Have a great weekend!

No big posts today on Good Friday. All ball games and colored eggs aside, I am going to try and remember what this weekend is really all about. His sacrifice for us! Have a blessed and great Easter weekend!

Projects this week

OK, I am not doing many home projects right now. In fact, if I get dinner and the laundry done I am doing good. We are a big sports family. All the kids are very active in sports and this is one of our busy seasons. So I have to mix in kids sports and home projects in this blog. Those go together don't they?

We have 4 baseball teams and a travel soccer team going right now. Next month we throw in a few cheer practices to get ready for camp too. I am a homebody so I get ansy sometimes running around so much. My husband played some college football and LOVES sports so he helps a lot when he is in town.

This is my 7th grader! He wears a size 13 man shoe. It blows my mind that he is so much bigger than me all ready. He is tall and slender but eats 24/7. I wish I had that metabolism.

The 2 smallest play on the playgrounds at every field and in the rocks. They love it. This summer this little cutie is starting dance lessons. Believe me she is sassy enough to handle it.

Sometimes I wonder if this is all worth the running around. But the kids love it and are in great shape. They have made lots of friends and maybe one day something will help pay for somebody to go to college. You never know. And with 7 going to college someday, anything could help! Have a great day!

There's a first for Everything!

So last week I got a email that I had my name drawn by a cutie patootie girl to win some vintage Easter goodies! Kim from Musings from Kim K (http://kenward.blogspot.com) sent me the cutest Easter decorations. This is a first! I have NEVER won anything! I am not even joking.

Look at all this fun stuff! I have 1 ceramic Easter bunny for decoration right now and that is it! Now we have Easter vintage goodness!

She packaged it all really cute too. She is so crafty and sweet you should visit her blog. I will be doing the happy dance all the way to Easter! Have a great day!

Outside work

I got this cute little bench/table at a garage sale last summer for $3.00. It is solid wood that somebody put together but is looking pretty beat up. It sits on my porch as a little table or extra seating.

You can tell in the background there what I am thinking about doing to it. I am not sure. It needs something. I have no patience when I am not sure what to do and I usually start just painting it or put it off another year. What do you think?

I am loving my garage sale wreath I got a couple weeks ago. I hung it on my front door and it matches so well and looks summery. Don't you love when that happens? I snatched that up for $2.00! It might be my best deal so far! I could tell it was handmade and not manufactured and made well. (I use to be a florist) I couldn't even buy all those flowers for $2.00 to make it myself so I was happy. Hopefully it will be a nice today so I can get out in the garden. Have a great day!

Random ramblings on a Thursday

This is where we are spending every night of the week. We have 4 baseball teams going and a soccer team right now! It's fun but exhausting. And the gas prices are killing me driving everywhere!

I made this cake for my youngest daughter's birthday because she requested a princess cake this year. I was reading the directions and she picked up the directions and acted like she was reading. She informed that Step 1 said to cover the doll's boobs. Ha!

This was last summer from my veggie garden. That is a zuchinni. I am hoping to get another good crop this year and started planting some veggies this week! I hope I don't run out of steam come July. Have a great day!

Back to the thrifty finds

I found this baggie with perfect large shells in it for a quarter. There are probably 10-12 in the baggie stacked with tissue inbetween. I figured I could find something to do with these beauties!

I got this lamp at Goodwill. I am not sure what I am going to do with it but I liked it. The dancing people are ceramic and not a chip on it.

I found this vintage flat sheet at the thrift store with several of these small frames. 28 cents! I actually made the bunting in the girl's room out of a pillow case that matches this sheet! I'll have to find another project for this one.

I got 6 of these monogram glasses at a yard sale. They were dusty and unused in a box. I love it when I find our intial. They will look cute in my china hutch because they have a silverish tone to them and I like them with my silverplate items. Back to work in our massive garden today and three ball games tonight! Have a great day!

Dorm style living

I am sorry I can't give credit to this picture. It's been on my computer saved forever! Probably Country Living or Better Homes? With 7 kids and space limited, something about a bunk room appeals to me! I never thought it could look so put together and stylish but today's creative people have made it happen. I think of college dorms when I see bunkrooms. But my college dorm never looked like this!

I am pretty sure this was in Better Homes and Garden. Beds as built ins? Brilliant! Love that idea but not sure if that could work in our rooms or not. I am thinking though...

