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Author Archive
Spring Decorating on a Budget
April 14, 2011 | 
Author Ahh Spring!! Now if someone would remind mother nature to warm up the temperatures just a little bit. But as the Spring temperatures flip flop, there’s no better time than now to craft a few budget-friendly Spring projects to transform your living areas and bring Spring inside. You’ll be surprised what you can accomplish!
To get you started, check out the myriad of resources available with internet access, there are numerous crafting blogs, craft sites, and supplier resources are at your fingertips, “let your fingers do the walking!”
Also check your local craft store clearance sections, flea markets, or thrift shops for cute prints that you can use to craft pillows, placemats, or wall art that will transform your decor. How about the dollar store for patterned paper? Even printed wrapping paper or patterned stationary can be made into your “new favorite” budget-friendly wall art!
Look at things that you already have that can be reused in a whole new way. Free! Do you have children’s clothing that they’ve outgrown? You can reuse / repurpose those items into cute craft projects while you preserve the memories of your kids growing years.
Now onto ideas to craft any item into Spring fix-me-ups. Projects can be sewn by machine if you have access to one, stitched by hand if you know how, or made “no sew” with iron on transfer paper. Who doesn’t love that?
Budget friendly wall art that looks like a designer original? You can get it and do it yourself saving hundreds! Some foam and your favorite scrap booking paper is all you need.
http://www.favecrafts.com/Wall-Decor/Modern-Wall-Art
Or, try your hand at making your own patterned paper to frame and display…here’s how
http://www.preservedgardens.com/projects/marblepaper.htm
Freshing your home for Spring doesn’t have to cost alot of money, just get started and remember Summer’s just around the corner.
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Article by Cheryl Galowitch, Deserving Decor Volunteer
Posted in 
A Woman’s Place – Protection in the Storm of Domestic Violence
The ability to predict and protect oneself from violent behavior is ultimately through our own unique signals of intuition. This is the central theme of the author, Gavin de Becker, who is one of the nation’s leading experts on knowing the subtle signs of violent behavior in which he reveals reliable precursor indicators associated with spousal and dating domestic violence.
Intimate Enemies is one of his forthright chapters in his National Bestseller, The Gift of Fear in which he dispels the myth that weak or uneducated women are victims of domestic violence.
The national statistics are clear that one in four women, 25% of the female population, has experienced domestic violence in their lifetime. Women accounted for 85% of the victims of domestic violence by intimate partners according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics Crime Data Brief.
A Woman’s Place is the only domestic violence organization located in Bucks County, Pennsylvania that provides comprehensive free, private and confidential services. This dedicated organization provides support, education, outreach and advocacy to victims of abusive violence and their children in which they can only house approximately seven families for up to thirty days. They have consistently provided preventative educational programs with confidentiality since founded in 1976. Recent data shows that they have serviced 4000 individuals out of a county population of 620,000.
Many women transition from A Woman’s Place to transitional shelter apartments that Deserving Décor is committed to creating an atmosphere of creative comfort for those individuals who have suffered the loss of their homes, family structures and sense of security. In the midst of battling the reality of incredible loss of family, financial difficulties and the shame or stigma associated with domestic violence, Deserving Décor strives to give these families a glimpse of hope and stability by creating an environment of belonging that each one of us aspire to attain in our own lives.
Our journey is never clear and without struggles……..How can we raise the bar of awareness on domestic violence within our own neighborhood and contribute to our sense of community?
The journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step – Lao Tzu
Credits Written by Cherie Watts, Deserving Decor Volunteer Image: africa / FreeDigitalPhotos.net
Armoire Makeovers and Updates – Do It Yourself
With the advent of the flat screen TV, armoires are easy to be found and repurposed. These armoires have been refashioned into a crafting station, a pantry, a bar, a garden shed, laundry room storage and more. Find an armoire and start your own fabulous makeover!
How to Turn Castoff Furniture into Attractive Furniture
Spring has sprung and it’s time for Deserving Decor to turn donated, dated furniture into attractive useful pieces of furniture to use in homeless shelters and avoid landfills.
Using paint, new hardware, fabric and elbow grease. One of our volunteers, Amy Manning, transformed this small chest from an ugly duckling to a beautiful swan.
Want to make your own swan? Visit flea markets, thrift and resale stores for diamonds in the rough and let your imagination run wild!
Before
Additional Makeover Ideas
http://www.bhg.com/decorating/makeovers/furniture-makeovers/
http://allwomenstalk.com/6-amazing-furniture-makeovers/
More Deserving Decor furniture transformations to come, keep watching for additional furniture makeovers.
Written by Beth Baker, Deserving Decor Founder
The Hidden Homeless – Middle Class Homelessness
Going through life and facing every day triumphs and dilemmas are something we all face on our pathway of life. Many of us attain our career goals through acquiring degrees or skills, starting new jobs, getting married and establish a growing family or taking a journey that is filled with hope and a vision of success.
The unexpected turn of events that disrupt our plan can encompass a whirlwind of events that halter our direction and joy of hopefulness. Sudden illnesses and the expenses that overtake our funds….the fall out of divorce….the necessity of leaving the shame and silence of a controlling, manipulative and rage filled partner in order to be safe…..losing your job and emptying all funds….paying for healthcare that will cover the cost of cancer care….
None of us are sure of our futures and each of us has the potential to fall upon difficult times. Depending upon our resources and family support, we all could be facing Hidden Homelessness.
