A "Fall" Craft

I saw something really cute at the hospital gift shop.  It was three large, glittery, block letters that spelled out "BOO."

I thought that $28 was too much to spend, and I also thought I could make it myself. 

Nothing is ever as easy to make as you think it should be.  I went to Hobby Lobby to buy the letters, but the large letters they had were flat, not blocky so they won't stand up on their own.  Also, they did not have the right letters to spell out "BOO."  Seriously?  It was only three letters!

So I decided maybe it would be better to make "FALL" instead- that way I could keep it up until Thanksgiving, not just Halloween.  I wanted to make "FALL" out of brown glittery letters....... and Hobby Lobby does not carry brown glitter.  Of course.

So...... finally after all those changes I bought the supplies and got started.  Here is what you need:

Large wooden letters (these are 12").  Spray paint them in whichever color you want (or your second choice).

When the paint has dried, put the letters on a cookie sheet.  Paint them with glue.  I used clear Tacky Glue.  Then sprinkle the glitter onto the letter.

Next I tacked little blocks of scrap wood onto the backs of the letters, so that they would stand up.

We have a ledge near the ceiling in the "great room" - it was the perfect place to put this:

I went back to Hobby Lobby today to get some fall-ish decor to put around the letters:

As luck would have it, fall decor was 80% off today!  So I got quite a bit.  It was a great sale.

So, with the cost of the letters, the glue, the glitter, and the fall decor, I spent....... well, I'm not sure exactly, but I do know that it was more than the $28 that the original set of "BOO" letters cost.  But it was a fun project. 

And isn't it pretty?

What do you think- does it look better with or without the flowers behind the letters?

Erin's Bedroom

 Having a beautiful home is something that I want, but I have discovered that it doesn't just magically happen.  With me, it's more like a whole lot of hard work.  And a lot of difficult decisions to agonize over.

  Our new house was finished by the time we bought it, so we did not have an opportunity to choose any wall colors, nor did we get the chance to paint before we moved in.  The entire main level has beige walls and ceilings.  And ceilings.  That part didn't strike me as particularly important until we started painting!

The first room we have undertaken is Erin's bedroom.  This is before:

The room is all prepped for painting.  In case you were wondering, the bed isn't usually in the center of the room covered by a sheet.

Jeff's mom- Janet- is very good at painting, so I recruited her help.  She came up very early one Friday morning and we got started.  I was getting the paint ready when Janet mentioned that we probably would need to paint the ceiling white.  Oh yeah.  Luckily we had some paint on hand, and luckily some of it was white.  Painting the ceiling took a long time.  I am not looking forward to doing that in all our other rooms.

When we finally moved on to the walls, the color looked a lot darker than I had planned.  Luckily it lightened up when it dried.  I am not editing the color in these photos at all; it looks different depending on the lighting.

After! 

I love, love, love this mirror. 

Remington likes the room too.

Here is her coat rack plain- then we added this:

Aunt Marcy bought the tree decal at Hobby Lobby

Isn't it funny how different the color looks?  Same room, different time of day.

 

And finally, Jeff hung the Charmin Babies pictures.  These were in the girls' room at our old house, and Erin still wanted them in her room. 

One room down.  The rest of the house still to go.

The Story of our House: The Next Chapter

As I said in this post, Jeff and I bought our first house in December of 2001.



This photo was taken the day that our offer on the house was accepted- we were so excited to be homeowners.



We lived there for 11 years. The house was a 2 bedroom split-foyer, in a great neighborhood.  But eventually we needed more space.  So in March of 2012 we put it up for sale.

This photo was taken on the morning we moved out-
May 16th, 2012. 

You can see that we made some changes to the house..... like having it painted brown and adding a window to a room downstairs, making it a 3 bedroom house.

Our family has changed and grown a little in the last 11 years!

This is where we moved.  We have more space- 2 acres now, and a bigger house.  The lower level is completely unfinished, but we will have a lot more square footage.  The walk-out basement will also be very useful.

Here we are- 4th of July, 2012.  Hopefully the beginning of many happy years in our new home!



Today is September 11.......

and it makes you think about a lot of bad stuff that happened.

But rather than dwell on the people who have hurt us.....

I decided to focus on a way to help others.

I didn't even have a cookie.  But I did have some orange juice!

