Five Dollar Decor: Decorative Letters

It's back! After a nice, long, break, and by popular request, Five Dollar Decor has returned. I'd like to thank Pinterest for making it possible for me to once again return this feature to the blog. Without it, I'd still be stuck in the doldrums, with no inspiration for what to write about next.

And then... inspiration struck!

Everybody seems to be really into decorating with letters lately, and I am totally ok with that. You could go to Anthropologie or Urban Outfitters and pay beaucoup bucks for them, or you could go to your local craft store, spend an hour with some mod podge or paint, and whip up your own on the cheap.

I, predictably, favor the latter. Want to know how to do it? Here are five different styles for you to try.

Reversible Napkins and Placemats

Centsational Girl shares a great tutorial on how to make quick and easy reversible napkins and placemats, to add a personalized touch to your dining room.

I love the patterns and colors she chose. I also love the idea of having placemats that, when they get dirty or boring, can just be flipped upside down for a quick change. Or, you could do an "everyday" fabric on one side and a more formal, prettier fabric on the other. Have company? Don't go rummaging through your linen closet for the pretty table linens. Just flip the placemats upside down!

For the tuturial and a lot more beautiful pictures, visit The Centsational Girl.

DIY Chandelier Project

Do you love that mid-century look for home decorating? Or maybe you prefer something a little more homespun than that? Now you can highlight either look with a fun, cheap DIY chandelier project, courtesy of Young House Love.

I am in love with this project! For the price of some inexpensive wire mesh and a couple packages of clothespins, you can install a cool, unique chandelier in your home. The example above went into a laundry room (very appropriate) but I can think of several places in my home where I'd like to put something like this.

Head on over to Young House Love and check it out!

Oak Park Hates Veggies

My post today is not about cooking, crafting, or sewing (although I've been up to all of those things lately!)

No. Instead, I'd like to tell you about a unique little blog I found. You see, the city of Oak Park, MI is prosecuting a woman there for growing organic vegetables in her front lawn. She claims that she isn't violating city code--they claim that she is, and that it is illegal for her to grow food on her own property where others can see it.

I encourage you to read her blog, do some research on your own, and draw your own conclusions. And if, as I hope, you draw the same conclusions that I did, I also encourage you to join me in contacting the city of Oak Park* to make sure they know that we find it unacceptable to punish a law-abiding citizen for making healthy choices on behalf of her family.

* in a polite and non-threatening way, of course!

Mrs. Beeton's Household Management

Have you heard of Mrs. Beeton? In the 19th century, Mrs. Beeton's Book of Household Management was the Victorian homekeeper's bible.

That is one intense book jacket.

You can find the entire text online here. It's worth a read, if only for a chuckle over the way things have changed.  The book is primarily a cookbook, but also opines at some length about social conventions, visiting, managing servants, and caring for invalids.

I mention it because I read a quote from the aforementioned Mrs. Beeton in which she said, "What moved me, in the first instance, to attempt a work like this, was the discomfort and suffering which I had seen brought upon men and women by household mismanagement. I have always thought that there is no more fruitful source of family discontent than a housewife's badly-cooked dinners and untidy ways."

Obviously the blame for this no longer lies just at the feet of the housewife. But I'm curious to know, readers, do you think that bad dinners and an untidy house are a source of "family discontent"? Domestic stress? Mr. Scrimp and I certainly seem to have a much better time when things are really clean and organized.

Leave a comment and let me know what you think.

Nutella Mug Cake!

I admit, I am posting a link to a recipe I haven't tested and won't be able to test, because Mr. Scrimp and I don't have a microwave.

it just looks so GOOD

I know, I know! Crazy, right? Not owning a microwave? Who even does that?

It isn't something we did on purpose. We just didn't have one when we got married (there was a "wait, you don't own a microwave?" "I thought you did!" "I thought you did!" conversation), and we didn't really have the money to get one at the time*. We could buy one now, but it's been nearly two years of a no-microwave life, and I have to admit, it's grown on me as a lifestyle. Slow food is sort of de rigeur when you have no microwave. What started out as a disorganized accent has become a life choice we now actively uphold.

The one thing that does make me sad is that we will not be able to sample this particular mug of deliciousness from The Family Kitchen. A chocolate mug cake with a twist--a little extra oil and a big scoop of Nutella make for a cake that is moist, gooey, and about as decadent looking as you can get with microwave cookery.


* We did the same thing with a vacuum cleaner and made do without for over a year before a kind relative donated an unwanted one. I am not enough of a hipster to do everything the old-fashioned way just because I can.

Link: Mila's Daydreams

This morning, I'd like to share one of my very favorite blogs with you.

It's not a craft blog, or a cooking blog, or even a blog with any writing on it. Nope, it's a photo blog--not just any photo blog, though! In the style of Oren Lavie, Adele Enersen waits until her baby Mila is asleep and then creates beautiful landscapes using blankets, books, and other props and starring sleeping Mila in an interpretation of what she may or may not be dreaming of at that moment.

I just can't get over this. It's definitely going into my Things To Do Someday When I Have a BabyScrimp file.

Depression Cooking

Right around when I got married to Mr. Scrimp, I found a video channel on YouTube called "Depression Cooking With Clara." It was one of the things that ultimately inspired Scrimpalicious.

Clara is a 94-year-old great-grandmother whose grandson decided to help her make some instructional cooking videos for family use. He put them on YouTube, and it just took off--they're now into a second season and have released a cookbook and DVD.

Equal parts memoir and cooking show, Depression Cooking With Clara includes reminisces about the Great Depression, and cheap family recipes (averaging about $1/serving). Go here to watch it. I really recommend it.

DIY Project Inspiration

So, I was looking at some of the products available for sale from the. and I thought, as I so often do, "I could make that."

