Blog Parties

Monday, January 31, 2011

Call Me Sweetheart

Pink is more my color when it comes to Valentine's Day decorating. It's not that I don't like my red and blue mantel. It's just that I am more fond of pink.

So pink is my color of choice for decorating the top of my TV armoire.

It started with this freebie Valentine subway art that I got from eighteen 25 blog. I loved the colors. And I love that it has the words "Call Me" on it. You see back in 1980 my favorite song was "Call Me" by Blondie. I had more fun lip sinking to that song. Brings back great memories whenever I think about the song, or better yet, hear the song. So those 2 words made me love this subway art even more.

It looks great up here with all my white pitchers.

I added a cherub. I have lots of cherubs. They are left overs from my wedding almost 5 years ago. Five years! Has it really been that long already? Now where were we?

I hung some paper hearts from the willow branches. I just cut out heart shapes from pink card stock and added some Valentine heart stickers I picked up at Dollar Tree. I should have used my new Silhouette machine I got for Christmas, but I'm so lazy that I haven't even gotten it out to find out how to use it. But I will.....someday.

I lived with my decor looking just like this for about a week. Then I decided that it needed something on the right hand side.

So I made some paper flowers for one of the pitchers. Much better now.

I made a couple from a few pages of my dictionary from Dollar Tree. The Valentine paper came from Tar Jay's Dollar Spot. I had a few left over Dollar Tree stickers that I used as well.

The pink glittery hearts are from Dollar Tree. I've had them for a couple of years. But I did see them at Dollar Tree this year too.

You can find instructions on the web or other peoples blogs for making these. I've seem then called lollies, medallions, fans. So I'm not sure what you call them. I just call them purty.

I am really happy with how these flowers turned out. They don't smell good, but at least they make me smile. And they will last a heck of a lot longer than real flowers. But I do love real flowers (hint, hint hunny).

One last shot for your enjoyment.

I do have more Valentine decor to share with you. I'm trying to drag this out as long as possible. Plus some of my photos I took this morning of the other areas, didn't turn out so great. The lighting sucks at my house in the morning. And when I get home from work, there is no light as it is already dark. This is a bad time of year for taking photos.

I also did some window shopping down in Old Town Temecula on Saturday. I'll be sure & post photos of some fabulous stores they have down there. If you are ever in southern California, it is a great place to go.

Until later, see ya!!!



Linking to:

Weekend Wrap Up @ Tatertots and Jello

Transformation Thursday @ The Shabby Chic Cottage

Hookin Up with HOH @ House of Hepworths

Tabletop Tuesday @ A Stroll Thru Life

Tuesday, January 25, 2011

A Valentine Vignette

I just hate thinking up titles for blog posts. And deciding what to write in the post. I could never be a writer. As soon as I start typing, my mind draws a complete blank and I have no idea what to write. I had that trouble too when I sold on eBay when it came to writing the descriptions. Complete, BLANK!

But I do like to talk, and I do love to show pictures. So we will be brave & just wing it.

I did most of my Valentine decorating this past weekend. I've already shown you my mantel, today I'm sharing this little cabinet that sits at the end of my kitchen cabinets. I not literally sharing, as I kind of like this cabinet and would like it to stay at my house. But I'll share photos of it with you.

I'm having a real hard time these past few months feeling very creative. It about kills me trying to think up something new and not do the same thing year after year. And not having any money makes it doubly hard. Luckily paper is so cheap and hip hip hurray for Dollar Tree. And I don't want to forget all you fabulous lovelies out there in blogland who provide us with "free" printables.

My cloches are the hardest thing for me to decorate right now. In this one I placed some Dollar Tree Valentine picks inside a vintage bottle. Not very creative, but it will do.

Then I made some quilled paper hearts as fillers. I learned how over at Under the Table and Dreaming. Stephanie always has fabulous tutorials and makes the best stuff. And since this was cheap, and oh so easy, it was right up my ally. And did I mention they are cute? Yes they are.

My apothecary jar is filled with letter balls. I tried to get the L,O,V,E letters to spell love in the front of the jar. But I couldn't get them to stay up the right direction. How dare they not cooperate. So I took out these letters and will use them elsewhere in my decor. I just have to figure out how to keep them from rolling away.

