What I Made Wednesday: Thank You Cards

This week I wanted to share the easiest thank you notes ever.

For thank yous for gifts my son received, I simply wrote "Thank You" on a piece paper and took a picture of him with the sign. I printed out the picture and glued it onto some card stock. Easy and very inexpensive. I uploaded the picture to Walgreens for printing and saw that for about 75 cents each, they'll print the picture straight onto a notecard for you. Not as cheap, but even easier.

For more What I Made Wednesday fun, visit Remodeling this Life for a great summertime kids' project.

Have you blogged about something you made recently? Leave me a link in the comment section - I'd love to see it. What to join in next week? Send me an email and I'll be sure to link to you in next week's post.

This week I'm also joining DIY Day at A Soft Place to Land, Visit ASPTL for more fun projects.

The Hidden Cost of a Third Child

Children are expensive, but subsequent children tend to be less so since you can re-use so many things. We thought we were pretty set when it came to bringing a third child into our family, and a third boy nonetheless. But of course, the baby would eventually evict Monkey from the crib and he'd need a bed of his own, so we factored in the cost of bunk beds




and we quickly realized that we'd also need another mattress

But it wasn't until we were actually setting up the bunkbeds that I realized what else we would need

sheets

and a comforter, too. But that can wait seeing as it's summertime and the two year old doesn't really sleep covered up with a blanket anyway.

Sometimes its the little things, the important little things, that you tend to forget about!

bunk bed photo by goldberg via flickr.com
mattress photo from amazon.com
sheets photo from amazon.com

What I Made Wednesday: Fourth of July Garland

I had something else in mind for today, but I love this garland that I made with my kids so much that I just had to share.

I cut stars out of paper and let the boys decorate them using crayons, stickers and colored paper. Bug decided he wanted to cut out some stars of his own. Then, he branched out to other shapes as well. I cut holes in the stars and strung them on some blue ribbon. So easy and I love it that I was able to just use things we had lying around the house (and in some cases, things that have been around for a long time!).

It's far from perfect, but the imperfections are what make it so wonderful.

Have you blogged about something you made recently? Leave me a link in the comment section - I'd love to see it. What to join in next week? Send me an email and I'll be sure to link to you in next week's post.

Little Things Make for Big Fun

photo by Broma

Doing one "fun" thing each day of the summer seems to be a popular pastime (and a popular thing to chronicle on one's blog). As I've been trying to think of things to keep my kids occupied, I realize that it's the little things that are the most fun. Little things like:

Picnics in the backyard
Blowing bubbles
Baking together
Working in the garden
Working on crafts together
Visits to the library
Splashing around in the backyard inflatable pool or the sprinklers
Writing letters to family and friends
Backyard soccer and baseball games

What are you doing to make this summer special?

Weekend Link Love: Hiking Edition

Yesterday, we took a drive up to into the mountains to do some hiking. The weather was just fantastic and the views were beautiful.

Here are some articles that I've enjoyed over the past few weeks:

Simplicity Can Streamline Your Budget

Summer Fun Bag #2: Letter Writing Kit

10 Yard Sale Entertaining Essentials

Frugal Tip: Stop Wasting Money Buying Ice Packs for Your Cooler

Money Stretched vs. Money Saved

Never Say We Can't Afford It

A Simple Way to Feel Wealthy on a Middle Class Income

How Much Do Your Kids Know About Money?

Enjoy the rest of your weekend!

Learning to Cook to Save Money?

Last week. I saw a segment on the local news discussing the fact that enrollment in cooking classes is on the rise. They highlighted a local school that teaches gourmet cooking. The students said that they enjoy eating out, but with money becoming tighter, they thought that learning how to cook would allow them to eat more at home and thus save money.

First off, I do not remember the name of the school, so I couldn't look it up to find information on prices. Therefore, I'm just going on the assumption that gourmet cooking classes aren't cheap. It seems like this could fall under the "give a man a fish, you have fed him for today, teach a man to fish and you have fed him for a lifetime" line of thinking, but I think that when you factor in the cost of the classes and any new equipment you must have as a result, it could take nearly a lifetime before you recoup your costs.

I don't deny that a meal cooked at home is cheaper than eating out or that learning to cook is a great thing, but do it because it's something you want to do, and not under the guise that it will save you money, because when you're talking gourmet classes (as opposed to a basic technique class), I don't think it would.

photo by diacritical

What I Made Wednesday: Our Bathroom Decor

I have many things on my to-do list, but when the baby started actually being awake for long stretches during the day, life got more complicated! Thus, I once again bring you an oldie but a goodie. This one though, never actually appeared here, it was a guest post over at Remodeling This Life. 

