Here is an inexpensive way to display your favorite jewelry… And it is sooo easy to to do!

 

You will need: a cutting board, hard bound books, an exacto knife, glue, a ruler, some decorative accents, dress maker pins… I found some great hard bound novels at a discount book store for a $1 each!!!

 

 

Next you will need to glue the book together. First, glue around the edges of random pages, DON’T OVER THINK IT! Once that is finished, glue the outside of the book together.

 

 

You will want to weight down the pages so everything adheres nice and smoothly. Let it dry over night.

 

 

Using your ruler lightly trace out the opening. Now you can start cutting, nice and slowly!!! Be sure to hold your exacto knife perpendicular to your book so the edges to the opening are nice and straight!

 

 

Now that you have created the opening, the world is your oyster! I used bent pins to hold earrings. You can add a decorative backdrop with paper, glitter or leave it plain! Every book is different so let the beauty of the pages inside you!

 

 

Now you are ready to set up your unique jewelry shop!

 

easter eggs 101…

 Craftgwaker has some absolutely killer examples of really far-out and different ideas to decorate eggs. It never ceases to amaze me how many crafty folks there are out there! I have compiled a few of my favorites below. Click on the image which will link you to the blog… Please send us your examples!!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

thank you & credit to: Oleander and Palm, Sew and the City, Fab Housewife, Jany Claire & radmegan

Looking for an inexpensive way to cover your dreary situation and impress your friends? Add a little texture to your life with burlap! It’s as easy as 1, 2, 3… Just follow these quick hints and viola, your space has been transformed!

Ask your local coffee shop or garden center for any excess burlap bags. Cut them down to size and start your staple gun. An electric stapler is the way to go…

Cutting the bags into interesting shapes will make the wall really stand out. Start at the bottom corner of the wall and work your way out. Don’t stop until you reach an “architectural landmark” (i.e. a column or window…)

Put your furniture back into place, hang a few pieces of art and presto you are finished. Family and friends will ooh and ahh over your creativity!

Somewhere between an earthquake and a hurricane, we hit a benchmark of 2000 Facebook fans! The four long days we sat in electrically-challenged darkness following Hurricane Irene gave us some time to think about how we can celebrate big time (it also gave us time to create some fabulous Christmas displays but that’s another blog). As a result, we won’t just celebrate for a few hours or a day. No no no. We’re going All. Week. Long!

So beginning on Tuesday, September 6th and ending Saturday, September 10th we’ll be in par-tay mode! And when we party, you win. Here’s how it will all go down:

1) From Tuesday-Saturday (Sept. 6th-10th) you can come in once per day and receive 25% off any item of your choice (excludes sale and custom items). But you must know the secret code to get the discount so say “congratulations for hitting 2000 fans” at checkout or the discount won’t appear. Remember, this is for Facebook only fans and you gotta know the secret handshake.

2) Beginning Tuesday morning at 10am and ending Saturday evening at 5pm, we’ll be drawing a name every hour on the hour to receive a free product from A. Dodson’s. Simply drop your name and number in the basket when you arrive and cross your fingers. Be sure to write your phone number with your name and if you’re not present, we’ll call you!

3) We’re staying open late on Friday and a few of our fellow North Suffolk friends will join us for Happy Hour from 4pm-7pm. Bon VIvant will be serving up a wine tasting and what pairs better with wine than Odoodledoo’s Donut’s? Wine, donuts, door prizes and a sale! You just can’t go wrong here on Friday.

4) There will also be some surprise appearances from our good friends The Royal Chocolate, Smithfield Gardens and Connie’s Kids Children’s Clothing.

So buckle up kids! We’re about to have some fun…

Being on the east coast of the fine Commonwealth of Virginia has its perks. Among them is an almost undeniable right to enjoy this coastal cocktail while sitting surfside, boatside or lakeside. Shake one up and toast the coast with us!

The Coastal Margarita

2 tablespoons tequila

2 tablespoons orange liquer

2 tablespoons fresh Key lime juice

1 teaspoon agave nectar

1. Pour salt in shallow dish. Rub rim of a chilled margarita glass with a lime wedge and dip rim of glass in salt, if desired.
2. Fill cocktail shaker half full with ice. Add tequila and next 3 ingredients. Cover with lid and shake. Strain into prepared glass.

 

* recipe courtesy of Coastal Living

These are the signs you are somehow associated with A. Dodson’s:

1) You drive through a neighborhood on trash night with your head on a swivel.

2) You know a junk man.

3) And he’s your personal shopper.

4) You respond to ‘flea market’ just like ‘Nordstorm’s Half-Yearly Sale.’

5) A friend says “I’m getting rid of my” and before hearing what it is you holler “I’LL TAKE IT!”

Hang around A. Dodson’s long enough and you’ll learn there is always a way to be more creative, to be more frugal and to combine them to be more fabulous. Just because you CAN afford to buy a new distressed table for a fortune doesn’t mean you should. Besides, the story behind a yard sale coffee table you got for a steal is worth so much more than those catalog prices (not to mention the hefty delivery fees).

Take, for example, the small cottage on Alison’s farm. Space is a premium so when planning the bathroom and closet in the master bedroom, she decided to salvage some old barn doors and use real barn track to make them sliders. When restoring the doors, she used antique mirror purchased from Churchland Glass. In addition to restoring the doors, it helped add space to the room.

 

Tip: Antique mirror is a great way to renovate an old kitchen. Rather than installing new cabinets, just replace the doors with mirror inserts and viola!

We call our style Rustic Chic. It’s something we embraced long before it became cool – again. All you have to do is watch the stock market to follow the frugal decor trend and also, as it turns out, cocktails. At a dinner part this week I learned Sangria is making a comeback with a nod to its heyday in the 1970s thanks to the good ole economic collapse.  Everyone’s trying to do more with less. Call it environmentalism. Call it economic instability. Call it what you will. We’ll just always call it Rustic Chic.

And could someone pass the Sangria?