Some good deals. . . .

Are your familiar with Pick Your Plum?

Pick Your Plum is like an etsy store, but I get the "today's deal" delivered to my inbox every morning.  Not only are there incredible deals to purchase, but I also find inspiration from the project ideas!

Today's deal is FREE!!

Just head over to Pick Your Plum to grab your PDF to download!

A giveaway day is taking place over at Tatertots and Jello....already Jen has posted THREE!

My favorite is her giveaway from Jo Totes...

I would just love one of these camera bags....(Hint! Hint! Honey....)

So head over to Pick Your Plum and grab a free pdf and then stop at 

Tatertots and Jello and enter one of Jen's giveaway's!

Snow. . . .

It's not everyday that you see autumn leaves peeking out from under snow.....

It's looking like we'll be wearing snow boots to trick-or-treat!

Cute Hair Ideas. . .

It has always be a bit of a battle to style my daughter's hair.....She was blessed with one of those sensitive scalps and she has a mother who can't make a straight part for the life of her!


Last week, we were at dance class when 2 adorable little blond girls hopped out of their SUV on the way into class.  My daughter, breathless in the backseat gasped....."Mommy, their hair if bea-u-ti-ful!!"


Not wanting to look like a stalker, weird-o type, I climbed out of the car with my iphone and approached the mom asking if she'd mind if I took a picture of her daughter's scalp.....


My daughter had hopped out of the car behind my jumping up and down  excited by the potential of having her hair styled like that.....


The mom was exceedingly nice and understanding and allowed me to photograph her daughter's hair and then she shared with me a blog that she follows that is devoted entirely to little girl's hair!!

YES!!  That's exactly what I need!  Step-by-step photos, instructions and video tutorials!!

If you get a chance, stop over at Babes in Hairland.  You'll get some fabulous ideas and tutorials....like this Jack-O-Lantern Bun!!

And we made it through the entire styling process with no tears!!

My daughter keeps asking when I'll go check the computer for a new hairstyle!

Happy Styling!

The fall slacker. . . .

Yep!  That's me...the fall slacker!  I've got rotten pumpkins and dead chrysanthemum's decorating my front porch and had rotten gourds in my cloche.....that has been the extent, thus far, of my fall decorating!

In fact, I went to open my bin of fall decorations today and found this.....

Don't EVER get the fake gourds mixed up with the real gourds and leave them in a bin for a year.....GROSS!!

So, today, I decided to have a little fall crafting marathon.....I started by going to my Fall Ideas Pinterest Board.  Do you pin?  At first, I really drug my feet about pinning....I was concerned about the privacy issues, but wow, has it made life easier!


Prior to Pinterest, I would write my ideas down on little scraps of paper with my scribbles and drawings trying to keep a record of what I saw. 


I also kept a HUGE favorites tab on my computer.  That was great.......until the computer crashed!


So after I tried salvaging the horrid plastic pumpkins....which I couldn't!!......I came up with this for my fall mantle....

Kathy from Dandelions and Dustbunnies sent me the charger....I won it in one of her giveaways!  The books are thrift store just covered in burlap....the leaves are Dollar Tree.  I think that I used 3 strands?


I purchased the ceramic pumpkins last year at The Dollar Tree...yep, $1.00!

I made the wreath last year from a blog I had seen....that was when I first was introduced to the world of blogging!  

I bought the corn husks at a Mexican food store and trimmed them and then hot glued them onto a foam wreath. I added a little stain to the edge of my husks to give them an aged look.

I'm a little late getting into the fall decorating game, but, at least I've gotten started!

Now I am just waiting for these pumpkins to start rotting....

Thrifty Thursday #32

There were a wide variety of creative projects linked up this week on Thrifty Thursday!  Here are some of my favorites!

Something Created Everyday created this amazing suitcase shelf....the whole room is amazing!

Crafted Niche designed this absolutely stunning Ballard's Design knock-off....she spent $20 instead of $200!!

Love of Homes painted this beautiful baby nursery.....her colors are so soothing and beautiful!

Wayward Girls made some of these amazing-looking pumpkin cheesecake truffles....yum!

Word Up, Nerd Up shared the compassionate idea of a home loss box.  We, too, had friends who lost everything suddenly in a fire.

Too Much Time on my Hands linked her homemade recipe for chalk paint and this beautiful chair refashion...

Babblings and More saves some money with a homemade recipe for Mod Podge....love it!

Lori's Crafty Spot gave us a fun Christmas sneak peek with this paper Christmas tree.....

If you were featured this week, feel free to grab one of my buttons!

Here are some very simple suggestions for the party:

1. Please become a follower of Thrifty Decorating.

2. Be sure to link to your POST and not your blog.

3. Please copy and paste my link button somewhere in 

your post or blog so that others can link back.

After you've linked here, hop over and say "hi" 

to Johnnie at her Thrifty Thursday link party

at Saved by Love Creations!

You can also head over to visit Erika 

at Thrifty and Fabulous and join 

her Thrifty Thursday!

What have you been working on this week?

Pretty Fall Porch. . .

I just had to share my neighbor's porch with you all.....it's so simple, yet is just gorgeous.....especially at night!

She put white Christmas lights in and around some grapevine pumpkins.....

