One Dollar Wednesday... Flea Market Fancy

I picked up this cute sweater at the thrift store on dollar day. Cute right? I especially loved the green polka dot ribbon addition. I decided to "fancy" it up a bit.



I cut some strips of fabric, and proceeded to roll some roses.



I glued them all together, but thought they needed just a little something more.




Pinned them to my cardi...



and I was ready to go!

Bedroom lamp redo..redo

You may remember this little lamp redo that I did a few months ago. My lamps went from this...



to this...




I decided to use a pair of lampshades that I picked up during a thrifting escapade, but the cream base with the cream shade just wasn't working.



Thus, another makeover was in store for this pair. I bagged them, and taped them up really good.



Then sent them outside for a couple coats of this...



In the meantime, I cut some fabric strips and rolled some roses for my lampshades. You can find my tutorial for this here.

I attached them to my shade and popped it back on top of my newly painted lamp.






I like the contrast much better, but it's almost like I've gone back to the original. What do you think?

One Dollar Wednesday... use what you have

I was most fortunate to come upon these shoes on a clearance rack last fall. They were DEEPLY discounted...I paid a whopping $1.50 for them.


Well, because we were headed into Fall and Winter, I tucked them away and promptly forgot about them.


We have been having BEAUTIFUL weather here in the desert, and I went digging through my shoe collection just yesterday, trying to find a FUN pair to wear. Imagine my surprise when I happened upon my "yellow peep toes". I was so excited to wear them, but didn't really know how to pull it off. Then I remembered that I had a couple yellow fabric roses, and I went to work.

I pulled out my collection of scrap fabric, chose a gray fabric and white with black polka dots fabric, and quickly "rolled" a couple more roses for myself.

I cut a backing from my gray fabric, and glued my flowers onto the backing...



Let me show you a little secret...


I can't find my brooch pins, but safety pins worked fine!

What do you think? I got lots of compliments when I wore this cute cardigan with my FUN yellow shoes.

Rolled fabric roses and a bit about me...

To start, I'm just going to share a little bit about me. I'm Karen. I live in Arizona, but was born and raised in Utah. I long for the four seasons of Utah nearly every day of my life, but have grown accustomed to my desert dwelling. I have four kids that keep me very busy, and a hunky husband that keeps me very happy (most of the time!) I love to exercise, read, and shop. I LIVE the saying, "One man's trash is another man's treasure". I'm excited to work on this blog, because it will give me a kick in the pants to get all of my trash turned to treasure. Enough about me!

Now on to my project for the day...

There are so many tutorials out there about making beautiful fabric flowers to
embellish t-shirts, headbands, purses, etc.. I've wanted to make some of these beauties, but couldn't seem to find the time to get myself to the fabric store. I started to obsess a bit every time I saw a pretty fabric flower. I'm a Penny Pincher to a fault, and thought of a completely new concept (to myself anyway) Why not dig through that bin of old clothes I've got to take to the Goodwill?



Well, I found some usable fabrics and got started. These are my first attempt, and I hand sewed them.



Because I don't have hours and hours to spend sewing, I thought I'd glue a few, and see how they looked. Keep in mind, if you're embellishing t-shirts, you'd want to sew them so they can go through the laundry.

First, I cut my strips of fabric. The longer the strip, the bigger your rose.



Then you tie a tight knot in one end, and trim the excess.



Now the fun part... You twist the fabric, and gently roll it around your knot. Use little dots of hot glue to secure your fabric as you go. **Remember** less glue is always better than too much. (please forgive the blurriness)



Just keep twisting, rolling and gluing...




When you get to the end, secure your fabric to the back of your rose with a bigger blob of glue. You'll end up with this~



Now make two more~



Add them to a headband, and you've got a fun, new, FREE accessory!