49 days and counting...oh IT'S ON!!

I'm getting so tickled red and green that Christmas is coming. It makes me SO HAPPY and fills my heart with joy. Little overboard, I know. But I'm serious. I love it. We have a local company nearby that puts together a HUGE light display on their land and they have everything ready to go...I could have about peed my pants when I saw that today. Serious.

So I finished my first Christmas project tonight. I bought this little doohickey a couple weeks ago at Goodwill (GO! NOW!! And take some imagination with you!) knowing exactly what I would do with it, and it turned out just as I hoped. I got this for $1.99:

I painted the inside white, the outside Santa Red (that's what it's really called! hee!), painted the blocks and added some scrapbook paper to the fronts. The letters are foam and I covered them with glitter:


I love how the glitter almost looks snowy. Precious!!

I can use it like the picture above, or like this:

Or this:

Or this:

OK, that may be pushing it, but you get the idea. Can you get better for $1.99?? Say it with me..."No, Sarah, you can't!" Thank you!

I have so many fun Goodwill/garage sale finds to show you later this week that I need advice on. Here's one as a teaser:

This cutie patoot sled was five bucks. Would you leave this as is or repaint it? I see it with a brighter red (maybe Santa red? Hmmm...) What do you think? I also have picked up a few items that I'm going to redo as gifts. I think I can really make them shine. We'll see.

I'm also excited about my first giveaway! I've been gathering some of my favorite things of late. On Monday, December 1st, I say let's share some of our favorite things. I don't care if they are decorating items, crafts, appliances, whatever. Just share. It's fun. Sharing is fun. But the best part is I'm going to award my little goodies to one person who posts their favorite (randomly) -so be thinking about what you want to share.

***Edited to add this little tip I found out about Goodwill: If an employee there sees something they like as it comes on the floor, they can purchase it if it hasn't sold within 24 hours (or some time frame like that -- can't remember the exact amount). One of my recent finds was turned backwards, on the bottom shelf. And when the employee saw I found it, he told us this little tidbit. So DIG women, DIG!! Look on the bottom shelf, look under things. You might find extra special treasures. Lord knows I'd be hiding the good stuff too. :)