I did hang this thrift store heart ornament and a key from the lid.

There are so many "free printables" out there in blogland right now. I found this one at Betty Crocker Wannabe. I love it!!!

I wish I knew how to make these kind of things. But why do I need to when there are so many of you out there who will do it for me.

That has always been my mantra, "Why do it myself when I can get someone else to do it for me". I'm basically lazy at heart.



I changed out the ribbon on this book page wreath for one that looked more like Valentine's Day. I actually bought this ribbon last year at Christmas. But since it doesn't have anything on it screaming "Christmas", it also works for Valentine's Day. More bang for the buck.

The "Be Mine" heart was another "free printable". This time from Pizzazzerie.


And there we have a little "Valentine Vignette". Which basically cost me nothing since I already had everything on hand.

I have a few more little vignettes that I'll share through out the week. And hopefully I'll get my china hutch completed. I'm still trying to figure out what to put under my cloches & in my apothecary jars that doesn't cost much money. Or takes much effort. So until then, I'll bid you farewell.



Linking to:

Sunday, January 23, 2011

My mantel is full of love

For the past few weeks I've been thinking of how I want to decorate my mantel for Valentine's Day.

Normally I'm a pink & white kind of girl. But this year I decided to step outside of my comfort zone.

It started with a blue picture frame that says "love" all over it. I picked it up last year at Big Lots on clearance. It's been sitting in my bedroom for the past year, just waiting for Valentine's Day.

So that set me on my path to my red & blue "Love" mantel.

I tried it with a few different things & I hated everything I put with it on my mantel. I was starting to panic as I knew I wanted to participate in Beth's Valentine Mantel party. I felt like I was going to show up naked. I couldn't do that. Besides, I'd hate to scare you all. Trust me, you don't want to see me naked.

I even toyed with the idea of not participating. But I had to. I can't miss a mantel party. Or any party for that matter. I'm really a party girl.


Here is the frame that started it all. So I placed it on my mantel, added the red heart plate which came from Target last year. Then I added the grape vine heart wreath (a thrift store find).

Instead of adding a photo, to my frame, a light bulb went off & I added the word "LOVE". Heck, it was already all over the frame. I cropped it from the subway art I already used.

But I got this far in my mantel design and then nothing. I was stuck. I didn't know what else I could use on my mantel.

I added some black candlesticks to the other side of the mantel & dressed up my candles with some burlap & ribbons. But I hated it. So I took them down & didn't even take a photo.

What was I going to do?

I went to bed. So last night as I slept, I came up with all the ideas for my "love" mantel.


It started off with this idea of making paper roses out of book pages. I used a dictionary that I had from Dollar Tree to make the flowers. I hot glued them to some blue card stock I had on hand. Turned out pretty good, if I don't say so myself.

Actually I had this idea last week. I even made most of the roses last week. It just all came together this morning.

I even got brave & skinned some old books I had to prop the paper rose heart picture on. I had picked up the books from the thrift store a few months back for a dime a piece. I just got the courage this morning to "skin" them.

Next I printed out this Valentine subway print I found over at The Hands-On Housewife.

Printed it out in 5x7 size & plopped it into this frame I had. I have about a trillion frames. You see, I'm a frameaholic. I can't seem to pass them up at the thrift store. And I always paint them white or heirloom white.

The red glitter heart I've had for years. I think it came from Target Dollar Spot a few years back. But I'm not sure.

I also made a couple of medallions with my Dollar Tree dictionary. The center of the medallions are actually cupcake toppers. They were a free printable I got from Tip Junkie. I put one on my "Love" frame and the other on my book page heart framed print.

Next I decided I needed something to hang from the mirror in the center of the frame. I had picked up some red & white polka dot cupcake papers from Michael's on clearance the other day. I decided to make a heart wreath.

So I found me some cardboard out in the garage & cut out a heart shape. Painted the front and back blue. And them scrunched up a bunch of cupcake papers & hot glued them on. Easy peasy. I didn't even use the entire package of cupcake papers. I then hot glued on some blue ribbon I had and called it done.

