Pumpkins

Last week as I was pulling out my fall decorations, I realized that I have next to NO cute fall decorations!  This is unacceptable....so, I decided to start fixing that problem....starting with these super cute, fun, and cheap pumpkins.

To start, you buy a 4x4 from any hardware store.  You can choose the size you want your pieces cut, but I had my handy-dandy husband cut my small pieces 7" long, and my longer pieces 14" long.  Again, you can choose different sizes, but I chose to use 2 pieces for the small pumpkin and 3 pieces for the large pumpkin.  

Once I had my pieces cut, I spray painted them with an orange spray paint.  After my spray paint dried, I added stain to each piece to add a "weathered" feel.  

Once the stain and paint were both dry, I used liquid nails to glue the pieces together....it seriously hurt me to wait for them to dry, but I did.  :)  

While those were drying, I had my husband cut me two pieces off of a broken limb from a tree in our back yard.  

Once the 4x4's were dry, I super glued the sticks onto the pumpkins and added bows and wiring that I had wrapped around a pen to create a curly effect. 

And...finally, I have started a collection of super cute fall decorations.  :) These were super fun to make, and they only cost about $10.  I'm in love. 

Organizing My Spices

Ooookay, so my biggest issue with organizing has always been my dang spices.  I HATE organizing spices.  I hate trying to dig through a cupboard filled with spices to find the exact spice I am looking for, I hate not being able to really alphabetize and organize them, and most of all, I hate the way they look when you have different brands of spices.  Some bottles are big, some are small, some are glass, some are plastic...so on and so forth.  This drives my O.C.D. CRAZY!

Well....for Christmas my sister got me a set of magnet containers from Ikea.  I am such a slack that until today the only thing I have put in them was chalk.  However, I FINALLY decided to utilize the awesome containers for my spice drawer problem.  I went to Ikea this afternoon and bought a few more sets of the containers she got me.  I then printed off some clear labels of all the spices I had hidden away in my evil spice drawer.  My daughter and I worked together to empty the spices into the new containers, put the labels on them, and alphabetize them on the refrigerator...

and....VOILA

 A much more organized, spice holder that doesn't take up any space...and the best part is that they all match. :)  I love the way it looks, and it doesn't take up any of my much needed counter and cupboard space.  yay!

Hooks--The awesome cheap kind!!

I was looking around on some of my favorite blogs the other day and I found an awesome idea for hooks. On her blog Shabby2sweet.blogspot.com she mentioned some Dora the explorer hooks she found at the Dollar Tree that have a big square cover to go over the screws.  She had an awesome idea....and I copied it.

It starts with these awesomely ugly hooks she found at Dollar Tree (There were TONS when I went there in both Dora the Explorer and Sponge bob) The cover plate comes off so that once you screw in the hook you cover it with the plate.

The next step is to take the covers off and spray paint over the tragic Dora The Explorer purple

Next I chose a piece of scrap paper that I liked, cut it to the shape of the square cover, and colored the edges brown to create a rustic feel

Once the spray paint was dry I mod-podged the paper to the cover plates.  I also put mod-podge on the hook to cover the spray paint so that it will not start peeling on the plastic after a while

Once that dried, I had a beautiful set of hooks. :)  Earlier I showed you a kitchen shelf I had created, but I never LOVED the hooks I had chosen.  Because of that, I decided to use these hooks on that shelf.  I also re-did our hideously ugly towel hooks in our bathroom with the same concept. 

Here is the newly hooked shelf (isn't it much better?!!)

And here are the before and after shots of my bathroom door (I am seriously embarrassed to show my door before!)

And.....AFTER

Aren't these hooks stinking cute!!??  The hooks only cost $1.00 each and that includes the screws.  Both the door and the shelf together cost me a whopping $7.00 to make.  These hooks are so great that I bought about 10 more (just in case I ever find another project for them.)

Thank you Shabby2Sweet for the AMAZING hook idea.

Chair Makeover....

Okay....so I have had a hideously ugly chair sitting in my garage taking up space for the last year.  I was going to throw it out a while ago, but for some reason decided not to.  I am soooooo glad I didn't, because last week I decided to turn it into a masterpiece. It was quite a project, but it was worth the time and effort it took (not to mention the mess).

Here is the chair before....soooooo ugly. :)

I sanded the chair as best I could and stained it with a mahogany stain I had left over in my garage from another project.  As you can see below, my daughter helped me with the staining.  

While the chair was drying, I took the old ugly cushion and covered it with a new cushion I had made out of an old pillowcase I had lying around.  I also had an extra decorative pillow that wasn't being used.  The decorative pillow was a little bland so I added a flower to it with leftover fabric from the pillowcase I used to make the cushion and....viola.....a masterpiece. :)

Once again, the best part is that it was FREE!!!  I LOVE FREE PROJECTS!!!! :)

Flower Frames

I wish I would have remembered to take before pictures of these frames.  They were an ugly brown color and they had scratches all over them.  I have had them for a long time, and finally found what I wanted to do with them. :)

 I spray painted the frames black and made the flowers that are attached to the front out of an old pillow case and some pearls I had lying around.  I then sanded the edges of the frames to make them look rustic. I also burned the edges of the flowers with a lighter to make them rustic as well.

The best part.....these were FREE!!!  I created them using things I already had around the house.  :)

Below is also another little project I created with these flowers.  They are super easy to make.  You cut a circle out of paper, then you cut an inch thick strip of fabric (whatever you want to use.  I used an old pillowcase for these), Tie a knot in one end of the fabric, super glue the knot to the center of the circle and wrap the fabric around and around until the fabric is gone.  Super glue to the paper and cut any paper left that is showing.  You can then super glue anything you want into the center of the flower.  

Kitchen Shelf

Today was my first "trashy to flashy" project.  I loaded up my daughter, drove to D.I. and spent quite a while looking at the wonderful treasures that were lining the shelves just begging to be re-made.  I have been wanting to make a shelf for my kitchen to hold my cookbooks and pots.  I was SO excited when I saw this little beauty!!!  It was exactly what I was looking for.  

So....I purchased the shelf ($5.00) picked up a .99 cent can of black spray paint and four new hooks to hang my pans from ($2.00 ea).  I am super excited about the way it turned out.  What an easy project, and it looks very good in my kitchen.  Below is my masterpiece. :)

Total cost - $13.99

(The glare is a little bad, I will try to get a better picture later)