Pallet Chalkbard Sign - Frugal Decorations for Fall #2

A few days ago I decided it was time to give the mantel a Thanksgiving makeover. In fact since we had moved in the new house it has not been properly attended to. As I was unpacking I would stick something up there wondering if maybe it would work, when one day I looked up at my mantel and realized what a hodge podge array was staring back at me. Mercy! 

A fall Thanksgiving makeover was definitely a good reason to change the present state of my mantel. Once I got the ends situated I realized I had a HUGE hole in the middle and nothing to place there, a mirror would be nice but I don't own one. That's when I headed outside to look at my pallet pile. I selected four pallet boards and placed shorter boards behind them on each end and nailed them together....this is rustic decorating right, so it's okay that some of my nails only went halfway in and then had to be nailed over. 

Rustic, rustic, rustic! :)

That day I was Thankful for Thanksgiving in the most literal sense because it was that day that I made a terrifying discovery. Realizing I needed a larger hammer one of my daughters ran into the addition we are tearing down on one end of the house. It was then that she heard water 

gushing.....
pouring....
spewing.

I hurriedly called my hubby, who works nearby, and asked him to rush home. Then I got my wits about me, threw on my welders gloves and ran out to the water source by the road and quickly turned the water off. 

I was proud of myself.

The pipes had frozen in the addition and we're pretty sure that water had been spewing for 24 hours, let's just say I'm dreading that water bill come mid December!

Had I not been making a sign for Thanksgiving we would not have went into the addition that day and made the discovery!!

Right then and there I decided to give thanks for everything.....as mentioned in 1 Thessalonians 5:18.

I was thankful for the water spewing.
I was thankful for the blowout poopy diaper our youngest gave us...AFTER we turned the water off (I use cloth wipes and need water for them).
I was thankful for our van that was overheating on the way to town to get the cap to fix the leak.
I was thankful for our van that was low on oil and needed an oil change.
I was thankful for the older man that crossed lanes on the bridge and sent us onto the side of the road, praise the Lord he didn't hit us.

And not surprisingly when I got home that night (All 6 of us safe and sound, alive, and breathing) I grabbed the sign I had nailed together out of pallets, brushed with chalkboard paint and wrote a message on it.......

WE
GIVE
THANKS

This blog post is linked to:

Firewood Welcome Sign - Frugal Decorations for Fall

As much as I would LOVE to go into all the fancy stores and buy fall decorations, it's just not in our pocket book. Goodness, I'd be happy with shopping for decorations in Dollar General, but that's not happening either. And I am totally cool with that. In fact I'm glad I can't because it totally gets my creative juices flowing.

A little bit of nature.
A little bit of browsing through catalogs.
A little bit of chalkboard paint & burlap.....

That's my Inspiration.

We have recently moved so in between organizing and unpacking I really didn't want fall/Thanksgiving decorating to fall through the cracks. 

A couple of weeks ago I decided to spruce up the front porch. I noticed some firewood in a shelf in my Pottery Barn catalog and on the ends they had painted Ho! Ho! Ho! for Christmas, that's when I decided I could bundle up my own firewood on my porch, wrap it all up in burlap and paint the words welcome on the ends!

The girls helped me find the right sizes of firewood and I laid my burlap fabric strip on the park bench. Once I had the amount of logs I needed I tied the burlap tight.

The only paint I had on hand was chalkboard and I couldn't even place a paint brush so I fingerpaited the letters on. We had some pumpkins given to us at a local pumpkin patch and Voila ~ Fall decorating on a dime, using nature as inspiration.

I hope this inspires you as well.

Cottage Farmhouse Living Room Makeover

I really felt like my living room had no rhyme or reason. And while I love eclectic decorating, it IS the epitome of me, my hubby said it was looking Eclectic hippie, and no offence to hippies, I just wanted a different style.

As much as I adored my green vintage sectional sofa it was not practical for our family of 6. It came apart so easy and my children thought it was so neat that they could split them up in two rows to make "theater seats". While I love their creativity and ideas, our living room is so small that it was a bit impractical. :)

Recently I stumbled upon The Old Painted Cottage and her blog was a HUGE motivator in my living room makeover. In fact I used her living room as my inspiration  While my makeover is nothing compared to hers, I am really satisfied with the outcome.

Last year our tax return went to paying for the new baby, new bed, you can read my article about our amazing bed here, paying off the rest of our debt, and a new (used) vehicle. This year we budgeted some of it to a new couch. 

We are not finished but I thought I would show you all my progress thus far.