This cost me less than 99 cents to make. I was a happy camper.

I would have painted the cardboard red, but I didn't have any red paint. So I used blue. So you can see the blue back reflected in the mirror.

I was now pretty happy with my mantel. But it was missing something.

A banner. Got to have a "Love" banner.

It was then I remembered I had this old red glitter "Love" banner from Target Dollar Spot. I've had it for years. But it needed something.

So I removed the letters from the red ribbon. Glued them to some blue card stock & cut it out so that some of the blue showed around the edge. And then I hung the letters and hearts from some twine with some little clothes pins with red hearts that I just picked up on clearance at Michael's on Friday night.

I also added this cute Valentine heart that I found in my stash of vintage images on my computer.

And there you have it. My mantel was finally done. And there was peace again throughout the land.

Well I hope that you enjoyed my mantel. The color is quite shocking after having a mostly white mantel for the past few months.

Now be sure and go visit all the other party goers. Don't be a wall flower. Get out & mingle.




Linking to:

The Sunday Showcase @ Under The Table and Dreaming

Weekend Wrap Up Party @ Tatortots and Jello



Frugal Friday @ The Shabby Nest



Valentine Mantel Party @ The Stories of A to Z

Tabletop Tuesday @ A Stroll Thru Life

Monday, January 17, 2011

More Winter Decor

I know that most of you are tired of winter already. But not me. But then, we have been having temps in the low 80's for the past few days.

I kind of long for snow and cold temps. Isn't it funny how we always want something we don't have.

Here is some more of my "winter" decor. I think these photos will finish it up. This weekend I plan to decorate for Valentine's Day.

Here is the top of my TV armoire. I switched out the twig reindeer and sleigh from Christmas for some of my white pitcher collection. The pitchers sit on top most of the year.

I added the willow tree sticks to this vase back in November. I still like it. I kept the Dollar Tree snowflakes hanging from the branches from Christmas.

I added this plate my sister in law made for me a few years ago.

Here is the shelf in my family room.

I switched out the mercury glass trees for these bottles. The bottles have been here for the past few months, except for Christmas. I left the Dollar Tree snowflake leaning up against the window mirror.

I love this white bottle brush tree. I moved it from being in my nativity vignette (which is now put away) to here. I even kept the snow on the shelf from Christmas.

I changed up a few things in this vignette from Christmas.

I added another blue/silver acorn inside the cloche and a frosty blue leaf ornament to the outside. I got both on after Christmas clearance at Walmart. I found them at 75% off.

I switched out the jingle bells in the apothecary jar for my letter balls. And I changed the small ironstone pitcher for the mercury glass candle holder I had there previously. I also put away the Christmas angel that had been sitting here.

Added another frosty blue leaf from Walmart clearance to this jar. Don't you just love it? I bought two and now I am wishing I had bought more. I always do that, do you?


I removed the Christmas print from this frame & moved the book page wreath from my mantel to hanging from this frame.

I just love the colors in this vignette.


In this cloche, I took out the small Christmas cloche (the cloche within a cloche). Moved the white trees around and added some small rocks that say "Brrr".

Makes me want to put on a coat. Just kidding!


And finally we have my "winter" letter art sign that I made last year. This year I hung it on the wall instead of using it on my mantel. If you want to know how I made it, just click HERE.

I never did get my other cloches are made up for winter. Oh well, hopefully I'll get them done for Valentine's Day.

My plans this past weekend was to get everything made that I'm planning on doing for my Valentine's Day decor, but I got nothing accomplished. But that is par for me. I did watch Brideszilla and My Fair Wedding all day yesterday. I love those shows.

Hopefully I'll get something done during the week, or maybe next weekend. My goal is to buy nothing new. Just make stuff from things I have around the house. I may have to cheat & buy a piece of colored paper or two.

I need to get something done or I'll have nothing to post about. I've been super lazy. I can't seem to get motivated to do anything around my house. I still have a couple of Christmas boxes that have yet to make it up in the attic. Don't worry, they are packed up (mostly). I just need some muscle power to get them up the ladder.



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