You are here: Home / 0 / Archives for April 2011

What Can $50 Get You???

2011
5 Comments

Well, if you head out to your local mall, $50 might get you a new pair of jeans, a couple of shirts, or a pair of shoes.  If you head out to your local city-wide garage sale $50 might just get you…

A whole lot more!!

This is what I walked away with after only shopping for 2 hours at garage sales.  The final tally on what I all got for $50 is..

For Tate:  3 Hoodies (2 are GAP)

3 Long sleeve t-shirts

1 Lacoste Polo

1 t-shirt

1 Pair of Shorts

For Kynlee:  2 Pants (GAP and Old Navy)

2 Long Sleeve Shirts (AE for kids…did you even know it existed??)

1 Hoodie (GAP)

2 p.j.’s  (Gap and Carters)

3 Pairs of Shoes (GAP, Target)

For Myself:  3 Tanks

3 Long Sleeve Shirts

2 Sweaters

1 Blouse

2 Skirts

1 Short

3 Sweatshirts

1 Puma Sweatpant

1 Maternity Sweatshirt (No, I am not preggers, but you never know when it might be!)

1 Pair of Shoes

1 Fun summer bag

1 Spring Jacket

A lot of these items were Gap, Banana Republic, Hollister, AE and in excellent shape!

For Ryan:  1 Abercrombie Swimsuit (like new)

1 Hat

1 t-shirt

Now I know some of you are probably saying, we don’t have good garage sales by us…well let me remind you that our town is only 2500 people, and I found great treasures.

Some of my rules to garage saleing are:

1.)  Set a budget and try to stick to it:)  I could have gone all day, but I realized I don’t need a million things.  You have to exert some self-control

2.)  Only buy things that you know you can resell for the same price if you don’t like the fit.

3.)  Buy as many kids clothes from garage sales as possible!

I can not tell you the last item I bought for my kids full price.  I just don’t do it.  I actually think it was Kynlees easter dress 2 years ago..I was a sucker.  Other than that I buy 70% of my kids clothes from garage sales and %30 on clearance (and by clearance I mean usually 75% off)  I know my kids may have more clothes than they need, but they still only cost a fraction of a new wardwrobe with bare essentials.  With kids growing so fast and being tough on clothes it is not worth it to me to buy new.  So I challenge you to find out when your city-wide date is and go find yourself some treasures!!

Filed Under: Hot Deals

Inexpensive Wall Art

2011
1 Comment

I’m not a huge fan of art or pictures on my walls, more for the fact that I never know what looks good or what goes, and also because I don’t live in an art gallery or museum.  I’d rather hang pictures of my children, wall art, clocks, or useful items, etc.  But when I had these two nice frames left over from the “before” living room, I knew I needed to figure something out.  They previously had flower pictures in from Ikea that just weren’t cutting it anymore.  I want simplicity.  I also needed to tie in little ‘pops’ of black, so this is what I decided to do…

I found a cute saying that was already printed like that on the internet and printed it off, turned my flower picture backward, and double-stuck it to the back.  It’s even more fun to think that it was free!  And that I can change it out for different sayings every season!

Room view.  I knew I didn’t want two sayings, but I wanted to use two frames.  So I decided something simple would suffice.  Needless to say birds are the new craze, at least everywhere I look…and I like them!  So I googled bird silhouette images and came up with more than a handful.  I picked this one because of its simplicity, cut it out and double stuck it on:)  After seeing it all hung I am thinking I should go back and cut right around the bird so you don’t see the uneven square that I cut because I was a little too lazy to trek it upstairs to find my little paper cutter.  Whoops.  Maybe someday…or??? :)

So, go online and find yourself a cute little saying or picture and throw it in an old frame you got laying around.  Add a little pop of spring.  Put it on your gallery wall if you have so ventured into doing one!  Maybe even be so daring as to print it in a color!  A cheap, quick, and easy fix to add some visual and unique interest to your room!

