"Spring Break" Check In

Our Easter was really fun, although Aunt Kiki and Baby C weren't able to visit because of illness.  Big bummer, BUT they plan to come in a week and a half.  Yes!!  We can't wait.

After church on Sunday, we made a family trip to Home Depot to pick up a few things.  Bill thought the kids were a little overdressed.  I thought they looked perfect:), and I happened to have my camera in my purse so here are some pictures:

Later in the day, Bill read the Hunger Games, while Lucky played with Play-Doh and Charm re-enacted 'Toy Story':

This view was mine for a good chunk of Sunday.  And Monday.  And Tuesday, while I attended to a little continuing education matter than needed to be taken care of:

Luckily, I found a great website with a ton of free CE courses available, so it was just a matter of putting in some time to keep my pharmacist license current for another couple of years.  Now, I can focus on other things like cleaning out drawers and closets in preparation for our big garage sale coming up next month.  It's time to unload!!

I did sneak in some shopping this past weekend, as well.  (I know, the irony, right??  Buying when I should be garage sale pricing:))  I stopped at Goodwill.  I haven't been there in forever, but I thought I'd make a quick stop on my way home from picking up a few Target snacks.  One of the snacks was Alden's Organic Ice Cream, which I love, so I had about 2.5 minutes to go in and get out of GW so there wouldn't be a milk shake in my car when I returned.

Here is what I snatched in my 5 minute raid of Goodwill:

Brand New Zipfy Sled.  We own a red one already that I bought on super clearance at Target last year for about $8.  Now Lucky and Charm each have a Mini Luge.

You can't beat $2.99 for a brand new sled that retails for $35.  My Goodwill store had at least 30 of these on the day I was there.

Brand New 9 Foot Tilting Umbrella that was originally sold at Target.  We knew about one week after purchasing the umbrella that I talked about in this post last year, that we made a mistake.  It didn't tilt, so unless we used the table at high noon, it didn't help create much shade for us around the table.  We've been looking for a new umbrella for awhile now.  A week ago, Bill had this exact umbrella in his cart at Target.  It was $75, and I told him to wait a bit for me to do a little 'research' (aka find a coupon or a sale or something).

$24.99.  There were several of these umbrellas at Goodwill too.  Brand new.  Never been opened.  Happy Day!

Next up was this cute little gold chevron box that I had purchased earlier in the week for $6 on clearance at Target.  The one I found at Goodwill was brand new and was marked $2.99 (originally $19.99), so my earlier purchase went into my 'return' basket in the mudroom.  I go to Target often enough that $3 is worth it to me!

Finally, I found this stool for $2.99 which will be fun and easy to redo with a little paint and fabric.

And during a quick Sam's Club stop this week, I found this genuine sheepskin rug for $14.91 (originally $39). 

And now, I'll be returning to my spring break.  I'll be back next week with something fun, I hope:)!  Have a great week!

Happy Easter!

We hope you have a wonderful Easter Sunday spent with family and friends and lots of jelly beans!

And since I never posted about a few Easter projects we worked on over the last couple weeks...here they are all at once:

We made an egg garland using the tutorial from Modern Parents Messy Kids and paint chips:

Instead of punching holes in the eggs to string the garland, I just grabbed a big needle and sewed them together:)!

We planted some wheat grass seeds and watched it sprout super fast!

We gave the new product Eco-Eggs a try:)!  They are big and wonderful and eco-friendly!

 We had fun with sprinkles and frosting:

And made these carrot cookies (and a couple huge bunnies too):

We made pirate eggs:

And today, we'll be doing a little basket hunting and we'll spend some time at Easter mass!

Happy Easter!

Fun Craft Jars on the Cheap!

I wish I could find the link to the image that inspired me to super glue small Target $1 bin animals to the tops of several old spaghetti sauce, salsa and apple sauce jars last fall.  I spray painted each of them a different color right before winter and when the snow melted this spring, we could still see a rainbow of colors in our front yard from this project.  It was a spring rainbow surprise and made me smile.

I don't have any actual before pictures of the project, so this will have to do:

And after:

Cost: $1 for a pack of plastic animals from Target dollar bin

Free jars from food we ate

Free spray paint leftovers

Total Cost: 100 pennies for a set of fun jars AND a spring rainbow!

