Profile For justmyimagination2002 - martha's wisdom
love new ideas and passing them along, try to be as thrifty as possible, as dh and i live on fixed income. We are both 57, married for 39 happy years, 1dd, 1ds, 7 grands. live 15 miles from nearest town(s), we live in the middle of two. we live in mobile home next to dd on 5 acres, our ds and family will be moving here soon! enjoy crafts, esp. making something out of almost nothing. used to enjoy giving my children themed birthday parties, 50's and 60's, dress like your favorite rock star, ect, baking different shaped cakes, bunny rabbit, ect. Now that my health is not wonderful, i enjoy making wreaths, swags, nature cafrts, love everything a dollar stores. make gift baskets, enjoy cooking, but hate cleaning up! have to do that quickly afterwards.
Greatest achievement lately, gave up smoking after 32 years! Quit cold turkey, tried everything else, was in hospital for 5 days with renal failure and didn't smoke, so knew I could do it. I haven't had but 4 times that I wanted one and it only lasted a second. now my smell is back, taste is back and fell like a new person and my Higher Power says I am!
next project I want to attempt is to think of something to use as a mold to make a piclnic table out of concrete, with benches and of course have to have a hole in the middle for umbrella to keep cool as I think of new projects.
thanks for all the info I have gotten from this site!
In your area do you have wild flowers? I not sure of the scientific name, but we call them "Queen Ann's Lace" they are white and here in the southeast they grow wild and usually last until mid June or later. You can also put them into colored water and the stems soak up the color and the lace type flower turn the color of the water.
Hope this helped. You may discover different types of wild flowers that are white in your area. This would save so much money.
Making flowers out of crepe paper is easy. You can get long floral wires 25 or 50 to a pack at Wal Mart for about 2 to 3 dollars. Take your paper and cut it to about 20 inches and fold like a fan and then take the wire and wrap it around the middle and twist tightly all the way to the end of the wire.
Then take the paper and cut at each fold, to make each piece the same with and start pulling the paper at the closet to the center of wire to create a flower. Crepe paper will stretch so make the ends that stick up curly by stretching the ends as you pull up.
Or create roses by folding two triangles over each other and then gather paper and pinch and pull while rolling and either use wire or tape to hold. Practice with a piece and see what you come up with. you could use a safety pin on the back and surround some netting to make a pin.
when we moved into our current home, there was a film on the windows and doors, i took dish soap (dawn), water and an old rag and just washed and dried with an old towel. make sure you get all the soap off so use very little to begin with, also Murphy's Oil Soap is good for wood. ... View related article.
If you have inside pets, dogs, cats, ect, when they go outside and come back in, be sure to wash your hands well. My dh got a case of poison ivy from our dogs. We live in the country, so they go outside and into the woods sometimes to run and play. We were at the dr.'s office and he showed this to her and she told him it looked like poison ivy and as we were talking about how he could have gotten it, she asked about pets and they decided that was how he had contacted the rash. We just lost our fox terrier three days ago, I thought the mail had already been by our house, since Max loved to run cars, this was what he looked forward to every day, was going outside after the mail came, so he could run and play for awhile. About 5 minutes after he was outside, the mail came and Max ran the car, as usual. My ds came in a little later and said that Max was dead, he was so small, the mail person probably didn't know they had hit him.
Sorry to have gotten off the subject for a minute, but be sure to wash with soap and water the parts of your body that your pets touch after coming insde and bathe your pets often.
My daughter told me about this site last year. Put in seach free sterling silver jewlery. You only pay s/h, which is 5.98. They have 4 differnet items on the screen for 15 minutes and you place your order. Everything that my dd ordered last year was beautiful. The only thing is that on rings they may have only one size in it, but earrings, no problem, pendants have no chains, you can order from them, but that is where they make their money. Run your mouse over the article and it will give you the stones in the jewerly. Where can you get anything for $6.00 in sterlling silver.
Another thing is take a camera and have someone take a picture of all of you and have prints made, take a glass ball orniment and with white glue or mod pod, anything that dries clear and give as an orniment take a glitter pen and write the year on the back. Or get a clear ball orniment and roll the pic around a pencil and after removing the top very carefully!, insert the picture and pull out the pencil, the pic will unroll. Or if you are a good cook, cook them a cake or pie, or homemade candy or cookies, for all the family to enjoy.
