Independence Day Parade

On July 4th, Amy fulfilled a life-long dream of driving a float in our little town's Independence Day Parade.  Wilmore's own Crazy Chicken Lady pulled a chicken float with live chickens.  The float was a hit, even though the weather was not.

Cold Weather Cabin Fever = Mall Scavenger Hunt!

Well today made a perfect 5-for-5 on no school this week.  Snow, ice, and single-digit temperatures kept our kids out of school.  Mom was on-point for most of the week but had some appointments she had to keep on Friday, and it was Dad's turn to take off work and find something to do with three cabin-crazy kiddos.  

So Dad and the kids headed up to Lexington to do a scavenger hunt at the mall - the goal was to find something for each letter of the alphabet and have AJ photograph it with his iPod.  Rules: (1) no taking pictures of people, (2) the item had to be a "thing", not an adjective (green sweater) or store name (Macy's) or just a word on a sign (SALE!).  (Another good rule that would've made it better would have been that the thing had to be for sale, but we didn't think of that early enough.) The mission was a success, and we got some exercise in the process.  Free fun on a frigid winter day!

Mallrats for a day

A is for airplane

B is for babies

C is for crabs

D is for DVDs

E is for escalator

F is for fairies

G is for gumballs

H is for hats

I is for ice

J is for jewelry

K is for key

L is for lights

M is for minions

N is for necklaces

O is for oars

P is for pillows

Q is for quilt

R is for rods and reels (double letter bonus!)

S is for shirt (too easy)

T is for tractor

U is for umbrella

V is for volleyballs

W is for wigs

X is for XBOX (that was the hardest letter to find!)

Y is for yogurt

Z is for zipper

(The only bummer of the day was when the Subway at the mall food court informed us after we had completed our order that they did not participate in the JanuANY foot long for $5.  ARE YOU KIDDING ME?  I have to listen to those obnoxious $5 foot long ads on every commercial break, and your location doesn't participate!?!?  I drove past four participating Subway locations to get to yours!  Beware, shoppers.  Beware the food court Subway and their non-participating ways. They are on my list.)

Free Sample Day!

Look at all the free samples I got in the mail today!

The small bottle is Method laundry detergent.  Its supposed to work with just s few squirts.  Can't wait to try it.  The light bulbs are from our electric company (no idea why they sent them to me, but trust, I know I'm paying for them somehow).  The reusable shopping bag is from Earthbound Farm.  This is the 2nd (or 3rd) free bag I've gotten from them for "liking" them on fb.  They also give out a ton of coupons.  I love going to the mailbox on days like this!

Casserole Dish Holder

While Matt was looking for an easy woodworking project to practice on, he came across plans for a casserole dish holder to carry hot casserole or dessert dishes to potluck dinners.

Easy assembly - just 7 cuts of a 1x4.

Next it was time to stain - we went with the dark walnut.

A neat little trick to prevent dripping down the side of the can - use a rubber band to wipe your brush.

After adding a clear coat, felt pads on the bottom to prevent scarring tables

Inexpensive little handles

The finished product!

The Mother-load of Frugal Finds

I had the good fortune of stopping by an estate sale last Friday in between appointments. I love estate sales because you can find the neatest things and they are usually in pretty good shape.  I knew I'd scored on this one when I walked into the basement and saw a whole woodworking shop set up.  As you all know, Matt has been stretching his woodworking muscles lately so I was sure I could find him some necessary items to keep his creative juices flowing.  And sure enough...there it was...a Craftsman Radial Arm Saw.

New model

It wasn't the newest model, since it didn't have laser pointers, but I could tell it was well loved, based on all the hand made items around the shop.  It also had a shop vac with an attachment that sucks up the sawdust as you cut, roller table (not pictured) and a bunch of blades to go with it. Price tag- $400...bummer.  No $400 in the budget but while I was standing there, the man running the sale announced everything was half price.  Hmm...was it worth $200? I'm sure it was and a quick look on Amazon showed new ones are selling for $1,000.  But the thing was huge and we really didn't have room for it.  I texted Matt but he was wavering on price, where we would put it, etc. I offered the guy $175...he said he really couldn't take that much.  So I said, "ok, I'll take the patio table & chair set for $50 (originally marked $100).

Note my lovely assistants model our new patio set (aka Chloe & Matt)

Before I filled in the amount on the check I said to the man running the sale, "you sure you can't take $175?" And he said, "well, ok, but don't tell anybody."  SCORE!!!!  I called Matt & told him "Merry Christmas, now figure out how we are going to get this mammoth thing home and where we are going to store it."

Our neighbor had to come help us unload it because the thing is so heavy, I can't even pick it up with Matt's help. He was super impressed with my purchase and said the shopvac alone was probably worth $175.   I can't wait to see all the projects I can talk Matt into now that he has some serious tools!

Frugal Christmas Find

Michael's Deal of the Day is this art tub for only $5.



I snagged 2 for the girls and personalized them with puffy letters.  I think they'll love having their own art supply box and I love that they were only $5 each. Plus they are filled with all kinds of new art supplies!

Chloe's first sewing project

Chloe discovered a hole in her sock and asked if she could try to darn it (as in sew it, not DARN IT!)  I got her set up and away she went.  She was very proud of herself but then was afraid to wear the sock again for fear her stitching wouldn't hold.  It held just fine though!  So proud of my big girl!

Yes, the sock does appear to be an ice cream cone, but its just because there is a light bulb in it to help her see the places that need stitching. 

Rolling Storage Unit

I saw this idea on Pinterest (my new obsession) and send the link to Matt.  

He said, "that's doable." And I said, "Seriously!" And he said, "yup".  So here's the story of how we made our Rolling Storage unit.  

First we started out with a family trip to L*wes

Caesar supervised while Matt pre-drilled the holes for the screws and the holes to hold the dowel rods. I had previously painted all the boards.

Matt assembling the shelving unit

The easy part is done

We flipped the unit over to insert dowel rods

We gently shoved them in as best we could and when that didn't work,

we banged them in with a mallet.

Then the tricky part was to fit the other side board on with all the dowels in the correct holes and screw each board in the correct place.

Matt's eagle eye always does the trick

We attached 4 casters on the bottom

Caesar supervising the final step

nailing the back piece on

Tada...a rolling storage unit - all for about $60.

Can you find the storage unit? 

here's a clue

While I was hoping to make it wide enough for my canned goods (like in the Pinterest pic), the space between our refrigerator and wall was not wide enough.  It turned out all good in the end though because I had plenty of pantry items that fit. 

I did some rearranging and found that soup cans fit very well.  I also discovered that I have WAY too many cans of Cream of Chicken (what was I thinking?!?!?).