Vicky's 2015 Annual Ornament Exchange

 My sweet friend Vicky who blogs over at Life On Willie Mae Lane hosted her annual ornament exchange. I participated last year and it was so much fun that I knew then that as long as she hosts it, I'll participate. It's a great opportunity to bless someone and make new friends. This year was just as exciting!

 It's always fun to receive a package in the mail! It makes me feel like a kid again. I wonder what's in it? I wonder who it's from? I can't rip the paper off quick enough!

Underneath the brown paper was this pretty paper hiding the goodies. So much fun!

 

There was a card with my name on it and a cute container which feels heavy...

More goodies to come :)

The card was from Julie. She wrote me the sweetest note introducing herself. Julie blogs over at Julie's Lifestyle. This was my first time visiting Julie's blog and thank goodness for this exchange! I'm so happy to be a new follower to such a talented and sweet lady.

Look at these beautiful ornaments! She crocheted these just for me and I'll always treasure them. I love homemade gifts!

She also sent these pretty white snowflakes. I actually used them in a vignette that I'll be showing you later.

She doesn't know it but my family loves peppermint, so this was perfect. 

This little dish is so cute. I'll be using this a lot.

These stickers will come in handy while wrapping presents. I love the cows and sheep :)

Thank you so much Julie! I appreciate and love everything. You did a great job putting this together for me. And I'm happy to have a new friend here in blogland. 

And thank you Vicky for hosting! All of your hard work putting this exchange together is much appreciated! 

Please visit Vicky to see more of the exchanges.

Thank you so much for stopping by Thrift My House.

DIY Merry Christmas Sign

Have you seen this cute Merry Christmas sign? 

I saw it, I loved it, and decided to make my own. 

I took apart an old framed picture and used the back of the art for this project. 

It's a black thick piece of foam board.

I made up and painted on some white chalk paint. 

After it dried, I penciled around some stencils.

This is what I had. It's definitely not perfect. It's a little crooked because I didn't take time to measure accurately. But I finished it and it looked fine. It's rustic we like to say :)

I used paint pens to color it in. I then sanded around the edges of the foam board to let some of the black show through.

I think one reason I love to make things is to see nothing turn into something. 

And it doesn't have to be perfect to be pretty. 

I finally brought my husbands old ladder in the house. My friend Carol from Art and Sand is a ladder decorating expert and she inspired me to do this.

 This little spot is in the living room. I might leave the ladder there and see what I can come up with after Christmas.

I hope you were inspired!

Thank you for stopping by Thrift My House.
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Cooking & Crafting with JJ

A Stroll Thru Life

How to Make a Ginormous Chalkboard

Today I want to make a confession. I have a chalkboard addiction. I just might have one in every room of my house. I tend to do that. If I really like something; I repeat it... a lot :)

How to make a large, wow, it's really big (my mom said) chalkboard. My husband did the cutting and putting it together. Please forgive me for my lack of professional directions.

Supplies: Luan plywood cut to size at Lowes.

4 Pallet planks

Chalkboard paint, roller

Short screws, screwdriver

Some kind of saw...

Lots of coffee (save the grounds)

My husband cut the planks to fit around the edges of the board. He made the triangle pieces from the scraps to put on the corners. Now that he had the pieces ready but not screwed together yet; I took the plywood inside to paint it.

I placed the board on blocks and leaned it against a cardboard box that was hanging on a nail... We do what we have to do.

It took 3 coats and 3 days because the paint has to set 24 hours between coats. 

I decided to try a coffee stain on the planks. I saved my coffee grounds, about 5 days worth in the fridge. I brought them to a boil, let it cool and then slathered the grounds and coffee water all over the boards. I painted the water on and used my hands for the actual grounds.  I set them in the sun till they dried and then swept them clean. I guess you could use fresh coffee and grounds but I thought this was the thriftiest way.

Now, it's time to put the frame together. He turned it upside down and screwed the pieces together. The screws were short so they didn't go through the front. 

He sawed this piece off the edge.

Next he placed the board (already painted) on top of the frame and screwed it down.

He carefully cut the edge off of the plywood.

Flip it over and this is what I had.

I took it in the house and seasoned it. You have to completely cover the newly painted chalkboard paint with chalk before you can use it.

Now comes the fun part! I clipped some Christmas cards onto some lights that I strung around the frame.

This was a thrifty project. Less than $30.00 and 

you know I'll have fun changing it up with the seasons.

The best part for me is, it's narrow and doesn't interfere with the dining table chair, but it still makes a statement in the room.

I hope you were inspired!

Thank you for stopping by Thrift My House.

Sharing with these sweet people.

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How to Make Faux Snow.

Today I'm going to share with you how to make Faux Snow. I've been googling off and on for a while trying to find a recipe I wanted to try. I finally found one over at AugustJoyStudios. 

Most recipes I found called for grated bars of soap; that's too much work for me. But not this one. It's super easy, fast, and thankfully not too messy. 

First, I want to show you my tree in a washtub... I've always wanted to do this. We bought our real tree, a smaller tree stand, and we already had the washtub. LOVE IT!!!

For the snow, I whipped some up and practiced on a few wreaths. I left them for a few hours to see how they'd look dry. A...ma...zing!

After I made the first practice batch, I only used a little bit of it so I covered it with plastic wrap and about 5 hours later I added a little more shaving cream and re-whipped it. It was perfect. So... I think this is a forgiving recipe.

