❈Sac Thrift Chick❈

Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice! The ghost with the most was missing from my DIY tombstone graveyard every Halloween. I had Jason, Freddy, Carrie, even Wes Craven and Dee Dee Ramone … because I, myself, am strange and unusual . But my favorite Halloween movie bad guy was not represented among my DIY Halloween decorations. This year, my goal was to make more tombstones, but I needed materials, and I don’t do flimsy foam. Randomly scrolling Facebook Marketplace, I came across free picket fence shutters. Like the red Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice sign flashing in my brain, my idea bulb lit up, and I went on a mission to make DIY picket fence tombstones. From Picket Fence Shutters to DIY Beetlejuice Tombstone Luckily for me, my picket fence shutters already resembled the curved shape of tombstones when placed together. To turn two picket fence shutters into a DIY Beetlejuice tombstone, I attached the two halves with blocks of wood across the back. The added block of wood drilled onto...

Wackadoo! This summer, I threw a Bluey birthday party in the park! Planning and executing this Blueyriffic party was a bit different than anything I had done before. I am used to hosting at my home where I have all the time and control to set up, but this year, we needed a bigger space to meet the needs of a larger guest list, so we rented a large gazebo in a quiet, clean park. Hosting a Bluey birthday party at the park made some of the prep easier and some of it harder. Did everything go as planned? Absolutely not! Did my kid and her friends have a great time? Absolutely. Here's how I pulled off the Bluey park party for my daughter's 5th birthday. Bluey Party Decorations Normally when I decorate for a party, I go all out. I obsess over fonts and spend too much time adjusting and readjusting decorations inside and outside of my house. But for Bluey party decorations at a park, I scaled way back. I wanted our large gazebo to look nice, but I knew there would only be so much time...

Ah! It's the most wonderful time of the year. The time when the leaves change color, the air gets crisper, and I make spooky DIY Halloween decorations with items I find around my house.  OK, actually, I live in California where it's mostly been warm and sunny, and everything is still green outside. But I did use my free (read: sick all the time because my daughter started preschool and brought home all the viruses) time to make a DIY Halloween wreath with a bicycle wheel rim.  Why use a bicycle rim for a wreath? Well, in my case it's because my husband is an avid bicyclist. At any given time, I have no idea how many bikes he owns; all I know is that bikes and their parts are all over our garage. At some point, I kept seeing his stripped down bicycle rims lying around and thought, I bet those would work for wreaths! Personally, I like that a bicycle rim is larger than your standard wreath. I place the wreath on a stucco wall above my porch bench, so the larger size does a gr...

This is DIY Halloween ! This is DIY Halloween! Our DIY scary movie themed Halloween decorations will make you scream! At this house of crafty Halloween. I am the vampire bat born of poster board and felt perching on a rectangular board nailed to a 2x4 and secured to the bench. Cover me in garbage bags and webs to decorate a stucco wall. I am the spider with my black widow markings. Garbage bags and felt make me large and in charge of the patio bench. We are the floating ghouls of 99 Cent Store masks and fabric scraps. Red tape makes my eyes shine and my mouth slither like a snake. We are the tombstones of political signs of old . Upcycling is the name of our game. And I, Michael Myers, am the costume that keeps on giving. Watch how I come to life with furniture foam and pool noodles . I ain't afraid of no Ghostbusters 3D ghost with furniture foam and Duck Tape . I am the fully poseable skeleton someone put out on the curb. One man's tr...

Ever since I created Jack Skellington on my garage three Halloweens ago , I felt he was missing something. And that something was the happy, floating ghost dog with the light-up pumpkin nose named Zero. I wanted to make a floating Zero the dog from Nightmare Before Christmas, but I kept procrastinating on doing it because procrastination is my M.O. Well, I'm happy to report that this Halloween (and come Christmas, but of course) Jack has been reunited with Pumpkin King's best friend. Now Zero the dog from Nightmare before Christmas is one of my favorite Halloween decorations. I would like to tell you that making Zero was a piece of cake. That I didn't repeatedly burn myself with hot glue. That I got his ears right the first time, when I tried to make them the plastic from a soda bottle. That I didn't curse and repeatedly knock over the head while I added the finishing touches. But crafter to crafter, for a male dog, Zero was kind of a bitch. But many aloe treatm...

