Pumpkin Patch

My apologies to those who check the blog more regularly than I update...but as promised here are some new pictures of our trip to the pumpkin patch with Ben's family as well as Uncle Dickie who was in town and joined us for the adventure.

DIY/frugal light fixture

Since the moment we looked at our house...I did NOT like this light fixture. I am just not much of a shiny brass fan. But, due to other pressing expenses and priorities...it has existed the first year in our home, despite our dislike of it.


Here is a closer look...FABULOUS, isn't it?



Well, it has now been replaced with this find...50 cents at a garage sale last weekend! Yipee! Maybe not exactly what I would have picked out...but at least close enough to fork over the 50 cents. Much better!!

DIY Baby Nursery

My daughter is now 6 months old...you would think I would have had her nursery completed months before her arrival, but no. I just now am getting it where I am starting to love it! It isn't perfect, but I am loving it! It is full of DIY projects and cheap finds...some done by me, some by my mother, and some by my darling hubby.

PROJECT #1: The bedding. My mother and I spent several hours in a fabric store picking a choosing just the right combination of fabrics. We ended up with a total of six different fabrics. I love how it turned out!! Thanks again mom for your many hours spend sewing.



PROJECT #2: Isn't it a requirement that babies have their name on their wall somewhere? I picked up wood letters and boards from Hobby Lobby and started painting...the close up shows the design behind the letters.


PROJECT #3: Above the crib needed a little something...How about some canvases with the edges spray painted and some fun scrapbook paper? Easy and cheap!

PROJECT #4: I don't have a great picture of this...but I picked up four of these butterflies at a garage sale for a quarter!! They were an awful blue color...a little spray paint, and now Charlotte has butterflies flying up from her bookcase over her closet.

PROJECT #5: Not really a project, but rather a cheap find from a garage sale. "Love" sign for 75 cents! Yeah! I could have spray painted it so it would match perfectly...but it looked great how it was...so why mess with it? It hangs over her closet.

PROJECT #6: Cheap bookcase found at Goodwill...painted it...I will eventually repaint it to match the room better. It is lacking in any excitement, but functional none the less...and very much needed!
PROJECT #7: My last and FAVORITE project. I found this...wall border for 25 cents at Salvation Army, which caught my eye because it matched perfectly. I knew I would find a purpose for it.
My hubby made a wood valance for me. I painted the edges with left over wall paint, then used spray adhesive to attach the border. I LUUUUUUVVVV IT!! I am still debating if I want to add any type of sheers or anything to the edges of it. I'd be happy to hear if anyone has an opinion on the idea.

Head over to Kimba's for more DIY projects!

DIY Project --wall decor

I am a big fan of Hobby Lobby. I could spend hours and hours in Hobby Lobby, not to mention thousands and thousands of dollars. But of course, money doesn't grow on trees, so every time I am in the store, I stroll down the home decor clearance aisle to see what is there. Sometimes things are damaged, and sometimes things are just ugly. Recently, there was an aisle of 90% off home decor items!! Yay! My eye was drawn to these...


Yes, I know, they are not exactly my taste or something I would pick out...but ideas started swarming around in my head: spray paint, decoupage, the possibilities were endless, and they were only $1.80 a piece, much cheaper than buying a canvas the same size and these were solid wood.

I decided to head to the scrapbook paper aisle with our half bathroom in mind...it has been begging for some decor since we moved in a year ago. I found some paper and headed home.

I placed the wall decor on the paper and traced it. Pretty simple! Then I cut it and used spray adhesive to adhere it to them. They looked like this...

Nice...but still lacking something. I looked for some cute shapes online, like silhouettes of a bathtub, or toilet or something...but just couldn't find anything that excited me. Then I remembered...TILES!! I had purchased numerous tiles at a tile store that was closing almost two years ago. I ran upstairs to dig them out.

PERFECT!! Added a little dimension and texture. At first I wasn't sure how i would get heavy tiles to stick...but good 'ole Velcro did the trick!

Here they are proudly on my bathroom wall.


Break down of the cost

$3.60 for the wall decor
$1.18ish for the scrapbook paper
$1.00 for both tiles

TOTAL $5.78 Not too shabby in my book!

Head over to Kimba's and see many other DIY projects!!

Charlotte - 6 months old

See a few more on Julie's website julieanderson-photography.com

Charlotte's first swim