Money $aving Mondays {11.16.2015 Edition}

This post is an easy one. We are sprucing up our condo to sell. Our large sofa is something that no longer ties in with the décor. While she is a quality made piece, she needs to be a different color. I do not want to paint her or take her to get re-upholstered. My solution? Drop Cloths! They are durable, washable, and I love the color of this particular brand. It is a lovely shade of greige (gray-beige). I used 3 drop cloths for our sofa. I ran out of them before I got to the seat cushions so I used an old linen sheet we had in the linen closet. I plan on switching that to a drop cloth also.

I bought the drop cloths at our local Home Depot store. They are all 9'x12' and NO SEAMS! I washed each one separately and dried them in the dryer. I did not iron them before I began the cover up of our sofa. I love that they have a slight linen look to them.

I have a confession to make: I cannot sew. I want to, I just don't know how. I can hand sew a straight line if you can believe that. This is my temporary no sew solution for now. The back pillows on the sofa are attached, which will make any slipcover a challenge. I could have taken the easier pricey route and headed over to Pottery Barn and paid $89 for fabric to drape over the sofa. They call it the loose draped slipcover. Really PB??? I can go to Home Depot and buy the largest size canvas drop cloth for $31 and do the same thing for less than 3/4 the price.

Anyway. Here it is moving right along. I placed one drop cloth over the back cushions tucking in around all of them (not individually like I would prefer) and tucking into the back near the springs and frame. Our sofa is seen from the back so I had to be sure it draped properly.

Draped down the backside of the sofa.

I then took two drop cloths on the bottom of the sofa and down the sides and tucked to cover the skirt around the sofa and to stay in place. I also pleated the arms slightly for a more custom look. I pinch pleated the middle of the "skirt" to hide the seams where the two drop cloths would meet.

Since I ran out of drop cloths, I used a linen sheet to cover the three seat cushions. Just wrapped them up and tucked.

I covered our two sofa pillows (18" x 18") with burlap pillow covers from Hobby Lobby (30% off this week :), the smaller pillow covers are also Hobby Lobby and are 14" x 14" with a nice gray linen look. The studded wrap with the "A" added to each burlap pillow are made by Mud Pie and I purchased them on clearance at our local Ace Hardware of all places.

In a perfect world, I would sew a custom slipcover with piping. An alternative would be to cut pieces and staple to the frame. This one has no staples and is no-sew. A temporary look tying the couch into the design updates I am going with for staging our home. The sofa will eventually have a home in my husband's man cave at our new home.

This is the perfect cover up and only took me 30 minutes to place and tuck.

Money $aving Mondays {11.01.2015 Edition}

Hello Lovelies!

Forgive my absence. I was never paid for blogging; it was a hobby of mine. Life happened. Our condo was flooded by a negligent neighbor and our master suite was gutted and renovated due to all the damage. We paid for our bathroom to be tiled (slate = swoon) and a new shower to be tiled. We love it. That story and those updates will be coming your way another day. In order to ease myself back into blogging, I have a short one today.

It's Money Saving Monday so here's what I did to save money on my monkey fist doorstop crush. This was before all things nautical arrived at Hobby Lobby at an affordable price. I love those monkey fist doorstops made of rope. Love them. Before Hob Lob, they could be found at Pottery Barn and Ballard Designs for a pricey song. I saw this dog toy at TJMaxx and for $3.99, I went with it. We use it as a doorstop in our Master Bedroom. Can't beat the price and I love that it looks different from all the others. Besides, if our dog ever grabs a hold of it, it's soft and we have no worries about her carrying it around. She has never tried to grab it. Our dog has manners. She won't gobble food dropped on the kitchen floor unless she is told she can do so. Barking at people passing by or ringing the doorbell is another story. She is kind and I like her manners. It's what makes her unique.

Anyway, here's the photo of the dog toy that is now our Monkey Fist Doorstop.

 

Not too bad. Photos were taken with my phone so forgive the lack of quality. What are your money saves?

