Today's Thrifty Find!

As Caroline and I walked into one of the rummage rooms in Chadron today, ready to find some treasures, a woman asked if I knew where a particular street was located, because she said there was a moving sale being held there. Out of curiosity, we headed that same direction when we were finished with our treasure hunt. It was basically a walk through the house where pretty much everything left inside was for sale. Nothing we saw seemed that desirable, until we walked into the last room. There was an oak cabinet sitting there marked $10. It is actually a computer cabinet, which isn't something we need, but I knew exactly where a nice cabinet with shelves would be useful in our house. After a little tweaking, it now holds cookbooks, the drawer inside contains my kitchen towels, and all the home-canned fruits, veggies, salsas & jams that I worked so hard to put up this summer have a nice, discreet home. I love it!

Again, please pardon my lack of computer skills and the sideways pictures. I will hopefully eventually figure this out!

Before:

After:

$0 Kiddie Card Table Makeover

A couple of years ago, my mom gave us a little card table and chairs set for the kids. We use it all the time, and during the summer, it is outside almost every night for dinner because we spend a lot of time grilling and eating out on our deck. One night last summer, we forgot to bring it in, and it hailed. The poor table was wrecked - holes in the vinyl (not to mention that it was just ugly and faded from the sunshine from its constant use outdoors.)

I've been looking for oilcloth or laminated cotton so that I could recover it, but everything I found (though absolutely gorgeous!) was a bit out of the budget right now. But then I had a stroke of genius! I decided to use cotton fabric I already had and cover it with clear vinyl I had from this project 2 years ago. I spray painted the frames with paint I had on hand and viola! New card table set!

Sorry about the sideways picture. Still haven't figured out how to flip it on Jake's laptop. The wizard says I can't flip this photo and I'm too tech-challenged to figure it out.

Eternal Ride, Side by Side

When we were married 8 years ago, I had Jake's ring inscribed with the words, "Eternal Ride, Side by Side." He makes every day Valentine's Day with his thoughtfulness. He goes above and beyond typical Hubby duty whether it is vaccuming, doing dishes, folding laundry, changing diapers, giving backrubs, or getting up with kids and letting me get a couple extra winks. I'm so grateful for our ride together for life, and eternity. He is my Valentine and I can't think of anyone else I'd rather do all of this with! I love you, Jake!

Camera Woes and other Random Bits of Life

Connor found my camera. Every picture I have from August until just last week - gone. Including all of the Christmas and Caroline's Mini Cheer Clinic photos from Friday. I could just cry - especially since my computer is so low on virtual memory that I wasn't able to upload them to the computer and back them up. So I'm taking big deep breaths and making sure that ANYTHING that could possibly be ruined, deleted, etc... is at least 10 feet off the ground and away from anything climbable. Oh, the joys of a busy 18-month old! But I can't be mad at him. He's just too stinkin' cute! I love that he is so smart and inquisitive. So, I guess I'll take the deleted photos and messes with the learning and growing just so I can watch the amazing process of toddler development. In some ways, I feel like I missed this stage with the other two, since at this point with both of them I was so nauseated in the early stages of pregnancy that I just laid on the couch. Anything that I was paying attention to I think was lost in the sea of hormones. It's been fun to be so aware of everything Connor does and notice things that either he does differently or I just have forgotten about.

And... my New Year's Resolution to blog at least once a week has gotten lost in the other Resolution of brightening up the house - starting with the kitchen. I love my red walls, but the size of the house + the placement of the windows = cave-like feeling with the dark wall color. I'm sad to see my favorite color slowly leaving the walls, but am loving the brightness and airy feeling that white cupboards and pale yellow (my paint color is called Lemon Chiffon - I LOVE IT!) is bringing to our home. Hopefully pictures will be available soon, if I remember to snap them in the process of tackling bits at a time during naps.