P.S. I stayed up late several nights this week reading the Hunger Games trilogy.  I finished Mockingjay at 2 a.m. last night.  I just couldn't put it down.  I didn't do much 'projecting' this week as a result.  All I did was read the book/s and tell my husband to start reading the books so we could talk about what happened.  Anywho, I'm thinking next week may be my Easter Blog Break.  We'll see.  My sister is coming to town with her little girl, so maybe we'll go thrifting or Easter crafting and then I'll write about it.  I never know what will happen when Crazy Kiki rolls in to town:)!  Regardless, have a wonderful Easter weekend everyone!!

Homemade Canvas Photos

Would you believe that the big canvas images of Lucky and Charm seen here:

Were really made using these supplies?:

One 20" x 30" photograph printed at Sam's Club for just under $9 x 2

One 20" x 20" canvas from Michael's (on sale and combined with an additional coupon making them about $6.50 each) x 2

Scotch Poster Putty (less than $2 at Target)

Scissors, Pen and Yard Stick

Total Cost: About $30 total for both 20" x 20" Canvas Images

I just cut the images to size and attached them to the canvas using the putty.  So far, it's holding up great.  I was initially planning to modge podge them to the canvases (or canvi?  What is the plural of canvas anyway?), but I have a love hate relationship with modge podge.  Mostly it's a hate relationship because the stuff is so messy and sticky, and I wasn't feeling modge podgey on the day I decided to tackle the project.  I'll update this post if they fall down with the putty, but they have been up for a good week now.  I also figure if I want to switch the pictures out down the road, it will be super easy to pull a change up.  Another tweak that I may make down the road it to add ribbon to the sides of the canvas pictures or even paint them, but for now I like the simple look of white.

Has anyone else tried making a DIY photo canvas?

Oil Drip Pan Chalkboards!

As if this house didn't have enough chalkboards already:

Dining Room Menu Chalkboard

Charm's Desk Area Chalkboard

Chalkboard Globe

Chalkboard Clipboards

Mudroom Chalkboard

Chalkboard Jar Labels

I made a couple more using these oil drip pans that I picked up at Walmart for $10 each.  I wanted these particular chalkboards to also be magnetic, hence the use of the drip pan.

I spray primed the drip pans with gray primer, and then used the latex chalkboard paint that I had on hand from Charm's chalkboard desk project.  I taped a border around the edge of the drip pan so it would create a 'frame' of sorts.  I hung the boards/pans using 3M Command Strips (4 medium sized ones did the trick).  Here is the finished result:

Now, we have a nice learning center for the kids in the basement, right next to my crafting corner.  Lucky works on spelling words using magnetic letters and chalk, while Charm works on his food groups and identifying each letter.

When the chalkboard paint is on the drip pan, it's difficult to see the 'Auto Trend Products' imprint in the metal, although as seen below, chalk will bring it out again.  It's high enough up on the board, that I'm really not concerned about it getting in the way.  

Also, if you are interested in recreating this project try to find the straightest drip pan that you can.  I purchased our drip pans on two separate occasions.  I bought one to start because I honestly didn't know if it would fit on the left side of our exercise room door (A measurement before heading to Walmart would have been useful:)).  I had 4 pans to choose from, and I made sure I got a 'good one'.  I went back to Walmart a couple weeks later once I was ready to start painting, and there was only one drip pan left.  It was sort of bent and dirty.  I bought it anyway, because ever since January, I've been very anti-running to a million different stores to get the one thing I want.  I figure if one location doesn't have what I need, it's not meant to be.  In this case, I really wanted to get started on the project and there was one left, so I bought the wonky one.  I wish I would have waited.  It is flat enough, but when you write on it with chalk, it sort of bends in a little.  I may add a few more Command strips to solve the problem, but I do wish I would have just purchased a nice flat drip pan.  Lesson learned.  Sort of.  (I still saved myself a trip to another Walmart:)).

Cost Breakdown:
2 Oil Drip Pans $20
Spray primer already owned
Chalkboard paint already owned

Total Project Cost: $20 for 2 big ol' chalk/magnet boards

What do you think?  Has anyone else been putting chalkboard paint on EVERYTHING:)?

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