For the Love of Burlap

My love of burlap continues.  Following the same steps I used for my last burlap & sharpie pillow, I made this one for my Mother-in-Law...

I'm still loving the look of sharpies on burlap!  Now I just need to find a stash of pillow forms on sale, because I have approximately 300 other ideas of burlap pillows to make!!

Along with some of my other favorites, I'll be linking this up to

Thanks for the feature!!

Living Room Tour

You've seen our newly remodeled Mud/Laundry Room and our hideous kitchen....now welcome to our cozy Living Room!

"Cozy," at least, is the look I'm going for :)  I don't necessarily have a style, but I want my family and friends to be able to feel comfortable and welcomed in my home.  It's a put your feet up on the table kinda place!

You probably remember from my kitchen that the previous owners of our house loved the color blue.  Like a lot.  So this "before" photo (taken at our home inspection) probably won't surprise you...

Clearly, it could be worse.  Some of you might even like the before better than the after, and that's okay.  But it's definitely not my style.  We were super thankful that the baseboards, chair rail and moulding had recently been painted white ~ the only room in the house where this was the case ~ the rest were hunter green, tan, and you guessed it....blue.  Here's what the same view (mostly) is looking like these days...

I love my Pottery Barn Adeline rug and Farmhouse Armoire....I know the cool thing to do is have a flat screen tv mounted on the wall, but I just really prefer a great piece of furniture that I can close the doors of and pretend the tv is not even there!

Although we added recessed lighting, we live in a shaded area and with a porch directly in front of the living room that blocks a lot of the sunlight, this room is still never too bright, so sorry about the lighting!  You have probably noticed on the walls the lack of many decorations, and that is for two reasons....one:  I like to keep things simple, and two:  it takes me sooo long to decide what to put up on my walls!!  One of the pictures I do have was a wedding present from my dear friend, Sonya!  I still love it, friend!!  (Sidenote:  Sonya and her friend have started an etsy shop.....be sure to check it out....maybe someday she will add some of her photography!)

Another "before" picture...

I didn't get the exact same view for the "after" shot, but here's a few from that side of the room...



Eventually I'd love to create a gallery wall above the couch, but for now my framed poppy poster from Michael's is working....even if I still think it's hanging a few inches too high. 



Another thing we'd like to do eventually is have a fireplace insert that is actually inside the fireplace and doesn't stick out...and hopefully one without any shiny bronze!  I do loooove my chair & ottoman ~ they are super comfortable and you'll never guess where I found them......Walmart!  Who knew?!



Continuing around the room...



My side table is also from PB.  Our couch and loveseat were bought at a turniture store when we were first married...probably not what I would pick today but they are neutral enough to work with anything!



You've probably noticed that I love Pottery Barn, and now I feel like my reputation as a frugalista is at stake!!  I want to mention that we do live near a PB Outlet, where we got our armoire for an incredible deal because of a few scratches.  The rug is from PB but I actually bought it on eBay, and the side table was bought with a combination of money I received for Christmas gifts and some really good sales & coupons!  And, this transformation took place over a course of several years - not one major shopping spree.  There, I feel better now.  Do I think something needs to be a famous brand name or cost a lot of money to look good?  Absolutely not!!  Case in point ~ our coffee table (pictured below with my remade cloche).

Made from reclaimed wood and purchased at one of our favorite antique/thrift stores for $20!!  I smile when I think about when I purchased it (over five years ago now) and the picture I must have been at 8 months pregnant trying to shove it into the backseat of my Dodge Neon.  :)  I love how uneven and imperfect it is....great for our young kids and we don't even need to use coasters!

Although it's not yet in it's perfect state, it's a comfy and warm place for our family.  I hope you enjoyed the tour of our living room!!





Linking up to a few of my favorites!

An Old Stack of Books & A Guest Post

I love things with character, and what has more character than an old stack of books?  The great news is, it can be a fun and very frugal decorative addition to your home!