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Soon after Emily and her husband bought their fixer upper, my husband and I did pretty much the exact opposite - we bought a brand new home. Faced with a house full of empty rooms and white walls, we got to do our own sort of remodeling. Most rooms are still white and boring, but the bathroom is not. While perusing a Lowe’s ad, we saw some very cool wall paneling that we thought would look totally fabulous in the bathroom. Unfortunately, this stuff apparently only existed on the pages of that ad. We improvised and purchased a bamboo screen from the lawn and garden department. It’s totally not typical for a bathroom (or any indoor room for that matter), but I love it. And after the initial mess of putting it on the wall, it hasn’t been bad at all.

With the pedestal sink, there really isn’t much room for storage in this bathroom. There was not a whole that needed to be stored in this particular bathroom, but I at least wanted a place to put extra hand towels and toilet paper. My husband and I had a hard time finding something that was both affordable and attractive. We apparently were thinking too hard. A simple piece of wood and some shelf brackets were all we needed. To hide away stuff, I bought a cheap bin for a few dollars and covered it with the same bamboo we had put on the walls. Voila! Because it’s fun to be matchy, I also covered the plastic trash can with bamboo.

Next time you see you a look you want to recreate - think outside of the box, you’ll probably come up with some fun ideas.

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Since I wrote this a year ago, I've added some pictures to the wall. The room seems to have sort of a beachy theme to it, so I framed some snapshots from last year's beach trip and put them up on the wall along with some seashells we collected on the trip. I also filled some jars with shells and put those on the shelf on either side of the bin.

Have you blogged about something you made recently? Leave me a link in the comment section - I'd love to see it. What to join in next week? Send me an email and I'll be sure to link to you in next week's post.

Discover Card Pulls a Fast One On Us... But Not Really

photo by Wesley Fryer

Since the beginning of time (as in eight years ago when we first got our Discover card) our billing cycle has ended on the 10th of the month and the payment was due thirty days later, on the 9th. So, needless to say, I kind of had this ingrained into my head.  Imagine my surprise, then, when I realized after making ths month's payment that our due date had changed to the 5th.

Apparently we received notice back in February that this was going to happen. I vaguely remember a notice from them, but, if I'm thinking of the right one, it was so full of interest rate talk (we pay our card off in full each month, so I tend to not pay attention to such things) that I glanced over the entire thing, thus missing important information.

It's important to note that this is entirely my fault. I didn't pay enough attention to the information sent to us, nor did I pay attention the bill before paying for it! Thus, I was happy that Discover was kind enough to reverse the late fee (there were no finance charges for whatever reason). All it took was a phone call.

They really do have decent customer service. That's why we use their card.

Finally Finished

We've lived in this house for a little over two and a half years. In that time, we've slowly transformed our backyard from this

to this

Now it's just how we want it (except for the fact that we'd really like the grass to fill in some more!). A large grassy area, a nice garden and a retaining wall of sorts separating the two. There's also some fruit trees, a sandbox, and we've extended the patio a bit.

It wasn't really an inexpensive project, but we spread out the work over such a long period of time that we spread the cost out too. We also did the work ourselves (with some help from friends, but they're cheap labor - they work for donuts).

Now we just sit back, relax, and enjoy (oh, and keep trying to fill in the empty patches with grass)

What I Made Wednesday: Easy Art

A month ago, The Tall One read this interview with author Mo Willems and was inspired to draw a picture of his favorite stuffed animal.

I thought it was pretty cool and decided to frame it. He still has this childhood toy and our kids recognize it, so I thought it would be a fun addition to their room decor.

You really don't need to spend a lot of money to get great art on your walls. There are so many ways to create your own (need some inspiration? Here's a post from me and one from Remodeling This Life). And of course, you can always pick up a pen and draw something yourself. What? You say you can't draw? First off, go read the interview and if you still insist you can't draw anything frame-worthy, enlist your children.

And yes, technically, I did not make this - my husband did. But I framed it!

Have you blogged about something you made recently? Leave me a link in the comment section - I'd love to see it. What to join in next week? Send me an email and I'll be sure to link to you in next week's post.

Congratulations! Now Here's Your Bill..

Today was one of those mail days that one only dreams about. There was just three envelopes - two billing statements from the hospital and one explanation of benefits from the insurance company.  Are we lucky, or what??

The billing statements aren't asking for any money - yet. But the fact that there are two of them is a bit odd. Neither one exactly matches up with the EOB, and one of them reflects the amount we paid already (the hospital wanted some money before we left), while the other does not.

