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Tuesday, December 15, 2009

Christmas Cards

I just wanted to share some really easy cards that I made today in less than 10 minutes.  I used scraps of paper that I had around and extra stickers for the quotes.  I also used store bought blank cards.This card I used the reverse snowflake maker to make make half snowflakes on my strip of paper.  To do this, you need a wider strip of paper.
Hope you enjoy!  Merry Christmas!
I'm linking up to: The DIY Show Off - Holiday Highlights #5
DIY Day - A Soft Place To Land

Monday, December 7, 2009

My Christmas Plant Stand

I wanted to share with you  my boring plant stand around the house.  I love this plant stand, because my daughter made a mosiac on the top of an old stool and repurposed it for a plant stand for me, but it just looked boring compared to everything else in the house that is over-decorated for Christmas.  I just didn't know what to do, until I found some ideas out in blogland for my house.  What I found was someone (and I'm sorry I don't have which blog, because I looked at so many! If it's you, please comment and I will link you happily!) had put decorations, ornaments, etc. on their lamps. Here's the close up of the sign I tied to my lamp with a ribbon.  Well, I didn't feel that was finished yet, because the stool still wasn't Christmassy yet.  (Is that a word?)

My Christmas card basket (handmade by the way - my aunt always finds me wonderful things like this!) didn't really have a place this year - so here it is!  I tied it with wire ribbon leftover from last year's gift wrapping.  I thought it was too beautiful to waste, so kept it, much to my dh's dismay!  What do you think?

Wednesday, December 2, 2009

O' Christmas Tree

I was really worried about putting pictures of my tree up for all you great, creative bloggers to see.  I'm quite the perfectionist about the tree (Ok - that's a whole therapy session in itself thanks to my wonderful family!)  Anyway, after veiwing some others, I decided that many look fabulous, but most are just like me, just enjoying family traditions.  So here are my pictures of our tree this year.  

We have  favorite place to chop the tree down that has tall skinny trees and love the fact that we can get it to touch the 10 foot ceiling without it taking up the entire living room!
One of my favorite ornaments of the kids' are these great handpainted llama ornaments.  A couple of years ago, the kids were given these as a prize at the fair for showing their llamas!  I think they are wonderful and sure beat getting tack!


These two are my favorite older ornaments.  The front one is a glass trumpet with "Peace On Earth" on it.  When I was in college, my Grandfather proudly got this by purchasing something from Robert Schuller.  He was so proud of it (he didn't really doing the shopping  at all, so was strange that he got so excited about it.)  Of course, now it means so much more since he has been gone for so many years.  I majored on trumpet in college so the back, glass ornament with instruments hanging off of it was the first ornament I ever purchase of my own in college.
This is my very favorite and most precious ornament, and it's going to fall apart soon.  My Mom got us a handpainted ornament for our wedding with our dates on it.  The paint is starting to flake off.  It is always placed at the top of the tree so the kiddos can't break it.  I had to get my longer lense out to catch it on my camera.
Finally, do you remember my fall basket that was given to me by my Mom?  Well here it is holding gifts under the tree.  Yes, if you were wondering, we are pretty much done with our shopping!  We do it all on Black Friday for the kids and my family exchanges gifts over Thanksgiving, so they have to be done by then!  Nice to not have the stress!  We enjoy taunting the kids for the entire season and it's gets their excitement even more than usual!

Tuesday, December 1, 2009

Christmas Threw-up in Our Yard!


Ok - so this is not the most thrifty thing that we do, but it has to be one of the most fun and rewarding!  We litterally have Christmas throw-up in our front yard (as my sister-in-law keeps saying)!  We have balloons, trees lit, and so much more!  This year, we actually have run out of space in our front yard.  If we didn't have such a windy street, we would put some on the roof, too!  Anyway, I am trying to get some better pictures, but my Nikon D60 is not liking night pictures with lights!  The trees all are synced to music that plays!  Watch for more pics soon! 

