Half-Homemade Gifts

I couldn't figure out what to get my Mother-in-Law for mother's day and decided on these frames. I used a stamp on the matting and finished them off with newborn pictures of the kiddos. I'm hoping to do this for each of the grandchildren. :)

Kitchen/Dining Room Changes

I found this wooden microwave cart for our kitchen on quanticoyardsales.com. Since Dan wasn't with me and I obviously didn't pay enough attention when he showed me how to use the ropes on the car. This is what it looked like...eef.

I love the way it turned out in the room:

In addition to the microwave cart, I wanted to change the kitchen up in a big, but inexpensive way. How did I do it? I painted the tiles! I did this last year and here's what they looked like before and after. This is them now! I love them because they remind me of lemons. They changed the look of the kitchen completely!

To help tie the yellow into the kitchen I got these cute hooks at Pier One for $3!

I also change out the curtains in the dining room area to better match the tiles in the kitchen. The best part about them? They were only $15 a panel at Lowe's! 

I still love the old curtains, so they moved to the living room. :)

First garage sales of the season!

Our first yard sale was a fundraiser. There was a tons of stuff for being in a couple front yards on base and it was crazy cheap. We felt like we were stealing! All the proceeds went to a good cause... Check it out at www.sprintforriley.com.

Toy Story and other Golden Books ($4 new, $0.25 sale; each), a wooden box for my dad ($2) and Disney Fairies books (in perfect condition) for my cousin ($16 new, $1 sale).

Safety 1st Gate - $45 new, $5, sale. Thought it was the same as what we already had to replace one that doesn't easily pop off, but Dan was wrong wrong. Still a nice gate. Dan didn't take a picture because "a gate is a gate."

Little People Castle  ($30 new, $2 sale). Missing boulder, but for saving $28, I'm sure we can find something else for it. Little People Home ($45 new, $2 sale). 

Accidently revisited house that sold us the lamps from last year. 

I told myself I wasn't going to buy any clothes, but I saw these and literally couldn't help myself. I didn't know how much they were going to be because nothing was marked, but I ended up getting all the clothes (plus, the Harry Potter book from the first picture) for $2! And they're all Old Navy and Baby Gap.

Our last garage sale was an itty-bitty one and Dan picked out some boy clothes and got Chutes and Ladders.  We kind of felt obligated to buy stuff because Dan creeped and knocked on their door to see if they were indeed having a sale...It wasn't super cheap, but it wasn't super expensive either.

Afterwards, we went to Goodwill since it was raining and got a few VHS' for my cousins and a craft paper border punch for $2 ($20 new - don't have a picture) .

All in all we had a pretty good day. Unfortunately, we had a few rain-outs... And sometimes people are really annoying and don't remove that they decided to not have the sale that day... I'm not going to say we survived, I'm going to say we thrived.

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Bassinet Update.

So, a while back we got a bassinet with no legs... We tried to find replacement parts, but the company doesn't sell them so we thought we had lost the battle. Little did we know that at Goodwill there was a grody, baby-stained bassinet with some pretty nice legs (hahaha... my husband is chuckling over my shoulder) that we discovered would fit our bassinet perfectly! The best part? It was only $3! Dan sat out in the parking lot with a pocket knife and cut it up and threw it away because it was so gross, but with a little friend I have called the Mr. Clean Magic Eraser the legs cleaned up super nicely. Since we already got another one, this one will either be our travel one or go to my sister... Here's the finished product:

Originally, we bought it without the little vibrator/music attachment, but the lady emailed us back a few weeks later and said she had found it. Thankfully, she lives right down the street.
Total cost = $11
"New" cost = $60

Is that a Peanuts encyclopedia? Why yes, it is.

There is this cute bookstore down in Historic Fredericksburg that we love to go to every time we're down there. Dan likes to say that it's how "all bookstores should be." Anywho... For about a year now, every time we went we would see this set of encyclopedias and swoon. My husband is amazing and bought them for me... with a little persuasion from his brother.