Farewell to January Decorating

I only put up two pictures for my January decorating. The theme was Winter Wonderland.

After Christmas is over, I usually keep all my silvers, whites, blues, and sparkly stuff out. And anything snowflake or snowman themed.

This is in my foyer. Its pretty simple. One of my favorite craft project I did for January is a makeover on  an old frame. Went I went to paint the frame, I was dismayed to discover it had no glass. I was going to put some cute printable in there. So I took the backboard which was made with MDF, and painted it white. Then I took some old chipboard letter stickers, and sprayed painted it aqua blue. Then I glued it on. I think it looks perfect sitting up on my apothecary (Frosty's apothecary: the jars holds buttons, fake snow etc) I tend to decorate in multi-layer styles. I plan to use the back of the MDF I painted, and do a Valentine or spring theme, so all I have to do is flip the backboard, and re-use the decorated frame for a different month:

This one is my absolute favorite! Back last Sept I put up this old frame on the wall, and I have been different fun stuff to decorate every month. For Winter Wonderland January theme, I put up my snowflake stuff from my Christmas decoration stash. The blue "snowflakes" are old wood potholders I almost discarded in the recycle bin or gave them away. I realized they would make great snowflakes, so I spray painted it aqua and put a bit of sparkles on them (Martha Stewart white and clear glitter). This picture does NOT do it justice. Yes, I realize the snowflakes within the frame is not completly centered, but I didn't want to make new nailholes, they were hung up on existing nails on the wall inside the frame:

The rest of the house got some cute and simple touches, and I loved it, and got compliments on it. I  take about a thousand pictures every year, so I opted to pick just a couple of projects on the blog for Jan 2013 decorating so I can spend more time creating and crafting and less time blogging about what I make every month.

What decorating did you do for January 2013?

Heather Thrifty Crafted: BOO sign

This project was so quick and easy, it literally only took me 15 minutes from start to finish.

I was inspired by this photo I saw a half hour ago while looking at inspirations from crafty blogs:

I already have a white frame with three photo spaces, and I have been decorating it each month for holiday themes. (see here for example of what I did in May and the inserts I used for July: http://tweedledo.blogspot.com/2012/05/makeover-for-triple-picture-frame.html)

I had an old 1973 dictionary with wonderful patina that I got from the thrift store for a $1 that I have been using many times for different projects. I used three pages of it to make the letters B-O-O.

Now here it is:

So easy, so quick, so chic...if you only have dictionary or scrapbook paper, and a printer and no other art/craft supplies, you can do this! (Also providing if you have a triple photo frame on hand)

I set my size on the Word Document for 4 x 6, and I used WordArt to put a font in for the letters B-O-O.

The fonts I used were: Carnivalee Freakshow, Dead Letter, and Cracked (I had them in my fontbook for awhile) You can use any font you wish.

Cost of project for me: FREE!

Have you made a Halloween sign of some sort? Please share and let me see! :o)

Thrifty Craft: make banner from old doilies

I have a few vintage doilies, some my grandparents made, some I bought, and some I have no idea when and where or how they came into my house...

and then my mother ships me a box full of fall themed linens and tableclothes, and there were a lot of doilies.

I'm not really much of a doily person anymore, and don't use them around my house.

Then I got inspired by this:

I found the first three photos from blogs on the internet, I don't remember the links...

So of course I made my own. I love that I can move it around the house and hang it anywhere, and use it for any season.

Its currently in the hallway leading to the MPR full of fall time goodness and a few Halloween decorations:

Aug Thrift Decorating: Beach Theme

Finally getting around to posting about the thrifty decorating I did for the month of August 2012.

The theme was Beach.

I shopped my house, moved things around, got out my stash of seashells, and painted some old cupboard doors with chalkboard paint to come up with a few things.

Then of course I forgot to take pictures, and I took a few on the day I started putting all the stuff away from the Beach theme.


Not beach related, per se. But its an old pantry door I painted, and I use chalk to make some sort of sign for the theme of the month. It was beach themed, then I erased it and added this for Labor Day weekend:

Painted a piece of spare wood in the garage, and made a beach sign. I can change it up whenever I feel like it, or move the sign to somewhere else in the house:

I buy a lot of old jars from the thrift store, and I add different stuff in them every month. For the beach theme in August, I had a lot of them full of seashells:

More seashells in jars. Some in vintage blue bell jars. The turquoise ones are a rare find. The ones with the zinc lids are even harder and are more expensive to buy now. I have about 6 to 8 of the blue bell jars with zinc lids. They are so fun to decorate with things inside them:

I shopped my house for the bookcase mantel. I put an old window frame up, painted an old cupboard door with chalkboard paint, and made a beach sign, (and able to change and move it around throughout the year). The cheese cloch has some seashells in it:

