Chic on a Shoestring Decorating: October 2010


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Halloween Vignette

What?!  I haven't showed you my Halloween vignette yet?!?  What the heck?!   I swore I already did this post... but I didn't.  I started to and then switched it to something else... oops.

Well, at least it's just in time for Halloween... barely!

If you've been reading my lil' ol' blog for a while first of all, THANK YOU!  You know that I like to switch out my decor on a console table in my kitchen a lot...especially for holidays.

October 1st came and it was time for a Halloween vignette (even though I only had 2 Halloween decorations).  I talked to you guys here about being inspired by all the spooky fun Halloween decor in blogland instead of just fall leaves and pumpkins like I usually do.  But, I didn't want to spend a lot.  

So, I shopped my house and decided to disassemble some ugly old pumpkin decorations that I had purchased for 90% off.  I got 3 new decorations out of my "junk".  I came up with this:


And this:



And, this (not in my vignette) which is my island centerpiece :



Since I don't have a cricut (or whatever that other fancy cutting machine is) I spent $5 on this sign pictured below from TJ Maxx, I think it was well worth it.  Can you imagine the time it would've taken me to cut a board down to size, paint it, drying time, rough it up, and then stencil it... ummm, way too long.



I got the creepy cloth at the dollar store.  I was so excited to find it for a buck because a package of it at Wal-Mart was $4... which seemed like a lot for a bag of cheap snaggy thread. 



This cute BOO is something else I could've made... laziest blogger ever.  You can buy these wooden cut outs and some cute scrapbook paper at Hob Lob, then spray paint the letters, wait for it to dry, then modge podge the paper to the letters and add the festive black fuzzy ribbon hanger.  (You just got a free random tutorial!) 

Again, how much would it have cost?  Probably around $10 for the wood, fuzzy ribbon and scrapbook paper (assuming you already have modge podge and spray paint like any good crafty blogger should. ;)  If you don't have that stuff stuck in the back of your craft closet, then add another $10, plus your very precious time.  

I bought this for $5.99 at TJ's.  Again, money well spent in my opinion! 

I wanted a wreath for around the BOO but never found a good one and ran out of time to make one (obviously)

And finally, these are my 2 Halloween guys that I got several years ago on major after Halloween clearance at where else, TJ Maxx (don't you think they should start paying me for all the free advertising I give them!?... seriously!) 
I don't know what kind of weird Halloween guys these are supposed to be but I liked them.


Finally, my Halloween Vignette...


Happy Halloween!

Flaunt it Friday #30 and You Were Featured on Flaunt it Friday!

Hi Friends!  You guys do such awesome stuff that I need to start featuring a few of your projects each week.  Please know that I try to look at every link even if I don't comment... I wish there were more hours in the day! 

If I feature you please take one of my fun buttons to display on your blog!


Chic on a Shoestring Decorating


The first Flaunt it Friday feature is this beautiful French Script Wreath from On Ruby Lane... this is by far the best (and most complicated) take I've seen on the many versions of the blog-popular coffee filter wreath. Fabulous!

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Check out this fab 80's kitchen re-do by Scrapalicious Bytes.  I can appreciate someone who gives their old kitchen cabinets a new look.  It's not easy but the results are so worth it!

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And, this sophisticated fall tablescape over at Simcoe Street is just lovely.


I'm dreaming of a Mom Cave...

Super-talented Centsational Girl is hosting a Mom Cave contest by the most wonderful place on Earth… HomeGoods! (I‘ve said before, it‘s like Disneyland to me!)

The question... How would I use a $250 gift card from HomeGoods for my Mom Cave?

First, I've got a "cave" with a comfy couch just waiting for me, but I'll warn you, it isn't pretty….


Because I’m the only girl in the house I recently started an interior decorating business I really need a space just for me.  My husband agreed this is necessary for my sanity business so we cleaned out most of the junk so I can get started on my office Mom Cave (don't tell hubby!).

If I win I’d start by heading to HomeGoods to pick out a piece that I absolutely love…



Could be anything…

last 2 pics courtesy HomeGoods.com


From there the room would evolve around my inspirational “love” piece… paint color, accessories, furniture, everything.

I could easily decorate the entire room using only HomeGoods because their selection and prices are SO fabulous!  My Mom Cave is going to be fun, feminine (probably lots of pink), and just for me!

Flaunt it Friday #29 and What to do about Photobucket??

If you were on my blog earlier today you may have noticed that it was a hot mess of "exceeded photobucket bandwidth" signs.  Sorry about that! 