 

Linking up to these old favorites of mine, DIY Showoff and Linda at Coastal Charm...

http://diyshowoff.com/2015/11/01/that-diy-party-65/

http://linda-coastalcharm.blogspot.com/2015/11/show-and-share-no286.html

And a new blog friend...

http://strangersandpilgrimsonearth.blogspot.com/2015/11/the-art-of-home-making-mondays-please.html

 

Blessings...

 

Tablescapes ~ Patriotic Style

I brought out the patriotic 4th of July decor from storage this afternoon and crafted a couple of tablescapes and a "drink counter". I know it is two weeks away, but I'm patriotic and my Sister-in-law sent me a G-O-R-G-E-O-U-S navy blue patriotic tea towel with fireworks on it for part of my birthday gift from her family, of which I have not taken photos of yet, but it is prominently displayed in our kitchen right now. The main gift was a gift card to Hobby Lobby {I'd say she knows me well ;)}. My apologies to any followers who are not American, but perhaps you will get ideas for celebrations that are specific to your countries. Back to the decor...

Below is how I designed one of the tables {ignore the foam soccer balls, they were in the stash for who knows why?!? ~ Mr. Fabulous said they are from the FIFA Soccer games last year and are to be displayed when we watch the women this year} and I forgot to remove them prior to my photos. The wineglass candleholders I already owned, same with the 8-inch red pillar candle, ribbon, and white milkglass dish that I inherited from my parents {I love, love, love milkglass!}. I also already had the inscribed rocks on hand from Coldwater Creek. The rest was purchased at Hobby Lobby {not with the gift card!}...



I just realized my little wooden flags that were Mr. Fabulous' prior to our marriage are on the display, too {I ended up sticking them in the vase with the flower arrangement, which you will see below}. I also forgot to light the candles for this shot {I'm striking out on this post thus far...wawa}. The whole point of this post is for you to see how cheap and creatively you can pull off a tablescape on the fly.

Details, details... The larger white table mats are stiff felt from Hobby Lobby and I got them half off so they were $1 each! They are 11"x17" in size and my thought was that they can be re-used on Valentines, Christmas, B'days, etc. The flag tablemats are felt and are 8.5" x 11" or close to that size. They are soft felt and I also got them half off for like 25 cents each! The foam stars were also half off for less than $1. The bandana was on sale (think of patriotic subway art). It was less than $1. The tray was from their spring/summer collection and I bought two on clearance for $3 and change. I plan on spray painting them down the road. The ribbon on the candleholders I had on hand already, but I've seen clearance and $1 at Hob Lob, too.

Here is tablescape 2, which is so similar...



The only difference is the milkglass vase is not in this one and a star dish is in its place. The star dish was something Mr. Fabulous owned prior to our marriage. Yes, Mr. Fabulous owns fabulous things and he has great taste {or maybe it is great to me because it is so similar to my own?!? ;)}.

Below is the Drink Counter...



Don't you love the dog bowl that I had unloaded on that counter {it's clean}? The photo displayed is simply an LP Frame I bought at Ross years ago with a patriotic scrapbook page of highlights from the United States Constitution. Thought it would make a nice added touch. The cups are for the hometown baseball team that Mr. Fabulous and I both L-O-V-E: The Atlanta Braves! Besides, their colors are red, white, and blue. Can't get more patriotic than our home team! Bobby Cox, we miss you, but we are adjusting to Gonzalez as Manager. The 2 pillars are from a set of three LED lights for our wedding from a friend {thanks, Ken!}. Notice the wooden flag picks I mentioned earlier? They are in the vase of flowers, which are fake, by the way. The vase is an olive oil jar that I scraped the label off and sanitized. The jars remind me of vintage milk bottles.

Here's a close-up of the scrapbook patriotic page {given to me from my fabulous sister, Kathi's, stash {bad grammar}...



So my point being... use what you have and add to it frugally. Frugal can be chic. It's all a matter of what you like. If you are on the beach, stars can be starfish. You get my point. I'd love to see how you are decorating this 4th of July so post your link in the comments below {I need a Mr. Linky tool, don't I??? And a button for my blog...worked on that button way too long, by the way...).

