Decoupage Switch Plate

Tags

DIY switchplate cover, modge podge switch plate, switch plate cover

I found this print online and fell in love with it!  It is actually a fabric that you can buy. I printed out the swatch on computer paper, and modge-podged it to my switch plate.

Put some modge-podge on the switch plate and wrap your paper over it.  Use a blade to cut the square for the switch and then modge-podge again on top to make it glossy and make it stick a little better.  The screws went through the paper easily and it was back on about an hour later.

I was planning to do this for the outlets too, but I have furniture that covers all the outlets, so it seemed like a waste.

I can’t wait to share more pictures of the nursery.  We just went to Ikea and only spent $100 to add a rug, curtains, crib sheet, duvet cover and 4 pillows.  I still can’t believe I got such a deal.  Hopefully I will be able to share more tomorrow- if work permits

From Buffet to Changing Table

Tags

changing table, DIY painting furniture, modge podge furniture

We had an amazing buffet that we inherited from my mother in law, but we really didn’t have the room in our dining area, nor did it really fit our style.  So instead of selling it or getting rid of it, we decided to repurpose it!

It was originally the color of the feet- not sure if you can see it in this picture, but it was almost an orange wood color.  I did not take the proper steps to paint this.  I didn’t strip it, but I did prime it and added about 8 coats of paint!

I printed out the crab prints from the Internet and modge podged them on the doors.  Then painted the pulls orange.

We already had all the paint, printer paper and brushes from other projects, so I was able to complete this for a grand total of FREE!

Even though I didn’t follow all the steps of proper furniture painting, I think it turned out pretty well.

I can’t wait to put a changing pad on this with a really cute cover!  I have already started storing my cloth diaper collection in the drawers.

Won’t this make for a really cute place to store toys when he is older?

DIY Silhouette Prints

Tags

DIY silhouette print, modge podge canvas prints, octopus print, seahorse print

I found these prints on Etsy and fell in love with them:

This is exactly the type of theme I want for our nursery!

I am actually over the whole chevron (the background pattern) craze.  It seems like everyone has something chevron and I hate being trendy.  I feel like trends can date you, so I knew I didn’t want the background to be chevron.

I took one look at these and thought, “I could do that”.  Then I decided I needed a Cricut.  Well, my hubby didn’t agree that I needed a Cricut for the project, so I had to figure out another way to do this!

Turns out it was pretty easy.  These are my finished products:

I made all three of these for a total of $12!

Here is how I did it:

1.  Modge Podge an 8 x 10 canvas and add a piece of scrapbooking paper to it.  Be careful to lay it really flat.

2.  My Modge Podge always makes paper wrinkly so I decided to put some heavy books on top to help it dry flat.

3.  Print out a silhouette outline on card stock and carefully cut it out.  I forgot to take a pic of this step (sorry).

4.  Paint your silhouette.

We had so much paint left over from the room so I used the same paint.

5.  Once the silhouette dries, modge podge it to your scrapbook paper.  Also, fold the edged of the scrapbook paper like you would wrap a present.  Once again, I didn’t take a picture of this, but it folded pretty easily.

For the middle picture, I did the same thing, but with no scrapbook paper.  I just printed out a picture I liked on picture paper and then modge podged it on the canvas. But I painted the edge so I wouldn’t have to wrap it.

 

Next time I think I might buy a cheap frame and just frame the prints since the modge podge makes them wrinkly, but overall this was pretty fun and cheap.

I really enjoyed making these and adding a special touch to my nursery.  I don’t think they will stand the test of time and it won’t be something he can keep forever, but it does add a special touch to the room for now!

 

 

 

 

I’m So Excited…. I’m So Scared!

Tags

going back to work after baby, stay at home mom, stay at home or work after baby, Work from home mom

Does anyone my age remember that episode of Saved by The Bell where Jessie takes caffeine pills so she can “do everything”:  sing in her band, keep good grades, etc.?

 

I am pretty sure I have been quoted over the last few weeks saying, “There’s never enough time, never enough time!”.

Don’t worry, I am not about to take caffeine pills or anything else, but there is a certain amount of pressure that comes with knowing that everything is about to get harder when we add our new baby boy to the picture.

I plan to continue my Educational Leadership program so I am can be finished by next December and possibly become a school administrator.  I am also planning to keep my job.  I find myself complaining that I don’t have enough time now- where will this extra time come from to take care of baby Robert?

Is this why people make the decision to become stay at home moms?  The decision to keep working has haunted me for weeks.  Am I making the right decision?   Should I go back part time instead?

