Beach Glass and Heart Stones

Last year, my then 8 year old son found a piece of Beach Glass on the beach at our campground, on the shores of Lake Champlain. This started a love story / passion / obsession for the whole family.

In 2 summers, we have collected tens of thousands of pieces of beach glass, on the shores of Lake Champlain alone!
We have found several little beaches where we like to go on our hunts. We'll swim, look for sea glass, swim again, etc.

It's the ultimate frugal hobby!!
It doesnt cost anything!!
Plus, it makes you discover some beautiful places.
And it REALLY is like a treasure hunt. Every single time I find a piece of beach glass, I feel like I found a treasure. My kids too. You can see some of last year's finds on my FLICKR.

Finding a piece of beach glass is touching a piece of history. These pieces of glass have been drifing away in the lake for decades, being polished by the sand, rocks and water, and have become something that looks more like gems. You never know how old or what it used to be, and guessing is SO fun!! Sometimes, you'll find a piece with writing on it (look at my Flickr for some coca-cola glass and other fun stuff like that).

This is what my kids look like when they hunt for beach glass:



And now, here's this summer's lot!


There's everything on the cloth behind the bowl, AND everything IN the bowl. I put the penny there for size comparison. But the bowl: it's a huge salad bowl!!


Now here are my favourites for this summer:

Look at all the different shades in there! Even for one colour, there's a ton of shades!!

My number one favourite is this one:

A perfect bottle top, found by my 9 year old son (the one with whome it all started!). GORGEOUS and definitely old! I cant believe it's stayed intact!!!

I also like this very light yellowish-lime green piece. It's pretty big and thick, and I was the one who found it.

(hum, yeah, notice I have not yet cleaned them!!)

And I HAD to take a picture of this one too, the peach coloured one. It's the only piece I DID clean, because I wanted to make sure its colour wasn't from sand or anything. But nope. That IS its colour! WOW!!!

The piece on the left of it is also a rare-ish colour in my collection, a type of olive green that is close to amber. I have a couple of pieces that colour, but this one is the only one this summer.

I have beach glass everywhere around my house in jars and such.

And I love the colour so much that is it what inspired me for the kitchen colours we will have!!

Here's my "inspiration board": (LOL)

The aqua will be the walls (like the largest piece of aqua, bottom left of the bottle top). THe lightest aqua will come up in decoration pieces of course.

The white will be the cabinets. I love me some white bead board cabinets.

The different greens will be in accents, tiles on the backsplash, etc. Possibly in curtains and such too.

The darkest browns will be my new (soon) wood floors: I want them super dark, i love it. And my countertop will also be brown. My table is a lighter brown.

So there ya go, that's my kitchen's colour scheme!!

Oh and one last thing... while looking for beach glass, we started finding heart shaped rocks. We haven't accumulated much because we only started later in the summer, and they're harder to find than beach glass (which catches the eye by its colour!). But I plan on using them in a frame, it just makes me happy when I look at them!!


And here's another rock I found that is NOT shaped like a heart, but has a heart shaped spot on it, the colour of rust. Cute!

Anyone else collect Beach Glass or Heart Stones?

Link me up so I can see!!

It's just another thrifty Monday....

Yeah, it's that time again, baby!! Rhoda's hosting Thrifty Monday, I always look forward to it even when I can't participate due to lack of time to blog, LOL!!

I am back in Montreal after spending the summer in Vermont. Had a wonderful time!!

So, being back home means my curbside shopping addiction can start again!!
Here's what I found in yesterday's trash.

A house had a "Sold" sign up front, and some boxes with the trash, opened so people could look thru it. I found this old Fisherman Mug. It's super kitschy but I HAD to have it. My grandfather used to have a whole collection of these and I have found memories of them. It's chipped in a few places, but I still like it. I think its kitschiness will be fine with more current style stuff!!





I also found this wooden stool. Apart from the top being scratched, it's in good condition so it will get a makeover very soon.





