Queen of Hearts and Alice in Wonderland Costume Set GIVEAWAY!!!!

This lady is unbelievable with her sewing skills. I seen her contest for the Halloween costumes she made, allice in wonderland they are AMAZING! I have a couple girls that would love them and it would be so cute for them to be these matching costumes. I really really want to win.

Queen of Hearts and Alice in Wonderland Costume Set GIVEAWAY!!!!


Check it out and get your entry in also.

New Bathroom Finally!

We are finally done. It was a labor of love. it was a cheap redo , well of course it was, I did it but this might be the ultimate cheap redo for me. This is a Tiny tiny bath room so it needed all the help it could get to seem bigger. Before we bask in the pretty lets look at the before


Look at that expensive big crown molding, of course all 100 year old homes have that right.... Well not this one. We had door trim molding in the basement we painted it white, and we bought very small trim at Sutherlands that was like $1.79 a piece we painted that white . We hung them both up there with about 6 inch space between and then we painted the wall white between. It looks fabulous. You do not know it is not big crown molding just looking at it. And the total cost for that was $6.50 I believe since we had the top trim in the basement. But even that is cheap cheap stuff about $2.75 a piece.
My Fan makes me so Happy because it did make me so unhappy we got everything all painted looking good and the fan ( sorry no before, but imagine a $20 fan with wood grain blades, and bright gold metal, that had seen its better day. ) I looked terrible up there. I decided I would try to paint it before I bought one , I had nothing to lose it wasn't staying up there looking like that. So I ( I, meaning dear hubby) took all the blades down I cleaned them well, and spray painted them white and dear hubby sprayed the fan rubbed bronze spray paint while it hung on the ceiling. It looks sooo good, it looks like we bought a new fan. cost $0 we had the paint . but it was $1.00 white from Walmart and $5.00 paint from Sutherlands.
Do you remember this cabinet? I know it looks like it is new. but it is but a labor of love. Same cabinet as this
So I sanded it all , used wood putty to fill in the carved in designs, sanded them flush on the drawers, We added trim ( screen trim , super cheap $1.25 , for 8 ft) we added the trim to the front top and the door. It covered up the engraved section on 99% of it , but nothing a little caulk can't fix, We primed and painted it country white semi gloss same at the walls. I needed different handles but needed a cheap fix, I took of the excisting knobs off sanded them ( they were porcelain ) spray primed them and spray painted silver on them. Again if it didn't work I wasn't out anything if it didn't work they had to go. I chose silver to match the faucet and shower faucet, I really wanted black. But silver looks fine and they are holding up GREAT not one scratch and with a family of 8 that is good. I do need to add one back to the door. I took it off it was in the center of the door I thought it made it looked dated, so I filled in that hole and I want to put the knob in the corner but I need a longer bolt since it will have to also go through the trim work.

How about that black mirror. I just took the door down and spray painted it black. I could not decide what to paint it with it being on both the white and green wall I couln't use either of those colors so good old black it was and I think it looks great. cost part of a $1.oo can of gloss black paint.

The shower curtan was a $.10 find at a garage sale I was sooo excited it had the cloth curtain and plastic liner. I think it is perfect.

the paneling was sanded , primed and painted semi gloss country white from walmart $15.00.
The walls are a custom green. For my laundry room that joins this room I wanted a green so I bought an oops can of green paint I didn't like it it was too minty. So we added a gallon of white it did nothing , so we added another, and a 1/2 gallon of dark brown to darken it a little. and a couple bottles of craft paint brown and we got this green so my one can of painted ended up being in a 5 gallon bucket, so the bathroom is that color. and probably another room will still be this color someday.

We had a new vanity top white we got at a garage sale for $10.00 but it got broke while waiting on the this project so that is sad.

I think that is about it. I had a couple things for the wall I got some big frames from a garage sale for 4 for $1 that I painted white to go on big wall behind door.I was going to layer them on top of each other , and I also got a stack of white platters and saucers to hang on wall behind toilet, however hanging things on plaster walls can not be pretty. and since we are selling I haven't hung anything up I do not want to have chips on the wall. I got the stack of plates of .50 for 8 of them.

So the total for the room

$ 15 white paint we only used half of the gallon so $7.50 really
$ 7 mildew preventer added to both paints
$ .25 for silver paint
$ 1.00 for white spray paint for fan blades
$ .10 shower curtain
$ green paint left over from laundry
$ bronze paint already had used about $.75 of it.
$ 11.00 for all of trim work
$ .50 bucket and tray
$ 1.00 black paint for mirror, sticks, tray
$ free sticks painter black

not on here but bought
$1.00 frames
$.50 plates.

total $31.50

How great is that it looks so much better so much brighter, cleaner and bigger. All that for under $40 can't beat that. I love being in there now.
Oh my stick center piece now has a black crow sitting in it for Halloween decor, it freaked the kids out haha that was worth it. I found the bird stuffed under the sink today, I don't think they liked my decor .

An answer to those that say " I am Lucky I get to stay home"

I just read a great Post over at Clover Lane blog On this subject and I just wanted to pass it on and also keep it in my archive, because it was that good. Here is the Post.