Filed Under: How-To's

Favorite Quotes

2011
3 Comments

Cutie Pie #1

Cutie Pie #2

These two little cuties hold my heart, and they also keep me laughing with the things they say.  I’ve tried to remember most of the fun quotes they’ve given me over their 3 long years of existence, although I really need to write them all down.  So today I am hopefully going to put a little smile on your face like they do to me when I hear these wise sayings:)

Tate:  Momma, my nose is falling off!  (When he has a runny nose)

Mom:  Tate, I want you to go potty

Tate:  Mom, I don’t have any pee!

Tate:  Mom, my nose is big like yours and Kynlee has a little nose (Thanks Honey!!)

Tate:  Mom, why is that in here?  (Asking about a dehumidifier)

Mom:  Daddy put it in here so your cough will go away.

Tate:  Where is it going to go to??  (Like I said, wise!)

Tate:  Mom, you have a stinky face. (Haven’t heard that one before!)

Tate:  God, thank you for purses and bad guys and God.

Tate:  After just waking up in the morning snuggling me, “Mom, you’re pretty!”  Not so funny but about makes this mom wanna cry:)

Kynlee:  Thought I’d have to give her a quote, even though most of the funny things she does are non-verbal.  Our favorite is when we hear her in her room singing, “keen up body” which for those of you who don’t know the song is her version of clean-up, clean-up, everybody everywhere:)

Tate:  (Last night while I was snuggling him)  Daddy told me I have to tell you Happy Birthday in the morning:)

Tate:  (Also last night)  We hid a present for you downstairs but Daddy told me not to tell you:)

So anyway, hopefully at least 1 of those put a smile on your face, I know they are always cuter to the mom:)  I’m a sucker!!  Happy Monday!

Filed Under: Family

My First Exciting Purchase of the Season!

2011
4 Comments

Okay, so I promised that today I would reveal my first exciting new purchase of the garage sale season.  I must clarify though, it really wasn’t my find to have.  One of my good friends’ husband is an auctioneer.  She works all of his auctions and gets to see all of the fun items that come and go.  She also gets to bid on items when no one else is bidding, which can give her some steals of a deal!  This item she bought for the low low price of $2!!

I had the idea of looking for a dresser this garage sale season to use as a buffet in my dining room.  I was super excited when my friend told me that she was going to be selling one of the dressers (she got 2 at the price of $2/piece) at her garage sale.  Hence the garage sale purchase:)  I quickly took it off of her hands and brought the beaut into my home.  This is what she looks like today, I must admit..it was a match made in heaven:)  Haha, at least for the price!

I thought at first that I would repaint it and change up the hardware, but I am loving the dings and scratches character it has, as well as the big old wooden knobs.

It’s amazing how one piece of furniture can really change the feel of the house.  I love this piece because I can see it from both doors.

The living room view

I was especially excited because I had gotten these vintage looking clocks about 4 years ago from my mom and had never found a place for them.  I loved them so much that I never sold them, so I was super happy when they fit perfectly on the buffet.  I also moved a mirror over, pulled out some dishes from the cupboard, as well as the salt and pepper shaker…and some odds and ends I had around the house..and I was able to decorate it for free!

So, I strongly encourage you to check out some local auctions around you.  It is amazing what you can get!  If you are in the area, this piece was located at a Lundeen Auction, they do a great job and hold many auctions throughout the year locally!!

Filed Under: Decorating, Thrifting

A Healthy Fear of the Lord and Garage Sales

2011
Leave a Comment

I know I know, right now you are probably thinking how in the world is she going to tie these two subjects together…well, I’m not.  I just couldn’t decide which one I wanted to talk about, so thought I’d throw you for a loop and talk a smidgen (is that a word???) on both:)

