Shopko Shopping Scores

It's no secret that I love to get a great deal. I love to be complimented on home decor or an outfit and tell that person about the clearance deal or garage sale that it's from. It's the thrill of the hunt!

So when I had to pick up a few things tonight, I thought I might pop into our local Shopko and see if they had what I needed. If you've never heard of this place, it looks like they're only in 13 states, so chances are you might not have one around you. They're a interesting mix of what I can only describe as a Kmart/Sears, with maybe a little Big Lots thrown in, with a Meijer or Walmart type mix. I have actually talked about them before here on the blog too, here.

I popped in, grabbed what I needed to grab (the Scent Killer spray and wipes) and then started to cruise the clearance. The clearance is never in one place, it's all over, often on the end caps but in the aisle too, with bright yellow stickers hanging off, so it's pretty easy to spot.

Now when Meijer goes to clearance, I find myself often saying "That's the clearance price?" or even at Kohl's, they used to go to a super-deep discount but either I never get there at the right time, or it's not what it used to be. But when Shopko goes to clearance, they're not afraid to go to 90% off. And because my town is pretty small, it's usually not picked over and there's plenty to go around.

Enough talking... let's get to the haul, shall we?!

You'll have to excuse the crappy lighting, as it was already getting dark (boo) by the time I got home. But, there is 34 items here. Can you guess how much I paid?

$150?
Nope...

$75?
Nah...

How about... 34 items for $42.88 including tax?
Seriously!

Here's the breakdown.

Iams Mini-Chunk Dog Food
This is the kind that we like to feed Jay, a good mid-to upper grade food.
Original Price: $10.49
Clearance: $5.49
I paid: $4.41

Q-tips, qty 500
Exciting stuff, eh? We needed them, so I grabbed them.
Original Price: $2.99
I paid: $2.40

Fiskars Fiberglass Nylon Gardening Trowel
Season is nearly over, but they'll be great for next season.
Original Price: $3.99
Clearance: $.39
I paid: $.31 (yes, 31 cents!)

Fiskars Fiberglass Nylon Gardening Spade
Original Price: $3.99
Clearance: $.39
I paid: $.31 (yes, 31 cents!)

Miracle-Gro Liquafeed Universal Feeder
It attaches to your hose, and then evenly disperses the Miracle-Gro to your plants or grass via the hose or sprinkler. Included the liquid Miracle-Gro.
Original Price: $24.99
Clearance: $2.49
I paid: $2.00

3 Pack of Microwave Popcorn
Original Price: $1.00
I paid: $.80

3 Pack Always Maxi Sampler
Original Price: $?? I want to say it was a $1.00
Clearance: $.50
I paid: $.40

Tampax Pearl Compact 40 ct. Assortment
Original Price: $8.49
Clearance: $.84
I paid: $.68 (yes, 68 cents!)

16 count K-Cup Hot Chocolate
Gotta have this going into winter!
Original Price: $12.99
Clearance: $3.89
I paid: $3.13

Scent Killer Spray
Original Price: $12.99
Sale: $11.69
I paid: $9.40

ScentKiller Wipes
Original Price: $5.99
Sale: $5.39
I paid: $4.33

12 Sticks of Maybelline Baby Lips Balm in 3 colors
What does one need with 12 sticks of lipstick? I'll resell them. I looked them up and they go for $13.99 for a lot of 2 with free shipping. So... I'll most likely be able to pay off the entire trip with the resale of these. :)
Original Price: $4.99
Clearance: $.44
I paid: $.35 (yes, .35 cents!)

One cost $1.07, I paid .86.
 
If I can't pay off the trip with the lipsticks, I am going to try with these video games I picked up for resale too!

Game Party something or other?... for the XBOX 360










Original Price: $19.99
Clearance: $1.99
I paid: $1.60

Epic Mickey for the Wii
Original Price: $19.99
Clearance: $1.99
I paid: $1.60

2 Bottles of Marinade
I don't know what these were originally, but I paid .40 after all was said and done per bottle.

2 Bottles of Worchestershire Sauce
Same here! Only .40 per bottle so I should be set for quite a long time as I pretty much only use it for cooking.

