The Burlap Trend

The trend seems to be to lighten up with soft colors and natural fabrics. That's just fine with me because I've been feeling the urge to lighten it up. The burlap was 40% off at Joanne's if you sign up for their mailing list. That's a great deal, so I got a couple yards. I wasn't aware that burlap came in different colors and several natural shades, were you? I chose the lightest hue.
Monograms are hot now too and I love them! But, I don't own one of those fancy embroidery machines and don't know anyone who does, so how do I create a monogram?

Transfer paper! Since I never worked with this before I wasn't sure how it would turn out on burlap.

This is the dresser scarf folded to see the monogram on each end. There's quite a difference. The top one doesn't look so good, but the bottom one looks great. When I did the bottom one, I cut out the center of the D and what an improvement. I'm happy with the results and I will be using this paper again. It's a cheap way to get a custom look.

As you can see, I'm recovering the shades on the chandelier. I just stuck them on there for a visual. I'll be adding a little trim to them and also be UN brassing the fixture. Soon I hope!

For lots more burlap inspirations click HERE to go to Rhoda's burlap party. There's some very talented and creative people out there!

Yard sale finds

It's not a great haul but, this week I got a salad spinner, a cute fish picture, the urn thing which is a picture frame, and these great rods with hooks included. I'm just not buying as much as I did last year. I've become picky about what I buy, because I have so much stuff already, but I still like to get out there and hunt for treasure.

Now. I'll show you what I didn't buy!

These rugs were so pretty in person and I think were about 80 bucks, negotiable of course.

I spotted these huge finials that would be great outside in the yard or patio.

Look at these beautiful lights! They were only 20 bucks each. I thought that was a steal. The man selling them was anxious to sell, so he would have negotiated a better price.

No, they didn't come home with me......no place to put them, but they sure were pretty.

I'm particiapting in the Thrifty Monday party and
you can check out more thrifty finds at Rhoda's Thrifty Monday party HERE.



Happy Memorial Day

Frugal Fashionista

Just a few years ago I never bought clothes at a yardsale! NO no NO! Home decor things and trash to treasure projects, of course, I'd eagerly buy that stuff, but never clothes. Boy has that changed. Look at this great linen outfit I grabbed. It's new with the tags still on from JC Penney. The original price for the top was $39.99 and the cropped pants $29.99. The top has cute detailing on the collar and 3/4 length sleeves.

It fits me perfectly and I even got a Liz Clairborne bag and nice pair of shoes for a total of ....drumrollll..............$8.00.

Linen top $2

Linen cropped pants $2

Liz bag $1

Shoes $3

How's that for frugal fashion?

Whenever there is a yardsale in my neighborhood, I never have my own........it's much more fun to shop. The house around the corner is the go to place. That's where I found my new outfit. Here is just a sampling of the things you'll see at this particular yardsale. These 2 sheets were full of shoes, each just 3$ and there were several tables piled with clothes.

For more frugal fashion visit the Mr. Linky party at Balancing Beauty and Bedlam.

You just never know what you might find!

If you need a blog button, I can design one just for you. For $15.00 you will get a button and the code that others will use to grab your button.

Sizes are, 100 X 100 and 125 X 125. Other sizes also available.
Please email me here with blog button in the subject line.


Thank you!

Let’s take a stroll

It’s a perfect evening for a stroll, a barefoot stroll. There're just something about walking barefoot in the grass that makes me happy. Come on along, but first take off your shoes.

This clematis is about to burst into a sea of purple. It really needs to be tied up higher but then the birds couldn’t get into their homes.

Here are two more clematis that aren’t quite as showy but still lovely.

  Did you notice the wire around the clematis? Rabbits,  need I say more! I need to make more plant cages soon before they eat all the purple coneflowers.

Check out the Hershey’s stepping stone that Bill made.

Last year I planted pink impatiens in this spot and the rabbits had a party. I noticed that they didn’t bother the white impatiens so I’m trying just white ones this year. A spray of repellant can’t hurt either. These old  urns have seen better days, but every year I hit them with some black spray paint and I’m satisfied. I’m trying a new plant this year, new to me, hibiscus. They were on sale at Lowe’s so I thought why not? 

