Ashley's Thrifty Living

Valentine's Day Goodies

2012-01-26T06:00:00.000-05:00

Here are some of the things I am going to try to do for Valentine's Day!

Print out this cute printable and put it on the mantel.

Free to download HERE

Make a cute paint chip garland for the mantel as well

Found HERE

Adorable heart wreath found HERE

Make some of these cute brownies:

Found HERE

And maybe some of these cookies too:

Found HERE

I love Valentine's Day!

Tuesday's Tip: Cheap Faux Baseboards!

2012-01-24T06:00:00.000-05:00

We are lucky to live in a very old house with beautiful, tall baseboards and beautiful doorframes. However,

a lot of homes don't have them! So here is a little trick.

Add small molding/trim a few inches above the original trim and paint the wall space in between the same color. And now you have the look of the big baseboards for little money!! :)

The full tutorial is found HERE, via The House of Smiths!

The Closet Room

2012-01-23T09:45:00.001-05:00

Hey guys!! How is everyone doing?! Sorry for the lack of blog posts but Mike and I just returned from our honeymoon! It was amazing. We went to Punta Cana and enjoyed every minute of it! I had planned on showing you our closet room before we left, but that week was crazy busy! So, I thought I would show you the room now. And of course, who wouldn't want to see a before picture from when we moved in? I thought I had a good one, but couldn't find one of the before.....just one from after we primed the walls.

But I can tell you it looked something like this (the whole house did)

Here it is after it was primed. (We had to paint over all the wallpaper in the house because when we tried to take it off, the plaster was falling apart underneath.)

This is what it looked like for a while after we painted. We were given some hand me down furniture for the room.

And here is the room now after we have accessorized it:

Lets start with my side

I have a dresser and originally installed that shelf above the dresser for all my books. I have since bought a bookshelf that sits in the hall and that is where all my books are now. I have a bit of a clothes problem. I have that entire dresser full, the shelf above, a rack behind the door, another dresser in the bedroom and 4 Tupperware bins full of clothes!!

I found these cute hooks at the liquidation centre HERE, and attached them to a piece of old barn wood.

Those are all the purses I own. Can you see a colour preference?! I have always said I will buy a bright coloured purse but still have not found one I absolutely love! Mike's Grampa's hats hang above it (the 2 bottom ones) Mine is above.

You have seen my easy jewellry organization HERE

I found that red ceramic egg carton at the thrift store and love it. It is perfect for all my rings!

And you have seen my headband organizer HERE

This is what it looks like from behind the door

Some people also say I have a bit of a scarf problem...I don't think that is true...haha

Now let's got o Mike's side. Nice and simple.

Do you like my deer head?! I will tell you all about that soon!

I love the white clothes hamper from Ikea...to sort the whites and darks!

And that is our closet room. We chose to make it an entire room because there is only one small closet in the bedroom and no outlets in room. This house is pretty big for the 2 of us, so we made an entire closet room! :)

There are obviously still some changes I would like to make:

sewing some fabric to the bottom of the curtains to make them touch the floor.
changing the fabric on the headband holder.
And installing another shelf above the shoe shelf behind the door. (To get my shoes off the dresser)

But for now, I love it and it works just fine for us!!!

2012-01-09T06:00:00.000-05:00

Hi guys!! Today is officially my first day back to work since the start of Christmas holidays. It has been a lovely break! I am almost ready to show you our closet, but wanted to add a few things to it first!

First up was something to hold my headbands!! I started with a roll of paper towel from the dollar store and some vintage fabric. I cut 2 circles for the ends, and some fabric for the length of the roll.

I used scissors and stuck them into the ends of the paper towel rolls, then placed a cut circle on one end and marked where I needed to cut the fabric.

Then I glued the fabric all the way around the roll.

Next, I cut fabric to size and glued it all the way around the roll

voila! A fabric covered roll of paper towel :)

Then I attached it to the paper towel holder.

and added all my headbands!

