cheap fall decorating

Good morning!!!! Its my favorite season. The trees out my office window are just turning yellow. It makes my heart so happy and peaceful. In the spirit of fall I started decorating for the season. With living in a small house I don't have any extra room for decorations. When I buy décor it has to have multiple ideas. I usually gravitate towards clear mason jars (enter a big old heart). I need a sign that reads " Hi, my name is Tracy and I have a mason jar addiction". When we are out its really hard for me to control it. The older the better.

Ok on to the decorating. My first step is a big one, remove clutter, even the clutter you have gone blind to. This is big!!! I have clutter blindness like 95% of the population. To combat this I clear the whole space and I mean everything, even the pillows. I like to have a laundry basket to collect everything. This is a good time to reevaluate what you have. Maybe the old blanket has seen better days and needs a new home. Step two shop your house, I mean like dig in the china cabinet for a vase or even a sugar bowl. One time I was having friends over for coffee and I could not remember were my creamer jug went, oh it had flowers in it on the bathroom counter. My gravy boat I use maybe 2 times a year also gets lots of use lol but not for gravy. Do you have a little serving platter or a tray, grab that too. Ok so on to the fun stuff. So 95% of my decorating comes from the good old dollar store or Walmart from the year before,( you will always find me in the clearance section). I think every year I may spend $10 a year on decorating. This year funds are supper snug so all these decorations needed to be from last years stock. I love a challenge!!!!

I love my gold canyon candles and warmers. This little tray I got it from the thrift shop for $.50 and sprayed it with sliver paint.  




I just love this large bowl. My mom got it for a gift it was the bottom of a gift basket. Toss in some fake mums and done.
 



Oh do I just love fake flowers. I love real too but I am so cheap lol

I made this last year and the "S" word came so early so didn't last long.



Had some corn in the pantry. sooo cheap

Some moss i had from my
 spring decorating
 some fake leaves and berries,
 oh and of course a mason jar.

This is a little shelf in our front door. I love this spot. The frame is going on 5 years old. The paper in it just gets changed for the season. I never use papers like that for scrap booking so I save them for decorating. The large hurricane gets a good work out in my décor just tossed some moss and some leaves in it. SO SIMPLE!!!



This is just a garland from the dollar store and some foam pumpkins. 

This tool box I made when my family went across
Canada when I was 15. Also ..... mason jars!!!!!

 

 So the motto I use when decorating is less is more. I don't want my decorations to make me stressed out or look messy. Removing extra clutter I think is the key to a calming space. So go and fall in love with your home again!!!

laundry room makeover.

Good morning!!!!! Well this was a awesome week. Got lots done, a few friends had babies. All around it was good till today and i woke up with a cold booooo!! But lots of tea and bloging will make me better in no time. 

The last week i have been redoing my laundry room. With Christmas it just got away from me. So good thing a bowl full of lemons had that on her 14 week organize your house that i am following. On with the pictures. Well lets look at the before eeeee it scary. No wonder i was falling behind it was a mess.

When we moved to this house 3years ago the laundry room was in need of help bad. We were planning on redoing the whole basement so i was not going to do anything till we had done renos. Well a year in the house nothing happened  so i painted it a miss tint i had got for $5, cant go wrong with that. It worked well.  

I am a person that gets tired of colour easily. So i wanted a change badly. I sent the kids to school and headed to Canadian tire for my paint. I love the lady there super friendly and and she likes my colours. Lol. I came home ready to do this job. I cant be any more happy with how it turned out. I have been doing laundry all morning and its just a dream to be in. Are you ready. 

 Pictures don't even do it justice.  Its so bright. I was a little worried putting the colour on the walls but i love it now with all the stuff back in.  Laundry rooms always have clutter i feel. Plus i don't have a cabinet to keep laundry stuff in so everything that is in here has to look nice to me and easy for putting away. 

I got super soiled by my amazing dad.  I gave him the measurement's i needed and he had some wood in his garage. Its perfect i just have to decide what colour i want to paint it. The plans you can find on my top fave website. Anawhite,  i love all the stuff she makes. 

 

  

Red and i made this it was a sign i had got from the thrift shop for .50 cents. Mm has already matched a bunch of socks that i could not find. That is one of his jobs for the house. 

People that really know me know i LOVE!!!!!! pegboard. In the laundry room our water lines are in the middle of the wall. I carfully put pegboard over the line to make the wall way better. To make it look good i did a quick stencil i got at walmart a few months ago. As you can see i colour code our hangers, yes crazy but they look so good in there closets. The kids clothes get hung up well about 90% of it. You can read a small post about that here . 

One last quick and cheap thing i did was a dolor store run. For $10 i got tins thst are ment for the kitchen but they dont seal at all but i just love the look of them. So grab 3 at $3 a each amd a pack of chalkboard lables 6 for a $1. They are perfect, for now you never now if they mught get hit with some spray paint in the spring. 

 Wall colour is tropical paradise from CIL real life.

Well i think that is all for today. Well off to do more laundry. Yaya 

Happy organizing!!!

front entry, take 5

Good day! I am here to share my front door redo with you today. If you follow my blog you might know that is have a front door from the 60s. its horrible.(older post here)  NO door for the closet and the hardwood floor was getting very bad. so bad that I got a sliver in my foot from it. My dad had given us some flooring for our bathroom that was left over from there reno in there house, But it was 3" to short for the bathroom. so plan B was to use it up in the front door. Lets see a before pic of the front door first.

nicked name the 'black hole' for a reason I hated coming home to this.

