Just a quick decorating idea inspired by Kathy’s lovely framed “K” at Creative Home Expressions. My framed “hope” was fun while it lasted, but I needed a change, so here’s to “faith.” Adding the red-and-white striped scrapbook paper in the background gave it a whole new look. If you want to make your own, download the letters here and click here for the tutorial. One guess what my next word will be. Bigger project coming next Monday.

Our new guest nester, Maria Romvari, transformed this corner of her house for her Hungarian blog A Hoover-gáton is túl, and she’s sharing her tutorial with us! Maria used ordinary thrift store items—side table, vase, and mismatched frames—totaling $10.67 to create this stunning vignette. Another $17.75 spent on paint, primer, and a brush bring the total to less than $30. Add some of her own photos and candle holders, and she was ready to start the transformation. Maria loves the clean, fresh look of white (a girl after my own heart!), but her husband wasn’t keen on the idea (he said white reminds him of hospitals), so he suggested staining the tabletop. It all came together beautifully, don’t you think? Read more »

Inspired by Jill Rosenwald's gorgeous lamps found at mainecottage.com

My friend Julie Chai (watch her videos here) at Sunset magazine gave me this lamp base as a project. Southwest isn’t my style, plus it had rusty hardware and a tattered, taped cord. I adore Jill Rosenwald’s lamps from Maine Cottage, but they’re out of my price range. So I decided to rewire and paint this table lamp instead. I got a bit carried away with all the flowers (in eight different shades of green/blue), but it was so darn fun! All the supplies I had on hand, which would make the lamp practically free—except I got soaked on the $50 lampshade. It still beats $425, though. In the end, my favorite part was the super inexpensive DIY round finial. Read more »

My sister Christy came up with this super easy idea—and I love it. Even better: I had all the supplies on hand. No, I don’t drink wine, but I have plenty of friends who do. They saved their corks for a big project I have planned. I could spare a few for this trivet. You can make these any size or shape you want. They’d also be great as coasters. Read more »