Thrifty Thursday {dresser, nightstand, & books}

 I'm back with some super finds. 

We got rid of two dressers in our bedroom redo to open the space up. But since our closet space is very tiny, we needed one dresser to help us out. So I searched Craigslist for a few weeks. Found nothing. Then, on a trip to Goodwill I found this pretty thing.

                       Love at first sight.

When the weather gets warmer, I'll give it a new coat of paint. And cover up that random "R" on the second drawer.

There are some scratches that I hope I can remove.

Cost: $20


The next pieces came from my mom. 
I was actually with her when she bought these at a garage sale last summer. I wanted to buy them myself, but at the time had no where to put them. When we did the bedroom makeover, we were on the look out for matching nightstands. I completely forgot about these pieces until my mom mentioned them and told me to take them. Thanks Mom!!!

There is an identical one on the other side of our bed. They are narrow, but have surprisingly deep drawers, which help with our limited closet space.

I have some plans for these twins. 
Just as soon as it warms up, and quits snowing!

Cost: Free!

The next finds are from Goodwill. I went in looking for a jean jacket and came out with about 10 pounds of books! That's usually what happens at Goodwill. You never know what you will find! 
Anyway, I always browse the book section just to look. My kiddos love to read and books cost $.50 to $1.00 there! So, I think a church just unloaded a whole bunch of spiritual/biblical books before I arrived because there were a ton of them there. 
I ended up buying two really nice sets of children's bible stories. 

The day after I bought these, the girls had already read through half of the first set! 
I really like these bible story sets because they are based off the KJV. That's the version we use and the girls were easily able to follow along with the pictures. 

 Cost: $14 {each book was a $1} 

Happy Hunting!

Updo for long hair {tutorial}

One thing is certain. My girls have long hair. Let me rephrase that. My girls have EXTRA-long hair. When I say EXTRA, I mean past their little bottoms. So this hair tutorial involves a lot of hair. 

Side note: I have tried it on shorter (shoulder-length) and it didn't work as well.

Here we go:

First, grab a small chunk of hair in the front.

Second, divide the chunk of hair into two parts and start a french braid going down the side of the face.

Pictures 1 & 2, continue the french braid down, past the ear.

Picture 3 & 4, clip the braid in place, so you can grab the rest of the hair for the pony tail.

You could stop here, and it would look really cute.

Now, this is the part where I couldn't take a picture. So I will do my best to explain it. 

After all the hair is in a pony tail, I just start twisting around the base of the pony tail until just the ends are sticking out. Then, I secure the bun with 2 jaw clips.

I use jaw clips because our hair is so thick and long.  

If you have shorter hair you may be able to pin it up with no jaw clips. 

These are the hair accessories I need for this updo.

This may look confusing so I'll explain.

Pictures 1 & 2, I use the extra hair sticking out at the top, to cover the jaw clips. Take half of the hair and wrap it around one side. Pin the hair into the side of the bun after you have covered the jaw clip. Repeat for the other side.

Pictures 3 & 4, if there is any extra hair sticking out just pin it inside the bun.   

Sometimes I do not have enough hair to cover a jaw clip, so I pin a pretty hair clip to hide it. 

Here is the other side.

I do this hair style quite a bit. It may seen too fancy for an everyday style but with the hair God has given us, it works. 

There are so many different variations you could do with just this updo. Thankfully, I have two little girls that allow me to practice on them. :)

Have a blessed day!

Bedroom Redo Reveal!

Here comes the reveal!

It's not Pinterest worthy but it is done!

The planked wall where the bed will go.

One side of the bedroom.

The other side.

The entrance and closets.

Sorry for the mess in the pictures. I took these the morning after we finished. I was so excited and still am!
This room went from being the room where I would hide everything and shut the door when people came over, into a breath of fresh air. 
I love being in my bedroom now. 
I did purge quite a bit of stuff. We also got rid of two dressers which meant giving away most of the clothes in them. 
It felt so good to down-size. 
Our room feels SO much bigger now. Funny how that works. ;)
Our room is no longer lined with dressers.
 I can see the board and batten! 
I can see all the details we put into this room!
And to quote Asher when he first saw the room, "Mommy, I wuv dis!"

That translates into good job mom and dad. 

What our pets do when we leave the house

I'm sure you have heard the phrase, "While the cats away, the mice play." 

Well, we are that "cat" and my trio of fur are the "mice." 

This is how two of the three pets keep themselves "busy" while we are away.
I'll start with Fluffy. 

We were given a piano a year ago and she kinda came with it. The owners of the piano were moving and their cat just had kittens.  They asked me if I wanted the last kitten. Really!?! It was love at first sight. She has the most unique coat on her. An all white body, with a black tail, and a white spot on the very tip. And what appears to be black eyebrows, painted unusually high. So I guess you can say I wanted to keep her for her looks. 

What was I thinking? 

I was blinded by her beauty.

So she came home with me.

Here she is with our other "well-behaved" cat.

  Fast forward a year, and she is proving that looks can be very deceiving.

Here's why. 
If there is ever a cup or any object she can push (with her paws) off a surface, she will. It doesn't matter if there is orange juice or milk in said cup. She will knock if over. When we come home from an evening out, we almost always find a cup on the floor. Or a stack of papers. We have to remind ourselves before we leave now to put every cup or glass away.

Case in point:

Every. Single. Time.

And she just stares at it like she really didn't know that was going to happen!!!!

Onto Mello. 
What can I say? 
He loves to eat!

