I love NY!

My husband and I are both from Upstate New York, and we wanted to have something to remember it by, so I painted this sign. They are sold at Wal*Mart for $5 (but NY only sells NY state cut-outs, etc). 

Not geographically accurate, so don't drill me on it. I fudged it a little. 

Country Stitchery

If you love Country Designs, you'll love making your own signs! With the help of You tube and their tutorials, anyone can learn some simple stitches to make these cute designs and more. The frames are plain wooden ones from the Dollar Store that I paint with cheap acrylics. 

This one I made for my Mother-in-Law, and I plan to replicate because I love it so much!

I got this design idea off of Pinterest, but modified the colors and layout.

I made this as a gift for my Aunt. 

A Valentine's Day Decoration

Stars and Stripes

My house is alive with stars and stripes! Here are some of the decorations that I have added to my home. 

Star Planter

$30 planter; $4 red plastic pots; $2 plants (x3); Total Cost: $52

Top View

Striped Patriotic Side Table

Side Table (inherited); Acrylic Paint $1 (Red, Blue); White Paint $4; New Handle $5: Total Cost $11

Bob Dylan Lyrics Design

I already had black chalkboard paint and a white chalk pen. Otherwise it would cost another $6.

Home Made Curtains with Stars

Full Size Window Curtain: Made out of Burlap and Yellow Cotton (Cost for Materials: $18)

Small Curtain for Over the Door (to cover up the ugly blinds); No additional Cost

Matching Star Banner

No Additional Cost; Used What I Had

Rag Doll Holding Star

Great Thing About Rag Dolls is You Can Use What You Have, and When Mistakes are Made, It Looks Normal

Before and After: What Weeding Will Do

Making your garden look great, doesn't take a whole lot of work. All you need is a little weeding and mulch!! Look at the difference!

Before

After

Reduce Reuse Recycle

Look at all these low cost projects!! DIY should not mean expensive. It should mean cost-effective and using what you have / can find cheaply.

Random part of a 2' x 4' piece of lumber left in my garage when we moved in. I cut it up, painted it, and added a little string bow for Thanksgiving. They advertise these on Pinterest, but again, buying the wood or purchasing pre-cut wood costs more than I would like to pay. (Cost: $0)

Before

After

Before picture of our ceiling fan that came with our house. It was cramping my style. Thanks to Pinterest and the materials I already possessed, I ended up with the following. (Cost: $1 can of black spray paint for the top metal part of the fan [previously gold]).

Normally, people spend a lot of money buying burlap to make a wreath. This burlap came from my dad's shed. After ten years of sitting in a bag, it was a bit yellow. Luckily, red spray paint fixed all that! Total cost: ($3 metal frame, $1 spray paint can [cheap brand], and $3 Hobby Lobby 'S' sign). 

The broken panels from my fence were re-purposed for a little walkway. We did choose to stain the wood, so final cost: $6 small can of wood deck stain.

More to Come!!!

Tis the Season!

My Mom and I started the holiday tradition of making cedar wreaths. They are way too fun to make. Simple is better. They are beautiful, and they smell wonderful!

My Wreath Made of Natural Materials and a Flower that fell off another wreath:)

My Mom's Wreath. She added a few nicer touches:)

 Every year, I try to add more and more holiday cheer without spending anything or very little. This is what I came up with after purchasing $0.50 Poinsettia flowers and using items I already had around the house. The wooden sled I purchased for $0.25 at a garage sale during the summer. I painted it black and stenciled our name on it (I printed out the font, traced it, and then painted). Talk about cheap and pretty!

The Noel sign is made from re-purposed fence posts. I just chopped them to size with my circular saw, and then nailed them to three cross support beams. I sanded it down and then painted it with the cheap acrylic paint that you can purchase at Walmart or any craft store. I just used a color I had on hand. Then I printed out the letters N-O-E-L and traced them on the wood with a sharpie. Lastly, I filled in the letters with white paint. That took two coats. I free handed the tree silhouette. You could get a stencil off clipart or Google images though. So this sign really cost me $0 since I used what I had. That's always my goal!

I also made this sign out of an old piece of fence post. I just sanded it down and painted it. I got the idea off of Pinterest, and added a few extras. 

I added this little tree banner that I made out of felt and ribbon I had in my trusty old craft bin. It's festive and cheap.