Hidden Homelessness is in your community and the percentage of homelessness is no longer due to mental illness or an addictive personality….It is affecting college educated and middle class families. The economic downturn in recent years coupled with greater burdens of personal healthcare costs has caused a grave increase in family fallout and loss of homes.
The majorities of the individuals facing homelessness rely on family and friends, live in cheap hotels, rent rooms or live in their cars before ending up in a homeless shelter. The federal definition of “homeless” or “homeless individuals” include-
1. An individual who lacks a fixed, regular, and adequate nighttime residence; and
2. An individual who has a primary nighttime residence that is supervised publicly or privately operated shelter designed to provide temporary living accommodations (including transitional housing for the mentally ill, welfare hotels and congregate shelters)
What can you do to help? Everything!
“Individually, we are one drop. Together, we are an ocean.” – Ryunosuke Satoro
Written by Cherie Watts, Deserving Decor Volunteer
How to Create Inexpensive Headboards ~ DIY Ideas
Pillowsham Headboards – Flint Cottage Living Examiner.com
In addition to the pillow sham headboards, we will be using other donated items to create headboards. See our inspiration ideas from Better Homes & Gardens, Cheap and Chic Headboard Projects.
Cheap and Chic Headboard Projects
Written by Beth Baker, Deserving Decor Founder
Bucks County Housing Group Needs Bensalem Volunteers/Donations
The Bucks County Housing Group needs Apartment Partners for 19 of it’s 20 transitional homeless shelter apartments in Bensalem. Apartment partners “adopt” a shelter apartment and provide that extra “TLC” the apartment AND the family needs. AP’s provide necessary items for the apartment (bedding, dishes, etc) as well as support for the family (clothing, holiday help).
A typical AP group will assist two families a year. The Apartment Partner program is ideal for groups who want to participate on a regular basis, but face time constraints. Apartment Partners include service organizations, business groups, church groups and individuals. Please contact Karen at kmanzo@bchg.org or John at jkunes@bchg.org if you are interested in becoming an Apartment Partner.
Written by Beth Baker, Deserving Decor Founder
Repurpose/Reuse/Recycle – Furniture and Home Decor
See directions below on the marthastewart.com link.
The ‘it’ words of today! But what do they really mean? In today’s economy, with budgets more important than ever, repurpose/reuse/recycle can mean being able to ‘get something new’ for little to no money – and who doesn’t like that?
With a little paint, TLC, or new fabric, that chair sitting in the garage that you’ve been meaning to throw out can become the jewel of your living room or the perfect accent chair for your bedroom. The old, beat up table left to you by grandma could become the shabby chic dining table that you’ve had your eye on in that expensive mail order catalog. Or, thinking philanthropic, fixed up and donated to Deserving Décor, a 501(c)3 organization, for an even bigger deduction off next year’s tax return.
Why add to landfills?
There are many resources available online – blogs galore, through your neighborhood library, and on TV (HGTV and DIY), that showcase just how easy these types of projects can be. There are literally tons of photos and “how to’s” to get your creative juices flowing and get you motivated to think of what you have in new and different ways. Don’t be intimidated, go for it!
Resources
I’ve included some of my favorite links to get you inspired to repurpose/reuse/recycle.
Repurposed Furniture and Decor from MarthaStewart.com
Repurposed Furniture Ideas from FIXR.com
New Paint Ideas for Redoing Furniture from Ehow.com
Article by Cheryl A Galowitch, Deserving Decor Volunteer
Homeless Children – A national crisis
When you think of the homeless, what is the image you create in your mind? Does it include homeless children? A segment recently aired on 60 Minutes about homeless children and what they and their families must endure. The title of the segment is Hardtimes generation: homeless kids . The story is centered around middle class families in Seminole County, Florida who lost their homes, but it is not only occuring in Florida, it is a nationwide crisis.
In the last 2 years families living at or below the poverty level ($22,000 or less for a family of 4) has risen by 2 million, the largest amount of middle class americans to fall into the poverty level in 51 years, since the great depression.
Families are forced to choose between buying food or paying the electric bill. Children living without electricity are doing their homework by candlelight and flash lights.
Is this the image created in your mind by the question asked, how do you picture the homeless?
Please take the time to watch the video. It is 13 minutes and 34 seconds long, including a one minute commercial near the beginning of the segment. Our children our worth it!
For some children, socializing and learning are being cruelly complicated by homelessness, as Scott Pelley reports from Florida, where school buses now stop at motels for children who’ve lost their homes.
http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=7358670n
Written by Beth Baker, Deserving Decor Founder
Living Philanthropic – A Year of Giving
What would you attempt if you could attempt anything? No fears!
What would you change if you could change anything? No repercussions!
What would you give if you could give anything? No limits!
Think about it for a second…
I recently came upon an interesting article about a guy from Chicago attempting change through giving! I’d like to introduce to you a new concept in philanthropy. Living Philanthropic proves it doesn’t have to thousands. I’d take it one step further to say, it doesn’t even have to be money. Say you don’t have thousands or even hundreds to give, who does? Say you don’t have any money? You can effectuate change by giving of your time and your talents by volunteering. Be creative!
Read the article below and be inspired to answer one or all three of the questions asked above.
http://mashable.com/2011/02/22/living-philanthropic/
Introduction by Cheryl A Galowitch, Deserving Decor Volunteer