Latest and Greatest Thrifty Find!

Yesterday, since we both had the day off, we decided to go to our favorite local thrift store. I was so excited to see that their inventory had definitely increased in the past few weeks since my last visit. We left with a few things, I found a candle holder ($1.50) that has a wooden base with a glass top, I am planning on using the wooden base as a pedestal and the top glass part as a mini cloche! I also got a new teal distressed wine rack ($3), and a mini bread box/case ($3). I am so excited to transform all of these little finds and will post about them when I finish them! Gabe found 6 new shirts as well! Normally I like to save pictures for my redesign reveal but I am just too excited about my newest find!

 We saw this sewing machine and table the minute we walked into the store. I wanted it before even seeing the $10 price tag! Yes people, $10!!! I couldn't believe it. The sewing machine works and I love the table!!

 I wish I knew the age of this sewing machine, I keep looking up the model number and all I can find are extra pieces and instruction manuals, which may end up being helpful later!

 It is just camping out in my craft room/office until I do some work on it and move some things around.

I love how easy it is to hide the sewing machine in the table when it is not in use. I can't wait to get this thing sanded down and painted! They also had two other sewing machine tables that did not have the machines in them anymore....I only looked at the price of one, and it was only $5, I would assume the other one is around the same price.

I definitely needed the thrift store trip, it gave me a creative boost that I had been needing!

DIY- Jute Vase out of a Creamer Bottle

Every winter I go through lots of creamer bottles, I don't know if I just drink more coffee then or if there are just better flavors out over the holidays, but I just love creamer in the winter! A few months ago when recycling a few of these creamer bottles, I decided to keep them in case I found a use for them.

Today, I decided to create something out of one of those bottles! I had already cleaned it and removed the label so it was ready to go! I wanted to make a natural looking jute/hemp vase. All Wal-mart had was hemp that is around $6 a roll, it may seem a little high of a price but I used a small fraction of it to make this, so there is still a lot left to make more!

All I did to make this is wrap the Jute around the bottle, and used hot glue to secure it every few inches.

Just keep wrapping and gluing until you cover the whole thing. I had some gaps in mine but I didn't worry about it, I like the imperfect look. I was a little worried that the hot glue would melt the bottle, since it is plastic but it didn't melt it at all.

I am really happy with it! It was quick, easy, and really cheap.....which makes for a great DIY project! I may cover the smaller bottles too. I have a fake flower in it for now but it could be used just as easily for real flowers as well.

Happy Memorial Day Weekend!  I am hoping to get to make some stuff this weekend, I have been so bogged down with work and travel that I have been absent from the blogging world and I miss it!!!

Cork Tags

Do you remember the cork tag I made for my telephone table redo? This was it...

Well, lately I have been making more of these puppies for other uses. I decided to show you how to make them, even though they are so easy, they may seem like common since to some of you but here it goes anyways...

What you need (shown above)...
- Cork (I have a set of those cork sheets made for hanging on your walls, they sell them lots of places)
- Scissors
- Hole Puncher
- Stickers or paper
- Modge podge or glue

Start by cutting a rectangle out of the cork the size of the tag you would like to use. Then trim two corners to make it look like a tag.

 Then hole punch in between the two corners so that you have a hole to string ribbon through.

It should now look like this. ^ Now it's time to decorate....

I used stickers and a paper border for this example, the letter is bubbly so I glued it on to make it really secure. For the paper border I used modgepodge to glue it down and then again on top to secure it well. Then you just string some ribbon through the hole and hang it up! I love the idea of using these to organize containers in my office, in my craft stuff, or in the kitchen, and also putting them on gifts (which is what I am doing with this one!).

I also used the cork tags as gift tags recently. My mom and I made Mother of the Bride (MOB) and Mother of the Groom (MOG) survival kits for a good friend's upcoming wedding. I made these tags to hang from the bags.

I also made a tag for the bride's lingerie gift.....I don't have a picture to show but it had "Bride" on one side and "Zilla" on the back! Even though Taylor isn't a Bridezilla, we love to tease her about it!

These are so quick and easy to make and can be used in so many places and for so many things! I have a lot of cork laying around so I am not stopping here!

Turning a book into a frame

My brother is notorious for creative and thoughtful gift giving. A few years back he gave me a framed photo of the two of us as kids. He made the frame himself out of an old children's book we read as kids. It has been on my nightstand ever since he gave it to me and when I looked at it the other day, I thought it would be a great DIY project with any book and photo. I love the children's book idea for a child's room or playroom. I also think old vintage books would look really great as a frame. There are so many options!

So here it is....

 What you need...
- a hard back book
- photo
- glue
- a cheap frame that you don't mind taking a part and using the pieces

This is what he did....
1) Using a hard back book, cut a square out of the front cover using an exacto knife. The square needs to be the same shape and size of the photo you want to frame.
2) Take the glass rectangle from your cheap frame and glue it to the inside of the front cover.
3) Glue your photo to the front page of the book, behind the glass.
4) Glue the book pages together by closing the book and gluing all of the pages edges together.
5) Once all glue is dry, it is time to make the stand for the frame. When my brother made this one, he used the rectangle from the front of the book and trimmed it to the size and shape of a frame back, you could use the cheap frame's stand as a stencil. He used the hinge of an old frame to attach it to the back of the book. This method works well but it could be faster and easier to just take the entire back of your cheap frame that has the hinged stand, and glue the entire thing to the back of the book. This method wouldn't require cutting at all, just more gluing.

