$251.25

Say what?! Yes, we've done a lot of yard sale damage over the last few weeks. I know. But bear with me, because we had some GREAT finds! And if it makes it any better, this is from the last few weekends which included a neighborhood wide sale. :) Let's go!

$5.00 - Turtle sandbox that we will use as a wading pool for Baby B! I was hoping to find something with a cover that would fit in the corner of the patio, and this guy was perfect. Is it a little scary? Yes. But when endless summer fun is $5, you don't complain. :)

$10.00 - Sand & water table. Also endless summer fun for Baby B. Lucky boy! I do feel like $10 was a little high for this, but I made the mistake of setting my heart on finding one before yard sale season even began. Then when $10 was as low as I could talk them, I went ahead and went for it. Note to self: don't become attached to something before I even find it.

 $1 - Lego pirate ship, full of sails and pirates and cannons! I couldn't pass this up for only $1, so I carried it all the way around the neighbor hood sale because it wouldn't fit in the stroller. And because pirate ships make anyone look cool. And it was totally worth it because when Baby B found it in his room he was thrilled! And yes, most of my purchases this year will undoubtedly be for Baby B. I cannot resist him.

 $3.00 - Basket. The kind with compartments for silverware and napkins.

$0.25 - Decanter? Is that what it's called?

 $5.00 - Clothes for Baby B. Some for this summer, and some warmer clothes to grow into. I generally have a rule of no more than $0.50 per item for baby clothes. I know that if I'm patient I will find plenty of people selling for that price and it keeps me from buying more expensive things than I need to. But I did falter with the outfit on the left. It was $1 per piece. But it is immaculate and Baby B will be ADORABLE in it.

 $2.00 - Books. There were 3 other books but Baby B had already ran off with them by this point. They were Clifford & Curious George books.

$4.00 - Winter coat for Baby B. I'm not sure what a good price is for a children's coat? But this one looked brand new and all the coats I saw that day (in the neighborhood sale) were $3-5 each. Either way, it was certainly better than buying one new!

$0.25 - Cute t-shirt
$0.25 - Glass jar for succulents or some other small plant.

 $5.00 - Pile of clamps. We're always wishing we had some! Hopefully these guys we'll be just what we need.

 $0.50 - Basket. I'm going to try spray painting it. I'll let you know how it goes.

 $10.00 - A pair of chairs. They need some TLC, but I loved the shape and thought they would be perfect for our dining area. They are nice and solid too, so they should be here for the long haul!

 $1.00 - A small bowling set. I thought this would be cute in Baby B's room, and he already wants to play with the bowling pins. (they are like 5" tall, nothing he can fit in his mouth!)

 $4.00 - More clothes for Baby B! And a maternity skirt for me. Don't get excited, I don't need it yet. It was only $0.50 so I bought it for someday. :)

 And while we're on the subject of Baby B clothes, my Aunt Cha Cha (a yard-saling pro. she teaches me everything I know.) got Baby B a ginormous box of super-cute clothes! Jammies, shirts, pants, lots of sizes, even shoes and snow pants! Thanks so much, Cha Cha! This is a huge blessing!

Have you been doing math this whole time? Feel like things just aren't adding up enough to reach the total? Well, hold on to your hats because we made one big (and super exciting!) purchase this weekend!

$200.00 - A new fridge! Yep, I hit up an estate sale first thing Friday morning and found this guy in the kitchen just begging to come home with me! So I took some measurements, made a quick call to my Mister, and made a deal. This guy is stainless steel, almost new, working perfectly, and fits exactly into our fridge space. I like to say that if you go to enough sales you are bound to get lucky eventually, but I think this was a straight up blessing. I'll be sure to post pics as soon as he is moved into place!

Yard sale season has started full speed for us! So I think we'll be taking it easy the next few weeks to recover. :) How about you? Have you started hitting any sales yet? Any good deals or great finds? Anyone planning to have a sale of their own this summer?

The Magic of Mulch

We've been using the nice spring weather to start getting our yard back into shape with things like weeding, trimming the bushes, and finally fixing up the flower beds in our front yard! When we moved in there were already flower beds sectioned off around the light post and trees in our front yard, but they definitely needed some love. For your viewing pleasure, the "littlest helper" montage.