So, to start with the first, this subject has been on my heart for a long time now.  See, when I first accepted Christ into my heart at the age of 4 it was with blind faith.  That is the beautiful thing of being a child.  No questions asked.  I love Jesus and He loves me!  Then I started growing up and growing in my knowledge of God.  I began to understand what heaven and hell were and realized that I desperately wanted to spend the rest of eternity in heaven with Jesus.  This brought about me asking Jesus into my heart about weekly, afraid that he’d forgotten that I asked 50 times before or something:)  This fear was not a healthy one, but looking back and still not completely understanding a personal one-on-one relationship with Jesus, I understand why I did it:)  Then came high school and college.  I would say that this is the time that I learned about the fear of the Lord but took it too far.  The fear of the Lord was all I could think about, it consumed me.   Sure I knew that Jesus loved me but I kept having thoughts from the enemy coming in and attacking me saying you’re not doing enough, you don’t love Jesus enough.  If you really love Jesus you would be overseas doing missions.  So many more people are doing so much more for him, why would he have time to think about you?  Have you ever had any of these thoughts before??  I just wanted to please God so badly that I completely lost focus of God being a God of love, grace, mercy, comfort.  I had read Proverbs 1:7 which states

“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge.”

and that’s when I decided I wanted to KNOW Jesus, not just be afraid of him, cause let’s be honest, that was exhausting.  So I went to a church service one night in college and a man came up to me and said to me, “the Lord wants you to know that He loves you very much!”  I lost it.  Those were the words I longed for, and Jesus used a flesh and soul man to come and tell me…a man that had no clue what I was battling and even who I was.  I have never heard the Lord’s voice audibly, like from the sky:)….but I’ll tell you what, I knew this was the Lord, and it was amazing.

From then on I wanted to find out what the fear of the Lord really was.  I did some researching, praying and reading to find some of these verses that really helped me.

“Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe, for our ’God is a consuming fire.”  Hebrews 12:28-29

That’s what the fear of the Lord is….worshipping God with reverence and awe.  I even found this easier to understand once I became a mom.  I realized that I desired my children to listen to me and follow my rules, and in order to teach them to follow them there needed to be discipline and consequences.  The Lord expects the same from us.  He wants us to abide by his law and if not, there will be consequences.  The great thing about Jesus is that he has more grace and mercy than this mom has sometimes:)

“And now, O Israel, what does the LORD your God ask of you but to fear the LORD your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul. Fear the LORD your God and serve him. Hold fast to him and take your oaths in his name. He is your praise; he is your God, who performed for you those great and awesome wonders you saw with your own eyes.” Deuteronomy 10-12 ESV

A healthy fear of the Lord keeps us walking in his ways.  It is what tells us what is right and wrong, and it is what makes us look different from the world almost on a daily basis.  The Lord is our law, and he is so pleased when we follow Him!  So to end this first subject on a great note, read this..

“And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons,* neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love. 39 No power in the sky above or in the earth below—indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Romans 8:38-39

and know that you are loved!!   I pray that if you are dealing with an unhealthy fear like I was, and it is holding you back from a great relatinoship with Jesus, that you would take hold of these verses and truly understand what an amazing God we serve.  A God who loves YOU very much!

And now to bring in the garage sale bit of this blog post..I know you are wondering…I am in full fledged garage sale fever mode.  I see signs and get so excited.  I’ve already scored a couple of great deals and have a really fun one to show you on Wednesday!  So in the season of garage sales, myself and a friend are having one.  A few girls are contributing, and I just put my stuff out and couldn’t believe how many great items (especially women’s and children clothing) there is!  Most all of it is name brand, sizes small to large.  If you are getting the itch you should come check it out.  We will open thursday morning at 8:00 and it is going to be in cokato at 955 Moores Ave. South.  Just a little plug:)  But really, it’s gonna be a good sale:)

Filed Under: Faith

The Living Room Reveal…

2011
4 Comments

So today is the day of the big living room reveal.  I must first say that some of you are probably saying to yourselves, why would she redo it…it was fine the way it was.  I know…it was great, and I did love it.  It’s just that after you stay home for 4 years looking at the same walls and the same bright red, I needed wanted a change:)  I saw this color palette a few magazines back out of Better Homes and Gardens and loved the beachy/airy/relaxing feel of it.  It was something completely different from my bold reds and greens.  So, for all of those who haven’t seen the first picture of my living room here it is…

and I still do love this look, like I said, for myself I was just ready to see a different look in my house:)

