Wednesday, December 30, 2015

Children's Books Pre-K Through Eighth Grade .49 Cents Shipped

This looks interesting! Supposedly .49 cents a book shipped. I haven't tried them, but it looked like a good deal for children's contemporary best sellers. See here. I'd love to visit this place. The store in located in a North Carolina.

DIY Rustic Pedestal

Saw this over at Pinterest. I am going to try this! Link is here. I will share it when it's done. I have a candlestick like this, but I'm not sure the top is wide enough. I'm working on some upcycling distressed pieces now for Etsy, so this would be an easy project to work in.


Thursday, December 17, 2015

Discover Kids Free Homeschool Resource Grades Five Through Nine

Discover Kids has some free content which is helpful as a supplement across subjects. The site is not interactive and is for reading only. Offers three reading levels for grades five through nines. Sign up is free. See here.

Friday, December 04, 2015

Christmas Home Tours 2015

These are fun to watch at YouTube. I jump off suggested videos in the margins for more.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays

We are keeping it simple this year, staying home and enjoying the mild weather. I haven't gotten as much crafting done this year, but I've been enjoying all the ideas over at Pinterest and Etsy.

A favorite at Etsy. Totally do-able.

Tuesday, November 24, 2015

DIY Gift Wrap Caddy

We make a lot of our own rustic-modern-industrial furniture, and everything has wheels on it for easy cleaning.

This is a great idea for organizing, storing, and accessing all your wrapping accessories. See here for tutorial.

Tip: save money on wheels by using the ones off an inexpensive moving caddy.

Sunday, November 22, 2015

Upcycled Message Board

I keep forgetting that I can do this with trays that I find at thrift stores. Not enough time and so many ideas! This is just an old tray with chalk paint applied to the flat surface.



Credit for picture.

DIY chalkboard paint tutorial here.

Tuesday, November 10, 2015

DIY Candy Wreath

DIY candy wreath with clearance candy.Very clever!

See here.

I saw one of these for sale on Etsy. Excellent way to make a little holiday cash.

Friday, November 06, 2015

Decent Savings Site: Hip2Save

Just got two great online deals via Hip2Save on kitty litter and a plugin charger. I downloaded their app onto my Kindle, so very helpful for not missing savings at Target and Amazon, among others.

Highly recommended.

Tuesday, October 06, 2015

Cool Weather, Smores, and a Homemade Fire Pit

It finally cooled off and stopped raining, so we were able to build a fire in our homemade fire pit and make smores.

It's not as aesthetically pleasing as it was ten years ago, but it functions beautifully.
It's a pit lined and stacked with broken concrete from my neighbor's driveway demolition. I have a thrifted oven rack that I lay across for cooking outside, also a big outdoor thrifted roaster pan with lid.

We burn off found and salvaged fallen tree limbs, twigs, leaves, and paper recycling before we buy any new wood.

I burned off a lot of ivy on the bed behind it, so it's looking dismal. I'm thinking of adding some native berry bushes there instead.

Happy autumn to my northern hemisphere friends.


Wednesday, September 30, 2015

Hay for Natural Garden Fertilizer in the Fall

It's almost that time of year again. Time to cover your garden beds for the winter with hay, and you'll be ready to combat spring weed emergence, and the hay breaks down naturally for fertilizer.

Simply turn it into the soil in the spring, or make spaces between it for mature plants.

Save some money and check out Craigslist or other local used sales listings for hay. We usually get ours for half price or free from community organizations after they are done with bales used for hay rides in October.

Tuesday, September 15, 2015

Bookshelves Overflowing!

Putting more books in my Etsy store. We have to weed out some books and make room for new ones, especially since I'm heading to a book sale on Saturday.

I've got a few academic books to list: spelling, English, and history. I should get those up to tomorrow.

It's so hard to part with them, but we need to work on some new skills. We've been using apps and ebooks quite a bit for school, but nothing beats a real book!

We've always had an interest in different cultures, so those items will be listed as well. As souvenirs from the states and other countries are used for studies, I'll be passing them on in my shop.

These knick-knacks, tourist books and pamphlets are so useful for creating interest and extended learning, and helpful for memory when covering history and social studies.