From top to bottom:  "Smilin' Jack" was given to us by Jon's Grandpa.  It's from 1937 and we picked it because of the name ~ perfect for our son!  "The Brothers Karamazov" ~ a classic we picked up at a library sale for 50 cents.  "The Pilgrim's Progress" ~ a classic of Christian literature ~ and just the look of it alone would make it special, but it actually has an even better story.  We discovered this book in my Grandma's attic.  The name written on the inside is "Lydia Miller," which is my great-great grandmother, who was born around 1860.  Love!  All tied up with a piece of twine for a total cost of 50 cents!  Here it is lookin' cute on our tranformed bookshelves.......which you can currently see at my new guest post over at The Frugal Girls!

If you've never been there, The Frugal Girls is an amazing site dedicated to one of my favorite things...saving money!!!  If you never want to miss another deal, it's a great place to go!  Thanks again, Heidi!

If you are a visiting Frugal Girl, WELCOME!!  I hope you get a chance to look around a bit ~ you might be especially interested in my "Under $5" decorating and craft ideas, and my "Secrets of Savings" series.  Hope you enjoy ~ don't forget to say "hi" or even become a follower ~ there's many more frugal ideas to come!!

Burlap Pillow with Sharpie Decor

Earlier this week I had my first guest post over at Nicole's Thrifty Decorating.  Nikki graciously said I can re-post the project here so I can link it up to a few burlap project parties (more information on those at the end).  So here it is....my burlap pillow!

Did you ever have one of those all-of-the-sudden-ideas that you feel the need to complete say......five minutes ago?  That happened to me a few days ago.  We had about an hour or so before we needed to leave for church, but one kiddo was sleeping, and the hubby and the other kiddo were playing, so the wheels began turning.  I have this nearly unexplainable love for burlap, so I thought I would try a burlap pillow.  I am not exactly proficient at using a sewing machine, but this project was super easy.  To decorate it, I used something I would almost guarantee all of you have in your homes, crafty or not ~ a Sharpie!!

Here's the basic steps I used...
1)  Cut 3 pieces of burlap ~ we are making an easy envelope closure for this pillowcase!  My pillow form was 14x14 inches, so I kind of measured, kind of eyeballed one piece that was 15x15 inches for the front, and then 2 pieces big enough to overlap each other by a few inches for the back.  My pieces were 15 inches high and 10ish inches long.

2)  Decorate the front piece.  Make sure you put something under your burlap so the Sharpie doesn't get through, especially if you are sitting on your living room floor like I was!  Since I am trying anything possible to usher in spring, I chose to stencil the word "BLOOM."  First I outlined and then I colored in the letters.



3)  Pin the pieces together (inside out ~ so "BLOOM" was on the inside!!) and sew.  Attempt to sew straight lines.  I attempted but only slightly succeeded.  I'm not proud of this, but it just proves that anyone can do this project!

4)  Trim the excess burlap, flip right side out and put your pillow form in!  I thought mine looked a little plain, so I added some bright, springy fabric flowers (I used some of this same kind on my changeable wreath).

I'm really happy with the end result and can't wait to do some more burlap & Sharpie projects!!  The possibilities are endless!  (To see another burlap & sharpie pillow I made, click here.)

I just love anything to do with burlap and natural looking fibers like canvas and twine.  April is a great month for this in blogland, because there are 3 (that I know of) great parties especially dedicated to these great materials!  Get your great burlap projects entered ~ I can't wait to be inspired by all the new ideas!

The first is a Burlap Contest sponsored by Canvas Corp that ends April 30th ~ the prizes are burlap supplies from the Canvas Corp ~ swoon!!

The second is the linky party at The CSI Project this week ~ it's all about burlap ~ and it's being sponsored by the Canvas Corp!

Finally, as part of a 1 year anniversary celebration for The DIY Club, there will be 4 different parties beginning April 16.  The one I heart is going to be held at the DIY Show Off and is for all projects dealing with the "Earthy Essentials" ~ canvas, burlap, linen, and twine.  



Along with the burlap linky parties listed above, I may link up to a few of my other favorites!

Thanks for the feature!!!

Vintage Kitchen Scale

My hubby has been working some strange hours this week, so he was home in the middle of the day yesterday.  With Jackson in school, we decided to go to one of our favorite thrifty/antique stores and look around.  I only made one purchase, but I love it! 

