Nifty Thrifty Girl

Last weekend I had the pleasure of spending a relaxing weekend with my bestie girlfriends at a former ski lodge-turned-private home. Besides all the food, drinks and laughs that we enjoyed, we spent Saturday afternoon crafting. What joy! It was the perfect setting…a snowy afternoon, roaring fireplace, and plenty of craft space on the spacious dining room table.

I decided to get out the Amy Butler Gum Drop Pillow pattern I’ve been holding on to for over a year – just waiting for the perfect time/space to make it. Since I wasn’t sure how well the crafting of this pillow would go, I only used a smidgen of Amy Butler Fabric and filled in with some inexpensive polka dot fabric. I opted for the large version of the pillow, and yikes!…what a monster it is!

The pattern is super easy to follow, and quite simple to make. It does take a ton of stuffing, so be prepared to buy a 5 or 10 lb. box of polyfil. I purchased the 10 lb. box so I could make more pillows because now I’m hooked!

I’m off to buy some more lovely AB fabric because guess who loves to snuggle on the big pouf? I think he deserves one  of his own…

As my friends know, I can’t, for the life of me, sit still and always have to have my hands working on something creative. So, when I came across this post at Smile and Wave last week I immediately knew I had to try this.  What better time than now to try out a new hobby…what with the winter doldrums and all? After reading  this tutorial at Hula Seventy I was on eBay seconds later looking for a vintage camera. But let me tell you, after bidding on and losing no less than four vintage cameras I was just about to give up. And then, I got lucky and snagged an Argoflex Seventy-five for a mere $7.00. The vintage camera gods were definitely smiling down on me that evening!

all fancy with a case and everything!

I’ve always wondered how folks were able to get the old style rounded corner, grainy photos. Silly me. Here I thought they were actually taking photos with vintage cameras and developing the prints in dark rooms. To my shock and surprise I realized that I, too, could take this type of photo. Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to secure the camera I lust after – this one. But, Nifty Thrifty Girl is more than happy to put out the “Will work for Camera” sign!

Keep in mind that I’m working with a sub-standard camera; a Sony Cybershot. Although it is cute and pink and handy – I certainly hope to be able to get myself into one of those spiffy Canon’s REAL soon. And now, without further ado, some of my first shots…

What fun, right? I can see this new found hobby may be a bit of a problem for me. I’ve already been late for one appointment because I was busy playing with my new toy.

View more pics here.

I have always wanted a chalkboard wall in my kitchen. Since my walls are paneled my only option was to paint the free space on the side of the one original cupboard in my kitchen.  I was hesitant to paint this area but figured if I didn’t like it I could just paint it back to white.

After several coats of black chalkboard paint (I like to use Rustoleum’s Chalkboard Paint-you can find it in quarts at Home Depot)…

(yes, those are the still-surviving glitter pumpkins from Halloween!)

Three days of curing,  then priming with chalk…

The finished product…

I am very happy with the new chalkboard. I used to hang my plain, boring calendar in this spot. I now have a custom calendar plus extra space for notes & doodles.

My house is 100 yrs. old this year! Look for upcoming posts featuring before and after photos of my entire house.

With the suffering economy I, for one, knew I could never afford the fabulous Ballard Design curtains that I had been yearning for…

drapery panels from Ballard Design

Instead of b00-hooing about the fact that I could never afford these curtains, I decided to try my hand at hand-stamping my own curtains. I had two pairs of white sheer panels that I had purchased at our local dollar store (total for two pairs: $20). I would have preferred a heavier fabric but since I already had these curtains I decided to use them.  I had some black fabric paint on hand, so all I needed to do was design a stamp.

I first looked at several medallion patterns online and made a few sketches. Since the homemade stamp was going to require a lot of fine cut work I decided to use the simplest design.

I traced my design onto some craft foam, cut it out using an X-acto knife…

…glued the cut out design to a wood block…and presto! A homemade stamp was born.

I spread one curtain over my dining room table and went to work stamping. I quickly learned that the panels shifted easily, causing the paint to smear, so I placed a white sheet of paper under each area that was to be stamped and heat-set the design with a blower dryer before moving on to another area.

In about two hours (phew!) I had new curtains that cost a fraction of what I would have spent on designer panels!

In the future I will be looking for heavier weight panels (probably a cotton/twill blend) as these sheers are great for summer, but I would prefer something sturdier for the winter months.

For as long as I can remember holiday time meant homemade Christmas decorations. From salt dough ornaments to macaroni snowflakes to hand-painted wooden ornaments…my parents’ Christmas tree has always been adorned with the ornaments me and my siblings made. I still remember the smell of salt clay and the taste- because come on, what kid can resist taking a bite of clay?

Although the days of sticky dough and messy glue are gone (well, maybe a bit of messy glue is still necessary!), I still enjoy making my own Christmas ornaments and decorations.

I usually try to use whatever I have on hand – pipe cleaners, felt, glue, spray paint, glitter, or paper. From paper snowflakes to sewn felt ornaments – I think homemade is the best!

This year I had a bunch of left over craft felt so I got busy cutting, sewing and stuffing and came up with these…

…super cute, and super easy. All you need is felt, rick-rack, ribbon, a sewing machine and a bit of stuffing to give the ornament dimension.

Another favorite, and super simple ornament – pipe cleaner snowflakes:

You simply cut lengths of pipe cleaner (use old scissors or wire cutters) and twist them together to form snowflakes.

This year I snagged a ton of glass ornaments on clearance and decided to decorate them with glue and glitter:

These are a bit messy and time consuming but they are really cute. Since I had the glitter out and had a bunch of dried beechnuts, I decided to glitter them as well…

I tied ribbon to them and hung them on my branch display. I love these, and so does the cat! We find them on the floor almost every morning. I knew I wanted to decorate with white branches this Christmas so in the fall I collected and spray- painted branches white and then used them for display…

And also made them into a wreath that I then wrapped with a garland I purchased at Ikea.

So…go root through your drawers and see what great things you can find to make your own homemade ornaments. Have a safe and happy holiday!