Click on the picture to see a better view - it's actually not as bad as I thought!  I am linking up to:
12 Weeks of Christmas - Red Writing

Tuesday, November 24, 2009

Believe Banner

Although I prefer to work with scrapbook papers, as far as crafts go, since I'm an Independant Creative Memories Consultant, I find the paper banners pretty, but not as likely to last in a decorative manner as long as cloth.  So I made this banner from felt on the back and letters, and then scraps of material for the print and also made my own bias tape to string them together.  I thought aobut ribbon for this, but really found it easy to cut the strips and then press them over to cover the banner top.I think that these will last much longer and could even be washed if needed.  I wouldn't advise drying them in the dryer, or the felt will do some funky things.  This whole thing didn't cost me anything to make because I had them from past projects.  I'm going to add these to the craft show in December.  What do you think?  I need some honest opinions here, because my dh is just saying "that's nice" to humor me.  It's ok, if you don't like - tell me how I could better improve them.  I'll try not to cry and be hurt!
I am linking up to: Creative Cats Friday - Poppies At Play
Frugalicious Friday - Finding Fabulous
Holiday Highlights - The DIY Showoff
Met Monday - Between Naps on the Porch
DIY Day - A Soft Place to Land

Saturday, November 21, 2009

Cute Turkeys by Kids


Everyone has gone hunting this weekend, so I am home alone with the little kids.  My 3- and 5-year-olds were bugging me to "do a craft" today, so I found a great site with tons of craft ideas and came up with this idea (and then I lost it!).   I had all the things to make them on hand, so the cost is zero.  Unfortunately, I would suggest a little older kids to do this, because I had to do all the pipe cleaners.  It was a good lesson on anatomy of a turkey though.  For the directions, go here.

I found the site that was so wonderfully organized!!  It's Childmade: An Idea Place.  You should check it out!

I am linking up to: Holiday Highlights #2 - The DIY Show Off
Met Monday - Between Naps on the Porch

Tuesday, November 17, 2009

Be Merry Banner

I may have found a new addiction - paper banners!  It's wonderful to use up some of my papers that have not been used in a while!  It so fun to use the new ones that are out, but I feel guilty when I haven't used up the old yet.  This is solving my problem.  If you are interested in these great papers and stickers - all color coordinating - please check my website hereI think this turned out adorable and may not take it down until Christmas (I'm just not ready to do Christmas inside until Thanksgiving Day!)  Unlike the Give Thanks banner that I did, this one I added sitckers to it and I inked around the circle edges.  I also roughed up the bottom piece of paper with sandpaper.
Let me know what you think!  These are so fun to make.  I have an opportunity to sell some thingsa at a craft fair the first weekend in December.  Does anyone thing this would work?  What would you price them at?

I am linking to: 12 Weeks of Christmas - Red Writing
Transformation Thursday - Shabby Chic Cottage
Creative Cats Friday - Poppies at Play
Room A Month - Shades of Pink

Saturday, November 14, 2009

Sconce Redo

I hope that these pictures show you the redo that I did on these Home Interiors Sconces for my new office space.  They have been hanging in my entryway on two sides of the closet door since we built the house six years ago.  I've been sick of them, but had no ideas about what to replace them with.  Well, I still have no idea what to replace them with, but I had a need for them in my office.

 All it took to transform these ugly things into a little bling was a couple of coats of black spray paint (did I say recently that I should own stock in spray paint?).  I haven't fixed the mis-matched candles in the holders, yet, but hey - they make me so much happier in their new home.  That box between is an antique Dr. Pepper wooden box filled with all the glues and things my kids can't have, but I need access too!  I got it at a rummage sale for $2! 

This all hangs over my two sewing machine cabinets on the wall.  I know that it needs something more,  I just haven't decided what yet.  I would love any advice you could give.  Oh, and me sure to page through the rest of the blog for some of the other office redos I have been working on!  Also - check out my new button to the right - it has a sample of my material used for my Roman Shades that I made! Be sure to share my button on your blog, too! I think it's turning out great little-by-little.

Friday, November 13, 2009

Pumpkins in Review

I have been in a Pumpkin phase this year!  I'm not sure why, but I really have been making quite a few pumpkins with all my projects going on.  I thought that I would share the ones we've made, before we are fully into the Christmas phase of crafting.  Ok - so I have been making my Christmas presents in a rush this week, because my brother and his family are going to celebrate on Black Christmas  Friday with my Mom.  I don't want to pay shipping, so I am getting that to her before then, so it costs us less!

