Showing posts with label Budget. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Budget. Show all posts

June 17, 2015

Flipit Ashley: How to Preserve your Herbs


This year, I have managed to successfully kill all of the herbs on my balcony garden except my parsley, which has somehow thrived. It means that I have to buy fresh herbs from the supermarket, which is expensive especially if you use herbs regularly in your cooking. You can forget about buying the plants – I’m pretty sure they are designed to die within two weeks.

January 14, 2014

DIY Gilded Envelopes


It's the time of year when we write real letter on real paper-for real people. Letter of love, thanks, and gratitude for those we cherish. I had a few packs of cards, but they didn't feel very...special. Nothing makes something feel more special than does gold. Here's an easy way to add a little glam to your stationary!

August 16, 2013

How to Reuse & Recycle Glass Jars

via From Gardners 2 Bergers

Hey Girls! If you've been keeping up with my social media feeds (FB, Tweet, Instagram), then you know the hubs and I are driving cross country from corner to corner of the US! That's Washington state to Florida, baby! We hit the open road a week ago and our first stop was Flaming Gorge. It's a gorgeous body of water nestled in red canyons. Puppers caught themselves a wild salmon...well, Zack caught it an puppers smelled it before it was sent back to its watery home!

August 16, 2012

✥ Succulents {Even Walmart Can Make Something Beautiful}✥

I could only think of one title for this post- I kept thinking about how even Walmart could sell something that would turn out beautiful!

I've been wanting to jump on the succulent train for awhile now- and just never seemed to have the time. Then Zack and I were grabbing some last minute camping stuffs and I saw these babies. I had this free vase/bowl thingy I got from my bro-in-law and thought it was perfect for these guys. 
I had some potting soil on hand because I planted herbs this year- which were, by the way, super fantastic! If any of you are condo/apartment dwellers and are on the fence about a pot garden- jump off that fence and come on over to the bright side! It was so easy and I loooved having them on hand. That is, they were on hand until Zack and I went on a spur-of-the-moment four week vacation!! I am certain everything was fried by the UT son ages ago.

OK- long detour, now back to the succulents.
I potted my cute little plants and thought they looked kinda lonely in there. So I threw in some polished stones {I think they were from a fish tank we had a zillion years ago??} 
and then called it a day!

 This is just part of my master plan to beautiful my honey oak horror kitchen by giving my eye some beautiful vignettes to look at instead. 
As a total PS- I think my landlord's wife reads my blog, so to her I say: thanks for reading and please don't be offended about my dislike for the kitchen cabinets!! {And wouldn't they look so totally rad and awesome painted white!?! ;-)
Hope the rest of you chicas are doing well!!

June 1, 2012

✥ Printer's Cabinet ✥



When Z asked me what I wanted for Christmas- 
I showed him a pic of this Restoration Hardware beut and then sent him to The Design Confidential. Yup- he had 2 choices. Drop 2 grand and buy me the gorgeous printer's cabinet- or make it himself. So a few weeks before Christmas we printed off the plans and went to buy supplies.   
Unfortunately that's all the was done on the cabinet for one, two, three, four, now five months. Not that I'm bagging on my man- I am NOT. He's is super, ridiculously busy- working like a madman to finish writing his book. 
Soooo, it was a small miracle when I walked into Downeast the other day and saw "MY" cabinet! Mine- like the very same one I have pinned and repinned, and leave as a pic on my desktop- reminding me tht one day it would be mine!! {all mine!}
The cabinet was marked at 1000- a few hundred more than Z and I figured we would pay to build. But I drag him there anyway- just to "look."
Can you see where this was going? Well Z talked with the sales dude- and in no time he found a way for us to pile up a  few discounts. See- there was a small gouge in the underside of the piece-and instead of the usual 10 percent off- Z worked his magic {he is a world class talker} and we got 2- percent off. Now we are down to 8000- right? 
THen the guy told us there is a local coupon floating around for 10 off. Sayw what? So we put "my" printer's cabinet on hold and set off to find the illusive coupon.