To keep from having picture overload, I made you a collage of the how to. You can also check out the link over at Maria's.

I wanted you to see how smooth the mixture looks after whipping. It reminded me of melted whip cream.  And it's super glossy. I used a glove to apply it, so clean up was easy.

I tried to keep the snow on the tops of the branches. 

I wanted a light snow on my tree. 

I'm really happy how it looks and I'll do this again next year!

My little people decorated the tree yesterday. The snow really stayed on.  It dries hard to the branches. Remember the egg white candy called divinity? That's what this stuff dried feels like.

It's only a few dollars to make so I really hope you'll try it. Practice on a wreath and get a feel for it before you go slapping it on the tree... or just slap it on the tree.... it's really not a big deal!

I hope you were inspired! 

Thank you for stopping by Thrift My House. 

Sharing with these fine ladies.

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A Review and Giveaway.

Homeright Paint Sprayer Review

and giveaway!

 One day I was feeling very bold. Bold for me anyway. I decided to ask Homeright if they would give me a paint sprayer in exchange for an honest review, and they said yes... I'm like what? Really? I was OVER THE MOON! And then they asked me if I wanted to give one away. Why,YES! I did a happy dance, emailed a few friends, and enjoyed the moment :) I feel silly thinking about it now but some of you know what I'm talking about... this gives me hope that there IS enough room for everyone in this humongous blogging world.

I had the perfect project to use this paint sprayer on. I know, right! I wouldn't even buy these rockers at a thrift store... they were THAT bad!  But yet, 6 of them sat on my back porch in all of their ugly glory. I love my back porch but I was seriously embarrassed by these chairs. Let's just say you can't wash the ugly off of something. Believe me, I tried!

Thank goodness Homeright sent me the Finish Max Pro Fine Mist paint sprayer. It sounded perfect for the job and I couldn't wait to get started.

Painting 6 chairs is a lot of work so my husband offered to help take over. First we had to prepare them for paint. We started by chipping away the old peeling wood. We glued. We clamped. And then we took a break. 

We sanded. We wiped. We tightened the screws.

And now the fun part!

 Meet the Finish Max Pro. And it is a PRO! It has a nice long hose, 2 pots, and easy instructions that even I can understand. And that is saying a lot! I really have a hard time following instructions.

We set the chairs up like this inside the garage near the opening for good air flow. 
We painted them upside down first.

And then we painted them right side up. My husband and I took turns spraying. He did most of it though, funny, he NEVER helps when a paint brush is involved. I'm telling you, this sprayer is the ticket! Especially because rocking chairs are hard to paint but this was much easier than brushing. It took us a good part of the day because we painted on several coats. I want the chairs to be pretty and easy to keep clean for a long time.

The Finish Max Pro was easy to use. The only thing I would suggest besides reading and following the instructions carefully is to keep the nozzle where the paint comes out wiped clean. We had to do this often. The paint will not come out smoothly if paint dries and clogs the tip. But this was easy. Just remember to do it.

We set these out in the sun to dry. I'm telling you, they look good as new! And that my friends makes this thrifty girl happy!

Here is a close up of the smooth finish that the sprayer provided.

All I need to do now is make some pretty pillows to put on my newly painted porch rockers. Ones that the cat won't sit on....and why does one hairy cat have the need to sit on 6 chairs... every. single. one. It drives me nuts.

Check out Homeright's website, they have a ton of great products to choose from.

Now it's your turn to hopefully win your very own paint sprayer. 

Homeright provided me with the paint sprayer and I have given my honest opinion about it. Homeright is responsible for delivering the sprayer to the winner. You have 48 hours to respond with your mailing address to me so that I can pass it on to them. You must be a U.S. resident and 18 years or older to enter. 

I'd love for you to follow my blog and leave a comment. 
Enter the giveaway below using rafflecopter.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

And the winner is...

But first a few things,

- Has anyone had trouble scrolling their blog dashboard on their smartphone? I recently got a new phone and now I can't scroll. Is there a way to fix this? Does anybody know? Anybody...

- I did my first ever sponsored post. I was so excited to be asked to do one but a little anxious. How would my readers respond? Am I computer savvy enough to get it done right? I mean seriously, my header has been crooked for a year now. A big thank you to Brenda over at the Cozy Little House for helping me my daughter fix it! And of course I wondered are they really going to pay me... to write a blog post? Kind of sounds too good to be true. So yeah, all of that but I have to say it went pretty smoothly. Thank you to those who stopped by and left comments. Much appreciated!

I have an Instagram friend who just started herself a blog. And she should! She's so talented. Would you do me a favor and visit Lisa over at The Thrifted House. She's a new blogger. Remember how it feels to be the new kid on the block. Go show her some love :)

I'm hosting a giveaway next week for Homeright. They are giving one of my readers a Finish Max Pro paint sprayer. They gave me one to try earlier this year. It's nice! Be sure to check in next week and sign up for that. 

Okay, so the winner of my fall giveaway is... Shirley Elliott. Okay, you're a noreply on your email so that means I can't find you anywhere. You have 24 hours to contact me with your address so that I can ship the giveaway out to you. I will announce a new winner on Saturday if I don't hear from Shirley. 

Have a great day friends!

Thank you so much for stopping by Thrift My House.