Button Swap Blog Hop

I'm participating in a blog hop @ Blogger Chix Designs

Today is the first weekly Button Swap Blog Hop! Where bloggers can get to gether and swap buttons to help promote and support each other.

Here are the details from her:
Here at Blogger Chix Designs I encourage bloggers to be proactive and involved in growing their blogs. Swapping buttons with other bloggers is going to get your name out there so new readers can find you which will increase your traffic. So whip those buttons out and get ready to swap till you drop :-).

Guidelines:

1. Grab the Blogger Chix Designs button and put it on your blog/blog roll (first link on the list). Leave me a comment while you're there and I'll grab your button and add it to my blog roll too!

2. Add the blog hop list (instructions below list) to your Button Swap Blog Hop post on your blog. Be sure to include the guidelines so all the buttons you swap with others will be returned by them grabbing yours as well. *Be sure to include your button's copy code in you Swap Post.

3. Link your blog post up to the blog hop. (You only need to link up once and it will show up on all the hop lists on all the blogs participating).

4. Then start visiting the other participants! Grab their button and add it to your blog sidebar or blog roll, and leave them a comment telling them your visiting from the BSBH party! Be sure to return the favor to anyone visiting you.

*Tip for having lots of buttons swap success - don't wait for others to come to you, go to them first!*

Bedroom Makeover Update

I've been busy as a bee working on our bedroom renovation, along with working on a continuing education class .

I'm almost half finished with the painting and now waiting for my husband to do some more installations before moving on to the rest of the painting.

Here is a little peak of a few things I'll be incorporating into our room.


I'll keep you posted as the room progresses so return for more updates. Have a great weekend!
Joy

The Secrect of finding Bridesmaid and Flower Girl Dresses for Less

Wedding Wednesday
Tips for finding bridesmaid dresses for less...

...shop prom season~ when prom dresses are on sale

...sales racks in department store or bridal shops

...outlet bridal stores

...second hand stores

...garage sales

...borrow from friends

...online bridal shops, eBay, craigslist

...sewing your own or have a seamstress

sew them for you

This flower girl's dress was purchased for 1/2 price for our daughter's wedding from a bridal shop going out of business . The ring bearer's suit was purchased at a second hand shop for $2.50 and the bow tie was handmade by the grooms mother.



The dresses below were purchased at Ross for half the price of the bridal shops and mall dresses.


I sewed this flower girl's dress for our daughter's wedding....costing only $20 compared to over $100 at a bridal shop.



I hope you found these tips helpful. Have a great day and fun planning your wedding!


I'm linking this post to

Our Master Bedroom Transformation Has Begun

We started our master bedroom makeover yesterday. Over the past few months, I've been gathering ideas of what I would like this room to look like, and started collecting a few things as I saw them. Remember this lamp that I told you about in a previous post. It will work perfect with the theme that we've chosen.

My husband and I love the coast and anything to do with it....lighthouses, seashells, starfish etc. We also enjoy taking a lot of photos. I'm hoping to incorporate some of them into our room. We both agree that we want it to be a place that is relaxing and romantic, light and airy not dark and dreary.

Here are some of the colors that I'm using for inspiration.

Who would ever guess that there are so many different shades of blue, greens and greys!

The parsonage we live in has very small bedrooms ~ so small, in fact, that we couldn't have all our bedroom furniture in one room without it being over crowded.

A couple of years ago, my husband lovingly gave up his office that measures 20' x 9 1/2' so we could have all our bedroom furniture in one room. Here are a few shots of the room before we started.... The room is very narrow making it difficult to arrange furniture. I would love to place the cedar chest(That my husband made for me as a wedding gift) at the foot of our bed, but this is impossible since it we only have a 2 1/2' walk way at the foot of the bed. I would place it in another room in our home, but there again the parsonage is small and absolutely no other place to put it.

As you can see in the photo, the room is very dark (making it difficult to take photos), so our plan is to lighten it up and make it appear larger. I'm hoping over the next few weeks to show you the progression of this room transformation. Please come back and visit and see the updates!

Have a great day!

Joy

A Frame Transformation

I found this frame at a local thrift store for FREE ! When I saw it I knew right away how I would transform it.


I started by removing the "beautiful" orange felt that someone had stapled onto it. I then got my black spray paint can and painted everything black. After allowing the paint to dry completely, I arranged photos from our daughters' weddings tacking them in place with scrapbook glue.

I love having a place to display their photos . The frame is one of the first things guests see when they walk into our home making it a great conversation piece.


I'm linking this post to

Keeping an Organized Home

I like my home to be organized. A friend of mine asked this question on face book: "Do you alphabetize your spices?" My answer: " Of course....yes!" I 'm amazed by how many people don't.

