Coming Soon

Check out this "diamond in the rough" for our front porch!  A friend of our family was going to throw this chair away and offered it to my dad who offered it to me and of course was I going to pass it up?  No way! 

1970s At Its Best!

So, here is the story of this bed.  Before I moved into my first apartment in college, someone from our church offered an old bed frame to my family.  It was from the 1970s (clearly) but it was functional and just what I needed.  I bought a mattress, a friend gave us their box spring and we were set.  This little old bed served its purpose for me, then "moved" out of state to go to college with A.  A got good use out of it and then the bed made its journey back in state to go to college with K last year when she moved into her first apartment.
 
Well, the nice thing about being a teacher is that we get summers off.  So, I decided this summer that after going to college three different times and after countless moves in and out of state, this little old bed needed an update. 
We painted it aqua that my dad had left over from another painting project, distressed it...because that's what I love to do, and set it up in K's new apartment.  It looks great!  Cost of the project?  FREE!!

Subway Art

Someone asked me last weekend where I got one of my subway art, found in the picture above.  After some searching, since I've had it printed for a while, I found the blog where I found it.  Enjoy your freebie!

Wedding Bouquet Ornament

After!

My wedding bouquet has been on display over the past 2 1/2 years since we got married.  At first it was nice and colorful and then slowly, the colors started to fade and the flowers started to get crispy and collect dust.  So, on a whim last week, I remembered something my sister had told me about on Pinterest.  She said people were taking apart their old bouquets and turning them into Christmas ornaments.   I originally put the idea in the back of my mind, but then after some thinking, decided it was time to turn my dusty bouquet into a keepsake.

Believe it or not, I got very sentimental taking apart my bouquet!  I think it's the fact that that new bride feeling is about 2 1/2 years old now.  Don't get me wrong, I am even more madly in love with my husband now, than I was then...but it's still kind of sad.  It is such a special time, a new time in your life.  

I found a couple good links on Pinterest here and here and went on my way.  I used the ribbon from my bouquet as ribbons on my ornaments.  I also luckily had some silk flowers in my bouquet and from my hair that gave my ornaments some colors.  My ornaments came from Michael's for about $2.99 a piece and were sitting in my craft drawer waiting for another project I had planned to do a couple of years ago.  The end product turned out really well and now we have 2 special ornaments to hang on our tree each year.  

Before...

 

Fall and a Burlap Wreath

I made a super easy wreath this year from burlap and a wire form.  I found the idea on pinterest and was so surprised on how easy it was!  The hardest part was actually finding the roll of burlap, which you can buy at Joann's Fabrics or Michaels.

As you'll be able to see from the below pictures, I made quite a mess as I was putting out all of my fall decorations.  B just chuckles to himself as he watches me sqiry around and try to figure out the best place for each of my pumpkins :) 

Getting ready for fall this year was fun because the colors seemed to be so vibrant!  One day I came home from school and saw that one of the big trees above our house has turned and so I tried to get a quick picture of it.  We definitely had quite a few leaves to rake this year, but B and I always say that having trees around our house is definitely worth it when we need their shade in the summer!

Jewelry Hangers

This summer I made a holder for my dangly earrings from and old frame and some screen.  I am pleased on the result.  To continue the theme of hanging up my jewelry I looked to my mom for ideas.  For years my mom has hung her necklaces and scarves on an coffee mug holder.  In my own house, I've continued that idea for my necklaces.

Mirror Mirror on the Wall

I found this mirror a couple of years ago at Goodwill and was never sure if I liked the dark color.  When I finally found a place to hang it, I decided that it definitely needed to be painted.  Since we live in a vintage house, of course if needed to have a little distressing done as well :)

Old Window Turned Dining Room Decor

About 2 years ago I got this old window from my sister-in-law when they got new windows put in their house.  I didn't know quite what I was going to do with it, but I knew I needed to keep it...of course the thrifter in me says that :)
So, once we moved into our house, I decided I was going to repaint it and then put those vinyl letter-sayings you see all over these days in the glass.  It was a super easy project, the only hard part was hanging it up.  So after spray painting it, putting the letters on the glass, and hanging it up; it now resides in our dining room and fits very nicely I think.  How's that for some thrifty decor ?!

Telephone Table

When we were in the process of closing up my grandparent's house (Pop's side of the family) I got a hold of this old telephone table.  It's not a family heirloom in the sense that it has been passed down and cherished from generation to generation.  It's a piece of furniture that definitely served it's purpose as a functioning table for a telephone and then spent its later years as a bedside table in my grandparent's guestroom.

telephone before: check out those water stains! 

So, I got my hands on it and used it as a bedside table as well in our first apartment.  Now, here's when you should know that it always had a cloth (doily) covering the top.  The reason being this--->



See what I mean?  It never bothered me because those stains were always covered!So, fast-forward about a year and the table has made its way into our dining room as more of a focal piece of furniture.  After staring and pondering it for a long time, I decided to try to redo the table.  GULP!  Me, being the thrifty person I am, had been seeing lots and lots of neat furniture redo projects on Pinterest as well as different blogs.  Fast-forward maybe another week of pondering, we're into June here and it's a humid and stormy Friday night.  I decide that I'm going to try to tackle the stains and the table.  I start with this technique I saw online for removing water stains from wood.  It required mayonnaise and rubbing it onto the wood.  I wasn't really sure what was going to happen, but I tried it and let it set on the table for 7 or 8 hours.  It maybe worked a bit after I wiped off the goo??  So while it is thundering and lightening outside, I decide to start sanding and actually get a good portion of those stains sanding off the top.  The next day, B and I went to Lowe's and I bought some white satin (I would go for semi-gloss next time) paint and some dark walnut stain.  I was really looking for an antique white color, but had no luck in finding it.  Well, maybe fast-forward once more and after lots of sanding, 3 coats of paints, and 2 coats of stain, here is the finished project. I am pretty pleased!   

finished!

before...

close up of the top.  no water stains!

after :)

Trash to Treasure

It makes me so excited when I am able to find something that someone else didn't want anymore..aka they decided to give it to a second hand store and it soon becomes my new treasure.
Thus my story begins.  As you probably know, most of our money goes into savings for that house that will be ours someday in the future.  So I do like to decorate our apartment and on a budget, sometimes that is hard to pull off.  But you can be pretty creative if you aren't afraid to do a little searching and get a little dirty.
Yesterday was a slow morning here in this household.  B decided to sleep in and I had to run and do a few errands and one of those errands took me right past Goodwill.  Perfect. 
So, as I like to read blogs of other budget-minded creative DIY decorators, I get some good ideas.  Some have been great, some have been flops, and other ideas have gone in the folder in my mind titled: for our future house.
I'm going to try to post more of my projects, however right now our computer is acting slow, so more later :)

And idea I saw, it was a flop, but I never quite knew what to do with that wall.

I found these babies and knew exactly where they would go. 

This little one fooled me.  I saw it, walked away from it, and then it enticed me into coming back and finally buying it.  It was worth it.

And the final result turned out pretty well!