5 Cans of diced green chiles
I make a pretty killer White Chicken Chili (recipe here) and it calls for green chiles, which I never seem to have on hand. Well, now I will for at least 5 pots of it! I paid .64 a can (.71 for one of them, I think it's how my coupon balanced out).

Shopko had sent me a coupon, $10 off $50 for my birthday, which I was able to pull up on my phone before checking out. Can you believe it?
 

 

And no, I wasn't compensated in anyway by Shopko or anyone... I just had to share my excitement! Tell me about your best score! 
 
Thanks for reading!

 

 

Nautical Home Decor on a Dime

One of my favorite "things" in the past few years has been home decor. I could spend hours looking at home decor on Pinterest. But, my favorite home decor ideas and styles are those that don't cost an arm and a leg. I've recently "completed" (I don't think any room is ever really "complete") my sunroom in our house, and I thought it would be fun to share how it came together.

We are fortunate to rent a lovely older house close to a lake. The house has a lot of white, which is great for a nautical/coastal feel. In this sunroom, the ceiling is blue and the floor is painted a brick red. Since we're renting, we're not repainting, but I think sometimes it's a fun challenge to work with what you got.

So let's have a look around, shall we?

• First, what everything rests on: my coffee table that I've had since college. Even though all of the other wicker in here is white, the room needed a pop of brown and I think it works well in here. It was a Pier 1 Imports item that we got a garage sale for $10.
• My seagull. Mama LOC and I were garage saling (you'll find this is a recurring theme) and she saw this bird and wanted to get it for me... and I LOVE it. It's one of my favorite pieces, both because my mom picked it out for me and because it fits so perfectly. He was $2.
• My English ivy and white pot. The pot was from T.J. Maxx, $4.99 (I got a few cents off for a small chip, though), and the English ivy is a champ from last summer... I kept him alive all winter in the sunroom, he started outside!
• My lantern. Another one of my favorite finds, I've had this for a few years too. It's an LED candle in a metal and glass lantern. I got it at a thrift store for $4, and it works great and has for years.

This is probably my favorite wall in this room because I took a leap of faith by placing the items so close to each other, but I think it works really well.

• The wooden Americana flag was a garage sale find, I think it was .50 cents. Americana is not really my favorite decorating look, but the red and blue tie the room together well, and I think the size is really neat, it's about 11"x15". The roughed up look keeps the vintage vibe, too.
• Speaking of vintage, how cool is this birds in color print? It's an old scientific type knowledge card. The colors are amazing and it fits really well in here, with the blues working with the blues of my bird. The frame is vintage, it was a $1.00, the card was - get this - .10 cents at a garage sale.

These are some of my most thrifty big impact art pieces, and you won't believe the story behind these. I remade these before the LOC blog was even a thought, so unfortunately I don't have any before pictures of these frames. I always check the art at thrift shops, because you just never know. I was actually looking for big art for my living room to flank two sides of the main window, when I stumbled across these frames. They were 17"x21" each, the wood frame was a nice shade of pukey sage green with a crackle effect (that's how you know they were amazing) and they held two different scenes of watercolor-y type garden scenes. The art was not awful, but not my cup of tea either. They were just posters, and the glass is actually plexi, so they aren't ultra high quality expensive frames, but I guarantee someone paid more than $2 each for them... which is all I paid! 

So how did I get the art? The stripes is a vintage piece of fabric with navy ticking, and the shells are literally a piece of paper printed with a color printer. The shells are from The Graphics Fairy. You can actually see just a hint of the blueish purple border the original print had around the fabric. I used some black acrylic paint I already had for the frame. So for less than $5, I have two big impact pieces!

The wicker couch is a neat piece. The couch and rocking chair are both antique, and from my Grandma, so I am blessed to have them. They have always been white (for as long as I can remember them... some flecks indicate they may have red and green at one point), but the cushions had a purple floral, and all of the pillows were purple. They actually were a very lovely fabric, but it wasn't quite the feel I wanted for the room.

