In my little world of frugal living, it is all about using what we have instead of buying new. Of course, this can backfire, as in The Paper Conspiracy. But once it a while a little bit of inspiration makes it all come together.
As you may know from reading earlier blogs, we are working on fixing up my daughter’s room in a princess theme. It has been slow going, since other things around the house keep breaking, taking our attention away from our little girl’s room. But we are almost there. The walls are repaired and painted, at least. Still, it needs to be decorated and furnished.
Yesterday, while attacking a box of clutter in the office, I cam across a couple of invitations to an event at the new children’s garden, located inside a local estate and botanical garden. The invitations were printed on heavy card stock and featured whimsical, fantastical characters, such as a sleeping dragon, a jumping frog and a colorful peacock. These are just to sort of character that might inhabit a princess’s menagerie.
As I was headed over to the recycling box that we keep in the kitchen, I changed directions and headed for the kitchen counter instead. There I carefully cut out each character from its lavender background. Then I grabbed the scotch tape and headed upstairs.
I rolled the tape to make it sticky on both sides and attached it to the cut out pieces. The tail of the dragon and the feet of the peacock were especially tiny and required some care with the tape.
I then taped the characters to the wall in my daughter’s room, around the light switch. The sleeping dragon is resting below the switch, the peacock is prancing above it, and the from is poised, reaching out in mid jump as if to turn the switch on or off. When I was done (in all of five minutes from start to finish), I sent my daughter up to take a look, and she was delighted. Not only did the characters brighten up the room and add some whimsy to it, but they reminded her of one of her favorite places to visit and play. I figured I saved several dollars by not buying adhesive wall decorations.
What could you do with some junk mail today?
(Image copyright Longwood Gardens)
Mary Ann Romans writes about everything related to saving money in the Frugal Blog, technology in the Computing Blog, and creating a home in the Home Blog. You can read more of her articles by clicking here.
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