I'm very grateful for our (fairly decent) insurance, but I wish it made a bit more sense. We won't be blindly paying anything, so hopefully the actual bill will make a bit more sense. And, if it doesn't, we'll give them a call. And, most likely, their answer will be about as clear as mud.

What I Made Wednesday: Letter Wall Hanging

This post is originally from November of last year. It's been on my mind lately though, since I want to do some letters to spell the new baby's name!

Bug was playing in the linen closet again.  I noticed this blanket had quite a few stains on it.  It seems silly to keep it around considering the closet is full of non-stained blankets.

But other than that, I didn't want to toss a perfectly fine blanket.

So I was thinking about making another wall hanging, like I did with the last blanket I cut up.  But wait - I've always wanted some letters to spell out Monkey's name, why not use this blanket to make some of those?

First, I cut the binding off.  Now I have two different pieces of fabric to work with.

I traced the letters onto a cardboard box and then cut them out, then used those as a pattern to cut the letters out of the fabric.  I traced them with chalk, then cut on the outside of the chalk line so that the fabric would be slighly bigger than the cardboard.

Then I sewed a zig-zag around the edges of all the letters to help prevent fraying.

Finally, to give the letters a bit more weight, I used double-sided tape to tape them to the cardboard letters.

And now I have some cute letters to spell out my son's name.  And since his name really isn't Monkey, you can just see the 'o'.

Soon, I'll have his room all decorated, but I'll probably be out of blankets.

Have you blogged about something you made recently? Leave me a link in the comment section. What to join in next week? Send me an email and I'll be sure to link to you in next week's post.

Making the Joneses Jealous

Cool bunkbed, huh?

We found it online and drooled over it, then we saw it in person for several hundred dollars less and drooled some more. You know the term, "keeping up with the Joneses"? The Tall One commented that this bunkbed would make the Joneses jealous. Not really what I aim for in life, but isn't it just so cool?

It is not the set we ended up purchasing (though we did come close). Though we are willing to pay a little extra for coolness, this was more than we were willing to pay. The storage drawers are very nice, and if we were looking for a dresser and a bed, we probably would have jumped on this one, but we don't need the extra storage in the boys' room.

So our poor boys will have to suffer with a perfectly normal set of bunkbeds. Sometimes it's rough being responsible.

Are you willing to pay a bit extra for something simply because it's cool?  

What I Made Wednesday: Freezer Paper Shirts

I wanted some super cute big brother shirts for my boys. I didn't want to pay a whole lot of money for them, so I made my own using stencils made from freezer paper. Freezer paper can be found at your grocery store, and in addition to that all you need is some paint, a brush, an x-acto knife, shirts, and an iron. I had a friend show me the process, but you can find a nice tutorial here. So easy, and so much fun. It would be a great way to get some more use out of a stained shirt - just arrange the stencil so that it covers the stain.

Have you blogged about something you made recently? Leave me a link in the comment section. What to join in next week? Send me an email and I'll be sure to link to you in next week's post.

Letter to my Little Brother

This article was originally posted on June 12, 2008.


Dear little brother,

Congratulations! You've graduated from high school! Welcome to the real world.

First, let me say that when one of the speakers at your graduation ceremony said that the people around you, the people who had spent the last four year with, will always be close friends - chances are he lied. You may think otherwise, but you will probably grow apart and choose different paths and it will be sad but it will be okay. I'd venture to guess that the best friends you'll have are people you've never met yet. My one bit of advice here is to find friends who really and truly share your values and beliefs.

The world is like an open book for you, a book that you don't know the ending to. You may think you do, but you don't. And that's okay. You don't have to have all the answers now. You don't need any of them actually. But I encourage you to do something out of your immediate comfort zone. Go on a mission, move to a different city, something that scares you just a little bit. Staying at home all day and all week and getting really good at Mario Kart and eating Mom and Dad out of house and home is not scary, so don't do it. But living at home for awhile is fine. Mom'll make sure you know how to do your laundry and whip up some mac and cheese, if she hasn't already. But don't quit your day job.

You're older than you think you are, yet still so young. You're not too young to start saving for something big - like a house or your retirement. But you're young enough that there's no need to go out buy things you can't afford. Start living within your means now and before you know it you'll be able to afford everything you want and more.

Enjoy life now. Enjoy being a college student. Enjoy being a single working guy. Enjoy whatever it is you choose to do. Someday you'll look back and realize what a wonderful time it truly was.

Love, your big sister

photo by ? Wim