The Blood Center of Iowa - contact them to donate for their "Remember September" blood drive.



My mom likes buying stuff for cheap!

Just a word of warning, before you read the whole post: there is going to be a photo of me.  I, along with 3/4 the female population, am not fond of photos of myself.  So don't read all the way down if you would rather not embarrass me by looking at the picture.

I went to Goodwill in Ames today, and had great luck finding girls' dresses.  Sundays are the only days that the Ames and Boone Goodwill stores have sales on their clothing.  Today blue tagged clothes were $1.29.  Nothing I bought had a blue tag- but since kids' clothes are regularly $1.98 it was not a big deal.  I bought 4 dresses for less than $8!

Erin's is  Hanna Andersson- I just love their girls clothes- always bright colors and fun patterns.

Katherine loves green, so she was happy with this one.

Funny story about raising kids while shopping at thrift stores:

When Katie was in kindergarten we went to Dubuque over Christmas break to visit Jeff's sister.  We forgot and left Katie's snow boots there.  I knew we would eventually get them back, but she needed some to use in the meantime.  I figured I would go to WalMart and buy a cheap pair.  Well, they were $20 at WalMart and that was more than I wanted to spend.  I ended up at Goodwill and was lucky enough to find a great pair that fit her perfectly.  I was telling the store manager my story about how we needed the boots and I was so happy to find them, when Katie piped up, "Yeah, 'cause my mom likes buying stuff for cheap!"

Well, yes I do.   



(Here's the part where you should stop reading if you want to skip the picture of me)

I wanted to show that it is possible to find high quality women's clothing second-hand.  This whole outfit was thrifted- see below for the details:




Necklace: $5 Premier Designs- new in package from a garage sale
Pink Shirt: $13 from Miss Meyer's consignment store
White T-shirt: $4 from Miss Meyer's
Black Dockers Dress Pants: $.25 from a garage sale

You can't see my shoes, but they are black Clarks $3.89 from Goodwill

 

I have gotten so many complements on that shirt.  If you live anywhere near Ames- check out Miss Meyer's shop.  It is a very fun place.

Happy thrifting!  As always, post a comment to share one of your great finds.

What Katie Has Been Up To......

When Katie was 4/5 she and Erin took a dance class.  It was through Ames Park and Rec, which is a great program for learning sports.  There were all these tiny girls in adorable dancing clothes. 

They learned some basic ballet moves.  But mostly they twirled around and argued over whose wand was whose (the wands were props for the recital).  Erin loved it.  Katie was bored.

  The next year she chose gymnastics, and she has never looked back.

This past year (3rd grade) she switched from the Park and Rec program to Success Gymnastics.  They have a lot more equipment, and she got to learn some new things.  She did great!

Do you know that feeling, when you see your children learning how to do amazing things; things that you have never in your life done?  And you are proud and a little in awe of them?  And it is such a happy moment?  That's how we feel about Katie. 
(and Erin too, but this post is about Katie)

She passed her level (Level 2) and was asked to join the competetive team, XCEL.  This is a beginner's level of competition.  We're not sure what this will be like, and it requires 3 practices a week.  She has agreed to try it for the first month, then decide if she wants to stay on the team or go back to taking gymnsatics just for fun.

Doesn't this look fun?

Who knows what she will be doing next!





More Garage Sale Finds

Polk City had their city-wide garage sales yesterday.  My mom, my friend Jamie, her son Tyler, and I met early in the morning to get started.  I have been going to these sales for several years and always end up with some good finds.  This year was no exception.  I brought my camera along to take pictures as we went, but in the excitement of the day I forgot all about it and didn't take any.  So here are some pictures of the things I bought, after I got home:

At the first sale we stopped at, I found a 3-gallon Red Wing crock- for only $10.  This was a great start!

Stampin' Up stamp set for $1

2 sets of beads $.50 each

3 pinwheels for 10 cents each. 

 I always put out pinwheels at the cemeteries on Memorial Day- now I just need to remember a year from now that I have these.

By far, the best deals I found were on clothing:

Katie's dress and leggings are Gap

Erin's are Children's Place

I had been to this particular garage sale last year and found they had very good quality girls' clothing, in just the right sizes for us. This year she had so many cute things!