This chalkboard has been there for months. I change it every month. I put up a birthday menu, party menu, cafe themes etc depending on my themed decorating for the month. Here is the beach one:

This was an old cupboard door painted white, and a blue star painted for the 4th of July month. I don't know where to put or store it right now, so I just covered it with  a beach theme scrap paper:

I collect white milkglass. I love to find them in pairs. I change them around and pair them up in fun ways often. The two compote dishes had seashells in them, forgot to do the picture before I put the shells away. I love the compote dishes here. I have two small and two medium ones. I thought it was fun to stack them like a tiered stand:

This scrolled frame used to be brown and its from the 70's. My mom had some oval frames and butterflies in this style (I found some vintage butterfly ones, more on that later for the Sept decorating) I change this frame color often and move it around. For Aug, I stapled together some spare thin pieces of wood to make the background, and modpodged on some vintage patterns paper, then glued on sea glass and seashells. I taped the artwork to the back of the frame so it can be removed and the frame used for other later projects:

Here is the apothecary I had up for years. I change it every month. The jars now have a few seashells and driftwood. Some of the jars just has crinkled paper cut up from old paper bags. The vintage thingie holds a scrap paper with the month of Aug in it. I love going through my stash of scrapbook embellishments, then I just put them back when I am done using it (or scrapped with it for another project):

Finally my song paper wreath thats above my piano. I change center of it every month. I have a magnet in the center, so it makes it easy for me to create a new center whenever I feel like it and glue a magnet on the back of it. The top piano mantel had cheese cloches with seashells, (which had been removed before pictures) The month of August of beach theme on my wreath:

A closer look:

A much closer look. Three seashells are glued onto brown coffee filters and the vintage patterns paper that I cut into a few circles:

That's pretty much it for Aug decorating. Sept decorating is all ready up. And of course its Oct 1st tomorrow, and its already time for Halloween decorating.

What themes do you use to decorate your house with in the summertime?

Mom Stardate 08312012

So lately I have been catching up on all the episodes of Star Trek Next Generation on Netflix.

The show opened up on TV in 1987. That would put me at age 13. The show was phenomenally popular for its 7 seasons, but for some reason I didn't follow the show. I was too busy watching shows such as "V", Little House on the Prarie, all the coolest 80's cartoons, Silver Spoon, and Saved by the Bell.

Plus I didn't have captioning available through the use of a closed captioned machine that was the thing back in the day. So TV wasn't too fun to get involved in.

Fast forward to 1996. I had been married a year and just given birth to my first child. I didn't have cable, but I had a couple copper wires snaked into the TV and dangled up in the air and finally taped to the ceiling. I was able to get about 4 channels, two which were more clear and not too fuzzy, and captioning was readable.

At around noon when I fed my newborn Seth his bottle, I would watch TV. And it happened to be Star Trek Next Generation. And I got hooked on the show. AND super confused because the episodes didn't always go in an orderly manner, or it made references to previous episodes, in which of course I didn't see those episodes. Nevertheless I enjoyed myself.

Fast forward to 2012. I spend my free time catching up on old shows on Netflix. I started with STNG in the month of July during school summer break. And I became utterly completely obsessed. My parents would be proud of me. Their kid is finally a Trekkie fan.

Surprisingly my two younger kids Leah and Matthew started watching STNG with me. And they LOVED it. Our favorite episodes were the ones that centered around Data. Oh my, how that character just made us laugh. Our second favorites were the "scarier" ones that revolved around the Borg.

It has come to my attention as of yesterday that Matthew is a true Trekkie fan. He has been busy building a ship platform, two helms, Captain Picard, Data, and a Captains chair with his Legos. He also built a palm head tricorder with a true flip cap. He likes to pretend to scan the house for life forms, check air quality, decipher energy readings. He plans to build a phaser next.

So now we can't get enough Star Trek. I watched Season 1-5 of STNG, and then freaked out when I realized that Season 6 and 7 are not subtitled on Netflix. I am now busy looking for the last two seasons to purchase on craigslist or Ebay. On Amazon, it is 58 dollars per season, no thank you very much.

I am currently trying to decide if I will watch Deep Space Nine. I haven't finished the first episode yet, and haven't decided if I like it or not. I am sorely missing my STNG. Mostly probably because I haven't gotten my closure from the show yet.

For now, I am just enjoying lots of Trekkie humor in the house. As of this morning I opened my desktop on the computer and found a Trekkie photo of Captain Picard holding a Log (captions log). Seth apparently is having a good time teasing me about my Trekkie obssession.

Well..not that obsessed. I don't have any Trekkie costumes, or plan to attend any Trekkie conventions or start a Trekkie group club.

Live Long and Prosper!

