Jumpin' on the Door Paintin' Band Wagon

A little while ago, I got two coupons for free pints of paint. Perfect amount to paint a door. Scott has always been determined to paint our front door red. We got some red rock paint, but decided that the middle of winter was not the best time to paint the door. Then we seriously started looking at houses, and we decided to wait until we had a house to paint the door.

This project wasn't a has to be done to move in project. While we were changing the locks, my SIL decided that she would take on this project for us. Didn't take too much to convince me on that one!

Before

After (sorry this pic is so dark)

Our house has an old door for now, so painting the door gave the door new life. I was hoping that the painting would bring the house a little more up to date, but the screen door kinda hides the door. 

Now, you can see the door! We decided not to paint those diamonds into order to do something to them. My MIL votes for a stain. I am kinda thinking an accent color. I would love to hear your thoughts. There are those dark screw in the middle, so think about that before you weight in your choice of what we should do.

My favorite part of this project, no cost! And the fact that my SIL graciously did the work for us.

Children's Book Easter Grass

I have this big candle holder from our wedding. It needed something in it since I took out my winter decorations. My friend Cindy recommended cutting up a children's book for Easter grass. I just cut the pages to about 1 inch by 3 inches. I did crumple them a little to give them more height. 

I also about bought some plastic eggs from a thrift store. I made sure to clean them with bleach before using. They cost me 75 cents. Cheap project!

Friday Finds Under Five: Old Quilts

My grandmother in law was given lots of fabric scraps. She passed the ones that she did not want on to me. They are taking over my closet, but I am having so much fun in using the free fabric to make other things! 

Among all of those scraps were some quilt tops. Nothing too elaborate or extremely well done, but I still could not part with them. 

I have been hanging on to them for a few months with no great idea of what to do. Ok, I have some ideas, but nothing that made me want to cut them up to do.

On my dining room table, I had a winter bowl full of pine cones, burlap, and pine branches. I had to get rid of my pine branches on the table, because the branches were very dried out. I couldn't leave my table bare, but wasn't sure what to do.

And then I remembered about those quilts. I took one of the strips and put it on my table as a table runner. 

I also took the bowl that had the pine branches in and put in apples. Of course I washed it first :) Makes me think of fall.

I could probably sew the edges and make it look more professional, but I like the look that it presents. Reminds me of what we can do for free if we just look around.

I would love to hear your ideas for my other quilt tops. I have individual squares all the way to whole quilt tops. 

Stop over and see what So the Cook Said has done for under $5 this week. 

Friday Finds Under Five: Christmas Decoration

A friend of mine Cindy who blogs over at So the Cook Said was telling me about one of her frustrations. People who think they get a good deal and really they have spent a lot of money on their deal.

She decided that she wanted to start a Friday finds under $5. I loved this idea. I am all about not spending a lot on things. I am going to join her in this venture. We would also love to hear what you have found under $5!

My find for this week comes from a neighbor lady. There are tags on the bottom that come from Big Lots. Each piece cost 5.99. I managed to land them for free.

I would never have bought this item, but I am picturing them at Christmas with some fresh pine and pine cones. I can almost smell it now. I am refusing to decorate for Christmas just yet. I will find somewhere to go and cut branches off of trees. My husband is probably thinking that he will get taken along on that adventure! 

You will be hearing more about this neighbor lady in upcoming weeks. She passed away a few weeks ago. My mom over the years had befriended this lady, taking her muffins and visiting with her.

When the neighbor passed, her niece offered us stuff from the house. My mom came home with a kitchen aid mixer. Not bad! I will share with you some of my other finds soon. 

Head over to Cindy's post to check out what she found this week. She added beauty to her house straight from the side of her road!