Anyway, back to the pumpkins in review.  I thought I would feature my pumpkins here to brag, since I get no feedback from my dh or kids.  In fact, they think I'm a little weird on this!
I had to make one of those wire pumpkins that were featured on a great tutorial here by Shades of Pink.  This was really simple and cost me nothing because I begged my dh to find me some wire at work (he's an auto technician).  He actually found it right away that night!
The next pumpkins were cloth ones that I ran out right away and bought the material for them, but then I didn't make them for a few weeks!  Shame on me! 

I found quite a few tutorials on these, and I am sorry if I don't site the source here, but kind of used all of them in my head as a guide!  What I did was cut out a circle the size of my dinner plates, basted them with dmc floss, put rice down in the bottom for some weigt and then stuffed them with Walmart bags.  A little hot glue to hold both sticks and stems on them.  The two you can see closest are stems from acorn squash that I saved.  The far one (barely visable) has a stick.  I liked both ways, although, I might suggest dressing up the stick with some raffia or something.  The dinner plate size was amazingly small for a pumpkin, but I think they look great on my candle holder that I got at a church sale for $.50!  Not bad, huh?


Next are my favorite - the scrap wood pumpkins!  These scraps I keep bugging off my dh (he keeps trying to throw them away).  I painted them orange with acrylic paint (which was very bright).  I thne took brown paint and dry brushed it on all sides and then wiped it off before it dried.  Glued on my sticks, and put bows with raffia on them.  Oh, this was where I got this one: It's a Daisy Day.

This cute little pumpkin was made by my little 5-year-old pumpkin!  I apolgize the great Mom that came up with this idea, but, it is made completely out of recycled items - so it's free.  For us, it also was educational for our homeschool.  My son is learning to cut in a straight line and coloring too!  Those extra paper scraps that you get from printing coupons, I had saved up and had my little one cut in straight strips.  Then he colored all of the pieces on one side orange.  (They can even have the printing on them, it doesn't matter!)  Then we cut a toilet paper tube to size and glued the strips in each end.  The little piece of cardboard we cut off, he colored green and we tucked and glued that into the top.  He is so proud of this because I used it in the rest of my fall decorations!

The last pumpkin craft that we made can be found here in my potato printing project that we also did for a homeschool project!  Please let me know what you think!  I have been having a great time making all these pumpkins this year!  I am linking to:

Wednesday, November 11, 2009

My Holiday Shopping Techniques

Since I have been trying to catch The 12 Weeks of Christmas at Red Writing, I figured that this week, I would actually do a post for this specific challenge.  I have either had a post that worked in the past, or I just viewed all the great ideas.  The challenge this week is to give your Shopping techniques for Christmas.  What a perfect topic for a blog about saving money!
  1. Make a List - I usually do this, and then ask my dh for his input which is not really much.  He likes to humor my lists!  I find this helps to put some of my worries aside that we are forgetting someone.
  2. Brain Storm - This is the really hard one, because we have so many people to give to and so little money to work with.  I usually have things either started or at least planned already, because I really like to give handmade gifts.  I am starting to have second thoughts about that, since this last year, my brother sold my quilted wall hanging and table runners for $.50 at my Mom's garage sale.  I bought them!
  3. Stock Up - Each week, as I am doing my regular sale and coupon shopping, I start to sneak in my purchases.  For example, last year my youngest two were really enjoying dress up, so I went the day after Halloween and bought them some great costumes for under $5 each to give for Christmas.  (By the way, those are the only presents that they still play for hours with today!)  Other ideas may be candles, shampoos, spa things, etc.  If you stock up a little at a time, Christmas doesn't seem so expensive and you can pay for it all in cash!!!
  4. Create - This is where I usually start making gifts for everyone.  I am already in my office up to my eyeballs in this year's gifts because I need to get them to my Mom by Thanksgiving, or I'll have to ship them!  Even if it is putting together a basket of spa items for the whole family, you can consider making a small item.  I already showed you the Potato print cards that we will be tying together with a ribbon for Grandma this year!  Go here to see that project.  I often ask around what people like that they recieved from others, and have quite a few friends that make gifts also.  One of my friends and her kids made homemade root beer for their school project and gave them as gifts.  She said the only bad thing about that was that they had to do it the day or two before Christmas, as it needed to be consumed right away.
  5. Black Friday - I know, this is a crazy day.  We reserve this only for our children's gifts.  We plan out the gifts on Thanksgiving evening together, and then it's our yearly date morning.  We sneak out before the kids awake (we've hired a teen sometimes to come over night) and actually try to get everything we possibly can at Walmart at a price match.  The other stores are 45 minutes from us, so most things we can get here at Walmart.  Anything that is left, by the time we get there, the crowds are down a little, and we just enjoy the day together.  If we get it, great, if not, oh well!  We have even walked into a store and decided our one item was not worth the wait, and walked out and went out for breakfast!  Even though the stores are crazy this day, we can really get the most for our money, but we stick to a budget and we stick to our pre-planned list - no more!
Well, there you have it.  My Shopping Techniques for the season!  I usually come home after our Black Friday Date and lock myself in the bedroom and wrap while my husband and kids get the lights up outside!  I'm usually done by that day completely and I can enjoy the rest of my holiday!  I can't wait to hear what everyone else does.  I am linking up to: 12 Days of Christmas - Red writing

