Thrifty Thursday

Katsy moves into her new apartment this weekend, and I'll be moving at the end of the month (yes, already). We hit up Goodwill, Home Goods, and Target to try and prepare ourselves, and I think we found some pretty good deals.

I left Goodwill with two Anchor-Hocking casserole dishes (Pyrex-type dishes are my latest obsession, and I got these two for just $2 total!), two large and beautiful stoneware bowls, a wine rack for my roommate when she moves into her new apartment in St. Louis, a book on salsa (the condiment, not the dance), a little butter dish, and a tiny little dish with a lid to hold jewelry and whatnot. Katsy found a big wall-mountable coat rack and something to use like a large candle votive. Not bad at all.

Then we headed over to Home Goods, where Katsy found a lovely little cutting board and some curtains, which she may use as actual curtains, use as a divider for her new, door-less closet, or turn into a shower curtain. I used my birthday gift card to buy a gorgeous 4' by 6' rug for $29.99! Made my day.

At Target, I picked up a clearance tube of caulk, because I've heard you can use that on the bottom of a rug to make it non-slip. Can't for the life of me remember what Katsy got.

Here's a pic of my favorite finds from today! Happy thrifting, everyone!

Little Kitchen Garden

So far this year we've had at least two days of 75+ degree weather, two snowfalls of more than 10 inches, and a couple of thunderstorms. You can see why I'm not eager to start planting anything out on our little deck just yet, so for now, I'm growing my baby plants in the kitchen. 

It's not much, but I love checking on them and seeing their progress each day! So far, I've got a couple of little strawberry and poppy plants growing, and I just planted a couple of red morning glory seeds. The poppies and strawberries came from little packets in Target's dollar section, and I thought they were the most darling thing ever. All the blue and white ceramics came from thrift shops. 

Right above my babies is a potted plant, kind of like a small tree, with no flowers that I've noticed yet. I have no idea what it is, but I brought it in along with two other pots from beside the dumpster after a neighbor moved out. My roommate and I knew we couldn't just leave them out there, and they've been great for jumpstarting our garden and deck decor. (Because who wants to spend money on things like terra cotta pots and potting soil and what not? You wanna spend it on fun stuff, like seeds, and hummingbird feeders!)

More pics as the little garden progresses!

Simple Black Headboard

It all started with a free piece of plywood.

"What can I do with this?" I asked myself, after finding the clean, simple board beside the dumpster by my building. I thought about painting it, and I thought about using it as a cheap tabletop, but what really sparked my imagination was the thought of turning it into a headboard. I've seen so many tutorials on Pinterest and other blogs, and they all seem to have incredible results. And what do you know, but my boyfriend was interested in a headboard for his very plain full bed. So I took the board over to my grandparents' house to get their expertise.

(Before we go any further, my boyfriend's specifications were as follows: Headboard must be black. Should be a leather-like fabric. No tufting. Should be rounded, but not elaborately shaped.)

Together, we measured the plywood, and found it to be 48 inches across and 38 inches high. It wasn't wide enough to serve as a headboard for a full bed, so my grandmother suggested that I buy some 1x6 pine boards to fill it out on either side. We also decided that I should buy a couple extra pine boards to add stability across the back of the headboard.

I already had the fabric I wanted to use--black leather-looking vinyl, only $6 a yard at Hancock Fabrics. The boards were cut at the Home Depot, and only cost me a few bucks. Then I went to Joann's to get fabric and was kinda blown away when it cost $18 a yard. Even with my coupon, that was more than I was hoping to spend (especially when the other components had been so cheap). But, it had to have foam.

I took all the pieces back to my grandmothers and we surveyed our supplies.

Maybe not a lot to look at, but I had a vision (not cliche at all).

As you can see, I traced a rough, curved line along the top of the board, and then, I wielded a saber saw for the first time while my sister and grandparents held the board in place for me (apparently clamps are too much of a hassle). To make a long story short, I broke the blade and had to finish it with a hand saw (surprisingly easy).

My grandmother dug up the right nails and I nailed the pine boards onto the sides and along the back.

Look at that! Next, I hot glued the foam onto the front, and wrapped it around the back. Then we took it inside and stapled down the edges of the foam. Yes, we use our staple gun indoors.

We rolled out the material... and discovered a problem. It was very creased, and we couldn't seem to press it out. I had just resigned myself to trying to pull the material super-extra-tight when my grandmother emerged from a spare closet with an entire roll of remarkably similar material, with not a wrinkle on it. And there was just enough of it, after we trimmed the foam down on the sides.

After a couple dozen more staples, here's what we came up with:

Ta-da! I'm considering putting a strip of plum linen down the middle to make it less plain, but I'm going to see what my boyfriend thinks of it first. His birthday is in a couple of days!

My method was far from perfect, but it got the job done. If I were making a headboard to sell, I might be more careful with the staples on the back, or try tufting it or something. And it only took a couple of hours! Once we get it set up, I'll post more pics.

Have any of you ever made your own headboard? Do you want to try now that you've seen how easy it is?