 I know. It's amazing we get anything done with all that cuteness around. But back to the actual work, starting with the light post. There were a few clusters of small daylilies already planted around the bed that I really like, but last summer there were so many weeds and so much grass we couldn't tell where they ended and the flowers began! So far not much of that stuff was back up, so at my dad's advice we tackled that mess before it got out of hand again. We started by pulling the weeds that were there, then my dad dug everything up around the flower just to loosen up the dirt and what not. Then we put down some landscaping fabric which is supposed to help keep those weeds out! The fabric was from Lowe's and has a supposed 15 year warranty. We'll see how that goes. :) Anyway, we covered the whole bed with the fabric, cutting holes around the flowers. Then we covered it all up with mulch. The mulch is great for making it pretty... and keeping weeds out and moisture in.

helping gramps with the mulch

Here is the finished product. Well, finished mulching. I'm really hoping to find an edger at a yard sale this summer so I can clean up the outer edges of the bed as well. But for now, it's done!

 We did the same thing around our trees, too. We planted these cute little hosta guys last year, but lost them among the weeds too. Now they are the stars of the show!

Total cost for three flower beds:

$19 - landscaping fabric (we only used a tiny bit of the roll and plan to use the rest on our garden! Yes, this is the year I get a garden!)

$10 - four bags of cypress mulch

Total - $29

So it was a small chunk of change, but it did wonders for our curb appeal. Now I just have to give the rest of our bushes a spring trimming. (especially my burning bush. apparently those grow crazy out of control if you let them. I don't want to let them.) We also plan to (eventually) repair/replace/paint the light post because it's kind of an eye sore. Then if we can keep the lawn mowed, we will be in good shape. :)

Fortunately we had a lot of curb appeal going for us when we moved in with new windows, siding, and roof. Not to mention the nicely landscaped yard that just needed a little tidying. The trees (crabapple?) bloomed earlier this year and now we are enjoying the lilacs right by the front door. It smells SO good when the door is open. I'm waiting for the blooms to die off before I trim this guy.

 I don't know what this is, but it's starting to bloom too! It's really convenient that someone already planted things that bloom throughout the season. ;)

That's it for our latest curb appeal adventure with the magic of mulch. We'll keep you posted on any advances in the bush trimming or lightpost fixing categories. And if we ever take the carpet off to the steps. Ha! Yes, the only carpet we have left is on our steps, both inside and out. :) I really need to get you some full outdoor pictures. :)

Anyone else giving your yard a spring cleaning?

Birthday Book

For Baby B's birthday I made him a family photo book. It was just a simple book with a photo and name on each page, and I though it would be a great way for him to learn names & faces for the family members he doesn't get to see everyday.

I also added pages for some of his favorite things like apples, baths, books, etc.

I wanted it to be a fun book, and when I saw this dinosaur album at Hobby Lobby I thought it would be perfect. And it was a bonus that it had a $2.50 Clearance sticker on it! (If you want a non-clearance album, Hobby Lobby rotates their sales so photo albums are half-off every few weeks.) If you want a long term, higher quality album I'm a big fan of Creative Memories, but since Baby B might destroy it I decided to go with a cheaper album for him.

I used a free site called PicMonkey to edit all my pictures.  It's really easy to use (and did I mention free?). Just upload pictures from your computer to get started. Here's how I edited the pictures for my book:

Cropping
I wanted all my pictures to be horizontal 4x6's, so I started by cropping all my pictures to get the right size & layout, and to show close-ups of the faces. Click the little atom-ish icon for basic edits (you can also rotate your photo, adjust color and exposure, and do touch-ups here if you need to). Click "Crop" in the menu, then use the drop-down menu to lock the photo ratio you need (I did 4x6). Then just drag the corners of the crop box to highlight the area you want to crop and hit "apply".

Add Text

I wanted the names printed right on each picture. To do this start by clicking the "P" icon to open the text options. Select the text style you want (I used "overlock"), type your text in the text box, and click "add". This will make the text appear on your picture. Now you can drag it where you want on the picture, and drag the corners of the text box to adjust the size of the font. You can also change colors and alignment in the text window. When you are done just click anywhere on the picture and the text window will disappear. This is actually where I stopped with my book (and skipped to the "save" step), but I almost went with a special effect so I'll show you that too....

Effects

Now you can add fun colors or effects to your photos. Click the test tube icon to bring up the effects options. Then just click the different effect options to see what they do! I ended up really liking one called "dusk" because it gave a nice faded effect. When you find the one you like, just hit "apply". In the end I didn't go with an effect because I thought Baby B would like it most if it looked just like nice, colorful, real life.