Remember, keep it simple, keep it frugal, keep it creative, and keep it chic!

Happy 4th of July!









I'll be linking to the below parties... Visit them for inspiration!
































Linking up to Blue Cricket Designs {her button is having issues so here is the link}:
http://www.bluecricketdesign.net/2011/06/show-and-tell-linking-party-4.html

It's the Great Pumpkin, Ya'll!

I feel certain this is my final fall tutorial. ;S For 2010, that is. I started in August, after all. I have 2 tutorials below. They are easy peasy!

Fall Candlescapes that I will use through Thanksgiving...

I simply took what I already had and threw it together. This project used (3) 7.5" cylinder vases from Dollar Tree (these were used in our wedding as well as a baby shower I co-hosted this month for a dear friend), (3) LED 6" pillar candles. These were a gift from a dear friend for our wedding {even better that they are vanilla scented}, fall leaves (I think I purchased a bunch at Publix for $3, which you can also find at the craft stores), fabric fall leaves that I double-side taped onto the LED pillars. No worries, it will come off like a charm. Once inside the vase, I inserted 3 of the fall leaves from the bunch. I used LED pillars because I won't have to worry about the leaves catching on fire and I can simply pull each pillar out to turn it on. Piece of cake! Below are Candles 1, 2, and 3. The final reveal is after the pumpkin tutorial as I took pix of both together on our mantel.





Now for the Pumpkins... I'm not big into Halloween Decor so I mainly decorate for fall and Thanksgiving. However, for those of you out there who decorate for both, this tutorial is still applicable. I bought (3) pumpkins from Dollar Tree. They were ugly, and I mean ugly. I originally wanted to prime them and paint them Heirloom White so they would resemble all those white pumpkins I've been crushing on since last year. Well, I just did not have it in me to do all that spray painting before or after the shower I co-hosted earlier this month. I had sprayed one as a test with Oil Rubbed Bronze (ORB) but it was too black for what I wanted. I started painting another one in a cream acrylic paint. Not feelin' the love... Then it hit me ~ I love my Metallics acrylic paint in Rich Espresso Brown. Why not paint them with that? To get a good base, I painted them first with Patio Paint in Chocolate Brown. Below are the pix with the 3rd pumpkin being the only one that had just the Patio Paint and Metallic Paint on it. The others had ORB & cream acrylic paint on them first.





And now for the reveal... No, I don't plan on leaving the pumpkins here as they don't really fit but it works for the sake of snapping a photo. Nice streak on the bottom of our mirror that I need to wipe down again. :) The only thing I don't like about how they turned out is you can see a line in the middle of each one where it was in its mold. I'm thinking some ribbon will take care of camouflaging. You get what you pay for, but they are cute nonetheless. You cannot tell the candles are on since it is daytime but they are cute, too.



Pin It


I'm linking up to Hope Studio's Tutorial Tuesday! You can view this and other fabulous tutorials on their blog.


I'm also linking up to Sugar Bee's Take a Look Tuesday, too. Check out all the other bloggers on her site, too.


I'm also linking up to "Toot Your Horn Tuesday" at The Silly Little Sparrow's blog.

I'm linking to "The Halloween Pumpkin Parade Party" at the Fabulous Under The Table & Dreaming blog.




Also linking to the Fall Festival at The DIY Show Off. Another fabulous blog with so many creative bloggers.


And finally... Sister Sister Sunday @ Kuzak's Closet So many delicious things on this blog.

Sister Sister Sunday

Remember... Keep it simple, keep it crafty, keep it frugal, keep it fabulous, & keep it fun!

More DIY Things Around The House...

Here ya go...more projects I did the past few weeks around the house and one not-so-good project I need help on (hint...hint). :)

Here's a Before & After on some items found on clearance at Hobby Lobby ~ they are cast iron so I had to be sure they won't fall down when the door is opened and closed. I found the keys for $1.70 {yes, you read that right!} each, and the "Bless Our Home" trivet for $2.00. I used cobra hooks with anchors to hang the trivet. I decided to hang all above the entryway door in our foyer.





