Too Cute to Pass Up!

Since being laid off, I've been very mindful of our expenses.

I've always been frugal but now I find myself really looking for deals and being very cautious of every penny I spend.

I try to stay out of the stores because it's just TEMPTATION, TEMPTATION, TEMPATION!

I haven't even been to Goodwill . . . and if you know me, THAT is an amazing accomplishment!

When I see something I like, I've been asking myself if it is a NEED or a WANT?

Unfortunately, most of the time, it's a want! So I put the item back on the shelf and move on.

HOWEVER . . . I was in the Dollar Tree the other day and came across this ADORABLE wine glass that says "Happy Birthday" on it.

Seriously! How CUTE is that?!?

I immediately knew that it was going home with me but in all fairness, I had to ask myself "the" question.

 Is it a NEED or a WANT?

What do you think?

My first reaction was that it is a "pretty" so I needed to put it back.

BUT . . . you saw the "but" coming, didn't you??

I knew you were smart!  . . . even though a picture of it on my counter was a dead give-a-way!

Let's get back to the BUT!

But, I changed my mind and decided it was a NEED! 

Why a NEED?

Because my family is wonderful and anything I can do to celebrate the day God gave them life, I am going to do!

Yes! I decided that the $1.06 (includes tax) was well worth making my family feel special on their special day!

A new tradition has been born in our family and I love traditions!

Have Fun!

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First Day of Spring & A Freebie to Celebrate It!

Yippee! It's here! The First Day of Spring is here!!

Can you tell I'm excited???

I can't wait to get outside and clean up out there and do a couple of projects! I've made my list and hopefully, I'll be getting to it this week sometime!

One thing I know we'll be doing today is heading on over to Rita's Italian Ice for our FREE Italian Ice to celebrate the first day of spring! Yes, that's right. They give out a FREE Italian Ice to whoever stops by one of their locations today.

Click here to find a location near you!

Allison's favorite is Watermelon, Curtis loves Blue Raspberry and my preference is Georgia Peach. YUM! I hope they have our flavors today!

Have Fun! Pin It

What's for Dinner, Mom?

I know making your own chalkboard has been done and overdone in blogland but I finally got around to making one.

I have this space on the end of my cupboard which is the first thing you see when you walk into my kitchen. It's boring. I've changed what I've had there many times...never being satisfied. I can't have anything too thick because you could hit it with your shoulder if you walk to close to the cupboard.

So while perusing the Goodwill store, I found this picture. Isn't it pretty? Well. I'm sure it was at one time but now it is quite faded. However. It is the exact size I was looking for and the frame has a low profile. Yes! It's perfect for what I had in mind! Score! I paid my $2.99 and went on my merry way!

I took it apart, sanded the frame a little and then spray painted it bright red with a $1.00 can of spray paint from Wal-Mart. Yes. I know I dislike Wal-Mart but it beats paying three plus dollars for a can of spray paint at some other places. I painted the frame with 3 coats of spray paint and after it dried, I sanded it lightly with 120 grit sandpaper. After wiping away the sanded dust, I took basic acrylic black craft paint and watered it down. I painted over the sanded frame with a sponge brush and then wiped it off immediately to obtain a streaked look.

I also spray painted the glass with chalkboard paint...four coats. For those of you who don't know, you can get the chalkboard paint in spray or liquid and use a brush to apply it.

I'm planning on repainting my kitchen and changing it up a bit. I wanted to introduce a red/burgundy color as an accent color. This frame came out exactly how I had imagined it and I'm very pleased with the results.

Here is my cupboard before...
...and here it is after.
My plan is to write my week's menu plan on it but I only have sidewalk chalk right now and the lines are too thick. As soon as I get to the store for smaller chalk, I'll post our weekly menu for the family. This will help me too because right now, I have to run to the computer and pull up my blog to see what I'm making for dinner! Oh, the memory is going!

*I'm linking up with Kimba at A Soft Place to Land for her DIY day.

Have Fun!

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I'm Gettin' Cozy with Cozi!

Yesterday I "googled" something I wanted info on. As always 175,203 results came back on 0.21 seconds. :) Obviously I didn't sit here and read all 175,203 results...as much as I was tempted...NOT!