July Thrifty Decorating

Thrifty July Decorating by Shopping your House and Using Supplies on Hand:

First I had some stars in the flag theme that I was tired of. I spray painted some in aqua and I love it. Here is an aqua star on top of some vintage frogs in front of an old box:

I put some flags I had on hand in a vintage Bell jar, set out a candle I made years ago, and used things around my house to make a grouping of items in patriotic colors:

The star here was from a plant pole that broke off, so here it is decorating the front of my vintage cheese cloche with fake apples in it, and the plates were items I had on hand scored from thrift shops which are a silver plate, milglass plate, and a basket weave plant stand thingie:

Many of you know about the wreath above my piano. It gets a new center made every month with a magnet to change it out. The month of July I found a patriotic muffin cup I had on hand, and spray painted old broken jewelry I had on hand (the flower) to make this center:

Here is the piano mantel. I put out everything that I shopped my house with: two milkglass compote dishes and some white candles. Two vintage cheese cloches that had vintage clothes paper patterns cut up in them:

My milkglass collections got a bit of patriotic updates with ribbons, a flag sign, and a wood apple that I had on hand:

My vintage gumball machine had a blue star (from an old scout project) I unearthed from my box of scrips and scraps of junky fun stuff and I painted it blue and inserted it:

My apothecary station got a frame I dug out and painted it aqua blue. Added a flag, two red wood strawberries, and a scrapbook emphermera: a bingo card. The jars were left plain this month:

This is the major update. I took down a metal thingie I used to have there on the wall for years and put up a large chunky wood frame I scored from the thrift shop for $6. I painted it cream. I have plans to do fun stuff and decorate this wall for the next few months. This month for July I just added a book wreath I made with a patriotic themed center, the other two metal stars I painted aqua blue. I also painted a scrap piece of wood aqua blue, glued on a strip of canvas, then I traced on stars and painted them red and one blue star and hung it up on the wall: 

(tip for above: I use small nails and try to hang up lightweight items so I don't have obvious big holes on the wall from my frequent changing around decorations. Every 3 months I touch up the walls with paint that I keep in the kitchen pantry with a small brush ready to go)

The metal frame in the photo below used to be on the wall in the photo above. I found it a new home on this shelf above the foyer window. I just added a flag in the vintage sewing bobbin I have there:

I made a banner with leftover upholstery ribbon I had on hand. They just happen to be in the colors that match my house: canvas and burlap tan, and red. I made a star template and dabbed on some blue paint. Then I glued the starry squares onto twine, and hung in up in my foyer:

I made a mini banner with patriotic flag muffin cups I had on hand and hung it on a vintage wood window frame. The heart and star sign is a project I made 3 years ago. This is the bookcase mantel I have in the living room:

This old vintage candlestick got a makeover in aqua blue spray paint. Then I just put in two twine balls I had on hand in the candle holders:

The chalkboard that has been up in my kitchen for months got a new message: School is Out!

The vintage cheese domed cloche in my kitchen just got wadded up leftovers from my bookwreath projects. I like the look of the textures and colors. The wood plate end got spray painted in aqua, then I added a vintage red and white enamelware  plate I had on hand to complete the patriotic color theme:

This is a vintage embroidered tablecloth I found years ago. Its in red, white, and blue colors and perfect for displaying on my dining room window for a bit of patriotic colors and fun:

So that's it for July decorating. I keep it simple and shop my house for items, and update with a bit of spray paint or even a bit of fabric, scrapbook supplies, or ribbon. No need to spend money to decorate your house each month. I challenge you to try it sometime. :o)

Makeover for a Triple Picture Frame

I like to decorate my house with items in which I can change items that are IN them.

Old Mason jars,  cloches from vintage cheese domes, and frames work well for this.

I had this triple picture frame from cutouts from vintage magazines up on my cabinets in my kitchen for the last three years and it was time for a makeover:

Here is the new update. I put mod podged leftover canvas onto thin backer cardboard that I save from each 12x12 cardstock pad that I buy. Burlap would also work well. Then I took some large cardstock sticker letters and spray painted them red, and glued  them on the three rectangles of canvas. Stenciling, Cricut letters or handpainting the letters would also work well. Here it is:

I really like how much better it looks. Then I had an awesome idea on how to change up the frame once in a while when the mood strikes.

How is this one for July and Independence Day coming this summer? I cut out a fabric red star from my fabric stash, and traced two stars on the canvas and painted it with some acrylic paint I had on hand. I used a template that I also had on hand:

I am going to make more. "BOO" for October. Fabric prints for August, or maybe watermelon prints. Looking for owl prints for Sept...ideas are growing now.

Cost: Free. Used items on hand.

Yippee for free and fun craft makeover projects!