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. 

More Goodwill!

So we took another trip to Goodwill (obviously, one of our favorite stores) and we found this mirror for $5.99! It was a light pine (wood) color and I wiped brown paint over it to make it darker... kind of like a stain. I really like the way it turned out and now I finally have a mirror for putting my jewelry on and such!

Sorry the pic is so dark... it's night time and we only have lamps in our room. 

"oxo Tot"

So, I love the brand "oxo"... Their kitchen stuff is wonderful! Well, today we were at T.J. Maxx and found "oxo tot" stuff! We got these sippy cups and they are so cute!! Two of them are regular sippy cups (one has removable handles) and the other is a "slow flow" one for when they're learning to use big cups. All of the parts on all the cups are interchangeable... and I love the bright colors! Now, we just need a baby to use them. haha.

A Better One.

So, we got a bassinet for super cheap, but we found out that the company doesn't sell replacement parts. Meaning: no legs! Boo. We can use it when we travel or whatever, though. 

We found this one (in amazing condition) on quanticoyardsales.com. It's so cute! I know it's blue and brown, but I'll say it's "gender neutral" because it's not super boy-ish to me. The lady who sold it to us said she ended up co-sleeping, so her baby only used it a couple times. We paid $35 and was $150 new!

Creativity

Dan and I were trying to figure out what to do in our bathroom for towels when guests come. We were thinking a wine rack, but none of them were wide enough to fit a bath towel... we were walking through Ikea looking at curtain stuff and both of us saw these curtain hooks and thought the same thing! We finally found towel hooks! I love the way they turned out. 

This is how it was meant to be used.

This is before the towels.

And after we put in the towels. I love how they look like they're floating!

Sewing Machine!

My mom got me a sewing machine as an early birthday present. I was pretty very excited!! 

My first project was to make some curtains for my kitchen window... I had some ugly, no-sew curtains that I made with some sheer fabric and my iron. They were hideous and I was happy to be able to replace them! The fabric is from Ikea and is the same pattern as the curtains in the dining room. I love them!

This is the dining room curtain, so you can see that it's the same pattern, different color.

A Couple Baby Things

Got all of these for under $15!

Awesome Coat.

I got this coat at Old Navy during their "75% off all adult outerwear" sale! Originally $80 I got it for $20!

Tiles.

I did these a while back, but thought I'd share since I never took pics. I painted my tiles... I scratched up the existing design a bit, painted with green (let it dry), painted with design with my stencil (let it dry) and then painted with a clear lacquer for the glossy finish. The ugly fruit is the "before" and the green is "after."

A Few Randoms

Here are a few random things that we've found at a few random places!

The owl onesie is from Old Navy ($3.50... a little expensive, but I love owls!). The white thing you see is an elephant bank ($2.99 from Ross). Dan loved it, so we had to get it. And the "C" will be perfect in the nursery if we have a girl ($1.99 from Kohl's... 90% off)!

This is one of those backpacks with a rope for walking kids that you don't want to run away... My mom always called them a "dope on a rope" haha. It was $4 from the base thrift store. It's Eddie Bauer, a puppy and basically new! It's hard for Dan to resist puppy things because he's convinced that Leena will be our baby's best friend. Super cute.

The Bassinet.

For those of you who wanted to see the bassinet, here it is! It doesn't have legs at the moment (we're trying to order them as a replacement part), but the it does have the little vibrator/music player.

Greyson's Mobile!

My friend Mollye had a baby boy in October. She saw the idea for this mobile on Etsy and I thought to myself... "I could make that!" And so I did! Dan made the frame for me and I made the pinwheels. The materials cost around $20, but everything but the paper I could use again, so totally worth it. His room is blue and brown... I was hoping the colors were just right and they are!

And here it is in baby Grey's room!

Garage sales and Amazing Deals.

So, I'm not sure of the prices on most of these anymore since they've been washed and some of them are from a few weeks ago.

Boys' clothes

Girls' clothes/ a couple blankets

Shoes! (It was $12 for all 7 pairs)

I got these 2 swaddlers for $2 each!

Maxx-inista

I got some more owls at t.j. Maxx. I got a 5th mug, two little bowls and a plate!

Also, I got this 20 oz Yankee Candle for $10! They run for $26 at the Yankee store! Amazing deal.

Barn Sale

Dan here. Bek and I headed my parents' for the long weekend and had to go to her parents' old house to pick up some stuff that got left. Bek headed out with her little cousins to a pumpkin patch while I did the packing. There was a barn sale across the street so I obviously had to check it out. Ended up bumming $0.75 from Bek's brother to close the deal but got both of the following items for $1.50, total.

SNL DVD Trivial Pursuit from Seasons 1-30 (it's on 37 right now). Probably shouldn't have bought it but it was $1 and the figures are pretty cool (also, everything was still in the factory plastic except the actual box). I'm not an avid watcher and don't know many skits, especially the older ones; just the fan favorites.Bek's also been mentioning a game her grandparents had that she would play. She didn't know what it's called, but Wikipedia claims it's Shut-the-Box. Doesn't make any sense since there's no lid, but it's on the internet and the internet doesn't lie.

First Baby Deals In October!

Obviously they're clothes! (Sorry the pics are so dark)

Boys

Girls.