So, when I was out looking for some fabric for a friend I came across this beutiful IKAT style fabric from Robert Allen.  It was on the clearance table but it was decorator fabric, so I went to go look by the order only decorator fabric and found that it was still there as well, for $40 a yard!!!  The clearance bolt was $6 a yard.  What a steal…and thus my inspiration #2.  So, with no further ado, here is the after to the red living room…

Again, much calmer and subdued. We also had this piece in our mancave basement that Ryan let me pull up and paint..

And the after look…

I would really love to get a few basket that fit perfectly inside the shelves..it’s a little too cluttered for me now, but it’ll do.

Dining room angle

My reading nook

And my new spring display.  I sprayed a couple of my glass jars white (they still need a shot of high gloss spray to make them look like porcelain) and added some greens on tops of candle sticks and pots and this is what I came up with.

So, for a small fee in fabric and paint, I was able to transform this living room from bold and bright to relaxing and soothing.  Two completely different looks, like them both, just fun to try something new in all my spare time:)  Happy Friday everyone!!

Sidenote:  My husband was a little disappointed that I did not write in my last post that the amazing outdoors man that he is shot that elk in Wyoming just so that I could have that beautiful elk rack hang on my living room wall!  Good job Lovey, you are amazing!!:)


Filed Under: Decorating, Makeovers

Scoring a Couple Points with the Hubby

2011
3 Comments

So as I have been redoing my living room, I really wanted to bring a little more natural feel into it.  I found a way of doing that through some pillows, the color scheme, and hopefully in the future a couple of baskets.  The last inspiration I found though came from my hubby’s man-cave.  I know…surprising right?  Well I had been stumbling along some pictures of decorating with antlers that I really liked and thought could I possibly pull this off??  First of all I’ll show you my inspirational pictures and you see what you think….

Not bad huh??? I love the dimension it adds as well!

Now this was creative…we’d never have a bathroom big enough, but oh how I’d love that tub:)

Maybe a bit much of the antlers, but not overpowering….I am amazed how this city girl is drawn to them!  It helps that they don’t have the red velvet background..you know what I’m talking about:)

And lastly, the selling point for me.  Love it!!  I love the natural feel, the texture, the way it pops off the wall…this is it, I’m gonna try it!

So, what did I come up with??  Here it is…

Ta Da…I’m hoping to paint the wood backdrop cream so just the antlers pop, but I haven’t gotten a 100% okay from the hubby on that yet:)

If you think I’m not showing you the whole living room on purpose, it’s because I am:)  The living room reveal to my new muted color scheme will be on Friday, so check back to see the whole thing:)

Well, that’s how you make the hubby happy…at least about 1 thing:)  He told me that I am finally starting to come around, until I bring the next piece of furniture into the house….then we’re back at square one.  Some days I wonder if we’ll ever see eye to eye:)

Filed Under: Decorating

Makeover Madness…Bathrooms

2011
7 Comments

First of all I must apologize that I didn’t post my makeover on Friday.  I got a little deep into working on curtains and such that I didn’t want to take a break.  When motivation strikes, you gotta act:)  So, back to this week, I’m going to show you what we did with our bathrooms.  Bathrooms can be intimidating, as well as very expensive.  Again, since we were on a tight budget we have quite a few money-saving tricks for in the bathroom.  There are 3 bathrooms in this house, all which have a shower or tub.  Here is a picture of the first bathroom.

I know….not the best shot, but that’s all we have.  This is our main floor bath.  It is connected to the office as well.  It is nice because it also has a shower.  The first thing we did was to take out the medicine cabinet, re-drywall it, and put up a different mirror.  I’ll show you the picture before I explain the rest.

