thrifty « The Texas Mama

Blog
About

Belated Halloween and Fall Home Decor and Crafts

November 10, 2007 at 5:44 am | In Craftin' With Hali, Crafty, Home Decor, thrifty | No Comments
Tags: autumn, crafts, fall, glitter, Halloween, Home Decor, pumpkins, spiders

I’m sure I got the inspiration for these from some great crafter somewhere, and I am sure they aren’t exactly original, but they sure were fun to make and are super cute. I sprayed some wooden beads (from the craft section of Walmart) black. Then Hali and I bent black pipe cleaners in half and inserted them into the hole. Hali had a blast gluing on googly eyes!

Then we let these cute creepy crawlies infest our house! They really loved the ficus. And the window above the front door- I think they had plans on dropping in on unsuspecting ~~intruders~~ visitors.

I really loved Martha Stewart’s glittered pumpkins. I wanted to make some as soon as I spotted them on marthastewartliving.com and on my next trip in to Michael’s I spotted the little kits. I found some plastic pumpkins there as well. But I am cheap. And that price sure seemed awfully high for some glitter (although, yes, it IS really pretty glitter) and glue. And Michael’s wanted way too much for some plastic pumpkins.

Thrifty me spotted some glitter glue in gold and copper. I thought “hey, Hali could help me paint it on with some paintbrushes and it would be a fun project for BOTH of us that way!”. So for about two bucks a bottle, I snagged up three bottles of glitter glue.

On my next trip into Walmart, I spotted some small plastic pumpkins on sale for much less than what Michael’s was asking. So all told, I think I spent about HALF of what I would have, had I done it Martha’s way. The outcome, I must say, is just as good and looks great in my entertainment unit:

I did however, purchase some autumnal garland and a grape vine wreath from Michael’s for the mantel and fireplace. I LOVE fall. It is absolutely my favorite season.

Bag For Me and Backpack For Hali

October 17, 2007 at 4:19 am | In For Hali, accessories, sewing, thrifty | No Comments

Clearly it needs a good ironing, but here is a bag I put together for myself. When I say put together, I mean it: the seam right down the middle is pretty obvious! I made a pair of pants that were too short for Jeremy (he’s 6′0, so this happens occasionally) into shorts, and took the cut off portion and made it into a bag, then sewed some of my absolute FAVORITE fabric that I found at Hancock’s on around the middle. I covered up my sloppy sewing with some orange grosgrain ribbon, added some loops at the top and connected a brown leather strap from another purse that I didn’t like it on. Talk about refashioning, eh?

For Hali, she needed a bag that she could carry her ballet and tap shoes in easily, so I made a simple little backpack. I’ve seen them everywhere, but didn’t have a pattern so I just kind of started sewing. I picked a kind of “mod” fabric out of my stash- a quarter yard, and used all of it.

A (blurry) close up of the back view:

This little backpack is ridiculously fast and easy to make. Hali wouldn’t even wait for me to get my camera out for a picture of it before filling it with the “stuff” that little girls find necessary. She is quite happy with it, as am I.

Thrift Finds #1

September 21, 2007 at 5:51 am | In Home Decor, thrifty | No Comments

Notice I’ve Numbered the title? Cocky of me, I’m sure, but I do hope to be able to find great thrift finds in the future to ~~brag about~~ share with you all!

I found these at the local thrift store, Peddler’s Mall. To tell the truth, I’m not even sure if it is technically a thrift store. There are tons of “booths” from all the different “vendors” that sell their stuff there. The vendors are almost never actually there- I think they just give the owner a percentage to sell the stuff. Anywho, here’s what I got:

I love love LOVE French wire baskets, and had spotted several at a previous visit. I’m the kind of shopper who has to really think about something before I buy it. Usually this means I go back and get it after I’ve gone home and thought about it for a while. So that’s what I did.

I had plans on actually using this. Unfortunately, so did Hali, apparently. The only real problem with that is the basket, as you can see in the picture, is quite rusty. I decided I liked the look (Jeremy agreed) so I left it as is. Poor Hali just wanted to lug the giant thing around (it really is fairly large, heavy, and unwieldy) and get rust all over herself and whatever she touched. So on top of the refrigerator it went. For now.

I have a bit of an obsession with all things organizational. Especially container/bins/baskets/boxes/you get the idea. It was a buck and looks good on my desk.