Christmas Stocking Wreath

 

Winter is definitely my favorite season of the year, with Autumn being a close second. I absolutely love seeing all the homes made up for the holidays. In particular, the wreaths. I typically make my own, and if you don't want to shell out an arm and a leg for a beautiful one to adorn your door, I suggest you pick up this talent as well. As I was scanning Etsy for some inspiration, a marked a few I really liked:

 

Yep. See the stocking on the far right? That's where I realized they made moss stockings. Unfortunately, that particular wreath wasn't to my taste and it had a price tag of over $100. In fact, most of the wreaths I came across had a pretty hefty price tag, and that didn't even include the price of shipping.

I picked up the moss wreath on ebay for a mere $10 with free shipping and hit up those lovely 50% off sales at my local Hobby Lobby for the rest, so all together my Christmas Stocking Wreath only cost me about half an hour of my time and $40 to make. Note: You will have to reshape your door hook to accommodate this type of wreath and I suggest you use wire to securely attach it to the hook. Thieves tend to swipe beautiful wreaths because they can fetch a nice price tag, so if someone's gonna steal yours, make sure they have to stand at your door for a bit and work really hard to get it! Usually, they'll move on if it's not a quick grab-n-go.

HAPPY DESIGNING!!!



 

Cheap & Easy Bedroom Ideas

So I've got an extra bedroom to deal with in this house, but I didn't want to go out and spend a bunch of money to fix it up. Have this problem too? Start digging around your home, your friends' homes, even flea markets or your local Goodwill stores. And don't be shy about it. You'd be surprised what jewels you could come up with. So what was I lacking to tackle this bedroom?

 

 

NO HEADBOARD. I had a bed, I had linens, but alas, no headboard. I don't know about you, but shoving the bed against the wall just feels boring and impersonal, even if I do have really pretty linens. So I decided to let some wall art become my "headboard". I live in the south, so I'm lucky enough to have a Hobby Lobby around every corner like Starbucks. And if it ain't on sale this week, you're pretty much guaranteed it'll be 50% off next week. I found some metal stars with coordinating colors and hung them in an arc fashion, and made sure they were secured to the wall well and just high enough not to bother the people that had to actually sleep in the bed.

 

 

 

NO SIDE TABLE. I got lucky and saw that my sister had some pots in her backyard that she wasn't using. And OMG they were the perfect color for my bedroom! Instead of using them for floral decoration, I propped them up, filled the inside with some greenery I already had in the house and placed a glass top over it. I even snagged an eclectic range of books off the family bookshelves and an ornate bird ornament to hang off the lamp. Love this!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

NO DRESSER / TV STAND. I had a TV but nowhere to put it. I found a really old chest of drawers at my Goodwill Store and got it for thirty bucks. It needed a little love and a major new look but at least it was solid wood. It had recessed grooves in it for design and some older hardward holes which I filled with wood filler. I wanted this piece to look a little rough, so I added a little spackle to the drawer tops and the edging on top to make it bumpy. Then I found a plastic stencil that I liked and used it with spackle to create the design that you see now. Whip out some paint and wipe on some antiquing solution. Cute piece. (Spackle design not recommended for younger kids as it's more sensitive to damage).

 

 

 

Voila! Simple ideas that make really cute additions. And just like my potted side table, don't think for one second you have to use something for the purpose they were created!