This is a random picture of my 15 year old. I don't think she would go for the bunk room idea. Sorry for the looong weekend absence friends! Life is really busy right now!

My 5 year old LOVES cats and is constantly carrying around a cat or kitten. I thought I would throw in a cute 5 year old with cat picture too. I know this was random posting today but some days you gotta go with you what you have! Have a great day!

The Loooong project

Do you have a project that you have been working on forever? I love cross stitch. I like to do tedious cross stitch but my time is limited so sometimes I put it down for a looong time before I will pick it up again. I have been working on this forever. No outlining details are here so it might be hard to see. It's Jesus with a child. There are 6 shades of brown just in the hair! It might take me 32 years to finish it but that's ok with me.

Well, I have no idea why this picture is turned but here is what it will look like one day when it is done. I am thinking of working a little on it this week. Maybe if I still have a blog 32 years from now you can see what it looks like finished! Have a great day!

Life as usual

Tomorrow I will post more thrifty finds, but today is soccer, baseball, and laundry. I bet you don't want to see a picture of my dirty laundry! No vacation this year. Boo. This was a couple years ago when we went to Disneyworld. My In laws took us and all 7 kids! It was so fun. 14 hours in the car wasn't too fun but we did it! She was at a great age to LOVE the princesses. I love the princesses. Sigh.... ok back to reality and laundry. Have a great day!

Back in the saddle and great finds!

When I read the back of this picture that was 25 cents at a church yard sale this weekend I had to get it. It was the prize for Norma in 1968 at her Sunday School class. So sweet!

Here is the front of the picture with my vintage hobnail bedspread and a bed skirt for my soon to happen master bedroom makeover! I am collecting things to start on that makeover soon.

I thought this frame was cool and I could even get a piece of glass cut for a mirror in this. I am just in love with this vintage crocheted table cloth!!!!I got it for a steal!

50 cents for this vintage Christmas apron! $1.00 for this cute fall table cloth! I was in heaven!

These pillow cases are not finished but the graphics are so cute. 50 cents a piece I couldn't resist! My little guy is doing great from his minor surgery and today is the spring opening for my local thrift shop! I will have to show you my goodies from there soon. It was crazy in there! I think people are catching on to the thrift store goodness. The girls that run it run it like a real store. Staging things and putting things out according to seasons and holidays. The prices are so good. Better than Goodwill! Have a great day!

Back at it Tomorrow!

My youngest is having a minor surgery today so I will be tending to him most of the day and trying to catch up from a very busy weekend of soccer and baseball games. I did go to some fantastic garage sales on Saturday so I will fill you in soon! See ya!

Making Mt. Everest

I homeschool 2 of my kids this year. We make decisions year to year about school. They really like homeschool and really like public school. Next year I will only have a kindergartner and a preschooler. Anyway, I am doing 1st and 3rd grade this year. We usually do science and social studies together in reading or projects. This past week we talked Geography and about Mt. Everest. I found this kit several years ago on clearance at Target and we finally put it together!

I made them keep it in the box til it dried. That white stuff was thick and sticky like concrete! But it was fun and now they know what Mt. Everest is and where it is!

If I go into town and drive by Goodwill I stop. You can go there 10 times and find nothing and then bam! you find things. So I will take 5 minutes and run thru once a week. I have been collecting this particular swirl pattern of Johnson Bro. ironstone and was happy to find more saucers.

This cute little pitcher is really heavy glass and I just imagined it for lemonade this summer.

Ok, I have NO Easter decorations. We color eggs and the Easter bunny comes but I just don't normally put out decorations. But I saw this big ceramic bunny and he was pretty cheap. (Kim K. I thought of you!) So I grabbed him and he is sitting on my table but might move to the mantle this weekend. I am just crossing my fingers that he doesn't lose his ears from a flying ball or a swinging golf club before Easter! Have a great day!

Spring is nice, but I like summer

These are my 2 youngest last summer. I was trying to find some pics of my garden last year and couldn't really find any. I just miss summer. The kids play outside til dark and then chase lightening bugs. It's so green out here because of all the farming around us. Spring in Indiana is wet and usually cold. There are very few days of true lovely spring weather anymore. I love summer.

This was one day haul of veggies last summer in my wagon! And we are doing triple the size this year! I have had smaller years so I am crossing my fingers that all goes well this year.