 

Here’s the trellis that my stepfather made for me when I admired three he had made for mom. It needs a paint job but it’s still pretty with the honeysuckle.  

Hope you enjoyed the barefoot tour. It sure was a beautiful evening!

 

That was last week, The last two nights we had frost warnings! We had to cover all the plants. Crazy weather! My plan for today was to finish planting but I guess not! It was too windy to spray paint too, so I’m still waiting to finish up in the dining room.  These beauties will be waiting in the warmth of the garage. For a change, I planted mostly red and yellow this year. The purples are for a pot I’m making up for a friend.

What have you planted? Tried anything new? Have a great day.

Let’s talk about the Dining Room

Well here it is almost finished. It’s taken so long because I’ve had so many other things to do. Like work outside when it’s not raining, the usual cleaning and I spent the night in the ER with my husband and then two nights later we almost went back to the ER again. He’s having some problems recently but he’s hanging in there.

So here’s the paint color…..I DO have such a difficult time picking paint colors, but this time it was fairly easy. The LR is Whole Wheat by Sherwin Williams and I wanted to stay close to that, but lighter. Believable Buff was too dark and Antique White, the top color on the strip, was too light. I almost used Spanish Chestnut from Walmart but instead went to Lowe’s and had a color mixed up by Dan the paint man! He did a great job!

I didn’t like the dab on the left, so he tweaked it and came up with a color lighter than Believable Buff and darker than Antique white. It’s only a subtle difference but it worked for me!

It’s slowly coming together at last. The tureens have a new home on top of the china cabinet.

Summer centerpiece is now on the table.

The chandelier still needs a makeover but I took the shades off and I’ll probably redo them and put them back on.

There’s still lots to do in here but at least the painting part is done.

Since it’s been so rainy I haven’t been able to get out to spray paint anything….like the curtain rod and corbels, a shelf and some urns. I sure hope it’s dry next week so I can get this done.

Good Bye red dining room! Next, I’ll be working on the thrift store secretary’s desk.

I was finally able to get to some good yardsales and will be sharing that this week.

Have a Great Day!

~Painting the Dining Room

Finally I've been working on the dining room. Good Bye dark red paint that I once adored. It's time to freshen up a bit! I had some primer, so I rolled that on very quickly, rather haphazardly! But to my surprise, only one coat of paint was needed after the primer. Yeah

Guess what, I like this.......lots...usually I have a hard time picking paint color, but I love this new look.

Today I'll be putting the room back together. It'll be a busy day, planting containers and dressing up the patio, laundry and general cleaning! Oh well, that's life.

I'll be talking about the paint color in my next post.

Have a great day!

~Decoupage makeovers & repurposing

Several years ago I was really into decoupage. If you're not familiar with decoupage, it's just a white glue that dries clear. You can apply wallpaper, paper napkins or just about any paper to wooden items, plastic items ....well practically anything and after a few coats of decoupage medium , you've got a whole new look! This was an ugly planter from Big Lots,.....painted it and added wallpaper with decoupage.

I'll bet you see this type of breadbox at thrift shops and yardsales all the time. I think I paid about 2 bucks for it.

Here it is transformed and repurposed!

I used it to hide the toaster when it wasn't in use. Holes were drilled in the back for the cord and the top and back to let heat escape if it was still warm when I stowed it away.

You could use this as a kitchen garage for a can opener and hand mixer. I think it would make a great recharging station for cell phones, cameras, whatever! It would work as a place to store phone books, pencils and pens.

I don't use either of these things anymore, just thought I'd share some old craft projects. If you haven't tried decoupage, it's so easy, so give it a try.

The weather hasn't been cooperating for getting out there and yardsaling! I was out for only a short time last weekend, that's ok....I have so much stuff to work on! I'm working on the secretary's desk and the dining room this week. I'm not really into it but I want to get it done!

Mia visits Nan

Guest blogger today, my daughter Dawn.

Since Mom is on a self imposed BabyDuty (BD as we call it around here. BD is either BabyDuty which is self-imposed as mentioned earlier or imposed on you by others, BD is BabyDumping) I, the eldest offspring and Mia's mother, am on a new BD today. Blogging Duty.

