Canvas Flag.........

So, while looking through my limited amount of holiday decorations the other day, I realized that I needed to come up with another door hanger! Of course, the frugal part in me wouldn’t allow myself to go out and purchase one, I had to make one from the supplies that I already had at home……so a challenge ensued!

I loved the burlap door hanger that I made for Easter, but alas, I didn’t have any more burlap….. crap! Hmmmmm, what else did I have that I could use? No wooden boards or wreath silhouettes, double crap!! No dollar store pool noodles to make into a wreath….triple, well you know, CRAP!

Ok, so what I had was some white canvas that I used to make some placemats for my citrus table scape (a tute is still coming on that!). I had some paint that my awesome daughter got at a yard sale for $1.00 (for like a HUGE Nike shoe box full!). Ok, red, {yep}, blue {check}, white {check, check}. A piece of wire to hang the door hanger {gotcha!}. Floral tape to tape off my design {again, from my awesome daughters stash}, and a sponge to sponge on the paint, hap-hazardly, to give it that chippy, Americana-like look…..SHaaWEET! I also cut a sponge in the shape of a star too!

Easy-Peasy directions……I’ll let the pic’s speak for themselves……(oh, by-the-by, I used two 12” x 21” pieces of white canvas):

I just sewed the two pieces together with a straight stitch, left an opening for the "stuffing". As with my Burlap Easter Egg, I stuffed it with those plastic grocery bags. A great way to recycle them! No fancy-shmancy stuff here, raw edges and everthing :)

I just poked my wire through the fabric (it was a small gauge wire), then curly-qued it in the back to make sure it stayed on.

I love the way it turned out. A super easy, and pretty quick, craft project that can be done in less than one day. It was really, really humid and stinkin’ hot while I painted it…..had my fan BLARING on me, so the paint dried pretty quickly too! The joy of this project is, I’ll be able to keep my flag on my door for Memorial Day all the way through the 4th of July! YEA!

I’m working on another table and PIANO scape project as well. Will post pictures of those when they are done. As always, thanks so much for stopping by! I love your comments…….have a very BLESSED MEMORIAL DAY and GOD BLESS AMERICA! Sharing this on-going project with the following AWESOME link-up parties!!!

CraftOManiac
TaterTots and Jello
Design Dazzle
Uncommon Designs
Savvy Southern Style
The 36th Avenue
Five Days, Five Ways
French Country Cottage
I Should be Mopping the Floor
Be sure to go by and see all of the other great ideas for DIY crafting!

Memorial Day........

Memorial Day.

A day to remember all of those who have gone before and who have not yet gone, to fight for our Country! My husband and I are both Military Brats, so we knew military life for all of our child/teen years.

My heart goes out to all of those military families that are now dealing with loved ones {Moms, Dads, brothers, sisters, sons, daughters} that are overseas fighting for us, to keep us all FREE! God Bless You All! My heart and prayers are with you, that your loved ones will be home, safe, very soon! Please know that my family and I are so very thankful for your sacrifices!

Let's remember the true reason why we celebrate Memorial Day.

Here's a subway art printable for you! Print, display and enjoy!

Sharing this printable with the following FABULOUS link-up parties!

CraftOManiac
TaterTots and Jello
Design Dazzle
Uncommon Designs
Savvy Southern Style
The 36th Avenue
Five Days, Five Ways
French Country Cottage

and also sharing this with The Rusted Chain's Fingerprint Friday.

Giveaway over at Sew.Craft.Create for a Silhouette CAMEO!!!

WOW y'all! I know I've entered giveaways before, but I really, really, REALLY want to win this one! Heidi over at Sew.Craft.Create is giving away a Silhouette CAMEO! I've seen other awesome craft blogs who's owners have one of these and the crafting possibilities are endless!

Y'all go on over and enter to win.......I'd say "Good Luck", but I'm going to be stingy about this one! LOL! Thanks so much, Heidi, for having this giveaway!

Citrus Tablescape ~ For under $3.00

FINALLY!!!!! It’s done! This tablescape seems to have taken
FOOOORRRRREEEEEEVVVVVVEEEEEEEERRRRR

to put together! ~!LOL!~

I like the simplicity of it.

You know
KISS

Keep it simple silly!

This is probably FRUGALITY at its best

I made the tablerunner with scraps of fabric I already had: 0 dollars

Tin cans covered in washi tape: 0 dollars

Hurricane glass: 0 dollars (got for Christmas present 2 years ago!!)

Apothecary jar and 2 vases: $3 dollars

Paper flowers and skewers: 0 dollars (already had for over a year)

Lantana: 0 dollars (free from my back yard)

Totally delicious Citrus tablescape: PRICELESS!

