Winner of the Firecrackers....

{We have a winner!}

Congratulations to.....

...Karen!!  I've sent you an email and will be awaiting your reply!

If you would like to make your own set of Fourth of July Firecrackers, you can go HERE for my directions!

And just a quick announcement.....I am taking the week OFF!!  I plan to randomly do that this summer....just take the week and spend time with my family...having fun!!

It's hard to believe that my baby is turning 6 and my first born is turning 12....in just a few short weeks!  Time moves so quickly and I just don't want to miss any moments with them!  This time is so precious!

See you all soon!

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Thrifty Thursday #13

{Thrifty Thursdays #13}

Wow!  What an amazing link week last week atThrifty Thursday! We had over 50 amazing ideas link up! So let's get right to spotlighting some of them!


Angie at The Cellar Door Stories had a gorgeous porch swing makeover!

Wouldn't you just love to sit there and feel the breeze while sipping on some cold lemonade??  (and she didn't use a Silhouette for all of us who still don't own one!!)

Lauren, over at My Wonderfully Made has been featured all over blogland with this awesome patriotic flag craft from an old book....

In fact, she inspired me to dig out my old astronomy book from college and spray paint it into a flag!  I'll show you my flag at some point....finally, I'm actually using the book!


Heritage Home Creations linked three beautiful creamy white furniture re-do's. Here are two of them:

{Farmhouse Sofa Table}

{Chippy White Secretary Desk}

Their creamy white-ness is beautiful and elegant!!  It's just amazing what a little bit of paint and distressing can do to a piece of furniture!

On a different note, I just love what The Crafty Chicka did with this tote!!

It's a Tutu Tote!!  What little girl would not love to put her ballet slippers in that tote to carry to dance class!  Aubrey used them as a party bag for her daughter's Pinkalicious birthday party!


Finally, Stephanie at The Cozy Old Farmhouse made this Magnet Board from a cookie sheet from the Dollar Store.

There would be so many possibilities for this idea!  You could get magnetic letters and let your kids spell and sound out words!

If you were featured this week, be sure to grab a button from the sidebar!

Thank you for all the fabulous projects!  I can't wait to see what you have this week..... week #13 atThrifty Thursdays!

Here are some very simple suggestions for the link-up:

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.

4. Share some comment love....We all love to get them!!

Don't forget that you can go over to link up with Thrifty Thursday at

 Saved by Love Creations!  Johnnie also has some awesome ideas for make-your-own clay jewelry!

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Rustic Flag Sign

I have never....ever...decorated for patriotic holidays.  I'm not sure why, but it's never been on my radar to do.  For some reason, this year I am excited to decorate with red, white, and blue.....the only problem is that I don't have much of a budget right now for home decor!

So my goal has been to do it for FREE!!

I've had this ugly sign forever....it's from my "country-fied" days....that lasted all of about 1 year!  The poor sign just keeps getting put behind shelves, under couches....just to keep it out-of-sight!!

But, today, I was inspired!!  What if I flipped it over and started another sign???

I've been seeing really fun flag and patriotic sign-age all over the blog-world, so I wanted to turn this into a rustic flag sign.  The only problem was that it was too long....so I had hubby cut it for me.  (I'll show you tomorrow what I did with the smaller end piece...I absolutely LOVE it!)

I took my little bottle of white acrylic craft paint and dry-brushed it on. To achieve that look just put paint on a dry brush and paint off most of it on the newspaper.  Then take what little remains on your paint brush and paint the wood.

You don't have to use "old" wood.  You can actually "age" the wood.  I did a similar technique on my Paintstick Crate if you'd like to see how to "age" new wood!

Next, I just used painter's tape to mark off my flag shape. 

I left the distressed white as my flag stripes.  I also went over the entire flag with some tea-stained distressing ink just to age it some more.

I took twine that I already had and wrapped it around the ends to give it a little "somethin' somethin'!"

The best part....it was FREE!  Absolutely free!  I recycled something ugly that I already had and never used to make something pretty and fun!!

What have you been recycling??

Places I Party....

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Fourth of July Firecrackers...and a giveaway!

{Be sure to read until the bottom!}

Do you know about Pick Your Plum and GroopDealz??  They are awesome discounted crafts, jewelry, vinyl deals.....they come daily to your inbox and are greatly discounted, but only for the day!


So when this came into my inbox, my mind starting spinning.......

First you need some background..... 

In our family, we fight over who gets to mow the grass.....I have actually withheld the mowing from my almost 12-year old because that means we would have to split the mowing 3 ways instead of 2....yes, I know that I am weird!

The only thing that I don't like is all the stuff that is laying around the yard in the way of the mower....namely, garden stakes that my hubby uses for his grapes.  We take turns throwing them in each other's way...

What can I say....I'm lazy, I don't want to get off the mower!  But they have been driving me crazy!!

{outlines of their yard imprint!!}

I've been looking for ways to get rid of them, so when I saw that email in my inbox, I knew exactly what I was going to do!!  CHOP THEM UP!!  