Anyway. I did find some of the info on a new (to me) site. The site I found was Cozi. Have you ever been there? Well I hadn't, so I decided to look around. It's a total family website with an online magazine called Live Simply with a bunch of ideas, articles on back to school and nutrition along with a ton of organizing suggestions on how to make your life simpler. They also have a Cozi Blog...like I need another blog to follow! Oh! Did I mention the best part? They have an Online Family Organizer! Yup! It has a family calendar, shopping lists, to do lists, a family journal and so much more!

Below is what I've been using for a couple of years. It's one of those old paper and pen planner/organizers. You know...they are the ones everyone used before technology took over. Well I still use it and I love it. I'll probably always use it because it's customized to me and my life. However. It let me down this past week or maybe it was my memory but I'm blaming it on my planner! I "thought" Allison had a Dr.'s appointment on Tuesday. I opened up my planner on Monday at 10:57 am to see what time we had to be there tomorrow, I found out her appointment was actually in 3 MINUTES! Ooops! I messed up the days! No! IT messed up the days! ;)

So when I came across the family calendar on Cozi, I said to myself..."GREAT idea!" By the way, don't worry about me. I may talk to myself but I don't answer myself so I'm okay, right?

Oh! One more thing...Cozi's Online Family Organizer is FREE! Yes! I fell in love even more!

I set it up for us and below is a "view" of our online organizer. I know I won't use their family journal (because I have my blogs that I have trouble keeping up with so I'm not dumb enough to start something else) but I did put a pic there so I can see my sweet baby's face. There's my shopping list on the bottom right. I may or may not use this as I have a list on the refrigerator that works for me. The thing I LOVE best is the calendar. Each dot of color next to the item is a different family member. Green is the whole family, blue is Curtis, I'm purple and Allison is pink (of course).

I took the time yesterday and entered all of our appointments and schedules. Allison's is entered all the way to the last day of school! The season premiere of a couple of my shows have been entered too. I also like that if you want it to, it will remind you when you have something coming up.

I think this calendar will really work for us! Every family member can access it...which is awesome since I am the only one that looks at my planner. I also uploaded "Google Desktop" which it's linked to so I can have it to the right of my monitor with just a click of my mouse. You can see that below. Google desktop has a ton of other gadgets you can add too. I picked the weather so I'll know how to dress Allison for school and the notepad for obvious reasons.

You should go check it out!

Have Fun!

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A Booty Bench to a Pet Pedestal!

Welcome to all my new friends that are visting from Miss Mustard Seed!

I hope you enjoy this makeover. It's another one I did for my daughter's bright tween room. It goes along with the chair I shared last week. If you missed it, you can see it here.

A year ago I took Allison to my sister's house for her annual 5 day visit and spoilfest. She lives 2 counties away from us. I dropped Allison off and set out to do some antiquing and thrifting in a new territory. I stumbled upon this huge run down store that looked like it was going to be a score of a stop. Well...as I was walking in I saw this bench thing sitting outside. It was amongst a whole bunch of seat-like items. There was an older gentleman sitting on one of the items. I looked this bench over and asked "how much?" He shrugged his shoulders and said $5.00. I said "sold!" I had seen one previously in another store for sale for $20 so $5 made me happy. What a great deal! I couldn't wait to get inside the store. Well. Although the store had beautiful antiques and other items that were unwanted by their previous owners, I felt the store was WAY over priced! I'm no expert on pricing but I've been around enough to know about some antiques and they were asking way too much! It was crazy!

Anyway! I did manage to find a couple of small items, paid and went to collect my bench. As I walked outside I realized the bench was not originally for sale. It was a booty bench for all of the old friends of the store owner! While I was shopping in the store, I guess they had gotten off of work and started to gather outstide. I scooped up my bench, they had a little laugh at the Mom who bought "that old thing" and I went on my way!

I had planned on using it my entrance way to sit on while putting on shoes but then when I got it home, I didn't like that I idea. So it sat for a year until last weekend when I was redoing Allison's room. I was faced with the dilema of where to put the 10 gallon crabitat. Yes. Allison has hermit crabs...thanks Aunt Susan, Stephanie and Uncle Brian! The only flat surface big enough was her dresser. Well. That was not going to work for me! It didn't fit into the image I had in my head for her pretty new tween room! After stressing for a little bit about this, it hit me on Friday night! I would redo the bench and make it a pedestal for the crabitat!

Well. Whose laughing now?