Thursday, November 5, 2009

Give Thanks Garland

After seeing this great Give Thanks garland here at 5.eleven design, I couldn't resist and make my own version of this!  I happen to have a set of fall papers from last year on hand with lots of scraps I was able to use up!  I am so excited that this cost me nothing to make, adds so much to the room, reminds us to be thankful and is pretty too!  Check my website for more papers here.

I may even go back and use some sandpaper on the edges to make it more intersting.  Please click on the picture for a close up version.

I am linking in to: Met Monday - Between Naps on the Porch
Fall Festival - The DIY Show Off
DIY Day - A Soft Place to Land
Transformation Thursday - The Shabby Chic Cottage

Tuesday, November 3, 2009

Piggly Wiggly Deals - should I keep it?

I need your vote!  Should I keep the Piggly Wiggly Deals coming?  Please answer on the poll to the right!  You can answer more than once!  This week, unless I get some reaction to the poll and this post, I won't be posting the deals.  The reason I am thinking about discontinuing this column, is that I never get comments for these posts, so I can't tell that there are people really using this.  It takes me an hour or so to get  everything together each week, and if no one is reading this, then I have better things to do with my time - like scrapbook!!

If I have enough votes or comments during the week, I will put the deals up as soon as I am able to.  Thanks for all your input!

Goodwill Pillow Redo

I found this table cloth (it was square) at Goodwill a couple of weeks ago, and immediately knew that it perfectly matched my couches and had the orange that I have been wanting to switch to.  I stood and contemplated it for quite some time, because I felt that it was on the expensive side - $3.99 for second hand.  This is a whole different topic, but have any of you noticed that Goodwill has gotten really expensive lately?  I was looking last weekend for some jeans for my son and found them to be $20-$25 a pair!  I can get them cheaper and  brand new at Wal-mart!  I guess lesson learned, you need to be careful about even the second-hand stores, because they seem to be creeping up in price.  I personally equate them to going to a rummage sale, so tend not to do much shopping at second hand stores unless I really need something and it's the dead of winter!  I get much better prices at rummage sales, so try to stock up all summer for any winter needs.

Back to my tablecloth (sorry for the bunny chaser!) - I felt that when you divided it by 4 it was only a dollar per pillow because I have 4 pillows to redo.
Here are my very sorry couch pillows, that maybe I should just throw away instead of rehab them!  The left one is the the before and the right one is after I stuffed more stuffing into it!  These have taken a beating with my husband and four kids, and have turned flat and droopy.  I'm too cheap to part with them, so I decided to use the ends of my quilting projects (you know, all that batting that you need to cut off to make your quilt fit the batting!) to stuff them back to life.

