Creative Juices Decor

Dreaming of creating a cozy outdoor living space? Covered porches with fireplaces are one of the most inviting ways to extend your living area and enjoy the outdoors throughout the year. Whether you love rustic mountain lodge style, French country charm, or classic stone fireplaces, these inspiring outdoor rooms are filled with ideas you can use in your own backyard. I've also included some of my favorite outdoor decorating finds to help you recreate the look.. Shop the Look: Covered Porch Essentials Outdoor string lights Patio lanterns Outdoor throw pillows Weather-resistant outdoor rugs Outdoor blankets First, I LOVE this porch with the build in fireplace.  I wrote a whole article about decorating with lanterns and what the best classic accessories are to use in your home. homebunch

Hi Friends! So, I been thinking about new home construction and how the times have changed in the past 10 years.  One thing that seems like a MUST HAVE in a home now-a-days is a computer niche.  We almost didn't build one in our home that we built 4 years ago but I realized if the computer (or laptop) didn't have a specific space it was going to be left out on the counter or dining table forever!  I'm one of those people who REALLY want to have a specific space for everything so I am very happy we found a little "hole in the wall" area and that is where I put my computer. Let's look around blog land to see where others have carved out space to fit their computer areas!  Utilizing under stair space is a perfect way to either add storage or gain a computer station. Obviously, these people had the space to plan a large built in area for their computer.  I love the soft green cabinets. Source This nice white built in has pock...

Hey Friends! Does anyone else have the DIY blogger epidemic where you can no longer throw ANYTHING away just incase there is this AMAZING idea that pops into your head on how to salvage the odd piece of junk you really should have thrown away?  :-) UGGH, this happens to me all the time.  It's not good for the cleanliness of our garage.  So, when I had the glass crack on my picture frame and "should have" thrown it away, the idea came to me that I should make it into a window cornice! (How do these strange ideas come to me LOL) NEW window cornice from OLD useless art frame! All I did was throw out the broken glass, Used the cardboard that it came with and wrapped that in bubble wrap. (It’s just what was handy, as that was the material it had been wrapped up in for the move.) Next I took a pillow sham I bought at the thrift store and wrapped that around the bubble wrapped cardboard. I just taped the fabric to stay together. (if the fabr...

Some of you are probably thinking HOW can she say yummy and cabbage in the same sentence? Well, these my friends are SO GOOD! Pressure or Slow Cooker Meat Cabbage Rolls! Not only are they very tasty, they look all fancy too (and they were easy!!) I have a very sweet friend that I helped virtually decorate her mountain cabin (which I would love to show you guys sometime!!) but as a gift for doing that, she sent me an Instant Pot  pressure cooker.  Click on the image and check out the reviews!!! WOW, I haven't ever experienced cooking with a pressure cooker before and let me tell you, somewhat life changing! You can cook FROZEN chicken breasts (or entire chickens) to juicy perfection in 15 minutes! Things that I would have to cook in the slow cooker for HOURS is done in under 30. So, these cute little things took 18 minutes in the pressure cooker, but you could also use your slow cooker on low for 9 hours or high for 5 hours. (see how ...

Hey Friends! I'll fess up that every time I find a Scrabble game at a yard sale or thrift store I grab it.  You will see WHY I do that in the pictures below but I now have to set aside the time to actually make something with it!  Maybe if I start now, I will have some really fun gifts ready for next Christmas ;-) Tonya’s blog gave an amazing and quite easy step by step tutorial on how to make these scrabble piece pendant necklaces .  Really, you just glue on some scrapbook paper and use diamond glaze on top to seal it.  She has all the links where to purchase the stuff to make it yourself. I think it’s a GREAT gift idea and would be a great craft to do with a bunch of woman. What about making a Scrabble Coaster??  This could be a good gift even for the GUY in the family. (Father's Day gift?!)   My father in law LOVES the game of scrabble.  Kendra from Simply Darling made these fantastic "beer themed" coasters . ...

Hey Friends! I've been making my own vanilla extract for a few years. I guess it's time to show you guys - hee,hee. In general, the pure vanilla extract you get in the stores is vanilla beans/pods soaked in alcohol.  I make mine sugar free by soaking them in vegetable glycerin. Before you get all weird on me and think I've gone off my rocker, vegetable glycerin is super sweet - it's like a syrup!   Yummy! The vanilla beans cost me $12.00 for 10 beans.  I put 5 beans in each 8 ounce jar. The glycerin cost me $6.00 for 16 ounces. (Picture shows cut open pods with the beans on the side.) So,  it cost me $9.00 for an 8 ounce jar of great quality SUGARFREE homemade vanilla extract. (I made 2 jars)  To buy organic (alcohol) pure vanilla online the same size is around $15.00 each. OK, so there isn't a HUGE difference but it's pretty cool to make your own and we really like being pretty cool.  (ha!  I am so not cool, just see all my ...

Hey Friends, Today I have Sam as a guest writer giving all kinds of ideas on what we could do with old jars! Enjoy :-) Repurposing Mason Jars as Home Décor I am one of those people who believe in reducing, repurposing, reusing and recycling. And I believe this can be done with well, everything really! Every time you do grocery shopping, you end up with at least one new glass jar or bottle. And most of the time you just throw them away, but there is SOO much more that you could be doing with them! So I’m sharing a few of my favourite mason jar repurposing projects. They’re all easy to do, and most of them don’t even require additional purchases. But if there’s anything you will need to buy after all, head on over to Discountrue.com to get discount coupons for all your favourite stores including such popular choices as Kohl’s or Target! The Candle Jar Lantern HeartLoveAlways One of the simplest things to do with a mason jar is to turn it into a candle jar ...

Hey Friends! Are you ready for some Valentine baking fun!? These stain glass cookies I made are a LOT of fun!  If you get a bag of suckers or Jolly Ranchers you can make the "glass" part look like a work of art. :-)  Kids LOVE making these! Click on the Candy "Stained Glass" Valentine Cookie link to see full recipe. We call the next set of cookies "Pink Cookies" at our house.  They are a delicious and somewhat chewy (if you don't overcook them!) meringue cookies.  They are made with egg whites so they just happen to be fat free.  (Full of sugar, but fat free - ha!) You will NOT be disappointed!  Promise :-) I have it on my "To Do" list to make these type of mini (or regular size) candy cane hearts.  I bought lots of extra boxes at the end of December when they were 75% off.   It's PERFECT for Valentine's Day! Peppermint Bark Hearts I love the idea of putting them on a stick and...

 Hey Friends! This month is the 4 year anniversary of moving into our new home and our 18th anniversary of our marriage.  Yay :-) We've had 6 homes in those years, 2 of them we got to build completely from scratch and 1 partially from scratch. I've learned quite a few things about building a home.  Of course if I put everything I learned on one post it would become a novel, so today, I thought I would just cover a few little items that we did that I have REALLY ENJOYED. (-: My hope is that you can save this post as reference if you ever have a chance to build your own home. :-) First Fun Plan Ahead Item: We added electrical sockets to the eaves of our roof rafters.  This was quite simple to do, we just had to plan ahead.  It makes Christmas lights a lot cleaner and simpler. We also added a socket right next to the pergola for string lights .  This has been AWESOME!!!!!! It looks so clean. Adding string lights to my backyard has bee...