This was one year that we were out of town and so busy in July that I couldn't do anything in the garden for 2 weeks. Yes, those are tomato plants that I planted too close together that first year. They grew into a hedge! They were taller than me. But I did still get a lot of tomatoes that year. I am hoping to stay on top of it this year with my hired farm hands ( my kids). Have a great day!

Around my house

I forgot to show you this cute picture I got at our thrift store for 50 cents. I know geese aren't the in thing anymore but silhouettes are, so I thought this was cute. And I have 3 girls so I was drawn to it.

This could be nominated for the worst blog picture for 2011. But I didn't have time to upload another so just work with me! About a month ago my husband went out of town and the front hall was looking reallly bad. Think 2 million fingerprints and dings all over everything. So in one day I went to Lowes had them cut all this wood (this was furrow strips used to hang drywall), nailed it up there and painted. My kids thought I had went nuts.

I found this vintage picture at the thrift store for $2.00. I painted the frame black and that's it! It kinda looks like a paint by number but it's not.

Here's around the corner in the front hall. All the wood for this project cost me about $25.00. It was strips used to hang drywall so not the best quality but hey I haven't freaked about the kids riding tricycles into yet. If it was really good wood I might be more freaked about that. We took the bi-fold doors off the closet and hung curtains because the doors got used so much they kept coming off the tracks. Yes that is more of that oops paint. The same color I used in my daughter's room. She liked it so much she asked for it in her room. I got a 5 gallon drum for $34.00 so I had some left over :) Have a great day!

I'm still terrible at before and after pictures

I'm really terrible at taking blog pictures. I have no patience to make things just right. I want it done and ready to move on to the next thing! I need to slow down and do it right. But you won't have to worry about me staging anything. I don't have the patience to make every detail perfect. I have learned to let that go because a person would drive themselves crazy with everything being perfect with 7 kids. It can't happen. Just as soon as you make it perfect someone spills something, breaks something, throws up or something. It's true. I swear.

So, my blog pictures are very generic. I am working on that. But I am always hurrying along to get things done. I love pictures so I will work on it. Pinky swear. Anyway, here is the bed before. I had to prime that thing because it had a little bit of shine to it. But I think it looks much better white.

Madison (my oldest) got home Saturday night at midnight from her trip and ran up the stairs to see her room. She loved it! I was so happy. Then I warned her to mess it up would bring the wrath of MOM after her. Yeah, we'll see how long that lasts. Glad I got pictures of it clean anyway.

Here is that cabinet before I painted it white. I know, boring right? But it does look better. One thing I am proud of that this whole makeover was very frugal. My total cost : mirror at goodwill-11.00, blinds-11.50, headboard lamp-9.00, wall paint-(oops paint)6.00, just got a bed skirt at consignment shop-5.00 and a quart of primer-6.00, craigslist bed-30.00 $79.50! All the white paint was left over from other projects so I could count that in the cost but I didn't. Not bad for a room makeover. She still loved her bedding so that saved me a bundle. So on to the next project and back to school today. Have a great day!

The last weekend of spring break activities

I bet not knowing what this picture is looks pretty gross. I am making laundry detergent today. Yes I do tons of laundry everyday. This helps keep costs down. This is the bar soap melting down.

You just grate it up and melt it in some water. Add the other cast of characters, add more water in a 5 gallon bucket and you have cheap per load laundry detergent.

Here is the cast of characters. I am sure you have seen the recipe floating around blogland. I have been making it for about 4 years. If I can get detergent super cheap, I buy it. Otherwise, I make it. So many people ask me how we make it on one modest income with so many kids and with our kids so active in sports. We don't do it perfectly and we are still learning. But, we make choices. No, making your own detergent won't put your kids thru college or pay for travel soccer, but all pennies add up to dollars. It's a bunch of small decisions that can add up to paying for something else. Priorities I guess. And God's hand in all of it. And shopping at garage sales...speaking of...

Garage sale season started here today. It is cooold but the churches usually start off the season and they are held indoors. They are the best because you go to one place for lots of stuff! Went to 2 today and found a box full of white federalist ironstone! My oldest comes home tonight from her trip and will see her room makeover. We are going to enjoy the rest of the weekend with the kids because next week starts 2 million practices and running around crazy. Have a great weekend!