Check out my NEW BLOG! ~Design to Shine!

PLEASE Join me over at my NEW improved UPDATED blog. JUST CLICK the TITLE of this post! I wanted the web address to be the new name. So I moved my blog over including the 2 postings. I feel this will also better reflect the direction I would like to take. I am not deleting this one, but will no longer update it. Saks blogging was a fun time in my life more geared to some mini scrapbooks I made and sold back then. And working on a small Scrapbook Store Design Team. This new blog will be more a reflection of my life, my thrifty habits that are not new to me (LOL); tossed in with a bit of other things that inspire me.

Thanks so MUCH and I look forward to sharing this NEW adventure and journey with you!

New Blog Name !

My blog has a new name! ~Design to Shine~

I asked for help coming up with a new blog name from a close-knit group I belong to of women, scrapbookers and long time friends. I chose this one after looking up the definition to ‘design’. Which Webster’s says in part as this:

Design ~
1: to create, fashion, execute, or construct according to plan
2 a: to conceive and plan out in the mind b: to have as a purpose

I told these remarkable women that I have a new concept in mind for my blog and that I wanted to include the word ~Shine~. The reason for this particular word is that it has been my personal word for over 2 years now. At the beginning of a new year, I tried to choose another word. Yet, in many of the inspirational writings, I read daily this one word kept coming back to me. Therefore, Shine it shall be and still is for 2009.

I am still on a personal journey of growth within; ever evolving into a more authentic me.

Hopefully you will join me …for this adventure called life! Every day there is an opportunity just awaiting each of us. For that junk store find, we can apply a little paint and a lot of love…place it in our homes, our lives and admire our creativity, our handy work and the joys of simple pleasures. Every day there is that opportunity to SHINE our inner light into the world. Maybe it is with a sweet smile to the grumpy co-worker, catching the door for someone or to our children. Possibly, we are presented with a way to ‘pay it forward’ or extend a ‘random act of kindness’. Just like the endless possibilities we see in an old tattered wooden frame to become renewed and beautiful with a coat of paint … our lives we ‘design’ on a daily basis also. We create them and we each have a purpose.
Mine is to polish it a bit and allow it to ‘shine’. Light always illuminates the darkness. A flicker has the power and potential to become a flame, then a roaring fire that spreads it's warmth to others. We each have it within us...that power ... to SHINE!

Hope, Courage, Freedom

A Day in History ~

In the face of our common dangers, in this winter of our hardship, let us remember these timeless words. With hope and virtue, let us brave once more the icy currents, and endure what storms may come. Let it be said by our children’s children that when we were tested we refused to let this journey end, that we did not turn back nor did we falter; and with eyes fixed on the horizon and God’s grace upon us, we carried forth that great gift of freedom and delivered it safely to future generations. ~ President Obama

Thrifty Finds of Home Decor

I hosted Thanksgiving at my house this year with 18 people attending! What was I thinking? I had just downsized my kitchen table to a cool new pub style, because it is just my teen daughter and myself now at home. Plus it gave me more room in the kitchen and opened up the space! My tiny kitchen looks larger, less stuff and I am loving it! I purchased this at the same time we redecorated my son's room into a totally new upstyle room for my teen daughter. That project is another post! I still hate the wallpaper in the kitchen and hope that becomes a project for 2009! The small frame on the wall has now been replaced with a neat find from TJ Maxx.

So I needed more 'seating' table space to host a bunch of people. I went to a local antique mall and found a solid wood coffee table ($30) that matches perfect! There is barely a scratch on it! Just last weekend I found a beautiful small rug (another TJ Maxx find) and love the way it breaks up the wood on wood from the flooring and table. Added a clearance bowl find along with potpourri (found on clearance for 97 cents a bag at Kirklands!). Everything ties in with my blue and burgandy colors currently in the living room. Would love a new sofa, but have decided to wait until my daughter is out of the house. This sofa is still comfy and has a bed for guests. Hoping to come across a few decor pillows to add a little color there!

I have slowly been transforming rooms into 'what I love'. One of the things I've said over and over since my son moved out on his own is I want to get my house 'in shape'. I want to have it functional, more my 'style'...if I even have one! and of course, at a bargin! So this year of 2009, not only do I wish to SHINE .... I want my home to SHINE too. Not as a show palace, but with things I love, reflecting Love lives here! I am newly obsessed with several blogs that are home decorating on a budget. Thrifty finds made over that turn out AMAZING! These ladies and gents have talent and I hope to gleen some inspiration from them.

Wrap it up!

Christmas is 2 days away! So it's time to wrap it up and get it done! Here is a quick gift wrap idea that I came up with this morning. I found a package of 3 cookie tray bags in my gift wrap box. Obviously I had purchased them to make goodies as gifts at some point or bought them on clearance! Ha! (I think I actually picked them u at the Dollar Tree at some point). I decided to wrap up my tile coaster sets for my mom and two sisters with these cute bags. I had 3 wooden boxes I also picked up on clearance at Target, a few years ago. These have been sitting ...waiting in my gift 'closet' (the top shelf of my clothes closet). Perfect to 'protect' the coasters and add a little something something to the 'gift'. I tied raffia around the coasters, lined the boxes with a new kitchen dish 'rag' and put the box down in the huge cookie bag. Tied them with a bit of Christmas ribbon from my scrappin' stash and ta da .... pretty wrapping! I still need to make a tag out of my paper stash to add to each one. Easy and pretty, if I do say so myself!

Christmas Cake

I've posted about this before. Several years ago while working on a company employee newsletter I came upon a cake recipe. I made it that year for Christmas. The actual recipe is called It Won't Last Cake. However, I renamed it the Christmas cake because my dear sister has asked that it be her 'gift' every year since! My brother in law loves it too. So since I hosted Thanksgiving this year, he requested the cake then. I am posting the photo of the cake, which I will be making again this week to take to sis's house for our Christmas get together on Christmas Day. It is easy and is like a spice cake or banana bread. Very moist and even goes great with coffee in the mornings.