Well… I have a secret!

I know how you can shop, and still get the sale price… even if it doesn’t go on sale for another month!

Here’s a scenario that I know you have all been through at least once… and I know that you hate it as much as I used to!

- You go out shopping for a particular item

- You go from store to store trying to find the best deal

- You finally make a decision to buy thinking you’ve done your best in making the choice

- A week later, you are in the same store and notice that the item you bought last week now has a sale tag on it for $20 less than you paid!

UGH!!!

Well, when I learned this little secret, I didn’t have to worry about that scenario anymore!

When you’re used to being the person who does the shopping in your household, you learn lots of little tips to try to save a few dollars here and there.

Most of us know about money savers such as; shopping with coupons, finding clearance items, and price matching. But until now, maybe you’ve never heard of the “price guarantee”?

After you learn this method, here’s how your new shopping scenario unfolds!

- You go out shopping for a particular item

- You go from store to store trying to find the best deal

- You finally make a decision to buy thinking you’ve done your best in making the choice

- A week later, you are in the same store and notice that the item you bought last week now has a sale tag on it for $20 less than you paid!

- You take your receipt up to customer service & tell them you want a price guarantee for an item, and they scan the receipt. If you paid $40, but it is now on sale for $20… they hand you $20 back in CASH!

Did you catch that?

You don’t have to bring the actual item back in – you just hand them the receipt!

What does this mean for you?

If you bought aunt Mary a pair of gloves for Christmas for $40, and now they went on sale for $20, you can simply take in your receipt and get $20 cash back… and aunt Mary is none the wiser

Think… holiday decorations, seasonal clothes, seasonal gifts, etc. – you know… the items that always tend to go on sale soon after the holiday. But don’t limit yourself to seasonal items! This method works for anything!

Here is the step by step process for making this work for you:

Step #1: When you are shopping, always keep a little ziplock bag, pen, & piece of paper with you

Step #2: Put your receipts in the ziplock bag

Step #3: While in the store check outline, look for the time frame for the price guarantee in the store policies. Some stores have a limit of 1 week, while others have up to 3 months! Their policies are usually posted at the checkout area, if not just ask. Jot down the store name & time limit for price guarantee on the piece of paper that you keep in the ziplock bag with your receipts. That way you’ll have it for future reference.

* Different stores have their own name for this service, and might be called something such as price match, price satisfaction, etc.

Step #4: If you see an item that is now on sale while you are out shopping – take out your little ziplock bag – check the store policy – look for the receipt with this item on it… then go get yourself some cash!

I hope this little tip comes in handy, and helps you save even more money while shopping!

Pearl

I don’t know about you, but for me, there’s nothing like a pile of freshly boiled eggs and the smell of vinegar to bring back wonderful childhood memories of the day before Easter… around the table with my family!

And… because eggs are so inexpensive this time of year, you should take a few minutes around the kitchen table, to create some memories… and a masterpiece with your little ones!

The number of ways to decorate an egg are limitless, but I thought I would share a few of my favorites with you today.

Painted Eggs

To keep your eggs to use every year, blow the egg out, wash & dry, then paint with regular acrylic paints. You could paint them to say “spring” with birds, nests, trees, and flowers, so you could leave them up all season… not just for Easter. Look at these BEAUTIFUL examples!

I love how these painted eggs were hung on a “blooming” apple branch!

Stick Ons

Decorate with stickers, stamps, or scrapbook notions.

Natural Dye

This year, instead of purchasing a regular “same old, same old” egg dying kit, try using some of the food from your kitchen to color your eggs!

Spinach = Pale Green
Hibiscus tea = Green
Blackberries = Deep Purple
Red Cabbage = Robin’s egg Blue
Cranberries = Lavender
Beet Juice = Pale Pink
* The longer you leave the eggs in, the more the color changes

You can use a paper towel dampened with a bit of vegetable oil to rub the eggs & give them a slight shine, but I love the natural finish

Optional: If you would like patterns on your eggs… wet a leaf of your desired herb (or other pattern), apply to egg, carefully wrap egg in a piece of old pantyhose & secure with a twist tie before placing in the dye bath to keep your pattern secure. Then, carefully unwrap after you remove the egg (using the directions above), and remove the item used for your pattern to reveal your beautiful design.

These eggs were colored with purple cabbage.

Yellow Onion Skins

I love the natural red color that the onion skins give to these eggs!

Grandma’s Quilt Eggs

Cut tissue paper into small squares – make sure to use lots of different bright colors. Dip the boiled egg in water to make sure that it’s wet – apply the pieces of tissue paper – allow to dry – peel off paper to reveal that the dye was left on the egg for a beautiful patchwork quilt effect!

