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  • Yard Sale Finds

    Yard Sale Finds

    I love yard sales! Last Saturday I was not planning on going out though, since my father in law and mother in law were in town, and we had a lot planned. Friday morning, Mark got home from work and told us there was a yard sale with massages just down the road a bit. Well my mother in law and I both decided we were going! Besides a wonderful massage they had a lot of great stuff as well!
    What do you do with your mail? If you’re like me, you take it inside, open it up, and set it on a counter or table somewhere. No more for me! Isn’t this mail holder darling? It holds a whole lot too! 
    And then there was this cute globe. I’ve been looking for one at every yard sale, and was really excited for this one. It is in great shape, and easily spins in every direction! We’ll be using this a lot in our home preschool.
    I’m kind of kicking myself now too. They had a beautiful dining room table and chairs for only $10. The chairs needed a lot of TLC, but the table was perfect and had an extra leaf. We passed it up, and we shouldn’t have. We both thought we would love our breakfast nook table, but the kids like to lay down and they play more than they eat during meals now. We easily could have kept the table and got rid of the chairs, but we didn’t think it fully through before passing it by. Awe well, I’m sure we’ll find another one of these days.
    
    
  • Yard Sale Find and halfway in 10 tasks in 10 days challenge

    Yard Sale Find and halfway in 10 tasks in 10 days challenge

    We spent a little time yard saleing today.  We found one that was advertising some free items, and good prices.  So off we went.  We got some really great deals.  Today we found
    • Half a can of purple interior paint – FREE
    • Summer Dresses for myself – $4 for 3
    • 4 movies – $1
    • a brand new computer mouse (ours went on the fritz this week) – $2
    • some tools (Mark picked these up, not really sure what they are for) – FREE
    • a sleeping bag – $1 
    • a basket – .25
    Total spent was $8.25 
    The sleeping bag will be perfect for our Princess R next week while we’re in Yellowstone. I know I can find something to do with the purple paint for the other Princess’. I think if there is enough I’ll paint over the blue squares in Princess C’s room.  The basket however, was my most exciting find today! Sounds weird probably, but it was the perfect size for what I needed for my magazines!
    So now instead of sitting under the table in a large box, they are neatly organized and easy to get to.  Cross this off my 10 tasks in 10 days challenge.
    Yesterday was the halfway mark for this challenge hosted by Cha Cha at Sit Relax and Read.  On Wednesday I posted some pictures of what I had already accomplished, but let’s just take a look back at that list HERE, and see just how much has been crossed off.
    1. Organize Kids Rooms and toys
    2. Price and change out old light switches. Mark had already priced them apparently, and we’ll have to put this little project on hold until we get back from our trip.
    3. Fix curtains. I’ve started this one, but I still need to fix the epic fail.
    4. Set up Craft and Sewing table so it can be used YAY. I’ve even started using it to put a puzzle together. Something I’ve sorely missed doing, but am finding it a tad frustrating with little hands wanting to “help”
    5. Organize around Computer Desk
    6. Paint Accent Wall in Master Bedroom
    7. Organize laundry Area
    I can actually use this area for the laundry now, and we can get in and out of the renovating cold storage room much easier.
    8. Find and hang large mirror
    9. Finish Christmas Stocking – I plan on taking it to Yellowstone next week, since I won’t be able to get anything else done while there.
    10. Help Princess R paint a picture and hang family art
    11. Plant Okra
    12. Hang Mark’s hats
    Mark made this coat rack, and we decided it would look great for hanging his hats. And it does. Although the yellow one is mine, we will get the rest of his hats up there (there’s a good amount).
    13. Create a better place for the magazines – see above!
    14. Start Cloth Diapering – we did it and we stopped it. Unfortunately Princess R got a bad rash from them, and they just didn’t fit properly. It would’ve saved us tons of money though if it had worked.
    15. Wash Windows
    16. Organize and decorate counter between dining and family room.
    I must say I am pleasantly surprised that I already have 8 things done.  I don’t feel like I got that much done, but I did! A lot of the other items on the list are halfway done, so I’m almost there.  Good thing too, since I won’t be home for the last few days of this challenge.  
  • Budget Wall Art: Love Is Spoken Here

    Budget Wall Art: Love Is Spoken Here

    When budgets are tight, but you need some inspiration or beauty added to your life, a little bit of DIY Wall Art is all you need. 