Another idea, go the dollar store and get things they like and make them a gift basket. Use shreeded paper in the bottom or a basket or I have even used a box, covered in wrapping paper for the base. By the way, in most stores they sell clear bags 2 in a package for $1.00 and you can srink with your blow dryer or tape in back and add a bow.
Holiday pins are always aboundant and inexpensive this time of year.
Good luck Once I had 18 workers to buy for, when my boss resigned and I was promoted in DECEMBER,no less, I learned to use a glue gun fast and make wreaths, using dollar store flowrers, poporri and the leaves that came off the flowrers.
when making chunkky potato salad, mix equal parts of salad dressing or mayo with yellow mustard, also try adding pimanto pepper, onion, pickle mix. makes the salad have a certain zing flavor.
if you make candles, this is perfect for large square ones. and if you put ice in the was it will leave holes and interesting patterns. A friend of mine did this with her cub scouts and they loved it. ... View related article.
i used a product called 'Greased Lightening", I bought at Wal Mart. It is strong stuff and you better have a window open. This product works well.
my mother in law has only part of a lung, due to TB in the 50's. she uses "Scrubbing Bubbles" bath room cleaner. she said it really would clean it. I tried it on my oven door and it did the job. now just have the inside, I detest cleaning ovens. someday I am going to be blessed with a self cleaning over!
Use bamboo for curtain rods or cane, use raffia as tie backs for curtains, Look for any bamboo, wicker, or other things like that remind you of the beach.
Check out the good old Everything's A Dollar stores and you can find tumbled sea glass, rocks, vases, palm looking leaves, ect, especially now with the seasons changing, might get two for a dollar or 4 for a buck!!! add the sea glass or rocks to the vase and insert flowers.
I bought a basket, spanish moss, got a old dead piece of wood and drilled holes in it and made what looked to me as a "tropical tree, for about $10.00, including the floral foam. Just cut the stems offf of the larger leaved bush type greenery they sell, I think I got about 4 or 5 of them, basket was a dollar, used hot glue to glue rocks from outside into bottom of basket to weight it down, then filled with newspaper, and glued the foam, 3 spuared in package for a buck, to newspaper and surrounded it with rocks to stablize the free branch. cut greenery with wire cutters, and hot glued into drilled holes, put tiny amount of spanish moss around holes to hide glue, used an old butter knife, glue is hot!! To finish it off i used spanish moss over the rocks and news paper. Stand back and look every now and then and you can tell where to add leaves to make it look fuller. If you could find some old silk palm fawns and use thoses, you would be ahead of the game for sure on cost!
Sea shells in a bag are in most of these stores and have quiet a few large ones if you will watch, put these in a glass bowl.
Take ginger jar or other larger table lamp bases and get a ball of rope or larger twine and start gluing around it.
Check with local restuarants in your area and ask if you can have the large cans their veggies come in. Take two and cut out the bottoms of these and leave one with bottom intact. Glue the open ended ones together and add to one with the bottom, spray paint with your favorite beach color and glue shells around this and you have an umbrella stand for the price of shells or use the twine, or paint a beach scean on the cans!
Cheek out the thrift shops for old full skirts, even mens shirts and make pillows out of these, some have beautiful prints that remind you of the beach, water and the calmer side of life we all dream of having, at he beach or in the mountains. I don't know about you, but light painted furniture, such as cream, white, pale blue, or sea foam green, just says beach, layed back life! Make sure you add some texture to your room or it will look bland.
If you have a recycling center in your area that takes paint you may can get it for free!
I have been told that a pineapple, plastic, plaster, ect, is supposed to bring you luck and happiness in your home and the same for a rooster, but don't believe that, gave my best friend a rooster for a house warming gift and two years later, she was divorced!! lol
Also check out the large posters for art work,or in back to the good old Everything's a $1.00 store, they have prints 8 x 10, 16 x 20's that you can frame or can just leave the outer layer of cello and hang them up on a strong straight pin they are so light
Good luck, hope I have got your budget, creative juices flowing.
Check out the dollar stores for the table runners out of bamboo, sometimes you can find them at the evrything is a dollar store. I not sure how long or high your fence is, but you have had some really good ideas, if you have a green thumb, not brown like mine. Also saw on t.v. that old vinal window blinds, cut apart, made a table top, don't know why they wouldn't work to slip through the links . Go on to WWW.freecycle.com and if you are not a member join the one in your area and ask for some old blinds. Some of them are long. Wish you lived near me, I would give you some and probably your neighbors too, ha Martha in TN ... View related article.
