by Carrie on April 23, 2010
- Money Saving Ideas to Spruce Up Walls I love finding stuff for my walls that’s a little non-traditional. I’ve shown you how I’ve framed postcards and vintage calendar pages. In other rooms of my house, I have framed concert posters, embroidery by my great aunt, paintings by my grandmother, handmade greeting cards, and prints of photographs from iStockphoto.com.
- Use Your Wii to Stream Netflix to Your TV My parents don’t have a Wii but I got my mom to order the disk any way so that I can use it and it’s pretty awesome. Doesn’t cost anything extra and I can stream instantly from a pretty wide selection of media. My only complaint is that my 30 year old microwave interrupts my wireless network so I can’t stream a movie and make popcorn at the same time though.
- Volcano Raises Asparagus Demand in UK That volcano in Iceland has forced the UK into eating local if they want fresh produce. Asparagus is one of my favorite veggies so I wouldn’t be complaining.
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by Carrie on January 5, 2010
The china cabinet I got from my grandparents has been in my dining room for several months now. It’s very tall and narrow so I’d been thinking it needed some art on each side to help balance out the room.
I already had these prints, Audobon lithographs from a 1930s Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company calendar that my great grandmother had saved, and decided they’d be perfect to move to the dining room. Previously, they were on top of each other so that you could only see one of the prints and in a poorly made plywood frame so it was time to reframe them.
Aaron Brothers currently has their Penny Sale going on where if you buy one frame you can get another for one penny and since I was in need of two frames this seemed like the perfect time to pick them up. Normally these 18×24 inch frames would be almost $30 each but I was able to get a pair for the price of one.
The prints are not a standard size so they needed to be custom matted to look nice in standard size frames. I’ve paid for things to be framed at Aaron Brothers in the past and they do a fabulous job but it’s quite pricey, would’ve been at least $100 per piece. So this time around I decided to give mat cutting a shot myself. My parents had matted some things many years ago and my mom was even still able to find her mat cutting tool (it’s a hunk of metal that holds a blade at a 45 degree angle so the mat has a nice edge up against the picture) so I didn’t need to buy one myself. One piece of mat board was enough for both frames and cost $11. I’m very proud of how well the mats came out after I only had a bit of practice on the scraps, the edges are a little wiggly but I don’t think anyone will ever be checking that closely.
Total cost of the project was about $40 (or $20 per print). If I didn’t already have the prints to put in the frames, I could have found the exact same ones on eBay for about $10 each.
I think having the prints framed and up on the wall really balance out the room and make it look finished. Now if only the rest of my house looked half as good.
by Carrie on January 1, 2010
by Carrie on January 1, 2010
- Switch to buying all organic meat, dairy, and produce (except for the clean fifteen).
- Switch from regular white flour to white whole wheat (taking one step in the whole wheat direction at a time).
- Come in under budget each and every month in 2010. Utilize extra roll over cash from prior months to pay larger purchases.
- Add one new piece of quality furniture that will last a lifetime to my home (I’m thinking a pair of nightstands – yeah that counts as one piece – or a big comfy chair to create a perfect reading nook).
- Don’t let cardboard boxes pile up in the garage. Cut them down and put them out with the recycling on a weekly basis.
- Take a nice relaxing and fun vacation with my best friend after she graduates law school and passes the bar and I am cancer free (hopefully both of those will happen this summer).
by Carrie on December 25, 2009
I hope you had a lovely Christmas day like I did.
Several years ago now, I picked up this cute 3 foot tall lime green tinsel tree for $5 from Urban Outfitters in their after Christmas online sale. Keep your eyes peeled for awesome decorations at great prices in the days to come. (And don’t forget to click through eBates if you’re shopping at Urban Outfitters.) This year I spent $20 on new tiny glass ornaments from Michael’s (partly because they were cute and partly because I have no idea where the tiny red glass balls I’ve used in years past went).
If you’re inquiring mind would like to see what I got for Christmas this year, you can check that out here.
And if you’d like to add to my holiday cheer, I’d love to have you subscribe via RSS or email, follow me on Twitter, or become a fan of It’s Frugal Being Green on Facebook. If you’ve already done one or more of those things, consider spreading the word about It’s Frugal Being Green to a few friends.