I couldn't even count the times I get told how lucky I am to get to stay home with my kids. And it also rubs me the wrong way. Because I do drive the 11 year old van, shop the garage sales early Sat morning to clothe these kids on my budget of basically zero. I make every penny we have work very hard for us. We do without allot of things like , good t.v channels, two cars, date nights, I cannot even remember the last time we went to the movie theater, vacations, new clothes, new anything really. So that I get to stay home. It has nothing to do with Luck it is hard work for my husband and I both to make this lifestyle decision for our family. It is not a decision I regret for a moment, I have great kids, they are raised with our values , morals, rules. And that was our goal as parents when we started this adventure almost 20 years ago. An we have stuck to it .




One of those days we all have!

Bathroom slowly but surely

Does this look better? Does it look like fun?? You can't get true justice from this picture of the mess. This was terrible I had no idea what I was getting into. I simply went to strip off the border and in the process I was stripping off paint, wall texture, paint, border under it all. I guess at some point someone had a border left it on painted over it and put another border on. I then came in and textured, painted again and put another border on. ANYHOO! a big big mess. So I am stripping and retexturing the walls. So no not looking better.

How about this does this look pretty ? This is just primer so don't get to worried like I was when I was doing it. Thinking what did I do??


It is looking much better now. My dear Hubby has been
working on this with me. Originally I had the idea this
would be my project and I would do it all. Well I got over
that pretty quickly. Way to much work to do high up on
a ladder. I am not good at that. especially with kids under
my feet all day.
I am hoping to finish the bathroom today for the most
part so I can show you. I know you are waiting with
baited breath.

Part 1 bathroom makeover The before shots

This is my main bathroom in our house, (with 8 people). Don't think that you are just not seeing everything in the photo because you are. It is that small. But this is not about our tiny bathroom.
This is about a budget redo. This is a before photo .
Now don't go telling me how ugly it is because I did decorate it like this, kinda. The wood paneling was there, the sink, vanity was already there. I just repainted the walls did the plaster texture on the walls and added the border to the wall. The clock is new , my son did just buy that for me for my birthday, Which I love but I am very aware it is too small for that big wall ( it made me chuckle to write big wall, about this bathroom.) I redid this about 5 years ago, and trust me it is sooo much better then it was then.
Well now I am over the border and all the brown in there. Since it is soo small I thought it needed to be brighter and lighter. Also I wanted to tie into the laundry room that it is connected to so it would feel a bit bigger.








This is my very ugly vanity that I am planning a makeover on. It needs an extreme makeover.





This is a photo of a very tall
( 10ft tall ceilings)
wall. That shows off the start of a plan
last time I painted to make the ceiling feel lower. O.k That I never finished it. But the ceilings are so tall with the room so small nobody looks straight up to see.
But that is all about to change. I have
a new plan that everyone is sure to
notice. So I wanted to be sure and
show you what it looked like before so
you will be properly amazed by the after
haha. We hope it turns out better
then my last idea for the ceiling in
there.

So that is the before stay tuned for
a few during and then the After hopefully soon since this is the only real bathroom for us.

Staycation

( Here is part of the crew relaxing in the hot tub.)
We have been on Staycation this week, My dear sister went on her Real vacation for a week and a half. And we crashed at their house for a week, I mean we house sit there pool and dogs.
Thier house is like a hotel to us.
They have a pool, hot tub, good t.v, king size bed,
enough t.vs to make everyone happy, and a trampoline.
Its like a hotel a block away. So we staycationed there this last week.
We have watched WAY too much t.v , all of us. I usually never watch t.v and I have logged me some HGTV hours this week. And the kids have watched enough spongebob to last them .ok Me a life time . We don't have any cartoon channels at our house except good old PBS and those cartoons are over at noon. So non-stop cartoons is a Huge treat for the kiddos. Its been relaxing change of pace, even though I still have to clean house every day and cook, take care of a pool, and couple dogs. Its a different routine. That sometimes we all need. So we are so glad that my dear sister and brother in law and there kids can afford a real vacation so we can use there house for ours.

(Dad and the girls roasting marshmallows on grill after dad grilled dinner.)

My Frugal Decorating finds on the Hunt today.

This was a fun day to hit a "goodwill shop " goodwill meaning it is a ministry that uses the money to help people but it is not " goodwill" the chain of stores. We do not have one of those here in my little town. AnyHooo.
I was excited to find these 3 cylinder vases today There were 4 but I knew to rule of 3's in decorating but I keep wondering if I want the 4th to use somewhere else. They are crystal clear They just are dirty in the photo, do you really think I took the time to wash these goodies before I took a picture of my finds NAAAH! I am not sure where they are going or what will go in them first. I think it will be something that changes with the season like christmas balls, lemons, twigs. I don't know. the wheels are turning. Oh ya .25 a piece. Now you see why I had to have these dirty vases don't you.
The other glass thing is.... Well I don't know what it is really. It is upside down in the phots and the stem has a hole in it so its not really a handle. I kept looking at it. Then I seen this lovely little mirror I thought they would look lovely together I will show you soon what I was thinking. Trust me my family is not "getting" it either. And they were each .25 You will be amazed when I get done with them.. I hope. Well that is a chunk of what I found today, Fun day. I love finding junk I can turn into something I can use or love.
Tommorow is Garage sale day YA! I would love it if I could find a sink vanity top to replace the one my hubby broke this week to use in my Bathroom redo I am working on. I will post soon photos of my bathroom redo on the cheapest budget you have ever seen it will be a don't miss.