    Budget wall art you can love looking at.

    Related Content:

    1. Frame Your Own Canvas
    2. How to Hang Art Like the Pros
    3. Star Map Art

    I pretty much spent my day yesterday looking at the wall in our front room. We had this large bare spot that needed something, but a framed picture would’ve looked too cluttered.  We got to thinking about vinyl lettering and decided we’d go that route.  Then Mark came up with the brilliant idea to just paint it.  It would be a lot cheaper, and could actually fit into our budget.

    The first step was designing what we wanted.  I knew it would say “Love is Spoken Here”, but I still needed a good font.  After playing around for a bit with the fonts, Mark sat down, and in 5 minutes had the whole design done on photoshop.

    Make some budget wall art for the home.
     
    To humor Mark, and because not many people will make the connection, the font and star are taken from his favorite band – Smashing Pumpkins. The next step was finding someone to print our 2-foot by 3-foot design.  We went with AlphaGraphics for just under $4! Now that’s a deal.
     
    After picking up the poster, I taped it up on the wall and marked the corners where I wanted the final image to be. 
    Wall art on a budget
    Once I had it where I wanted it, I removed it from the wall to cut out the letters, creating a stencil. Anywhere the white wasn’t attached (middle of R), I laid some tape on to keep it in place.  Then it was back on the wall.
    make budget wall art with your own stencil
    At this point, I then used a pencil to trace the whole design right on to the wall. Finally the fun part! Painting. We used some black acrylic paint that we already had on hand. Mark helped for a little bit until Rosalina woke up from her nap. At that point I got Venice and Chloe to help take some pictures. 
    Making wall art on a budget is simple.
    After we took the stencil off, I went back around a few of the edges with a fine brush. This helped fix where some of the paint dripped or seeped through the paper.
     
    It only took about 5-hours from start to finish but was worth every minute and the neck ache. Did you notice my yard sale find? I picked that candle holder up knowing that this was exactly where it would be going!
     

  • Yard Sale Finds

    Yard Sale Finds

    It was a great week for yard sales.  I actually didn’t even go to as many as I usually do.  On Wednesday a neighbor down the road was putting one on, so I stopped to see what was there. I got these great items there for .75 cents!!
    Beautiful copper vase. It’s going to look great with some of my Iris’ in it.

    Wall sconce for a candle.  I can’t wait to show you where I’m putting these!
    Then today our Young Men and Young Women were doing a yard and bake sale at the church.  We donated a bunch of our stuff to them, that they picked up last night. So of course I had to stop by to see what they had, and came home with this for $15!
    A trampoline for the Princess’ and I to exercise (have fun) on.

    And a replacement shelf (two actually). We had these really nice black shelves, but they were a pain to put up. So we donated those to the yard sale, and I picked these up. They can’t hold a lot, but they help make the place look nicer.

    I’m linking up with

  • Saturday Social!

    Saturday Social!

    Oh man, it’s saturday already!  We’ve got lots going on here.  We are outside having a yard sale trying to get rid of all this JUNK!  Once it’s gone I’ll feel so much more like we’ve actually moved into a home and not a big closet!  I’ve got this great story to share with you all today.

    When we first moved in, we didn’t have a kitchen table.  We’d been using our desk as our table and the card table as our desk in the apartment.  Now that we owned a home, I wanted a real table.  So last saturday morning we went on a hunt.  First place we stopped was a storage unit auction.   I had never been to one of these before, so I didn’t know what to expect.  We found the perfect table!  Oh so perfect! Then we found we had to buy everything in the unit with it, and clean it out that day.  So a couple hours later and it’s all sitting on the side of our house.  We definitely found some interesting items, including the cremated remains of somebody.  In case you ever need to know, if you have this same situation, you call the police and they book it as evidence. 

    So finally today, we’re getting it sold, gone, out of here!  I feel like I can breathe in the house again!

    Isn’t this the perfect table!!  It was definitely worth all the other junk.
    We’re linking up with the Giveaway Corner for the Saturday Social Blog Hop~ head on over and check out all the other awesome blogs!!
    While you’re here enter my giveaways! Very low entries!!!
    $25 box of hair accessories from haircoverings.com
    Take a breather bag and oils from TherapyBearz!