And here is the finished product, while there are two of my children in the before picture I would like to assure you that I did not get rid of my girls, they just so happened to not be around when I snapped the after pic. :) 

Let me tell you a little about what we did here

• New wall color is Glidden's Natural Linen (I just love the name, so soft and comfy sounding). Exactly what I wanted.
• The trim: Wal-mart's Table Linen White
• The sofa is a chaise sofa by Ashley. I really wanted a white couch (I know call me crazy, especially with four kiddos, but....I new that wasn't possible so I opted for a neutral color sofa and I purchase a $20 Queen size blanket to throw over it, this can be easily washed again and again. (I already have once) :) But not because of the children.... I do have a couple rules. No one is allowed to eat on the sofa...AT ALL and you can't sit on it if you've been playing outside, clothes must be changed. We had those rules with the vintage green sofa and it stayed very nice and I was able to sell it.
• The front door is brushed on chalk board paint, if you are considering doing this it took three coats and was done in a day. Super easy. In chalk I wrote I Corinthians 13:4 "Charity suffering long, and is kind..." When chalkboard writing be sure to dot your I's and cross your T's. I say that because I forgot to cross my T in charity and long arms hubby fixed that for me. :)
• The clock is something I adore and I'd like to thank my brother for talking me in to getting it. I bought it at the strangest of places, if you ask me. A furniture rental store. I don't shop those places but happened to be in one searching for a sofa in a small town and it was one of my only options. The bad part about those rental places is they don't like to come down on the price. So I paid full price for this very large tin clock. My brother was like, "Aren't you going to buy it?" That was just the encouragement I needed....hahaha. 
• I had the Live, Laugh, Love sign already and the home interiors mirror candle sconces, these were moved from my kitchen.
• The door was lovingly made by my Amazing husband as a Christmas/anniversary gift. Our anniversary is on the 29th of December (I know weren't we crazy, two love birds wanting to marry in between college semesters).  This door belonged to the old rock house my Daddy grew up in. Hubby inset old tin off the barn in the door and wood burned our names, childrens names and birthdays, and wrote 'Livin on Love' on it. I cried huge grateful tears with this gift. I love gifts made by hand that take time and thought. They mean so much.

So there you have it. Still a work in progress. As I thrift store and flea market shop I am hoping to find some end tables to paint black, and a bookcase or armoire. 

Are you working on any makeovers in  your home?

~Marie

Linked to Liz Marie Blog

Chalkboard Farm Door

My hubby cleans houses part time. We have a house cleaning business and he's always coming home with unique decorating ideas he discovers in clients homes.

One just so happened to be a chalkboard door. When he told me I knew the Perfect spot for my chalkboard door, and then I came up with a couple about 20 others. I'll be scribbling chalk art everywhere in this house. :)

The chalkboard door he saw boasted a family's 'Bucket List' for that year. It included events and activities they wanted to make happen in 2013.

I love the fact that I can change what's on my door anytime my little ol' heart desires.

My facebook friend posted this little poem and I knew this is what I wanted to write on my back door. This old back door that leads into our laundry room certainly needed some sort of makeover and chalkboard paint just so happened to be the answer.

I went ahead and painted a little spot on the bottom for the girls to draw pictures and create their own art as they fancied. They were tickled pink. Pink chalk that is, and blue, yellow and green....

BECAUSE

we couldn't find white chalk...ANYWHERE! Yes I'm yelling, I was a bit frustrated that it was sold out at every wal-mart. We were also told that Wal-Mart no longer carries chalkboard paint but luckily we found some at Lowe's. That stuff is a bit pricey, but the good part...a little bit goes a long way, so a quart will do you good for a while, depending on how many projects you have.

We also painted a door in the living room but I won't be showing that to you until our big reveal of our Living Room makeover, which could take a few months, but I'm excited to share it with you.

Have a blessed day ya'll!

~Marie

Check out this adorable Melissa & Doug Chalk Bundle!

To view the Melissa and Dough Chalk Bundle click here: Melissa & Doug Eraser and Chalk Bundle

Homemade Salt Beads & Easy Paint

It's HOT outside. Really HOT! So I have been looking for indoor activities. Also I have banned Netflix from the girls and any DVD's on our TV. We are wanting to work on Character qualities and spend more time together so instead we are doing more crafts and fun things instead of letting our brains turn to mush by watching cartoons. :)  I'm not opposed to shows and even though they were not watching tons I felt like it was time for a break!

I've noticed since we have they have become even more creative, giving, and helpful. 

 We are making SALT BEADS!  This is so easy and fun and I even had everything in my cabinet.

Homemade Salt Beads

1/2 cup water

1 cup flour

1 cup salt

Knead these three ingredients together. Throw the lump of dough on the table and let your kiddies have at it. You can make fun different shapes and use toothpicks to make the holes in the center. If it's hot outside like it is at our place you can set these on your roof to bake or in the oven at 250 F for 2-3 hours. Frankly I'm not heating up the house any more! 

Easy Homemade Paints

1 tsp. water

1 tsp. of dish soap (I used Dr. Bronners because it's non-toxic and clear) Dr. Bronner - Organic Castile Soap Unscented Baby-Mild, 32 fl oz liquid

1/2 tsp. food coloring

These would be fun: Betty Crocker Neon Gel Food Colors

Mix these ingredients in a small jar and Voila! Homemade paint! The kiddos are loving this!

Finished Beads!

Linked to Money Saving Mom

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