 Even just putting the lino down changed the area. I can mop it now. Its the small things in life right.
total cost $5.00 for a lot of glue left over.

next took some math skills I do not have but I think it turned out well. anyone with kids and husband that work hard the walls at a front door or main entrance get trashed. With this in mind I sat on the web for hours looking at other peoples ideas . It was time to not look for perfection and just get the project done. here is a few before photos of the wall.

 

 

I was not bad, it is just not totally my style. Then I went to town with my idea. I feel I could not have been better I just love it.

ARE YOU READY!!!!!

 

 

 

The wall colour is Jade frost and the trim is white on white.

 

We want to change the green wall but cant decide on a color that we both like. This project was a little pricy with the trim but it was still under $100 but it changed the whole house and gave the home so much character. I love it.

Just a few more pics

 

The pictures were taken at the same time and same lighting what a difference paint does.  As you can see if painted the door well I was at it too.

Just to add a splash of my FAV colour to the house.

Well that is all I am off and runny to do some more crazy things with the kids before school starts in a week. YAYAYAYAAYAY!!!!

 

 

 

Well I have finally had a bit of time to myself,. I just dislike flu season so much. Here after a few weeks of being MIA in the blog world I am back to share my favourite place, as of right now (craft room under construction, going to LOVE it) My living room and dinning room are the hub of our house. We watch a lot of movies online like Netflix and when we had a regular computer it was hard to watch it on a  20" monitor. So we did a lot of rearranging and came up with a great idea. take the 32" TV and make it our computer. WOW it was the best thing we did for the house. Before we had so much going on in the living room it was so overwhelming to me.
Reds birthday pic shows it behind the couch.

The First dresser that came was amazing and best price EVER Free!. We took the bottom drawers off for the computer tower and the other one was the printer that you could pull out. It worked well for over a year but it was not really want I wanted I wanted something that fit everything. I wanted a bit of character and colour.     

 

Then when I was over at a fellow DIYers house in behind her garage was GOLD!!!! lol yes the mother of all dressers IT was love at first sight.

BHAHAHAHAH!!!! most people would toss this baby. Not the Dutch in me, my grandma would have been proud. I could not get it in my truck fast enough. NOT JOKING.

Got my free dresser home and started right away it was in ruff shape. After a little sanding and turning the top over we were good to start painting. Because 90% of the time I am going crazy(good Crazy)  and forget to take pictures mid-way.

 Now for my after pictures

 

PURE LOVE!!!!!

I redid the hardware as well with black chalk board spray paint, it holds up the best. The Tower needs to be vented so I was on a nothing budget and the panels that were there just came out not a problem. I had  some shelf slip grip hanging around so I just stapled it on the doors. for balance I did both sides.   

The one side has great drawers were I keep all my Tupperware sales stuff.

the tower and wifi box go here and it was made for it PERFECT!!!!!

computer stuff



office stuff

phone books and camping directory

 

I had this shelf at the front door for a bit but when I redid that I tossed it here and it works great. Wish it was a little closed off but it being open helps it stay organised.

 

So on a nothing budget no joke I had the paint and everything. I love taking trash and making it amazing!!!

PS there is a other drawer not pictured here because it hold HR stuff  for my mom and dads business and it is super off limits

 

 

What do u think of the idea of the TV/computer?

 

 

WERE DID 2 YEARS GO  part 2

So rewind 2 years ago, tomorrow we were moving in to our "new to us" house. Going from 720sq feet to just about 1000sq feet, most people would think that is not that much different but to us it was the flow of the house that we loved. It was my brothers house and he was moving to the city for a new job so why not take it off his hands. It has 3 bedrooms up and a bathroom and then a "developed" basement, with 3 bedrooms, a tv room and a bathroom. Because I just love before and afters I have to put some pictures up for guys. caution long post but lots of pictures

 

these are the pictures my brother use to list the house.

 

then my crew too over

It always gets worse before it gets better right

 

master bedroom

all the toys they want and they play with my mats



back door landing



trying to find a layout that worked



one word CHAOS!!

having a nap between unpacking boxes
we lived with one chair for 2 week  till the new couches came
 

The house is always got a project going on but the house had really made huge changes in the last year for really no money. We had more important things to get like a new furnace and hot water tank yaya home ownership.

The best place in my house. My free dresser makeover. This dresser hold lots of secrets that it closes off at the end of the day. You can see how I keep it organised here

Not in love with this red on the walls but I think when we redo the horrible tile we will change it.

 

As you can see Green is my favorite color This apple green is also in the laundry room

Mistint $5.00 for a gallon  

The dark black hole got a massive paint job. This was one of the first places to get paint.

 



I have to do laundry everyday so you might as well make it nice place to be in.

 

Finally was able to put our bed my dad made up. the old house was to small. He is so talented.

red is so happy to have her own room

 

I love this bathroom. Another $5.00 mis-tint.

No more orange wall but more green :)

 

 

 

Well that is all for a little before and after. As my husband says I have a harder time committing to a design in the house more then I did saying yes to marrying him. So the house changes with our ever growing needs.

 

I hope you liked reading my blog as much as like sharing with of you all.

 

Till later be crazy and think out side the box.