Thrifty Thursday: Picture wall!

Last week I demolished our picture wall, well, not the actual WALL, just the pictures. I painted some silver frames black and changed out some pictures and found a few other things around the house that I could add to the wall to make it nicer/better/more awesome/sweet/etc.
Now while I would love for my wall to look like this:

source

 

Or this:

source

This is what I ended up with (and it's much better...in my opinion....than it was last week):

I have a couple things I want to add, but I'm not sure yet where to put them.

So, now that that is crossed off my list of things to get done before the birthday party (this weekend!) all that's left is the cleaning....hooray.....(tons of enthusiasm there, I'm sure you noticed).

Thanks for stopping by!

Thrifty Thursday! (or not)

Today I am going to dedicate my free time(that was a joke, there is no such thing as free time in real life) to finding and editing pictures to put in all the frames that I have gathered. At some point I need to decide what I'm going to do with the pictures that currently sit in said frames....hmmmmm, maybe I'll start an album......or maybe they'll sit in a pile on top of the piano like all the other stuff that is waiting for me to decide what I'm going to do with it.....

Since I can't really show you how productive I'm being at this point, how about a deep thought. Maybe today can be "Deep Thought Thursday" instead of Thrifty Thursday......or maybe not, you decide =)

First off, a quote from Benjamin Franklin: 

"A long life may not be good enough, but a good life is long enough."

This is kind of morbid, but bear with me, it's very thought provoking I think:

Would you rather die at 50, 

having lived an extremely satisfying and successful life, 

or live to be 100, 

having experienced little happiness 

and few real highlights in life?

Hmmmm, deep thoughts.........
(thanks for stopping by!)

Thrifty Thursday: a BENCH people!

I don't really remember how it all started, I just remember thinking "I want to build something."

Enter Ana White. Holy cow totally awesome site.

I searched for something to build, something we could use, something that would cost less than $20 to make, something that wouldn't make me (or the hubs) pull our hair out while trying to figure out what the heck we were doing.....and behold, the farmhouse bench!

This project almost fell onto the ever-growing list of things I really want to do but don't have time for. Almost, it almost did. But then I remembered, I have a son who is turning 1 in 19 days (holy holy holy that's soon!) and we had the super smart idea to have his birthday party in our backyard and we have no where for anyone to sit (because who actually sits when they go outside to play? Not my almost 3 year old that's for sure)

Without further ado, the bench that our hands built:

We already built the legs before I remembered to document our hard work so you see them here as well as the frame for the bench

the hubs. I think he was kissing his finger cause he hurt it or something. But he may have been picking his nose too......

the bones of the project...a few more steps to go

completion! Ok, almost. I still have to stain it.

Isn't it awesome! We can't stop looking at it. I will sand it and stain it in the next couple days and post a final picture once that happens. I'm so proud of us!

You guys should totally build something too!!!!! Do it, it's FUN!!

(ps, I started pottie-training Elliot (who will be 3 in June) today too and he went pottie on his own TWICE already! SO AWESOME!)

(I linked up with Mique at 30 HandMade Days for this post!)

Thrifty Thursday: Planting seeds!

It's no secret, I l.o.v.e. flowers. Every spring I plant my own little flower garden and spend the whole summer trying to keep them alive (disclaimer: I am great at keeping flowers alive, it's the 3 year old and the 1 year old and the welsh corgi that have a hard time with it). I've never had much luck with seeds but this year, I am determined to have luck with seeds.

So, being the cheapskate that I am, last week I bought a .20cent pack of marigold seeds. I've been waiting all week for the boys in the house to finish eating the eggs in the fridge so I could use the egg carton to plant the seeds and today is the day people. Today is the day. (so excited!)

I had to do some research to make sure I was going about this right, after all, I've never done it right before..... Some useful information:

1. Cover the container with plastic until the seeds germinate
2. Water from the bottom, less chance of over-watering. Let the seeds take what they need.
3. Pay attention to the package, it will tell you how deep to plant the seeds
4. Plant 2-3 seeds in each container to make sure at least one of them is successful

 Alright, I think I'm ready, wish me luck!



Are you planting anything this Spring? Flowers are first for me, the veggie garden is coming later in the month (our first one! hooray!!)

Have a great day!

Thrifty Thursday: Forts!!!!

It has been raining for quite a few days in a row here, which means we've spent a lot of time inside....too much time. I was struggling with Thrifty Thursday today because I REALLY wanted to get out of the house (even just a drive would be fine with me!) but decided I needed to stick to my guns and pull off a totally fun, thrifty day. And I totally pulled through =)  This is Thrifty Thursday FORT EDITION!

from this

to this!!! (yes, that's a cat on top of the fort)

Elliot thought it was awesome, therefore, it WAS awesome.

We took little breaks from the totally awesome fort to watch the birds. Elliot is obsessed with feeding the birds, and I must say, for $1.97 (the price for a bag of bird seed) it's a really really good way to keep a 2 year old busy!

here come the birds! 

So, Thrifty Thursday success once again! What do you do when it's raining outside to keep everyone happy (including yourself!)?

Thanks for stopping by! I LOVE your comments!!

Thrifty Thursday: Let's take pictures!

I take pictures every.single.day. Do I have an expensive camera? Heck no. Do I use a "real" camera? Heck no.....I use my phone. Would I like to use a "real" camera? Heck yes, but alas, I would have to spend money and I'm pretty much anti spending money....so, my trusty phone works just great! While I love taking pictures, I would love even more to learn how to make them look like I really know what I'm doing......so, today that's my goal, to learn how to take good pictures....with my phone.

The first thing I did was check out one of my favorite blogs, Cheri at I Am Momma Hear Me Roar, she always has good pictures, and guess what! She even did a few photography tutorial blogs! Yeah!! So I watched her videos and then I armed myself with my camera (aka phone) and got busy. My perfect opportunity arose, breakfast time. Here is how it all turned out:

Meet Caleb

And this is Elliot, trying to talk brother into sharing with him

He's pretty done with me taking pictures at this point

and now he's really done. But it's so dang cute I couldn't resist a picture

I think they turned out pretty gosh darn gee-golly good. Of course, I have Picnik to thank for helping me edit them, and OF COURSE I have Cheri to thank for teaching me some of the ins and outs of Picnik.

I'm proud of myself. I think the pictures are awesome. I can't wait to try it out some more!

Ok, now off to conquer the world one diaper at a time!
Have a great day! Thanks for reading!!!