Because I only had enough of the table cloth to cover one side of the pillows, I decided to use some material I had around the house to cover the back.  It's not my favorite, but it works and actually matches the ribbing on my couch!  I did take the fringe from around the outside of the tablecloth and used that downt he middle for decoration.  How I did that was first I cut the cloth into 4 pieces bigger than each pillow.  I then cut each quarter in half.  The half that didn't have the fringe on it, I hemmed one edge so I could make a pocket to put the pillow through (I am sorry to those of you with the "mistreatments" but this one had to be sewn to stand up to my kids!).  I then put the right sides together, making sure to overlap the fringed half over the hemmend piece.
Here are the results!  I included a photo of the back side too.  It even has a texture to it, but that is what I don't like.  My hands are so dry all the time that they get caught on the material all the time.  The only thing that I am going to have to change is that I need to hand stitch my pocket together, as with everyone laying on these, it is getting pushed open all the time.  I figured that I've never changed the zipper covers on the pillows before in six years, if I need to wash a case here or there, it won't take me long to take the stitches out and re-stitch them.

The moral of the story here is that if you are on a budget, start to look at things in a different way than they are intended.  You might have a curtain panel or two that can be used to cover a pillow, or even make an upholstered headboard with (see my headboard here.)  You may decide to use old door knobs for hooks or any numerous other ways to reuse what you already own.  Use a little creativity and have some fun saving money too!
Let me know what you think!  I'll be linking up to: 2nd Time Around - A Picture is Worth 1000 Words

Monday, November 2, 2009

Potato Printing Cards for gifts!

I homeschool three of my kids right now, so often my day is centered around doing school and a possible project with them here and there.  Somewhere along the way, we have really gotten away from doing any arts and crafts during school, but since I have been having my own craft obsession lately, I thought that would try to incorporate some craft things into their education.
We just started with  a kindergartener again, and have found that he is not easily entertained or kept still for long, but he really gets excited about doing crafts.  We decided to do potato prints one day.  Both my 3- and 5-year-old had a great time doing this project!  In fact, we changed the paint color to make apples too.  We had just had some friends give us some free apples, so we wanted to make an apple thank you card.  I think they turned out so cute!  The left two were made by my 5-year-old and the right one was made by my 3-year-old!

The older two kids were learning about the Chinese and the invention of printing, so it seemed fitting for them to make their own cards also!  They were practicing their Chinese characters and each chose one to print up a set of cards (I was thinking they would be a great Christmas gift for people when tied together with a ribbon!)  This project was more difficult, and took the kids quite some time to get the characters cut out correctly from the potatoes, but they are working at a 7th Grade level now, so that is to be expected.  The character ont he the lower left corner means mountain and the other character means woman.
Please let me know what you think!  I will be linking up to the folowing parties this week:

Thursday, October 29, 2009

Fall Glue-Batik Wall Hanging

When you hear Batik, you might think it's really too hard and messy to do.  I thought the same when I received the October 2009 Disney Family Fun Magazine (which I got free!), I loved the look of the banner, but though for sure that it was too hard to make. 

My daughter and I found this project extremely easy to make and really, aside from drying time, it was extremely quick too!  For the directions and color pictures of how, please see Family Fun for the full details.  Here you can see the banner made on scrap material from around the house.  We used glue from the school supplies that were given to us by Grandma.  Then we wet down the material (after the glue was dry) and used acrylic paint (from my craft supply & I had to buy orange for $.92 at Wal-mart).  My daughter painted the colors on that she wanted.

The final step was to let the paint dry and soak in cold water to get the glue out.  Because the paint is acrylic, once it dried, it's perminant!  My daughter sewed a hem across the top, put a dowel through and used a piece of yarn to hang it up with!  The entire project cost use the $.92 for the paint - not bad! 


I think the results are wonderful and look great in our entryway, especially since I've been taking everything down to decorate other rooms in the house.  This is my least favorite area of the house right now, so I'm looking to spruce it up.  This little section is visible from the living room, but behind the door.  I see a Christmas one in the future - don't you?

Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Piggly Wiggly Deals - October 28- November 3, 2009

Here are the Piggly Wiggly (PW) deals for the next week.  They are not as steller as last week, but use the week off to recoup your budget a little.  Please let me know if you find anything more on your shopping trips in the area by commenting.

