Homemade anniversary gift

    Daniel and I recently celebrated our anniversary!!! It was very different than how we usually celebrate. This year he had to work and then the evening was spent at church and then baby didn't want to sleep at all that night. However, we ate lunch together and exchanged what was supposed to be small gifts since we are on a tight budget! Daniel broke the spending rules and bought me a lovely bracelet and flowers!! I think I'll forgive him though! :) I had decided to make his gift since we weren't supposed to spend much money.

     A couple weeks ago I wrote things I loved or appreciated about him on sticky notes and plastered them all over the windows of his car while he was at work. He really liked that so I decided to take the things I wrote down and make it into something that he can keep, instead of a bunch of sticky notes. 

     There have been some tutorials on Pinterest and also here about a deck of cards used to make a book similar to what I did. However, I didn't have the budget to go buy stuff to make it all cutesy. And I figured it was a gift for my husband and he doesn't really care about cutesy. So I used only things I had on hand.

- cheap deck of cards

- pen

- scissors 

- card stock

- sharpie (or any marker)

- glue stick or tape

- hole punch

- string

     I cut pieces of card stock to fit on one side of the playing cards. I ran the marker on the edges of the paper to give it some definition. Then I wrote all the little things on each piece of card stock. The tutorials on Pinterest used all 52 of the playing cards. I used about 42 because the deck was getting really thick and a little hard to manage. And the things left to say probably would be a little embarrassing to anyone accidentally reading it so I decided to save those special things for later. ;) 

      Next, I glued all the pieces of card stock onto the playing cards. Then I punched holes on one edge of all the cards. I decided to also make a cover from a paint chip sample to go on top of the deck. Lastly, I ran string through the holes to bind the cards into one "book". 

     Not nearly as cute or crafty looking as the one on Pinterest, but it was made with love and it was free!  :)   Hope this inspires you to try your hand at making a gift for your special someone. Doesn't have to be expensive or even cutesy if it comes from the heart!

Recover your throw pillows for free!

      I've been a little obsessed lately with changing the color scheme in our living room. We've had red as our accent color since we've been married and I'm ready for a change. One problem. We don't have extra money to spend on new pillows/decor.  SO I raided our closet! I found a dress that I hadn't worn since college and a dress shirt of hubs that didn't fit well anymore.
     I knew I'd been wanting to go with a blue color for a long time and then I found the perfect candidates for my new pillow covers. I forgot to take pictures of the process along the way. But it took me just a couple hours, working around feeding and entertaining baby, to recover 3 pillows. Seriously, it was one of the easiest sewing projects I've ever done. Just a couple straight seams and you have 3 recovered pillows for free! Here's the finished product!