Thrifty Thursday- Blue Plates & Bling! Bling!

Our ward had a really great adult dinner party last weekend, and several people volunteered to be table hosts, which means they could set the table any way they chose for their assigned guests. I was inspired by all of the creativity that went into these tables and thought you might be too!

This one was a "Clue" theme, complete with placecards like "Colonel Mustard", etc. and even costumes for the characters to wear! Thanks for the idea Courtney, I'm thinking this is going to be our company's Christmas Party theme next year! LOVE it.

Here's just a few of the tables, and in the interest of blog space, I will just tell you there was also a medieval table, an Elvis one, a wedding one, a pirate one, and a spring one. Such great ideas!

Mine was this one with a crystal tree centerpiece with birds perched and crystals hanging, and my favorite blue plate collection.

This activity got me thinking about my lovely blue plates. This is a collection of mine that is 13 years in the making. It started when I worked at a jewelry/bridal registry store that sold fine china. They had miscellaneous 5 pc. place settings that were probably 50 years old, and the store owner wanted to sell them on their sidewalk sale for pennies. They were Noritake and Royal Copenhagen, and just too pretty for me to let go. They didn't match, but that didn't bother me, and so began my collection of blue flower dishes. It has been a much more fun way to get china, and I have added to it whenever I find something. Most are from thrift stores, garage sales, and the blue glasses are from our trip to Cabo.

The amount I paid for each piece is minimal, but the value of all of the pieces collectively is priceless to me. There's a story behind each piece, and that is my most favorite way to decorate. Sure it's easy to just go to the store and BUY something, but where's the fun in that? I think a home that is a result of years of selecting pieces that speak to you is so much more interesting.

On to my next train of thought......

I like to call this idea "Bling! Bling! for the Ring! Ring! This was a fun trash to treasure project that Bailey came up with. We had this old cell phone lying around that she liked to play with and pretend it's hers. Do you have one of these?

Bailey thought maybe we could fix it up and make it even better, and I thought that sounded like a fine idea. So out came the spray paint........

Then Bailey added some self-adhesive rhinestones to bedazzle it up. Now she's got a sparkly phone like the one Miley Cirus had in her new movie we just saw.

She loves her cool new phone. I must say, it makes a mom proud to see her daughter's creativity blooming. She loves to hang out in my craft room with me and sew clothes for her Webkinz from my scraps, or make flower arrangements for her room. She's becoming quite the decorator by nature, or nurture, who knows? The other night she asked if she could look at some Pottery Barn magazines in bed so she could get some ideas for her bedroom, and my heart skipped a beat! Oh, the fun we will have together!!!

Thrifty Thursday

Welcome to the Jungle!This is Cade's bedroom that has evolved from a Star Wars bedroom into a Jungle bedroom. According to Cade it's not finished yet, because he wants several trees and vines hanging from the ceiling, with maybe some pineapples, bananas, and coconuts hanging too. Yeah, that would be cool. Oh, and if you think his room looks like this all the time, think again. I totally staged it for a picture.

Pay no attention to the mismatched bedding ensemble. That is a result of trying to please an extremely picky kid who has "fabric issues". But take a closer look at what may be my thriftiest work ever, the animal artwork on the wall.

These are pictures cut out of a calendar that I got at Dollar Tree I think, so that's 12 pictures for one dollar! I had Dave cut me some boards that were one inch bigger than the pictures, then I painted them black. (Have I mentioned how handy it is to be married to a cabinet guy?) Then Cade and I modge-podged his favorite photos on and made some custom artwork for his Jungle room. All for one dollar.

We left the ceiling from his Star Wars room because it makes a really cool night sky. This is my temporary solution to Cade's idea of having a dark blue ceiling with millions of stars: Tissue paper. I'm not saying it looks great to an adult's eye, but to an 8 year old's eye, it's wonderful. And when he grows out of wanting all those millions of stars on his ceiling, it will all come down in a matter of minutes.

Cade Saves the Day

This afternoon we had a funny experience. Well, it's only funny NOW.

When Cade came home from school, Avery and I were in her bedroom. He came in to talk to me, and Avery-thinking it would be funny- decided to lock her door and shut it. Well, her room has a lock on the OUTSIDE of the door, so now all three of us are locked in her bedroom with no way out. I couldn't find a single toy or stick or hairpin that was skinny enough to pick the lock, so we three just sat there until Bailey came home from school and we could call out to her to come rescue us, which she did, after being trapped for about a half hour.

But wait, it gets better.

So Bailey comes home and into the bedroom and we are thanking her and explaining how we got stuck there in the first place, and while we are talking, Avery- again, thinking it would be funny- LOCKS THE DOOR AGAIN. Now all FOUR of us are locked in the bedroom. Avery just looks at me with this mischeivous grin, thinking she just pulled off the best prank ever, and I tried really hard not to let loose with the swearing in front of my kids. I couldn't believe we'd just been BAMBOOZLED by a three year old twice in a row!