 Long, long story short- we found it. Monday morning I ran in and saved the additional 10 percent and paid  just over 700 for the piece. Proving sometimes- you do NOT have to DIY to get an awesome deal.
I may be in love with it- just a little. 

Downeast makes furniture but they also get castoffs from other brands- things that were returned or damaged. I am 99% sure mine is not from RH- but it's the exact measurements. So to be honest- I could not care less if this guy is brand name or not- it's solid wood- amd just what I wanted.
 In fact, I actually just saw the real RH cabinet this week for the first time- you know what? I like mine better. {Breathe huge sigh of relief!- Ahhh}

Not bad, huh? It's kinda like Christmas over here!



What deals have you gotten lately?

May 21, 2012

✥ Reader Feature: Complete Bedroom Makeover ✥



Dustin and Whitney run a fun blog, The Rooster and The Hen-it's filled to the brim with ideas about home and decor DIY projects. They've agreed to share their master bedroom transformation  today- and even share how they made money on the project and got a new looking room along the way!

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As much as we’ve enjoyed the master bedroom makeover ride, I think it’s safe to say that we’re glad to have it finally done. I guess I shouldn’t use the word done knowing my wife, since she’ll continually tweak and improve on the design - but I’m guessing the current layout will be set at least for a while since we both really like the bright beachy feel. In fact, if you’ll remember our original mood board, airy and relaxed was our goal. mood board of master bedroom Let’s take a walk down memory lane to point out all the projects that made this room come together, complete with costs and maybe a thing or two we learned along the way. Psst, hover over some of the pictures to see the before shot.
Down to Business We started out by gutting the room so we could paint. We actually sold the bed frame, night stands, and the dresser online since we didn’t have another place to put them and we’d be able to use the cash from the sale for our makeover.
Cost: We made $425 Whoot!
Beachy Blue Our next project had Whitney mixing up our own paint - originally trying for Martha Stewart’s Spring Melt, we ended up going for a slightly different version of the color. We didn’t worry so much about taping off the room since we planned on taking care of baseboards in the next step. Gold master bedroom, inexpensive decor, diy bedroom Cost: Roughly $5 in paint and supplies since we used what we had on hand. This project would probably set you back $25 if you were to head to the store to purchase the paint.
Trimmin’ it Up Since we had purchased new moulding and baseboards for the rest of the house when we moved in, we figured that now would be the best time to finally change out the trim in the master bedroom. We came up with an interesting way to get that finished contractor look, and minimize having to use a lot of tape to get clean lines.




Cost: The baseboard cost $36 and the door and window trim set us back $20. We already had this on hand from a previous project so it didn’t feel like we had spent anything here, but we’re counting the cost anyway.
DIY Pallet Headboard We channeled our inner woodsman by dicing and splicing up pallets for the pallet headboard. We feel pretty cool that so many sites including Miss Mustard Seed gushed over it - but even had that not happened, we still love it.




Cost: While the pallets were free, I did have to buy new blades for the sawzall for about $5 and used about $3 in finishing nails.

Seashell Art Fresh off a trip to sunny San Diego had us missing the beach. Whitney put the shells and sand dollars to good use by finding a creative way to display them.




Cost: We re-purposed an old frame and dressed up some seashells with just a bit of paint and rope, so we’re gonna call this one pretty much a freebie.









Ballard Designs Knockoff Chair We were able to get a $500 look in the room for a fraction of the cost with this furniture paint and re-upholstery job. We used the fabric inspired by Ballard Designs and a bit of trim from Hobby Lobby to make it all happen. Check out all of that action here.

Cost: Chairs came out to be $10 for the pair at a yard sale. We couldn’t have used more than $1 in paint and primer we already had. The biggest expense was the $15 in fabric and the $5 in trim. At $31 we thought it was fantastic deal.

Pallet Mirror With some pallets left over from the pallet headboard and a mirror that came as part of a new dresser we picked up at one of the last garage sales of the season, we created a pallet mirror to hang over the faux fireplace which we had moved from downstairs to the master bedroom.