Our 2016 Halloween costumes were political, DIY and free -- three of my favorite things. We put a current events twist on the Big Bad Wolf and Little Red Riding Hood Halloween costumes. Remember, this was right before the 2016 Presidential Election between Secretary Hillary Rodham Clinton and reality TV star Donald Trump. Our political Halloween costumes were takes on comments made during the presidential campaign by both candidates. Aaron became the Big Bad Hombre Wolf reusing his wolf mask and gloves from our first Halloween together in 2004. He used fabric paint to write Bad Hombre on a black t-shirt, added a leather motorcycle jacket (or as we call it, Ramones jacket), a dog chain and furry wolf legs under his ripped jeans. For the fur, Aaron used leftover fabric from his DIY Super Mario 3 raccoon tail . I repurposed the cape from my Little Riding Hood Halloween costume but opted for a black dress over the shiny red costume dress. I dug into my craft supply and found my...

I'm the kind of gal that decorates for all the holidays and all the seasons. And in my opinion, one of the best ways to transition from winter decor to Valentine's Day decor and from Valentine's Day to Easter decor and so on through the year is with the changes to the entryway decor. My problem, however, was that I didn't actually have an entryway table, and I wasn't going to spend money on one. Until I could find an entryway table (or something to upcycle into one) for free, I used TV trays for my entryway table. My entryway wall is so small -- about 18 inches deep and 44 inches wide -- that two TV trays filled the space nicely, but I wanted something sturdier and with shelves. After much Craigslist hunting, I finally found a free solution that would actually fit my small entryway space: a TV entertainment center in a mid-century modern style. When I picked it up (less than 10 minutes from my house, score!), it was an ugly brown and had a cheap backing. I...

It's the most wonderful time of the year -- Halloween! For 2016, our outside Halloween decor covers more ground, literally. Over the summer, my front lawn got a DIY drought tolerance makeover; we ripped out much of the grass and replaced it with bark. The new drought-friendly bark allowed us to turn the entire yard into a cemetery; two cemeteries to be exact. Take a tour of a haunted Halloween decor. I did a twist on my popular Nightmare Before Christmas Jack Skellington garage . He's feeling a little red this year. I used Duck Tape and poster board (99 Cent Store FTW) that I had on hand. I plan on leaving him up through Christmas. Our pet sematary is a nod to the Ramones and Stephen King, naturally.  The flying Halloween monster is always a hit with the trick-or-treaters. The pet sematary is across from the larger, human cemetery. 

There's a reason our nicknames are Lauraroni & Aaroncheese; we're the cheesiest. I laugh at my husband's cheesy jokes. I coax my husband into indulging in cheesy, sappy movies with me. And I like cheesy gifts. This is why I've held onto my collection of fabric, bendable flowers gifted from my husband. It all started when we were first dating in the summer of 2004. We went thrifting and Aaron found a fabric flower. Naturally, he bought it for me. He said it was the first flower he'd ever bought a girl. I loved it.That silly little flower made 20-year-old me smile. On a later thrifting trip, another flower was found. And so began the tradition of Aaron buying me fabric flowers.

Things I learned this holiday season: People hang onto their Scrabble games and get rid of brand new, unopened Glee and Twilight games. At least that's what I found to be true at multiple thrift stores in Sacramento. When I decided to make Scrabble crafts for Christmas presents, I figured it would be easy to find an old Scrabble game at one of the many thrift stores I frequent. How wrong I was. I found lots of sad looking Scrabble Jr. games, but no actual Scrabble. In the end, I bought a new Scrabble game, paid for mainly with Shop Your Way points, so I still got a good deal. For my first Christmas craft, I made my mom a decorative picture, turning the Scrabble tiles into crosses. I used Super Glue to secure the letters into the cross shape. I immediately discovered that the glue bled onto front of the tiles, darkening parts of the light wood color. To remedy this, after gluing, I used a light peach nail polish to coat the tiles for a more uniform color. For the pic...