Recent Thrifing Scores

Our house is coming together finally! The downstairs is pretty much visitor ready, just don't wander upstairs yet. 

So a couple weeks ago I dragged my husband garage sale-ing with me on a Saturday morning. He seemed reluctant at first until we happened upon score after score. We visited the ATM on 3, yes 3 separate occasions. Needless to say I was not expecting to spend much, but my husband sure made out like a bandit. He had a great time after all was said and done. Among his scores were a gently used treadmill (much cheaper than his gym membership), 2 arm chairs for our living room, a fun restaurant style high chair for our son or visitors, a camping chair for our son, and some cute clothes for him. All I got were some Dr.Seuss books and storage drawers.Boring.

Here is what the chairs look like. They are both in excellent condition and they recline!

I made up for it a few days later though. I needed to find some fabric for the purse I made at craft club. I was on my way to Joann, but decided to take a look at Hancock on my way. Soooo glad I did. They had an amazing sale on knits and I could not help myself! 

I plan on making at least one summer skirt and probably a dress of some sort.

On another day when I had the car I stopped by Goodwill and made a few more awesome finds!

A lamp for $1.50.

 This tunic dress/shirt thing. I'm planning on shortening it and using the extra for embellishments $3.

 And this skirt, which had my mind all confuzzled for a second.

 It is labeled size 4 but was more like a 24. I guess the elastic had gotten stretched or something. Either way it was cheaper because of that and it gives me more fabric to work with.

I'll keep you posted on the transformations and once I wash my heaping pile of dishes I will gladly take pictures of how our downstairs has turned out.

I crafted!!

I've been meaning to post for a while now and just kept thinking 'I just haven't done any crafts lately,' but I sat down to write this post yesterday to find that blogger was down. So just be happy I stuck with it and came back to write it today. 

Moving on...

Tuesday, we got together for craft club and a Singer sewing party. We made the adorable Buttercup Bag by Rae of Made By Rae. I love how this bag turned out and it was so easy! I took it today to play group and got many compliments. It is just the perfect size for the essentials when I don't want to lug around the mommy bag.

 Here's my little man modeling it just after I finished

 Isn't he so cute? He's getting so big!

I think this would be a great project for the young women in my ward to learn how to sew or for a cute handmade present. Love it!

I also forgot to share my second circle skirt that I made about a month ago. This time I used a friend's serger and it was soooo much easier!

P.S. Do you like our the wall color I picked? We still have some more painting to do, but we're getting there. 

Earth Day and Spring Cleaning Tips

 In other news, I finally found my camera and cord to upload so I've got some pictures to share. This last month or so, I've been doing a lot of cleaning. I spent a good 8 hours cleaning our apartment top to bottom to make sure we didn't get fined. Then when we moved into our temporary house, it had been vacant for a while and needed some touch ups. When we finally got our house, it too had been vacant for a while and needed a good cleaning - I prefer knowing I've gotten rid of the previous owner's germs and living with my own.

So here are some tips that I hope you can use...

1.Start at the top and work your way down. This is especially important when dusting bookshelves, fans, blinds, etc. All the dust that doesn't get trapped in your duster is going to settle on the floor so don't vacuum until after that is done. Check out the thick layer on the blinds in our new house...blech!

2. Give your vacuum a good clean before and after your clean. I usually empty the canister after I'm done with mine, but this time I gave the filter and brush a good cleaning. Starting with them clean with help maximize their efficiency.

This is what came off of my vacuum's brush...apparently I shed like an animal. Needless to say it did a much better job of picking up stuff after this was gone.

3. Go through your stuff as you clean - if you don't use it and it's in the way, say goodbye. I really hit this hard while packing. I figured there was no reason to pack and move it just to have it take up space at our new house or donate it once we got it there. 

4. There are two ways I like to go about cleaning: either do one room at a time or one task at a time. I've done both and I guess it just depends on my mood. When I don't have to move a lot around I usually do one task at a time, like dusting everything in one room then moving onto the next room. This works well for windows too. Either way you choose to do it, try to keep it manageable so you don't get overwhelmed.   

5. Use green cleaning products. I mention this one because I've come across a bunch of articles lately telling about the harm regular chemicals can cause babies, pregnant moms, and really anyone. The chemicals can be absorbed through the skin so it's important to know what you're cleaning with. 

Just recently Fox News published an article about Children's Health called "'Greening' Your Baby From Head to Toe"

The article talks about the best things you can do to expose your child to fewer chemicals; organic formula and foods, an organic mattress, and cleaning products.

"Go into your cabinets and throw out everything that has a long list of ingredients you can't understand," said Kligler.

Once you've accomplished that task, it's time buy some new supplies.

"Go for environmentally friendly products," said Greene. "Studies have shown during pregnancy the use of certain cleaning products can lead to a higher risk of asthma."

And just yesterday I watched an ABC Good Morning America Health segment and they talked about pesticide exposure. A recent study found that exposure to certain pesticides during pregnancy is harmful to your child's development possibly lowering their IQ. The researcher also mentions that there are so many other pesticides and chemicals we know even less about and it's a good idea to avoid these chemicals all together.

Progress report:

Our house is still a mess. Painting has been taking forever so most everything is still in boxes. I have so many projects running around in my head, but one at a time. I'm currently working on the pantry, it seems like a good place to start.