sincerely yours, dena

We have a lot of weekend guests… A LOT! I personally would rather sleep in a bed rather than an air mattress so I wouldn’t expect any less for my guests. I am on a constant cheap bed hunt. My favorite sources are yard sales and craigslist.com. This bed was a steal! I got the frame from a moving sale for $50 and I got the box spring and mattress for $40 from craigslist. The fun coastal sheets were a good buy from Renys.

I’ve got a lot of windows on the front of my new house. I heart window boxes full of flowers but it’s going to be an investment when I do so I want to make sure I do some investigative work first. A few weekends ago we were taking a walk around Charlestown, MA and I started snapping photos of all my favorite windows. I got tons of great ideas incorporating real, dried and plastic flowers. My favorite idea is putting a starfish seashell in the window.

These flowers make a huge difference when decorating for a party. I made these a few years ago for a “Mexican Themed Baby Shower” at work. They are going to get some more mileage this summer at a bridal shower I’m helping throw.

Idea for “She who must not be named“

My husband and I try to give each other thoughtful gifts rather than expensive gifts. For Christmas last year I gave this picture frame to him. It’s got a picture of the front door of every house we’ve lived in together. The last picture is of the architecture plan of our front door of our current house. Once it’s finished I will replace it with a real picture.

I was trolling thru my computer over the weekend and I found these pictures of our old apartment in Boston. I did this makeover in 1 weekend with $100 (only shopped the returned & discontinued aisle of Home Depot).

I’ve got a limited craft budget and I’ve become very good at stretching a long distance. Here’s an example, instead of having a photo custom enlarged at a photo shop to fit a unique frame size I already had in the house, I creatively used my home ink jet printer and photoshop. I took the picture I took (of the Kennebec River) and within Photoshop removed all the color and cut the picture in half. I printed each half separately on 8 1/2 x 11 photo paper and then taped the 2 back into 1 in the frame. Yeah, the line is noticeable but so is the $ still left in my craft budget. When I win the lottery I’ll get the picture enlarged for real.

Because I NEVER throw anything away, I save all my back issues of the 5 magazines I subscribe to. I always say I’m going to go back and look thru them but I rarely do. So I copied my friend Vanessa who copied her Mom… start ripping out what you want and recycle the rest.

Using a exacto knife, I cut out all the articles that interest or inspire me then I put them in clear protective binder sheets and organize them in a binder by subject. I’ve got a binder for decorating ideas (divided by room), a binder for holidays, a binder for recipes and a binder for crafts. The best part is getting the satisfaction of finally being able to throw something away!

I found this beat up buoy floating on the beach of the Kennebec. Actually, Rubbles found it and dragged it home. It was very authentic, complete with barnacles. I gave it a fresh coat of spray paint and using a paint pen put a “B” on it. It’s officially the first decoration in our screen porch. I’m not in love with the colors, but once I get some idea of how the room is gonna flow I can always paint over it.

We have a guest bathroom on the ground floor. I’m generally anti-curtains and blinds. Let’s face it, the whole purpose of a window is to let in light and for the view. If you put curtains (practical usage) or blinds they are going to be closed all the time and you lose the reason for the window. An alternative I’ve found is frosting the window with frosting spray paint from Rustoleum. Trim the area with painters tape and either cover the wall space close by with either newspaper or paper towel. The paint smells so make sure you are in a well-ventilated space.

Over the weekend I went to my first estate sale. The furniture and the artwork were phenomenal. I wanted everything! This chair that would have looked perfect in my bedroom sold for $40 but I just couldn’t pull the trigger and raise my bidding number in the air. So finally when this table was at $10, out of nowhere my natural instincts to buy took over and my arm raised itself. I am a proud owner of a kitchen table (finally) and I only paid $10 for it.