Again..the lighting isn’t the best, sorry!  So, for this bathroom we replaced the vanity with a pedestal sink.  We didn’t need the storage down here so that was a cheap fix.  Pedestal sinks can be bought for under $100.  It also helped to open up the space a bit.  We then had Ryan’s cousin lay tile for us…our splurge in this room but I love it, painted the walls and the trim and voila!   A new bathroom.  Another great trick we did in here was actually take an old mirror that we had that was frameless, cut some molding at 45 degree angles, and velcroed it on!  You’d never be able to tell and you have a new mirror for around $10.

Since every bathroom had glass doors on them, they would be quite spendy to replace, and it’s not my favorite look.  So instead we took the doors off, patched the holes, and added a shower curtain.   A much cheaper fix.

Here’s the breakdown for the main floor bath:

Pedestal Sink: $75

Tile with Concrete Board: $100 (free installation)

New Faucet: $40

New Light: $45

Shower Curtain and Rod: $30

Hardware: $25

Mirror: $10

Total: $325

Onto bathroom #2…the before

So this one looks like we could have sank a little bit more money into, but it acutally ended up being cheaper!  I’ll show you the after and then tell you what we did.

So, for this bathroom we repurposed the vanity by painting it red, distressing it, and adding new hardware.  We also sprayed the chocolate swirl countertop with a product you can get at the Home Depot, or any hardware store, that is made for sinks and tubs.  It’s a bit of a tedious project, but for $30 bucks it was well worth it!  Total cost of that project:  $60

Then we pulled up the linoleum flooring and put down peel and stick tiles.  If you haven’t tried these, they are amazing!  Even I could do it.  We spent $30 in tiles and had a new flooring.  I then added another shower curtain and rod, some accesories and new lighting and faucet and this is the result.  I’m still looking for a mirror, that helps update it a lot….just hard to spend the money on it sometimes, when other projects are calling:)

Breakdown of bathroom #2:

Vanity: $65

Flooring: $30

Shower Curtain and Rod:  $30

Faucet: $45

Accessories: $40

Total: $210

And last but not least, our master bath before…

There’s my handy hubby…isn’t he cute:)

And after…

Ta Da..

I’ll just give you the breakdown on this one…

Peel and Stick Flooring: $25

Vanity Makeover: $25

New lighting: $25

New Mirror: $20

Shower Curtain and Curved Shower Rod (love it!) $40

Accessories: $50

Total: $185

Grand Total for 3 Bathrooms: $720…what some people pay for 1 vanity!

That’s what we have so far.  There are always little improvements here and there but we are really happy about what we were able to do for what we spent.  Happy Monday everyone!!

Filed Under: Makeovers

Why is it??

2011
4 Comments

Why is it that I can stay up til midnight sewing, decorating, or reading a good book, but can’t stay up more than 10 minutes of praying to my Heavenly Father before I fall asleep??

Why is it that I can find time in my day to wash dishes, do the laundry, clean my house…and curl up with my favorite magazine, but not find time to spend 15 minutes studying my Bible and growing closer to God??

Why is it that I so desire a more intimate relationship with the Lord but don’t always want to put the time in to get there??

Why is it that I know these earthly things hold no value, and these pleasures are short lived…yet I have such a hard time keeping my eyes focused on heaven??

Lord, I pray that you would give me a heart that yearns for you, that desires to spend more time with you.  I desire to be more intimate with you Lord and keep my mind on heavenly things, but I fail so often.  Forgive me for my complacency and use me how you see fit.  Provide opportunities for me to further the heavenly kingdom and equip me with the sword of the Spirit and the breastplate of righteousness to fight off the darkness all around me.  I love you Jesus, thank you for your grace and forgiveness!

Filed Under: Faith

I’m In Love

2011
10 Comments

Remember my “free” chair I snagged at a city wide garage sale?? If not, here is  a reminder…

In all her glory.  It’s kinda hard to tell but she’s a buttercream with country blue stripes…and  a little dirty!