  There were a lot of 2 piece outfits, and some even had hair bows to go with them.

I bought 5 outfits there- they were only $3 for a dress and leggings or shirt and skirt.  None of the leggings showed any wear on the knees.  It is so great to find a garage sale where the clothes are well cared for, clean, nicely displayed and reasonably priced.  I will definitely be going back to that house next year!

Other clothing I bought (at several different sales):

Blue and grey striped shirt for Erin- $1

Hanna Andersson blue dress, tights and blue bow- $3 for Katie

Gymboree green shirt, skirt and matching hair bows- $3.25 for Erin

Purple Gap shirt and leggings- $3 for Erin

Black Dockers dress pants for me- $.25 

White swimsuit cover-up $.25 for Katie

For $8, I thought Erin might have fun with this doll buggy.  It was just too beautiful to leave there.  She and Katie are currently playing with the dolls, the buggy, her other stroller; something about Greek gods and Katie being a varmit hunter. 

I think the cat might have a feeling that this may not turn out well for him.

Can't wait to see what I might find next!

Garage Sale Finds

When the girls were babies I went to garage sales every week.  Usually Thursday, Friday and Saturday.  I bought all of the baby equipment we needed as well as most of their clothes and toys.  They came along with me and never complained (yeah, right). 

Now that they are older we are busier and this summer I have hardly had time to go to any sales.  I have been to a few, but hadn't found any great deals.  Last weekend, I lucked out!


Children's Place shirt



I found a bunch of very nice clothes for Katie.  2 different sales had size 10/12 (she can still grow into them)- and almost everything was $1.



Justice sweater and matching bejeweled tank top.  Which she says she will never wear because it is "scratchy." 
It's not.  It's very soft.  Erin says she'll wear it when it fits her.



Same color- different shirt.  This is a henley with beading detail.  She said she will wear this one.



Land's End corduroy jumper and matching shirt.  $1.50 for both!   



A vintage jigsaw puzzle for $.50 and the whole collection of The Chronicles of Narnia for only $.25

And my favorite find of the day........


Looks interesting- what might be in this old card box with the faded writing?

 

They are real butterflies!  The man who was selling them (50-ish years old) said that his grandpa gave them to him when he was a kid, and then his kids had enjoyed them.  I don't know why anyone would ever sell them- they are so cool! 

Tomorrow morning is the Polk City city-wide garage sales. My mom, my friend Jamie and I are meeting at 7:30- who knows what we will find this year?

Found any great things at a garage sale?  Post a comment!



The Story of our Home, Continued......

We (OK, mostly Jeff) did a lot of work on our first home.  We lived there 11 years, and in that time we replaced and updated almost every single thing.  I'm not kidding, either.  Some of it was a project we set out to do because we wanted a change for the better.  Like when we changed the flooring in the kitchen:

Before

Notice the lovely 1980's pattern in the wood flooring.  And of special note, the deep-pile carpet under the table.  That's right!  The only place where you could sit down and eat in this house had shag carpet beneath it.  I fed my children there from their first foods until Erin was 3!  Scrubbed applesauce out of the carpet more times than I want to remember.  So we were very happy to tackle this project.



The girls were great helpers.





Yes, yes that is a Laura Ingalls bonnet on Erin, backwards.  And Katie was wearing the apron.  Don't you also like to dress fancy when doing home renovations?



Every project was always more work than we planned.  Like here- Jeff had to rip out the floor under the fridge because at some point it had water damage and the wood was rotten.

Other projects we did only because we had to.  Like replacing the heating and cooling system, or the pump in the septic tank.  Or every window in the house.  Or the deck.  But we loved our house and we loved the improvements, and the ways in which it made our lives a little better.  Like paying cheaper utility bills.

After!

 



The new flooring is called Adura Tile





Or not having to scrub applesauce out of the carpet.

What Erin Has Been Up To......

Erin has been taking classes at Performance Dance Centre this past school year. 

Her recital was in May.  This was her first time being in a real recital- with the fancy costumes and make up and all that. 



"Simple Gifts"- Ballet



She loved it.

And she was pretty good, if I do say so.  Not that I'm biased or anything.



"Let's Have a Party"- Tap





"Very Merry Unbirthday" - Jazz     (You can't see Erin)



And she can't wait until next year.