Thrifty Thursday #36

I missed you all last week when I took the week off from Thrifty Thursday.....we had a very busy week!


I hosted Thanksgiving in my half-finished, not-happy-with, not-going-to-see-an-"after"-photo for a while dining room...

We had a wonderful time!  We ended up having 5 last minute guests and were so excited to host our wonderful friends!  


Each year that I've hosted, I've had people share what they were thankful for.....this year, we wrote on the table runner.....

...except for the fact that I didn't really think through the problem of "food spillage" on the table runner.....everything went smoothly!

We also hosted my son's first ever sleepover for his 10th birthday....the hit of the party??

Yes....it's not a potato gun....it's a potato BAZOOKA!!  If I wind up in jail, you can thank my dad for this gift!

There were SO many wonderful projects linked up to Thrifty Thursday.....and if I didn't host Thanksgiving, my son's 10th birthday sleepover and the stomach flu, I would have featured a lot more on my FB page.....but sometimes, life just happens!

Here are some of the favorites......

Fearfully and Wonderfully Made spraypainted this Goodwill purchase!!  I love the contrasting color for the interior!  If cost her $8.00 and 3 hours of time!

Cedar Hill Ranch refurbished a chandelier using some spraypaint and votive holders!

Re-POSH-ture gave this dresser a gorgeous facelift in turquoise!

And for some Christmas inspiration....

Suzy's Artsy Craftsy Sitcom designed the c-utest wallhanging EVER!!  She calls it Santa in the Photobooth....so funny!

Cheap Crafty Mama did all the work for us and found her top 10 Advent Calendar Ideas....there are some great ideas!

More Style than Cash had these two thrifty Christmas projects....coal cookies that include the printable and recipe....

....and cookie tins from aluminum cans!!!

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!

Do you follow The Frugal Girls??

Do you stalk (I mean follow!) The Frugal Girls??  I mainly follow them via Facebook....I love checking my personal homepage and seeing their daily deals popping up....but they've had so many amazing Christmas deals, that I am going to start following via email.  I don't want to miss anything!


So far in the past week, I've been enjoying listening to my FREE Christmas music downloads and I just finished my FREE Nook Book-for-the-iphone!  They have amazing deals....being posted constantly!!

Here are just a small sampling of them.....

Free Christmas Address Labels

20 Free Photo Christmas Cards

1 year of Family Circle Magazine for $3.50

I could go ON AND ON!!!!

The Frugal Girls have been so kind to me.....they frequently feature my projects and today, they are featuring my DIY "Vintage" ornaments....head over to check them out and get some great deals while you're there!

Enjoy!

"Vintage" Ornaments. . . . .

I fell in love with THESE ornaments from Miss Mustard Seed and started thinking......could I mimic them?

I went to Michael's and found their fillable glass ornaments at 40% off!

I grabbed one of my old piano books.....yes, it already looked "vintage"....I didn't even need to age it!

I ran the music through my paper shredder until I had a pile of shredded strips....

I loved Miss Mustard Seed's, but I wanted to add a little bit of sparkle to mine...

Using regular glue and Martha's white gold glitter, I painted the tops with glue and shook on the glitter...

I am just loving how they turned out!

I can't wait to hang them on our tree!

Have you put up your tree yet??

Linking up with....

Quesadillas. . . .

My kids LOVE this meal and it's super quick and easy to make!

I take flour tortillas and top them with taco-seasoned chicken and cheese for the kids.

For the adults, I add any combination of black beans, chilies, refried beans.....whatever I have in my pantry!

The key to crispy tortillas.....spray the tops with cooking spray!

Bake the quesadillas at 450 degrees for about 10 minutes....keeping an eye on them!

We like to make our Sunday dinners special.....so adding fruit whips or chocolate shakes always makes the dinner extra special!

Fruit Whips:

1 bag of frozen raspberries

2 bananas

3 Tab. sugar

1 container yogurt (vanilla, plain or raspberry)

1-2 cups crushed ice

water as needed

My kids devoured the quesadillas so quickly that I didn't even have time to take any "after" pictures!

Shabby Desk Redo. . . .

The completion of the basement has started a chain reaction of change.....first, we moved the school room to the basement....

That allowed us to turn the former school room back into a dining room.....no real pictures of that room yet because I am not happy yet with how it looks.....you can read all about my paint disaster!


So then I decided to rearrange the "music" room...I am a piano teacher and my music was just stuffed in these el cheapo wooden half-painted crates....

I moved an IKEA white storage cabinet from another room in there for the music and then decided to paint my desk to match....

UGH!!!  I just realized as I was typing that I deleted the before picture of the desk and don't have a back-up of it......so I'll describe it for you...

It was an ugly 80's wood desk that I rescued from a yard sale and spray painted oregano.....

So in my overhaul of room, I went and grabbed some Rustoleum Blossom White and sprayed the desk again.....spray painting is such a quick and inexpensive transformation!

I distressed the desk with sandpaper by hand and let the oregano show through....

We had leftover beadboard so I attached it to the sides of the desk and distressed it, as well....

I also painted a satin polyurethane sealer on the top of the desk so that it won't scratch with the heavy use that it gets.

I just love the new look and now that it's white, it will match whatever color I decide to put on these walls!

Now lest you think that my desk always looks like this.....here's a picture of what it really looks like....

Just keepin' it real!

Thrifty Thursday

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!  

I am postponing Thrifty Thursday this week so that you can spend time with your family and not on the computer! :)


I'll be back with some amazing features and hopefully you will have some amazing Christmas ideas to link!

Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good! His faithful love endures forever.  

Psalm 118:1

Hope that you spend the day with a thankful heart!

Chandelier. . . .

1 Habitat Restore Chandelier + 1 can of Krylon Oil Rubbed Bronze Spraypaint =

1 "Brand New" Chandelier

The End!

Paint disaster. . . .

I have heard of painting disasters.....I've just never experience one until now....when I decide 10 DAYS before hosting my family for Thanksgiving to completely change a room!!

It all started with a can of free paint.....I took it to my True Value to have it tinted, but it was the wrong base for the color I had chosen....what can 2 extra drops of black do to a color anyway??

A LOT!!

It wasn't as much the color issue, but the coverage issue....I felt like I was painting with WATER!  

I have never experienced this......the above picture was after at least TWO coats!!  After 4 on the one wall, I decided to go back to my True Value and purchase the paint with the primer.


Mistake #2.....I panicked.  I had picked a very soft yellow, but because I was having so much difficulty with coverage, I picked a darker soft yellow....

I don't know if you can tell from this picture, but the new color SCREAMED "I'M YELLOW!!"

I had now invested 7 coats and a $30 can of paint that I didn't want to purchase......I was hyperventilating....and acting a little crabby...

I went to my neighbor's house to get away from the yellow and walked into her dining room and said....this is more the color that I was going for.  She replied by saying that they still had their 5 gallon can of the paint leftover in their basement.


I texted her before she went out-of-town the next morning and grabbed her 5 gallon can of paint...


Problem #649???  The paint had been sitting in her basement for about 3 years and had a serious case of the CLUMPS!!!

UGH!!!  What should have been quick and easy....and more than enough paint to cover became a game of rolling and picking out the latex clumps and praying that God would multiply that paint like He did the loaves and the fishes! (seriously.....I was!)

I'm not sure if I will ever have "finished" pictures for you.......

This still isn't the color that I have in my mind, but it will work for now......my overall plan is to add chair rail and faux boxes on the white part of the wall....but we've just been struck with the stomach flu....

I may just paint the whole room black.....