Pottery Barn DIY

There is no question that Pottery Barn has some beautiful stuff. The vast majority of it is priced higher than I would ever want to pay for something, but I can see how, if you had money to burn, you would choose to spend it there. But there are some things my friends, that are so ridiculously cheap to DIY, that you simply mustn't spend the moolah that Pottery Barn asks for. Such as;



Oversized Pinecone $10.00

$10.00!!!! Friends, step outside your door, or go to your nearest park, and do a little scavenging for your very own (free!) cones. They may not be a foot long, but my goodness, they'll be free!



Found Cameras $149.00

Hit up your local Craigslist, or thrift stores, yard sales or even antique stores in your area. Little old 35mm cameras abound, as people are trying to unload some of their outdated technology. Bonus, yours will actually BE vintage!



Eclectic Glass Bottles, Set of 2 sale price $36.99

I don't think I need to explain this one. Buy some bottles of whatever you like at the grocery store, and pour the contents down the drain if you'd like. Soak the bottle in soapy water, and the labels will come right off. Voila - eclectic glass bottle collection.



Chalkboard Rock Vase Filler  $16.00

A can of chalkboard paint will run you about $9 at Walmart. With that can, and the great outdoors, you can make thousands of these rocks, making each cost about a penny, instead of $4.00 each.



Hanging Mason Jar $7.50

Again, collect up some glass jars (even Mason if you would like!) and twist some wire around them to make hangers. Stick a votive inside and you are ready to go.

So there you go, five easy DIY ideas that you can replicate from Pottery Barn, while still holding on to that wad of cash in your pocket.

Laptop Bling

Does anyone else think that laptops, while incredibly convenient and useful, can be quite boring? I definitely thought so, so I dressed mine up with some bling. :-)  I saw these vinyl decals at my local Michaels, and liked them immediately.



While in the store, I couldn't think of any way to use them, so I left without purchasing them. But, happily, a few days later I came up with the idea of putting them on my laptop cover. I hadn't wanted to purchase a skin for my laptop, but was put off by the price and the overwhelming amount of options. That's why these little flowers were perfect. They're easily removable, so they don't damage the computer at all, and they add a little pop of color to the otherwise boring case. The only catch was, when I went back to Michaels they were no where to be found. I had half expected that, as they were clearanced out on my last trip, but I tooled around the store, looking at other fun stuff and hoping I might find them in some forgotten corner. I may or may not have spent copious amounts of time in the art aisles, admiring all of the oil paints, canvases and brushes. Brushes are my weakness. :-) Anyways, I took one last trip around the store, and voila! There they were, hiding in a dark corner of the scrapbooking section.

Putting them on the computer was easy peasy. I simply cut out around the shapes, and positioned them on the back of the screen.





The decals included a little plastic piece the size of a credit card that worked very well to smooth out any stray bubbles.  Now my 'puter has a little bit of sizzle to it. Isn't it pretty?

Etsy has tons of vinyl decal options, and most of the sellers are willing to customize something for you. Think of the possibilities! :-)

Centsational Girl is having a "Where I Blog" party. Because we travel so much, I don't really have a stable spot that I blog from, which is why I love my super portable laptop with its long battery power. So now the "where I blog" is a little prettier! Go see all of the fabulous spaces that these girls have!

Also linked to the Sunday Showcase @ Under the Table and Dreaming:-), the DIY Project Parade @ The DIY Showoff and Metamorphosis Monday @ Between Naps on the Porch

Makeup Remover on the Cheap

Didya know that you can use baby oil as an eye makeup remover? Yeah, I didn't either. I came across that little factoid a few months ago, (magazine? blog?) and a light bulb went off. I don't wear a lot of makeup, but I do always wear mascara, and waterproof stuff at that. It's always a bear to take off, and that makeup remover stuff is expensive. The best I had found was the Almay pads, and I would buy them at BJs in a double pack for about six dollars. Two packs would last me about two months.

So when I came across this little tip I was all over it. A bottle of baby oil is under two dollars at Walmart, especially if you buy non-brand.