Pin It


I changed out the curtains I originally had hanging in our Sunroom today. I found 4 of these Pottery Barn linen beauties at Goodwill for $18! Sorry, had to buy. They have tie tabs but we did not like the look so I used our curtain clips. I then added a candlescape I purchased a couple of years ago at a consignment shop. We like the look.



And here is the candlescape...



This next idea came from Blogdom. Many clever ladies have used an industrial looking pipe with elbows and fittings and they look fabulous. I decided to use a curtain rod I had on hand, strong anchor screws and voila! Well, we actually need double-rod holder because the cornice on our mini blinds sticks out a little far. So, while it works and we can open & close our blinds as is, we'd love it to stick out just a bit more. The pots and pans are supposed to be the "cafe curtain" at the window. Looks much better when all our pots and pans are up there. Basically, it frees up storage space in our cabinets {always a plus}. Working on taking down the wallpaper border and putting stacked stone up that wall with the window and as a backsplash.



This next photo is a basket I had on hand (yes, bought it while thrifting a few years back). It has a large compartment for something like magazines or plates for a picnic and three smaller compartments behind that. It houses our garden flags perfectly and sits nicely on a shelf...


Just a little something I had to hang in the Laundry Room to keep me focused. I don't care for laundry (does anyone really like to do laundry?) I don't mind the process of the washing, drying, hanging to dry, but putting it away is another story so I just do it to get it done, but this plaque reminds us of what we need to do...

Looks even better now that it is hung on a vintage wooden hanger.

This next photo is again for the Laundry. It's a beautiful oil-rubbed bronze metal scroll with hangers piece and I hung it up and then rubbed on letters that say, "Wash Room". Normally, I would put in the entryway for our keys, but we already have something for that purpose. I needed something for our dog's hankies and my baseball hats.


More Laundry Room Items. Please excuse the mess while I attempt to install shelving. Nothing thrilling - wire shelves and a utility hook. I needed space so I added 2 wire shelves under our existing shelves {wait until you see the next photo :)}. I also found a utility hanger for pennies (well, $5) to hold our brooms, mops, etc. Our Laundry Room is nothing like what is on all the fancy blogs, but it is a room and not a closet, and for that, I am thankful. I'm working with what we have or purchasing what is within budget.





Help me...I'm sliding...sliding away. Does not matter that I measured and leveled off this shelf. Not sure what happened, but it's completely lop-sided. I may be able to do many DIY projects...even gel staining cabinets over paint for that beautiful old world look (show me a piece of ugly wooden furniture and I'll paint it and make it beautiful:), but hanging wire shelves is NOT my forte` and I will completely own up to that one. Wanna re-hang it for me??? (HINT! HINT!:)



From one slide into another (the picture shows a slide in baseball:)...a display on top of a bookshelf in our Sunroom. This was my husband's "baseball room", which I actually like, but the bookshelf is an addition to store my books. The photo on the right was taken on his parents' wedding day, their wedding invitation is in another frame below that, a bowl of decorative balls (my fave is the globe ball), a plaque from a small group member to me about 3 years ago after a retreat ("Grateful Hearts Gather Here"), which I repainted a nice metallic bronze, a large shell that held our wedding rings, and a nice ornament/charm about having faith as small as a mustard seed from my mother-in-law...


This next photo is a tablescape of sorts in that I repurposed wine bottles cutting taper candles to fit, using scrapbook paper scraps from some of our wedding favors and the graphic design stickers I made for our wedding last year. Please ignore the large picture behind that. We leaned it on the wall to safely store until I hang it...


And finally, pictures we have purchased during the last year to go on our media wall with our tv...all are black & white with sepia tones. On the left, a scene in Italy, the center is Notre Dame in Paris, the two on the right are miscellaneous architecture photos. We had a nice size scene showing Parliament and Big Ben in London overlooking the River Thames, but the two staircase pictures work better. Sorry for the flash on Notre Dame...could not get a better picture...


That's it for the DIY for a bit. Thank you for joining me on the tour...