Cost: Once again the pallets came free thanks to Whitney making a plea to a couple local merchants and we’ll allocate $2 out of the $20 we spent on the dresser toward the cost of the mirror. The contractor’s glue from Home Depot was $3.

A Duvet Cover...Again We changed up the old duvet cover with goldish-green light weight faux suede fabric. It added the punch of color we needed. Whitney added a dark grey bed-skirt she found at Target to help complete the look. Gold master bedroom, inexpensive decor, diy bedroom Costs: The bed turned out to be the most expensive project of the room with the fabric costing $30 and the grey bed-skirt $27.
Inspired artCanvas Art Makeover One of my favorite projects was Whitney’s transformation of the outdated canvas art we picked up and turned them into pieces inspired by Ballard Designs. Costs: The canvas art pieces totaled $.10 and since she used good -ole house paint ($.50 worth), this art was nearly free too.


DIY Drapes, Finials, and Rope Tiebacks We still laugh about the lady serving mimosas at a yard sale, but nothing makes us more happy then saving money, which is exactly what we did by making our own drapes, finials, and rope tiebacks. I just know we’ll be painting these curtains in the future, stay tuned.




Costs: The curtain fabric was only $2, but the rod we picked up at Hobby Lobby was $22 after a 40% off coupon. The finials were free since we re-puprosed them, and the rope tiebacks were made from the largest natural rope one can buy from Lowe’s at $.69/ft ($6.00).
That Gold Stuff Not everyone has jumped on the gold train, but it fits in so well with the new master room that we just had to have it as an accent. Our main gold piece is this old gold pendant ball light that dresses up the corner. Gold master bedroom, inexpensive decor, diy bedroom Costs: Once of the best garage sell finds of the summer at only $4 and a smidge of gold spray paint to cover the cord.
Pillow Talk Whitney’s obsession with pillows paid off in a big way with our DIY pillows. We saved on the pillows themselves by reusing ones that we had around. Gold master bedroom, inexpensive decor, diy bedroom Costs: We’re not counting the pillows themselves since we got them so long ago, but we did end up using about $20 in fabric from our favorite stores.
Smelly Night Stands My sacrifice for not breathing from San Diego until we got back home was worth the resuscitation efforts with our gold and cream night stands. We definitely learned that painting in cold weather is not advised, but we were able to fix them up and transform them into just the thing to go next to the headboard. Gold master bedroom, inexpensive decor, diy bedroom Costs: We bargained with the seller of these tables getting her down to $8 for the set on account of the broken handle which we easily fixed. We won’t bother to count the paint on this one since it was minimal.
DIY Drum Shades and Carboy Lamps We delved into the world of lamp making by not only figuring our how to wire a carboy jar, but also how to turn some very ugly crafting hoops into a drum shade that would have cost us a chunk of change at the store. We’re still a little impressed with ourselves. Gold master bedroom, inexpensive decor, diy bedroom Costs: The carboys and craft hoops were a total of $1, while the combination of burlap and interfacing came to $8.
We originally had a budget of $50, but later increased it to $100. We’re pretty cheap, but I think we shot way too low on this one. Once we passed that mark, we figured the extra cost would be worth getting the right look, and we’re glad we did. All in all, here’s how we came out on the master bedroom makeover:
Paint and Supplies: $17 Furniture: $18 Trim work: $56 Accessories: $61.10 Fabric: $80
Total cost: $232.10 Total cost after furniture sale: We made $192.90! Gold master bedroom, inexpensive decor, diy bedroom Wow, what an upgrade, especially to find out we actually made money on redesigning our entire room. We both agree that the new room is so much better than what it was before, but what do YOU think?
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Oh maaaan! Do I ever want that faux fireplace!! From the moment I saw Dustin and Whit's I knew I needed my own! It's one of the main items I search the garage sales for!  I super adore the stacked wood inside, too! I know all of you are crushing on the floor to ceiling pallet headboard! Drama- with a rustic vibe- I love the stain variations, too cool!
While you over at the Rooster and the Hen saying hi- make sure you check out their awesome kitchen reno, too!! I want to paint my cabinets so badly- *jealous!!