And I bet you could make it too--or some really cool spinoff of it.

Take a look at the picture under the cut and suggest ideas for other objects that would work for this framed object art.

25 Cheap, Healthy Foods

In this economy, believe me, I know how hard it can be to buy healthy, unprocessed food when the pre-made stuff is so handy and cheap. I read the sales flyers in the newspaper every week and then sigh over the fact that nobody ever seems to have magical piles of coupons for fruits and vegetables, and that if I want to emulate all those coupon-shopping blogs that manage to get $75 worth of groceries for five dollars and a few scissors-blisters, I have to compromise on what I eat.

So, I was really happy to find this article on SparkPeople that lists 25 healthy foods that you can buy inexpensively. Almost all of them meet my criteria for defining unprocessed foods (I don't count freezing or canning as "processing" for the purposes of that particular discussion), and the only other thing I disagree with is the favoring of low-fat or nonfat dairy products over full-fat or 2%.

What else do you buy that's cheap and healthy?

Alphabet Wall

This would make such a cool decoration for a child's bedroom or playroom, or, with a darker set of colors (ebony, mahogany, gold, etc.) even in an office or library.

Alphabet Wall!

Check out a time for everything for more photos and a description of how she did it!

Recession Fashion

I think most of the people who read this blog like to shop at thrift stores. Right? Right? I mean, if you don't, why not? They're the best! Seriously, most of my favorite clothes come from the good old Salvation Army up the road.

But I'm also sure that all of us who have braved these temples to unwanted stuff have had the following experience...

CHOCbite

I've got a whole lot of new things for you that I've accumulated in the last month (eek! month??) since I posted. Yikes. Since when is summer busier than the rest of the year? I'm not in school anymore but it hasn't been long enough for me to lose the association of summer with vacation and leisure.

Anyway, if you're looking for something fun and unique with which to take the edge off of how busy your summer has been, why not check out CHOCbite? They've got a whole range of customizable chocolate bars. No, seriously! You pick your chocolate, you pick your toppings, and then they're custom-made and sent to you.

Alternatively, I guess you could just hack it and do it yourself. ;)

DIY Summer Top

Newest item on my list of wicked cool things? Sew Mama Sew, a repository of hip patterns, design ideas, tips, tricks, and techniques for sewing. They also sell some really beautiful and unique fabrics and maintain a blog with inspiration photos, links, and advice. What's not to love?

I'm particularly enthralled with this pattern, which I'd like to try very soon, especially because Mr. Scrimp and I are getting ready to take a trip to the beach, and I'm going to need something cute to wear there!

Doesn't this look like it will fit the bill nicely? I'm a fan.

DIY Lighting

While surfing the web this morning, I came across this little piece at Greenopolis.

Titled "18 Green DIY Lamps You Can Make Before Dark," it's a collection of links and photos with inspiration, directions, or links to kits for lighting made from repurposed around-the-house (mostly) materials.

Definitely be sure to get a load of my two favorites, the cardboard fairy lights (pictured here), and the plastic cutlery chandelier.

Link: Shabby Chic Cottage

Mr. Scrimp and I are in the middle of organizing and setting up our spare room to be an office/craft room, after almost eight months of using it for storage (read: piling things up when we don't want to deal with having them in the rest of the house). As a result, all my crafting stuff has been moved from disorganized piles on the floor to semi-organized piles on a shelf and I've been too busy to actually do much crafting.

But... when I do, this is the next project on my list--a rectangular cloth basket, designed by Gina at the Shabby Chic Cottage.

Go here for the how-to.

Link: Valentine's Day Wall Art

I love this Valentine's Day wall art from Secret Pie Shoppe! The whole project was made with nothing but scrapbook paper and a little cardstock--just a few dollars, if you don't have the materials on hand.

You could do this with pretty much any shape and color--squares or circles, hearts, what-have-you.  It definitely isn't limited to a Valentine's Day craft.

Follow the link for a how-to.

Artful Framing

This is going to have to be a short blog entry this morning. Our rent check is due, which means I spent my morning (after dropping Mr. Scrimp off at work, because my car is in the shop), rushing around in a frenzy of tidying and last-minute cleaning to get our kitchen presentable before I leave for work, since the landlord will be letting himself in to collect the rent check off our fridge later today.

If I learned one thing from years of art classes, it's that anything looks better if you put it in a frame. There's something about framing that speaks of intention, forethought, and order. I'm sure it's got something to do with some deep psychological need for boundaries and organization and blah blah blah, but I'm happy to just stop with "I like how it looks."

I have six frames sitting in a bag in our all-purpose/storage/guest room that we picked up at Wal-Mart months ago, incredibly cheap. When I get home from work, I'm going to start framing things. What things? Ehh, who cares? I have plenty of things that would look nicer in a frame. I'll pick some.

For what I think might be the best example of how anything looks better in a frame, check out this five-minute project by The Nester. Also, check out this one. I was already planning to write about framing things, but she inspired me to get it done sooner.

I'll take some pictures tonight or tomorrow, to show you the results of Framing Mania 2010!

Link: Unhappy Hipsters

Every so often, I find an interior design idea from a magazine or website that looks beautiful but not like someplace I would ever live.

There's actually a blog out there that takes those images and puts captions to them. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Unhappy Hipsters.

"And one day, a ladder appeared. Julien climbed with guarded optimism; could this be the way out for which he’d been searching all these weeks?"

(via dornob)

Why to Cook at Home

I'm no superwoman. I'm easily bored and tend not to finish everything I start. So, how do I keep going with making homemade meals in the face of cooking fatigue and general flakiness?

There are lots of ways to answer this question, but I don't think I could express them much better than Kristen of The Frugal Girl did this week in her Monday Q&A post. Go read it and be encouraged.