Ballet Ornament

I made these ballet slippers for a different project, but decided I liked them as an ornament for my tree instead.  I cut the shape out of pink felt and sewed on a smaller shape of white felt.  I hand sewed it all together with thread. They make a nice addition to our tree!

What Happens at the Cabin...

Stays at the Cabin!

My mom brings a few of her good friends to my parent's cabin for a week every summer. I've never gone, so I don't know what happens, but they always like to say "What Happens at the Cabin, Stays at the Cabin" when they get home. (They're all middle school teachers, I don't think they do anything very incriminating haha). Mom has always wanted a sign with this phrase to hang in the cabin, but none of us were willing to spend money on one (can you tell I come from a frugal family?) So, for her birthday this year, I made her one!

I found this board in our basement (leftover from the previous owner).

I painted it a beige-y color. I did everything by hand, including the wavy boarder and the letters. (I am not lucky enough to have a cutting machine...yet! My Silhouette is in the mail..sooooo excited, thank you Hubby!) Anywho, I had to paint by hand and I think it turned out pretty nice if I do say so myself!


I found these little metal dealy-bobs at a craftstore in Northern Wisconsin (where the cabin is located). They were perfect and really added to the sign. I love how it turned out!
My parents are heading up there this weekend to get everything open for the summer, I'll have to get a picture of it in it's new home.




I linked up to:
Sumo's Sweet Stuff's Market Yourself Monday

Plastic Bag Topiary

I wanted to make a topiary, but couldn't bring myself to spend $5 on a foam ball. So, I came up with my own ball. I shoved a bunch of plastic bags into another one and formed a circle shape.

(I like how it says reuse on the side lol).

I put masking tape all around to shape it a little more and give me something to glue to.

I glued moss around it, used a green colored pencil for the stem, and stuffed a thriftstore found planter with newspaper and glued moss to the top. A couple plastic eggs went on top for easter, but I can change out what sits on top so it can be out year round.

So, for pretty much free except for the moss, I have a beautiful topiary!

Friend Makin' Monday!

I am participating at Friend Makin' Monday over at ae filkins blog! Head on over there to join! Here are my answers to this week's Friend Makin' Monday!


1. Favorite things about Spring: The WARM weather! Flip flops, grilling out, yard games, hiking, biking, and sunshine!!


2. What I'm doing for Spring Break: Sadly, I do not get a spring break, but that's okay, maybe next year!


3. Favorite Spring flower: Hydrangeas, I think they are gorgeous!



4. Do you have a garden?


We dug a garden in our backyard last spring. The snow just melted here last week, so I will be starting my seeds inside (hopefully this week) and transplanting them once the ground is completely thawed.


5. If so, what do you grow.


All sorts of stuff! I don't exactly have a green thumb...but last year I grew one (lol) really big pumpkin, some herbs, beans, cucumbers, and flowers. I am going to try again this summer for a more successful turnout!


6. Do you do Spring cleaning? This is my first spring in our house after a winter (we moved in last April 1st). But yes, I have started spring cleaning! I have one bathroom done and the dining room. Now onto the entire rest of the house....


7. What is your weather *really* like right now? {Just b/c it's "officially" spring, doesn't mean that it feels like it for some of you}
It's okay...in the 50's today, which I think is really warm! Flip flops and no jacket for me! (for those of you in the dark, I live in Minnesota, so yes, 55 degrees is warm!) Nothing blooming or green yet, but the sun is shining, so I can't complain!

8. Snapped any weather related photos lately? Share one with us!

This was Sunday afternoon, checking out the new Minnesota Twin's baseball field. My hubby got us a 20-game season ticket package for my birthday and we got to be some of the first people to check out the stadium and got to see the view from our seats! It was very nice out that day, hopefully it will stay this nice for when we sit there for 3 hours watching the games!

9. What's your favorite thing to do on a sunny afternoon? Be outdoors! Walk the dogs, hike, bike, grill, I looooove fishing, and even staying inside crafting is fun with all the sunshine coming through my windows!!

10. Favorite TV show right now? I am a sucker for American Idol, Law and Order:SVU, and Criminal Minds. Under Cover Boss is usually pretty good too. But starting in two weeks, I will be watching the Twin's!

Happy Spring!

~Michelle~

Ribbon Board

I made this message board for my kitchen...in the colors I want my kitchen to be. Our kitchen came with dark red walls that I cannot stand. But, we haven't had time to paint, so I will just keep decorating it while pretending it has tannish brown walls instead of dark red. I took this Target dollar section cork board I had lying around and used it to make my message board. The cork was so thin on this thing that push pins went right through. It was pretty useless this way!


I covered it in batting. I used a glue gun to attach everything because my staple gun was too strong to use on this weak board.


I added my teal/turqouise/aqua and brown fabric. I love these two colors together--so much they were our wedding colors! And I have a set of dishes we recieved as wedding gifts that are also these colors. Therefore, I want the kitchen to be a more neutral tan, with maybe a brown accent wall, and NO dark red.


