Thrifty Decorating

August 24, 2011

Thrifty Thursday #23

Last week was our biggest week of Thrifty Thursday!! There were almost 100 links....woohoo!! Thank you for all of your wonderful ideas! I was very inspired by many of them! So because there were so many links....there are a few more features!

I love this nursery/guest room from B.E. Interiors....

If you look carefully, you'll see the fabric that she used is camouflage! Love it!

She also made this custom art for the room....just so creative!

And who wouldn't want a closet like this from Everyday Lovely......

All it took was some paint and a stencil and the closet is transformed into a gorgeous display in her home.....and I'm loving the baskets!

I just love how you all seem to transform old chairs....I keep looking by the side of the rode for one in the trash!

Taking a Sunday Drive made-over this one into something too pretty to sit on!

If you want to learn how to transfer cool lettering or graphics, Home Frosting linked up an A-MAZING tutorial! Really.....it is so easy to understand!

Not only does she give a fabulous tutorial.....but she shows you how to make this out of an old mouse pad!

Now I have no idea how Nikki over at Chef in Training stays so thin and pretty when she is linking up recipes like this every week.....

Yum! This easy chocolate cheesecake looks scrumptious and the recipe looks SO simple!

I'm looking forward to some "winter cookin' " again.....you know, the kind where you actually turn the oven back on because it's not 95 degrees outside?! Joyful Homemaking shared this recipe for Taco Spaghetti....

This looks like a yummy combo! But.....would my kids eat it??? Hmm.....too many different foods might be touching each other......

The East Barn took some ugly Craig's List end tables and brought beauty back to them!

The light distressing and stained top is just stunning!

Finally, I just had to include this sign from Simply Designing......

You don't really even want to look inside my oven.......

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

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!

I can't wait to see your ideas for week #23 of Thrifty Thursday!

August 23, 2011

The continuation (and conclusion) of the cat saga....

Oh my.....so I ended my last post with God bringing home our sick and missing kitty. It was quite a joyous celebration....lots of tears of joy....but it was one of those moments where I didn't want to be the dark mommie-cloud of reality saying...."um, guys....the kitty still looks on the the edge of death...."

Really, I am SO grateful that God heard and answered the prayers of my tearful kids...He even went a step beyond and gave my son a special little blessing....

That night, the kitty once again escaped his warm, safe shelter of our laundry room and somehow dragged his sick little body up a flight of stairs.....the cat went right into my son's room....how the cat knew how to find him since it lived outside....I'm giving the credit to God, but my older son awoke to little "meow's"...

As we thought back over the past few days, those were pretty much the only sounds the cat had even made.....so I know that something special happened there for my boy....

The next day.....I called the vet....in my heart, I knew that I was about to dish out a couple hundred dollars for a cat that was either too sick to recover or would end up getting hit by a car the moment it did.....but I wasn't doing it for the cat, I was doing it for these blue eyes that were filled with anxiety and fear for his pet....

So....on the way to the vet, while getting the cat in the carrier, my son got scratched....enough to bleed.....note to self....don't let a sick cat scratch anyone...I've had a HUGE learning curve in the past 24 hours about outdoor pets!

After we ran some blood tests and ruled out things like leukemia, the vet asked if we've had our pets vaccinated against rabies....

"Um...no. 'Cuz you see we rescued these cats from the Amish farm that keeps having cats wander onto our back porch and my soft-hearted children keep adopting and I'm running out of money feeding them all and finding homes for them...we did get them fixed....was that too long of an answer?"

Long story short.....because the cat potentially could have rabies and rabies is prevalent in our area (who knew??)....we would have to keep the cat alive for 10 days.....if the cat lived for 10 days...no rabies....if the cat died for any reason in those 10 days, it would still have to go through rabies testing because it scratched my son....WHAT?!?