(yes, even the keylimes were free! Stole Borrowed them from a neighbor’s tree)

As you can see, we have a very DARK kitchen/dining room, so it’s pretty hard to get light-and-airy photos. I’ve played with these on PICMONKEY, so I was able to brighten them up a little bit more.

Oh yes, I'll have a tutorial on how to make the super-duper cheap placemats next week! Possiblities are endless!

Sharing this on-going project with the following AWESOME link-up parties!!!

CraftOManiac
TaterTots and Jello
Design Dazzle
Uncommon Designs
Savvy Southern Style
The 36th Avenue
Five Days, Five Ways

French Country Cottage

Be sure to go by and see all of the other great ideas for DIY crafting!

Painted vase, paper flowers and washi tape......

I know, I know…… vases are made for flowers, but who said they had to be real flowers?

Remember this vase?

Well, it needed a paint job! LOL! So that’s what I did

1 bottle of acrylic paint was all I needed to coat this little girl (I got it on sale for .67 at HobLob). Lots of swishing (the paint I bought was pretty thick, so not so much swishing, just turning and coaxing!) Since the shape of this vase was not straight up-and-down, I couldn’t use a paint brush. As a lot of the tute’s say, turn upside down, then move the vase every 15 minutes or so. That way the paint doesn’t puddle that much and your vase won’t get stuck to the paper! Not too shabby for only $1.17!

Ms. M has a Sizzix machine, so she was able to crank out some really cute flowers in no time for me! All done in our citrus tablescape theme! I had some wooden skewers that I wrapped in washi tape, then just taped the flowers onto them {I cut the skewers to different lengths too}.

This is a bright and cheery part of my tablescape. This reveal is taking a little longer to put together, as I’m trying not to go out and purchase a lot of things to add to it. Also trying to take advantage of things around the neighbor’s yard my yard that work well too!

Oh, by-the-by, look at these super cute placemats! Easy-peasy and cheap! Will post on these tomorrow!

I really appreciate you coming by to take a look-see at what I've been up to! THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!!! :)
Sharing this on-going project with the following AWESOME link-up parties!!!

CraftOManiac
TaterTots and Jello
Design Dazzle
Uncommon Designs
Savvy Southern Style
The 36th Avenue
Ivy and Elephants

Be sure to go by and see all of the other great ideas for DIY crafting!

And the winner is.........{Beach Giveaway}

The winner of either a floppy beach hat or beach bag is:

Entry #38 from the Random.org number generator

Kimberly with this entry:

Kimberly WrightMay 5, 2012 7:33 AM
Following on pinterest (Kimberly Wright / Wrightwin)
Halochanel at gmail dot com

Kimberly, you'll have 3 days to email me back to collect your prize :) Thanks to everyone who played. Please stay tuned, as you'll never know when I'll have another giveaway!

I love......

BEING A MOM! BECAUSE OF........

I thank God each day that he has decided to bless me with these beautiful blessings! I hope you all have a BLESSED MOTHER'S DAY!

Strawberry Lemonade Muffins

Hey y'all! Wanted to share a really good recipe that I found in Southern Living Magazine's March issue!

If you're looking for a muffin recipe that's not too sweet, this is it! I had some strawberries that I had to use, and also happened to get some lemons at a local produce stand, so this was the perfect recipe! They bake up so pretty and smell awesome! Here are some pictures of what they looked like. Oh yeah, some of them are the same pic, just done with different effects from PicMonkey , my new favorite FREE online picture editing software! ;)

{Done with one of the SMUDGE textures}

{Done with CROSS PROCESS}

{Done with FOCAL SOFTEN}

{Done with FOCAL ZOOM}

And my FAVORITE:

One of the weave textures that looks like ADIA fabric......Looks like it was cross-stitched! :)

Here's the link to the RECIPE . Very light taste........If you have some of the fancy BIG sugar crystals, they would be perfect on top of the muffins! Just a little sweetness goes a long way :) ENJOY!

Sharing this awesome little recipe with the following link-up parties! Thanks so much for stopping by, please be sure to leave some comment LOVE!!!!!

Tatertots & Jello
CraftOManiac

Quick Teacher Appreciation Gift........

A super cute, really quick idea for a Teacher Appreciation gift!

You’ll need these things:

1 clean soup tin can
Your choice of ribbon
24 or so unused crayons
Pens
Gerber Daisy Silk flowers
Florist tape, scissors, glue and glue gun, hair elastic

For the can:

Super-duper easy. Glue two strips of ribbon on the can, one on top and one on the bottom (or you can use a piece of scrapbook paper too!) Either you can glue the crayons as you go, or you can also use a hair elastic to keep all of the crayons in place if you want the teacher to be able to use the crayons at a later date. Wrap another piece of ribbon around the crayons and you’re done with the cute little holder!

