Teacher Gifts.........

Have I mentioned how grateful that I am for teachers.

.........only a few dozen times...............

Especially amazing, patient teachers that take certain children under their wing and help them to not only learn but to thrive.

Well,...since two out of my four children,...so far,...(knock on wood),...have some special needs,...I have a deep gratitude for loving teachers.

Easter is around the corner and when it comes to gifts I am running on empty. I am flat out of ideas. I always fall back on jewelry. Well if I am going to do that to them...again..., I am going to make it personal and unique.

So I embroidered little Easter/ spring type designs..............framed them in little memory frames.............added a key as a 'charm',............and used some length of antique bronze colored chain that you can buy by the yard at any craft store. (JoAnns is my happy place.) I used a large lobster claw clasp around the neck. I had my 5 year old sign her name on the back where I wrote "Happy Easter '10". I love the way they turned out, and of course my half pint can't wait to 'gift' her teachers with them,...which makes it all worth my while.

xoxox -Holls

I am going to link this up to Frugal Friday over at the Shabby Nest.

Powder Room Make-over.........

Our little main floor powder room used to be dark red. Don't get me wrong,...I like red. But the powder room is too tiny to be so dark and after four years of a red powder room I was ready or a change. I re-used many of the things I already had, so for just under $60.00 we were able to give our little toilette a refreshing makeover.

Before.........

After............

We chose a color called 'natural linen'. I couldn't help myself. The name alone...........ya know? Some of my husbands clients had some leftover wall treatment that they gave to us. It is not wallpaper, but it doesn't seem to be fabric either. (??) It is very nice so we decided to do an accent wall with it. My husband (the artsy- architect) couldn't just cover a wall with it.

Nope,...that didn't give it enough design interest.

Can't let anything be simple.

So I had to be patient as he cut it into perfect one foot squares and individually pasted them to the wall alternating the texture for a checker board effect. I am soo glad that I was patient. It turned out beautiful. He was right,...so right!! You can see just a corner of the accent wall in the next picture.

We switched out our shiny silver light fixture for a very inexpensive but much better looking brushed nickel fixture from Home Depot.

Couldn't help myself........had to buy that really cute little ruffled towel from Target. I know.........but it was my only real "splurge".

Re-used the art that had already been in there before. I did repaint a few of the frames that were ivory colored to a truer white so that they would stand out better against the now much lighter walls.

It is bright and happy,.........I love it now. A big thank you to the hubby for all of his hard work. He is a really good sport! (although,...I don't think he was a huge fan of the red bathroom to begin with. :))

I am going to link this up to Frugal Friday at the Shabby Nest.

xoxox -Holls

So many ribbons,...so little space...........

It is Frugal Friday over at the Shabby Nest, so I thought I would share my newest space and money saving idea. I used to store all of my ribbon on paper towel holders. It looks cute, but the more ribbon I accumulate the more footprint space the holders take up on my desk. I needed to find another way to store some of it. There have been a lot of great shelving systems around lately that include ribbon storage, but they have all been a bit pricey. Plus I don't know where I would put one more item in my over-decorated house.

For less then 5 dollars my husband put up a 'ribbon bar' of sorts right into my built in desk. It could be done to any desk that has a shelf attached, or even just a shelf,...who needs a desk?!

He fastened two brackets to the sides of the shelf. I painted them brown so that they would blend. Then he cut a nice thick, sturdy wood dowel to fit. It slips in and out very easily to add ribbon. He spent about $2.00 for the brackets, and $2.50 for the dowel,...saving me a lot of trouble. :):) Thanks honey, I really love it. It makes my little "idea nook" look even more inspiring to me.

I have kept only my favorite paper towel holders, and it has freed up a lot of space. Who can't use more space?

Happy Frugal Friday!!

xoxox -Holls

Oh the Inspiration...........

Sometimes you just need images to remind you of why you are passionate about something.

I studied art at the U. of U. and just assumed that it would always be a huge part of my life.

Almost took the desire, inspiration, energy to make art for granted.

Got married.....still made art.

Had my first kid.....made a little less art.

Had my second kid.....threw away my oil paints and anything else that could be toxic. Still did some water coloring and scrap booking.

Had my third kid.....not so much making art, but hey any cards for the teachers at school were still hand made and very crafty.

Had my fourth kid.....and my inspiration has been reduced to drawing a picture on my 5 year olds lunch bag every day.

Discovered this magazine. (Many of you probably already know all about this WONDERFUL magazine.) I seem to sort of be the last one to know about things,... functioning in my own little parallel universe as I do. But for any of you who haven't discovered 'Cloth Paper Scissors' it is worth flipping through, reading, obsessing with, and or dueling over an issue. It has so many remarkable, creative, and inspiring ideas. Collages. Mixed media. Paintings. Cloth art. Everything!! It is so fascinating to catch a glimpse into the minds of many creative thinkers. It has made me really want to get paint under my fingernails again. Hopefully that desire will stay, but for the present moment I am going to hunt down some back issues and really get my head spinning!! :)