Save

Don't forget to save your photo when you are done! The program only edits one picture at a time so you have to discard one to start another. So make sure you save your edited picture before uploading another!

My album is made for 5x7 photos, but I went with 4x6 photos instead once I found out how much 5x7s cost. I couldn't find a set of 5x7s for less than $25, which just didn't make sense for a book for a little boy to drag around. Especially when I knew I could get 4x6s for much less. And when I centered them on the page, it looked like the nice white edges were intentional. That was a freebie. :)

 

I always order prints from the Walgreens photo site. If you get many pictures printed, I definitely recommend signing up for their email list! They send an email every week about what sales and offers they have that week. 4x6 prints are on sale as low as $0.10 each at least once a month. I VERY rarely pay more than that for prints, only if I need something printed right away and can't wait for the next sale. They also have free offers occasionally and we've gotten free 8x10 prints, 25 free 4x6 prints (what?!), and even a few free photo books (had to pay shipping on those). Another bonus for me is that Walgreens is just a few blocks away so Baby B and I can walk over to pick up prints. :) I got these prints for just $0.11 each, and spent under $3.00 total including tax!

This was probably my favorite gift I made for Baby B, just because it is so personal. And he already likes to touch all the faces. :) The hardest part of this was collecting all the pictures I needed, but once I had that done it was easy, albeit a little time consuming to choose an editing style and edit the photos. And I am sooooo happy with how it turned out!

Have you ever made any kind of photo book for a little someone?

Let Them Eat Cake!

I'm glad to report that everyone was feeling much better in time for Baby B's birthday bash this past weekend!

Here's how the birthday festivities went down....

Okay, not from the party. But on Baby B's birthday we went for a walk and stopped at KFC for dinner. They heard us telling him happy birthday and gave him a free cake! I think he liked it. :)

I used my cupcake topper flags on our made-from-scratch red velvet cupcakes.

 And I had extras so I stuck them in the cookies my dad baked. Might as well, right?  :)

The night before the party a friend was telling me about how she chose a theme for her sons upcoming party (music!) by just choosing something he really liked. My first thought was "but Baby B doesn't have anything he's really crazy about." But then it hit me - the boy loves spoons! So I made a party-day trip to the dollar store to get a pack of plastic spoons. My Mister drilled a little hole in the handle of each one.

 

 And some party helpers (a.k.a. my sisters) tied them up on a string. Ta-da! I give you - Spoon Theme.

 

It actually worked out perfectly because Baby B and all his baby friends congregated in the kitchen and played with all the spoons they could get their hands on! That is a theme success. At one point the other babies were both using their spoons to stir up a box of toys. Baby B was spoonless at the moment and must have not liked being left out, because he went over and slammed the lid of the toy box shut. If he can't stir, they can't either I guess! We'll work on that.

 

Birthday boy with the biggest, greenest spoon he could find.

Of course my favorite decoration was the birthday bunting garland I made. The pictures don't do it justice, it was pretty spectacular. And long enough to reach halfway around the living room! Oh yeah, we had to have the party inside instead because the weather took a cold and nasty turn. It was very cozy. :) But back to the garland, it added a great touch of fun and birthday cheer.

 

Baby B's birthday banner turned out great, too, and was coincidentally the perfect size to hang right above our canvas print of him. I like it when things just work out like that. :)

 

 What's that? Birthday garland? Yep, still love it. And yep, it's still up. And the day I take it down will be the day I put it up in Baby B's room.

 

As for the birthday crown - Baby B was less than thrilled.  I did get a few pictures of him wearing it, but I don't think he was smiling in a single one. In most he was trying to get it off. Oh well. Still cute.

I think the highlight of the party was just watching Baby B play with his baby friends!

 "Excuse me, this is MY birthday throne...."

And here are just some more pictures from the day.....

Goodie bags for the baby friends with bubbles, squirt toys, pinwheels, and a happy face balloon tied on.

 "Ooooo, I've never had one of these before!"

 "I don't know about this. It seems squishy."

 "Yes. Definitely squishy."

 "I don't believe this is food. I will throw it on the floor for the other babies."

 "Here, mom. You can have it. Now get me down."

 Standing like a big boy.

Still figuring out how to use one of his gifts.

That's all the pictures I have for now. But believe me, there are more!

Thank you to everyone who came to help us celebrate and for all the thoughtful gifts! Thanks for helping us make Baby B's big day special!