4th of July Decorating Ideas

I wanted to make sure that you get a chance to see the 4th of July ideas that I have made in one place!

Painted Canvas Flag

found HERE

Free Subway Art Printable

Found HERE

Dollar Tree decorating

Found HERE

I hope this helps in your last-minute decorating! Linking up 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 At the Picket Fence

Make your own seasoned salt

I don't know about y'all, but I use quite a bit of seasoned salt when I'm cooking. I mean, it doesn't go in EVERYTHING, but enough that I can use up a bottle of it in about 2-3 months.
Little did I know about 2 weeks ago that I had run out.....oh boy! What was a girl to do? Necessity is the master of invention! Yep, I looked at the spices I had, looked at the contents of the spices on the EMPTY seasoned salt bottle, and made my own!

Easy Peasy Lemon Squeazy! Now I NEVER need to go out and purchase a bottle of seasoned salt again....(now to just make sure that I don't run out of the other spices I need to make it **snicker**). Here's what you'll need to make your very own:

1 TBSP salt

1/2 tsp of pepper and lemon pepper seasoning

1 tsp of garlic powder, onion powder and paprika

This is a great all-around salt (and NO added MSG like from the store bought brands!). To make is a little spicy-er, why not add 1/2 tsp of pepper flakes or ground red pepper?

I've got a roast in the slow-cooker right now. I sprinkled some of this on the roast (all sides), then added carrots and potatoes and sprinkled some on top of those. This is probably my family's favorite slow-cooker recipe. Usually they don't eat carrots, but they LOVE them from this recipe. I guess it's the mixture of them being slow cooked with the meat and the seasoned salt! YUMMO!!!! Also great on oven baked potatoes, french fries and squash. Perfect to put in flower to dredge for country fried steak, beef tips and rice. The possiblities are endless!

Why not make up a double or triple batch, and give to some newly weds? Put in one of those glass containers that has the spoon attached to it? Add a cute card attached with baker's twine or jute rope? Like this:

Here's a graphic that you can print out too:
(right click, save)

I printed them as 3x5 pictures, so now I have a sheet of 9 for gifts! I used some scalloped scissors to add interest to the outsides too!

Thanks so much for stopping by! I truely love and read each comment.......Sharing this cooking idea with the following 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 At the Picket Fence

Quail Aubusson Pillow

I love decorator pillows! They always make a space look soft, comfy, cozy, inviting. I would have them all over the house, but I have one major problem….. KIDS! They both have cool décor pillows of their own, but I normally find them stuffed under the bed, which, of course, aggravates me to no end! I know if I had a beautiful assortment of pillow for the couches, they’d end up on the floor, but I’m bound and determined to start acquiring some and see how it goes….. you know, they’re 11 and 13, so they can learn to pick them up, right? RIGHT???

While Hubs and I were out one glorious weekend (yep, no kiddos!) we drove over to Thomasville, GA and perused one of our favorite shops over there. They’ve got the COOLEST hunting ‘stuff’, along with the hunting décor items too. I fell in LURVE with a gorgeous Aubusson pillow with a covey of quail on it. Oh, my! It was BEAUTIFUL! Then I saw the price tag…… $80.00! Seriously, not too bad for an aubusson, but WAAAYYYYY to much for my frugal brain to fathom! Funny thing was, when Hubs saw it, he really liked it too (the price tag, not so much). Needless to say the craft wheel in my brain started churning, thinking this could be a really cool Father’s Day present.

This whole project only took about 2 hours, max. What you’ll need is:

1 sheet of Print n’ Press Iron-On ink jet Transfer paper
14” x 14” pillow form
1 piece of 15 ½” x 15 ½” fabric
2 pieces of 15 ½ x 10” fabric
2 yds trim for the pillow (optional)
Image that you want to print (be sure to reverse the image before you print it)

Scissors, matching thread

Print out your image to the transfer paper, then cut around the image


I had to use a wooden board, pillow case and iron on no steam to ensure that the image would take to the fabric (just follow the manufacturers instructions). I used a beautiful shade of gray linen for this pillow. Love that it only took less that ½ yard of it, and that the linen was on sale 50% off!


Pin the trim to the 15 ½ piece of fabric, with it facing the inside of the pillow and “tail” of the trim on the edge of the fabric. At this point I sewed around this piece of fabric, about 1/8” in, to secure the trim.


To make the pocket in the back, I folded up one side of the 15 ½ x 10” piece of fabric to ½ inch, then ½ inch again, ironing as I went, then sewed a straight line. Do that with the second piece too.


Attach the top part of the back piece, sew. Repeat with the bottom half. There’s your pocket! Turn inside out and stuff with the pillow form. Whew, you’re done! LOL!


