Some Pictures from Florida...

My sister and I

FLORIDA!

I'm in Florida!!  So I won't be blogging while here.....see you when I get back!!!! 

snake skin look alike?

So I needed a center piece idea...and I came across a great blog on thumb tack balls...Little Katie on the Prairie: Thumb Tack Balls I loved how Katie did them so I figured why not try to make some myself...It was time consuming and boring, but I love how it turned out...just a few more to make!!

all you need ...a Styrofoam ball and a bunch of thumb tacks...now for my first time doing this I made the mistake of buying a softball sized ball...hence why it took so long...and I bought 2 boxes of the 300 thumb tacks and I used 585 of them...

the start of the beauty..

as you can tell it was quite boring so I not only had my phone out, but the computer was on as well..

about an hour later...tah dah!!!  It's not completely finished; although I love the silver I'm going to be spray painting it to match our decor..I'll add pictures of it spray painted soon!!  What do you think???  Won't it look cute with a few others in a bowl all different sizes and colors?

Pillow Perfect???

So I read something recently on someone's blog and unfortunately I can't remember whose it was...but they took a double sided placemat and turned it into a beautiful pillow...after doing a little bit of research I decided to try one for myself....

Here's a picture of the placemat...you can see that it's double sided with two different pieces of fabric..because if you couldn't pull it apart then of course you would have nothing hold in the stuffing....

this is what I bought to stuff it..I believe it cost $2.99 At Joanne

I also bought this because I had never used one in my life!

so the next step is to open the seam..and STUFF!

once it's stuffed you have the option of sewing it closed..or if you don't have a sewing machine like I do...then......

...double sided fabric tape is to the rescue!!!

YOU CAN'T EVEN TELL...and I threw it around laid on it and it never opened..so its the perfect solution for now...I love how it turned out and went back to Target the following day to buy another one because I have the perfect spot for them...I also bought a few others to try out so we shall see how those turned out...what do you think? Easy enough and my total bill with all the materials and two place-mats (I mean pillows) probably ran me 8 or 9 bucks!  Not bad huh??? Nothing like getting a BANG for your buck!

A sneak peak....

Some of the things that I either just finished or are in the works!!  Can you guess what I'm doing with any of them??

From drab...to FAB!

I'm leaving for Florida on Saturday and I decided I wanted a cute little summer clutch.  I didn't want to spend lots of money for a new one so instead my sister and I decided to try our luck with some old ones and see what we could do..We figured these have been sitting in the bottom of our bins for forever and if we ruin them no biggie...anyways we LOVE how they turned out and they both deff. fit our personalities.  Anyways here is what you need to make them: An old clutch/wristlet, cute fabric, mod podge, a paint brush and scissors.

So this is how they started...they aren't too shabby but so BORING!

            AND AGAIN..just closer up

I took the top pieces off and threw away the fabric but kept the buckle for a future project!

This is how the back looked...another wallet of mine got stuck to it and rubbed off...can you tell it was fake snake skin?

I didn't take during pictures of the mod podge and fabric  but this is after the fabrics been cut to size...you put the mod podge on the actual purse first and then lay down the fabric...we waited a little while for it to try and then went back over top with the mod podge...it does make the fabric look cloudy and we both got a little nervous that we just ruined everything, but we let it dry over night and when we woke up it was back to normal!

Here are some of the things we used to make our beautiful purses!

  After they were dried and finished we decided they needed a little something extra...so we made rosettes out of extra scraps...I'll show later how to make them!

    

The finished project!  My sister's is on top and mines on the bottom..

A little closer of a view!  Now we both have cute little clutches for our vacation and it only cost us around 10 dollars total..
What do you think?

Let me tell you about myself...

Well I figured it's only fair to tell you a little about myself if you're going to be reading my blog...I am Morgan, I'm 26 years old and I work as a Program Coordinator of a Teen REACH Program and Extending Pathways to Graduation Program.  I work with at-risk youth ranging from 10 years old to 18 years old.  I live with my parents, sister and Dog who I love dearly but plan to in the near future move in with my boyfriend David who lives in Central Illinois.  It's not going to be easy for me to uproot where I have grown up and all of the people and things I love, but knowing David will be there and getting to work on small crafts to make the house beautiful helps!

 David's house that will soon be our home is well how do I put this nicely...not my taste...I guess that works...it's your typical man cave.  Posters on the walls, the same color walls in every room, clothes everywhere, and nothing in the frig but pizza and beer.  I on the other hand like decorations, color, organization and the occasional pizza and beer but I prefer a fully stocked fridge.  So..when he asked me to move in he told me I had free rain of doing whatever I wanted to the house...which to me is Heaven...to him..I'm pretty sure he regrets it..Ever since that day I have been planning, decorating, crafting, buying more and more stuff, and pretty much going over board...So this is the reason I started the blog...I work for the government and unlike everyone thinks government employees do NOT get paid well...so I am doing everything on a very low thrifty budget. Trying to get "A bang for my buck."  I hope that you can take ideas from me and hopefully give me ideas on how to make his man cave a home for the two of us and hopefully one day family!  Thanks for reading feel free to comment or e-mail if you have any questions, comments, or hopefully no concerns!!  xoxoxo

p.s. I'll add some pictures of everyone so you can put a face with a name!

 David in the Corvette he took me to my birthday dinner in..doesn't he look so handsome!

 David again with my Doxen, Sasha.

 and myself....I just got a new computer and have no pictures on it anymore so I will add more of the rest of the family at a later date!

Whoops...

So David and I last weekend decided to try to tackle some other things my Mom gave me to re-do and make BEAUTIFUL again...and this time instead of forgetting to take the after picture I forgot to take the before picture...I'll explain it a little bit.  We moved into the house I live in now when I was 2 and the lamp that was re-done moved into this house with us...so this lamp is probably around 26 years old and it still works great...the only problem was it was UGLY...and when I say ugly I mean beige and brown splatter all over it making it look like it was tie died...anyways....David decided he wanted to be in charge of the lamp...so here it is after being primed... 

I kind of liked it with just the primer on there...but we knew that wasn't going to work...so he spray painted it white...

he did a great job on it...the only problem is that it started to spider web a little bit, but that's a hopefully easy task to fix that we haven't tackled yet...next step is to re-do the lamp shade I just bought to go with it and bam a brand new beautiful (FREE) lamp! 

Old and not so pretty....

So when my Mom found I was really getting into making things go from old and not so pretty... to looks like NEW...she gave me some of the stuff she's had buried and hiding in the basement for a while! Example: A candle holder...very "80's".

I tried to make it so you could see all of the details...I knew from looking at it that there is tons of potential, but the ugly orange/brown really wasn't doing anything for me..so I got to work and primed it...

Doesn't that look so much better? Even the primer makes it look GREAT! Small Problem.....it's finished..but I forgot to take an after picture and its two hours away from me at David's (my boyfriends) house so you will just have to wait to see the finishing touches for the next time I'm down in good ol Central Illinois which will be in about 3 weeks because on Saturday I leave for Sanibel Island, Florida!!!  but.....  I'll give you an idea of what it looks like. 

Not the official spray paint I used but close enough!  After picture soon to come!

New to this!

Hey all! I want to thank you for checking out my blog..I'm new to this so I'm still trying to figure everything out but I hope to share with you all the goodies I have come up with! Most of them have started from looking at other people's blogs and trying to put my own little spin on things so I hope you enjoy!