Kaleidoscope Eggs

Pick out some of your favorite colored crayons & sharpen them. Save the shavings & lay them out on a plate. Boil your eggs. While they’re still hot, take them out of the water, then roll them into the wax bits. The wax melts & sticks to the egg, giving it a special kaleidoscope effect.

Mosaic Art

Keep those beautiful colored egg shells that you worked so hard on! As you’re peeling your Easter eggs, be sure to keep the shells in a bowl. On a thicker piece of card stock paper, glue the colored pieces of egg shells into a pattern. The picture will turn out looking like a tile mosaic. Now you will be able to admire all of that time spent coloring your eggs for many years to come! * The kids love this project!

Also… you might like this article that I wrote called, how to boil the perfect egg.

Homemade Christmas Ornaments

Here is a great little project from Ewenique Treasures

I love how she made these yummy little prim ornaments using only a few supplies… that you may already have around the house!

Here’s how she made these beautiful little gumdrop Christmas ornaments:

As a matter of fact, I had such a great response to the painted pumpkin ideas article, that I wanted to share some of those responses with you.

A group of ladies (from a church in Elkton, MD) had a special gathering. As a part of the evening’s events, they wanted to prepare a decoration for their home. They used the ideas from the painted pumpkin article, and turned each of their pumpkins into little pieces of art.

I love their creative ideas!

Way to go ladies!

Actually, what I mean is… you’re going to love this website & the service that they provide so much, that it could become extremely addicting if you’re not careful

It’s called: Polyvore

Let me try to sum up the service that they provide their members… they give you the technology to digitally arrange all of your favorite items into one beautiful collage.

It’s very simple to get started. You just enter a few bits of information to become a member (free), and then you are able to start creating right away!

After you log in, you will see a few examples of the completed collages that other members have made. I like looking through these, as they are great for ideas! Then, you can begin pulling all of your bits & bobs together to form your own new little pieces of art

You can choose from the huge selection of images already at the site, or you can use their “clipper” tool to snip bits from around the web. If you do choose to snip something, the item is always linked to it’s original location, so it also helps bring the original owner some great publicity. For example, say you make beautiful jewelry and you list your items on Etsy. If someone where to clip your item & add it to their collages, not only would they be able to use it, but now it would be available to all the other Polyvore members as well. Now think about what might happen if several members used your item to build their collages… 100s – 1000s of people will start seeing your pieces & want to click the link to see where they can buy one!

* I’m thinking of all of my wonderfully talented friends (Madai out there who make such beautiful pieces! Now… I have some more ideas to help “spread the word” about their products!!!

I can think of several uses for this wonderful service without even giving it much thought, so I thought I’d share a few over the next few days to help get you started on your creative way!

I’m sure that you will be able to come up with many other great uses for this service… so be sure to share them with us in the comment section below!

Today, I want to share some ideas about planning out your wardrobe.

Now, you can pull all of the pieces together, and see how they look before you buy! And, since the links are all in tact for each item, you could simply purchase online & have them shipped to you – instead of having to actually go shopping

Look at some of these examples found at Polyvore.

Next up? How about planning your wedding, special party, or room deocr using this tool?

I wanted to share a recent letter from our email bag. Bill needed some help coming up with a few creative ideas for his new cottage garden project. He is trying to pull together a little cottage garden complete with raised beds and a Victorian style chicken coop, where an old above ground swimming pool used to be.

As I share with Bill, I hope a few of these ideas will also give you the creative boost that you need to get started on your own garden projects!

Pearl,
I enjoyed seeing the display of boxes. I have made a couple of Halloween boxes out of cigar boxes. They were appreciated. We have a church auction in October and I plan to make more boxes.

Help me out here….I have an 8′ x 10′ garden shed that has been used for chickens and is currently occupied by rabbits. I would like to re-paint it and decorate it in a Victorian style.

We recently removed an 18′ round above ground pool from the yard. I am making two 4′ x 8′ raised beds to put in this area, and I will also be using some wrought iron type fencing with it.

Any decorating ideas would be appreciated.

Bill

Dear Bill,

When you’re starting from scratch, you have so many wonderful options! You could do just about anything you can imagine to your little building!

Here are a few ideas to get you started.

You could…

Add a pretty front door, which you’ve painted a pretty color

Don’t let the fear of the “expected price tag” keep you from getting started with this wonderful project! Many times, you will be able to get these elements for free or very low cost if you think creatively!

Here’s where to start:

- Yard sales
- Flea markets
- Salvage yards
- CraigsList.com
- Free section of newspaper
- Along the curb (many times you’ll see a free sign)
- Beside a dumpster
- Construction sites, they will usually let you have discarded items free!
- Check with your local township to see what houses are scheduled to come down in your area, then go have a look & see if you can use anything in your project… ask for it

Here are some more beautiful pictures of Garden Sheds to give you even some more ideas!