But we all know that my main priority is to save money and live comfortably.  Could we live off my husbands salary?  Absolutely.  But could we do it and pay off our loans?  No way.  We have become accustomed to my salary and if we went without it we would have to resort to credit cards and possibly deferring our loans.  As of now, the responsible thing is for me to keep my job and take some time off once we pay off the loans (only 3 more years at this rate!).

I know there is a hot debate about what is better:  stay at home moms or working moms.  Luckily, I work from home so I will still be around all day.  There are many perks to working at home, so I need to be thankful that I have this job.  However, I still feel guilty that I will be going back to work.

Did anyone else have this crazy identity crisis when having a baby?

A new love for fruit- Apple Pie Bites

Tags

Apple Pie Bites, crave sweets during pregnancy, pregnancy craving, Skittles

I have never had a sweet tooth.  My mom use to encourage me to buy candy at the grocery store so she could eat some.  Instead I have always loved savory food.  I much prefer salt and vinegar chips to cake.  I rarely eat wedding cake and and the only pie I like is pecan pie.

But this pregnancy has totally changed my taste buds.  I crave sweet things all the time.  Instead of wanting cookies or brownies or cake, I crave Skittles, Laffy Taffy and any type of ice cream.

I currently have a 48 ounce jar of Skittles in my kitchen just to meet my cravings!

While I am totally enjoying this new love of sweets, I am really trying to be careful about what I put in my body.  My family has a history of diabetes, my mom had gestational diabetes with several of her pregnancies and to make things even stranger, my dad was diagnosed with Type 1 (juvenile) diabetes as an adult.  I really want to make sure to treat my body right so I can nourish my baby.  Not to mention that I hope it makes it easier to shake this baby weight!

Yesterday I had a bad craving for something sweet.  The Skittles were looking at me and begging to be eaten.  I had already eaten my handful for the day and knew that giving into more would mean eating the entire 48 ounces.  So I had to come up with a back up plan.  We always have apples in the house and being the southern woman that I am, we always have pie crust- so I decided to make myself a “healthy” version of apple pie bites.

Now, my mom will totally think these are healthy because they have no butter or white sugar.  But those “healthy living” bloggers out there will know that this is really not healthy at all.  The pie crust alone has 800 calories and is full of processed crap.  But in comparison to my upbringing this is super healthy!

Apple Pie Bites

We all know that I don’t measure, so this is as close as I can get to a recipe.

• 8 apple slices
• refrigerated pie crust
• cinnamon
• brown sugar

Roll out the pie crust and sprinkle cinnamon and brown sugar.  Cut the crust into 8 pieces, top with an apple and roll up.  Put on a baking tin and sprinkle a little more cinnamon on top.  Bake at 350° for 10-12 minutes or until flaky.

Since a whole crust is 800 calories I figure each one of these shouldn’t be more than 120 calories when you include the apple, cinnamon and sugar.  I did eat 3 in one sitting… probably should have only had one.  But I am pregnant and I am still convinced this was better thank Skittles.

I had to eat an apple as I was writing this because it made me crave this all over again!

Plus this was cheap!  The pie crust was on sale for $2.50, I had a fifty cents off coupon and there are two in the box.  The apples were on sale too- I don’t remember how much, but total this didn’t cost more than $2!

Anyone else have any fun pregnancy cravings?

Don’t be afraid to ask!

Tags

maternity wardrobe, maternity wardrobe for less, Save money on pregnancy wardrobe

I had a successful mall shopping trip this weekend.  I spent a total of $154.30 at Old Navy and scored an entire new fall wardrobe!

A few things didn’t ring up on sale and as soon as I inquired about it the sales person informed me that they weren’t on sale, but gave them to me at the sale price anyway!  I will never hesitate to ask about sale prices again!

• 4 long sleeve tees
• 2 fall blouses
• 3 sweaters
• yoga pants
• infinity scarf
• leggings
• winter jacket

Everything I bought was on clearance and to make it even better this jacket was only $26:

I ended up getting this jacket in black.  I figured it would be a perfect maternity jacket since it doesn’t button on the bottom.  I refuse to buy a real maternity coat!  So I hope this will get me through the mild Florida winter.

The best part was that nothing was actually maternity that I bought. Instead everything is pretty loose and will be great to wear in those months after the baby is born.  I actually already have a good amount of maternity clothes that are all too big for me now, so it is nice to have a new “in between” wardrobe.

Did you find yourself going through multiple wardrobes during pregnancy?  If so, how did you keep costs down?

DIY Dog Deodorizer

Tags

DIY dog breath freshener, DIY dog deodorizer, DIY dog dry shampoo, make your dog smell better

We love our dogs so much.  We have 2 miniature dachshunds that are about 4 years old.  The problem is that they always smell bad!    Here is one of them, Sabel:

We let them out in our backyard and they love to roll around in the dirt.  I use to have a compost bin and they loved to hang out in there too!  No matter how many times we bathe them, they still smell disgusting.  I have doggie wipes that we use to wipe them down before they get into bed, but that good smell only lasts so long.  Not only does their body smell bad, but their breath is gross too.  We have bought chew toys, bones and mouthwash that is designed to make their breath better and it is still gross.