For the pens:

Take a pen and just wrap the florist tape around it! Either use hot glue or E6000 glue to attach the flower head to the top of the pen. It would be super cute to use washi tape or ribbon on the pen too!

(And I like this last picture because I love this "weave" texture from picmonkey.com!) This is a good reason to get extra boxes of crayons at the beginning of the school year (you know, when they’re super cheap!). Would be cute to add a tag that says “You’ve colored my world this year, Mrs. So-and-so”.

Thanks so much for stopping by! What have you done for either Teacher Appreciation or End of the Year Teacher Gifts? Sharing this on-going project with the following AWESOME link-up parties!!!

CraftOManiac
TaterTots and Jello
Design Dazzle
Uncommon Designs
Savvy Southern Style
The 36th Avenue
Five Days Five Ways
French Country Cottage


Be sure to go by and see all of the other great ideas for DIY crafting!

New Subway art printable...... A godly mother

Hey y'all! Here's a new subway art printable that I made, just in time for Mother's Day.

While I was on InTouch's website, I saw this quote from Dr. Charles Stanley. It struck me as I read it. So simple, yet so powerful! I truly hope, each day, that I am a good christian role model for my kids.

It's hard, I'm SOOOOOO not perfect, never will be, but I try to make sure my heart is right and I really do hope that I am a GOOD witness to my kiddos.

With Mother's Day right around the corner, feel free to print this out, put it in a pretty frame, and give it as a gift! I hope all of you SUPER Momma's out there have a FANTASTIC Mother's Day this Sunday!

Sharing this with the following awesome link-up parties!
Uncommon Designs Online

Trash can redo

I guess when you're updating a look in your house, we tend to forget the smaller items that might be due for a facelift! I repainted the hallway bathroom about 2 years ago and have been adding things here and there to make it look nice (trust me, it's so much better than the pink/green floral wallpaper and border from the 70's!). I don't know what made me think about it (maybe 'cause I was on my hands and knees scrubbing the floor with Comet), but when I saw our trash can, it truly made me shudder! You know, that kind of "mufasa" (come on people, you know you've watched Lion King 9 million times, so you know the inflection I'm using here! LOL!) moment when you say, "Why did I not do something about this sooner?" Well, I finally put it out of it's misery and made it PURTY!

I CAN NOT BELIEVE that I didn't get a picture of what this tin looked like before-hand, I guess I was in too much of a hurry to get the thing covered with something other than burgundy! Don't get me wrong, burgundy is a lovely color, and I had a ton of it in my house back in the 90's, but when your bathroom is blue and brown, something just doesn't look right! LOL!

Ok, so easy-peasy. I just spray painted it white, like so:

(see, you can see a hint of the burgundy showing through) It took several coats of spray paint!

Then I just dry brushed on (with a sponge) the blue for the wheat-like shafts, and then brown for the X's and O detail. Also did the lines with the brown, blue on top for the "rope-y" design. I had a can of clear varnish spray, so used 2 coats to help protect it a little better........

I have to remind myself that when looking for items to 'redo', I need to look up and down, not just eye level! Hope you've enjoyed this little tute and have a BLESSED WEEKEND EVERYONE!

Sharing this on-going project with the following AWESOME link-up parties!!!

CraftOManiac
TaterTots and Jello
Design Dazzle
Uncommon Designs
Savvy Southern Style
The 36th Avenue
Five Days, Five Ways French Country Cottage

Summer Beach giveaway.........

Happy Friday to everyone!

I hope y’all have had a great week and have an even better weekend planned with family and friends! I’m looking forward to this weekend! Soooooooo, to help kick off the weekend, let’s have a giveaway, shall we?

“What can I win?” you say. Well, what about your choice of one of these:

Or one of these:

For the hat:
You’ll have your choice of white, pink, navy, tan or brown. It comes with a three-letter monogram in your choice of thread and font (found HERE )

For the beach tote:
You’ll have your choice of lime, pink (not pictured yet), royal blue, red or yellow. It will come with either a big, fat initial, or a smaller set of 3 initials. See the above linky-dinky-do for the fonts to choose from.

“How do I enter to win?” Well, my dears, that’s super duper easy! For your first entry just say “HEY”! Yup, that’s it……just a small little “hi” will do it. Now for extra entries, you can do these things:

Like my SouthernTraditions page on FB

Follow me on GFC or Linky Tools, or both!

PIN anything in my Southern Traditions 2 Store and come back and tell me what you Pinned.

Follow me on Pinterest

Blog, FB, tweet about this giveaway

Be sure you leave a separate comment for everything you do for more chances of winning!!!!

This contest will go through May 11th at midnight CDT. Good Luck everyone!