  • Apples - $.99/3lb.
  • Minute Maid Lemonade or Fruit Punch - $.99
  • Betty Crocker Fruit Snacks $.99 when you buy 4 - $.50/2MC = $3.46/4 or $.87 each

Monday, October 26, 2009

Decorating for Free

One of  the things that I have been doing lately is trying to change around my house a little.  I have been blue about my home and don't like the way things have been looking lately. I wish I could just go out and buy a bunch of new furniture and decor items, but we don't have the budget for it.  I've done the next best thing and shopped in the rest of my house for free.  Here's one example of my shopping trip through the house.  This is my master bedroom. The king size bed can't go on any other wall.  That is the one thing that does work for me because I like my bed being the first thing you see when you walk in the room.    What I didn't like was the file cabinets (which my husband doesn't use for filing - it's all stacked in his closet - but that's another issue!) for end tables.  It reminded me every night about the papers that weren't filed before I went to bed - really it did!  To the right of the bed, used to be my sewing cabinet with my machine on it.  Now, empty space that I wasn't too sure how to fill.

Here we are almost there.  I had the matching table lamp on the other wall, but wanted it to be even.  The end tables are those old school desks that raise and lower.  This was a find on the side of the road.  The legs happen to chocolate brown, a perfect fit for my bedroom.  I stuck an antique wooden crat underneath to fill space and store extra magazines, because I just can't seem to read them all!  The tall cabinet, is special because my grandfather made it.  It is better feature now, because you can see it.  I used an idea off another blog and stacked my magazines under my clock to raise it.  A live plant and I even added an award statue my husband earned on his side of the bed for decoration.  He was so excited that I put that there, you would have thought I awarded it to him.

Just one more picture, because I realized that I had changed out the bulb in the left lamp (for whatever reason, we didn't think florescents had different lights and got an outdoor light set of bulbs and found them to be blaring in the house!)  Also, it just wasn't right yet, so I added a picture on the left side to even it up.  Now the pictures aren't exactly my favorite, but it feels so good to walk into my bedroom with a "finished" look!  Relaxing and retreatlike!  Please let me know what you think!

By the way, a free way to get new ideas on decorating, is to get involved in some of the linky parties that are going on!  A lot of these ladies are professionals, and I couldn't have even had the confidence to try anything if I hadn't been parusing the blogs!  Use this great resource and you will save a ton of money! 

Here are the sites that I am linking to:
Second Time Around Tuesdays - A Picture is Worth 1000 Words
Met Monday - Between Naps on the Porch
DIY Day - A Soft Place to Land
I would love to win this cute Magnetic board at Beneath My Heart to go in my new office!

Friday, October 23, 2009

Making Your Own Cards to Save Money


I've been a little slow to the card making fads, but I have discovered that making cards saves money.  I don't necessarily sit down to make a bunch of cards because I like to, but because I happen to be an Independent Creative Memories Consultant and do a ton of scrapbooking.  But I have found that cards don't take that many supplies to actually create and I have so many scraps on hand.  I use scraps from here and there to make them, along with plain cardstock, and Voila!  I have saved myself $2-$3!  Now it may take a little time, but I think it even means a little more to the person that you are making the card for, that you took precious time out to make them a card.

I am linking this post to:
Fall Festival - The DIY Show Off

Thursday, October 22, 2009

Piggly Wiggly Deals - October 21-27, 2009

Sorry this weeks specials were a little delayed, as you probably already noted, I was busy canning.  It seems to not only take a whole day to do, but then a day to really recover from.  So, here it is.  Again, I will list the general sales, and then there are two Mix or Match deals and a Buy $20 get $5 off hat I will list a scenerio for.

  • Pork Shoulder Roast - $.99/lb.
  • Bananas - $.44/lb.
  • Gallon Milk - $1.99

Wednesday, October 21, 2009

More Canning!


I'm apologizing in advance for not posting the Piggly Wiggly sales today, but I'm just exhausted from my day.  As you can see above, I have been very busy canning!  I did 22 quarts of beets, 6 pints of beets, 6 quarts of Apple Pie filling, 2 bags of 4 cups each of beets in freezer, and 3 containers of applesauce for the freezer!  I didn't take a picture of the two bags of freezer beets, but I think you get the picture!  All of this I did for next to FREE!  Yes, you read right!  A friend invited me over to get any of the beets I wanted from her garden!  in addition, I got a bag of squash and some kolirobi also!  The apples came from two different people off their trees in the yard!  I am very thankful for the wonderful blessings of food!

