simple fall decor...

I don't even know if this qualifies as fall decor, but I thought I'd share some super simple fall things around here...

super simple text printed and layered onto scrap paper...

I repurposed these from last years project ...simple fall banner

I cut a few strips off a large burlap piece to make, burlap ribbon, and tied it around all my vases, candle hurricanes and orchid urns...

I dried these flowers from my friend Victorias's wedding a few weeks ago and they kept their color beautifully, I thought they looked fallish, so I stuck them in a few vintage pitchers...

Our house smells like this :) That's pretty much all you need for it to feel like fall!

Simple branches from the yard...

 

And my favorite fall bargain of all  definitely falls in the ghetto fabulous category.....

$1 pumpkins from the dollar store?! I couldn't believe it, there was a huge bin of fab big pumpkins

Quite the deal! The total for my fall decor was a whopping $2 :) How's that for budget friendly!

Enjoy,

Cj 

DIY ghetto fabulous - book shelves

(pic from Ministry of Deco)

I haven't been doing too much design dreaming for our house recently, I just don't really know where we are going or what we are doing with the house. To move or not to move, that is the question :) We have had our house for sale since mid Fall and show the thing constantly... like almost everyday constantly :) We had an offer in, but the people had a change of heart. So we are back to waiting to see where the Lord wants us to be, and if moving is in His plans.

I haven't been looking at my design blogs, because my brain gets going too fast and I know if we are moving it will be a waste to re-do stuff here! But I did stumble across this great idea @  Table Tonic (a great Australian design blog) , a wonderfully "ghetto fabulous" idea of turning cheap IKEA spice racks into super cool book shelves! They really could hold anything! (photos, vases, candles) And they can be painted any color you can imagine! What a fun accent to a child's room, so functional too. I will be stealing this idea once I figure out which house I am going to hang them in :)

 BEKVÄM | Spice rack

and @ $3.99 each, they definitely qualify for the ghetto fabulous category :)

Looking forward to using these soon! I know my boys will enjoy them!

Cj

the 59 cent laundry "basket" :)

Ok, this one is totally in my "ghetto fabulous" category :) I know, it's weird! But I think it's really fabulous!

You know those dumb Ikea bags, you buy every time you go to Ikea, because you forgot to bring the ten you have at home...
ok, maybe thats just me ;) 

But I'm sure you've seen the big blue bag somewhere!
Well, I finally found a handy use for those bags in my home!

I use them instead of laundry baskets. We have laundry hampers in each bedroom, and when it's time to do laundry, I transport the laundry to and from the bedrooms in these.
They take up little to no space and you don't have to have big plastic laundry baskets sitting around!
I roll mine up and put them in a cupboard in the laundry room! 

They make good beach bags for sand toys or park bags too! :)


IKEA | Bins & bags | Bags | FRAKTA | Shopping bag, large
And they're 59 cents a piece! You can't beat that!

Enjoying the big blue bag, 

Cj

Arts and Cracks

I've been wanting to be creative and educational with my playtime at home with the kids. So Hud and I made an Arts and Crafts Box, which he calls the Arts and Cracks Box! I just designated a clear bin in my craft closet and filled it with:

-crayons and chalk

-ghetto rubber stamps found at the thrift store

( so it is no biggie if they get thrashed!)

- ink stamp pad

-scrap paper and  spiral bound note books

-blank cards and envelopes (easy card making!)

-stickers

-scissors

-tape

-clay

-play dough

-bubbles (not really crafty but for some reason they're there :)

Hud loves it! We play with it almost every day. It's been a great way to work on colors, shapes and letters, all while having fun and being creative! It's an easy clean up too, throw it all back in the box and you're done! And it was way cheap, this doesn't have to be fancy , it's easy thrift store and dollar store stuff! 

Enjoying our pre-school at home :),

 Cj

here's some of the lovely work that the art box has produced!

homemade doughnuts!

oh, yeah this is another fun tool for our Arts and Crafts time. 

This IKEA Chalk board is a must have!:)and @ 15.00 it makes a great gift too!A pack of chalk and a bow, you'll be good to go!

Ghetto Fabulous - High Chair Cover

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Ok, this one might be a little more ghetto than fabulous, but I thought I'd share it anyways :) While buying a birthday gift at Marshalls a few weeks ago, I was SO close to having total self control, only buying the birthday gift, which is hard for me to do there!

... but then I spotted this fabulous pattern and my favorite color, on a ironing board cover! It was $7 in the clearance bin, and I just couldn't pass it up. I don't really know where the idea came from, but for some reason I thought,"hmm, could this thing fit on the high chair, that would be much cooler than the cheesy Graco cover :)?" So when I got home, I stuck it on, tucked the remaining fabric neatly under, and voila! It worked! Give it a try, easy to stick on, and even easier to take off to wash! 

Enjoy, 

Cj

hungry horses :)

ok, so maybe i'm ghetto and will give my kid's toys i found on the side of the road. i like to call it resourceful :) i found this box of legos while driving through a fancy neighborhood (they were practically brand new! the house was really nice, so i wasn't wigged out)last week while looking for houses. they were on the curb with a few pieces of ugly furniture, so we opted to just take the legos :) The box was full fabulous blocks, trains and tracks, people  and animals.... score! hud plays with them everyday now. 
today hud thought his horses were getting hungry, 

so he decided to feed them :)

check out the fresh grass they're eating! fresh from the yard! too cute!

 enjoying our ghetto find and loving it,

cj

ghetto fabulous :)

Love these! I'm posting because the industrial size box of these very, fine, fine :) hand towels... is almost completely through. My mom found these at Smart and Final and thought I should use these in our bathrooms, displayed in a cool container or basket. Since we love to  have people over and love to entertain, this was an affordable way have individual hand towels and not make 50 people share the same cloth hand towel...yuck :). I love these in the kitchen too! They are great for a napkin with lunch or a quick clean up tool.

We split a box because 1,440 towels is quite a large amount to go through. They are C fold hand towels... These are very similar tho the one I grabbed at S&F (GP Paper Hand Towel ...not too shabby, 1,440 hand towels for $28.00

... thats just under two cents a towel!! 

When I first saw them by themselves I thought..hmm, this is going to look ghetto. But, after they were in the cool container they looked great! They aren't hand towels form the Ritz, but they look fine, get the job done and cost about nothing! Split a box with a friend, or two or three, you can't beat the price :)

Enjoy! cj

the ever so useful jar....

 Slightly ghetto and slightly fabulous :) the Kerr jars are my favorite glasses in my cupboard.  I remember as a little girl drinking out of jelly jars at my grandmas house. And still to this day I love these jars as drinking glasses. They are super durable and have outlasted all of my other cups! (they outlasted all my pottery barn and crate/barrel glasses) I not only use them for cups, but stock up on these ever so affordable jars to use as great vases and candle holders too! For around $8 for a dozen, you can't beat

  .66 cents a glass! I always get mine at Smart and Final. They have a great selection and tons of sizes( 8oz., 12oz...) I also found them online at The Fresh Preserving Store 

Give them a try, they're perfect for a glass of fresh lemonade, a pack of tea lights, or a bunch of fresh spring flowers! 

Enjoy! cj