World Map

Please excuse the terrible picture....

I made this map to help remind my roommate and I to pray for our world.I used a vinyl sticker I bought on Etsy and an old canvas I found on the curb.

On the backside I put some metal sheets so now its magnetized- every few days we move the magnet to the country we are praying for.

We are following along with this book:

It's a wonderful resource with all kinds of information on every country and gives specific prayer points as well.

This map hangs in our hallway where we walk by every day. It's a great reminder and bonus, we are learning some Geography!!

* I link my projects to the following amazing blogs whose links you can find on my side bar

- Todays creative Blog

- Someday Crafts

- Somewhat simple

Fun with Flowers!

I used to have this plain-jane lamp in my bedroom. There was really nothing special about it other than I got it from a good friend that was moving and the inside of the lamp shade had a little leopard print thing going for it. Other than that, it was just black: Black base, Black shade, just BLACK. And I have nothing in my room that's black so it stuck out- and not in a good way.

So, after some green spray paint, burlap, hot glue and a few fun flowers, I now have an awesome lamp that I love to show off!

I added this little fabric ruffle on the bottom to hide where the burlap was uneven.

I just stuck the flowers on with tape so I can change it if I want to...

The lamp looks great next to my new chair (still deciding if I'm keeping that fabric on the cushion) and now I have a great little reading spot in my bedroom!

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I got a little carried away making those flowers, so I used some extras on a wreath for the front door. I had been wanting to make one of those yarn wreaths for awhile. It was super easy and I just pinned the flowers on so I can change it out as often as I like!

I picked the green ribbon because its what I had lying around, but then realized it's St. Patrick's Day- Bonus!

I think I'm done with fabric flowers for awhile, but I sure do like them...

* I link my projects to the following amazing blogs whose links you can find on my side bar

- Todays creative Blog

- Someday Crafts

- Somewhat simple

Yard Art

I went to this local artist show the other day and saw something so cute. I felt kind of bad not purchasing it from the artist, but I'm all about borrowing great ideas from other people and claiming them for my own :-)

Here are the supplies.

Helpful tip: Chick-Fil-A always makes projects more fun!

I went to the local thrift store to find the molds and pie pan. I had the knob from a previous project and the rest came from Lowes. It was really fun searching around for pieces that could work as flower parts!

I spray painted the mold and knob. Drilled holes in the plate and mold and used the knob to attach it to the post.

Next up was the leaves. For this I bought some metal siding and just cut out a couple leaves, painted them and just attached them with screws.

This was such a fun project and fairly simple. I did spray it with poly to help protect it a little.

Won't it add some fun character to a flower bed or something?

* I link my projects to the following amazing blogs whose links you can find on my side bar

- Todays creative Blog

- Someday Crafts

- Somewhat simple

Dresed up Window

I was feeling the need to do a little re-modeling in my bedroom.
I had this window hanging above my bed already. As much as I loved the scrapbook paper behind the glass, I thought I would try it without. But I couldn't just leave a plain window up there.

I remembered I had these old shutters from the college days. We had them hanging by the phone and would write in numbers of our friends.

This was back in the day when people had home phones and you didn't rely on your cell phone to store all your numbers.

It was kind of fun looking back over those numbers...

I knew I wanted to do something fun with the shutters so I had the genius idea to use the shutters for what they actually were made for: windows!

I painted the shutters to match my vanity and hung them on either side of the window.



I liked it, but it was missing something. I added a few vinyl stickers and then found this garland that I had been keeping for no apparent reason! I hung it above the window and I really like the way it turned out!

So far I like it. I think I will work on some fun throw pillows next. Also, did you notice the new decorations on the side wall? New post on those coming soon!

* I link my projects to the following amazing blogs whose links you can find on my side bar

- Todays creative Blog

- Someday Crafts

- Somewhat simple

Free is always nice!

I got this random email from Groupon saying they are giving me $15 toward my next groupon purchase as long as I use it by February 2. Evidently they send these out every once in a while to random people.

Today, the Groupon in Fort Worth was $30 worth of merchandise at Bath and Body Works for $15.

So I just scored $30 worth of stuff for absolutely Nothing. Nada. Zilch...

That's a pretty good deal if you ask me!

Burlap Wreath

My front door was looking a little sad after the holidays so I thought I would try my hand at all those cute wreaths I have been seeing around.

I started out wanting to make a coffee filter wreath, but since I live in Houston and it is pretty humid 90% of the time, I didn't think it would hold up very well outside. I went with burlap instead!

I started with a basic styro wreath and wrapped it in plain white ribbon.

I took some burlap and cut about 50 3inch squares. I was not exact on this at all, some squares were bigger than others. I really just eye-balled it. That's the way I do things!

To make all the "puffs" for lack of a better word, I used hot glue. I put a dab in the middle of the square, folded it diagonally and then did it again. Again, i was not exact.

Then I just hot-glued each puff to the wreath, filling in gaps along the way.

And since Valentines day is the next holiday, I made some red rosettes out of some red burlap I had. I'm not crazy about them, but for now I think it will do. I may change that out sometime soon, but overall I am happy with the final product.

PS: can you tell the pictures on this post are tons better than previous ones? That's because of my awesome camera I got for Christmas! One day soon I will actually learn how to edit photos and then blog-world beware!!!

Snail Mail

This weekend I got a fun little surprise in the midst of the unimaginable amount of junk mail we receive!

I had forgotten that a while back I had signed up for ebates and then done a little Christmas shopping online. If you don't know about ebates, its basically a site that links you to a bunch of online stores that you would shop at anyways, but if you go through ebates, they give you cash back on all your purchases. I used it to buy some things from Vistaprint and Barnes and Noble and this weekend I got my first check along with a $10 Home Depot card I got for signing up. My first check was only for $5, but hey, thats Chick-Fil-A one day or Sonic Happy Hour all week!!!

If you are on the hunt for free money, check out ebates. Use this link and you and I can both get $5 in our account!

http://www.ebates.com/rf.do?referrerid=VmnGNPwANrKUk3yzpxcFpA%3D%3D

If you don't want to use the link you can just go directly to the ebates homepage and sign up there.

If you don't want to sign up at all, we can still be friends. Just consider this a public service announcement that you can ignore!!

* check back soon- I"ll be posting a fun new project I worked on over the weekend thanks to my $10 from Home Depot. Actually it was one of 4 projects I worked on over the weekend, but who's counting!!!