Flea Market Find: Vintage Jelly Jars & Bed Springs

With nothing better to do on lunch yesterday I ventured down to one of my favorite local shops, North Country Neighbors.  Not really searching for anything in particular, I had been on the look out for vintage jelly jars for at least a year and I finally found a set.  I got a set of 4 for $3.00.  I had seen them on Etsy, but the cheapest was $8 for a set of 4 with normally $10 shipping.  It just didn't seem worth it to me and I knew they would pop up somewhere eventually.

The reason I wanted them so bad, is they fit perfectly inside a bedspring!

 The uses are endless!

A cute vase....

or an interesting candle holder...

I am hoping to post more and more, so be prepared.  I think I am back in recycling mode :)

A Thrift Store Find: C9 Christmas Lights - Thank You Best Friends!

Yes I know I have been really slacking on the blog posts but I hope to remedy that soon with some new exciting posts. To start with today I got a wonderful bargain on a box of C9 colored Christmas lights from Best Friend's thrift store in Potsdam. Those of you that don't know about this store, it is to benefit the Potsdam Animal Shelter. they do get some really interesting stuff too! Be sure to visit and like their Facebook page to receive updates on sales, free items and interesting new items. Anyways back to my bargain, without knowing how many were in the box or even if they worked I paid $3.00 for them all.

Upon going through the box initially expecting a huge mess of knotted up lights, I was pleasantly surprised. There were 14 strands varying length and all but 1 set worked. Now don't worry safety people I'm going to do a thorough check of all the strands before l use them for any projects. The one not working set may only need a new fuse. I really only wanted the lights for the stringers as a new c9 stringer runs anywhere from $12 - $15. Quite a few of the bulbs were out on some strands, but plan to replace the bulbs with clear c9 bulbs, possibly round ones and make something like this:

I found this wonderful tutorial on the Ruffled Wedding Blog for Vintage Marquee Lights! It seems easy enough and a could be a total upcycled project. Watch for my upcycled version of this tutorial using cardboard and cereal boxes!

I also got another great deal on 6 sets of plain white regular Christmas mini lights for a dollar and all of those sets worked. The BF even said I got a good deal! The c9 lights updated with clear bulbs and the mini lights will be gorgeous for a wedding and all for $4!