Now what, wait until Dave gets home? That's a good two hours away, and some of us need to go potty! So we start looking for people outside to call out to to come into our house and rescue us, but would you believe on this beautiful day, there was no one in our front yard for a very long time?

So Cade tries to convince me he could jump out the window, (which is a two story drop!) and by this time I'm actually thinking that might not be so bad of an idea. On any normal day I would never allow this, but given the circumstance, I'm actually considering it. We'd been in there for an hour! I coach him for several minutes on how to do the drop and roll so he doesn't break an ankle, and how he needs to clear the prickly bushes, and then without hesitation, he leaps out to rescue us.

You must know this is a dream come true for him, he felt like Superman and he was definitely a hero! He enjoyed it so much he begged to do it just one more time, so I let him get it out of his system and he did it one more time. Just in case any of my neighbors witnessed this, I just wanted to let you know it's not a normal activity at our house, don't call child protection services on me ;)

Thrifty Thursday

Easter is such a great time of year, I love everything about this holiday. Bailey gave a talk on Sunday about the symbols of Easter and how everything that traditionalizes Easter is a symbol of NEW LIFE. The yolk in the eggs represents Christ's emergence from the tomb. The bunny is a symbol of life because it is sooooo fertile. Each spring I am completely amazed at all the dead plants in my yard that miraculously come back to life. Of course I love to give "new life" to old things, so it seems only appropriate that I spent my Spring Break giving new life to . . . . . .





my kitchen table! It actually used to be black, but it was getting a little dreary to me (not to mention the fingerprint nightmare it was) So I announced to Dave that I'd been thinking I'd like to paint it ivory with a glaze on it and he was THRILLED! Right hon? So we took it to his shop, sanded it and refinished it. (Being married to a cabinet guy has it's perks sometimes)

















Here's a little peek at something else I'm giving new life to. I fell in love with this when I saw it, but Dave's not convinced it's a keeper yet. Dave refers to it as my Phantom of the Opera light. This is the "before" shot, and I'll hopefully post the "after" shot soon. I painted over the brass this weekend and I'm going to add some crystals. It's hanging in my garage for now, and it really fancies up the garage!























This is another chandelier makeover I did for Avery's room. I just love a chandelier in a room, and fortunately they're pretty easy to come by at the thrift stores because people just get rid of these! (Whaaaat?)

And this picture of Avery is here just because I think it's so darn cute. We told the kids we'd take them to Baby Animal Days, as long as they promised we wouldn't have crying all the way home about not being able to have a pet bunny. We threatened being grounded if we heard one peep about it. (Cause we've had THAT conversation at least a hundred times since our last bunny episode.) I admit I want them as badly as the kids do, but we need a fence first!

Thrifty Thursday

I've always loved my friend Hanne's idea of "Thankful Thursday", where each Thursday she blogs about the things she is thankful for that week. I thought I'd put my own spin on that great idea, and blog about my favorite thing to do in my spare time, which is digging up hidden treasures, and call it "Thrifty Thursday" My all time favorite blog -thanks to Eileen- is Joys of Home (ramblings of a self made home designer). She is full of fabulous ideas on turning trash to treasure and is a kindred spirit to me! Visit her blog and she'll inspire you. She admits that blogging about her projects gives her some kind of deadline to actually finish all those projects laying around, so I thought maybe that might help me too because I really need to finish all my half-done projects that I think someday I'll get to.

First of all, if you ever come across some old crystal doorknobs, you must buy them! Months ago, I found these on KSL, and had my mom pick them up for me. She says "What do you need 14 doorknobs for?" And I say "I don't know yet, but I'm sure I'll need them!"






















Look Mom, they found a home! This dresser was mine growing up but was a different color back then. With a new coat of paint and these "diamond" knobs on it, it's perfect for Avery's girly room.






























Am I the only one that thinks 2 liter bottles are just too pretty to throw away sometimes? Probably so. Hmmm, if I cut the bottom off, it could turn into a cloche to display pretty things under. Can you picture it?

Put it on top of a pedestal, with a sweet porcelain bird and a little moss nest, and it's a happy little spring display. Hey, there's those crystal knobs again! Those sure come in handy.

I like to frequent the dollar store, because that place is full of hidden treasures. Take these galvanized containers for example. Although the lovely blue flowers and butterflies probably make somebody happy, they don't make me happy. Fortunately they scratch off pretty easily and you're left with the perfect planting container.

Add some soil and wheat grass, and you'll have some thick, lush, green grass to look at inside your house, even if there's still snow outside!

My cat looks forward to me planting this grass each spring, she thinks it's her own personal catnip.

Hope you all enjoy your spring break. This weather changed our camping plans, so now I'm hoping to get more projects done on my list while it rains . . .