Swap with friends

My friend Mary started this group on Facebook a couple years ago ... it's called Another Person's Treasure. So basically you post things you want to get rid of and your local friends can take them off your hands. One man's junk is another man's treasure! So this past week she organized a Swap event. It was held in the gym at our church and everyone brought all their unwanted items and laid them out - then you could go around and 'shop' for FREE among the items the other ladies had brought. It was AWESOME! Not only did I get rid of about 5 bins FULL of my unwanted stuff ... but I came home with some really nice items too! 

Here is all my stuff ready to go into my car ... 

And here are some of my treasures - a food processor! Something I have wanted for a LONG time!
A towel holder for my downstairs bathroom, and a toothbrush holder. 

I picked up 4 of these flip-flop jewelry boxes that I figured the girls would enjoy painting one day with friends. 

My daughter LOVES cupcakes, I got her this to put on her dresser to hold jewelry or treasures. 

{She LOVED it!} 

3 picture frames, I always need more frames!

This beautiful clock ... this is my Mom's life verse so I am going to see if she wants this, if not I will keep it - it needs a new clock function but that is easy enough to replace! 

BRAND NEW candles, never even used! I can always use more of those. 

I use these little bins all the time for office supplies or craft supplies. They fit perfectly into drawers for easy organization. 

 A hot pink suitcase for my daughter, she was super excited about this!

A new game for the family and a brand new 1000 pc puzzle - would be great for a snow day! 

Brand new box of Biscotti, these will be great for coffee with friends!

At first I passed these by, but finally came back to them ... they will hold candles and go on the wall in my bedroom - romantic, huh? ;) 

This is a covered chip/dip holder ... I have another one of these and use it ALL the time when going to parties with friends. They also hold muffins, cupcakes or cookies really well. 

A whole stack of new-to-me books ... I LOVE to read and there were SO many books to pick through at this swap. 

These are hard to see but they are green envelopes with a slightly sparkly finish to them, I can use these when I make cards. 

Wedding table place cards ... got these for my Mom, not sure if she'll need them but they were free so hopefully she can use them!

A beautiful LOFT coat for me ... 

A long comfy sweater for me ... or maybe even my girls. 

This sweater is for me, I love short sleeve sweaters. 

Two sort of fancy shirts for my daughter. 

And a little sweater for my daughter to wear over a dress. 

And SIX beautiful summery dresses that I am hoping will fit one or both of my girls. It's SO hard to afford to keep up with buying them clothes and at this age we never get 'hand-me'downs' anymore ... so I was SO happy that this Mom from church who has 3 college age daughters was giving away some of their clothes!

I think that's all ... so many wonderful treasures, I am SO thankful! If you have a place to do this I would highly recommend getting together with friends and doing one of these swaps! {Side note, they did another one in the fall OUTDOORS at a local park - so you don't need a large gym to do this, just load up your cars and have a tailgate swap in the warmer weather!} Thanks Mary for all your hard work!!! 

Easy and Inexpensive Winter Décor

whoa! it's January y’all! where has the time gone?

my girlies are back in school, back to sports and church programs and band concerts and all the stuff that keeps us busy. I’ve been working a little part time and trying to keep up with this crazy house. so I took down all my Christmas décor and it was so sad, I kept thinking I wish I could keep this tree up year round! but I wanted to share with you how I kept things a little festive around here for just a tiny amount of money.

 

first, I began by putting away ALL the Christmas décor, then I hit up walmart a couple days after Christmas and they already had so much stuff 50-70% off! I picked up the stuff in the picture below for just $4.15!! that’s 12 white votive candles, a large white snowflake, glittery silver garland and a package of cute blue, silver and white snowflakes … all which fit perfectly with the wintery theme I wanted to keep going in my home!

 

I had bought these wooden snowflakes earlier in December for about a buck each and just used some pretty blue paint to lightly brush over the wood  - I didn’t even make sure it was perfectly covered because it looked better that way.

 

then I added a top coat of clear glitter paint …. so simple!

 

 

next I found this print on pinterest and printed it out on my home computer … and since it looked a little blah …

I took some scrapbook markers in various shades of blue and colored it in a bit. much better!

nothing says winter décor like a good ol’ snowstorm just a few days after Christmas!!

