Grosgrain All Around

Hi everyone. Welcome to the mansion. I wanted to share a quick and easy decorating idea with you all today. As it is a frugal decor idea, I am linking up to a new blog that I found...Finding Fabulous. There you will find tons of frugal ideas for Frugalicious Friday.

Grosgrain ribbon all around your room!

Our walls are really tall in this house. I keep trying to think of ways to break them up in the different rooms. On one of our trips to see the in laws, I noticed that my mother in law's "decorator" had attached grosgrain ribbon to the tops and bottoms of the walls in her kitchen. It looked great. The professional had secured the ribbon with wallpaper glue and the professional had charged a great deal of money to do the job. I am "anti-glue" and "anti great deal of money!" So, I promptly bought some grosgrain ribbon at Hobby Lobby (50% off) and got myself a jug of liquid starch. I LOVE liquid starch.

This is what I did with it...
It is difficult to take photos of a large portion of the walls at one time...sorry. But, I starched the strips of ribbon to the tops and bottoms of the walls. I left two inches of painted wall above the ribbon which is also two inches wide.

Here are some on the bottoms of the walls...



And one more top...



The key to success with this project is to buy your ribbon in one long piece. ( so you can cut the exact length of each wall) After you cut your wall length of ribbon, dunk the entire piece into the liquid starch. Then, stick it to the wall. Smooth the ribbon out with a sponge. Wipe off the excess starch. After the starch is dry you can clean up the wall with a damp sponge.

When you get tired of the ribbon border, just pull it off. Wipe the walls with a damp sponge, and it is like it was never there. NOTE: don't do this on flat paint....it doesn't clean up like satin or semi does.

And that is that. I have also seen this done in a little girl's room with wide pink grosgrain ribbon around the center of the room. Cute!!!

For other DIY wonders...visit A Soft Place To Land.

You can also see some super metamorphosis ideas at...Between Naps On The Porch.

Toot YOUR horn over at ...Silly Little Sparrow.

Yall have a great day.


Laura

Super Simple Stockings

Hello and welcome to the mansion. I am 'tooting my own horn' today at Silly Little Sparrow.

As I have mentioned before, (here) I am one of those folks who can't commit to a constant Christmas decor theme. It is a sickness. Because money does not grow on trees here in the great state of Louisiana, I must find fun and frugal ways to satisfy my constant desire for CHANGE!

Each year stockings are a big issue. They must match the tree and the wreath, etc. What to do? I saw these beauties at pottery barn...

Love them. I like the simple white with the name. However, I don't like the 30.00 price tag. So, I went to Wally World and got some white felt. I think I paid 5 dollars for it. I drew a simple stocking and cut it out. I loaded the sewing machine with some black thread and started making some monograms. I also added some fancy stitching.
I sewed the stocking all the way around, and it was done. The ended up costing about one dollar a piece. Not quite a stunning as the pottery barn version, but I like them a lot. Here is one more pic... Thanks for stopping by to see my super simple stockings. Have a great day.

I am also posting at The DIY Show Off .

And, scoot on over to A Soft Place To Land for more DIY goodies.

Goodwill Hunting: Christmas Balls

Hello gals. Welcome to the mansion.

I am one of those crazy people that likes to change my Christmas "theme" every year or so. I love the challenge of thinking up what my tree will look like each new Christmas season. However, my pocket book does not like my thinking this way. So...the race is constantly on to find frugal ornaments and decorations to use.

Not long ago, I decided to try my hand at tassel making. For some reason, my tassels did not turn out quite like I had envisioned them in my head... I am NOT the Nester, that is for sure! Anyways...this ill fated attempt left me with some extra craft materials...ie: fringe, ribbon, beaded things, etc. And...when I was in the Goodwill store a few Thursdays ago (20% off for Military at the DeRidder Goodwill on Thursdays) I found 24 white Christmas balls for 1.60. I grabbed up those balls and headed for home.

Long story short...extra craft materials + cheap Christmas balls + hot glue = cheap tassel ball Christmas ornaments for our 2009 tree. See???

I can't wait to place them on the tree. Have a great day....Laura

My Bucket Buddy

My Bucket Buddy
This post was previously displayed as a Project Friday. Today it is being posted on "Sunday Favorites" at Happy to Design. Scoot on over there and see all the previously posted favorites.
Hello Ladies. Welcome to the mansion today. Fabulous Friday.

Have you ever finished a project and had to ask yourself...."What did I ever do without this thing?" I am wondering this about my bucket buddy. Not long ago I cut a picture out of some magazine and put it in my idea book....here it is...

Isn't that fabulous? I closed the idea book and didn't think of it again until I saw this...

Well...husband happened to be sitting near when I exclaimed over this bucket. He mentioned that he had an old bucket liner thing in the garage. "Run," I said "Don't walk," to get it for me. He did. Here it is...

Not very attractive, huh? I washed it...it smelled like motor oil. I pulled the man tag off of it. And then, I did some sewing and gluing...see????





First I sewed on some white gros grain ribbon that I had. Then, I hot glued some big rick rack on. I was too lazy to change the bobbin color to sew it on....And finally, I had to put my monogram on. (like any good southern girl) And then...I had this....

I love it! I love to wrap things in brown paper. And, being military, I am constantly mailing something to someone far away. I can't believe that I didn't do this earlier. Everything is right there in the bucket (white bucket from Wal-mart for 4.50). Here is a pic of the inside...

And there you have it ladies...the bucket buddy. It cost me 4.50. You could use the bucket buddy for any number of things other than wrapping and mailing. Crafting, cleaning, picnic stuff, home school stuff, stuff to take to lessons when you are sitting and waiting for the kiddies....endless possibilities. I hope you too create a bucket buddy.

Have a great weekend ladies.

Try This: Frugal Plate Hangers

It is "Show and Tell Friday" @ There is No Place Like Home. This is my first Friday to join in the fun. To see all of the great "Show and Tell" posts click here.

It is also "Frugal Friday" @ Life as Mom. To see all the frugal tips click here.

OK. So....do you sometimes buy things that are WAY too expensive, but you really do need them, so you buy them????? GUILTY. I have decided that I am going to hang around 20 or so plates (small in size) at the new mansion. (Movers come on Monday...biting nails....wheezing...heart racing...what will get broken?) I digress. I also decided that I do not want to use the standard metal plate hanger...the ones that look like this..

I decided to go with the round stick on kind of plate hanger. The ones that look like this..

These things are great. I found them at Hobby Lobby and bought them up. Now...here is the less then frugal part of the story...these little gems are VERY EXPENSIVE. We are talking 3-5 bucks per. But, because I needed them, and because I couldn't think of a way to achieve this type of hanging without them, I bought them....lots of them. Content with my purchase, except for the expense...I went on home. Then, strolling through Dollar Tree, I came upon this... A Package of 8 cloth hangers. They are adhesive on the back and have a metal hook. I think that you are supposed to use them on the wall. But, if you put one on the back of your plate and then use a twist tie, you so....have a plate hanger. See??????????????? Here is the plate with the cloth hanger stuck on....
Here is the cloth hanger with the twist tie attached. Just make a loop with it. Here is me, holding the plate by the twist tie. Then, you just put your nail in the wall, and hang it up. Tada...invisible plate hanger. This version costs 12 1/2 cents per hanger. Much better on the budget. Now...I wouldn't try this with a jumbo plate or platter, but it will do nicely for my purposes.

Needless to say...I am returning my 60.00 plate hangers and heading back to the Dollar Tree. I just have to eat 20 loaves of bread to get all those twist ties. Ha.

Have a great weekend ladies.

Laura