Minky/Satin Blankie Giveaway

Updated:  This giveaway is now closed!

I am so excited about this giveaway from Mom's Creative Touch!

Faith makes these beautiful 18" x 18" and 36" x 36" baby blankets....

and she is going to GIVE ONE AWAY to one lucky Thrifty Decorating reader!

The winner gets ONE 18" x 18" blankie of your choice with free personalization!

Faith has 16 Minky options, 27 satin options and 17 cotton options for the blankets at 

her website Mom's Creative Touch and you get to CUSTOMIZE your blankie!!

 

Faith is a homeschooling mom of 4 who hand-makes each one of her blankets....I wish 
she made a 60" x 60" one for adults!  They look so cuddly!

In order to enter you MUST be a follower of Thrifty Decorating....either through Google Friend Connect, Linky Followers or subscribing through the RSS feed.  

Entry #1:  Visit Mom's Creative Touch leave me a comment telling me one of 

your favorite blanket combinations.

Entry #2:   "Like"  Mom's Creative Touch on Facebook and please leave a comment on her wall letting Faith know I sent you and then come back here and leave a comment on this post!

Entry #3:   Tweet or put a FB post tagging Mom's Creative Touch and Thrifty Decorating, 
sharing this giveaway.  Leave me a comment on this post telling me that you did!

I'll pick a winner on Friday!

Please be sure to leave a SEPARATE comment for each entry!  Please make sure your email is 

enabled in your profile or else leave your email in your comment, so I have a way to contact you!  

Winner will be picked via Random.org.  Giveaway will run from 2/19/12 - 2/23/12.

Read more ...

Hutch Makeover

I recently had the opportunity to refinish a few pieces

of furniture for a friend.  I forgot to take before pictures, but

here are some of the afters.

This was just your average pine hutch....the back was wobbly and it

had wooden knobs to match.

My Dad helped with this project....he actually did a lot of the work!

First he took a $15 piece of wood from Lowe's and cut it to fit the entire back.

This made the whole piece more solid and less wobbly.

Then he primed it with a sprayer and  sprayed two coats of an

off-white satin paint by Behr.

I complained to him because my job was to come in and distress it...he

did such a good job painting, I had a hard time taking the paint off!

After taking a hand sander, I added one coat of Satin water-based polyurethane

sealer and some snazzy new knobs....

I didn't want to give this piece back!

Read more ...

Ice Cream Floats

Our Valentine's Day was a great success...

I have no idea how Bloggers post their holiday pictures before the actual holiday...

Do they stage the holiday a month before??? Post last year's pictures??

Tell me...how do you all do it??

I'm lucky to get pictures loaded on the computer, edited and in a post 2 days after the holiday!

I wanted to share these ice cream floats that we made because I think that they would be 

WONDERFUL for St. Patrick's Day with just a little bit 'o tweaking!

I waited until....oh, Valentine's DAY to actually prepare.......it's been a busy month!

As I was driving to the Goodwill, I was just asking God..."Could there please be something

that resembles ice cream float cups at the Goodwill??"
I had seen THIS idea and wanted to try it!

Now there was a reason that I wanted to make this day "extra special!"  We had

our dear friends and neighbors with us...well, 2 of their kids.

The rest of the family spent the night at the hospital...again....the 2nd time in a week...

the kids were worried about little sister and I wanted to make the keep their minds

off of missing Mom and Dad...so I prayed!

And God answered my prayer!!

There were 10 ice cream float cups on the top shelf at the Goodwill!!!

I really felt that was a blessing from God that day!

We decorated our floats with pink....but I can also see green shamrocks, 

green sherbet, Ginger Ale and green sprinkles working for St. Patrick's Day!!

We added the sherbet, poured Cranberry Ginger Ale over them, added

whipped cream and Valentine heart sprinkles....

The best part.......the smiles!

Hope you all had a "love"ly day, too!

Read more ...

Winner of the Valentine Pendant!

And the winner is......

Congratulations to Melysa - Moments with the Montanos!!

I'll be emailing you soon!

If you would like to make your own pendant....all you need is a scrabble tile 

and this tutorial from Artsy Vava!

Read more ...

Thrifty Thursday #47

Did you all survive your Valentine's Day festivities?  We had SO much fun!
If I can get myself organized, I'll try and post some pictures in the next couple of days.


Before we begin this week's Thrifty Thursday  I just need to give a couple of "etiquette" reminders.....sorry for those of you who are already polite! :)


It's not polite to link your giveaways at someone else's party.....the party is designed for others to find creative (and original!) craft ideas.


When you link to a party, it's important that you are linking your own work and 
not someone else's.  If a blogger comes to a party page and see a thumbnail
of her project and she has not linked it.....she's liable to get a little bit angry...


Please don't link your party to my party unless it's a blog hop. If you would like for me to advertise your party, then send me an email and we can talk 
about the possibility of adding your button.


So sorry about that for the 95% of you all that link wonderful and creative 
projects each week....which leads me to this week's features!




Loop Loop Creations made some amazing DIY sisal placements with rope and a glue gun.

