DIY GRADUATION GIFT ~ COLLEGE SURVIVAL KIT

Graduations season is in full swing and along with it comes graduation gifts.  This past week we had five graduations to attend.  I love to give something a little more personal as a gift and a gift  that you make yourself does just that.

Of the five graduations we had to attend, two of them were for girls.  I decided to make something special just for them - A College Survival Kit.

Here's what I did to make the college survival kit .....

BRIGHTEN UP YOUR HOME FOR SPRING

Everyone is anxious for spring this year, myself included.  We actually had a few wonderful warm days last week, but a cold front moved in on Sunday and now we are back down in the 20's and 30 degree temperatures ....burr!  Despite the cold weather I've decided to brighten up the house a bit for spring.

I've started in the living room by taking out the flannel, wool and fur items and brought in some spring accents.  A wonderful way to add a touch of spring and freshness to a room can be done by adding soft fabrics and lighter delicate colors.  All of this can be done without spending a lot of money.  You can even rearrange the furniture for a new fresh look.

The first thing I did in the living room was to replace the snowflake/winter pillows with cozy soft spring pillows.

The nest pillow I made a few years ago was placed in the basket of blankets.

DIY SPRING ARTWORK

Can you believe it?  It's April and we have a major winter storm advisory for our area today and Friday.  They are even saying that we may receive up to an inch of snow a hour.  I'm so ready for spring to come.  With that in mind, I've started to add a few touches of spring in our home.

You may recall my spring artwork that I created a few years ago.  It's one of the most visited items on this blog.  It's seems a little crazy to me, the things that get visited the most often at Thrifty Parsonage Living are often items I've quickly put together on a whim.  The other visited often is my Epsom Salt Ornaments and Candle.

If you would like to see the full instructions on how I made this,

HOW TO MAKE LINED CURTAINS {DIY}

I'm finally back after a little bit of recovery time following my oral surgery. In a previous post I share our guest room makeover. I promised to share the  tutorial on how I made the curtains for this room.

Let's start out by talking about the fabric I used for these curtains.  

DINING ROOM TURNED OFFICE BY DUO VENTURES

Hi everyone, you might be wondering why you haven't heard from me for a little while. Well, I had unexpected oral surgery and haven't  been up to much, other than trying to recover.  

I thought I would take this opportunity to have a guest post from Mel and Nader at Duo Ventures.  If you have not read their blog you've been missing out!  I love pretty much every makeover and organizing idea that they have shared on their blog.  They are a young husband/wife team,  who blog about design, DIY projects and organization.  You can head over and read more if you enjoy this post from them at Duo Ventures.

In the post below they'll tell you how they turned their dining room into an office.... enjoy!

 All the  images and content below are courtesy from the Duo Ventures.

Turning a Dining Room into an Office: Part 2

Well, we're happy to say that a lot has changed in our former dining room!  Several months ago, we made the decision to utilize our formal dining room as a home office instead.  We left off in Part 1, where we outlined our general plans & inspiration for our future office.  If you follow us on Instagram you might have gotten a couple of sneak peeks along the way.  There are still a couple of small projects that we need to complete, but for the most part the room is finished!  

AN UPDATE FROM THRIFTY PARSONAGE LIVING

Hi everyone!  I just stopped in to tell you that I haven't forgotten you.  It's just that I've been very busy with things here.  I was sick and then was busy with some projects.  I'm now working on items for our Woman's National Day Of  Prayer.  Our church is hosting the event this year and it will be held next Friday, March  7th.

Once I'm finished with the work for church, I'll be back here and writing a few posts.  One will be a tutorial on how I made the curtains for our guest bedroom.

I'll be looking forward to tell you how I made these curtains on a very limited budget.  Hope you'll join me.  Until then have a great day!

                                                         Joy

GUEST BEDROOM MAKEOVER

Can you believe it's a year ago today, we were on the road moving from Washington to our new home in Minnesota. Time sure flies by quickly.  Looking back over the year, I realized that I have not shown you all of the rooms in the new Parsonage.  Over the next weeks I plan to do just that, along with showing you the projects completed in each room.

Today, I will start with our guest bedroom which is in the basement of our home.

Now this room looked nothing like the photo posted above.  In fact the room looked pretty tough.  All the carpets had been ripped out of the room a few years ago because of water getting into the basement.  At the time of the water issue, they had to rip up all the carpets in the entire basement and lay tile.