Love Free Stuff

Before we moved away from the old house our neighbor put three old dining room chairs out by the curb. Being the “see potential in anything” person I am I grabbed them! (So the chairs were free)

I decided to use two of them in our dining room on either side of our sideboard. So I went to JoAnn’s and picked up some material off the sale rack and used a gift card (i.e. free). Then I painted the chairs black using the paint I got for this project (…no additional cash spent). And here is the finished product! I did not sand or do any prep work to the chairs. They are in fairly bad shape and as they cost nothing, I decided they weren’t any extra time or energy. The recovering job was very easy with the help of my staple gun. I am going a slightly different direction with the third chair…trying out a new technique. I’ll let you guys know how that turns out…if it turns out well that is.

A Quick Project

This project was truly a project of opportunity - no planing involved.

Last year, my mom, cousin (Stacy) and I had a garage sale at my house. At the end of the day, Stacy had a picture frame that had not sold and for some reason I decided to keep the frame instead of sending it to Goodwill. So, for more than a year I have had this frame but done nothing with it. It has even been in my own garage sale pile since moving to the new house.

A few weekends ago, Blake and I went to JoAnn's to pick up some material for another project I have in the works. I found this black, gray and white material and thought it would be perfect. Turns out, it didn't work for what I was intending.


Then I got the idea to put it all together, along with some paint left over from my last Garage Sale Find.

It was an inexpensive, fast and fun weekend project! Now if we can just paint our soon to be gray laundry room I will have a place to hang it!

The Master Bedroom

So, what have we been up to these last few weeks? Well, a little of this and a little of that. Mostly school, work, more work, unpacking, cleaning, organizing and a little decorating. Oh...and fixing all the things that keep breaking - the truck windows, the hot tub, the couch...you get the idea. It's been an interesting last few weeks.

Despite everything else that has been going on, we have managed to work a little on making our house a home. I have been a little overwhelmed in trying to decide which rooms to work on first. We finally decided that the master bedroom would work best. We have always wanted new bedroom furniture. We have greatly appreciated all our hand me downs but we are starting to out grow them! So, it was to The Dump.

We were pleasantly surprised by their selection. However, I would say it is a place to buy, not browse - luckily, we had already shopped the more conventional furniture stores. So, knowing what our other options were, it was easy to decide that the The Dump had a suite that was affordable and that we really liked.

I also decided to make a few trips to Bed, Bath and Beyond and Garden Ridge to finish the room out. It was fun making a few new flower arrangements! There are still a few things on my to do list (a rug, curtains, painting the walls, etc) but I am SO happy with the way things are going so far!

Garage Sale Find

I found this great mirror on Etsy. I really wanted it but I was not excited about the $119 price tag.

Then, I went to a garage sale and found this mirror. I paid $15.

I decided to use the Etsy piece as my inspiration and I got to work fixing up my garage sale find.



So here is my finished product! Blake added a shelf to the bottom and I painted it black! I paid $6 for the paint. I am very happy with my $21 project!

I am not sure where in our new house this piece will go but I am happy with the end result all the same!

Short and Easy Project

Well, we have now been with the parents for three weeks. If all goes well, we should be in our new home next weekend! I can't wait to post pictures!

I am sure this will surprise most of you...but I can be a very impatient person. So sitting around waiting to get into the new house has been killing me. I feel like I am wasting time. Time that I could other wise spend unpacking or decorating.

So, I have kept myself busy preparing to move. I am picking out paint colors and planning out how we will arrange our furniture. I have also taken on a few small projects. Here is one of them.

A couple of weeks ago I picked up a few items at a garage sale. I got this for $5.

Add a little hammered metal spray paint and it is ready to be hung in our new home!

Cut, Sew & Go!

This weekend I decided that it was time for a sewing project. A few weeks ago I was in JoAnn's and saw this ready to sew tote bag. Let me just say that I did not make this tote bag in a hour (as it promises) nor did my mom and I find the instructions easy to follow. However, I did make the bag in less than a day, which is a first for me. This project also allowed me to avoid something I hate, measuring and marking material to be cut.

The fabric comes ready to be cut with instructions printed on the material.

After cutting, ironing and sewing...

...I had a cute, reversible, tote bag!