• I purchased a complete King size duvet cover set from eBay to get all of the fabric I would need to completely cover these cushions, and the rocking chair cushion too. I paid $26 incl. shipping, and had WAY more than enough fabric to do everything I needed in here. It's a neat textured linen feel - it's the Thomas O' Brien "Navy Awning Stripe" set from Target, which retails for originally around $129 bucks.
• I patch-worked the blue square pillow cover with fabric scraps in my stash.
• The navy and white stripe pillow was a vintage silk shirt that got washed (whoops) that never really fit perfectly anyway, so I had exactly enough fabric for this pillow.
• The graphic burlap pillow cover is from Pottery Barn - I got it new in package from eBay for $10 including shipping, and it retails anywhere from $49 to $79 (choke)

One of the cool vintage touches is this fishing pole across the top of a window - I like to think of it like a curtain rod - how cool would that be? It has a neat cork handle and an old school "lure". It was Mr. LOC's idea and I really like it.

This was a project before the blog too, but my friends were getting rid of these chairs that were covered in a grey fabric, and I covered them in a gorgeous Nautica sheet that I got brand new at a thrift store for $1.99. Of course, the Heaven is a Little Closer in a Home by the Lake pillow was made a little while back here on the blog - check it out :) I used scrap fabric for that too!

Not exactly easy to take a picture of a whole room in one shot, but here is the whole sunroom. Note our little LOC mascot, Sophie... :)

Hope you enjoyed this little trip around our sunroom! For easily less than $100, the room has a completely different feel and look! It took a bit of time (over 2 years to get to this point) but I feel like it's a great lesson in "good things come to those who wait!"

2012 Christmas Decor at Little Oak Creations

Hi all!
I wanted to share my Christmas decor with you today. I don't have a mantel in this house but I do have a white sofa table that I like to set vignettes on for each season, and here is my Christmas 2012 "mantel." One of my favorite things to do is collect home decor items from thrifting that "work" well together, so I've listed where I was lucky enough to get or make each item.

I made the wreath about two years ago for Mr. LOC and I's first Christmas together. It's gotten a little sun-bleached but I like the way it looks as the sun has made the glitter almost a bright red/orange and I think it's kind of neat. :) The Joy to the World wood piece hanging in the middle was from a dollar store a few years back. "K" stocking hanger is from Bed Bath and Beyond, about 2 years ago. Very heavy and has some rhinestones on it. :) The glass dish is a thrifting find too - it's a greenish gold and one of my favorite pieces.

I also made this column piece at the same time I made the wreath. It's held together quite well, considering it was dollar store greenery, ribbon, lights and pointsettas! I do love the dollar store - sometimes it's hard to imagine each piece separate but when you get it all together, the result can be pretty fantastic.

The LED candle in the glass and metal lantern was a Salvation Army find for like $2.00 (I know, I was pretty stoked about it too!) Worked great and nothing was broken or missing - it's about a foot or more tall too. The little red glass and glitter tree was also a thrifting find, I think it was .25 cents and it was new in box.

The "Oh Come Let Us Adore Him Christ the Lord" printable was from AKA designs, print yours out here for free! Thank you AKA Designs. It's in black/grey and white too, which makes it awesome for black and white only printers.

The frame was a TJ Maxx throw-a-way - I got it for .30 cents because it was scratched to high heaven but it still had it's glass and a beautiful black velvet flocked back... so I took a little bit of black spray paint and sprayed and rubbed off the excess to get the weathered look. The glitter star was a thrifting find on a thrifting adventure with Mama LOC, I think it's supposed to be a massive ornament but I like to set it places for some geometric interest. The glass candlestick is an antique and it was given to me during a set up for a garage sale. It's sitting on Dolly Parton's biography with the cover off and facing down. lol! :) The gold and ivory scarf was a Marshall's find from when I was in college.

And finally, this picture: I thought my mantel needed some dramatic flair. ;)

I do love how you can see my Christmas tree in the background of the print. Thank you for following along and I hope you had fun looking! :)

Linky Parties I am Linking up to!
A Thoughtful Place's home decor linky party!

Nester's 2012 Christmas Tour of Homes!
Thrifty Decor Chick's Christmas Tree Party!
The Inspired Room's Christmas Home Tour Party! And also hosted by Cottage Magpie!