 

 

and here is how it all comes together … this is a coat rack/shelf in our living room … I used old mason jars filled with epsom salts to look like snow, then placed one of those white votives in each one. also I pulled any white or blue décor items I had around the house to keep the color theme going. {not counting the coats, that’s purely coincidence!}

 

I had a basketful of pinecones from Christmastime so I kept those out for my winter theme, I used them all over the house to keep the theme going – amazing how something so simple from nature can look so neat!

 

on the left of the shelf is my hubby’s little Patriot’s gnome … he got it for Christmas and I am pretty sure he’ll stay there until our team {hopefully!} wins the super bowl!

an up close of the mason jars and glittered snowflake …

 

the next area of my living room is the fireplace wall. I added the glittery garland over the mirror with the little snowflakes hanging down from it. the mantle also has more pinecones, mason jars and blue or white things.

 

a better view of the mantle …

 

and the mirror …

 

I haven’t even burned my candles yet cause they look so pretty! but I will, I promise, cause I bet they’ll look so pretty in those jars!

 

I love the blue colored pinecones on the left – I can’t remember where I found them but have had them for years.

 

 

burlap, pinecones, epsom salts, candles, so simple yet pretty!!!

 

on the skinny wall to the left I have these 3 wall pockets hanging – I wanted to put something wintery in them but didn’t want to go out and buy anything, so I simply set more pinecones on the top.

in my little bathroom I have 2 shelves above the toilet which I tend to decorate for the seasons as well. I have a mix of things here from colored glass jars to pinecones to little signs and various decorations. I honestly didn’t intend to put that mix of things together but for some reason I think it works and I like it.

 

and my last cheap décor to share is to simply have your kids help you make some beautiful snowflakes for the windows! we made these over Christmastime and have kept them up for January. they look pretty during the day with the sun shining in and even prettier at night with the black sky behind them. pinterest has TONS of tutorials if you feel a little intimidated about making your own patterns like we did. =)

 

 

and so, until next month when I’ll bring out my Valentine’s day décor … we will have the winter décor and enjoy a little bit of cheer that it brings us.

until next time, have a great day friends!

My cozy fall living room

 

I mentioned in a previous post how I was decorating for fall on a budget this year ... as in, I had no money to spend and I had to be content with using what I already had.

 

Mission accomplished! What I did was create a cozy, warm space that I enjoy spending time in. My living room has some olive green and light blue features in it so I ended up just adding some orange things and surprisingly it all works just fine together!

 

Here is my mantle:

 

And from another angle, in natural light. My plants spent the summer outside on the deck and they grew like CRAZY!

 

I have this shelf by the front door so we can hang coats, school bags and such on the pegs.

 

This is how it usually looks. The shelves on the bottom are used as our homework station with important school papers and books, supplies for doing homework and projects and our library book bins.

 

Looking from the hallway towards the front windows. I LOVE my windows that allow so much sunshine to flood the room during the day! {As you can see we have ONE.UGLY.FOOTSTOOL. I have great plans to recover it someday if I could just find the right fabric.}

Looking at the other side of the room. I repainted that dresser last spring in a beautiful light blue color and I still love it every day.



 

Found this neat pumpkin on clearance at Target a couple years back. 

This is what I would call 'Mom's corner'. I love to sit in the recliner in the morning to have my quiet time and my coffee. I love the collage of photos and such above the chair. I love the collection of books on the stool to the left. I love the cozy old quilt that has all sorts of holes in it but I just can't part with. It's just my own little special place. And yes, I do share it with my family, but they rarely sit there since it's not a good view of the TV. ;)

For years we have had a living room table set - it has a big coffee table and 2 big, square end tables. But the problem is, they are just WAY too huge for our little living room and people would always just bump into the corners of them and get hurt. So recently I saw on Pinterest an idea to use bar stools as end tables and I thought that was brilliant! I love the height of them, I love that they are small enough to fit in little spaces and that you can move them around the house as needed. I got 2 of them for only $6 on a resale group on Facebook and I love them!

 

This is looking back at the other side of the room ... kitchen/dining area in the background. I like to change my pillow covers for the seasons so I put these orange, plush ones on for autumn. {I like to think they draw your eye away from my old, torn up couches! hahaha} 

 

Another 'little' table. This one I found at a yard sale for $5 and I need to do some repairing and paint on it but trust me, it was a good deal.

 

The whole room. =)

 

It may not be perfect or BIG or glamorous ... but I think it's warm and comfortable and cozy and that's what is important to me.