Fall Baking

Since I don't have a stash of fall decorations and buying some would cost me money (which is currently going towards more permanent projects) I figured I'd do a little fall baking instead.

The first recipe I tried out was the gluten-free pumpkin chocolate chip cookies.  They don't look very appetizing, but they taste great.  My husband is currently trying out a gluten-free diet to see if he can resolve some stomach issues, so we had some almond flour laying around (it is not cheap!) and I wanted him to be able to enjoy some baked goods.

I've never tried gluten-free baking and I probably should have done a little research, but all I did was use this recipe and switch out the regular flour for almond flour.  The cookies are supposed to have a cake-like texture and mine came out gooey and sticky.  I like 'em that way, they just don't look very pretty.

The second cookie recipe I tried was one that I found on Pinterest and it's chock full of gluten.  It was dubbed by The New York Times to be the best chocolate chip cookie recipe ever and it very well may be.  They are delicious.  Crispy on the edges and soft in the middle.  Nestle Tollhouse does not even compare.

Last, but not least...and not pictured at all....I made some pumpkin pancake batter for my little guy and me to enjoy throughout the week.  I simply followed this recipe and used canned pumpkin instead of applesauce.

How's your fall decorating going?  Any autumnal recipes to pass on?  I'd love to hear!

Almost Curtains

I've run into a couple of issues with the curtains in my bedroom.  I bought the Vivan curtains I found on Craigslist for $20.  They're a teensy bit too sheer, so I'm planning on lining them with $5 flat sheets from Wal-Mart.

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Problem is...these sheets are nowhere to be found in the Raleigh area.  What in the world?! 

I also need another curtain rod and I only have about $7 to spend on it. 

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Too bad Ikea is three hours away.


I might try to make it to a couple thrift stores to see if I can find what I'm looking for.

Have a great Monday!

Thrifty Inspiration

Can  you believe it's almost October?!  It's been in the mid 80's here and there's a cold front coming through this Saturday.  I'm so excited!  I'm also excited about getting my curtain situation worked out.  I'll update on Monday!

In the mean time, have a look at the thrifty projects these ladies came up with this week.

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Natalie at Beach House In The City painted these old jars and bottles to give them a vintage look.  Isn't that a pretty picture?!

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Lucy at Craftberry Bush made this adorable spider web orb from yarn and a balloon. 

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Angie at Country Chic Cottage made her own pouf!  The fabrics she used look so cute together and she only spent $18.

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Kim at Too Much Time On My Hands made this "old" farm sign from a pallet.  She used a carbon transfer technique for the letters and numbers.  So smart!

Have a great weekend!

Burlap Covered Lampshade and A Curtain Question

I'm gonna make this short and sweet OK?  I finally covered my lampshade and I did it using this tutorial from Isabella & Max Rooms.

Here's a waaaay before:

and here's a regular before:

Like I've said in the past, there's a sheen on the white lampshade that you can't really see in pictures, but the burlap helps to soften it and I'm really loving the texture.

Alright, now on to the curtains... I sold a floor lamp and my old curtains (in the picture above) and now I have $45 to buy four new panels for my bedroom. 

I found four unopened panels of the Ikea Vivan on Craigslist for $20.  I think that they're pretty sheer, but I was wondering how sheer.  Does anybody have these?  If they're just kind of sheer, I'm definitely going to get them, but if they're pretty much like hanging a thin layer of gauze then I may have to pass and make a trip to Ikea and pick up two sets of the Ritva. 

Another option would be to go ahead and get the Vivan curtains and line them, which would put me at $40.  What do you think?

Either way I've decided that plain white panels are the way to go.  I took a pair of the Ritva curtains out of our guest room to see how they looked in our room and I like them. That's what's hanging up in the first picture.

Any other suggestions on how to get 4 white panels for $45 would also be welcome!

Skirted Nightstand Un-Tutorial

I'm calling this an "un-tutorial" because I did everything wrong.  I bought the wrong amount of fabric, spent more money than I should have,  and basically went about the construction of this thing the wrong way. 

So instead of posting my "how-to" pictures I took along the way (which are all wrong) I'll try and share what I should have done.

Here is what I started out with.  My $12 Salvation Army nightstand.  I didn't paint it (even though it would have been cheaper) because I have it turned sideways.  I bought it because of it's size.  It just fits next to the bed really well and looks better paired with the trunk on the other side.  I was inspired by Debbie's skirted table at Bungalow and decided that fabric would be a good alternative to paint. 

One thing I forgot is that I'm not a great sewer.  I'm a fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants type person and while that usually works out for me, it did not work for me on this project.

The first thing I got wrong was the fabric.  The striped fabric was just too much to put next to our patterned duvet.  I should have just gotten enough of it for the piping and gotten more of the cream muslin.  I'm so sad to say that the striped fabric was $16.00 per yard (and that was the sale price!).  I should have just gotten a fourth of a yard instead of a whole one.  I ended up spending $35 on fabric when I should have spent $25.  I realize $10 isn't that big of a difference, but since I'm only spending what I can earn from Craigslist on decorating, it's quite a hit.

Next, I should have been patient and followed this tutorial on how to cut fabric on the bias. 

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That way my piping would have been cleaner around the corners of my skirt.

Then I should have watched this video on how to attach piping so that it makes corners.

This is probably the biggest mistake that I made.  I didn't attach the piping to the top panel of my skirt before I tried to put the other panels on.  The result was a whole mess of pins.  Doing this the right way would have made the rest so much easier.

