Quick Facelift

I had posted a picture of this cute pillow in a previous post but removed it not to long ago because my slide shows were not working. This is a pillow form with a pillow cover. It was plain green when I bought it. I bought felt, cut out flowers of different sizes( I did not use a template), and sewed them onto the pillow. This is a great way to find a pillow that has your exact color scheme. It is also a cheap way to update a boring pillow.

Picture Collage

I have been wanting to have a "family" wall. A picture collage that can grow. I love to go to other's homes and look at old and new pictures of their families. As you can see I am not a stickler on symmetry. I prefer it that it look a bit off centered and unintentional. I am not saying symmetrical is bad, but I am not good at it. As a mother of three I do not have the time to hang everything precise. I layed the collage on the floor first, and tried a few options. Honestly I had two big nail holes in the wall so I had to work around them also. I really like how it turned out, and I know there is plenty of room to grow. The positive about not having it symmetrical is you can add picture frames without throwing it off.

Kid's Craft Area Part II

If your refrigerator is over crowded with your children's art work, but you still want it to be displayed, here is a great solution.




I purchased a 48"x32" piece of foam board from a home improvement store. I used foam board because cork board is much more expensive. I stapled fabric to the board, and screwed it into the wall. You can use thumb tacs to secure the artwork. The cost for two boards, fabric, and tacs was about $20.00. My girls love to change the artwork out themselves.

Kid's craft area

When I decided to have an organized craft area for my kids I went looking for containers to store all of their markers, pencils, scissor etc. I found that these type of containers were very expensive. I decided to take old coffee cans and turn them into pencil holders. If you are a family with infants you could also use formula containers. I purchased contact paper (an adhesive-backed paper or paperlike product, used to line shelves, and decorate surfaces), cut it to the correct size and wrapped them in it. You can find contact paper at most craft stores or Walmart, Meijer, etc. If you are using them to store adult craft items, you could tie a cute ribbon with a label tag on them so you know what goes in each particular can. I would not recommend this for children, I tried. The label was torn off and used in their art. This project takes about 20 minutes and is super cheap. It may be a basic project, but it looks really cute. Send pictures to my email if you do this project and want to share a new idea. I will post it on my blog with your name.

Save Everything!

A few years ago I had a small wooden table fall apart. Of course I couldn't throw away the tops of the table, so I stored them in my storage room. Last year I found them and decided to make photo boards for my girl's room. I covered them with padding, stapled fabric onto the board, and then stapled ribbon across. I made one to go above each of my girl's beds. They love to be able to switch the pictures on their own. It is a great place to house the pictures that are not frame worthy.

IGNORE THE DATE ON MY CAMERA

Someone informed me that my camera has the wrong date on it. I hope you can guess which pictures are the before pictures and which are the after. The dates on the pictures are wrong. I posted the after pictures first in my last few posts.

BEFORE AND AFTER PICTURES OF MY HOUSE

I noticed some of my before and after slide shows were no longer working. I thought I would repost a few.


Here are some before and after pictures of my kitchen. I had posted some of these earlier but noticed they were not always working. The before pictures are from the previous homeowners.







PRICE BREAKDOWN:
Kitchen
CABINETS: $350.00 Paint and hardware (we did the work ourselves)
Much of the decor was also purchased at a thrift store. Each item was no more than $5.00.
CURTAINS: Discounted fabric- approx. $6.00
COUNTERTOPS AND OVEN: This was our splurge. This was not a necessity. We expanded the countertop so we could have a bar area. We also had to buy a more pricey oven because it had to be a drop in. $2000.00
IT IS A NEW KITCHEN FOR UNDER $3000.00

Here are before and after pictures of my family room. The before pictures are from the previous homeowners.






PRICE BREAKDOWN:

Family Room:
GOLD CHAIRS- $40.00 for the pair (Craigslist)
CUTE GREEN OTTOMAN- $5.00 (thrift store)
ROUND COFFEE TABLE- $9.99 (thrift store) I covered top with fabric
BLACK END TABLES- $36.00 for the pair (thrift store)
CHANDELIER- $100.00 (Craigslist) I looked this brand up on the internet and they
sell brand new for almost $300.00

I found a treasure!!!

I had been keeping my eye on this rocking chair at a thrift store (Near Zero Bargains on 54th and Eastern). It started out at $40.00. I walked into the store today hoping to find endtables for one of my homeowners, and found the rocking chair had dropped in price to $10.00. I obviously snatched it up. I recovered the seat, and added a pillow. I already had the fabric, so my total investment for this adorable chair was probably $12.00. You can guess that it made my day!

What do I put on my shelves?

Shelves should be used for displaying the items you love the most. If you are a collector, use shelves on a wall or in a bookcase to display your items. A recent homeowner I worked with had old barn wood covering her walls in her family room. There were great shelves at the top for displaying items. She had a fantastic collection of antique cameras that were hidden in a small area and never seen. We displayed them on the largest wall in her family room along with family pictures. I included pictures so you can see.

Be sure to use different heights, and sizes when choosing items. This is important for bookshelves also. Break up your books and use space for displaying pottery, picture frames, or other collections.

I posted a few pictures of displays that I have worked on in the past few days. I also posted a picture of my shelves to show you how you can layer items. The other pictures are shelves from a previous homeowner. We decided to use frames and some of her really neat decor items.

I am sure you are still waiting for pictures. I am sorry I ended up working at three homes on Monday. I was busy working from 10:00 am until 5:45. It was a great day. Pictures soon, I promise!!!!!