I have been trying, on a very tight budget, to decorate our house, so here are a couple of things I’ve done with Emily’s room which have cost me well under $50 (total), and have added some sparkle to her plain-Jane room (which is not as pink as it looks in these pictures).

First, I bought an unpainted shelf, painted it white, trimmed it with magenta paint, hot glued some beaded trim along the bottom, and hung some butterflies and dragonflies on the hooks. The dragonflies and butterflies need longer ribbon, but I haven’t had a chance to get any yet. Total cost: $22. Buy something like that at Pottery Barn, and it’ll cost you at least twice that. Then you can put a few knick-knacks on it, and voila, a decent looking wall, for cheap. Another thing that’s really inexpensive, and looks good is to put up garland around the closet. It only takes about 3 strands, at 5 bucks a pop. The thing I like about both these projects, is they’re pretty much idiot proof. I’m fairly crafty, but I’m also fairly half-assed, so these are fail-safe projects, believe me. I don’t attempt a project unless mistakes will make it look better. I started this ribbon topiary this morning. It’s a styrofoam ball, hot-glued on a dowel, which is hot-glued in a pot I painted white. Use several different styles of ribbon (you can usually find ribbon in the dollar bin at hobby/fabric shops, sometimes cheaper than a dollar) and cut them into 3-4 inch strips. Hot glue them in loops on the ball. As you can see, it’s not finished, and I need to redo the bottom so it’s not ugly, but it’s another idea for a cute, inexpensive project that you really can’t mess up. (In fact I ran out of two kinds of ribbon this morning, but by the time I’m through, you won’t be able to tell, and the whole thing costs about 10 bucks.)