Mia Kate and I decided to take a trip to Nan and Grumpa's house so we rather quickly packed up our things and busted out of our tiny NY town. Things were going rather well after a quick trip to fill the tank (both the vehicle and mine...McD's for me and gas for the truck). Mia girlie was soooo good for the first hour. I got a bit lost trying to find Cohocton, NY even though I had been there before but a cell phone call to Mom made us feel better even though she wasn't any help finding the road.

There are some interesting happenings in Cohocton, NY that few may know about. This is a picture of some of the 50 gigantic energy producing windmills that can be seen from many miles around Cohocton which began producing energy January 2009. Anyone can find a dirt road in the area and locate one of the windmills, getting an up close and personal view. It is so hard to describe the mammoth proportions. After being close to one of these windmills, you can imagine how an ant must feel. This is a link to the website that discusses these windmills in case you are interested. http://yeswindcohocton.com/.

Miagirl fell into a blissful yet uncomfortable car seat sleep as we continued our travels. However, we were rudely interrupted by a NYS police officer when he politely gave me a speeding ticket for 62 mph in a 55 mph zone. Mia woke up. I was less than pleased and actually considered simply giving up and turning back for home as we were just about half way into the trip. But we left the truck on the side of the road and took a moment to look at the green, green grass and the budding trees and the little creek. Mia had a bottle and we were off again, fitting in nicely with all the other vehicles going 62 in a 55. Mom says that I was pulled over because God was saving me from an accident or something else I wasn't supposed be involved in. Uhm, okay....

Since Mia was now awake without getting her full nap in/out, we had to take a travel break so McD's playground it was and a strawberry shake. She had only a bit of the milkshake (no problem there, Mommy can finish it for you, baby) and then watched the bigger kids play while balancing on the base of the slides.

After this one hour break, we were back on the road and MK fell asleep. She basically slept the rest of the way, yeehaw. PA is a bit more into Spring than NY and we were definitely noticing the flowers blooming although it was getting rapidly more difficult to see out of the windshield due to the unbelievable amount of bugs. What is the last thing to go through a bug's mind when it hits the windshield? It's butt!

Nan was waiting for us with open arms. She scooped Miababy out of her car seat and I don't think I have seen her for the last few days. This was Mia's first meeting with Grumpa (he is a bit grumpy these days because he's not feelng well) Bill. She was not impressed at first but has warmed up nicely. He sticks his finger in his mouth and pulls it out quickly making a popping sound which has MK mesmerized. She tries to copy it - so cute. This is Mia and Grumpa after they got to know each other. This morning they shared a bagel, a cookie and a cup of decaf.

For dinner the next evening we marinated a beef roast. This is a recipe for a marinade that I saw on of the many hunting channels that Mia's daddy watches....

• soy sauce,
• brown sugar, and
• bourbon.

We used a 1/3 ratio for each ingredient. It was very bourbon-y but also very good. I would recommend cutting back on the bourbon a bit (A LOT!!!) but would use the marinade again. I simply cut the roast into smaller pieces, about 2 inches by 2 inches and drowned them for 8 hours in the marinade then Mom grilled them.

A quick trip to see Gram (my mom's mom) was very sad. I thought I was prepared for the visit but turns out, not so much. It wasn't that she looked so much older. It wasn't that she was in a wheel chair or that her hair and skin were thinning. It was that she could barely open her eyes and barely respond by an ever so almost unnoticeable nod of her head. It was that my mom was stroking her hair and kissing her and trying to get a response. It was heart wrenching. It was that my mom was there in the room with her mother on one side at the end of her life while holding a baby in just the beginning of life. Way too much. Never be prepared. I had to leave the room. I couldn't stand there and let the other people in the room think that they were in such a sad state that a visitor had to cry watching them. It was truly awful. Sooooooo difficult.

Next, we stopped at the thrift store and Nan picked up an inchworm ride on toy for Mia for $2.50. What a bargain. MK loves it. The head bobs up and down. For now she can only make it go backward. Fun, fun, fun.
Hope you enjoyed this post.....painting the DR next week.