I'm still unsure as to why I would use such "busy" fabric. I might take it off and re-do it! hahah

Next I needed something for my flowers and bows. I didn't take pictures of this process because it literally took 5 minutes! I took a piece of cardboard and covered it with fabric. (the fabric i should have used for my headband stand) I took a piece of lace trim and glued it only on the back side (not right across the board)

I attached the flowers with alligator clips along the sides of the cardboard

(see my beautiful wedding flower up there?)

Some of my bows had pinch clips(?)

So I opened them up and slide the pinch clip behind the lace

I also have this beautiful hair piece Jaclyn (Mike's sister) made me, but didn't want to put it up because the cats would have that destroyed in 2 minutes!

Isn't it beautiful?

So voila, there you have it. 2 simples, inexpensive ways to hold all your accessories

I definitely have to change the fabric on that roll......

See my beautiful wedding shoes?!

I wonder if I will ever wear them again......

I will post sometime this week and show you the rest our closet!!

p.s - Did you know our closet is an entire room? hahahah We have 3 bedrooms in this house and use one for ours, and one for the office...which left the 3rd room. It has no outlets in the entire room so we decided to make it a closet ROOM!

Hi everyone!!

2012-01-04T08:58:00.001-05:00

Hi everyone! How are you all doing?! I am still enjoying my time off. This break has felt really long which has been great! I picked up my new (to me) car yesterday and couldn't be more excited! I love it! I am also counting down the days until we leave for our honeymoon. So exciting!

After looking over that poll I left on the blog, the results are:

21% say to leave the blog the same

50% of you want to see more house projects

and 29% of you want to see more crafts on this blog

Thank you to everyone who took the time to vote. It is nice to see what you would like to see on this blog. I think I am going to be able to do all of the above! I don't think I am going to post every day, but I will post a few times a week for sure!

My resolutions for the blog (and house) are:

I have decided to re-take pictures of all the rooms in our house with my new camera because:

a) The camera takes WAY nicer pictures...and

b) Because there are changes in almost every room of the house that you guys haven't seen! For example:

All the arrows are pointing to thing that are no longer there...

To finish all the craft projects that I started and never got around to finishing. (There are a lot!)

Make a few changes around the house...

I don't want them to be expensive changes, since we might (MIGHT) start looking for our own place in the spring! But there are a few things that I just can't stand...hahahah

a) Up the stairs

(Mike hit a frame off one night and it broke..now there are only 2. It really bothers me)

b) The upstairs hallway. I hate this. I have never been really happy with anything that has been there.

c) The little reading nook upstairs (that I haven't even showed you and don't have a picture of) I am just not in love with how it looks. Something is missing!

d) Finish the closet room. I have curtains to hang, hooks to put up and a few pictures to hang!

Become more organized! Organize all the cupboards, pantry, closet, bathroom and have a place for everything. Also throw out or donate all the things we no longer need!!

Isn't it funny how all the changes I want to make to the house are upstairs?

Anyway, those are all the things I want to accomplish this new year. I will of course let you know how I am doing and post pictures when I do change things!

I have a funny feeling 2012 is going to be amazing!!!

My Top 10 Favourite Projects of 2011!!

2011-12-31T06:00:00.000-05:00

After looking through my blog to find my most favourite posts, I realized that I didn't blog too much. I mean, I did near the end when I decided to have posts everyday...but not during the rest of the year..sometimes only twice a month! However, I did love some of the projects I did this year, and these are the top 10...with number one being my favourite.......Here we go...

10. Swag for the Door

but especially with the updated bow!!

9. Valentine's Day Mantle

8. The Easter Table

7. Clear Christmas Ornaments

6. Spring Wreath

5. Succulents

4. Felt Flowers

3. Jewellery Organization

2. Monogram Doormat

and my number one favourite project of 2011 is........

1. Hand Painted Wallpaper!!!!

but especially with the new bed!!!

Overall it was an amazing year! Getting married was the most exciting part of the year for sure! I can't wait to see what 2012 brings!!!!! Happy New Year everyone!!!! See you in 2012!