Red Table

Hi everyone! I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving! I'm still so stuffed and oh so tired of turkey. I had to put the last of it in the freezer and I'll make turkey soup in a few weeks when the thought of it won't be quite so distasteful. I didn't go anywhere but the thrift store on Black Friday. Nothing ever seems like such a good deal to make me want to mess with the crowds at the mall or the marts!

I did paint this little round table last week. I moved it from my downstairs family room upstairs and I moved the table that was originally there downstairs. I've had this table for about 12 years and got it from the thrift store. Here's the before

I also added a bit of black pom pom fringe to this little black lamp and I like it so much better! I really love pom pom fringe - it always makes me smile when I see it!

I put all my fall decorations away and I'm starting to pull out some Christmas things. I've decided not to do too much this year. Usually I redo my china cabinet and put away a shelf of dishes and bring out all the old decorations but I just am not in the mood this year.

I made that plate by using some rub on transfers from Hobby Lobby - so easy!

I've been itching to paint a piece of furniture red ever since last year when I decided NOT to paint my dining room chairs red - and now I have!

Happy Thanksgiving!

My heart gives thanks for many things;

I know not how to name them all.

My soul is free from frets and stings,

For Sun and stars, for flowers and streams,

For work and hope and rest and play -

For empty moments given to dreams,

For these my heart gives thanks today.

~William Braithwaite

I got that banner last year from Mika, Tina's daughter (Cherry Hill Cottage). My sweet girl is home for the rest of the week so I won't be posting again until the weekend so I can enjoy my time with her. Plus it'll give me time to catch up with everyone's blogs (I'm woefully behind - I know I owe some people recipes).

I've been working on several projects and I'll leave you with this little decoupage project I finished over the weekend. It's very easy and you've probably seen similar already on other blogs. I used some cute Christmas wrap that I got from Hobby Lobby last year on clearance and a small tin star ornament.

I'm a very impatient crafter! So I didn't make a template or anything. I just layed the wrapping paper on top of each star section and used my finger nail to outline it, cut it out, glued it down, went over the top with some Elmer's glue mixed with water - that's it.

I wish you all a wonderful Thanksgiving Day full of fun and good food and then we get to start decorating for Christmas!

Frugal Doings This Week

Just so you don't think I spend all my time shopping at Goodwill -- Here are some frugal things I did this week.

A friend gave us a pair of velveteen green drapes that she had made about 6 years ago (remember when velvet drapes were all the rage) and I hung one panel in the opening between our family room and the stairs leading up to the foyer in an effort to keep the cold air downstairs. The dog is usually down there and he goes in and out all the time plus we use the door to the garage to get in and out of the house so it's always colder on that level than it is upstairs.

I used to buy about 90% organic before my husband's salary was reduced. Now I buy only a few things organic (and cut my grocery bill almost in half). So I was happy to find some marked down organic onions and green beans at Kroger this week.

I blanchedthe green beans to prepare them for freezing. Ideally I think you should preserve food in various ways in case one fails. Like if your freezer dies, you would still have canned or dried foods available. I don't know how to can. I can't really say why I haven't tackled learning how to do it? When I see people do it on their blogs it doesn't really seem that hard. So I don't know what it is. Anyway, I freeze everything or else I dry it.

We had fresh beans for a couple of nights and I froze the rest for later use. I do have one of those vacuum sealers but I couldn't be bothered with getting it out so I sucked the air out of the bags with a straw (made myself quite dizzy - it might have been better to make the effort to get the vacuum sealer)!

Most of the onions I chopped up and put in a freezer bag. This is a time saver also. It's so much easier to get some chopped up onion out of the freezer when you need it than to spend time chopping it as you need it.

I got a few free samples from Walmart this week. Go here Walmart Free Samples. They ask for your email but it's optional. I've never filled that part in and I've still gotten all of the samples I've asked for.

Even though it was freezing cold here this week (it was 19 this a.m.!) I still hung some laundry out to dry (freeze) since it was sunny in the afternoons. I used a coupon to buy some new sneakers at Sports Authority and of course when I went grocery shopping. I sold a few things on ebay for some Christmas shopping money. I've tried not to have the heat on higher than 72 when I'm home and 69 at night (we all have electric blankets). Stuck to my menu plan even though we've had Taco Soup three times this week (I made a lot and I've been busy). Those are the major frugal things I've done this week.

