2010 December

2010 – Our Best Year Yet!

December 30, 2010 by beth 5 Comments

The title of my post is supposed to be a little joke since this is my first year blogging Free Stylin’, but what a FUN few months it’s been!!

Here’s a recap of my favorite posts and projects:

Right as the seasons were changing I ”fall-i-fied” our dining room table with a few FREE ingredients.

My cute Pickle’s closet went from this monstrosity:

to a more organized arrangement

thanks to a “new to us” dresser.

(And yes, the dresser WILL get a makeover.

You’ve been warned.)

Rubbings made a comeback as art in our house, and I showed how you, too, could make them for your home.

First Rubbing project:

These pictures went into my new BEAUTIFUL laundry room.

And after spending only $3 for the total room makeover, I feel it was quite the transformation. Check out my Before and Afters here.

Practicing to become an owner of a B&B someday,

I added room numbers to our bedroom doors.

I’m thrilled with this project - it’s one that was swimming in my head for years, and it turned out just as I had wished.

Always trying to save a dime, and encouraging you to, too, I offered a few ideas of how to change up the look of your bedroom by using only the linens and bedding you already own.

No cost decorating, Baby!

I was beyond thrilled when I was contacted by

to host my first GIVEAWAY!!

The response was great, and Wendy was our lucky winner!

Little J needed a new dresser, and I transformed this Before:

Into this After:

You can see the play by play of the dresser’s transformation,

plus a tour of J’s fun Cowboy Room, here.

Fabric flowers are SO in this year, and with some FREE supplies, I made a few for myself. Check out the two easy tutorials for flower pins and a flower bib necklace.

With Christmas in full swing, hanging stockings presented a bit of a challenge without a mantle. My $1-a-stocking solution was quick and easy to make.

And most recently I transitioned a Christmas centerpiece

into a Winter centerpiece with items I had on hand from my home or nature. Total cost for the centerpiece? $5 for floral foam.

Whew! There’s been a lot going on around here the last 4 months!

But I think my most favorite post of the year has to be this one:

my first post.

I love it because it means I actually took the plunge and began my blog, Free Stylin’. I was nervous for sure. I wondered if only I (or my sisters, with a little begging) would read it.

But with encouragement from loyal and insightful family and friends, I am now living one of my dreams and doing something I really love.

Thank you all for joining me in the journey!

What a ride it has been, 2010,

and I am thrilled to see what 2011 brings!!

More to come: More giveaways, transformations, recreations, ramblings, and of course, FUN!

Check back on Saturday, Jan. 1st for my next Giveaway!
Just in time for New Year’s Resolutions!

I’m linking up!

(For other posts not mentioned, please check the

Free Stylin’ archives!)

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Centerpiece: From Christmas to Winter

December 28, 2010 by beth 10 Comments

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas! Ours was small, but nice – full of friends, food, and movie watching as a family.

We hosted Christmas Eve Dinner with the first friends we made in Florida. LOVE them!! (And, it turns out, we may actually be related! Small world.) I wanted the dining room table to look elegant and festive, but (of course) not cost an arm and a leg to decorate.

I have been itching to use my pretty tray I bought on a trip to the thrift store a few months ago.

Christmas Eve Dinner was the perfect time to try it out.

We have a magnolia tree outside our front door, and I love bringing nature in for some (almost) FREE decorating. I bought 5 blocks of floral foam at the dollar store and shoved my magnolia leaves right into the foam.

The foam lined the inner edges of the tray.

I grabbed white candles I had around the house, and lifted them up on stands.

This one had a little too much eggnog.

See how it’s leaning a bit?

A candle wreath gives it a little color.

A small bowl gives this candle a little height.

After nestling in the candles, I added extra red

ornaments to fill in the gaps.

And lighting the candles at dinner gave just that little extra ambiance and magic that goes so well with Christmas Eve.

When Christmas was over, I knew I wanted to keep the centerpiece for awhile, so I tweaked it a bit to transition it from Christmas to Winter.

Removing the candle wreaths, and adding plastic snowflakes from my Christmas stash to the bottoms of the candle holders, got this party rolling.

My cute boys and I went on a little “adventure” to gather pine cones on a trail by our house. We brought them home a cooked them to get rid of the critters…a tip I learned here from my friend Allison at House of Hepworths. (And YIKES people!! Cook your pine cones! There really are critters living in them!)

I added a little silver paint to some of the tips (courtesy of the Nate Berkus Show).

I left some of the pine cones alone.

(Because some times more is not more).

And I made sure the candle heights varied so we wouldn’t have a 911 situation on our hands. (But Mr. Fireman, you should have seen how cute my centerpiece was!)

So this is how our dining room table will look for a little while. And I love it!!

I also LOVE before and after shots, so here you go…

Before:

and After…

and After again.

And total cost:

$5 for the floral foam

(All other supplies were scrounged from my house…and yard…or neighborhood.)

I’m linking up!

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SUPER Easy Christmas Cookies

December 21, 2010 by beth 7 Comments

Merry Christmas! It’s almost here! Can you believe it?!

Wow, December has flown!

My cute Pickle is out of school now, so he’s been Mommy’s Little Helper in the kitchen. We’ve been baking treats for friends and neighbors, and I wanted to pass along an easy and YUMMY Christmas cookie recipe.

I found the recipe in last year’s December edition of Food Network Magazine. Didn’t get the issue last year? Yeah, me either. I got it a few months ago (for free!) at a church Free Swap. (Same place I found my trifle bowl.) Love Free Swaps!