I've been using the stuff for the last few months, and I have to say, I love it. It has the sweetest scent, and works like a charm. I find it works best if I wipe it over my eyes with a cotton ball, then brush my teeth, then go back and swipe my lashes again. Now, it is oily, obviously, but I have combination skin, and I've found that the skin around my eyes is a lot softer since I started using this. And all the oiliness comes off when I wash my face, so everything is copacetic.



Oh, but you know I couldn't leave that ugly bottle sitting around my sink, right? Well, a trip to Goodwill provided a cut glass decanter that I promptly filled with oil. Obviously, you might not want to do this with kiddos around, but you could also put the oil in a soap dispenser, and then just pump a few squirts onto a cotton ball.





So that's my easy breezy beauty secret that saves me a lot of moolah. I'm all about finding deals on the stuff that keeps me beautiful, so if you've got any awesomely frugal ideas I'd love to hear them!

Makeover on a Dime, I mean, Penny.

I am in the middle of updating my kitchen for as little moolah as possible. The goal is to fix up the current fixtures, walls and cabinets so that the room is a little prettier, but not spend any significant money that would be better saved for the total remodel (a few years in the future).

Yesterday I started painting the paneling. Well, to be accurate, I primed the paneling. It took me two hours to sand it down and then clean up all the dust, and then another two hours to put a coat of primer on. That about did me in, so I decided to call it a day.

Today I'm not home, so instead of working on the kitchen, I've been browsing through Better Homes and Gardens' website in search of projects on the cheap that I could incorporate into our kitchen. I came across this backsplash and figured it could be replicated pretty easily.

These tiles from Lowes are $0.28 each,

These are about 6 inches wide, and I would need about 40 of them. ($11.20) Then one of these sheets,

at about ten dollars for the square foot, would provide me with the accent tiles.

Twenty dollars for a backsplash isn't bad, don't you think?

Linked to It's Great to Be Home's Inspiration Tuesday

Light and Airy Laundry Room

I found this "Deluxe Wooden Coat Rack" at a garage sale last week for one dollar.

I had been trying to find something that would be the missing link for my little laundry room makeover. I needed a row of hooks on the empty wall for hanging delicates and items that couldn't go in the dryer. But every hook I could find at Lowes and the like were at least $2 a piece. Adding a whole row of them would prove costly.

A can of white spray paint made this coat rack fit in nicely with the rest of the items in my fresh and clean laundry room.

Here's what the laundry "nook" looked like when we bought the house. Notice the paneling, the lovely wallpaper on the left wall, and the psychadelic colors of the cabinet on the right.

My father was kind enough to spend a few hours painting this room before we moved the washing machine and dryer into the room. I spent a few months searching for the right fabric to bring some happy color into the now fresh and clean space.

I hung a sheer panel over the doorway where the carpet covered doors had been. I used a blue on white polka dot cotton to make a screen to cover the electrical box. It's hanging from curtain clips on a wire, so it can be easily moved aside when we need to access the panel.

I had the wooden shelf with a heart cutout already, given to me when my parents moved. A couple of coats of white paint helped freshen it up, and I "accessorized" it with some faux blue hydrangeas, a picture of Lover and I, some Oxiclean in a white jar, and a white plastic box holding dryer sheets. I had all of these things, so there was no additional cost.

On the left wall, I took cork panels taken off the walls of the office and covered them in another polka dot print, this one with richer colors. I figure I can use these panels to hold spare buttons, stain remover tips, etc.

Below the cork panels I hung a watercolor I did of some laundry drying in the breeze. Isn't it pretty?

On the left wall, I put some pegboard hooks on the now white cabinet, and the coat rack on the adjacent wall. (Opposite the washer and dryer) Above the rack I freehanded the saying "Life and Laundry, Loads of Fun!"

Doing laundry in this area is much more pleasant now, and I love that I spent about $15 to make it enjoyable. Here's to makeovers on a dime!

Linked to Metamorphosis Monday and Thrifty Treasures. Check out the other tranformations and great finds!