I had been keeping my eyes open for an old scale, and ideally I would have liked an older one, but I thought this was fun with it's bright colored foods....and it still had just the right amount of rust and dents to give it some character.  I saw one that I loved even more but it was waaaaaaay out of my price range.  Mine?  $8.  I was pretty pleased with that price, especially when I looked on etsy and found the same ones selling for at least double!

So what do you think?  Feel free to "weigh in" with your opinion!  (Sorry, I couldn't resist!)

My First Guest Post!

Ladies and gentleman (ok who am I kidding?)....Ladies and my husband.....I am pleased to announce that today I am doing my very first guest post and it's over at Thrifty Decorating!  I'm so excited to share one of my projects there.......hint:  it involves one of my favorites ~ burlap!  Head on over to Thrifty Decorating to check it out ~ and while you are there, spend some time looking around.  Nikki has some great money saving decorating ideas and hosts a linky party every Thursday ~ leave her a comment and let her know I sent you :)

If you are visiting from Thrifty Decorating, WELCOME!  Please feel free to spend some time looking around ~ and if you see something you like, I am a lover of comments!  Since you are most likely a Thrifty Decorator too, you might be most interested in my "under $5" projects ~ just click that label in my sidebar.  Become a follower or check back often to see the latest!

In other news, if you've been coming here for awhile, you've probably already noticed I've made some changes to the look of the blog......and there's more work to do.  For now, though, I was thrilled to find a great button-making tutorial here, and now, I have a button.  I have to say, html is not one of my languages, and I was pretty pumped when this actually worked!  You can grab it on my sidebar or there's also a link in my menu bar (along with a "featured on" button).  And since this post needs a picture, I'll post it here, too:

<br /><a href="http://www.thecellardoorstories.blogspot.com"><img src="http://i1126.photobucket.com/albums/l615/jamohr/blogbutton.jpg" border="0" /></img src="http:></a>

Have a great day, everyone!

April Fool's Menu

When Jackson woke up this morning, I told him to go look out the window, that God had pulled the best April Fool's joke on us.....the ground was covered with snow!!  What a crazy way to begin the month!  I didn't have any pranks ready throughout the day, but I did have a few jokes up my sleeve for dinner tonight.

I have been seeing the cupcakes that are actually meatloaf and mashed potatoes, so I used that idea and changed it up a bit...

After putting cupcake liners in the muffin tin, I flattened out refrigerator biscuits (I had the big ones so I tore them in half first) and pressed them into the liners, leaving a little "well."

I then added a spoonful of ground beef (I had cooked it in advance) and a little cheese and baked them at 350 for about 17-18 minutes.  I wasn't really expecting the biscuits to rise that much, the "well" I expected to be filled with meat kind of disappeared, but oh well!

I added the icing (mashed potatoes and food coloring) and the cupcakes were ready!



Jackson wasn't quite sure what to think!!  Thankfully he thought it was funny and wasn't too disappointed that we weren't actually eating cupcakes.  We also had applesauce, but I served it warm....which is something we did quite often growing up, but I don't think Jackson had ever eaten it like that before.

Yep, that's right, there were no vegetables.  I kind of forgot, and then didn't want to add just plain ole veggies to a special fun meal....so we were vegetable-less tonight.  On to dessert!  :) 

Our dessert was a breakfast theme!  I know most of you have probably seen this "toast" already, it's been pretty popular in blogland....

If you haven't, I'll share the secret....it's sliced poundcake, toasted!  To go along with the breakfast theme, I also made the "fried egg sundaes" I saw here, and although mine didn't turn out quite as good, they were still fun!  (The "eggs" are marshmallow whip with a dollop of lemon pie filling.)

I love this little smirk when he tasted his toast....

We had a fun April Fool's "party" (if there's cupcakes, it's a party, right?), and I already can't wait to start planning for next year!  Did you pull (or fall for any) April Fool's pranks today?  I had to make a quick stop at the grocery store to get some of my ingredients, and when I got to the cashier I realized I had left my wallet at home ~ guess THAT joke was on ME!



Linking up to some of my usuals!