How cute is this custom embellished clip board I made?? Close -up anyone?
I just love this. So I must confess that I have added another addiction to my life. I have become a craft junky and I blame it all on Pinterest! Seriously how many times do you look at something and say “I can do that!” Well then Pinterest is the perfect site for you! I am the type of person as you know that doesn’t just like the normal. I like for things to have their own diva spin on them. This is why after seeing so many easy tutorials I have turned my porch into craft-mania. Check out these all natural homemade sugar scrubs I made!
Yep, I did that! The ribbon, the lids, the scrub, and the labels! Wanna see more? I also made these super cute lace earrings!
Cute huh? You will have to excuse my skin at the moment! LOL. I need to hook up my Clarasonic and go to work. So my fiance being the one that always pushes me to take my passions and do something with them he suggested I sell some of this stuff. I did some research and checked out some similar handmade items they had on Etsy and I thought what have I got to lose? So here’s my Etsy page. Be gentle…I’m still learning 🙂 I’m working on a bunch more stuff tonight so there’s more where that came from! Oh! I almost forgot to give you a Cheap Diva Tip! A lot of the sites tell you to get crafting materials from places like Hobby Lobby or Micheals. They do have an easily accessible selection but their prices can be a little high. Epsecially if you are a beginner like me. To be honest I’ve found most of the supplies I need at Walmart and the Dollar Store! For example that fine stationary paper that I used on the clipboard is 97 cents a page at Hobby Lobby. I got a pack of 50 for $1.00!! I love the dollar store! The stamp that I used for the custom paper was $1.00 at a local thrift store.
A stamp like that would usually cost you about $4.00 bucks! Thrift stores are also great for finding old frames or glasses that you want to refurbish. I am working on an antique earring holder out of an old frame as we speak! Happy crafting!
I have been quite the little Ebay junky lately but with the steals I’ve been getting why not! I wanted a pair of good quality grey skinny jeans and as usual I didn’t want to spend a fortune. For regular jeans that I will wear all the time I have spent upwards of $150 bucks but for a grey pair that I will only wear every so often I wanted to be a cheapskate! I won these super cute skinny jeans on Ebay for $12.99 plus 2.99 shipping! They are PrivacyWear and usually retail for $88.00.
The wings on the booty make them funky but I love that the front are classic. The neutral grey makes me feel feel like I can wear them with everything.
How awesome is it that they donate 10% of their proceeds to breast Cancer research! Double Score!
I must give Jessica Simpson a big round of applause for officially making me a Memphian with my new blue suede shoes! I have been wanting a pair for a while and last week I saw these in TJmaxx. There was instantaneous amounts of drooling. . The only set back was they were priced at $39.99 which for me is a little much even if they are worth the money.
Also I have been a little Ebay addicted lately so with a heavy heart I walked away from them. But I always have a rule about shopping. If they are reasonably marked down from the retail price and I can’t get them out of my head for at least a week….then they need to be mine. When I went back the display table that they had them on was gone. Uh-oh! Luckily for me I found the last pair they had in my size hidden among the clearance shoes. Thats a good rule of thumb ladies! If you really want something then scour the racks for it. You never know what other diva has hidden them in case she has seconds thoughts and wants to come back. I must confess I’ve done this myself 🙂
How cute is this little calendar that my mother-in-law-to-be gave me for Christmas? It makes me happy to be able to look at a pretty new shoe everyday. But to be honest shoes are not what’s on my mind right now. Strange I know! It’s been a while since I’ve posted a “R!ley Random” and I have had a few things on my brain lately that I wanted to blog out. I know that 2012 is only 20 days in but already it feels like the start to a bumpy year. Well maybe I shouldn’t be that dramatic but I have had a few crappy weeks. It’s funny that even though Cheap Diva is my little space to just be me, as I’m typing this I’m criticizing myself in my head for whining. Everyone is entitled to their days though right? I really don’t want to go into detail about some of the crud that has happened but my patience has definitely been tested. I remember writing a blog about turning 30 and being in such a settled and happy place. Its not that I’m not happy with life per say….its just that I feel like I’ve back tracked on some personal progress. Kind of like when you dust all of the skeletons out of your closet only to find another bag of bones hiding in the corner. Little bit of a bummer. I know its sounds like I’m writing in sanscript right now but maybe this is my roundabout way of getting some do-do off my chest without sounding too emo. All in all I’m hoping that I can keep my chin up and focus on the good stuff that 2012 has to offer. After all….its my WEDDING YEAR! I’m smiling even bigger already 🙂
Can you tell how elated I was to be getting a new mattress? Its a Stern’s a nd Foster Fiona from their Estate Collection. Sounds all fancy schmancy doesn’t it? Haha!t It must have been fate that it has Fleur De Lis embroidered into it.