Here is a very tiny house (used as a light in the cottage garden), that you can quickly gather ideas from.

And… if all else fails & you can’t decide what to do with your garden shed… try this

I don’t know how many times I have walked into an antique shop or home decorating store, and fell more in love with the display pieces than the items that are actually for sale!

While the sweet little sales lady at the Cracker Barrel shares the discounts of the day with me, I simply smile while thinking… but I want the display unit! I remember actually asking one little lady about a particular display unit, only to have her say… honey, that would probably cost you an arm and your leg! And she was right (mostly anyway

I recently came across some really cute display pieces in a well known catalog, and as my little sales lady predicted, the prices were meant for the wives of Kings (not that I don’t think of my sweetie as a King mind you

I don’t know what it is about me… maybe it’s the creative thought process that my mind goes through… or maybe it’s just the “I know we could make that” syndrome… but whatever the reason, my brain kicked in gear!

I wanted to find a nice storage unit that could be used for multiple purposes such as the – kitchen, entry, hallway, or garden house. My hunt was a great success, because today I found this great project for a “chicken coop style” storage unit over at Sunset’s Fresh Dirt Blog.

If you’re style of decorating is…

- Country Farmhouse
- Cozy Cottage
- English Cottage
- Shabby Chic
- Primitive

Well, I should have just said ANY style, you will love this project!

Download The Project

Here’s another version from Lowe’s

As you can see from the picture above, Nina decided to leave the plain wood finish on her cubby, but I can see mine being painted with a nice thick coat of “chippy style” crackled paint!

There are so many color combinations to choose from! How about… cream & black, mustard & red, toupe & light blue… see what happens when I start thinking!

And you won’t believe how much stuff this type of unit can hold! I have a friend who keeps her’s right inside the front door. Then, when the daycare children come in, they put their shoes, hat, gloves, lunches, school papers, etc., in their own cubby!

Think about all of the different things you could fill your new cubby with…

- crafts
- videos & CDs
- books & magazines
- Plants, pots, and garden tools
- a pantry
- all of your quilts & other linens
- dishes & kitchen display
- scrapbooking supplies

I know you will enjoy this special piece!

* Share your special storage pictures with us in the comment section!

Pearl

I think there is a quiet joy in finding an object that was once used as a workhorse in society, then allowing it rest in it’s later years as an object of beauty. It’s kind of like… turning it out to pasture for everyone to look at & admire.

Boxes are one such object that immediately comes to mind.

Once thought of as simple ordinary storage containers for feed or tools, they have now become objects of great decorating affection!

In doing a bit of research, you will uncover ordinary nondescript boxes that were used for everyday items, all the way to very special boxes made to hold particular items such as; bibles, jewelry, cigars, chocolates, hats, cheese, wine, shoes, and matches.

I thought we’d take a look at some of the creative ways that different people have given ordinary boxes new life in their homes, but first I’d like to share a few ideas with you for your own boxes.

When you’re out at the summer sales, keep your eyes open for boxes. Don’t worry about what they look like right now, because I’m going to give you some ideas to turn yucky boxes into yummy ones

Here are a few ideas:

- You could leave the box as is – just clean it up a little. Sometimes the vintage look is best untouched!

- Perhaps a little color would be nice? You could give the box a coat of paint, a light brushing for a shabby look, or a nice crackled “cottagy” finish.

- Maybe you’d rather pull some bits together in a collage? You can use anything that comes to mind with this technique! Here are some things that come to mind right away… wallpaper bits, hand crafted paper, newsprint, old love letters, pages from a vintage book, wrapping paper, pretty tissue paper or napkins, fabric, pictures, ephemera, scrapbook paper, or sheet music.

** If you would like to use music in your design, you are going to love me for sharing this resource! Here you’ll find several music books from the very early 1600s that you can print off for free! I think they would be marvelous printed on some vintage looking paper!
This one is called “Pammelia” and it is from 1609
Here is one called “Deuteromelia” from 1609
The last one is from 1611 & it’s called “Melismata”

At this site you will find thousands of free vintage pictures to use!
Free Vintage Clip Art

Lets peek at the ideas of some other friends to see what they have come up with.

Kris has turned these ordinary cigar boxes into beautiful places to display even a most prized possession!

Look what Jean has done with these stacking boxes!

I love the primitive look, so these boxes are “way” beautiful to me I love how she has made them look like they’ve come right out of an episode of “Little House on the Prairie”!

I love how Alice has used the simple beauty of this vintage tool box! Probably used for holding tools in it’s younger years, with a thin brushing of white white, it now sits in a place of honor as an accent piece on this beautiful patio.