Before we leave our house, I have to make sure there is no food on the counter tops. 

This is why:

(Sorry for the weird color.)

I still have no idea how he got that loaf of bread! I promise you that I put that bread in the back corner of my kitchen counter.  He would've had to jump on the counter to get it. Which, if that is true, makes me want to set up hidden cameras in my home just to watch this dog. 

Seriously.

Now this is partly my fault. That bag of Little Debbie powered donuts was in our pantry. I left the pantry door open. 
My fault. 
He demolished that bag! Not one morsel of donut was left, except a pile of powder that looked as if it had been licked a few times. 
Yuck.
My fault. 
And, I have no idea where he got the Skittles. I wonder if he has a secret stash of candy hidden somewhere? 
That hidden camera thing is really starting to entice me. ;)

Last, but certainly not least, the grand finale! 

I will never forget the night we came home to this:

Never EVER forget.

This happened on a cold winter night in December. We came home, took our coats off, and asked "Where's Mello?" 
He is usually waiting for us by the door. 
Not this night. 
We called for him and heard a faint scratch on our closed bathroom door. 
We never shut the bathroom door. 
How did it get shut? 
This is still a mystery to us. 
Somehow he locked himself in the bathroom and OBVIOUSLY started to panic! 
It was a MESS! 
Not to mention the huge hole in our wall.

The only good thing that will come out of this destruction, is a DIY bathroom redo. Wink, wink.

To be continued.....

Bedroom Redo Pt. 2

I will pick up where I left off last time with the floors.  
We were snowed in for a few days (hubby's work was called off and level 3 snow emergency), so we attacked the floors. 

The only good thing about snow emergencies is that you are forced to get work done! 

 This took us two days to complete.

Here are some pics of the floors.

 The next job for the room was to put in board and batten. 

We kept going back and forth with adding this to the bedroom. I thought it would be too busy, since we added the huge planked wall. The hubby thought we needed the board and batten to help off set the dark floors. In the end, I am glad we did it! It really makes the room look less dark. 

Hubby got to work nailing the trim and base pieces in. I followed behind him with a paint brush, and a good coat of primer. 

Since I was already priming the board and batten, I went ahead and did the planked wall as well. 

After the first coat of primer was on, I caulked every joint on the board and batten. Not fun in the least, but does it ever make a difference. I highly recommend caulking any joint!

The entire room took three tubes of caulk. 

The next step was painting the planked wall and the board and batten. We used Pure White from Behr paint.

We also added crown molding.

I'll be back with more updates. 

I'm looking for a really dramatic "before" picture before I post the reveal. 

This room has gone through many changes, and sadly I didn't take enough pictures years ago.

I'll keep digging around though. I don't know about you, but the "before and after" is my favorite part!

Have a blessed day!

Juicing and a Quick Snack Idea

As the title mentions, I started juicing. I'm not an expert, but I have had my share of trials and errors with this thing. So this is my sweet and simple explanation of what works for us.

 First of all, you need a juicing machine. I didn't want to invest too much up front until I knew that juicing was going to fit in with our family.  So hubby found a used juicing machine for $25! That's a huge deal considering a brand new juicer costs a few hundred dollars or more.  

My juicer. 
An oldy, but a goody!!

Next, the fun part of mixing the veggies and fruit. Usually, if I make the right consistency of fruit and vegetable,  all the kids will have a cup of juice. Each child has a different taste though. So I will add a little more of some fruit/vegetable in one cup, and a little less fruit/vegetable in another. Whatever works. 

This is what is usually in all our juices.

Carrots

Celery

Kale

Cucumber

Apples
Preferably all organic.

And the finished product.

It's green and delicious!

My snack idea is super simple.

 All I do is cut up all the fruit and veggies as soon as I get them home. Put them in a container and in the fridge. Nothing profound or earth shaking, I know. Just taking 15 minutes and cutting up everything, has changed the way we snack. I don't know why I didn't start doing this years ago. It's so simple! 

All ready to eat up at any moment! Which, if you have little ones, means about every 15 minutes! 

Another thing, have you tried these?

 My sister-in-law introduced them to me, so I picked some up at the store and had the kids try them. 

When I asked Emma what she thought of them she replied, "I feel like a horse!" Hah!

Seriously, sprouts do taste like grass, but in a good way. Does that make sense? Probably not.

I haven't tried them in a salad or on a sandwich yet. Just by the taste, I think they will be a good substitute for lettuce, though. 

Plus, the package you see in the picture costs a whopping $1.50!  

So, if your in the mood to eat like a horse, grab some sprouts!

Have a great day!

How to make a simple headband

Are you always trying to pat that unsightly wisp of hair down? 

Well, join the club and I will teach you the simplest way to fix it. 

The secret is.... a headband! 

Not just any headband though. No, no. I am talking about a headband you can make in about 5 minutes. 

Ready? 

Here we go.

First, find an old jersey knit t-shirt and cut the bottom hem off.

Second, cut the bottom piece you just cut in half, making one long piece.

Thirdly, measure around your head (or a cute little girl that lives with you ;)) to get the length you need.

 Finally, cut the excess fabric off, sew the edges together, and put it on!

        This width of the headband was a little too thin for me.

                   It was about 2 1/2 inches wide. 

         So I made another headband, you know, because it's easy.

                This time I made it 5 1/2 inches wide.

I like this width better.

This type of headband isn't the tightest. 

I am sure there is a way to make it more elastic, but that was not my intention. 

This headband is for one of the days you can't tame those flyaways! 

                              

Have fun!