After I had Jex, I struggled with not losing myself as a person. I have always made an effort to still find time for things that I love. I have always had a passion for creativity. My mind is always dreaming in fabric, and paint swatches. Even as a child growing up I loved to move furniture in my room, and paint crafts. As an adult, my wonderful friend Krysta helped me develop an even greater love for decorating.
This is how I make time for me, "by making life look pretty." It can be with fashion, jewelry, home accessories, scrapbooking, photography... and on and on. I know that all of you have something in your life, that you just love to do. It may be exercise, cooking, reading, sewing, or just anything that makes you smile. I have discovered through experience that we can all learn from each other. I have valued the "teaching moments" that I have from all of my friends who are good or have a passion for things in their life. Some of these talents, I try and I do not enjoy. Others, I have really enjoyed. I have learned so many things from wonderful people. I am thankful for the gifts, talents and passions that Heavenly Father gives us, because I have been privileged to learn so much from others.
From those experiences of growth, I have learned how important it is to share our experiences and knowledge with others. Jonathan has been prodding me to share some of my creative juices on our blog. I think I have finally succumbed, and decided that it just might be fun.
So... on occasion (when I come up with something), I will share some fun ideas about, "making life pretty." Jonathan and I have always lived on a budget, so these ideas will be cheap, and may inspire some of you to do something fun like this in your life. This is the reason for the title Shabby Designer. Most everything I have is a hand me down, is on a major sale, or something I found for free on the side of the road. Then I use my creativity to refurbish this, and "make it pretty."
I hope as I share these ideas you can find something just laying around that you can reuse in your own life. This is just a fun way to inspire you. I also hope this entry inspires you to find time to do something that you enjoy, and then share it with others.
DISCLAIMER: I do not profess to be an expert, nor have I ever taken any design classes. I am just sharing what I love, and what works for me. My motto is: it is not good design if YOU don't love it, and the only rule for design (by my handbook) is if you love it then use it. After all, my design style is called skitsophrenic, and I think it works because I love everything in my space.
Here is my SIMPLE idea for today:
Need to brighten up a space or a room.... add some flowers.
Flowers can add so much liveliness to a room. I had this empty space to fill, and I knew it needed some flowers. The color of the flowers is not matchy matchy to what I have going on in the room, but it is in the same tones. They are a nice green color, just a smidge brighter then my wall.
What makes this a cheap addition is that I already had the vase, and I bought the flowers at Hobby Lobby when they were 1/2 off. That made them $3 a bunch. I used 2 bunches. What a deal, and look at the impact it made. They make me smile every time I look at them.
I also decided it would be fun to carry them around the room a bit. So I took 3 of the flowers out of the bunch, and added them to these 3 small vases. I bought these at Walmart in the pack of 3 for $3. I also thought outside the box, by putting them on our bar. It gives a nice look to a rather overlooked place. So for $3, I carried the look around the room, and brightened up my bar.(you can also buy something called Crystal Water that looks like real water in the bottom of the vase, I did this for added effect... it is not necessary) Crystal Water gels up and will not spill. It also secures the flower in place. This will add about $12 to your project, but if you used your coupon at Hobby Lobby it would save you about $5. It was enough to do both flower projects.
One more tip on Brightening up your space:
I have this fun bookshelf in our house, but it was so boring. I scrounged around the house for some nice things I could add to bring in some color. I had the red picture frame, and I added a fun piece of scrapbook paper inside to add some fun dimension. On the top of the book shelf, I moved some candlesticks that I had in another space, and then gave new life to a pot. This pot had some greenery in it that was just done. My friend Krysta gave me the pot. It was free, and I just bought a $3 bush, and replaced it. The green really adds to the space, and actually gives the big wall some nice color. The vase with the pears in it was $1.50. I bought the pears from my favorite Hobby Lobby. They came in a pack, and of course were 50% off. Then I filled the vase that I already had. These simple tricks brought new life to my rather boring bookshelf, and it only cost me $4.50.
I hope this inspires you to find a place to add a splash of color, by using flowers. You can never go wrong with a nice vase of flowers.
HINT: Don't buy cheap flowers from a $$$ store or Walmart. Invest in some nice ones. They go 50% off all the time at Hobby Lobby. Believe me it is worth it. Also, if you do not have vases lying around like I did then check out the $$$ store or thrift stores.
H is for... Hot Tub. I let the kids splash around in our jacuzzi tub.(this was a great distraction as I cut my own hair)
J is for... Jump Rope, Jacks, and Jex(Jex's scrapbook pages to come in following post)
I is for... Indoor campout, Indoor Smores, and Isaac. Here are the scrapbook pages the kids made about Isaac.
P is for... pudding and popcorn pictures. The kids enjoyed finger painting with pudding, and glueing popcorn on their masterpeice. That was until we put them outside to dry, and it started to rain. AHHH!!
N is for...No-Bake Nests.(we made no-bake cookies, shaped them into bird nests, and then filled them with marshmellows for the eggs. SO FUN, yet SOOO DANGEROUS. Mom, loves no-bakes, but that doesn't go so well with my healthy eating plan. GOOD LUCK MOM!!
N... is for Necklace. I broke out the bin of beads that I haven't seen since I used to make jewelry and I let the kids string some necklaces. They made all of them for me, as you can see: 
Not the best picture of me, but the smile on my face is pure delight in the gift from the kiddos.
L is for... Library. We found our local library, and they have a great story time. It happens to work perfect into our schedule. What a fun addition to our summer.
F is for... Fingernail polish. I let the kids piant my fingernails, and toe nails. We did Stella's as well. As an added bonus, Jex found a frog on
Yeah for the Alphabet, and exciting ways to present it. Thanks to everyone for helping with some ideas. 
