Three or More--Projects in Three Weeks

• She seeketh wool and flax and worketh willingly with her hands...
• She reaches forth her hand to the needy...
• She maketh fine linen (and other things)...

I'm so excited about today's post I can hardly stand it! Today at The Gypsy's Corner's "Three or More Tuesday" , is the big reveal for the "Three Projects in Three Weeks" Challenge, sponsored by Barbara Jean from Treasures from the Heart. These are all do-it-yourself projects of one sort or another, this is also linked to DIY Day at a Soft Place to Land. And because they are all "thrifty" projects, I'm also participating in Thrifty Thursday at Tales from Bloggeritaville!
Once you finish here, be sure to click over and see the other 3-in-3 and DIY projects and thrifty finds and offer a little comment love!

Project 1

The first project on my list was to do something about this blank wall in my "dining room"...

...which is actually just one end of my eat-in kitchen, and is a strictly informal space. Luckily I had these...

...three wooden shelves I bought months ago at Harvest Thrift in Opelika, Alabama, for $4.50 for the three of them ("bric-a-brac" was half off that day--the large one was $2, the medium $1.50, and the small one $1. Whoo hoo!)


My biggest expense was spray paint. I started off with one super cheap can to use in lieu of primer, and one better brand. Big mistake--the cheap brand spit and sputtered and leaked and made a tremendous mess--plus it had poor coverage. I also underestimated the "suckage factor" of the semi-raw wood. A quick trip to the store for more paint between coats did the trick--next time I will stick with a name brand or at least a store brand...no more "Drylon" knock-off for me. Eventually, after about three coats plus some touch ups on the cut areas, I ended up with this...



One of the shelves was missing a hanger thingie on the back, which I found a spare of in my junk hardware drawer, so they quickly became...

Shelf #1

Shelf #2

Shelf #3


All three

Everything on them was "shopped" from my house, and has already been changed two or three times. I think that's part of charm--I can change things around seasonally, or "just because" without much effort. I may even cover the heart shaped holes with wooden medallions or cut-outs of some kind and repaint them (again), but for now, I'm happy with the results!

Project 2

This was actually the first project that I tackled--I have a fall wreath that I like, but I took it with me to Georgia last year, and it's hanging on the door of our apartment there. I wanted something for our front door here at home, so I decided to see what I could do, again on a budget.

I found a grapevine wreath in the back of my junk room/spare room/everything room closet, which I bought at least 6 or 7 years ago at a Garden Ridge Pottery, the price tag showed $2.38. I bought garland, ribbon, and some leaves at Dollar Tree for $1 each, and came up with this...

I wove a garland into the top side of the wreath, tucking in the ends.

After I got the garland on, I realized that I probably should have put on the ribbon first. I started fiddling with the ribbon to do a bow or something, but decided I wanted something a little more rustic and natural looking, so I turned to the package of leaves I'd bought.

When I pulled them out of the packaging, I realized that they had wire stems, and could be molded and ruffled to look a little more realistic...

...kind of like this

So I started "ruffling" and stuffing and sticking, and ended up with a bundled bunch that I thought had a sort of "nature's bow" effect. And since I'm a sort of "less is more" gal when it comes to most of my decorating, I left it alone, and the here are the results...

Ta-da!

I ended up using one garland and the package of leaves, and never even touched my hot glue gun that I thought I'd need--present cost, $2.00, total cost, $4.38, counting the wreath.

Project 3

And now my last project--when Barbara Jean first threw out the 3-in-3 challenge, she said it could be anything that we're into--whether it's arts and crafts, thrifting, or whatever. One of my favorite "hobbies", if you can call it that, is couponing and "deal" shopping, so I have quite a little stock-pile of toiletries, some of which I got for free or almost free. I can't resist a bargain if it's something useful and I can get it for nothing--and while I often say "I can always donate it", I seldom get around to actually doing it.

And so my last project was to turn "I'm gonna give.." to "I have given..."

After a quick phone call to be sure what was accepted, I culled these new toiletry items from my stash in a matter of minutes, then bagged it up and took it straight the local women's shelter. I would estimate the value of the these items to be about $60-$70 if I paid full retail for them, which I never do, but the actual cost to me for this was nothing but my time.

I hope you enjoyed this glimpse of my 3-in-3 projects, I can't wait to see what everyone else has done. Be sure to visit the links at the top of my post, and thanks once again to Tam and Barbara Jean for hosting!

Until next time...