Budget Valentine Gift

Since my birthday is exactly 1 week before Valentine's Day (more on my A-MAZING day later), the hubs and I usually decide to go pretty low key for Valentine's Day.  In fact, we try to have date nights quite often, so the "Hallmark holiday" as the hubs calls it never ranks too high on our holiday list.

However, let me say ladies - he treats me great and is constantly doing sweet things all year round, so don't picture a neanderthal grunting at me that he wants to stay in.  Ok, now that the disclaimer is out of the way, we decided to celebrate Vday with dinner and a movie.  The hubs let me pick something out of one of our many cookbooks, and he was the master chef.  What a great treat.  While I love cooking, it's nice to be pampered and waited on too sometimes.  We also saw Dear John.  Has anyone seen it yet?  While it's definitely no Notebook, I'd say it's worth seeing.  Different than I imagined. 

On to the gifting...

I wanted to keep within a small budget and I managed to do it.  Total cost of the gift?  $1.50.  Sweet!  This this amount and some creativity I created what I dubbed The Memory Box.

I went thrifting to find an antique wooden recipe box.  While I didn't find a wooden one, I did find a metal one with rust that had seen better days.  That was ok, because I planned a little makeover for it. 

First, I painted the rusty metal box a crisp white to have a base color.  I then found cute scapbook paper at Michael's and used a coupon to save a whopping $.50.  Am I the only one that will.not.buy without a coupon?

With a little Modge Podge and patience, I covered the box in the paper.  To tell you the truth, I'm not a Modge Podge expert.  I usually use either too much or too little...I mean, how can you mess up watered down elmers glue?  I'll work thru my issues on another day.

I know you are wondering what I put in the memory box.  Using this website, I created card catalog cards of special dates and memories we've shared.  Of course, I did the obvious choices like our first date and the day we got engaged, but my favorite are the kookie entries that mean something only to us.  

I simply saved and printed each card and put them into the box, then tied it with a pretty bow and paired it all with a homemade card. 

My favorite part is the excitement that I'll feel at the end of a wonderful day with the knowledge that we'll get to write an entry together.  I think it'll also be fun to read thru with our future kiddos recreating the days of our courting and earliest memories. 

Linking to:

Trash to Treasure Tuesday @ Reinvented
DIY Day @ ASPTL
Get Your Craft On @ Today's Creative Blog

How to Make Art for Zero Dollars

Wanted to share a few things with you. Do you like free art? Rhetorical question, I realize. Of course you do. I’ll get to that later. First, I wanted to share a quick “after” with you (the frame).  Don't judge me for not touching up the spots above the frame...we hung it too high and I HAD to have it lowered.

Unfortunately, I don’t have a “before” picture because I did this before I began thinking about blogging and obsessively taking pictures. This frame was a gift from an uncle of mine. He had many health problems and was giving many of us something to remember him by. One evening when we had them over for dinner, he brought an antique gold frame with him. Apparently, he had repaired an old frame in need of some TLC and decided to gold leaf it.

I loved the shape and detail of my new goodie, but the gold leaf, not so much. So I got out my trusty friend, white spray paint. I LOVE the results. Once painted white, the details of the frame really popped. This quickly became my favorite frame.

I hung the frame over our console table in the entryway. While I loved the empty frame look, when the holidays came, I thought it needed a little pop of color.

While shopping the house, I found a placemat I had left over from another project. (Another post for another day).

I pinned the placemat to the wall using some map pins I had on hand. Now I love how the pattern fits in the frame with a little wall border that looks like a mat. As of right now, I plan on leaving it up all year since the color fits with our scheme (or at least until I’m bored with it). I used the placemat because it was on hand and FREE, but there are so many options – scrap fabric, wallpaper, wrapping paper.

So have you ever used a placemat as art? What about any other kitchen textile? Do you think it’s working?  Hope you like it Uncle Al.  I think of you everytime I see it!  We miss you...

Linking to:
Metamorphosis Monday @ Between Naps on the Porch
Make it Your Monday @ The Twice Remembered Cottage
Trash to Treasure Tuesdays @ Reinvented
DIY Day @ A Soft Place to Land
Get Your Craft On @ Today's Creative Blog
Transformation Thursday @ The Shabby Chic Cottage

I Scarfed up this Tutorial

Ok, that was a cheesy title, I know, but I couldn't help myself. I've never claimed to be a very creative person, but I am a pretty good copier. I found a tutorial here to make a really cute and sassy scarf. For the full tutorial, go to Ruffles and Stuff.

So anyway, this is really easy. I followed Disney's suggestion of using jersey pants as material. I went to my local Salvation Army, where it happened to be 1/2 off clothing day. Woo Hoo! I found the perfect jersey pants in an extra large. Tip alert - if buying clothes at a second hand store buy the biggest you can find that works for you. You get more fabric for the same price...hello obvious statement. I got an extra large for $1.50 (half off the regular $3 price tag). I was so excited that I forgot to get a picture, but I'm pretty sure you know what a pair of pants looks like...

So I cut the pants in 4 in x 4 in squares. My squares were nowhere near perfect, but in this scarf, noone will ever notice. (It did make me put a rotary cutter on my birthday list - hi hubs). I cut 60 squares and then pinned them together, with each point of the square matching up with the middle of the next square.

After that, all that's left is sewing down the middle. When setting it up to go in the machine, make sure you set it up so the first square going into the machine is on top. It makes it much easier to feed thru. I did a straight stich down the middle. When sewing, I made sure to straighten each square and make sure that the edges were all pressed down because they had a tendancy to curl up.

The 60 squares makes a really long scarf. I doubled it and it was still really long. Next time, I'd probably do 50ish squares. I love how it came out - I wore it once already and got a ton of compliments. Even for novice sewers this is super simple!

God, Can you turn the heat on please?

Let me explain something. I live in Southwest Florida. There are many reasons I love it here...my family is close, beautiful beaches, great friends, I'm addicted to water. But do you want to know the #1 reason I'm here?

The weather. (Sorry mom & dad)

I H.A.T.E. being cold.


So imagine my disappointment at having below freezing temperatures for weeks now. We Floridians just don't know how to act when it gets this cold. Will our pool pipes freeze? What temperature do you set the heat at? How many layers can I fit under my coat without looking like the kid from A Christmas Story?

This leads me to my disaster of the weekend. I've officially learned a lesson. I'll admit I had cabin fever this weekend. I can't stand being stuck in the house because it's miserable outside. On Saturday, I decided to work on a few projects in the garage that are half done. One is a goodwill small glass bowl I was painting to use as a holder for my rings when I'm not wearing them. I've been looking at goodwill and the local thrift store for something like this (oh Eddie, you know I love you, why do you have to charge so much for these??):





but haven't been able to find just the right one, so I decided to make a cheap (read inexpensive)imitation one. The project was almost done, I thought I'd give it one more coat of white paint before putting a protective spray on it. I attempted this Saturday and ended up with this:



As I'm wondering what the heck happened, I vaguely remember a blog post I read recently where the poster said she brushed the paint because she couldn't spray due to the temperature. I think it's time to read the back of the spray paint can.



Oh crap. Who knew you weren't supposed to use spray paint in temps under 65 degrees? Apparently those who live in every state except for Florida. Lesson learned.



At least now I have another reason to love Florida - Less interuptions from crafting due to weather conditions!


So has anyone else had a weather related craft-astrophy lately? Do share so I can feel better. Thanks.