After 5 years of searching, I finally found it!

So here’s the skinny on thrifty adventure #2 (also, I will probably stop numbering them after this because it could get embarrassing in a few months when we’re on thrifty adventure #156, and it’s only March)!  I went to Goodwill, St Vinnys, and 2 other local haunts. 

Maggie scored big this trip with a bunch of doll stuff – she is the proud mama of my Cabbage Patch dolls – Caren Lotti, Lorelei Donna, and Lara Cleo.  Sadly, I did not have to find their “birth certificates” to tell you that. She also got a dress and skirt from Children’s Place, and a brown corduroy jumper from the Gap.

Ezra got a sweater from Gymboree (to be packed away for next year).

I got some back-to-school items to be used in the near future as this whole maternity leave deal comes to a close.  I also got a magazine, and that black picture frame hiding in the back is part of the aforementioned photo install in the bedroom.

The piece-de-resistance (I am saying that a French accent) is that black embroidered thing in the back.  A floor-length, latin-inspired dress.  This is not for every day wear, mind you.  I have a little obsession with Frida Kahlo.  I have been to all her houses in Mexico City along with several museums that house her paintings.  I have traveled to Chicago and Minneapolis to see expositions of her work, I even have 3 graduate credits in Frida Kahlo art.   And, yes, I know she was kooky and crass and some might argue a little ‘off’.  But she was a pioneer.  She was a feminist before feminism.  She was a strong-willed, independent woman.  I just find her completely fascinating.  And so, for the past 5 years or so, I’ve wanted to be her for Halloween, and/or two other times during the year that we study her work comes in class.  I bought long wigs several years ago.  I’ve got some jewelry, but I never had the dress.  And now, well, look out come October!

Maggie’s Room Redo

Are you ready to get the low-down on Maggie’s room redo?  We started painting in January of last year – before we knew we’d be welcoming little brother into our midst.

The colors for the room were based on a comforter I got at Goodwill.  It was new from Target’s Liberty of London line.  You can see it on her bed here (it’s a full-size, so it’s folded in half).

Kole painted her table and chairs to match (blue chair is MIA as of this picture).

I sewed curtain panels from a roll of white fabric I got at an estate sale for $2.  If you’ve gotten a quilt from me in the last 3 years, chances are the base fabric was from this.  I bought ribbon from JoAnn’s to match the colors of her room to adorn the panels.  In retrospect, I’d have made the panels on the larger window about double as wide, but I’ll file that away for when we redecorate this room in the (distant) future.

The picture hanging between the two windows is a poster of the ABC’s found in nature.  We bought it at the Sertoma Butterfly House in Sioux Falls, South Dakota on our honeymoon.  It hung in the office at our old house, and we were happy to repurpose it in Maggie’s room.

The table and chairs were a score from an estate sale awhile back.  The play kitchen from that post was resold for $20 (a $5 profit!) when I spotted the gems in this picture on Craigslist.  The bunk beds, oven, sink and refrigerator were a steal at $30!  Kole painted the fridge door with magnetic paint before we covered everything in white. 

The pink hamper in front of the bunk beds was a find from an antique store in a nearby town.  The basket next to the stove holds play food & is something we’ve used in different capacities for many years.  The pink bin next to the fridge was free from a neighbor and works to corral all of Maggie’s dress up.

This picture houses some of my favorite items.  The tall white shelf on the left was a thrift store purchase. $1.98.  Seriously.  Add some white paint and we’re in business.  The long white shelf came from an estate sale.  The lamp, which has a partner across the room, was an auction buy many years ago.  $5 for the pair.  I recovered the shades in scrap fabric, and voila! New lamps!  The rocking chair came from the same SCORE day as the table and chairs, and I made the pouf pillow from a thrifted tablecloth.  The book poster was a gift from friends, and with a new matte, works well in an IKEA frame I’ve had since 1999.  The rug was on clearance at Target.