I also found 3 pairs of SKIS in the trash yesterday, and not old skis, very recent and very good brands! If they dont fit my teenage son, they will be cut and transformed into a headboard for my middle child :)



I actually found this tray a while ago at a garage sale in Vermont... it was in the FREE pile. The tray is SUPER heavy. I debated transforming it, but I just LOVE the pattern and it goes well with our melamine plates we use when we eat outside! SO it's staying as is and is actually being used as a tray to bring out the condiments :)





I also found this in the States... at a neat little thrift store I like to visit in NY state. I could NOT believe the price of this scale!!! Are you ready?

how much do you think I paid for this beauty?


A whopping 2 dollars!!!!! I thought it was a mistake, but yup, she rang it up at 2 bucks! WOOT!!!

Here's how it looks right now in my living room.



I also just wanted to update you on my most recent small projects that I did since coming back.

In the trash before summer, I found an old window with an metal thing in it to prevent thiefs. It was metal in colour, but i liked its shape. So I spray painted it black and voila, instant wall decor for a space I had nothing on!!


(arent my birdies cute?)

ANd remember this beautiful wooden sled? I just added this iron "thing" (no clue what it is, but I paid a quarter or so this summer for it, I love anything metal or iron!!). I just spray painted it turquoise and put it on the sled.

so.much.stuff.

Oh how I love garage sales in Vermont! Compared to Quebec garage sales, everything is just SO cheap!!
I've been going to a ton of garage sales and thrift stores in the past 2 weeks. Here are some of my finds. I'm sorry that the pictures just s*ck, but I was in a hurry to take the pics before DH went back home to Montreal with most of this stuff (not enough space here at the trailer!)

An overview of some stuff I found earlier this week....






If you knew me, you'd know I'm NOT a girlie girl and I'm NOT into shoes and handbags. At all. My sister is the girlie girl, I'm more alternative and funky. But I do love a well-made purse. I just wear the same one all the time until I get sick of it. Anyone else like me?

Anyway. I found this purse at a garage sale during the week (i'm still amazed some people hold garage sales during the week in Vermont) for 2$.
I bought it simply because I loved it, love it's colour and clean lines and that cool clasp on front.
When i got home, I realized it was genuine leather and... seems like a good brand. Some searching, and it appears I have a real Etienne Aigner handbag. I know nothing about handbag brands. But if it does turn out to be a real one, they're worth 50-150$!!

Then, I found this COOL ship in a bottle kit from the Boston museum of Fine arts. Retails at 30$ or so, I got it for 2$ at a second hand store. I cannot wait to make this

I got a bag of vintage Made in Japan Xmas decorations. Love love love love them! THe whole lot for 50¢! arent they just the cutest you ever did see?

Speaking of Xmas... I fell in love with these little guys:

Cute cute cute! They are from this decoration from Christmas around the world, that retails for 30$ and I got for 2$!! You can put incense under the bbq grill, so that smoke comes out of it, too cute!

Always on the lookout for a nice, different puzzle, and I found this. It has all the countries, all the states and all the provinces. Good for learning with the kids. Just 1$.

I'd seen this on a couple of people's blogs and knew i HAD to get my hands on one. I paid a bit more than I wanted, 3$ on this, but I figure it's gonna be worth it.

WHY? You ask?
Well, for THESE, of course:

350+ small cards with letters on them! How COOL will those be on scrapbook pages or decorating projects?!! Got tons of ideas for them!!

I forgot to show this last week. Another one of the small bottles I got (10¢) and that old blue canning jar for a dollar. love its colour!!

You may know I love owls. And birds in general. This one is cute, made of some kind of stone. But you cannot see the details well, so I will prob'ly paint it!

I bought a huge pile of magazines, about 35 of them, for a total of 3$. I love mags and when it's rainy at the campsite, i love to read 'em! But hate to shell out the money unless it's a decorating mag, LOL!