Let's just say after a completely emotional ordeal that left everyone, even the vet tech, crying....the cat is now "home with Jesus!" And YES, we are lying through our teeth and telling our children that the cat is dancing in heaven....don't even judge me, you would do the same!

So after the most expensive "transport" fee ever.....really, did they take the cat in a limo???....the cat was "tested" for rabies.....

Let me just tell you.....if you think that your child has been exposed to rabies...DO NOT GOOGLE IT!!! I just had to pray to Jesus last night that He would guard my thoughts because I was freaking out!

The good news.....the cat tested negative for rabies.....no trips to the hospital will be necessary.....I am SO grateful!

So now I'm off to get our other outside cat vaccinated.....I had no idea that rabies was even still a threat! And no...I never read Old Yeller....so I really knew nothing about the disease......until Google....

....after my Google research, I think that I could

become an activist for mandatory pet vaccinations.....

....Oh and on top of all of that....we had an earthquake today.....while I was at the chiropractor today for my back he asked if I had any extra stress in my life.....I couldn't even answer him! LOL

A painted-on dry erase board.....

Life here has gone from sad to sadder.....as soon as I get the results of the final testing, I'll update you all on our cat saga....but just warnin' ya...the ending is not happy....it's now one that may involve a trip (or four!) to the hospital...ugh!

In the meantime, my mind is just not on posting.......I have about 8-10 posts in-process (aka...partway done!), but none ready to actually post....so how cool is it that the Gaerte Gang sent me this idea today!

She painted.....right on the wall....a dry erase board!!

How cool is that!?!

You can head over to the Gaerte Gang to see how she did it!

~On a brighter note....my hydrangea wreath is drying perfectly....right on the door....

So now I feel like I can recommend your trying it!

August 22, 2011

An alternative method of dry brushing....

In an earlier post about my paintstick crate, I talked about my method of dry-brushing.....

....nothing fancy, I just drag a "dry brush" that has a small amount of paint on it over my surface.

Julia over at 551 East Furniture Design has another way to dry brush with amazing results!

Isn't this chest of drawers that she linked to Thrifty Thursday just gorgeous?

Using a paint roller, she achieves results like this....

Julia has a wonderful video tutorial for how to achieve this aged, rustic look....head over to 551 East Furniture Design to say "hi" and to see how easy it is to do it!

August 21, 2011

A wish lantern and an answered prayer.....

It has been an emotional week at our house.....on Monday, I posted on my FB page asking for prayer for a college friend whose son collapsed and died during soccer practice.....a life cut entirely too short by an unknown heart defect.

My friend Alison of Stuff and Nonsense wrote a beautiful post about it HERE entitled Another Thursday....grab a tissue if you hop over to read it....

Another friend brought her daughter home from the hospital on Thursday, their lives completely changed......what started as a fever has been diagnosed as juvenile arthritis......nothing will be the same.....

In our house, the tears have been flowing today.....our cat that adopted us last winter is sick......in the midst of the "recovery" effort which included taking the deck apart.....he ran away....

At times like this, when life seems so confusing....and so sad....it's easy to start questioning if God cares.....

As I was driving home tonight from a quick trip to our grocery store and just crying about all of these events this week, I was reminded of that verse in John where it is recorded that "Jesus wept...."

He cried, too.....tears also ran down his face and his heart hurt over the death of a close friend......

I drew comfort tonight in the fact that God was hurting tonight, too......His heart is broken by the curse of sin that causes death, pain and suffering.....I imagine that He is anxiously awaiting the day of His return to make things right and new again....

My hubby has had this "wish lantern" sitting around....he needed to test it out for work.......if you've seen the movie Tangled then you know what a wish lantern is. The town sets them off every year for the lost princess on her birthday.....

We watched Tangled this afternoon so my hubby suggested that we make it our "prayer" lantern......I wept tonight as I saw my baby girl's face streaming with tears and her hands folded while her lips cried out a prayer to God...."Please bring Chloe home...."