I really wanted a girly metal bed frame.  I found this one and its twin on Craigslist for $50.  I sold the other one for $40, bringing the cost of this frame to $10.  The mattress was also from Craigslist – no worries, it was well vetted before purchase and came with a hypo-allergenic, waterproof cover.  The dresser was rescued at auction and refinished when we were at our old house.  The embroidery hoop name art was finished right before Ezra was born. The metal garbage can was found at a garage sale.

Wall paint appx. $35

Comforter $14.99

Table and chairs $5

Paint for furniture $35

Curtains & ribbon – $10

Play kitchen $30

Antique doll clothes caddy $12

White shelves $11.98

Rocking chair $5

Poster matte $12

Pouf pillow $3.48

Rug $20.98

Lamps $5

Bedframe $10

Mattress $25

Embroidery hoop art $3

Garbage can $2

Clock & poster (not pictured) $14

Total $254.43

Fifty Two

That’s how many projects I’m aiming to finish this year.  I was perusing the blogosphere and looking at everyone’s resolutions and such, and a thought occurred to me.  Wouldn’t it be great to complete one project a week in 2012?  Would it be doable?  We’ll find out.  Here’s the challenge:  tackle one task on my ever growing to-do list every week.  Celebrate my accomplishments here.  There are some questions that go along with this I suppose. 

What constitutes a project? This is fairly loose.   Getting stamps = not a project.  Painting the bathroom, sewing those kitchen curtains, cleaning & organizing the god-awful tupperware cabinet = all projects.  Really it’s my own discretion.  Perhaps getting stamps will qualify as a project during a particularly hellish week, perhaps not.

While 52 is a lot of projects, I don’t think it’s totally unmanageable.  I am counting on divvying up larger projects into small chunks that we can celebrate.  For example, we’d like to do some landscaping this year.  I would not write “landscape” on my to-do list, but I would list “clean out flower beds, prune trees, dig up grass & put down top soil…”  I think you get the idea.

We started quite a few projects this week.  There’s some artwork getting rehung in the family room and a photo installation going up in the bedroom.  We also started cleaning out several closets.  Have I mentioned that I’m super great at starting projects and that I can often find the energy to finish them, but I get lost in the middle?  I lack patience.  Kole, on the other hand, is diligent.  He’s an excellent middle-of-the-project stick with it kind of guy.  Hopefully the balance will keep us going.  So, I don’t have photos of any finished projects from this week – though I’ll get them on here soon.  Instead, I thought I’d share a room redo from 2011.

Here’s Maggie’s big girl room "before”

During painting…

And after!

Come back tomorrow to get the skinny on what we did and for how much.  The only thing that we bought new is the abc carpet in this last photo.  Everything else was a previously loved treasure.

Thrifty. Frugal. Cheap.

Jan 3 2012
Originally uploaded by thehousewherewelive

If you know us, then you probably are already aware of our thrifty nature. Never ones to purchase items at full retail price, we have spent hours days scouring thrift stores, stopping at rummage sales, and sitting at auctions all in the name of a good deal. A great majority of our home furnishings, clothing (especially the kids’) and entertainment has been previously loved, and we like it that way. There is no worry when something gets ripped, broken or scratched, because we didn’t spend a lot on it to begin with. We also find great pleasure searching for bargains, and although our families are probably tired of all the trinkets and gag gifts that migrate their way on holidays, I don’t anticipate us stopping anytime soon. Which brings me to the point of this post.

In 2012 I’m going to try and document or keep a log of sorts of the items we buy secondhand and the amount we spend. I’m curious to see where we end up at the end of the year, and I’m wondering if I can roughly calculate how much we save versus buying retail. I’m not sure I have the time or energy to go that far – just sayin’ it’d be interesting.