A piece of foam rubber, some batting, a can of spray paint and a piece of fabric and TAH DAH!

We have ourselves a home for the crabs that is worthy of a tween room!

As you can see, the crabitat fits perfectly! I thought that it would slide but it doesn't at all. However, I am going to put some non-skid stuff on the bottom just in case.

Have Fun!

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Get Yours Today!

I went to the Post Office today to mail a few packages and to pick up some stamps. I always buy the FOREVER stamps because I really don't use more than just a few a month.

If you don't know what the FOREVER stamp is, you are missing out. It's a First Class stamp that you can use FOREVER! Yes...even when the postage goes up! There is no need to go to the post office and buy 2 cent stamps to add to your outdated stamps so you can mail a letter. Isn't that awesome?

I picked up 3 books today because I knew that the price of a First Class stamp is going up 2 cents to 44 cents on May 11, 2009. When I asked for them, the postal worker told me it was a good idea to get them now because they will be sold out soon. That is what happened to me last time. They sold out WEEKS before the postage went up!

So if you watch the pennies in your budget like I do, buy your FOREVER stamps now! I know it's only a couple cents per stamp but it adds up after a while. I think I may pick up a couple more books this week. After all, besides loving a bargain, I love having stamps in my drawer when I need one!

Have Fun!

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10 Random Thoughts for Saturday!

1. Why does it have to rain on a Saturday? It's been nice all week and I thought I would be able to get the pool out for Allison today but that's not going to happen.

2. Why do the credit card companies insist on sending me offers in the mail? I've thrown out 7 this week already and today's mail hasn't even come yet. Don't they know I am not interested! I should just rip my name off and send everything back to them in their postage paid envelope!

3. Why is my daughter so odd? Her favorite movie right now is "Clash of the Titans" from 1981. Curtis was channel surfing one day and went past it and Allison yelled "STOP" and insisted on watching it. I don't like those kind of movies...she must have gotten that gene from her father!



4. After I'm done updating my blog, I'm going to start my laundry. I finally got all caught up with all of it and I don't want to get behind again. I may even set the ironing board up and get caught up on that too!

5. I'm excited that I am going to see the Dixie Chicks tonight at the Mellon Arena in Pittsburgh. NO, I don't think how they have behaved is right but they do produce some great music and I haven't seen them yet. Anyway, the tickets were free because the Pittsbugh Penguins want my company to do some marketing with them. So, not to worry because if a riot breaks out, I'll be safe in the Penguins box!

6. If you have a Bed, Bath & Beyond near you, click on the link and sign up to be on the mailing list. They send out 20% off coupons all the time and it's their policy to take all their coupons...even if it's expired. The one that I go to also takes more than one at a time too! It's a happy thing!

7. The online Mother's Group that I belong to has been posting pictures of their homes. Mine is nothing great but I am going to do that tomorrow so I'll share some here too. I had planned on doing it today but with it raining outside, it looks too dark in here to take pictures. I like the natural sunlight.

8. I just got a copy of Allison's school supply list for kindergarten and I need to get that completed. I have already purchased some items that I thought she would need and I didn't do bad. We got her the backpack and lunchbox for her birthday from the Disney Store online. The lunch box clips onto the backpack so she will only have one thing to carry. I also didn't get her name on it for safety reasons. I didn't want a stranger to call her by name and catch her offguard.

9. What's for dinner at your house tonight? My friend and I are going to catch a quick bite to eat before the concert. Curtis is taking Allison to a co-worker's daughter's birthday party at CiCi's Pizza so I don't have to cook for them either...woooo hoooo! Speaking of dinner, how do you do it at your house? Do you plan your dinners by the week, the month, or do you look around and see what you have on hand to make for dinner that night? One of my goals for this month is to plan out our meals by the month...I think. Maybe it'll end up being bi-weekly. I've been writing down all of the dinners that I make and I have been seperating them into categories. Curtis will be home before me 3 days a week and I need to either use the crockpot or have something prepared in advance so he can just pop it into the oven on those days. I would love to hear how you do it!

10. Tommorow I need to spend a good portion of the day taking pictures and listing things on Craig's List and ebay. I need to have most of that stuff stacked in the basement gone by the end of Septemeber. I had Curtis put it all in front of my holiday closet so it'll give me incentive to have it gone in time to decorate for Halloween! Pin It