The Dust Ruffle...

(which is really a bed skirt - who knew???) is finished.  And boy am I ever glad!

Using the directions garnered from do-it-yourselfer extraordinaire Gina, over at The Shabby Chic Cottage, I managed to stitch together a lush king-sized bed skirt for $20.00.  It would have been way cheaper if I hadn't over-scrunched the material when I was sewing it together necessitating adding another sheet plus 1/2 of a 5th sheet, but I love the lush over-done look.

It took 4 1/2 twin sheets which cost $4.00 each at WallyWorld.  I had a bed skirt on the bed that cost $2.00 at the thrift store so I used that for the base and simply stitched the new folded over fabric right on top of the old stuff (which was ugly) and only had a 14" drop.  My bed has a 16" drop plus I wanted some extra fabric to puddle on the floor.  I was shocked at the cost of decent looking bed skirts online.  Even Pottery Barn was in the $90.00 range. 

Rather than reinvent the wheel, Gina has fabulous instructions here.

It's a bit like sleeping on top of a wedding cake...

The left over fabric will be used to form a ruffle for the footstool...

The top cover for the footstool will be the fabric that is being used to recover two more of my ugly "dentist office chairs" (which seem to have bred like maggots. These are the other two of the ones I already re-covered for the dining room.) It appears like the fabrics don't match but they actually match perfectly...

About the cover on the down comforter ...

Many years ago I bought a very expensive duvet cover.  The down comforter was always slipping around inside and it was a hassle to remove and wash.  This is the first time ever we have not had a couple of dogs but we still have two cats.  The "fur-people" crawl all over the bed and therefore I'm not going to spend a gazillion dollars on a duvet cover that is inconvenient and can't be easily cleaned.

I love old sheets.  They are soft and nicely faded due to years and years of washings.  King sized flat sheets are readily available at the thrift stores.  Bottom sheets not so much because they are the first to wear out.  For years I've scarfed up old king-sized flat sheets, purchased a good coordinating fitted sheet and, voila, a king sized set for about $20.00 bucks.

For the comforter cover I simply throw a king-sized sheet over the comforter and fold it over the top of the comforter.  It comes off every week and is washed along with the sheets.  Simply and cheap inexpensive.

Another vintage sheet I use...

I've linked to Gina for Transformation Thursday.  Visit her at The Shabby Chic Cottage for more wonderful ideas...

I've linked to My Romantic Home for Show and Tell Friday, too

Don't throw away those orange and grapefruit peels...

throw some in a little dish and give them a twist during the day to release the wonderful citrus aroma.  Sniffing citrus scents helps release stress and can give you a boost in the afternoon if you're feeling tired. 

Tea tree oil also works wonders for an added boost in energy but many people don't like the medicinal smell.  I love it (but then I also love the smell of oil paint and WD-40)  and will often put just a drop on my left wrist so I can have occasional whiffs during the day.

Living the Savvy Life Review

Living the Savvy Life

The Savvy Woman's Guide to Smart Spending and Rich Living

Melissa Tosetti, author of Living the Savvy Life, has done a remarkable job of making what many think is a complicated and boring subject not only easy to understand, but actually fun.  While the book is chock full of ways to save money it is, more importantly, about how to live richly and enjoy your life to the fullest.

The first five chapters cover how money affects everything, the philosophy of the "savvy life", our habits, where we spend our money,  and the golden rule - "spend less than you make."

The following chapters give you concrete ways in which to do this.  There are chapters on home, entertainment, wardrobe, and food.  Melissa teaches about savvy shopping and gives us tricks to stay motivated.

Chapter 12, "What is Important to You", was one of my favorites.  It gives you a blueprint to work through to help you define in what areas you life is working and identifying the areas that may need a bit of attention.

Listen to what Melissa says in the beginning of Chapter 12:

"You may have a general idea of what is important to you.  You might have goals that you want to focus your spending on such as a house, a dream vacation, or something as simple as updating your wardrobe.  As you have already learned, defining those goals and writing them down will help you achieve them faster.  But have you ever sat down and looked at your life as a whole and how you want to live it - then planned your spending to achieve it?"


"This type of thought and planning allows you to live a more purposeful life.  Instead of going where the wind takes you, you have control and can direct your life according to where you want to go. Of course you want to be flexible and leave room for serendipitous moments, but having a design in mind for what you want your life to be like and how to achieve it is powerful."

Melissa proceeds to give us wonderful questions to work through in order to help us define who we are and what we want out of life.

Her Favorite Resources in the back of the book is a goldmine of excellent and motivational reading, including many of my favorites.  

I'll leave you with this wonderful quote from the closing page of Melissa's book:

Remember that Living the Savvy Life isn't just about money.  It's about turning your home into a sanctuary.  It's about taking pleasure in every moment of your time off.  It's about building a wardrobe and beauty routine that make you feel gorgeous.  It's about nourishing your body and soul with delicious food.

Your are the artist and a savvy life is yours to create.

Melissa's website

And while you're at Amazon allow me recommend Sink Reflections by Marla Cilley, aka FlyLady.  Melissa loves Flylady, too!

