shots! This picture shows all the changes we made. Isn't she pretty? We both were sooo thrilled with her makeover!

Now, when you go thrifting you can look at the rows and rows of dressers in a whole new light! And now, here's the cheesy End of the Night recap from day 2!
Tomorrow Jess is going to show you how two DIYers that have never upholstered a thing in their lives, decided to tackle a chair for Nate! We're crazy!
We hope you had fun watching our final episode, let us know what you thought of the room!

*** If you're wondering about the amazing stencil we used for our wall art, you can get it here. We love Royal Design Studios and their stencils are by far the best! *** >Linking up to: TT&J, Sundae Scoop, Sunday Showcase, Saturday Night Special, Show & Tell Saturday,

You want to know what we learned this year at the first ever Haven conference? There are so many talented people in the world. It's true. Every single blogger we met has unbelievable talent, was super cute (I'm not lying when I say that Monica and I left feeling old and frumpy!), and could not have been nicer. It totally felt like a huge family reunion (except that we had never met before!) Seriously, though, we attended some inspiring sessions, chatted with some of our favorite bloggers and enjoyed really fun BFF time, too! It started out with a smooth flight, a pricey cab to the hotel (60 bucks, one way!) and the discovery that the hotel had overbooked and that our confirmation was actually a pending notification. Booo. But the guys at the Crowne Plaza worked it out and we got a room (a nice one, I might add!)

Upon arrival, we met some of the Haven crew and received our swag bags. There were some pretty sweet finds in the bag, but our favs were definitely the Annie Sloan Chalk paint, Purdy paint brush, Kreg Jig Jr. and a stencil from our go-to stencil girls at Royal Design Studio. Score!

We attended six sessions total, each of them were taught by some blogging bigwigs- do you see that list below? Southern Rhoda, Tracie at Beneath my Heart, Beth from Home Stories A to Z, Sarah of Thrifty Decor Chick, and Myra from My Blessed Life We were SO thrilled to meet these ladies in real life and hear all the stuff they've learned through their blogging experience. We also spent time talking with vendors (Monica won 3 awesome paint brushes at the Annie Sloan chalk paint booth), and with business cards in hand, checked out all the blogs we hadn't read before,.

Rashon Carraway, aka Mr. Goodwill Hunting, rocked the Thrifting 101 session! Remember him from The Nate Show? We had fun sharing stories about our times on the show and how great the staff was to us. Good times, I tell you.

Sherry and John from Young House Love were the keynote speakers, and not only were they adorable, they were so down to earth, full of good tips and witty, to boot. Not fair. We loved their mindset about writing their blog, and their honesty about sort of stumbling into blogging fame.
We could have talked with Sherry the entire night. She's totally like the other best friend we wish we had.

We LOVED meeting so many people with similar passions as ours, and discovering awesome blogs we had never heard about. No one truly understands blogging except other bloggers, that's for sure.

Beth from Free Stylin' and Jamie from C.R.A.F.T

The highlight of our trip was meeting our blog mentor, Beckie. We've been chatting with her on the phone every week for the past few months. We knew she was insanely talented and driven, but we were so not prepared for how awesome she is in person! And drop-dead gorgeous. Her session about advertising had everyone buzzing about her. And for good reason! Love.that.girl.

Monica was really excited to meet her, and I was scared, I guess. Awkward, Jess, awkward.
And I'm sure you've all heard of Allison from House of Hepworths, but we were psyched to meet her since we were in the Blogging 2 Better collaboration with her the past 6 weeks.

Layla from The Lettered Cottage, taught a killer session on photo styling that rocked our picture-taking world. How she preps rooms for photos is genius, and even though we learned a lot, we're pretty sure that she has a creative eye that can't be duplicated. I am a HUGE fan of hers, so was pretty excited that she sort of knew who we were (or pretended to, anyway!)

We also had the priviledge of hanging out a bit with Ashley and Whitney from Shanty 2 Chic. These girls make DIYing look amazing. A gorgeous, creative blogging duo.

And speaking of gorgeous-ness…take a look at Ana White building a rolling storage caddy in sky-high heels and tight cropped pants. Fabulous, isn't it? Makes us feel like we should maybe reconsider our t-shirt and sweatpants attire for DIYing. Or maybe not.

And finally, here's a shot of us fooling around at the Homes.com photo booth. Our new bloggy best friend, Karah from The Space Between, took this picture and we love it. And you'll love her. First of all, she lives in Curacao, and secondly she does great projects (just check out her rooftop pallet bed) and thirdly, she's a lot of fun to hang out with.

So that's our crazy recap! All in all we had as really fun time, and I can't say enough how much fun I have with Monica. It may actually be possible that two people share the same brain. Just sayin'.; )
If you could meet one blog crush, who would you choose?