Once all of the glue is dry, your frame is ready to go! I am going to pick up some books from the thrift store and try this out myself.

DIY Initial Pillows

Happy Mother's Day! I am so blessed to have such an amazing mother! And to also have an amazing mother-in-law! I hope all of you moms had a great day today and were spoiled by your children! We were lucky enough to see both of our mothers today and also see some of our grandmothers this weekend. (A special shoutout to my Memaw! Thanks for reading and supporting me! I love you!)

Because of my need to plan ahead, I have had my Mother's Day gifts ready to go for a while now but didn't want to ruin the surprise by blogging about them ahead of time. SO I can finally share them with you today! They involve a few of my favorite things these days: drop cloth, freezer paper, and fabric rosettes!

 Here they are! The "P" for my momma and the "N" for Gabe's mom!

I picked a font on my computer, enlarged it to a size I liked, and printed it out. I then traced the letter onto freezer paper and cut it out. Next, I ironed the freezer paper onto dropcloth and painted each letter. Once I applied a few coats, I peeled the freezer paper off.

Once the paint was dry, I cut out my pillow squares from my dropcloth, centering the letters and sewed them together to make pillow covers. After I stuffed them and handstitched them shut, I got to work on my rosettes.

I used fabric scraps that complimented their different decor colors and then hot glued the rosettes on! This was such a quick and easy project! I am definitely making another for our house! Both of our moms loved them! My mom said "I could really use another one...." so I may be making another "P" pillow soon!

I'm linking this up at a few parties:

Prizes and Surprises!

I am finally back home after a long week away for work. The week went REALLY well after all, turns out my anxiety was for nothing! I love it when that happens!

Yesterday, while I was in the airport, I grabbed this month's Southern Living issue and stumbled upon a feature on  
The International Collectibles and Antiques Shows.
I did not realize that this show is hosted the first weekend of every month in Charlotte,NC! That is still 3 hours away from me but my parents live there.....so I need to hit it up!!! It is only $5 to enter and you can come all 4 days if you've got it in you! There is one this weekend for those of you who are in that area and are looking for something fun to do!!!

Check out the info HERE!

I got home late last night to a package, I was so excited when I opened to find my prize from the Mudpies and Marigolds Giveaway that I won! Check out my prizes!

I LOVE my peat pot! The little bird is adorable! She sells these peat pots with photo holders too, check them out!

This clothespin and jute photo display is too cute! I can't wait to hang it up somewhere!

Thanks again Aaron! You have amazing talent! You need to check out her Blog and Etsy shop!

I also came home to a surprise gift from Sista Blair! She knows my love for roosters and this one is just too cute! I think he is going to be part of my patio decor!

Happy Friday! I'm excited to share my Mother's Day gifts with you! I will be posting them on Monday so I can keep the surprise but they are a great DIY project!

Adding extra seating options!

Does anyone else get the Sunday night blues?! Where you really just don't want the next day to come....I am experiencing those blues tonight, I am leaving in the morning for a big trip, where I will be training a group for the first time flying solo! And to make it more nerve-racking, I will be observed by a colleague and by my boss! Soooo to get me through those blues, I wanted to post about a project I finished a few weeks ago but haven't gotten around to posting! So here it is!

A little less than a year ago, we bought a new dining room table from the flea market...we were really happy with it, but I still made a few tweaks...recovering the 4 chairs and also adding a bench to add extra seating.

The bench did help add seating but when we hosted my father in law's birthday party a month ago, I felt an extreme need for more chairs at the table! I started hunting around for extra chairs, knowing it would be hard to find exact matches, but I did find two that were close to exact! Thanks to Craigslist, I found a pair for $10!

This is a before shot of one of the chairs.

First, I painted them both gray. I know that my table is yellow, BUT these chairs will not be at the table unless there are guests over, otherwise they will be in other locations. I also wanted them to have a unique look while still blending in.

I covered both seats using dropcloth, my new go-to fabric! I wanted to give the chairs a little something extra....so I decided to stencil a fleur de lis on the seats!

I used freezer paper for the first time, and I was so happy with the outcome ( I know I have posted freezer paper projects before this but this project was my first attempt at using it!). I traced my design onto the freezer paper, cut it out, and ironed the paper stencil onto the seat. Next, I filled in the stencil with paint!

 When I peeled the freezer paper off, I was SO pleased with the outcome! It works amazingly!

 Here is the finished product!

 One of them will be in the guest room until needed.

The other is in the dining area corner ready to use!

This project was soo cheap and easy! I am excited about the results! I'm sure I will be too busy while I am away to blog again this week! I'll be back this weekend!