See, wasn’t so bad was it? I have to say, Hubs really like his pillow today when he opened it up for Father’s Day. I know he was thinking to himself yesterday, “What in the world can she be making for me that I’d like?” We were both pleasantly surprised! We have a quail throw blanket that we use all of them time, and I didn’t realize it when I picked the colors for the pillow, but it matches perfectly!


This project only cost 1/10 of the original pillow I fell in love with (I did happen to have a pillow form at home, so didn't have to purchase one). Talk about frugal decorating..... YEA!

My next pillow project is for my Mom and Dad’s anniversary (which is actually tomorrow, so, yeah, it’s gonna be a little late). Thinking about a photo pillow… now just gotta find the right picture!

I can’t tell you how much I appreciate you taking time to visit me and my lil’ ol’ blog! I love, love, LOVE comments and read each one. I love blog hopping too, so I’d love to come and see what you’ve been up to! God Bless!

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!

Free Gardening ideas

Hmmm, I see a trend here…… My last post was about either Free or close-to-free items I bought at a store……. This one is about free flowers…… Frugality at its best!

Last year I bought a small envelope of Zinnia’s from Walmart. I’ve never tried to grow them before, but let me tell you, these are probably the EASIEST-PEASIEST flowers that have ever been GROWED before (I love saying GROWED, Tammy says it in “Tammy and the Batchelor”, one of my fav movies of all time!) Anywho. They germinated in about 4 days, and the only thing they require is sunlight and water. I LOVE LOVE LOVE them! They grow super fast and are so beautiful, and boy do they make tons of seeds! That’s really why I call them FREE this year! All I did last year was dead-head the flowers, put them in a ziploc bag, let them dry and plant the seeds this year. So basically FREE flowers! I still have one other baggie of seeds that I didn’t plant this year, so after this crop, I should have enough next year to do about a gazillion acres (yes, slight exaggeration, but you get the point LOL!). Here are the little beauties:



These are actually the little Zinnias. I need to get some of the big-honkin’ ones for next year!

Just remember, you could have a whole FREE garden. Neighbor’s are usually great for flower clippings or seed sharing. Cozy on up to them and start a seed-swap, the possibilities are endless! I’ve also replanted some Lantana that grows in my back yard. They didn’t grow at all last year, but they sure are this year. I guess after they’ve been transplanted it takes a year for them to get comfy in their new spot. I should have some tiny guests visiting this summer (butterflies LOVE Zinnias and Lantana!).



Sharing this free gardening 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!

Frugal finds #1

Now, I’m not a HUGE couponer, {not like those on the reality TV series anyway!} but I do like to save money when I can and love it when I can get something for FREE! Yep, I love that word too!

There are several blogs and .com’s out there that will give you some AWESOME deals, plus give you the links to the coupons that are available! Here a just a couple of them:

Mommy Octopus
I Heart Publix
Totally Target
I Heart the Mart

I recently bought these 5 items:


How much do you think I paid for them? Well, retail cost (not including sale prices), with tax would have been $9.86. Here’s a breakdown for ya:

Cutter bug candle: $5.09 normally, but on sale for $4.00
4 pkgs of Kotex: .99 each
Plus the dreaded 9% sales tax…. Would have taken care of a $10 bill right there. BUT! {drum roll please……….}

I only paid $1.72! Yep, that’s right, only $1.72.

Candle price was on sale for $4.00, plus I had (1)$2.00 off Target coupon, and (1)$1.00 Manu coupon, making the candle $1.00……… (Target will take one of their Q’s and a manufacturer Q too!)
Then I had (2) $2.00 off 2 Kotex brand pantyliners. They are .99 each, so actually made .04 on the 4 of them ;) I still had to pay tax on the total amount before all of the Q’s, but not too shabby!

I wish I still had the links for the Q’s that I printed, but I know 3 of them expired on the 14th. I’ve done pretty well on other shopping trips too, just didn’t take a picture of my haul. What’s the best you’ve ever done?

Thanks so much for stopping by! I love that you took the time to do so. I'm sharing this money saving trip with the following link-up parties:

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

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

Dollar Tree project ~ 4th of July tins

This is another one of my little projects that I can check off my list ;) I bought these cute little tins from the Dollar Tree a couple of weeks ago.......I thought they'd be super cute with 4th of July action words!

I bartered with a friend and had her put the sayings on these with her Cricut (MAN-OH-MAN, I've GOT to get a Silhouette for Christmas this year....I'd have WAAAAYYYYYY to much fun! LOL!) I thought the kids would get a kick out of doing a couple of little fireworks this year. The "tame" ones {if there is such a thing} like sparklers and a couple others {I wonder if they still have those ones that expand like black snakes, can't remember what they're called}. I'll be putting them in these little tins closer to the 4th. Part of my tablescape this year! Not too shabby for only $3.00!

The top picture is shown with them next to my FREE SUBWAY ART PRINTABLE! Be sure to download it HERE !

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!