Found this HUGE Rolodex in a free pile while driving around the little town here! Nothing written in it, perfect shape. I've been wanting one of these, much more practical than a book, in my eyes. But they're usually so expensive! You can't beat free. I love free piles and Vermonters have a TON of those, either during a garage sale, or after, or even anytime! You drive around and see a TON of them!

My 8yo daughter is a space enthusiast. She'd love to become an astronaut like Julie Payette. She loves it so much that I will be redoing her room in a space theme. So i've been on the search for a globe. But man are they ever expensive when new!! And whilst I loooove old vintage globs, I did want a recent one for her so she can learn her countries and such. Like... Russia, not USSR! Got this one for a mere dollar!! She loves it!

My 9yo son, on the other hand, will soon have a vintage sports related room. While this isnt anything sports, it does have the vintage feeling to it and I think it will be cool. He bought it himself for a quarter. It's not a metal one, just plastic, but it's still cute. One day I will find myself one that Iwill make over into a fish bowl!

Got this brand new unopened gift bag of bath products for a dollar.

My son also bought this. I think it was 50¢. I love it's beachy and kitschy feel. If my son allows me, it will go into my bathroom, lol!

These 2 frames for a quarter each. Love the details on them, they will however look much better once painted, dontcha think? not a fan of gold!!

I scored some awesome things at garage sales on Saturday!

I went to this one sale where the lady was the NICEST woman ever. She heard the kids and I talk in French, and she proceeded to greet us in french. She speaks quite well (i think her dad was french canadian?). It was about noon when I got there and she was in the process of marking down everything half price.

Check out the second picture of my post. Everything on there except the tiny window and round ?window? come from her. Notice a theme? Yup, she spray painted everything pink! I think that's why I was drawn to everything, it was soooo cute and lovely! While I love the colour, it doesnt match anything I have so most everything will get a makeover. So... how much do you think I paid for this?
(I forgot to take a pic of the large tin basket, take a look at it in the second pic on top)

?

Any guesses???

A total of 2,50$ for the whole lot!! SCORE!!!!

I got these 2 cuties, made of wood, for 50 cents each:

Always in keeping with my son's sports related bedroom, I bought this for 2$, I will put it above his curtains. The kid LOVES to fish, so he'd have a fishing-only room, but since he's got so much hockey stuff too, we're going with sports in general.

I went to my first ever estate sale. Wow. Wow. Wow. I thought it would be expensive but it was SUPER cheap!!
I scored these beauties:

Those will also go in my son's sports room, probably in one of the soda crates I found several weeks ago!! Ooh how I love these! 3$ for the trio!!

And I was instantly drawn to this old, huge stop sign in the back of the yard. I've always wanted one, don't ask me why! He asked 2$ for it, and he even threw in this old metal realtor sign from when his parents bought the house!! I dunno what i could ever do with that, but it was too cool to pass up, for free!! Oh and the stop sign- will also go in my son's vintage sportsy room!

My last find to show you is this table.... I got it for 5$. I think by now you know i love anything beachy. Well, look at this!!!

*droooool*

that's all I can say!!!

But now I'm all sad, because my most favourite find of the week, I can't even show you!! DH brought it back home and I totally forgot to take a pic of it before he left today!

To leave you hanging, I will tell you that:

- I saw it a garage sale on saturday

- never saw anything like it. coolest thing ever.

- didn't buy it at said garage sale saturday

- regretted not buying it on saturday.

-thought about it all night

-dreamt about it all night'

-woke up sunday knowing i HAD to have it

-drove back to town

- no garage sale at that house sunday.

- knocked on the door and asked for it.

- wife said gotta wait til hubby gets home, might've promised it to a friend.

-came back a few hours later

- dude said he had promised it to a friend

- dude said he'd sell it to me because I came all this way for it twice.

-i paid only 5$

Are you curious yet?!! You'll have to wait a little longer for a pic! I dont intend on going back to Canada for another 2 weeks! bwahahahah!!!!

So, dont forget to join the fun at Rhoda's like every week!! Look how cool that longest yard sale looks! Im jealous!!