Yard Sale Finds 9/25 and 9/26

My yard sale buddy and friend Mindy always says her prayers on Friday night that we will each find something fabulous on Saturday when we go out. Last weekend we were in the car and the subject of candles came up. We each talked about our favorite candles. Mindy wanted an apple spice one, Diana loves the pumpkin ones, and I love Gold Canyon's Mrs. Clause's Kitchen candle. We all said how much we loved having a new candle out for the start of the holiday season so we needed to keep our eyes out for some. Well, this weekend I found this:

Yes, it is Mrs Clause's Kitchen and it was $.50! Hooray! Thanks for praying the candle to me Mindy!

A few fun ornaments, lights and a garland for the kids Christmas tree this year. They were $2 for the whole box.

A bag of fun colored buttons for the kiddos to use for craft projects for $.50

Two cute pumpkins to add to my holiday decor for $1

I also found a couple of crochet books. I am going to try and make a few snowflakes for my Christmas Tree this year. They were $.25 for all three books.

This is a cutting board and it looks great right next to my sink. It was $.50.

I got 2 of these books that have some inspiration for the upcoming holiday season. They were $.25 each.

Yet another stack of books. I started one on Friday afternoon and finished it up this afternoon. It was a good one. Well worth the $2 for all of them. One of them was even another Nancy Drew book. FUN!

I also got a lighted archway for my sister (she'd decorating for a wedding) for $1 and a whole box of pompoms for a family member's halloween costume for another $1.

Total for the weekend $9.25

P.S. See previous post about the "Boney-Feller" to see the cute chair I snagged last week for $4. That was my favorite find for that weekend.

IT'S A BONEY-FELLER!!!

The other day Matt was playing a video game with the boys and he was fighting some monsters or something and out of the shadows came a scary skeleton man. Peanut starts to YELL at the top of his lungs, "DAD, GET THE BONEY-FELLER!!!" I, trying to read a book and ignore the boy/dad bonding moment, looked up breifly and said, "Peanut, what is a 'boney-feller'?" I was then fully versed on what a silly mom I was because any one should know that a "boney-feller" is a man with no skin and just bones who walks around at Halloween time and tries to scare boys, even though my child assured me that he could not be scared by one. This is where the obsession begins.

Peanut now feels that everything for Halloween should include a "boney-feller" including his costume. He wants to be a skeleton for Halloween and we HAD to have one on our front porch. So... here is my attempt at a non-scary, life-sized "BONEY-FELLER".

I have to give the credit for the idea to DisneyFamily.com's craft idea found here. It was pretty fun to make and it cost me less than $20 for everything. I didn't glue it together so that I can take it apart to store for holiday's to come. But the most important thing is that Peanut LOVES his "boney-feller".

P.S. The chair he is sitting in came from a yard sale last week and I got it for $4. If anyone knows where I might be able to find a bench with the same sort of style (for cheap) that I can paint to match it, send me a comment. Would love to have a matching set on my front porch!

Newsprint FUN!!

Awhile ago a friend of mine went to the local Newspaper and bought several rolls of newsprint paper. Apparently it is the end off the roll and they sell them for a few dollars a piece. Anyway, she picked up a couple for her and was nice enough to pick up a couple for my boys too! (THANKS HEIDI!) I had stashed them in my office in the corner and hadn't got a chance to get them out until just the other day. I rolled it out on the had floor in front of the front door, just the right spot for a coloring fest! We got out our huge box of crayons and we did this:

Fun times were had by all!

This makes me want to go see it NOW!!!

Halloween Inspiration

I will be the first to admit that I am not a Halloween fan. I never really have been. However, after seeing this blog (thanks Ashley for re-posting this idea on your blog) I became inspired. I thought, "that kind of Halloween decorating I can handle!" A trip to the Goodwill and Dollar Store and I had all the makings of THIS:

I still have to hang the flying bats (haven't finished cutting them out yet), but what do you think?

Eat your Veggies...

I came home from the Farmer's Market the other day with a big bag of fresh green beans. I had every intention to sit at the table by myself with a big bowl and snap beans "till the cows came home" but instead I got this...

This little boy does his best thinking with his tounge hanging out!

And not only did I have helpers that never complained, followed directions and sped up the process immensely, but they ate every single one that I fixed for dinner. Horray! I now know that all I need to do to get them to eat their veggies is to have them help make them.

I am in LOVE...

with my FALL GARDEN!!! I love this time of year when I can plant my garden and soon reap the benefits. The nights are getting cooler and the plants grow taller and taller every day. This year we planted:

Peas

Lettuce/Spinach


Tomatoes

Broccoli

Green Beans

We also planted carrots but they had not come up yet when I took the pictures. I always love when we get to see the tiny seeds become something amazing.