I found out that my blog exceeded the amount of clicks per month for the free photobucket account.  Apparently you get so many clicks per month, if you exceed it it will go into "hot mess" mode until it hits 30 days and then it starts over and all the pictures go back to normal.   Mine wasn't going to reset for another week! 

So... this is a bad thing and a good thing.  Bad in that it totally messed up my blog and to fix it I need to "upgrade to photobucket pro" which really means pay photobucket a crummy fee every month.  Good in that it means my blog is getting lots and lots of clicks! 

I spent a lot of time googling my bandwidth trouble and didn't really find a good option to fix it so paid for one month and got my blog back to normal.

Any of you have any good options for this kind of trouble??  I don't want to pay for photobucket if I don't have to... hey, I don't call myself chic on a shoestring for nothin'! ;)

So, sorry if you stopped by during my photobucket bandwidth hot mess.... all is well now. :) 

Time to party!!!

A Giveaway at Announced!! Free custom photo card, $25 value!

Hey friends!  I would like to introduce my bloggy friend Ellie G. aka. Lara.  She is a super-talented graphic designer... she even designed my cute little blog! 

Lara is launching her own graphic design shop Announced.  She specializes in designing photo greeting cards and invitations but will also do blog design, logo design, custom canvas artwork, and other fun printables.

She will take your photos and put them into the designs and send you a .jpeg file for you to print anywhere you choose!  That means you can send them to Wal-Mart and have them printed for like .6 cents each!  How easy and cheap is that?! 
Lara has the amazing ability to make exactly what you want by just giving her a brief description of the look you're going for.  When she designed my blog I told her I wanted some damask and neutral colors like grays and she came up with exactly what I had in mind... seriously, it was like she read my mind... it was kinda freaky like ESP or something.  Anywho, she nailed it and couldn't be happier with my layout, buttons, etc.
To kick-off the grand opening of her store Announced, she is having a giveway!  $25 store credit which will buy you an awesome, custom-made card to match your photo.  The holidays are just around the corner!! 

Head on over to her blog, less cake, {more frosting} and sign up!
Chic on a Shoestring Decorating

Pumpkin Makeovers


Hi friends!  Hope you are all enjoying this beautiful season.  We've been having some great fall weather here in the midwest so I've been trying to soak up every minute of it... I know it will be short-lived. : (

While pulling out my fall decor this year I realized that a lot of it had started to show it's age, or maybe I was just sick of it.  Either way, it was not doing it for me anymore. 

Since one of my favorite past-times is shopping I would have loved to go out and spend a load of money on new pumpkin type stuff... how fun!  But being the total cheapo responsible woman that I am I decided to see what I could do with the old stuff I already had. 

I dug out this "lovely" pumpkin candle holder that I got at Hob Lob for 90% off several years ago.  Do you ever buy something just because it's so stinkin' cheap?  Yeah, me too.  I am totally over this look so I decided to take it apart. 


Despite some holes in the pumpkins, they came out looking pretty good.

I picked up this little pumpkin arrangement at the same 90% off sale.  It is a little too country looking for me and a few of the pumpkins lost their stems.  The pumpkins easily pulled off the wires they were attached to. 

I had 6 free (kinda holey) little pumpkins... Sweet! 

The first was a no brainer.  I stuck the tall skinny guy under my little cloche.



Easy Peasy!

I then made kind of a pumpkin "snowman" for my Southern Living pedastel.  I added, what else, a cloche! :)  I put some beaded garland around the bottom to add a little somethin' somethin'.

These pumpkins already had some leaves glued to them so I just stacked them up with toothpicks because I was too lazy to go get the wire am very resourceful. ;)



I "splurged" and bought this $2 leaf placemat at TJ's for it to sit on...



I had 2 random pumpkins left so I decided to stack them and stick them on top of a candle holder as part of my Halloween vignette (which I will share later).



I was very pleased with how "free" pumpkin creations turned out.  I'm in love with my "new" island centerpiece, the snowman pumpkins. 

Have any of you gave some old decorations makeovers?  What's your favorite?

UndertheTableandDreaming









HookingupwithHoH

Pottery Barn at Sam's Club??

Do you ever get such a good deal on something that it makes you want to squeal in delight??  Or maybe jump up and down.  Or maybe pump your hands palm up in the air doing that old "raise the roof" move... maybe it's just me... if you've been reading my blog for a while now you know I'm kind of a deal loving dork. 

I had a squealing, jump up and down raise the roof good deal find at Sam's Club a while back that I've been meaning to share. 

