Thrifty Decorating: February 2012

February 29, 2012

Thrifty Thursday #49

So last week I was a little mopey....there had been only slightly over 100
links to Thrifty Thursday the week before and I thought that everyone had abandoned the party....

Well...SURPRISE...because there were 189 AMAZING projects that linked
up last week!! THANK YOU!! I enjoy seeing what you all
have been working on!!

I had so much fun looking through this week's links! Here are a few that really caught my eye!

Dr. Seuss Day is almost upon us and Fancy Frugal Life shared these

adorable outfits to make for the celebration....

Remodelaholic designed this chicken coop and did it all for very little money!

How many of you all have chickens? I'd love some, but we aren't allowed....zoning!

....and just because they are cute...the chicks....

Mama With a Dash of DIY Drama took a plain, boring chest of drawers and

turned it into this gorgeous conversation piece!

The Real Housewives of Riverton shared this delicious-looking
recipe.....banana split cupcakes!! YUM!

Savvy Young Something used paint to add a herringbone pattern to this stand....gorgeous!

My Fabulous Life created this beautiful, sentimental piece of artwork as a cherished memorial to her mom.....

Finally, it's not too late to make a pair of these adorable potholders.
Country Momma Cooks is sharing a free pattern and tutorial!

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 (would you Linky Follow??) 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.

You can also party with Johnnie

at Saved by Love Creations!

Or Erika at Thrifty and Fabulous!

February 28, 2012

Old Farmhouse Room Redo

I have a friend, Lori, who lives in a beautiful old farmhouse...complete

with gorgeous wood trim, nostalgic charm, and crooked floors!

Lori has been battling breast cancer and her amazing life group from our church

came and did some renovations to her home.

As Lori has been recovering, she has gotten the itch to make more changes to her home.

One of the places that she has really wanted to change is her son's room.

Here are some of the "before" pictures. I apologize because they were taken

on my camera phone so they are very blurry!

The room was covered in outdated wallpaper and just overall had a feeling of falling apart...

Lori asked me to stop by and give her some ideas of how to inexpensively

bring changes and life to the room!

On a side note, Lori was planning on throwing away the dressers in the picture

above...I gasped and said, can I have one and give it a second chance?

This is what I did with it!

Since Lori had "new to her" furniture to put in the room that was blue,

I suggested a calm blue for the top of the walls and beadboard wallpaper for the bottom.

I also suggested painting all the trim in a bright white and adding

painted chalkboards to the closet doors.

Here's what Lori did.....

Lori and her mom removed all the ugly old wallpaper and painted the walls a

beautiful soothing blue color. They added the beadboard wallpaper to the

bottom and painted everything a gorgeous crisp white.

She taped off rectangles on the closet doors and added chalkboards

with chalkboard paint.

I love how she added a black light and a map of hiking routes on

the Appalachian Trail!

I suggested she accent with white frames, so she took frames that she already

owned and spray painted them white and added special photos and memorabilia.

Doesn't her "new to her" furniture look perfect!

Truly, it feels like a brand new room! And mainly, the transformation was

the result of elbow grease and paint!

And because we all love a good before and after...

You don't even notice the beautiful original wood trim in the before pictures!
The paint and beadboard wallpaper just make it *pop*!

Great job, Lori! This was the type of remodel that I love....I

get to be the idea generator and someone else does all the work!

February 27, 2012

No Peek Chicken

I spend my Monday's giving piano lessons from about 2 pm until 6 pm with

no time to make dinner.....so on Mondays I need a meal

that is easy to prepare and cooks itself....

This is a favorite "Monday meal".....

Ingredients:

1 box Uncle Ben's Long Grain Wild Rice (original recipe)

1 can cream of mushroom soup

1 can cream of celery soup

1 can water

(You can add another can of water for moister rice.)

Chicken breasts or tenders

In a greased 9 x 13 pan, mix the box of rice, cans of celery and mushroom soup and
one can of water. I always add the extra can of water because I like moist rice.