Tip of the Day....
~alphabetize your spices~

Alphabetizing your spices will save you time in the long run because you're not searching all over for a particular spice.

Every now and then, I'll have one or two out of order. As you can see in the photo, MSG is before Mace, but reorganizing is just a matter of switching the two around. It makes it easy to see when a spice is missing and needs to be added to your shopping list. (Sorry about the poor quality of the photo, it's very hard to shoot a photo in a dark cabinet.)

Happy organizing and have a great weekend!

Joy

Goodwill Find

Do you love hunting thrift stores like Goodwill? I do especially when you come across a good find. That's exactly what I did recently while shopping at Goodwill. Here's what I found....

...see that little price tag in the right hand corner? $7.99 That's quite a price! I found her new for around $200...what a grand savings for me! Yea!

Here she is sitting in her new home.

You can get instructions on how I made the diy cover for her here.


Have a great day!



Joy
I'm lnking this post to....
Coastal Charm Nifty Thrifty Tuesday
House of Grace Twice Owned Tuesday

Wedding Favors For Less

Today I'm going to share with you the wedding favors we made for our daughters' wedding . With two weddings only a month apart, we were looking for ways to save money and do things ourselves for less.
One of the weddings had a monogram theme; and this is what we came up with for a perfect match.


While searching for the perfect favor, we found some very cute monogram cookies and cakes but for a price tag of $3.50 each or more ... making the cost of $700.

$700 was not in our budget, so we decided on DIY with help from Martha's Stewarts' web sight.
~We started with my own sugar cookie recipe...

2 cups butter

1 cup white sugar

2 tsp. vanilla

1 egg

4 1/2 cups white flour

Mix ingredients together in above order. Roll out the dough and cut out cookies (We used a baby food jar for cutting out the cookies for the perfect size).

Bake @ 350 degrees for about 10 minutes.

Cool completely before frosting.

Frost with Royal Icing allowing it to dry over night. The following day, stamp each cookie using felt with food coloring as an ink stamp blotting it on a paper towel, then pressing it gently on your cookie, and allowing it to dry completely. Place the cookie in a cellophane bag tying it with raffia ribbon.


See how pretty it looks sitting next to the plate.



The final result: a very tasty and elegant favor for mere pennies!
If you have questions about this project feel free to email me.




I'm linking this post to

Blue Cricket Design Show and Tell

Thrifty Baby Shower Decorations

In a previous post I told you that I had a baby shower on Saturday. At this shower, I helped my daughter with some of the decorating. I thought you might enjoy seeing how we did some of the decorating on a thrifty budget.


The shower was for a little boy and girl so we had to make it for both genders.

We created a little bath vignette by ....

...placing a teddy bear in a plastic tub ...

...and adding cotton balls and clear christmas ball orniments to look like bubbles. We accented with a blue and pink towel , rubber ducks and baby powder placed on a vintage baby quilt.

The opposite side of the vignette was created with these cute little shoes that I made from scrapbook paper. I got the instructions from Cute as a Fox Creations.

We added a few clothes lines with baby clothing and homemade diapers.

All of these decorations were done for only a few dollar$....

...cotton balls $1

...ducks 2 for $1

...baby powder $1.19

...remaining items gathered from around the house.....FREE !

Joy

Do You Sew?

I enjoy sewing.....

We're having a baby shower this coming Saturday @ my church. We've had 4 new babies in the past weeks and one adoption.

Since I enjoy sewing and don't have any small children anymore myself, I thought it would be fun to sew a gift for the little girl who has been adopted. She is a real girly girl....so this is what I'm sewing.

I need to finish the armholes and then it will be ready to wrap.
I'm adding a cute little white purse with a pink ribbon on it and pink and white tights making this a thrifty and fun gift.



I'm Linking this post to..

New Hardwood Floors for Dinning Room and Kitchen

I'm loving my hardwood floors!




In a previous post on our bathroom(Bathroom Makeover for under $500) , I mentioned that our son lays hardwood floors for his profession and was able to salvage the wood from an old floor. Well, what I didn't tell you is that he also got enough wood to do our kitchen and dinning room. We were short a small amount of the oak wood but we were able to buy some Brazilian cherry ends for a very cheap price.


Here's what we started with...


...the first thing we did was rip out the old flooring.





...look @ what we found under the flooring....even uglier floor!

...the flooring paper was laid next.

...followed by the new flooring.


...then came the sanding and the finish.
...my husband made these finials and added the baseboard.

...my husband, daughter and I added new paint to the walls.




...here it is all finished.





...it sure beats the old white floor and is so much easier to keep clean. I LOVE how it turned out!


I'm linking this post to Show and Tell Friday @ My Romantic Home