The find was a surprisingly stylish buffet.  I had noticed it when it first arrived at Sam's and was around $550.  This was a reasonable price but was too much for the old Chic on a Shoestring Decorating budget... especially when I didn't really need it.  I had a dining room buffet already, mine was just a little too formal for me. 

While strolling through Sam's several months later "my" buffet was stuck in the clearance corner, it had a slight scuff on it (that is repairable) and had been marked down to $100!! 

What?!  Did I read that right?? 

Seriously, $100 bucks. 

All mine.  Score.  Squeal... jump up and down... raise the roof... sweeeeeet deal!

My dad and husband got stuck carrying this thing and couldn't believe how heavy it was... lots of huffing and puffing and maybe even some under their breath mumbling of words not appropriate for this blog ;)... a sure sign of a good quality piece of furniture.  (Sorry it was so heavy guys!)

So, maybe this sounds like a good deal to you but not a squeal... jump up and down... raise the roof type of deal. 

Here's the kicker...

The decorating rock star Pottery Barn sells the exact same buffet  for $1400!!! 


Above picture courtesy of Pottery Barn

Yes,I got a Pottery Barn-esque buffet at Sam's Club (of all places) for about 93% off the Pottery Barn price... 93% less!! 




To be sure and make an accurate comparison I inspected the Pottery Barn buffet in one of their stores.  I found that mine has a thicker wood top by more than a quarter of an inch, mine is almost 2 inches deeper, just slightly longer and honestly, mine seems to be higher quality.  I'm not knocking Pottery Barn or their quality, just am amazed at this really good quality piece I got at Sam's Club for dirt cheap. 

I was able to sell my old formal buffet for $100, still can't believe I got the new one for the same price!

I've had fun (and fits)decorating this... I've already returned 2 sets of lamps.  The burnt orange is a little bright for me (they still have the price tags on so I can return them)  but the room needed some color and I carried it in from the living room burnt orange accents.  You can read about my love/hate relationship with orange here.  It's working well for the fall at least.

So, what is your best furniture deal?  And, while we're at it... what do you think of the burnt orange lamps? ;)

Flaunt it Friday #27

It's party time again! 

Please don't forget to link back to my party... it will get your link more exposure and bring more people to the party... the more the merrier! :)

Halloween is for the Birds... Dollar Store Style


This is my first fall as a blogging addict blogger and holy cow have I been inspired by all the awesomeness that is fall/Halloween decor in blogland. My blogger peeps are SO super creative so give yourselves a pat on the back from me! :)

Before blogging, I pretty much skipped out on the Halloween decor. Can you believe that?! Especially with as much as I love to decorate! I only had 2 Halloween guys that I put out with my fall leaves and pumpkins, that's it! What was I thinking?!

In part it was pure laziness purely to save time.  I have lots of fall pumpkin/leafy stuff that works from September through Thanksgiving so that's just what I did.  Now, after looking at all the great Halloween stuff for the past several weeks I have been inspired to create.  However, my inspirational feelings did not bring about lots of inspirational money to blow on Halloween.

So, I did what any good and thrifty blogger would do... I hit the dollar store. 

Many of you have seen "the birds" that are all the rage in Halloween decor this year. 

Check out these Black Birds from the Dollar Store...  I was so impressed that they had 2 different birds in 2 different positions!


Check out Dollar Store black bird's cousin, Mr. Fancy-Pants black bird I photographed at Pottery Barn...

Mr. Fancy-Pants black bird cost $29.50!  Yes, almost $30 for a fake black bird!  

Yes, he's a little bigger than my dollar store birds and yes, he is "flying" as opposed to just sitting there like his cousin but... $29.50?!  C'mon Pottery Barn, he's not worth $28.50 more than his cousin. 

I know I'm coming down a little hard on Pottery Barn but I really do love them.  They have just dreamy fall and Halloween decor this season (along with everything else).  They are one of my greatest inspirational stores.  They can just be a little (or a lot!) pricey.   So, no offense dear Pottery Barn.

Back to my mantel... I picked up 5 black birds and a bag of fake spider webbing for a total of $6.

Before being attacked by "the birds" the mantel looked like this...



I then "got my spook on" and came up with this....


Super easy and inexpensive! 


I loved that I didn't have to "re-do" my mantel, just left it in the everyday decor and worked with it.  I didn't even dust it because I felt that the dust adds another element of spooky-ness...  (wink wink)



I really like how it turned out (especially for only $6 buck-a-roos!)  What do you guys think?

I'm linking to these fun parties...

Tatertots & Jello Fall Party
Halloween Mantel Party at The Stories of A to Z












UndertheTableandDreaming

My faves...

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