Plate Chargers go bathroom

I picked up some plate chargers (decorative plates usually placed under regular plates to pretty them up a bit) at Wal-Mart the day after Christmas. I got a set of 4 for $2.50. They are nothing fancy, just plastic but the creative possibilities are endless!

I chose to use them in our master bathroom as a wash rag holder and a bath-additions holder (that's the empty one right now, I gotta get some bubble bath and stuff!) .

I had originally planned to use them as a candle holder for candles of various sizes, but then I found the floating flower candle you see in the picture and the glass bowl- all at Hobby Lobby for 50% off and went that direction instead. I plan to put some decorative rock in the bottom of the glass bowl to match the gray/silver of the plates.


Do you have any creative ideas for chargers?

Lines-N-Things is back... sort of

I don't know if you guys had a Linens-N-Things where you are, but we used to. (For those who don't know, they were a similiar store to Bed, Bath, & Beyond.) I even shopped for last-minute deals when they were going out of business.

So, just for fun, I went online today (http://www.linensnthings.com) to see if their website was still active. And it appears that they are now an online-only company that sells home goods. I was pretty excited to find a new spot to shop for deals. Except I noticed something.

Linens-N-Things:
Kohls:

Now, granted, the bed is different... but you can see the similarities, right?

Let's try it again:

Linens-N-Things:

Kohls:

I mean, on that one there's not even a different bed!

Linens-N-Things also seems to have similiar pricing to Kohls (including seemingly inflated 'compare to' prices). In a couple cases, L-N-T had more options available (i.e. comforter sets AND duvet sets in the same style) but other than that, (and their odd return policy- you have to get a return number before you can return it) not too impressed.

I will say I want this orange decorative pillow though:

... and the white branchy one next to it. Now I just need to find them in the $10.00 range!

Budget Friendly Wall Decor

How much would you pay for the above 'art'? $20? $30?
If you buy it at Bed, Bath, and Beyond, it's going to cost you $215.00. For four 14.5"x19" prints. In frames. And hopefully the frames are made of gold b/c only then would that outrageous price tag make sense to me.

I'm taking a more budget-friendly approach to wall decor.

A book I bought suggested buying books solely for the pictures and using them for art. But I just couldn't bring myself to plop down $30.00 (and higher!) for a book with decent pictures only to tear it up. (And a lot of the great pictures were spread across two pages, which just wouldn't work) Then I was shopping at Borders one day around this time last year and they had all their calendars on sale for $.99-$1.99. And then the light bulb went off.

Have you ever bought a calendar because the pictures were pretty? For me, it would be a calendar like this:

I love scenic calendars.

But there are calendars for EVERY taste out there. Farm life, black and white, sports figures, arts, etc. And they come in varying sizes- big, small, medium, extra big. AND a lot of them have great photos in them. Photos that can be easily framed and used as art.

Last year, I bought 4 calendars. One of Greece (beautiful!), one of bridges (breathtaking!), one of black and white captures (so neat!) and one of Italy (gorgeous!). They each cost me less than $2.00 a calendar and each contains at least 12 photos (a couple have 16 photos).

My plan is to pick some of my favorite photos and frame them myself. I'll post pictures when I'm done, but I wanted to give others the idea so that you can maybe catch the Clearance Calendars that are on sale right now.

A few things to remember:
1.) Look for calendars that have the 'calendar' and the 'photo' separated. (i.e. calendars that are folded with the photo in the top half and calendar portions in the bottom half)
2.) Get calendars of varied size so that your pictures are varied sizes and allow some creativity.

What is your favorite thing to see on your walls?