I just prayed...."Please reward the faith and hope of my children....."

We waited.....and waited....and no cat....we came in and I put my daughter to bed....still crying....

Then....suddenly, my son came flying up the stairs....they found the cat!

Thank you, Jesus....for caring enough to send our sick cat home.....for hearing the prayers of a little girl....

Truthfully....the cat may still die tonight.......and my friends are still suffering, but in my heart.....and the heart of my kids....they saw a glimpse of God's heart tonight......they felt His care.....

Pain is part of life.....there's no escaping it in a cursed and sinful world...

but I know that HOPE is coming.....

and that God cares when His children are sad....

August 20, 2011

Hydrangea Wreath

Today I was browsing Ucreate....one of my favorites sites for creative ideas when I saw this wreath from Viv & Company....

Well....I fell in love with that wreath. The only problem??? Vanessa admits that the wreath is a little pricey because she uses faux flowers.

But then I remembered that I have some of these in my yard...

So I dove into my craft bin and found this wreath that I made and then hid for St. Patrick's Day.....

Reasons for hiding wreath are obvious....it was UGLY! Another one of my "oops!" ideas! So I cut some stems of hydrangea, grabbed my glue gun and started ripping apart the wreath...

Then, I ended up not even gluing the stems.....I just wedged them between the pieces of my wreath and rearranged until it was symmetrical.

And I am loving the result!

Now.....I'm not sure what's going to happen as these dry. The best hydrangeas that I ever dried were by accident. I cut them, forgot about them and ended up leaving them for a month or so and they looked great!

I'm hoping that this happens with the wreath. Viv from The V Spot suggests drying hydrangeas like this.

Hopefully, a week from now my wreath still looks like this....

I'll let you know....

Update: I'm updating this to say that it worked!! The flowers have dried perfectly on my front door and it is as pretty today as the day I first put it together!

August 19, 2011

How to make a gift bow....

I am the worst gift wrapper in the world....truly! One Christmas I actually hired a girl in our youth group to wrap our gifts because I was too embarrassed to take mine to the family Christmas......(This was earlier in my marriage.....I've since learned!)

So I always stress when my kids go to birthday parties or we have gifts for weddings because my wrap-job looks like a 4 year old did it!

The other day, I was in Walmart and was getting school supplies but I walked past their bow section. Now for some of you, this is basic bow making 101....for me, it was complete enlightenment and I suddenly realized how to make a fluffy-looking bow!

So...just in case there are others like me....gift-wrapping inept....here's how to make a store-bought bow!

Cut some long lengths of ribbon.......about 3-4 feet each.

After you have cut about 20ish lengths of ribbon, fold them in half and tie with another piece of ribbon to secure the bunch.

Using scissors, curl your ribbon lengths. (I only have a few lengths here, but when I made my actual bow I had a lot more ribbon!)

And that's it....truly an awakening for me!

Now if I could only learn how to wrap!!

August 17, 2011

Thrifty Thursday #22

Every week here at Thrifty Thursday I get so excited to see what you have been working on. I love watching those links come into my "in box"! I also have been trying to feature more of your projects....both here and on my FB page.

Have you been over on my FB page? I try to post 2-5 links daily of great ideas that I find while stumbling or browsing other parties! If you get the chance, head over there and "like" me!

Speaking of great ideas....here are some of my (and your!) favorite projects from last week's Thrifty Thursday!

I love this simple rosette bracelet from Happy Hour Projects! Wouldn't it make a cute back-to-school-outfit accessory?

How about this vintage suitcase to hold cards from Fancy Frugal Life.....What an elegant way to collect "honeymoon" money at a wedding!

A Step in the Journey painted this dresser a gorgeous shade of green.....love it! The fact that she left the top a wood finish just brings out it's beautiful lines and character!

You are talking too much (how cute is that name!) refinished this bench with chalk paint! Oh......I want to learn how to use that stuff! The bench hardly resembles its former self!