The fiance is quite fond of it too! 🙂
Our old mattress was basically a pile of foam with stone rocks embedded into it. Well at least that’s what it felt like when we would wake up in the morning. So when we decided to purchase a new one the fiance insisted on having a Stern’s and Foster because he’s had one before and loved it. Until now I had never had a REALLY good mattress and he made the point that its at least a ten year investment. Plus I have Fibromyalgia so I decided to trust his opinion. That is until I saw how much these suckers costed. Even on clearance they are something like $2500!! Woa. Time for some Cheap Diva action. We went to a liquidation type place similar to the one were we got our couch for super cheap and we found the perfect one. With the mattress, box spring and delivery it was only around $1300! At this particular place the mattresses have been bought but only kept for a minumun amount of days and sent back. I know your thinking what I was thinking. Ick right? But the sales guy explained to us that they put the mattresses in a “mattress oven” to disinfect them and then put them through a rigorous inspection. Plus we got the same opportunity to bring it back if we didn’t like it.
Never being the sheepish enough to just take people’s word for the quality of something I examined the mattress myself once we got it home. By that I mean I first looked it over… and then I slept on it. Well let me tell you, not only did it look brand new but I had one of the best nights sleep that I’d had in YEARS! Yay for sleeping cheap!
This was a plain old dollar store candle holder that was in my bedroom that I have been itching to revamp. The problem was I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do with it. Pinterest and I have become best friends so I checked there and found this tutorial on lace candle holders. It seemed pretty simple so I decided to give it a shot. I went to Michaels and bought this pretty lace on sale for $1.30 per yard.
The holder was too short for all of the lace to fit so I cute the top part off.
If you going to try this make sure you use fabric scissors or the lace will fray. To glue the lace onto the glass I took out my trusty glue gun.
If your into crafting this thing is a must! Lay the candle on its side and line it up with the lace. You can dab small dots of glue on the glass or do a thin line. I found that the thin line worked better for me because it made the lace stay flat.
I was ok with the finished result but I wanted to take it a step further. Plus I wanted to use the ribbon trim that I had cut off the lace. I had a simple white candle in the cabinet that I was saving for when my others ran out, but it had a big sticker on the front that wasn’t peeling off cleanly. There is a simple solution to this. Get a scrub sponge, some soap and run the sticker under warm water. This will work away the sticker and all the glue so you will have a clean surface.
After I did that I put the lace onto the candle the same as before. I decided to wrap the left over ribbon trim around the top of the candle.
It looked cute but I wanted to do something to cover up that seam so I used some of the cut lace to make a little bow.
Then I topped it off with some self adhesive jewels that I got in the scrapbooking section at Walmart for 98 cents. The end result was pretty cute!
They look so romantic when you light them!
Oh! Here’s a little tip about the rhinestones….
These were a cheap little find because the pack of the individual non adhesive ones they sell at Micheals are $4.00 for a pack of five. I used the cupcake one for a gift for my friend’s birthday.
She loved it because she a baker 🙂 I think I’ll be doing more of these.
You will have to excuse my messy unmade bed but I took this picture while I was running late. I bought this a week ago and forgot to post it. So I was shifting through the dresses at Ross and found this one buried among the clearance stuff. It wasn’t on clearance but that didn’t matter because it was cheap enough.
Ten bucks is worth a trip to the dressing room. I was pleasantly surprised when I tried it on because this cut usually makes me look like a mushroom. But it actually fit really cute! When I walked out of the dressing room another chick was like “Omg what pretty lace!” RRRRaaaaaaawr! Back off beeeotch! Its mine!!! I kid, I kid. Its no wonder she was drooling over it though. The lace detail in the sleeve is really nice…
I love the detail on the bottom of the skirt too!
