I've Been a Little Busy...

Last Wednesday evening I went into labor and by 1:45 a.m. on Thursday, February 18 my little James Brooks was born.  I've been settling into motherhood and the blog has been put on the back burner for now.   

Nothing Says Happy Valentine's Day Like....

knock-off Jack Rogers Navajo sandals from Target!  This was actually not my discovery since I haven't shopped for clothes or shoes in quite a while since I'm about a week away from my due date.  I saw these on The Budget Babe's website yesterday and I couldn't wait to go get some...I didn't even wait for them to go on sale!  I almost dropped $100 on some real ones at Christmas, and I could not be happier that I didn't.  I've been hoping to find a cheaper version of the Navajo sandal for a while and these look almost just like the real thing for 1/5 of the price. 

Jack Rogers $96:

 Merona for Target $19.99:

 

This is the first post I've done that has absolutely nothing to do with home decor, but I had to let y'all know because they're going fast...even in February!  My Target was almost out!  Happy Valentine's Day!

Spotted at Big Lots:

I keep running into pieces that I love, but have no use for.  I went to Big Lots hoping to find a cheap lamp or two, but instead I left with a six pack of Bounty select-a-size paper towels for $6.50...not as great as a lamp, but still pretty good.

How cute is this little blue side table? And only 70 bucks.

 

 

This ottoman is pretty cute too.  

Project Repost: The Look for Less Resoration Hardware Key Art

 Join me at my new blog!

I'm getting a little lazy, but can you blame me?...I'm 39 weeks pregnant.  I also just wanted another excuse to show off one of the projects I'm most proud of, and since it was one of my very first posts there's a good chance that this is new to most of you.


These are 18.5x18.5 and retail for $199. I saw some old keys at the flea market at the NC state fair grounds and did a similar piece of wall art with a shadow box I got from Michael's. If you go to the right guy you can get a handful of keys for $5 and if you go to Michael's at the right time or have a coupon you can get a shadow box for about $25 or less. Here's what mine looks like:


I tacked on the thicker ones in the center with thread and just hot glued the flat ones.

Back to Finding Fabulous 
Back to Remodelaholic 
Back to Romantic Home

Plan Ahead, Save Money: Part I

Wouldn't it be so easy to decorate your home if you had a huge budget for every room?  I would pretty much look in a Pottery Barn or Restoration Hardware catalog, find a room I liked, buy everything and transplant it in my house.

 Ta da!  Done and done.

Having a small budget (sometimes no budget) has forced me to be resourceful and learn how to plan ahead.  I am not a planner, but I wasted enough money on things I ultimately didn't like that I finally learned my lesson.  I've also learned to be patient.  Planning forces you to figure out exactly what you want...then you don't buy a thing until you've found "IT".  Sometimes it only takes a few days of searching and sometimes it takes months. 

This was my kitchen wall for about the first eight months we were in our house:

Absolutely blank, blah, nothing.  I finally decided what I was going to do with it and came up with a plan.  I didn't have super fancy PhotoShop or any other kind of editing software, so I used the Paint program that's on every PC to sketch out what I wanted the wall to eventually look like.

 

Nice, huh?  I already had the small frames ($1 in the Target dollar spot bins years ago), medium frames ($5 at Michael's) and the clock (wedding gift!) so I knew what to draw on the wall.  I was missing the plates and the large frames.  I knew that I was going to get a large frame from Michael's for $10.00, but I didn't know where those plates were going to come from.  I got the frames and clock up and for about four months my wall looked like this:

Empty spaces with empty frames.  I was able to fill the frames pretty quickly with free botanical prints I got online, but plain, solid, plates (I decided on red instead of orange or yellow) were a lot trickier to find.   All in all it took me about a year to get it the way I wanted it.  

It didn't come out exactly how the first draft I made in Paint looked, but I didn't waste any money on stuff that I didn't like or that didn't work. I spent $10 on a frame, $10 on the plates and about $2 on the "R" that I stained myself.

Spotted at TJ Maxx

I love this lamp!  I don't have any where to put it, but it's only $39.99.