January 23, 2012

✥ Reader Feature: Literature Wallpaper! ✥

I am happy to share a cute little blog with you all today! Jen, a newish blogger, from A Place to Call Home  agreed to share her Mudroom Makeover with you guys!
I am super excited to introduce you to Jen because she is such a sweetheart! I have loved getting to know her better and I'm sure you will like her too! Her and her hubby have made over almost every corner of their two story home- while, of course, keeping a budget in mind.
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Hi...I'm Jen. And I write at A Place 2 Call Home. I'm so happy to be here today to talk to you about my mudroom.


This is our mudroom that's filled with tons of organization, as well as fun style.


We used an expedit bookcase from Ikea to give us plenty of storage.


Since the room is small, I wanted it to have big personality, so I added this vintage book page wall.



This is an old ikea tv stand turned bench. I painted it, added some boxes. Then I got a piece of foam from Joannes and hot glued this pretty and fun fabric to the foam.


This bookcase is super organized so that life is simpler. The metal boxes hold recycling. The fabric boxes hold everything from toys, scarves to flip flops. Up top we have a glass jar for loose change, and a place to put our keys when we get home.


And I painted the door green because its a mudroom and I thought it should be fun, right?

If you like my vintage book page wall, here's the how to. Its probably about the cheapest easiest DIY project ever.

Get some Modge Podge. I usually use the matte clear glue. Its the yellow one.

I love vintage books, so that's why I think they are perfect for accent walls. You can find vintage books at garage sales, thrift stores, the free pile at the library, and lots of other places too. Most of my books were free. And since the book will cost you close to nothing, and you don't need much glue, this project really is great for next to nothing.

I love the color and discoloring on antique books, I think it really warms up a space.


Simply take off a page and use a paint brush to wipe on the glue. It doesn't have to be perfect. I use foam brushes because they are pretty inexpensive and I like that they are thicker and can spread the glue faster.


Once you put the glue on the page, and stick the page onto the wall, you can run your foam paint brush over the edges of the page so it sticks down. You may notice that some parts are sticking up, you can just lightly dab or brush on a little paint to those areas. I just make sure its stuck to the wall and no edges are curling. This is why I use the matte glue finish, because it dries clear and you cant tell I put glue on it.

Vintage pages are so versatile-

Here they are all lined up, they look neat and more modern.

AT - wallpaper wall - Hungry Mother restaurant in Cambridge-1

Here the pages are barely sticking on the wall. It looks much more shabby chic and romantic and over the top in a great way

This is a great mix of both those styles. I love that they used bold black and white images too. If I were to do another vintage page wall, I think I would go for this look.

So now that you know there are different ways to put the paper on, here's what I did. I put some of the papers vertical while others horizontal. I haven't really seen too many other people who did this, but I just thought it added depth.  I also overlapped pages to give it a more layered look too.



Think about the book you are ripping your pages from. This book page wall was created using two books. One about marriage and one about mothers and daughters. I had lots of great titles and words on the wall that made me feel like it was special to our family.

Do you have a favorite number? Or a number that's important to your family? Maybe the number of your house, or birthday or the date that you were married? I tried to incorporate these numbers into the wall too. I used chapter numbers and page numbers to sprinkle in a little bit of family history.


Thank you so much Becca and From Gardners 2 Berger readers, I hope you'll stop by my blog A Place 2 Call Home to check me out. I'm all about cleaning, organizing and decorating. Hope to see you soon.
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I love Jen's wall treatment, don't you? I have seen a couple of rooms wallpapered with book pages, but I wouldn't have the nerve to do it! Not only has Jen done this book page wall, but she also has a bathroom "wallpapered" with a MAPS. 
You should definitely check out the before and after post, it gives  me a lot of hope abut what can be accomplished in a home with determination and hard work!