Its surprising to me that with my love of vintage things that I have no lace in my wardrobe. Or do I? LOL I would have to shift through some drawers to be definite about that one. 🙂
I am so in love with this little nook in my foyer. I have been wanting to put some sort of stand there that had storage because we are always cluttering our kitchen counter with random mail and keys. I was really surprised at how much such a little piece of furniture like this can cost. All of the ones that I liked were costing $70.00-$150.00. Its like I always say though, Ill spend money are the things that are worth it. I was about to buy one that was $79.99 until I found this adorable one at Ross for half that price.
I actually like this one better than the one that I originally picked because it has an antique rustic feel to it. Anything antique inspired makes my heart go pitter-pat. It also didn’t hurt that it was only $39.99
I also wanted to get a cute letter holder and they didnt have any I liked at Ross (SHOCK) so I went over to TjMaxx. I am also obsessed with Fleur De Lis so when I found this one I had to have it.
It was $8.00 bucks which for me was a little high. I know I’m such a cheap ass but this is where the Dollar Store Diva comes into play. I hate spending a lot of money on little do-dads and I think that people who go to the grocery store and spend $5.00 on gift bags are nuts! I took a chance on going to Michaels to look for a vase and some fake flowers but the ones I liked were $4.99 for one.
Pfffft! That’s what I get for straying away from my regular hot spots. I went to the Dollar Store and found these….
I actually like these better and it was only $3.00 for three bushels ! Then I spotted this vase.
You can’t really tell from the picture but at the bottom of the vase the color fades to a pale rose sort of a color and has etched designs in the glass. I’ll take that for a buck! While I was there I figured I would wander around to see what other treasures I could find. I got this cute little bird just to add a sweet touch to the decor.
Its such an inviting little space to come home to every night. It makes me smile to know that I spend less that $60.00 for the whole thing! Yay me!
Which one of these is not like the other? Haha! So for Christmas my wonderful friend Nichole gifted me these Chanel makeup brushes. I’m such a lucky girl! But just for the record there are two things I will spend serious money on without gilt. Cosmetics and hair products. They are the two things I find to be worth it. I truly don’t know how I ever survived without these makeup brushes. The foundation brush is especially amazing. So very worth the money as I will most likely keep them forever and would gladly buy them again. Anyhoo… being that they are so pretty I felt it shameful to shut them away in a makeup kit so I came up with a cute way to display them. Here’s what I came up with after a trip to the dollar store….
A cute glass case vase and a bag of decorative glass gems will do nicely for a whopping $2.00 bucks. Then I added a little Chanel ribbon I had from a previous present (but you can use any kind in any color).
The outcome is so simple but so pretty!
A little creativity and a couple of bucks goes a long way 🙂
I know what your thinking. This is just a basic suede slingback pump. What’s all the fuss about? Well its funny that a shoe freak like me doesn’t really own a really nice pair of basic black heels. I have a million nude ones, but not really any basic black. So when I spotted these I tried them on and actually fell in love with how well made and comfortable they are.
When I checked out the price tag and was kind of taken back….
$10.99??? I will spend that on Red Bull in a day so I figured these needed to join my collection. Since the sole of the shoe seemed to well made I was curious as to who makes them and why they were so cheap. I almost had a stroke when I peeled back the clearance label.
It said compare at $149.00!! I was now hungry to find out who made these but I didn’t want to take the label off just in case they wouldn’t sell them to me without it. When I got home I ripped it off and giggled in delight to find out that they were DOLCE VITA!!!
How cute is this custom embellished clip board I made?? Close -up anyone?
Cute huh? You will have to excuse my skin at the moment! LOL. I need to hook up my Clarasonic and go to work. So my fiance being the one that always pushes me to take my passions and do something with them he suggested I sell some of this stuff. I did some research and checked out some similar handmade items they had on Etsy and I thought what have I got to lose? So here’s my Etsy page. Be gentle…I’m still learning 🙂 I’m working on a bunch more stuff tonight so there’s more where that came from! Oh! I almost forgot to give you a Cheap Diva Tip! A lot of the sites tell you to get crafting materials from places like Hobby Lobby or Micheals. They do have an easily accessible selection but their prices can be a little high. Epsecially if you are a beginner like me. To be honest I’ve found most of the supplies I need at Walmart and the Dollar Store! For example that fine stationary paper that I used on the clipboard is 97 cents a page at Hobby Lobby. I got a pack of 50 for $1.00!! I love the dollar store! The stamp that I used for the custom paper was $1.00 at a local thrift store.