Inexpensive firestarters (not the most glamorous post but kinda cool)

Thanks to Jan at Bobbypin's Boardwalk for saving us money, time, and irritation.  Her guest poster on November 2, the clever Suzy from Suzy's Artsy Craftsy Sitcom, did a wonderful post on making beautifully colored pine cone firestarters for gifts. 

We use our wood stove almost every day and for years and years our preferred firestarter has been a Duraflame log cut up into pieces and dropped in a inexpensive lunch bag.  This year the logs took a HUGE jump in price and seemed to have gotten much harder to cut up.  Hubby finally took the last one to the barn and attacked it with a saber saw which made a disgusting mess (not to mention gumming up the saw.)

After looking at Suzy's pine cones I thought, "Hmmmmmmmm, maybe I should Google fire starters."  Holy cannoli - there were a gazillion sites eager to help us make firestarters.  The most popular seems to be the cardboard egg carton/dryer lint one.  Do I need to tell you not to use a Styrofoam carton?  I didn't think so.

I happened to have two cardboard cartons just waiting for some lint.  I kept the cartons on top of the dryer and until all the compartments were filled with lint.  

This is an egg carton (in case you've never seen one) getting it's little compartments filled with lint.

I grabbed some paraffin (usually found where the canning supplies are located) and plopped it in a small can.  I stuck the can in a saucepan with some hot water to melt the paraffin.  Old candle stubs can be used and will save even more money. Do not overheat the paraffin as it can catch on fire.  

Paraffin...

Olive can to melt wax (although a bean or corn can would work just as well.  Let your imagination soar on this one)...

When the paraffin was melted I spooned a bit into each compartment.  Most sites recommended pouring it in but that approach seemed mighty sloppy to me.  After the wax cooled I cut the carton up and, voila, twelve cute little firestarters.  Guess what?  They work every bit as good as the Duraflame chunks and cost about one cent apiece. 

Cute little firestarter ready for wood stove...

Since most our eggs come from Costco and are in Styrofoam cartons, I'm branching out into toilet paper rolls sliced in half and stuffed with the wrapper and our used paper napkins.  When I have a bunch ready to go I'll pull out the paper and spoon some paraffin on and stuff it back into the rolls. 

Toilet paper rolls waiting for wax (tell the truth now - don't you sometimes wonder about uses for all those toilet paper rolls that get pitched in the trash?)

  Our whole world is becoming consumed with stuff for firestarters.  When I was gathering up some pistachio shells to pitch in the waste basket,  hubby suggested putting them in some toilet paper rolls with a used paper napkin on each end to keep them from tumbling out.   Isn't he clever?

Pistachio shells waiting to be of service to mankind...

If all this seems a bit "over-the-top" consider this.  Most commercial firestarters cost anywhere from .50 to.75 cents each. Even using the lower figure that adds up to a whopping $15.00 per month versus about .30 cents per month for these cute little homemade ones.  Now imagine if you could save $15.00 per month on 20 items or expenditures without a great outlay of  time (this project took about 15 minutes.)   That adds up to $300.00 per month in savings.  Could you use an extra $300.00 per month? 

 

Favorite Candle Question and my Candle Secret

I just knew I could count on my favorite blogger buddy, Susan, over at Writing Straight from the Heart, to ask a question I couldn't easily answer.  However, I managed to not only find a picture of my favorite candle, I'm prepared to let you all in on one of my secrets.

My favorite candle is a relatively inexpensive candle by Candle-Lite that I get at Walgreens.  It's also available from these stores.  While I love the Yankee Candle, PartyLite, and other high end candles, I really don't want to spend that much money for something that is going to go up in smoke (sorry - couldn't resist)  

My Favorite Candle

Lavender & Cedarwood...

Now for my secret:

I have two warmer thingy's that you are supposed to use for candle melts.  The first one I purchased at a PartyLite party for something outrageous like $25.00.  I know! 

The other one I found at WalMart for about $4.00.  It's the one in my office.

When my favorite candle is on sale at Walgreen's, it's almost always cheaper to buy two.  One candle goes to my bedroom.  The other candle has a small amount scooped out and stuck in the candle warmers. 

The scent from a PartyLite melt lasts about 7 hours while the Candle-Lite scent lasts weeks.  Considering the living room candle is kept burning for about 10 hours per day - that's pretty dang good!   Every few weeks I add a bit of the lavender/cedarwood candle to the burner.   When that candle is all used up, which takes about 6 months or more, the one from the bedroom becomes the new "re-fill" candle for the warmers.  I rarely use up more than 2 or 3 scented candles each year.

When the tea lights are on sale I scarf up many huge bags.  All my fancy pillar candles are the inexpensive scentless ones (except at Christmas when I must have cinnamon or pine.)

There is another reason the scentless candles are the wise as well as thrifty ones to burn.  It's a bad idea to burn heavily scented candles when you are having a dinner party. 

Other Fun Stuff:

• Gina over at The Shabby Chic Cottage is doing some fake mercury glass.  Very cool...
• Roz over at La Bella Vita brought us Italian Asparagus and Potato Gratin.  Be still my beating heart!  If nothing else - you must see the pictures.
• Diann over at the Thrifty Groove is another favorite stop.  She always manages to combine the practical with the pretty.