sincerely yours, dena

I had a very successful adventure this year at Bath’s MayFair Day. The first Saturday in Maine is dedicated to a city wide yard sale. Can anything be more fun! They even have a legit May Pole in the town center.

	All of this for just $20!!!
	I’m going to give the sugar bowls (filled with flowers) away as door prizes as at wedding shower i’m helping to throw
	I snagged this whole box of old bottles for $4

In celebration of earth day today, I’ve planted some seedlings in containers I pulled out of my recycle bin. One last use before they hit the recycling center.

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’m always trying to save time. If it means even a few seconds, I’m doing it. I put a Ball jar in my kitchen window to collect wine corks. Open the bottle, spin on your heels and throw the cork. Once it gets full, I transfer all of them to a shipping box in the closet to be recycled. I save on all the walking back and forth. I could just stop drinking so much wine but what fun would that be.

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.

A few jobs ago the company I was working for was doing some cleaning (aka laying people off) and they threw all the extra office supplies in a pile for people to pillage. I grabbed these metal mail inbox/outbox trays. They have been collecting dust in my closet for years until now. Using craft wire I secured the two trays together making sure the openings lined up at the bottom and secured to the wall in my pantry. Now it’s perfect for holding plastic shopping bags.

Finishing gun says what? BANG BANG! So I furthered my arsenal of power tools and learned how to use a miter saw and a finishing gun (thanks for the lessons Drew). My husband picked this bright blue color for the guest bathroom because he said the color looked “clean.” I agree, it looks clean but also very bright. I don’t want all our guests to go blind. To help tone it down a bit I took some the left over door trim I found lurking in the basement and installed a chair rail. This created a clean dividing line to paint the bottom half white (paint also found in a basement corner). This whole project cost me 0$!

Ocassionally, we order take out for the office from Cosi. They serve their sandwiches in plastic trays that to my surprise are made of non-recyclable materials. Well, shame on them. I launched my 2 prong attack, 1 - spreading the news thru the office that we will no longer order from them due to their environmental irresponsibility and 2 - do something with the trays we already have. Office lawns were born.

A little dirt, grass seed and water with the occasionally “mow” with scissors does the job. I’ve heard rumors that if you throw a little vodka on it the grass will not grow so tall and fall over. Little vodka for me, a little for the grass, a little for me….

My parents and I are rummage sale junkies. Whatever you want to call it, tag sale, rummage sale, garage sale whatever…. to me it’s all goodness waiting for me to pillage thru. Over labor day we scored the mother load of mismatched tea cups. After a little slave labor (my father), a drill that was also purchased at a garage sale, a wood dowel and a screw - we had a bird feeder/bath that the british would be proud of.

Note: when drilling, put a little motor oil or oil on the drill bit, it can get really hot and either ruin the bit or your tea cup. Go slow and be patient.