Look at how Pam has used all different kinds of boxes as storage and as beautiful decor for her open studio shelves.

Here, she took a pile of old wine boxes and turned them into beautiful boxes to use on display!

Before

After

Here’ a wonderful little tool box, that now has new life dancing with flowers!
You’ll love poppin’s blog as well!

Here’s a beautiful box that Natasha’s father made for her out of old pieces of wood covered in green chippy paint. She uses it to hold her favorite magazines.

One of my favorite things to see in the world of boxes is… the re-purposing of vintage sewing machine drawers. I think about how the sewing machine probably worked so hard for it’s owner over the years, only to be thrown out or replaced by a newer version, when they didn’t have use for it anymore. How appropriate that we at least take the drawers and put them to work in new ways… now to girl finally feels useful again Silly… I know… but it sounds like a wonderful children’s book

Here Joy puts a beautiful drawer (library drawer) to work as kitchen storage… beautiful storage I might add:)

Kris has made her sewing drawer into a place to display her pink baby shoes!

This drawer is used to display china

What a wonderful display idea from Cedar Junction! Isn’t this the cutest!

I love this wooden box that has been re-purposed as a perfect place to put the garden tools after a long day’s work.

Don’t you love Abbie’s sweet cigar box turned collage supply center!

Moss is one of my favorite “bones” of the garden (along with trees, rocks, and ferns)… so this is a perfect project for me! I love how Sarah captured the beauty of something otherwise so very ordinary, but here in this vintage box… it’s a sight to behold!

** Be sure to tell me about your boxes in the comments below!

Creatively Yours,
Pearl

You might not have realized it, but there are people everywhere, who are building their own little cottages from free supplies that they have gathered from their property such as; mud, straw, sticks, and stones! And, no matter how hard the big bad wolf blows, he won’t be able to blow these little cottages down… not by the hair of our chinny-chin-chin

With a little bit of know how and very little money… you could be in a little place of your own in a short amount of time!

Something about having a little cozy place to bake some pies, hang pretty little curtains, and be surrounded with piles of cottage gardens… is the melody of my dreams!

I think I hear music

I love finding ways to turn everyday common items, which would otherwise go into the garbage, into beautiful items that everyone can enjoy!

So… when I came across a gal who was making beautiful beads from recycled newspaper, I had to share the idea with you!

When I saw Helen’s beautiful beads, I asked her if she would mind sharing how she made them. After hearing from her, I realized that the methods used for these beads, were the exact same methods that I have used for several different projects including; costumes, handcrafted paper, and sculpted home decor items. I think what I love about her beads though… is the natural earthy look that they have. Please click on the pictures & visit Helen at her Flickr space!

What better way to pamper yourself than to make something so beautiful that costs nearly NOTHING! It would also be a great way to make some beautiful gifts for less than pennies – while recycling those pesky piles of old newspapers

Perhaps you could also earn some extra money by making a nice little business out of your beautiful new creations! I’m sorry… there I go again… always the business mind

Step #1 – Gather a small pile of newspapers from the recycling basket.

Step #2 – Rip the paper into small pieces

Step #3 – Put the pieces of newspaper in a large stock pot

Step #4 – Pour enough boiling water over the paper to cover

Step #5 – Allow to sit for an hour or so

Step #6 – Stir the paper to help break it down a bit

Step #7 – Drain as much water out of the paper as you can

Step #8 – Add enough glue to the paper to help it hold together in a ball shape (any glue that is clear when dry – such as Elmer’s, or PVA)

Step #9 – Roll the paper into round balls being sure to squeeze out as much moisture as you can while rolling (you can make any size you would like)

Step #10 – Let them dry for a few days – rolling them every several hours – until they are completely dry

Here’s a mix of paper & felt beads. I love the look of this mix!

Step #11 – Sand each bead down with a bit of sandpaper to remove rough edges

Step #12 – Drill a hole in each bead that is big enough for the material that you want to string them with

Step #13 – Paint them with left over craft paint

Step #14 – Give them a coat of varnish

Think of all of the different variations that you could make with this technique! The colors & stringing material possibilities are endless! I think some pretty pink beads strung on black velvet ribbon will be my first pamering self indulgence

And… don’t stop at just making beads!

How about…

- Little hearts for a Valentine’s Day banner, or to grace the front of your handcrafted cards

- Tiny beads to make earrings

- Little snowmen with a coat of cream paint – drenched in chunky glass glitter

- A nice chunky key chain made from beads & ribbon

- Snowballs strung on a ripped piece of homespun fabric – to make a snowball tree garland

Well, I think you will agree when I say that these little bits of recycled newspaper are some of the most beautiful bits I’ve ever seen!