Yesterday, I got fed up with their smell.  I was sitting on the couch and I couldn’t take it anymore!  I looked up a couple ideas on the internet and came up with some awesome ideas.  I don’t remember all the sites I used, but many of them suggested making your own dry dog shampoo.

Dry Dog Shampoo:

• 1/4 cup baking soda or corn starch (I was out of both and used baking powder which also worked well)
• 4-5 drops of lavender essential oil

Mix it together and work it into your dogs coat.  Prepare to have lots of hair on the floor.  As I massaged it into their coats it made the old hair shed.  I read that this is part of the process of making your dog smell better because the old hair has dust and dirt particles that make the smell worse.

They smelled much better!  It was pretty strong for a couple of hours and then about 5 hours later I couldn’t smell the lavender anymore but the dogs smelled neutral, not dirty.

I also want to get a spray bottle and fill it with water and lavender to use in between the dry shampoo treatments.

Dog Breath Freshener

• Mix 2 drops of peppermint extract into your dogs water.

This was amazing!  I actually enjoyed having my dogs breath on me.  I am not sure how well this will work in the future, but I read one article that stated that this also helps decrease gas in dogs.  We will see!

I don’t want to overdo it and use it every time I give the dogs water.  But I will try this a couple times a week when the smell gets to be too bad (or before we have guests).

This was so much cheaper than all the things I have bought in the past.  I am very happy with this and have now saved a trip to the groomer.  Basically I am saving $60 this weekend since they no longer need to be groomed right away!

 

 

Unconventional Nursery Decorations

Tags

beach nursery decor, blue and coral nursery decor, nursery planning, under the sea nursery

While I want our nursery to be perfect for our baby, I don’t want the decor to look too babyish.  The fact of the matter is I have to spend a lot of time in there, so it should be a room that I look forward to entering.  To me the beach is the best place on Earth.  Tom and I got engaged on the beach, we were married on the beach and it only seemed right to have a beachy themed nursery.

I am totally loving Pinterest for planning the nursery.  Here are some of my favorite pins for my “Under the Sea” nursery theme:

This paint color is very similar to the one we chose, ours is slightly darker-

These are some prints that I absolutely love.  I plan to attempt to make them myself instead of buying them.  I want to just modge podge them on a canvas like I did in this post.

These pillows also make me super happy.  I also am going to attempt to make my own.  I think I can print some cool pics on an iron on transfer and put them on plain white pillow covers from Ikea.  We have a day bed that will be in the nursery, I think these would look amazing there.

Of course I have all these great ideas to make things for the nursery.  I love to craft, but the main reason I like to craft is because I like to save money.  If I can find any of these decorations for cheaper than I can make them then you better believe I will purchase them instead!

Just this past week I found these amazing decorations at Bealls Outlet:

The blues match our wall color perfectly and the orange is actually more of a coral and looks really good in the room.  I was able to get the frame for $5.99 and the box for $7.99.  I was thrilled to find these when I wasn’t even looking for them!

I know they aren’t the conventional decorations for a nursery, but I love them.  What other unconventional nursery themes have you seen?

Feeling Tempted

Tags

Bambino Land swaddling blanket, Daily deal sites, online daily deals, Zulilly

I love daily deal websites.

My email inbox has tons of them:  Living Social, Half Off Depot, Crowd Savings, Groupon and even more local ones.  I just recently joined Zulilly because it is geared to moms and kids.

I may have to stop looking at Zulilly- it is too good.  I really am tempted to buy this today:

It is an organic swaddling blanket by Bambino Land.  It is originally $29, but today I can get it for $12.99.

It is an absolute great deal!  I really truly want it… bad.  It is the colors of our nursery and would be perfect.  But it is not a need.  Realistically, I know that many people will give me blankets as gifts.

As much as I would love this, I would rather put my $12 and the cost of shipping to some special artwork or something else that I won’t be getting at my shower.

But in the meantime, I will continue to look at this blanket and wish I had it.

How have you been able to stop yourself from buying too much for baby?

BOB Revolution and Britax B-Safe Giveaway at Southern Savers!

Tags

BOB revolution giveaway, Britax B-safe give away, southern savers give away

Check out this link from Southern Savers today.  She is doing a giveaway of a BOB stroller and Britax carseat.  All you have to do is leave a comment.

I would love to win, I could always return my latest stroller purchase.

Good luck… oh and mom:  feel free to enter for me