Sorry it's taken so long to continue these threads. I had a root canal this morning and that's kind of slowed things down.

Our living room is what I call eclectic. I ran out of room for a sewing room, so I have all my sewing supplies on a sewing unit in there. This will likely be a long list.

- piano given to us by dsil when the great piano shuffle happened after g-ma died. The cost was $200 to move it.
- a cd storage tower made from our old fence boards.
- sewing unit made by Dad and given to us by Mom when she sold the house.
- sewing cabinets are the plastic snap together kind you buy for mechanics for garages, and old bulk margarine tubs.
- fabric is housed in canvas bags I made after dmom gave me a ton of artist's canvas.
- sewing notions were mostly inherited from my gma and dmom.
- sewing machine and serger were gifts from my extended family.
- craft and sewing books are library discard or secondhand books.
- old floor radio is dh's and from his parents.
- wall picture collage is dmom's family and given to us by her.
- chair and chesterfield were given to us when a couple retired to a condo.
- rocking chair was $5 at a garage sale.
- basket for knitting wool was $10 at a Chinese wicker store.
- bookcases were from dsil when dbil passed away and she was moving...ALWAYS offer to help people move!
- rug hooking frame was made by dh out of scrap lumber.
- old clock on mantel is a family heirloom from dh's family.
- fireplace implements and screen were on sale at Canadian Tire before Christmas one year.
- basket for holding wood was a garage sale find for $3.
- we use an LL Bean bag we had given to us to hold kindling.
- my exercise mat tucked in the corner is really just an ensolite pad camper's use to sleep on.
- my exercise weights were cans of soup, until Canadian Tire had a sale on hand weights...dh bought them for me for Christmas last year.
- my exercise books are secondhand.
- my exercise DVDs/videos are library ones or purchased on sale...usually at Walmart or Zeller's.
- our new TV came from Walmart. It's a Toshiba, rated second best by Consumer's (after Sony). It was half the price of the Sony. It was next to another TV, exact same make, for $50 less. We took it.
- the TV stand is an old microwave stand on wheels that dh cut down and used scrap laminate to top off.
- the wall has more of my stitchwork and original paintings on it. I'm not a great artist guys, but it seems when I have instruction I do much better. I hang the good paintings and hide the others.
- the floor has a woven rug from IKEA for about $5 on sale. I couldn't believe the deal! It was 2 rugs for $9.99. I bought one for the bathroom and one for the living room.
- candles on the mantlepiece are homemade.
- candlesticks were gifts.
- hurricane lamps: 1 was found in an old cabin, 1 was given to me, and 1 is a family heirloom.
- sculpture around the place belongs to dd#2, a much better artist than I!
- lamp was hand turned by my mother. The lampshade is fabric covered, by me.
- the quilts on the furniture are made by me.
- the slipcover on the chesterfield (chesterfield almost 30 years old now) is a painter's dropcloth cut to size and serged on the edges.
- cushion pads for the wicker bentwood rocking chair have been recovered a number of times by me.
- cushions have been recovered a number of times by me, and were actually made by my roommate and I in university...over 25 years ago.
- the footstool was inherited from dh's g-parents. It was in sad shape. He had to replace a cross bar and I had to recover it and paint it.
- we watch library DVDs and videos mostly on our TV.
- we listen to library CDs mostly on our stereo system...the stereo is a micro system and was a bad deal. We'll not buy that brand again.
- most of our piano music has been inherited from various people too.
- I have mending on my sewing unit.
- also I have a box of blue jeans to recycle.
- covered regular moving boxes with wallpaper from Liquidation World ($1/roll) to dress up the sewing unit a bit.
- I store fabric scraps by type of fabric, so I can create quilts from them. They are in wallpaper covered banker's boxes.
- I keep men's suits, ripped apart, for rug hooking. In fact, I keep all kinds of fabric for rug hooking.
- I hang onto fine weaver's cotton to make tassels with, and to do card weaving. I also use crochet cotton for this.
- I have some carded wool for felting scarves for gifts.
- I have a box of UFOs (unfinished objects) that get worked on when I run out of things to do.


That's about all I can think of right now. Will have to go down and look at what else is in that room.

What about you? What's in your living room that shows your frugality? What activities do you do there that aid you in using money wisely?

Jean