The only problem is that I am slightly terrified of the saw.....so I had to beg for the hubby's help!

We cut the garden stakes into 3 different sizes....no measuring, just eye-balling!  I grabbed some supplies and got to work!

I painted the wood....

....and sanded it to distress it.

I also took some distressing ink on a cotton ball and rubbed it all over the wood to make it look more aged.

Cutting a star out of wood is beyond my skill level with a saw and it's 40 miles round trip to Michaels, so I improvised!!  

I painted a piece of cardstock gray, free-handed a star, traced it on the cardstock and cut it out!  At some point, I'll replace it with the real thing, but until then, you can't even tell!!

I ran out to my clothesline and snipped three little pieces off the end and tapped them into the top of the wood with nails.

Voila....my own FREE version of Fourth of July firecrackers!!

Are you ready for the BEST part???  I made TWO sets and I want to give one away!!

So to enter.....become a Google Follower and leave me a comment telling me that you are a new follower.

(If you already follow, just tell me!)

For a SECOND entry, follow me on FB and leave me a comment!

For a THIRD entry, follow me on Twitter and leave me a comment!

(And if you are already following those places...just tell me!)

I'll be giving these away Thursday night!!

Places I party....

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Summer Birthday Party Idea

{A Lego Birthday....}

In our family we have 2 summer birthdays and we always love to plan fun themed birthday parties! We do a fun fall birthday theme, too, for our younger son, but summer parties are often more elaborate because we can go outside! 


When Amber linked up this Lego Party last week for Thrifty Thursday, I knew that it deserved its very own spotlight!

One thing that we always do at our parties is have some type of craft or coloring page when the kids are arriving since they all tend to arrive at different times.  


Amber had a couple of fun activities planned during this time.  One were these Lego man coloring pages that she put on display during the party.

Here is a link that I found for Lego coloring pages after a very brief search......actually they have a million character coloring pages at that site!!


At our parties I always try to have a fun basket of markers and crayons and then other supplies like watercolors and paints.....it just makes the craft table look more exciting....especially for boys!


One of my favorite parts of Amber's Lego Party was this.....

How cute!!!  Pin the smile on the Lego man!!  And what an inexpensive and simple activity to put together!


How about some giant Duplos that you can eat!?

For more of Amber's Lego Party ideas, hop over to I saw that going differently in my mind.....don't you just love the name of her blog???  That so describes my life!!

Happy Partying!

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Father's Day T-Shirt

{Creative bleach-stained tee}

Usually by the time I get to June and Father's Day, I am just holiday'ed out!  May has 3 family birthdays and 2 mothers to gift for Mother's Day....July holds the birthday of 2 of my kids, so usually in June, I just want a break....financially and creatively!


So as I have been trying to think of ideas for Father's Day, I have been.....completely....empty!!


As I was browsing blogs yesterday for ideas, I stumbled over to Smilemonsters and saw a Father's Day idea that I just LOVED!  This morning Jo linked it to Thrifty Thursday and I couldn't wait until next week to share it with you!




Using an adorable little helper with a bottle of bleach....

She made this unique gift idea for Dad!

I know that my hubby just loves the look of those t-shirts right now!


For Jo's complete tutorial, go HERE!!

What are your ideas this year for Father's Day??  If you have a creative

idea, please email me.  I'd love to spotlight you!

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Thrifty Thursday #12

{Thrifty Thursdays #12}

Swimming season has officially started in my house and I now have 3 swimmers.....translation....three HOURS of practice to sit through 5 days a week!  Big *sigh!*.....

So, do you know how I would write each of you a nice "thank you" for linking to Thrifty Thursday??  Well....those days are gone until fall!  But truly, I look at and enjoy each and every post that gets linked.....I just can't comment on each one!

One project that I really liked was this Chippy Sconce Repurpose from Chipping with Charm...

Anything distressed in creamy white is just gorgeous!!  And I love the piano!

If you need an idea for a boy's room re-design, check out what Fancy Frugal Life did for her little boy.....

One of my favorite parts of this Surfer Room is the raffia window treatment.....

I love anything ugly that is made beautiful and Junque 'N My Trunk made this old magazine rack table into a beauty!!

So many things can be made beautiful again with a little big of paint!!




Or fabric.......look what Meg and Mum's did to this auction sofa....


Before:

After:

It hardly even resembles its former self!!  So pretty!  




One of my FAVORITE ideas were these shoe makeovers from sweet verbena....ADORABLE!!!

Her tutorial is amazingly easy to follow!  I can't wait to make a bunch of these!!




I could have featured so many more projects, but my final feature is this Ruffle Bum Onesie.....I like it because JessaJill didn't use a sewing machine!!

....I'm not really on speaking terms with my sewing machine right now!!

If you were featured this week, be sure to grab a button from the sidebar!

Welcome to week #12 at Thrifty Thursdays!

Here are some very simple suggestions for the link-up:

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.

4. Share some comment love....We all love to get them!!

Don't forget that you can go over to link up with Thrifty Thursday at

 Saved by Love Creations!

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