And what about my porch??? Let's just say that a photo of rotten gourds isn't really inspiring!

Happy Fall!

Basement is almost done!

We are in the home stretch of our basement remodel.......if you'd like to follow the story you can go HERE and HERE and HERE and HERE!

This is a picture of the same window about 6 weeks ago....taken on the night of the flood....

After crying and grumbling and complaining and crying some more, I was convinced by my husband to see the "brighter" side......he reminded me that I never really did like the paint color so it was my opportunity to rethink the room....so I did!

I am now painting the baseboard......hopefully we will be able to reuse it.  We labeled it as we pulled it off and not too much of it was damaged.

By the time we pulled it off, it had started to mold, so I wiped it with a clorox-based cleaner and sprayed it with industrial strength Microban....

Now I just need to keep him from getting his little pawprints all over my freshly painted boards!

Because this remodel was completely unexpected (and unbudgeted!), we've been trying to be as cost-effective as possible!  


One way to trim costs was to use MDF.  MDF comes in 1/2 and 3/4 inch sheets.  We bought the 1/2 inch sheets and my husband then ripped the boards on the table saw to a width of 3 inches to make our trim.  So far, we've only used 1 full sheet!

We then had my dad run the MDF boards through his router to add the fancy trim.....he added the rounded edge to the bottom and the groove.....all it cost was his time and he works for cheap.....a Misto shake at Rita's paid him in full!

My hubby attached the trim boards with nails, but we also needed to add some liquid nails to attach them......the same stuff that I used on my bathroom mirror frame!

We still have a cap to add to the top of the trim......baseboards to attach and rugs to stretch and reattach, but the...end...is...in...sight!!

Now lest you think that the room is actually cleaned and organized, here's a photo just to keep it real!!

I used some creative cropping to keep all of the "floor shots" out of the other pictures!!

Fabric Sale. . .

I have mentioned before about how far I live away from what I deem civilization.....I don't count Kmart, Wendy's and Burger King as civilized most of the time....


For me, it's a 40 mile round-trip haul to a fabric store....and truly, our fabric store is a hole...in....the....wall!! I won't mention the name, but it rhymes with "Bo-anne's!"  The fabric selection is lousy and expensive because they know that they hold a monopoly on the fabric market!


When I was approached to be an affiliate with Hancock Fabrics, I was thrilled!  When we lived in the Bethlehem, PA area I shopped at Hancock Fabrics and just loved their selection and pricing.  

Did you know that you can purchase their fabrics online!!

They are currently having a sale on glacier fleece.....original price it $8.99 and on sale for $3.99!!

One of my favorite Christmas presents ever was a knotted fleece blanket made by my niece Amanda!  I sleep with it almost every night in the winter!

{Source}

Speaking of Christmas, how about some holiday craft kits??

With any online fleece order, Hancock Fabric is also offering a free fleece ideas magazine while supplies last!

I love that I am shopping tonight for my basement curtain fabric while curled up on my couch in a blanket.....

Pumpkin Roll . . . .

I've mentioned before on this blog that when it comes to baking.....I'm just not often successful!  In fact, I have never...ever.....tried a recipe with the word "roll" in it.....as in "jelly roll"!


So when I saw recipes for pumpkin roll floating around the blog world, I was envious.....it looked so good, but could I pull off a recipe like that???

But guess what.....I DID it!!  And it actually tasted good!!

Two things have always hindered me from making "roll" recipes.....I don't know what a "jelly roll pan" is and I didn't know what parchment paper was.

This is parchment paper....

You find it the same place you buy aluminum foil and your other wraps.

I still am not sure what a "jelly roll pan" is, but I just used my normal cookie sheet and it worked fine!


To prep your baking sheet....I sprayed the pan with oil (maybe that was overkill??) and then I sprayed the parchment paper with oil.  


I was using 2 different recipes for guidance and each one gave different directions.....does that drive you crazy??? I get overwhelmed by the choice...which way is correct??  So....I merged the 2 recipes and it all worked out!

The pumpkin roll part...

I added 1 cup of sugar to 3 eggs...

And then mixed in 2/3 cup of pumpkin...

I then added 1 tsp. of baking soda, 1/2 tsp. of cinnamon and 1 tsp. salt and mixed those in...

Then, I added 3/4 cup of flour and thoroughly mixed.

I spread the pumpkin mixture on my greased parchment paper and baked it at 400 degrees for 12-14 minutes.  You want to bake it until you can press your finger into the pumpkin and it "springs" back.

Meanwhile......while your pumpkin roll is baking, you want to take a dish towel and cover it in powdered sugar....

I used a bit too much powdered sugar!

When your pumpkin roll is finished, remove it from the oven and turn it onto your powdered towel.....it should easily come off the parchment paper.  

Right away, while it's hot, roll it up in the powdered sugar towel...

Really....it's in there somewhere!

The cream cheese filling.....

Mix together 2 Tab. butter

1 package of softened cream cheese 

1 1/2 tsp. vanilla

1 cup of powdered sugar

Unroll your roll and spread the filling to the edges.....and then roll it back up!

And that....was...it!!  I DID it!!  


My first "roll" dessert!!

I was amazed by how simple it was to make, yet how "fancy" it looked!  I ended up cutting mine it half so that I had two nights of dessert!

Happy baking!