Lunch with Grandma!

This last Friday Peanut's school celebrated Grandparent's Day by inviting them to a special lunch. Peanut was lucky enough to have my Mom come and have lunch with him. He was so excited to have her come and sit by him. I hear that he has the lunch routine down pretty good now. He knows where to buy his milk for lunch every day and exactly where to sit. I'm glad that kids are such quick learners. What a great memory he will have of Grandma going to lunch with him. Thanks Mom!!!

A chance to go yard-saleing with us...

Yet again, some of you have asked to go out yard sale-ing with some of us that go every week. We would love to have you. We have limited seat availability but if you would like to go, let me know and we can work something out. We are without our trusty guide for one more week but we had a good week this last weekend as you can see from my last post. We also will be going out a little later as it starts to cool down and the sun doesn't come up so early. Leave me a comment if you want to go and I'll let you know when and where to meet us.

Sale-ing for the last 2 weeks...

Well, we made it! We went yard sale-ing without our trusty guide and didn't get completely lost. However, every time we got in the car we would say," Now, where are we?" HA HA HA! Anyway... here are my finds for this week, with last week's finds to follow.

Isn't this pan just cute? It is cast iron and in great condition. This will be my new "go-to" pan and I got it for $.50

Who doesn't love a good candy dish for Christmas? It was $.25 and the best part is that I already have a candle holder that matches.

This looks like a good cook book. If I try any good recipes from it, I'll let you know. It was $.50.

A couple of good church books for $.25 each.

These are my favorite cook books. They are fun to read just like a regular book. They have so many little side notes and tips besides the recipe's. They were $.50 each.

This is a really cool notebook filled with handmade paper. It was also $.50. Could make a cool journal or note-taking book.

Could this lamp be any cuter? I put it in my office on my cute green and white wicker desk from a few weeks ago, see here. It was $2.

This will also go into my office to put all my knick nacks in. It was a $3 find. Well worth it.

I also got a few things for Christmas gifts but I cannot post them here because of the risk that one might spoil their Christmas by seeing them on accident. I spent $10 on those.

Last week was probably one of my favorite weeks and it was even raining. As a matter of fact, it ended up pouring by the time I got home to unload my finds. So here's the finds from 2 weeks ago...

How can you not love this Santa? He's about 2 1/2 feet tall and made out of resin so he his super heavy. Got him for $5. He'll be a cute addition to my fireplace this year.

I have been looking for these for awhile and I got a great deal. 15 Hardy Boys hard back books for $10. This was my favorite find of the day!

My friend Mindy reminded me that the tiles can be used for many other things besides just playing a game with so her and I each got one to use for decorating with for $1 each.

Have I ever said how much I love Ann of Green Gables? Well, I do! And yes, I'm old school and still watch movies on VHS but I get such good deals on them that I just can't pass them up. Anyway.. I got both video's for $1. And they are double tapes. Fun!

As a kid, we would look forward to this coming on TV every year so we could watch it. It was like The Charlie Brown Christmas for us. I can now share that excitement with my kiddos for $1.

Total spent for the last 2 weeks: $37.25

Good ol' yard sale-ing

I am going to be going yard sale-ing with my friend Mindy this weekend but we are going without our guide (Cindy). I have an extra seat in my car if anyone wants to go. Several of you have requested a trip. Let me know and the first one to respond gets the spot. We'll probably be leaving about 6:30 am Sat morning.

Ode to the Farmer's Market

Oh how I love the local farmer's market. I can fill my refrigerator with delicious fresh fruits and veggies to consume with pure enjoyment all week with minimal expense. I love going to see all of the yummy choices and trying to plan my weekly meals around them. This week I bought the following:

1 large watermelon

1 large cantaloupe

1 head of lettuce

6 fresh beets

6 ears of corn

1/2 lb brussel sprouts

3 lbs green beans

1 large acorn squash

1 head of orange cauliflower

1 bunch of asparagus

And I paid just over $16. How can you beat that? And I get to eat fresh all week!!! YUM!

Food Storage is for times of Need...

Well, we are in the time of need. With Matt being out of work off and on for the last few months, it has been a struggle to do many of the things we are used to. However, one thing we have not struggled with is food. We have been truly blessed to be able to have ample food storage. We have always eaten everything we store and so having to eat from our food storage has not been hard for us. I just finished bottling peaches and tomatoes this week to fill our pantry. I have always understood the principal of having your year supply of food storage, but I am so grateful that we have headed the counsel of our leaders. We are so lucky to have food to eat so we don't have to go hungry.