2010 In Review . . . .

Happy New Year everyone! I hope you all have a fun and safe New Year. We are celebrating at our friend's house where there will be lots of kids, lots of yummy food and lots of fun!

A lot of you are doing a yearly review of your favorite projects. However, my little blog has only been around since August so I don't have a whole year of projects to share with you. Here are few of my favorites:

Kids Bathroom - click here to see what I did.

No-Sew Curtains - this is probably my favorite project of the year!  It made a huge difference in the look of my bay window! I've since added EAT letters and a large fork & spoon. Click here and here for all the details.

I also painted my shutters and front door (and got a new storm door!). That black paint sure did change the whole look of my house!  Click here to see what we did.

Another one of my favorites was the pottery barn inspired bulletin board I made for my daughter's room. It turned out better than I imagined and we've since made one for little sister's room.  You can check out how we made the bulletin board here and the whole room redo here. Oh, by the way, I don't think her room has been as clean as it was the day I took those photos!

Everyone seemed to love the gumdrop trees/topiaries that I made. These were super easy to make - go here to see more photos and find out how to make them.

Finally, my last favorite project of the year was the recipe art I made using my mom's recipe cards.  I have this hanging in my kitchen and I love it! You can click here for all the details.

Well there you have it. 2010 Thrifty Decor Mom in review. Hopefully you have found some inspiration or ideas to use in your own home. I am so excited to start 2011 and share all my ideas and projects with you! This next year is going to be awesome!

Thank you all for following and supporting my blog. I've had so much fun and met so many talented people.  You all have so many creative and wonderful ideas that I have stolen used!

Don't forget to enter the CSN $35 Giveaway! The deadline to enter is January 3rd! Go here to enter.

Happy New Year!

Lori  : )

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I Confess . . .

Christmas is over and we all had a great time visiting my family and I think my kids are happy with what they got from Santa.

I do have a few things to confess . . .

The Christmas decorations and tree are already put away. I know, I know.  Christmas was only 3 days ago but I can't stand it!  I want my house back in order!

I baked Christmas cookies - took them out of the box and put them in the oven!  I don't like to bake and really don't like to make cut-out cookies.  I went to GFS and purchased this ....

These are sooo good!  Oh, want to know what else I did?  I let my kids (and me too) eat some uncooked cookie dough.  I'm bad.

All the gifts were wrapped and I didn't put bows or ribbons or even tags on them.  I wrote the kids names with a Sharpie right on the paper! Ahhhh!  You know what?  My kids didn't even notice.  They just wanted to see what was inside and didn't care how it was wrapped.

On Christmas Day I didn't make a fancy, elaborate meal.  Nope.  We're talking lasagna people.  And it was good!!  I did use my Christmas dishes so it was festive.  : )

My house has been messy for the past week and I just swept the floors yesterday.  That has to be a world record for me - not sweeping the floors for 4 days!  Handyman Hubby jokes that my vacuum cleaner is always idling in the corner on stand by!

We watched waaaay too much TV and ate waaaay too much food! But hey, it was Christmas.  Sometimes you have to do stuff like that.

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas. We did -  even though things weren't perfect and beautiful I managed to survive!

Now it's time to welcome in a New Year.  I'm working on my resolutions and will be sharing that with you soon.  I have BIG plans for 2011!!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

I have baked, shopped, wrapped and decorated.

  Now it's time to relax, eat some good food and spend

Christmas with my family!

I am so thankful for all of you - my loyal followers.  You rock!!

  Merry Christmas from my family

to yours.

Don't forget to enter the CSN Stores Giveaway!

What an awesome gift for YOU!!

  

CSN Stores $35 Giveaway!!

The awesome people at CSN Stores have graciously offered to give one of my readers a $35 gift card in the form of a promotional code that can be used on any product on their site!!  CSN Stores has over 200 online stores where you can find everything from stylish furniture, modern bedding or great cookware!

You can choose products from their 200+ stores with this $35.  Check out some of the fantastic products you can get with $35.

JoJo Designs Sophia Pillow

Bayou Classic 3 Qt Covered Skillet

Jovi Home Cocoon Throw in Ecru

Ferm Living Apple Kitchen Tea Towel

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Let's EAT . . .

I think this my be the cheapest thriftiest project I've ever done and I LOVE it!!  Remember my bay window that I dressed up with these panels?  I had a wooden sign hanging above but never really liked the way it looked with my new curtains. So . . . I was on the hunt for something different, unique and of course cheap.  I found some wood letters at Michaels - they were about 90¢ each. I painted them black and Handy Man Hubby hung them up.  I liked them but they still needed something.  Today I found that perfect something at Homegoods.  A large fork and spoon.  Check it out . . .

Don't you just love it?  I do!  And the fork and spoon set was only $4.99!!  Here's another picture . . .

I had an idea in my head of what I wanted and it turned out exactly the way I pictured it!!  Here's another photo just in case you want to see more  : )

For some reason nobody else in my family is as excited as I am about the large fork and spoon.  Oh well, they make me happy and the whole project was under $10!!

Umm, Christmas is only 3 days away and instead of wrapping presents I'm decorating.  I know, I know. I'm weird like that.

Linking up to the following parties!!

Snowman Soup

Happy Friday everyone!  Christmas is only 1 week away!  Are you all ready?  I'm not!

Today was my daughter Hannah's Christmas party at school. Her teacher gave all the kids in her class the cutest gift.  I just had to share it with you!

It is a snowman shaped plastic bag filled with a packet of cocoa, candy canes, hershey kisses and gingerbread shaped marshmallows.  The tag on the outside lists a "recipe" for Snowman Soup (hot cocoa).

How cute is that?!  This is such a great idea!

Have an awesome weekend!  I'm linking to the following parties:

Thrifty Gift Ideas

Here are a few of my favorite thrifty gift ideas. They would make great gifts for teachers, girls scout leaders or a child's birthday.  I like to stock up on supplies when they are on sale or clearance.

Decorated Notebook

You can use any notebook for this project however, I like to use the composition books. These can be found at Walmart, Walgreens, Target - just about any where. They are inexpensive and come in different sizes too. The small one is great for kids.

Supplies:  Decorative paper, stickers, ribbons, stamps, etc.

Cover the outside of the notebook with paper and embellish as you wish. A fun idea is to use the recipients name or initials on the cover.

Here are a few examples:

Here is one I made for my daughter Hannah. It is kinda beat up because she uses it so much!

Decorated Clipboard

The supplies for this project are the same as the notebook except you use a clipboard. I found these at Walmart for around $1.00.

Here are some that I've decorated:

These can be personalized too! I made some for my daughter's Girl Scout leaders one year and they turned out so cute!

Decorated Glass Bottles

I have seen several variations of this idea around blog land. I like to use the Starbucks Frappuccino bottles for this project.

You can apply the decorative paper with double-sided tape or glue. Embellish with ribbon, stickers or stamps.  Don't forget to decorate the lid too!  It can be painted or covered with paper.

The possibilities for gift ideas are endless!  Here are a few of my favorites:

Coffee or Hot Cocoa Gift:  Fill bottles with mini marshmallows, cocoa mix, flavored coffee, peppermint sticks. Add a mug and/or Starbucks gift card and you've got a great gift for a coffee lover!

Relaxing Spa Gift:  Fill bottles with bath salts, bubble bath and bath beads. Add a loofah sponge and some body lotion. What mom wouldn't love that?!

So there you have it! Hopefully these ideas will inspire you to make some of your own thrifty gifts.

Have a great week! Oh, by the way, Christmas is only 10 days away and I still have SO much to do!!  : )

Linking up to the following parties!