Use What You Have

The Nester had a (blog) party a few months ago titled "10 minutes to a room you'll love" and this post pretty much has the same idea. Finding things around the house that you may not neccesarily use very much and either re-painting, or doing something else creative, so that you can find a place for it that will make it look great! That sentence seemed extremely long. What it really means is - Use What You Have So That You Don't Have To Spend Any Money! You probably have a ton of things around your house that you could place in just the right spot and it'll pop or pull things together! You never know what you might find tucked away in a closet. I found this painting that my grandmother actually did when she was still living. Grandma Billie, my mom's mom, passed away over 22 years ago and although i've never met her there are things I see around the house that show me what her life was like. This painting was hidden in a box in a storage closet - I found it in June. FREE!This candle holder was in my mom's craft room crammed onto one of the shelves and hidden by a load of junk. I stuck a candle on there from my bathroom and wrapped some jewelry around it.This 'M' was given to me by my room mate my freshman year of college. FREE! The necklace was a purchase I made last year at some point and never got to wear because the first time I went to put it on I broke it. It looks pretty good draped over my initial though.

I'm so not a decorater and have zero clue what the "rules" technically are. It's more like I pretend to decorate and just hope that it looks alright! When looking at magazines I usually pull ideas, and try to some-what copy what they did.... when I like the idea! Or I'll see something really, really, really great in my head and then not know how to pull it off in for real life. Just mess around til' you get something that looks pleasing to your eye! That's the gist! The elephant was a gift from my mother about 10 years ago when she redid my bedroom for my birthday. The clear vase holding the pine cones came from the florist on Valentine's day (it was my sister's not mine). The picture was purchased on sale last year when Kirkland's went out of business in the mall. The vase and candle holders were a really cheap Walmart find a year ago as well. I also added this scarf that my best friend gave me this past week. The basketful of papers wasn't appealing to me, so I figured the scarf could hide most of that. Plus it adds a little hint of color.
Twigs and pine cones that you can literally get out of your yard. FREE! (excuse the boring nuetral theme - in the future I do plan to incorporate this warm red color... in fact there are a few pieces here and there that bring it into the room! Just not quite enough yet!) So... I challenge you to incorporate that one piece that you can't figure out what the heck to do with, and dare you not to spend any money for that empty space on that dresser or shelf... Just Use What You Have!