Martha and Michael's

Don't know if this is an isolated sale, or nationwide, but Michael's has a good portion of Martha Stewart's craft goodies on super sale. Like 70 percent off sale. I bought three sets of note cards for $7 when they were originally about that much each.

Go getcha some!

Wall art courtesy a quilt

If you're like me and you are from the country, you've got some experience with quilts.

If you're like me and you're from the country, you've been given at least one quilt from a family member, or even have made your own. Some of these quilts are perfect to go straight on the bed. Some are perfect for fall football games or picnics. Some are good for pet bedding. And some are so beautiful, ornamental, meaningful that simple ordinary use isn't good enough for them.

For a wedding present, my mom had a quilt top she had made for me specially machine-quilted to look like it was hand-quilted. Mom embroidered the white blocks with pastel thread, then set them together with the rainbow plaid rows. The quilter then bound it with pink material, and even gave it rounded edges (very chic). It was a complete surprise, and I cried quite hardily at the church where the shower was held.

For me, the quilt is positively too pretty to sit back on a shelf in a closet, and too precious to have my idiot cat scratch it up when on the bed. So, it has become a backdrop for my craft station in the spare bedroom:



To hang it, I used some left over green satin ribbon from the wedding photo project below, and machine-sewed them into small loops. I then hand-basted them with double thread to the back of the quilt. You could also use the curtain clips that are popular now, but I was living on pennies when I did this earlier this week and also didn't want the clamp marks. If I ever want to take the quilt down, I can simply rip out the stitches without damaging the integrity of the quilt.

I'm so excited. It makes my heart swell with happiness when I go into our spare bedroom, which isn't a typical response people get with most spare rooms. But I do love the quilt so much and my mom, for making such a special memory for me. Thanks, Mom!

Kids craft

From this:



To this:




I put this together for a kids craft in the newspaper. It's just a spin on the boring tin can pencil cup. I called it an organization station. The only thing was, I thought it would be cool to connect them all using Velcro dots so you could take it all apart and transport it for different activities or whatnot. Which in theory, is a good idea. But my idea was to put the dots on top of scrapbook paper outsides. But when you separated the cans, the dots pulled off the paper. So not a good idea. If you do it, go ahead and hot glue it all together and keep it together.

Vinyl lettering

I've been on bedroom duty, trying to finalize all the details in our place of sleep. After spending the past 24 years of my life with a multipurpose bedroom (office, homework station, social gathering), I was determined to create a dedicated space for relaxing, sleep and romance now that we have an extra bedroom and an actual home.

Our wedding photos came in, which allowed me to complete the wall decor. I purchased this vinyl art from Hobby Lobby, although I've seen Kohl's advertise them for much cheaper. I wanted to make it pop, so I added a pertinent wedding photo. This hangs over our bed.




I then developed five 5X7 wedding photos that told a story for a collage on the large blank wall. For $3 each, I bought plain black frames at Wal-Mart. I toyed with the idea of buying $1 frames from Michael's and spray-painting them, but I went for the non-work option!

To add a little razzle dazzle, I found a beautiful roll of satin green ribbon on sale at Hobby Lobby (it's very high quality, actually, I recommend). With some measurements, I tied nots in the top and strung them from the nail holes of the frames. My laser level helped line everything up.

Let there be light

For the past month, I've been obsessed with finding "matching lamps" for our bedroom. The only problem is, lamps, and their shades, are expensive.

After perusing several thrift stores, auctions and garage sales, I found a pair of these wooden lamps at a yard sale across the street. I paid $10 for the pair.

When I got them home, the hubs scoffed at them, and couldn't imagine how anything so out-of-style was going to fit in with our bedroom.

He later apologized when he saw the transformation:


I bought a $2 can of metallic spray paint at Wal-Mart, then lucked into the shades at the catalogue outlet store in town. Our comforter is white with green leaf accents, so they match perfectly. They were also $10 each, which is about $4 less than what Wal-Mart wanted to charge for very plain shades.

If you wanted to duplicate the silhouette effect, you can cut out shapes and paste them onto the inside of a plain shade, or even paint them.


The lamps cost a total of $32, and for their size and detail, would have cost more than $50 each at a design store. Other than the searching for a base lamp, the process took me 10 minutes to do with an hour of dry time.