What frugal things have you done this week?

Triple Layer Bulbs and A Pillow Makeover

I've been planting Jonquils all week. The town I live in is also known as "The Jonquil City" and every fall you can buy a huge bag of Jonquils (a type of daffodil) from the city for a few dollars . I had a few left over so I thought I'd pot some up and put them on my deck so we could enjoy them from inside the house come spring.

Have you ever triple layered bulbs in containers? It's a great way to get lots of blooms in a container for a longer time in the spring

I decided to plant this concrete container and put it on the bench that's under my kitchen window. I want you all to know that I carried that concrete container up the stairs to my deck by myself! First I filled it with some rocks for drainage.

The idea is that you add soil and bulbs in layers. So first I added some soil and then I added some daffodils

Then I added a bit more soil and some tulips

Then came the hyacinths. I think it's so cool that purple hyacinths bulbs are actually purple!

You could then cover those with soil and add some some small spring blooming flowers like snowdrops or a dwarf iris if you like. I added some ornamental cabbage and a few pansies so I'd have something to look at now.

I had a few more daffodils left so I planted this urn with them.

The daffodils will push right up past those pansies. The pansies will probably be dead by then anyway. They don't do too well when we have frosts

While I was at it I potted up some paperwhites to force in my groovy apple green container. Apple green, red and white are going to be my Christmas colors so if they bloom in time they'll fit right in!

Whew, that was a lot of planting! But that's not all folks! No siree, I was very industrious yesterday (must be because I actually got a full nights sleep). I made over this little pillow I got at the thrift store the day I found those chairs (thanks for all the chair love by the way - it was nice to be able to share my excitement over them with others who I knew would appreciate them). This little pillow was 60 cents. It's part of a Wendy Belissimo line of nursery decor. It's cute with the bee isn't it?

I think it looks better now. I just added a piece of toile to the center. Sewed it right on top and then I hot glued the three buttons down the center. Which I think are not on straight....oh well!

So come this spring I can sit in my windowseat in my kitchen(did you notice I flipped the cushion)

and look out my window and see my beautiful spring flowers!

Don't Hate Me!

Two chairs from Goodwill......$14.41!!!! You know how you see something from far away and you say to yourself "oh please, oh please, oh please don't let anybody else get to that before me!" and your heart is racing? Well, that was me - I snatched that tag off of those chairs so fast! Wow - I don't even have to paint them!

They both have small tears in the seats but I would put a cushion on them any way. I only needed one but I had to buy both of them. Now I've got to figure out what to do with the other one. I might have to re-arrange some things in my living room. What a horrible dilemma ~ giggle!

Checks & Harlequins

Come on in! I'm busy painting so I thought I'd just share a few pictures with you today. When you walk through my home you're sure to see a few recurring themes or motifs! Not so many that you can actually say something like "Wow, she really likes cows!" type of thing, but enough so that there's a unifying feeling that flows from room to room.

Today I'll just show the check & harlequin patterns. The first thing you see is that red harlequin door mat outside on my front porch. Then when you enter you see this black check doormat. The risers say "There's No Place Like Home", for those of you who haven't seen the steps before.

Up the steps and the first thing you see is the black and white checkerboard floor of my kitchen. I really love it. We did black and white marble tiles (peel and stick) instead of the solid white and black you usually sees. It's much better at hiding dirt!

The kitchen isn't really this fluorescent green! It's a kiwi or pear green.

I'm sure most of you can guess at some other recurring themes I have ~ smile.

Small checks or big checks.

I'm always looking for things that have a harlequin or check pattern and surprisingly they're really not that easy to find.

Harlequin bathmat

As you can tell I like black! I pretty much stick to black, white, and red with some apple green as an accent and I think of my yellow walls as a neutral. I find that makes shopping for things so much easier plus I love those colors and have never gotten tired of them.

I try not to go overboard with any of the themes or motifs I have, but that's just me and what I like. I know a lot of people are into roosters, or sea shells, nests, or flowers. What themes do you having running through your house and do you find that people buy you things with those themes? Do you like that? I personally don't like it when people buy me things for the house unless they know me really well and have been shopping with me. Just because I like dog paintings doesn't mean I'm going to like that one with all the dogs in clothes sitting around a poker table!