Yesterday was my first trip out. I visited one Goodwill, a home décor consignment store, the ReStore, and a local shop that is near and dear to my heart due to its blanket pricing system. Example: all kids’ clothing size 6x and under is 25 cents per item. Seriously 25 cents! Adult sweaters are $1.00! This has contributed to the 3 garbage bags of felted wool sweaters in my crafty room, but I digress…

Here’s a look at the loot from January 3, 2012. You should be able to scroll over the items and see the cost per store.

Total spent: $21.36

Holiday Traditions

While we followed through with the advent calendar all month & stuffed french toast on Christmas morning, we tried out some new possible traditions this year. 

(1) Celebrating St. Nick’s Day.  I tried to convince Kole to celebrate St. Nick when it was just us – he didn’t buy it.  Even with kids, I’m not sure either of us is into this one, though it’s hugely popular where we live.  We’ll think about this for next year.

(2) Concentrating on more thrifted and handmade gifts.  This one we’re looking to up the ante on for next year.  Most of what our kids got was ‘previously loved’ and neither of them cared a bit.  We also did a lot more wrapping in reusable fabric bags.  I thought Maggie might baulk at not being able to tear the paper – nope! Not a word was said, and as for the clean up?  Well, it was a piece of cake!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(3) Christmas dinner by candlelight.  This was a winner for sure.  Eating by candlelight, though dangerous with a 2 year old, made for a more relaxed, slower meal.  We laughed and talked about our day and just enjoyed some time together.  We will definitely be doing this again – perhaps more than once a year.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(4) Purchasing a tree from a retail store instead of cutting our own.  This was not a planned break in our traditional family cutting of the Christmas tree…  It was a product of rain, cold and a 6-week-old baby that propelled us to Stein’s for our tree.  NEVER AGAIN.  The darned thing caved in on itself a week and a half before Christmas.  We weren’t facing lost needles; we were facing lost branches, ornaments laying on the floor while still “hanging” from their branches.  It was , straight out, a FIRE HAZARD.  It came down earlier than any tree in my entire life – December 26th.  We were the fourth tree dropped off at the recycling center. 

Out of respect to Stein’s, I should provide the following disclaimer.  This particular tree was set up in fairly close proximity to the blower for the gas fireplace.  And we may have fallen asleep (several times) with said fireplace running which may or may not have contributed to the tree’s demise.  Maybe.

 

Any ideas for future traditions?

Holiday Handmades 2011

Snow Globe Soap for all sorts of folks

Melted Snowmen & Hot Fudge and Butterscotch Sauces for the neighbors

Felted Wool Mittens for Maggie’s teachers

Tu Tu for Maggie… it might be a bit too long for right now.

Thrifted and homemade doll clothes & a baby carrier.

A hat and sweater from mom.

Time away for mom and dad.

Happy New Year!

2011 was good to us here at the house where we live.

CELEBRATIONS:

-Ezra!  Seriously, could I not list our newest addition first? Remaining “celebrations” in no particular order.

-Travel – Puerto Rico, New Orleans, and some exploration of our own great state

-Netflix Streaming

-Maggie’s ability to rationalize just about anything… also her use of the words: disappointed, appreciate, also and actually in a way that mimicks the speech of both mom and dad.

-the iPad2

-my new 3D cardboard mounted deer head (picture to follow)

-our flamily (Maggie’s pronunciation)

-maternity and paternity leave

-relaxed travel restrictions to Cuba (see goals for 2012)

-chocolate – really any kind will do

-great friends and neighbors

-gnomes – especially those that light up! (picture to follow)

-love, health, and everything else one might expect.

 

What about 2012?  I’ve got some goals.  Sew more. Travel more.  (Hello Cuba?)  Increase my level of patience.  Plan day trips.  Explore.  Archive our digital photos.  Have a rummage sale & purge baby items – yes, we’re done having kids.  Teach Maggie to swing by herself.  Plant a bigger garden.  Ride my bike more often.  Teach. Keep reading.  Learn more.  Landscape.  Help Kole make beer.  Get in shape.  Spend more time unplugged.  Thrift.  Live life and love it.

 

We wish you and yours the very best start for 2012!