So here are some of the things I have done so far...

This table I found at one of my father's rental properties. We had to clean the place out after the last owner moved out, because they left stuff behind and someone had bought the house off of my father and if we didn't at least pick out the saveable stuff, we wouldn't have the chance to later. This table is wooden and was a natural wood tone. It was in pretty good shape structurally. It initially was very dirty and scratched and had casters on it. I took it and painted it and then on the insets I added this wallpaper border that was actually given to me. The wall paper border fit nicely in the insets without a whole lot of cutting to make it fit and it really completes the look of the table. So now a table that was probably once destined for trash was saved by me and turned into a nice country end table.

I have also painted other furniture such as a dresser, which I then added different sets of decorative knobs to to give it an eclectic look. Besides the varying knobs were at different prices. I saved some money, buying a few cheaper knobs and mixing them in with expensive ones.

This pillow case was made out of a sheet. I used the bulk of the sheet for another project, a wall mural which I will get to in another post. I used the leftover sheet which I thought would be perfect for a pillowcase. I sewed the pillowcase together using a sewing machine. The first thing I did was cut out the panels. I used a standard sized pillow case as a template, but I allowed for a few extra inches. I made the front of the pillow by ironing a pleat going vertical on the end of the pillow, this allowed me to insert a ribbon and sew it into place to create the traditional end look of a pillowcase. Then I appliqued on the flowers and leaves and stitched on the stems. Finally I matched up my two sides and sewed them together.

I also bought a pillowcase set at a discount store. I loved the pattern and color of the pillowcases, but they were king size and too large. Not to fear I would figure how to solve this problem. I cut down the pillowcases to size and resewed them. Then the leftover fabric I used to make matching accent pillows. I finished off the accent pillows with a button in the center. The button thread was pulled through the back of the pillow and pulled as tightly as possible to create an indentation.

To go along with these pillows will be a comforter. I bought the matching sheet of the pillowcases as well as a sheet in a slightly darker shade of blue in a solid. I took the sheets matched them up and sewed them together to create a duvet cover. I need to find a comforter to put the cover on either around my house or a cheap one at the store. Then I plan to close up the bottom end nicely with vecro.

I have also taken old pillows and recovered them. Occassionally I will go to a second hand store and look for pillows in good condition that are cheap, so that I can recover them.

Another thing I like to do is make pictures for my room, etc. I often find old wood frames either at yard sales or sometimes left over at rental properties and I paint them white, it's not perfect but it does give them an antique, country look. Then I put printed out pictures of old botanical drawings in them. Here is one. It's a little off color because I covered the flash a little so as to minimize glare from the flash.

Finally I have made hair bands. I buy ribbon (usually grograin works best, sometimes fabric will work as you will see with one head band) and I can buy a yard for about 50c and I don't even use it all so I can make a matching cuff or use the rest in scrapbooking. So for about a quarter each I can have cute head bands.