So I had been thinking lately that I really wanted to change the color scheme of this room.  The red was great for a time but after four years of staring at it, I was ready to move on.  I know, Ryan was thrilled:)  So, this chair was kind of holding me back, but yet I needed it for seating.  So while I was visiting another blog I love at The Nesting Place I saw that she had a slipcover party and slipcovered her chair in white.  It looked amazing.  I found out that a girl had written, The Lazy Girls Guide to Slipcovering (seriously, can it get any more perfect??) and decided to give it a whirl.  I will explain a little of how I did it but if you decide you want to try it yourself you might want to download her e-book here.  I think it cost $10.  Well worth it!!

So, the first step was to buy my fabric.  I bought the white duck cloth at jo-anns.  It was $10/yard but with my 50% discount I got it for $5/yard.  I started with 4 yards, cause that’s all they had…and this is how far it got me.

This is inside out, with the pieces sewn together.  Here’s a closer look.

I started with just laying the fabric on the chair, and cutting my back piece and the seat back.  Then pinned them together.  I then proceeded to the arms, seat, and arm front.  After pinning them I basted them (loosely stiched them) so they would hold up after I took the slip off to sew it.  Again, explained much better in the e-book

The back

Then I started working on the skirt and cushions of the chair.  I did a pleated knife skirt, you can you tube it to see how to make that.  I didn’t take pictures during this process but I do have a picture of my finished product.  Another sidenote, I put piping in that I had to make with cord and fabric, sounds intimidating but actually super easy!  I also must say that if you are a perfectionist (which we know I am not) or a great sewer, you may be disappointed with this e-book.  I on the other hand, who had two years of sewing in high-school and that’s about it…was ecstatic.  You don’t need to worry about cutting on the bias, ironing, sewing perfectly.  It’s great.  My mom was having a mild heart attack reading it.  She told me she wouldn’t be able to be around for this project, it went against everything she believed in:)  She might change her mind after she sees the chair!

Ta-Da…there she is in all her glory!

Not perfect, but great for me…a non-sewer.  It ended up costing about $45 dollars in fabric, but the pleated skirt took a lot!  If you did a flat skirt it wouldn’t take as much.

So if you have a chair or couch that has been bugging you like crazy, or run across one at a garage sale for cheap, think about slipping it.  The possibilities are endless!!

You may have also noticed that the pillows and curtains are different.  The transformation from bold to soft has begun.  I am only half-way done..and it is bugging me like crazy…but it’s a start.  When it is finished I will blog on the before and after:)

Filed Under: How-To's, Makeovers

Family Fun!

2011
2 Comments

Here’s a snapshot of our vacation.  What a blessing it was to spend time with family!!  Thanks Dad for the opportunity:)

On the plane and ready to go, crossing our fingers for a good flight!!

We left our house at 3 a.m. with rain and snow mix.  We arrived in Florida at 1 p.m. to this beautiful 85 degree day.  Some days I wonder why I still live in Minnesota:)

Our luggage got left in Miami and we didn’t get it til that night, so the first day the kids went swimming in swimmers, and mom and dad watched.  But we soaked up the sun the next day!

To the Beach!!  On Thursday we traveled about an hour to New Smyrna beach and the kids loved it!

Tate found a live crab and starfish with Grandma…so cool:)

And everyone took a dip in the 65 degree ocean water…refreshing!

Did I mention how great all the quality family time was?? :)

Then we headed over to Disney Village, to shop the fun stores.  Or at least window shop.  I had to control myself with all the cute princess stuff!!

Tate and Daddy weren’t as interested:)

The cousins came down towards the end of our vacation to stay the next week.  How fun to have all the family together.  And none of them love their Grandma:)

Then one more day of swimming…

And relaxing… and home we go.  Sad days.  There’s always next year, now if we can only get spring to actually come!

Sorry there’s no makeover this week, but on Monday I am going to show you the slipcover that I finally finished for the free chair I had in my living room.  I am really excited about it!!  Happy Friday everyone:)

Filed Under: Family