And guess what?! The recipes are still yummy! Even a year later.

Anyway, here are the THREE (!) ingredients you’ll need:

1 box of Funfetti Moist Supreme Cake Mix
1/2 c vegetable oil
2 large eggs

And here’s how to make them:

Preheat the oven to 375*

Combine all three ingredients in a bowl…

(I doubled the recipe – that’s why there are 4 eggs.)

and stir!

Roll the cookies into balls,

and place them on a cookie sheet.

Bake for 6-8 minutes.

Taste them first to make sure your neighbors won’t choke!

Yeah, they’re good!

Now, if you’d like to take things up a notch, frost the cookies and add a little cookie bling.

We decorated our cookies with white and green frosting.

Some cookies have red sugar sprinkles,

and others have crushed candy canes.

YUM!!

I love these cookies because they are moist, not hard or crunchy. And the Funfetti makes the cookies look festive.

Because they are easy to make, it’s fun to include

little helpers (if you dare).

Adding your own fun touches when frosting bring out personality and set your cookies apart. Place them on a cute plate, or in cellophane with a pretty bow, and your friends and neighbors will eat them before you’re back in your car.

Happy Frosting!

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Quick Tip: Cleaning the Carpet

December 15, 2010 by beth 8 Comments

So maybe this isn’t a Christmas craft, but today’s little tip does go along with Christmas (sort of!), and it’s FREE (love that!), so I wanted to let you in on it.

Most likely people will be coming by your home for the Holidays. You might be having a party, or are you cleaning up after one? Are you hosting Christmas this year? Dinner for the whole fam damily? Friends and neighbors will want to stop by with their treats, too, and it’s always fun to invite them in for a little chat.

As I was thinking about guests coming to my house, I realized I was a little hesitant to invite anyone in because my carpets were dirty. I mean DIRTY. I knew it was time for a good clean…STAT! So I borrowed a carpet shampooing machine from a sweet lady at church, and I found a babysitter for little J. (Nice!) All of the furniture was hauled out of the rooms (by myself! Just call me She-Ra!). Now I was ready to clean.

Except….

No carpet shampoo. None. Oops. Blame it on the mom brain. I forgot to buy some. But, being the Free Stylin’ chick that I am, I looked around the house to see what I had…

Laundry Detergent.

Yep! It’s a stain fighter, it’s gentle on carpets (and carpet cleaners), and it makes your whole house smell fresh. And I believe I used less detergent than actual carpet shampoo.

If you are wishing your carpets looked a little less

gross/used/walked on/spilled on/lived in and a little bit newer/cleaner/brighter, but you don’t have

1. Time

2. Money

3. A Brain (like me)

then try a little laundry detergent.

Here’s a beautiful stain on my floor – right where the kiddoes love to play trains, and near the back entrance which we use all.the.time. (This is the perfect storm.)

After testing a little area first to make sure my idea would work (and not ruin the carpet!), I dripped a little diluted laundry detergent right on one of the toughest stains.

After a good scrub, it’s out!

I left the other spot so you could see the difference.

Before After

This is the whole area cleaned.

SO much better!

So that’s my little tip o’ the day: Use laundry detergent in place of carpet shampoo if you are in a hurry and are out of carpet cleaner.

Your carpet will never know what hit it!

And you can have people over without worrying too much about how the carpet looks. (I’m telling myself this more than I’m telling you, really.)

Do you have any quick, inexpensive tips for cleaning? Leave a comment, and let me know!

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Flower Bib Necklace

December 13, 2010 by beth 9 Comments

A couple of weeks ago, I made a few flower clips.

Using most of the same ideas, I made a bib necklace, too.

These necklaces are all over the place these days – from Anthropologie to Claire’s, and the prices can get pretty steep!

I originally saw directions to make my own necklace at Ashley’s site here. I LOVED it immediately and knew I needed to make one TODAY.

But you know me – I had to put my FREE spin on it!

So, are you ready to get your FREE craft on?

These are the supplies you’ll need:

Scissors
Glue Gun

Felt (about a square foot)

A pair of shorts (or a shirt) from a friend’s giveaway pile

A necklace that you don’t wear anymore

First, cut 5 felt circles, about 1-1.5 inches

(I used a baby food jar to measure – you know I have plenty!)

Next, cut up your shorts into scraps. (Fun!)

Can I just say cutting up my clothes is a bit liberating!

Using your felt circle as a template, cut lots of circles out of your shorts. I used 8 circles for each piece of felt.

5 felt x 8 shorts circles = 40 circles for each necklace

Stacking the fabric when cutting saves lots of time.

Now it’s time to make the flowers!

Pinch the circles in the middle

and add a dab of hot glue.

Press down onto the felt circle.

Continue gluing flowers to the felt until it’s full.

One down, 4 more to go!

When you have finished making the flowers, grab your necklace.

Using jewelry tools, or pliers (let’s be honest!),

separate the links and remove 2 equal lengths of chain.

*This is the part where life will interrupt you. The baby wakes up from his nap, and the older one needs to be picked up from school. You make dinner, wash the dishes, bathe the kids, etc.

Once you have a little free time to yourself again, you can resume your cute project. But in another room, with less light than before.

Proceed.

Glue 3 of the 5 flowers to your remaining piece

of felt in the shape of your necklace.

(Make sure to glue the flowers as close to each other as you can!)