With a little bit of ribbon and burlap, At Home in the Northwest created this beautiful pillow.

Made in a Day used burlap to create this easy wreath!

Sister-Dipity made these "banana splits" from cakeballs!

Happy Hour projects made her own basket with a little bit of yard and clothesline!

Are you thinking spring yet?  If so Miss Kopy Kat has some great tips for making a terrarium!

Design Dreams by Anne made a garbage can enclosure for $30!

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.

You can also party with Johnnie 

at Saved by Love Creations!

Or Erika at Thrifty and Fabulous!

Read more ...

Dining Room Chairs....

 

Remember how I found these dining room chairs at the Habitat Restore for $60?  I am working on transforming them with a little bit of homemade chalkpaint....

I took some sand paper and started the distressing.....6 chairs + 1 table adds up to a lot of painting and distressing!

I ripped off the disgusting seat covers...

When I am doing a project and I need to keep track of screws, I always put them in a baggie and tape them to my piece....

I recovered the seats with drop cloth....the same material that I used to slipcover my wing back chair......

{Notice.....I didn't finish the legs yet???}

I love the look of faux grain sacks....

{source}

I plan to add the faux grain sack stripe to the seats, I just have to first decide on a paint color for the walls......which may take another 5 years!

Although.....would a scroll-ish stencil in white look good??

Still painting....

Read more ...

Looks like homemade salsa....

I'm not sure why my brain never thought of this idea, but sadly....it didn't!

This is the creation of my wonderful friend, Cheryl, who is an amazing cook!

We had a homeschool Mom's night and she brought this amazing looking salsa.

When we asked her how she made it, she said that she just "spruced up" jar salsa!

Here's what you'll need.....

I started with corn, red and green pepper and tomatoes.

I also added some black beans and Cheryl suggests fresh cilantro.....I never

have fresh spices, but if you do....add them!  She says the are the best part!

I just chopped the veggies that I had leftover in my fridge....many times I get 

the $0.10 and $0.25 ones off the "not-so-fresh" veggie table at our local country store....

that's mainly what I put in my "homemade" salsa.

The salsa was a healthy part of this beef taquitos meal....I'll share that recipe with you 

later in the week!

Doesn't it look like it's made from scratch!

Read more ...

Pendant Giveaway....

A few weeks ago, Virginia  from Artsy Vava linked these beautiful DIY pendants to Thrifty Thursday...

I just fell in love with them.....they are beautiful!  For a complete 
tutorial of how to make it, you can go HERE 

for her step-by-step instructions......she made them from Scrabble tiles!!

So I emailed her and asked her if she would ever be interested in giving one away and she said YES!!!

So as my Valentine gift to you for reading.....I am giving away this beautiful pendant!!

All that you need to do is follow me and leave me a 
comment.....and would you be willing

to follow me using the new Linky Followers??

If you get a chance, hop over to Artsy Vava.....here are some of Virginia's other fabulous projects!



{Shredded Paper Heart}

{Valentine Bouquet}


I'll pick a winner on Valentine's Day!!

Read more ...

Linky Follower Tool

Before I went away to Hawaii, I had the opportunity to be a 

part of a group to test the new

Linky Follower Tool...

Can I just say "kudos" to Brent for developing this AMAZING program

in such a short amount of time!

As many of you know Google is taking a lot of their
"extras" away from the blogworld......I can't even talk yet about the loss

of Picnik!

One extra leaving for all non-Blogger users is the Google Friend Connect (GFC).

It is also rumored to be eventually disappearing for Blogger users, too!


Linky Followers is and awesome replacement for GFC.  
It is very easy to use AND it's FREE!!

If you want a complete tutorial for how to use it, check out 
THIS POST from At The Picket Fence.

To celebrate this fun new blogging tool, Cheri from 
It's So Very Cheri is hosting a party?

So break out your poodle skirt and saddle back shoes

 cuz’ we’re having a LINKY FOLLOWER PARTY HOP!

RULES:

1. You MUST have the LINKY FOLLOWERS tool on your site to participate.

{You can have both the LINKY FOLLOWERS & GFC on your site but you must have the LINKY FOLLOWERS to participate in this party hop.}

2. You MUST follow the person who has the party on their site as a thank you.

3.Just add your blog button to the LINKY PARTY below.

4.Then grab the BLOG HOP code

You will find the code right under the Linky Party where it says CLICK HERE TO ENTER–

just under that it says: WHAT IS A BLOG HOP? GET THE CODE HERE 

Click on GET THE CODE HERE and enter it into a post on your site.

You can grab the party button code in the FOOTER at Its So Very Cheri

You can grab info from my post if it helps you with your post.

5. Then you follow other bloggers–(as many as you want)
–leave each one of the blogs that you follow a comment letting them know you are following them and ask them to follow you back.

If you want to add the BLOG HOP to your own site you will get lots of new followers–(see rule #2)

…So do ya want to go Cruisin’?

I plan on HOPPING from BLOG to BLOG to follow everyone who follows me.

Read more ...