Wordless Wednesday (Linky) - Happy Holidays

Wishing You A Very Merry Christmas

Some of my Christmas decorations

I love to drive around town looking at everyone's lights

"No Dave, you can't take a break.  There are more lights to be hung."

Christmas Collage

Making Grandma's Cookies

DIY Project - Corner Bench

We have been very busy getting ready to move in a couple of weeks.  For the last 3 years, we have lived in an apartment and I am so glad to be moving back into a house with a huge yard.  It has been a lot of extra work because we are also doing the remodeling ourselves.

Despite the work, I have really enjoyed being able to do some DIY projects.  It lets me use my creative side and I get to work with my hands.

My first project was a corner bench my husband brought home for me.  Someone had it by the side of the road for garbage pickup and my hubby just knew I would like it.  As they say, "One man's trash is another man's treasure."

It just needed a little cleaning and there were a couple of rips on two of the seats.  I happened to have some fabric in my crafting supplies that I thought would be perfect for recovering them.

I cleaned it all up and told the hubby to disassemble the three parts I wanted to recover and give me his staple gun.  I have never done any seat recovering, but I was confident I could handle the task. Which actually means I was just going to wing it like I usually do and see what happens.

I basically just laid out my material on the floor, set the seat on top of it and cut my material around it with enough extra to wrap around.  I didn't measure or make sure it was cut perfectly straight since I would just be wrapping it underneath and stapling it. Nobody cares what the underneath part looks like.

The seats were originally covered in a brown leather that I left as is and just covered over.  I was a little more careful when stapling the fabric to make sure I was making it tight enough.  It didn't take me long at all to finish all three pieces.

Here are some pictures of the finished bench which I thought turned out pretty good.  It will make a nice addition to my new kitchen and didn't even cost me a penny. Now that really makes me smile:)

Have you done any DIY projects lately? I would love to hear about your favorite at home project.  I have a few more in the works and will be posting those as I get them finished.  Right now I am working on painting and recovering some stools.

Wordless Wednesday (Linky) - Tractor Bed

My hubby has been at it again.  He built a toddler tractor bed for his boss's grandson.  They surprised him with it on his birthday.

This was the first prototype.  He ended up altering this one as it wasn't quite to his satisfaction.

This is the final product.  It fits a toddler size mattress and has a steering wheel.  The tractor bucket doubles as a toy box and the lights around the top really work.

I thought it turned out great and was a neat idea for a little boys room.

Have you done any DIY projects lately?  Please add your Wordless (or not so) Wednesday posts below.  I love seeing everyone's awesome pictures.

How To Save Money Making Your Own Decor

I'm a mom that's always looking for ways to save money.  I clip coupons, reuse items, cut my families hair and anything else I can do to save a few bucks.  If you look around my home, you'll see a lot of handmade decor.  Instead of spending a lot of money on picture frames, curtains and decorations, I like to make my own.  I think handmade items puts my personality into my home.

Watch for sales at the craft stores and you can buy most of your basic supplies really cheap.  You can make so many things with a limited number of supplies.  The following is my list of on hand basic crafting supplies.  Some of these items you probably have laying around the house and don't even need to buy.

• glue gun and glue sticks
• sewing needles and thread in variety of colors
• good pair of sharp scissors
• tape measure
• pens, pencils, markers, etc.
• stencils
• material & ribbon scraps
• crafting wire, hooks, fasteners
• acrylic paints and a few paintbrushes in different sizes
• stapler
• clear gloss coating

I'm also lucky that I live 10 minutes from the beach and pick up a lot of shells and other beach finds that I use in my crafts.  Picture frames are one of the easiest and most fun for me to decorate.  You can paint, cover with fabric or glue things on them.  Here are a few that I have made for pennies.

My daughter's room seems to get most of my decor inspiration.  A few things I have made for her room are:

•  a growth chart - a piece of wood, stencils and paint with a sea life theme
•  picture board - cardboard, material, ribbon, thumbtacks and glue
•  chalkboard - plywood, scrap wood for trim pieces, spray chalkboard paint
•  shelf - 2 pieces wood, scrap tile, grout, glue

My next project is some curtains.  I'm not quite sure of my design yet, but I'm sure I'll post them here when I finish.  One is for a large picture window and two for Rachel's room.  She has already told me her requirements that they must be pink & purple and have some bling.  I already have some old sheets that I'm using for most of them.  I should only have to spend a couple dollars for her bling gems.