Also pictured, we got a UPS shipment tonight - it was the homeopathic Children's Flu & Cold Medicine that we signed up for online.  I don't even remember where & when I did this, but often I sign up for freebies and almost never get a full size itme, let alone 3 full size items!  I went to their website: http://www.boironusa.com/ to see if it was still available, but I couldn't find it.  I did see some $1 off coupons, and one of the items had that you could request a sample, so maybe they would send out several to you too. 

Saturday, October 17, 2009

Free Chair Make-over!


I was driving home last week with my children, and lo and behold, there was a chair on the curb that was screaming my name!!  I do this all the time, I see a random chair (or other piece of furniture if I'm lucky!) that someone else no longer loves and I just can't drive by!  I have to stop, pick it up and take it home!  My husband is starting to threaten me about this habit of mine!

So this time, I thought I would just take care of the ugliness before he really got used to the old look  right away.  The first photo is what it looked like from the curb and the second is my redo!  Although I really appreciated that the prior owners had the original plastic still on the seat...I just had to repaint and recover.

Can you beleive the timing on this one?  It was perfect for my new office and with a fresh coat of black spray paint looks fabulous!  I just added some material that I had picked up to go with the curtains (don't tell my husband I bought it without a plan - I would have found something, sometime to use it for!)  This was so simple and took my about an hour with the paint drying while I redid the seat!  I didn't even sand it!  Let me know what you think!  Cost: 1/4 yard material = $.50 + half can of paint =$2.00.  Grand Total = $2.50!!!  Priceless!

If you like free giveaways, check this one out: Centsational Girl - 2 $50 Shopping Sprees!

I am also linking to: DIY Day - A Soft Place to Land
Shades of Pink - Room a Month (I made it there first!)
Poppies at Play - Creative Cats Friday
Metamorphosis Monday - Between Naps on the Porch
Second Time Around - A Picture is Worth a 1000 Words
Flea marketeer Party - Flea Market Style

Tuesday, October 13, 2009

Piggly Wiggly Deals - October 14-20, 2009

It's a great week at Piggly Wiggly this week!!  There are two different  things to take note of, the first is the 4 Day Fall Harvest Sale that goes from Oct. 15-18 and then there is the Smucker's Fall Baking Specials.  I will start with the regular items first, then do the Harvest Sale, and end with a couple of scenerios for the Smucker's Sale.  You can only do one Smuckers per purchase, but I recommend doing it twice if you need more.  Just use separate purchases.  Every time I have done this at PW, they seem to be used to it, so I know I'm not the only one.  Here goes!

  • 8-lb. Bag Russet Potatoes - $.99
  • General Mills Cereal - $1.49 when you buy 4 (for some reason, there seems to be no GM coupons right now - $1.49 a box is still a great deal - I would just love to get more off it! - there are some printables here  for $1/2, so you could take the ad and the printables to Wal-mart and have them match it and it would be $3.96/4 or $.99 each!)

Monday, October 12, 2009

Roman Shades from Mini-Blinds and Window Mis-Treatment

I absolutely loved the idea of making window treatments from mini blinds that were featured here.  This summer I sewed Roman Shades for our 1963 Airstream Red (see my other blog here)  So, when I thought about being able to get the same effect cheaper and quicker than my Airstream Roman shades (I spent no less than 6 hours per shade to make 2 in the Airstream, sewing on all the rings by hand!)  I was all on board for a good try.



It was extremely difficult to cut the first strings out of the mini-blinds, but once I convinced myself that I was only losing $3.50, I decided that it was worth the effort.  I had to send my dear hubby out of the room, because he was starting to have an anxiety attack about my project.  Just a few notes about the expense of this project.  We have mini-blinds on all the windows throughout the house, so I chose the most raggedy ones for my windows in my office.  (This is part two of my office redo on a budget.)  I bought the fabric on the ends table at Hancock Fabrick's and had a Preferred Customer Coupon for 50% off one item.  The material was originally $16/yard, but I paid $4 a yard for 3 1/2 yards total.  So it cost me $16 for the material.  The fabric glue was a little more stiff at $6 for a small jar, but I will be watching for that stuff to be cheaper, now.  I would love to own stock in it!!  Those were the only costs that I incurred, but would highly suggest getting the mini blinds for $3.50 at Wal-mart for this project.  If you went with cheaper fabric, you could save some more money, but really, I was able to do this whole project for under $20 for the Roman Shades!

