Frugally Minded Homemaker

More on my Living Room Redecorating

This week I will be sharing with you all of my living room redecorating.

The first thing I did to my living room was to paint the 3 stark white walls a nice warm cream color. The paint made a huge difference and I love it! This also ended up being the second most expensive part of my redecorating because I bought 1 gallon of a paint color that was too dark and ended up having to buy 3 gallons of this cream colored paint to cover my 3 walls. (I think the popcorn texture on the walls is the reason it took so much paint to cover them.)

Check out Blogging with Amy’s post on setting sacrifices

Blogging with Amy wrote a great post today on setting sacrifices. Here’s a quote from her post “Setting sacrifices on purpose is significantly better than setting them by default.”

You can check out her full post on the subject here:

http://bloggingwithamy.com/set-sacrifices/

I hope it inspires you like it inspired me:)

My shelf redo

I have so many projects that I have wanted to do around my house,but have had a lack of time and money to get them done. So,one of my New Year’s resolutions was to focus on one room a month and get those projects done room by room.

In January I focused on my living room. Most of my biggest projects were in my living room so I am not quite done yet,but almost:) I will be sharing with you in the next week or 2 my progress.

One of the smaller projects in my living room was to move this shelf that my dad made me. I was moving it next to my green accent wall,so I decided to change the paint color a little.

I took some tan paint and added a little bit of water to it and mixed it together.

Then,I painted the whole shelf with a thin layer of the paint. I made sure to let a lot of the green paint show through.

Then,I sanded it down a little and hung it up on my wall. I am very happy with how it turned out!

I’ll show you more of my redecorating tomorrow!

Homemade Fabric Softener

A few of my friends have tried this homemade fabric softener and loved it so I decided to try it also. All you need is:

6 cups HOT water

2 cups Suave conditioner (one small bottle) I used the refreshing waterfall scent.

3 cups white vinegar

Add the conditioner to the hot water and stir until it is dissolved.

Then,add the white vinegar and store it in a container. Just so you know,a 2 liter bottle is not quite big enough to hold it all.

Add 2 Tablespoons to each load of laundry.

I haven’t tried it out yet,but it smells really good! I’ll let you know how I like it.

By the way,the laundry detergent that I made last week is working out great! Check it out here: http://www.frugallymindedhomemaker.com/?p=874.

Organizing My Laundry Closet

When we first moved into our house our laundry closet had one long shelf that was too high to reach without a stool. When my in-laws came to visit they suggested that we put cupboards in there for extra storage. What a great idea! For some reason it had never occurred to me to put cupboards in there.

That same week we went to the Restore and found 2 cupboards for $30 each. My father-in-law even spray painted them and installed them for me!!!

At first my closet stayed wonderfully organized,but with the busyness of my job the past couple of months it turned into this (pictured below). Not a pretty picture!

I finally got around to spring cleaning my entryway this week and tackled the laundry closet (which is in my entryway) this morning.

Now it is nicely organized and clean!

I love to have an organized house,don’t you:)

Valentine’s Day!

Since Valentine’s day is coming up in less than a month I thought I would show you a couple treat ideas that I like for Valentine’s day.

Katlynn made these lollipop treats last year for Valentines day. I used the 2″scalloped circle paper punch to create them.

I thought these are also a cute idea for Katlynn to make for her friends! They are flower lollipops!

This treat bag is so cute! I love putting treats in a small baggy and adding a homemade label. So much better than handing someone a store wrapped candy bar!

Again,these candy bars are awesome! Why give some a store wrapped candy bar when you can personalize it and make it so cute!!! Just cut your paper to fit around the candy bar,glue it on,and add embellishments –ribbon,bows,hearts,buttons,flowers,etc…

Homemade Laundry Detergent

I decided to make some more homemade laundry detergent yesterday. I have made it before,but last time I made liquid laundry detergent. This time I decided to make dry detergent (hopefully it will not be as messy!).

In the picture above you can see the ingredients I used:

1 Fels Naptha soap bar (grated)

1 Cup Borax

1 Cup Arm and Hammer Super Washing Soda

Mix all the ingredients together for about 5 minutes.

Add 1 –2 Tablespoons to each load of laundry.

This batch makes 32-64 loads depending on whether you use 1 or 2 Tablespoons.

It’s also very cheap to make. Last time I spent about $9.00 on all the ingredients. This time I had plenty of Borax and Super Washing Soda left over so I only had to buy the Fels Naptha soap bar which is just over $1.00.

Spring Cleaning!

It’s that time of year again! I started my spring cleaning yesterday and thoroughly cleaned my kitchen from top to bottom. I am planning on spring cleaning two rooms a week until my whole house is clean. So,I should be done with my spring cleaning by the beginning of February!!!

How do you do your spring cleaning? Do you try to get it all done at once or clean over a period of time like I do?

Lighted Feather Wreath

Remember my post on the lighted feather wreath from last year? I wanted to share it with you again because I LOVE this wreath. You can view the full post here –http://www.frugallymindedhomemaker.com/?p=236

DIY Silver Pinecones

I have seen a lot of silver and gold pinecone Christmas decorations in the stores and I really them. So,I decided to make some of my own. I picked a bunch of pinecones at my parents house and bought some silver spray paint.

Don’t they look pretty painted silver!!!

I filled my dollar store vases with the pinecones.

They look so pretty on my mantel next to my mercury glass vases and silver reindeer!