The Easiest Pillow You Will Ever Make...

When we changed the wall color in the master bedroom several months ago, I had to get rid of the red throw pillow that was on the bed. I looked around, but, being the very frugal gal that I am, couldn't find a coordinating pillow that wasn't too expensive. After seeing a post by House of Hepworths I decided that 1) it was definitely frugal, and 2) it was easy enough that I could do it!

  I don't have "before" or "during" photos, but really, it is so simple that you can do this without pictures to go by!

I found my pillowcase at Burlington in Lexington for only $1.99.  I ripped out the seam on the bottom corner of the placemat with my seam ripper and then stuffed it with polyfil. Then I stitched up the hole.  Easy peasy!

Allison has all the photos and step-by-steps over at House of Hepworths.

Laboring on Labor Day...

Well, I am happy to say that I am celebrating Labor Day weekend in a way worthy of its name: by laboring! I told y'all about the new project I had planned for the G-Man's room a while back. Saturday I finally got it started.

We began with some 1x4s that we cut down to about 46 inches long.

Then I attached them to the wall with Liquid Nails (I used a 16" long piece to space them out evenly around the room).

As you can see, I've left off the top piece.  We decided that since we're going to repaint the top of the wall too, we'd paint first, then put the top piece of wood up. 

Today it was time to prime...I got some help with that job from my little guy!

Did I mention that I'm also painting all the woodwork in the room white? I don't think I told Hubby that part of my plan. That may land me in the doghouse, since Hubby really likes stained woodwork!

That's about as far as I've gotten for now. Hubby is on his way home with the paint, so as soon as the primer is dry, I'll be getting my paint rollers out!

Stay tuned!

Silhouettes...

Just a little something I whipped up...

So easy to make! Here's how:

1. Take a profile picture.

2. Print picture and cut out.

3. Trace onto black cardstock and cut out.

4. Secure to background paper.

5. Put in frame (mine came from the Dollar Tree).

Little birdies...

Stopped by the Dollar Tree yesterday after dropping Derek off at work and having breakfast at DQ with the kiddos. The kids were excited about spending their dollars, but I was even more excited about finding this:

I picked up 2 of them and was going to use them just the way they are, but being brown, they didn't really show up. So, of course, I thought about spray paint. Not so fast-the little clear votive cups were glued in. I really didn't want to paint over them, so I decided to brush on the paint. Since I couldn't find any craft paint in the color I wanted, I searched the garage for some old interior latex paint. I found some that we'd used to paint the G-Man's room a few years ago. To say that it had thickened up a bit is an understatement!

I put it on kinda thin at first, leaving a lot of the brown to show through.

I liked it, but thought I'd add a bit more paint.

I really like how they turned out!

Plate It Up...

This week I've been trying to finish up some projects before I have to go back to work on Friday (what kind of sadistic school district plans the first day of inservice on the last Friday of summer vacation?). We're going to work on that mystery project in the kitchen tonight, so while Hubby is at work this morning, I tried something new.

While the Megster was cleaning out her closet last night (hard to believe, I know!), she found a platter (don't ask-who knows why there was a platter in a 10-year-old's closet). Now this wasn't sporting the prettiest of patterns, in fact, it was downright ugly. I would show you how ugly, but as usual, I was too intent on starting my project that I forgot to take the "before" picture. You'll just have to take my word for it. I wasted no time in spray painting it "sand" (Do It Best brand), which is a creamy off-white.

Then, I tried a new trick I learned last night. I was trying to figure out how I was going to transfer an "S" to my plate, and not 10 minutes later, I find this gal's blog, in which she explains exactly how to transfer patterns without carbon paper. So I tried it, and it worked perfectly. Thanks Lindsay!

I didn't have any black craft paint, so I had to use spray paint that I sprayed out in a little puddle on a foam tray. I'm not the steadiest painter in the world, and I just noticed a rough place I need to fix (I think I can fix it with a Sharpie), but I think its not too bad. I have no idea yet where I'm going to put it, but I'll think of something!

Just a Little Bit of Fancy...

So I painted up my thrift store tray the other day, but it was missing something. I tried scrapbook paper in the bottom, but I didn't have anything that really worked. So last night I got inspired by something I saw online: harlequin diamonds. I set out to learn how to measure and mark off the lines and found this great site with a calculator that tells you how far to space your lines. However, when I got up this morning and started, I decided that my mind was way too fuzzy for all the math, so I just eyeballed it, all the while hearing the Nester's voice in the back of my mind reminding me that "it doesn't have to be perfect to be beautiful!"
However, just as I was about to paint, I looked at my tray and realized that I didn't have a harlequin diamond pattern, I had a lattice pattern. After staring at it for a while, I decided that I kinda liked the lattice pattern, (not to mention that there was no way I was tearing off all that tape and starting over!), so I went ahead and put the paint on. I wanted a slightly aged look, so I left the paint a little streaky.
It may not be what I set out for, and the paint lines certainly aren't perfect, but I really like how it turned out.

"Tray" magnifique...

Mom kept the kids for me yesterday while I went to get my hair cut, and she told me to "take my time" getting back. Far be it from me to not mind my mother, so I took the chance to visit a little thrift shop in her town. I found another small silver tray (50 cents) and a wood tray that I've been looking for ($1). It was plain, and a little shorter than I would have liked, but for a buck-I can live with it!

As usual, I forgot to take a before picture, but it is like this (only shorter):I took it out to the garage and gave it a coat of cream colored spray paint (Do It Best-Sand). I must tell you, my family was astounded that I didn't use black! Between you and me, I think I did the off-white just to throw them off a little.

We have a few projects planned for the weekend, too. I'm trying to finish the project that I alluded to here, and The Megster has decided that she wants to build a birdhouse. So The Hubby and I are donning our Bob the Builder hats and tool belts for a busy weekend!

My latest mistreatment...

A while back, I rearranged our living room just a bit. Everything had been in the same place ever since we have lived in this house (10 years), so I thought it was time to try something new. The only problem was, that with the new arrangement, the couch had to be pulled out from the wall to center it. That left about an 18" space that needed to be filled. Now of course I would have loved to have gone down to my local shee-shee-poo-poo furniture store and bought something, but, well, I'm too frugal (and my wallet too empty) for that, so I got creative.

I made the base out of an old aquarium stand that has been sitting in my parents' garage for, oh, at least 28 years. Normally Mom and I would stand and shake our heads with our lips pursed in contempt for Dad's pack-ratting, but in this case, it paid off for me! The stand was just the right height. All it needed was a solid top. For that, I used a piece of plywood that hubby had laying in our garage. A few measurements and cuts and I had a sofa table!

The table cloth is one I had in the linen closet, the lamp- $9 from Wally World, and the rest I had around the house. It fills the space just perfectly.

Don't forget Kimba's DIY Day Party!