Honestly, I was done with each of the shades in under 1 hour!  My husband was out of his pain very quickly and he even compliments me on how great they look when he comes home at night.  I do have to say that I'm not completely satisfied with the mechanism of the blinds going up and down, but they seem to get better with use.  I think that may be the nature of mini blinds anyway, which is why they always break!

Here are the pictures of them up and down!  I am so excited about this new addition to my office, especially after I was so set in having different colors, but had decided to stick to the less expensive route!
Now on to my Window Mistreatment!  I have my own reservations about Not sewing things, since I was raised by a seamstress, but really like the quickness of getting my projects done and the fact that I can reuse the fabrick later for a different project!  If you would like more ideas for Window Mistreatments, please go to the Nesting Place for more wonderful ideas!  This material I purchased two years ago to use for a llama costume at the fair (yes you read correctly - llama).  The llama used this to be the Statue of Liberty, while my hubby was Uncle Sam.  This year, my daughter used the Statue of Liberty costume and the llama used the Uncle Sam costume, so this material has really seen some use.  For the tie-backs, I used some crystal fringe that I found in the clearance of Hancock for  $1.60 a yard and used less than a yard here!  Can you believe they actually had trim for 70% off?  I was salivating, but my hubby was already being challenged with tolerating my shopping there.  I didn't think he'd find it humerous for me to buy several different kinds!

Please let me know what you think!  I will be linking up to the following:




Friday, October 9, 2009

It's Fall, Y'all!

My mom gave me this bushel basket that she was going to throw away, so I was trying to come up with something clever to do with it. Well, I really am in love with the fall leave colors right now, so decided to get some fakes and fill the basket. I also picked up one stalk of the grass and 2 red feathery looking things at Michael's this last week - all of which were 50% off. I spent under $10 and have fall decorations. I'm sure that I will be coming up with a new use for the basket soon (a place to put Christmas presents?)...I'm not absolutely sold on this one, but, I did decorate a little for fall!
P.S. I'm linking up to this to the following sites:

Thursday, October 8, 2009

More Free Movies at Rogers Cinemas, Sparta, WI!

I just got back from taking my oldest to a movie and the sign posted in the window said they were extending the Free movies until October 15th!! Check out here http://spartasavings.blogspot.com/2009/10/free-movies-in-sparta-rogers-cinema.html for more details:

Wednesday, October 7, 2009

My Office Redo On a Budget

Here is my before picture of my new office formerly known as my daughters' room!
I wanted to show you the progress on the decorating of my office/craft room. We have finally gotten all of our kids moved into their bedrooms in the basement (don't feel sorry for them, my daughters have a dream walk-in closet!), so I have gained my daughters old bedroom as my office and craft room! I feel so spoiled, but I can't think straight in it because it was not what I wanted.

I really wanted to have the room in Robin's egg blue with chocolate brown accents, and was even ready to get the gallon of paint with my birthday money, when I decided that maybe it wasn't so bad for color if the stencils were gone. Now, to my defense, this was the first time I actually got to decorate a bedroom for any of my kids, so I went crazy with the girly things. Just so you know, my daughter still chose pink for her new room!

Anyway, I've held onto the stencil for so long, because I spent hours creating it!!! I don't think I'll ever do one again. So my ah-ha moment came the other day, when I realized that I still had about a half gallon of the two colors of paint left in the basement! I decided to just paint the trim and butterflies off the walls!

Voila! Here are the results:


I am actually quite pleased with the results, and it was free!! I guess I realized that although I had dream colors in mind, sometimes it is very satisfying to take the more economic way through the project. So, the colors are still pastel like Robin's Egg blue, but it's in pink and purple. Actually the lavender is more on the blue side...I even thought about doing the pink walls in the blue, but was afraid I would run out and end up buying that color of paint again (instead of the blue I really wanted!). I will be posting more soon on the budget friendly window covers!!! I can't wait!