I added some pretty brown and aqua ribbon and wa-la, a beautiful message board! So...it's hanging in my kitchen against the ugly red wall. I'm hoping my husband's decorating side (ha) won't be able to stand it either and he will be inspired to paint!



I linked up to:

My Favorite Frugal Finds

I'm so excited about my new rug from Target that I must share! It's on the floor in my kitchen and now everytime I walk in I get a smile on my face. For one, I love brown and I love the natural look of this rug. And I reheeaaally liked the price! It was originally $49.99. I would never have bought a rug for that much (especially since my kitchen already had an okay rug.) But, this rug was on clearance for $12.82! Talk about a steal!! On top of that, I had gotten a giftcard from my parent's for my bithday, so to me, it was free!



And...it's reversible!




We got 3 of these stools at a garage sale last spring. We had just purchased our house and needed stools for the counter in the kitchen. But they are so expensive! I spotted these while driving back to work after lunch one afternoon and had to stop. They were only $10, yes $10 dollars, each! We only needed two for the kitchen, so the third is down in our game room in the basement. They also have natural elements, which is how I am going to decorate our kitchen once I get the time to paint. And such a good deal! These would have been waaay more expensive in a store. Gotta love garage sales!






~Michelle~

Cute Magnetic Board

It was recently my sis-in-law's 30th birthday. We are into being frugal, so I made her a magnetic board with personalized magnets. The total cost for this was probably less than $2!

I started with a metal tray I got at a thrift store on half-price day for 25 cents.



Cute ain't it? Ummm....no. So, I took my handy dandy Mod Podge, some craft paper, and riboon...and turned it into this!
Sorry about the poor picture quality, my camera was full at the time so I took these on my phone's camera. I took some clear stones and Mod Podged some matching paper with the initials of my s-i-l, her hubby, and her two little boys on them, added magnets to the backs, and stuck 'em to the board. I was worried about the crinkle-ly looking corners, but I think they add to finished look. This was super easy, super cute, and my sis loved it!


I linked up to:
Trendy Treehouse

Behind the Blog

Hello fellow bloggers! I am excited to start my very own craft/home decor/organization/cooking/whateverelseshowsuponhere blog! I have been reading other blogs for a few weeks now, and man, you all are inspiring! I can't wait to join the craft/home blog community! For my first post, I thought I'd share a little about myself!

About Michelle:

1. My husband, Brad, is my very best friend and I have never had so much fun with anyone else..ever! We were married on October 25, 2008. We started dating in September of 2007, were engaged in May 2008, and married 5 months later! Reading this, it sounds like it happened so quickly, but I can't imagine it any other way! Here are a few pics from our big day:

2. People think we look waaaay younger (okay, maybe not waaay younger) than we are! I just turned 24 this past week and Brad, being exactly 3 years and 11 months older to the day, will be 28 next month. We get our ID's checked way too often and it gets old hearing "You'll appreciate it when you're older!" Hopefully they're right!

3. My parents are antique dealers. This means that every road trip as a child was littered with stops at antique shops, flea markets, and Goodwill. I'm pretty sure my dad has never seen a garage sale and not stopped. I used to think it took 13 hours to get to my grandparents' house; turns out it only takes 9 if you don't stop at all those antique shops! Now I enjoy going to thrift stores and garage sales with good old dad. If you want to see what a thrifty antique dealer's garage looks like I could show you a picture (but my mom would kill me!)

4. I was born and raised in Rochester, MN and now live 2 hours west, still in MN. This means that, sadly, our garage sale season is very short! I really extremely dislike the cold and snow is nice for awhile, but so far this year my car has been stuck seven times! That's a lot of shoveling under the tires.

5. Brad bought a sweet (extremely hyper) Boston Terrier puppy a few months before we started dating. I adopted a naughty (but sweet) Miniature Pinscher from a shelter one month before we started dating. So now we have two hyper, naughty, but sweet dogs that live with us. The Boston is Deuce (it was his second dog) and I named the minpin Morneau after the greatest baseball player of all time, the Minnesota Twin's firstbaseman Justin Morneau.

The boys:

They are our 'children' for now, but we can't wait to start a family (in a couple of years).

6. We will have lived in our home for one year on April 1. We got a steal of a deal on it (thank you economy and insider information on how desperate the seller was). We love it and I have so much fun planning on what to do in every room! This is the front the day we moved in, the garage comes off of the right side.

7. Finally, few more things I love/enjoy/or can't live without: our families, good friends, country music, the Minnesota Twins, a Mountain Dew in the morning, going to my parents cabin, fishing, and boating, hiking and biking with Brad, watermelon, pretending/trying to be organized, warm weather, and of course, crafting and decorating!

Can't wait to start sharing with all of you!

~Michelle~