I've been trying to make our house pretty and personalized without spending much money. Like I mentioned, I get a TON of inspiration from some great blogs out there. Here are some of my recent projects...

This was your typical natural wood barstool that you can find at any big box store. I had a pair of them that were looking pretty sorry. They had been ladders for painting jobs and had the splatters to prove it and just weren't cute. I read a comment about decoupaging barstools on a blog and thought "Hmmm....maybe....." So after going through my scrapbooking stash, picking out a pretty pattern, and using some paint leftover from our family room, here is the final result. Total cost: $6 for the decoupage medium which I will also use for many more projects.

A couple of months ago we also painted our dining room and made it back into an actual dining room after having been a classroom and playroom in it's former lives. I had a big, long blank wall to fill and was having a hard time finding what to fill it with. While playing outside with the kids one day a couple of weeks ago, I saw this frame that I had bought for $1 at a garage sale probably 5 years ago. For 5 years, and 2 moves, it's been languishing in the garage. I've thought about getting rid of it several times but liked it too much and knew it had potential. One glance and I knew it would be perfect. I was originally going to repaint it but decided the roughed up look was perfect with my rustic looking table (found on Craigslist for $15) so left it as is. I just bought some chalkboard spray paint and sprayed that directly on the already there plywood backing. I got a little on the frame when my newspaper blew off but like one of my favorite bloggers, The Nester, says "It Doesn't Have To Be Perfect to Be Beautiful".I love it!!

The butterfly garland hanging on it was a birthday gift from one of my very good friends. I absolutely love it. Almost 2 years ago we each got our first tatoos together and part of mine was a butterfly which has double meaning for me. It reminds me of my faith, being born-again and a new creation in Christ, and also of my mom's new life in Heaven. She said she thought of me when she saw it and it's just beautiful.
There's a few more things I've done in the past couple of weeks but these floors aren't vacuuming themselves and BabyCakes is finding too many "snacks" on them so the rest will have to wait.