I managed to get the side panels attached (kind of) before I called in the help of a friend.

She was the doctor and this was the ER.  She has way better equipment and a ton more experience than I do.

I tried to stay out of the way while she fixed the mess I had made.  Thanks again, Becca!

Even though I made a ton of mistakes, I'm really happy with the end result and I think I could do it right if I had to do it again.  Thank goodness I don't. 

I'll be linking up to:

A Learning Experience

This is what the skirt for my night stand looked like about 24 hours ago.  Almost done right?  Not even close. 

Once I put the skirt on the table I could tell that the piping was all boogered up thanks to my non-sewing skills and I decided that I didn't like all that striped fabric next to our patterned duvet (which you can't see because our bed isn't made).  I ripped the front off and got a little a huge amount of help from a friend that actually knows how to sew.  Thanks for showing me how it's done Becca! 

I still need to hem the bottom and I'll post the finished product later today or tomorrow morning.

Happy Monday

Thrifty Inspiration

I've got to do something with my Salvation Army bedside table this weekend.  Hopefully I'll have a wonderfully re-done nightstand to share by Monday or Tuesday.  Also,  I sold the old curtains in my master bedroom so now I have some money to work with for new curtains.  Yippee!

Check out these pretty and thrifty projects these ladies posted this week!

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Teryn at Vintage Romance made this adorable ruffled bunting out of burlap.  She has a great tutorial that makes it look super easy.

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Pamela at PB&J Stories gave a fantastic how-to for stripping and re-finishing a piece of furniture.  Can you believe that table cost $15?!

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Kim at Keller Creative got "antique" maps from a calendar and framed them to make a very pretty display in her master bedroom.

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Victoria's project over at Vixen Made is not home decor related at all, but it is the epitome of thriftiness.  She made jeggings for her little girl from an old pair of jeans she didn't wear any more.  Amazing! 

Have a great weekend!

Dead Ringer: Restoration Hardware Furniture Factory Cart & HDC Holbrook Factory Cart

I really, really love these industrial cart coffee tables and I'm definitely not the only one.  There are lots of different versions out there with price tags that vary greatly.

This one is from Restoration Hardware and it's $1095.

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This one is from Home Decorator's Collection and it's $391!  Big difference!  (In the price...not so much the look.)

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Full Disclosure: The Rest of The Master Bedroom

Before I show you incredibly embarrassing pictures of the other 90% of our bedroom that didn't appear in Tuesday's post about my trunk.... I found a nightstand to go on the other side of my bed for $12 at The Salvation Army yesterday!

As much as I love the little $25 pedestal table I got from Wal-Mart, it just didn't fit.  It was too small and looked dinky when compared to the trunk on the other side of the bed. 

This baby is the perfect size.  Since I'm trying to stay away from matchy-matchy I think I'm going to make a skirt for it instead of paint it.  I actually have that night stand turned sideways and there are drawers on the right, but if I cover it with fabric it won't matter.  All that matters is that it's the right size.

So...just to clarify...one side of my bed looks like this...

...and the other looks like this.

The rest of our master bedroom is pretty much just as awful.  That nice picture of one side of my bed is a pretty inaccurate representation of the current state of our room. 

In the spirit full disclosure...here is the rest of the master bedroom.

These are my rejected side tables that I still haven't moved out of the room.

I still have a few patches of wall to paint.

This is a completely random assortment of stuff that has found a home in a corner of our bedroom. 

Last but not least, our office area is a disaster.  Yes, there are two cups that haven't been put away on the desk.

So there you have it.  One tiny, little section of my master bedroom is finished and the rest of it is a mess. 

Just tryin' to keep it real!

Have a fantastic Wednesday!

Trunk Transformation

I'm so excited to have finally painted a piece of furniture.  Does a trunk count as furniture?  I guess it does when you use it as a bedside table.  Anyways...if you remember last week's post, the trunk above used to look like the trunk below.

I guess this picture isn't all that helpful since you can't see much of it, but what you need to know is that it was a hot mess.  The trunk originally belonged to my husband's grandparents and sometime in the 70's it got a very bad, dark blue paint job.

At first I thought about painting just the parts of the trunk that were blue and leaving the wood and black metal hardware the way they were, but the blue paint was kind of all over the place.  Blue paint would have been visible on the wood and hardware, so I just decided to paint the whole thing.  

I've posted this picture before, but Holly's trunk over at In The Fun Lane assured me that I could cover the whole trunk with paint and it would look good.

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I borrowed another one of her ideas and used mistinted paint that I found at Wal-Mart to paint my trunk.  Ever since I read that she uses mistints on her furniture makeovers I duck into the paint aisle every time I visit a home improvement store to see if I can come across any good colors. 

That cream color was pretty much perfect and since we already had primer, my little trunk transformation only cost $4.23 + tax. 

This picture's not very good, but you can see more of the trunk.

And here's a gratuitous close-up shot of the accessories....

...which are totally staged.  That's actually my husband's side of the bed and he does not read Jane Austen novels or House Beautiful, nor does he use that alarm clock.  We have a big ugly digital one that he uses everyday.  That silver clock just looked so much better in pictures.

OK, now let's go waaay back and see the difference new paint on the walls and a new bedside table make.

Before:

After:

It's coming together piece by piece.  I still haven't sold my old curtains and made any money for new ones so I think I'll be covering my lampshade with burlap next.

Hope y'all are having a great Monday!

I'll be linking up to: