A new crafty blog to check out

I would love to do crafts with Brayden, but admittedly, I haven't found a lot that a 2 yr old can do other using crayons to color pictures. I've mentioned how much he loves water -- and with all the rain we've had we have a puddle of grand size at the end of our driveway. So what could be more perfect than having Brayden make a BOAT?? So hi ho hi ho, off to blog land I go, and I find one gem of a crafty blog called Make and Takes. Just take a look at this cute little boat!

A sponge, a straw and a bit of felt for the "sail" and we're in business. We're definitely going to be making this on Brayden's next visit on Wednesday (before the puddle disappears!). The web site has a great tutorial, though it's not a craft that needs a lot of instruction.

Of course, once I found the boat, I had to keep looking around her web site - and found LOTS more great tutorials of crafts perfect to do with Brayden, such as these great apple prints! How cute are these?? And what do you need? A paper plate, a napkin, an apple and some paint!

She has detailed step-by-step instructions on everything - whether it's a recipe, a pattern for a kid's no-sew fleece poncho, or crafts. Whether you're a Grandma, a Mommy, an Auntie, or anyone else that deals with kids, you'll want to check out Make and Takes.

Since we're on the subject of kids and crafts, another web site I frequent for craft ideas is Adventures in PreSchool. This crafty lady has wonderful ideas on games to play, teaching alphabets and numbers in a fun way, and more. I visit her blog religiously, but she has no email or blog comments, so I can't tell her how much I enjoy her ideas!

If you have any crafty blogs you visit with activities suitable for the 2-4 yr old crowd, please share! I'd love to have many activities lined up for rainy babysitting days.

Hopefully, Brayden and I will have pictures soon of crafts we've done!

My Productive Weekend

We had a great weekend - did some garage sales Saturday morning and had some great finds!

I paid $5 for this little hand-stencilled table. Not sure where I'm going to put it -- probably in the guest bedroom.

I found these framed sets -- both nice "wall fillers". I especially like the second set as they are 3-dimensional little stores - a bookstore, wine store and restaurant, and you can peek in the windows and see little 3-D vingettes. Very sweet. Each set was .50 cents.



And this was a true find -- vintage (I'm guessing 1940's) kid's ceramic tile set to make designs and pictures. But guess what? They're perfect for designing quilt squares as well! In fact, if you look at the book, you can see some quilt square designs. Love this. Paid $5.00.

I also bought Brayden a raincoat (.25), a booster seat ($3) and a swimsuit (.25). Jeff bought some record albums (.25 each) and some very sweet antique pocket-mirrors with ladies' photos on the front. I picked up a brand new electric weedwacker for Mary ($5) and a set of those rubber alphabet mats that fit together like a puzzle for Brayden's room ($2).

When we came back from the yard sales, I headed over to the new Farmer's Market in town, to see what was being offered. No veggies yet (too early in the season) but I did pick up some stew meat and ham hocks, and a Rosemary plant for my herb garden. I look forward to the time when the fresh veggies come in.

The rest of Saturday was spent doing laundry and hanging clothes out, plus some minor housework. Sunday Jeff and I spent all day outside working on the (*#$(*& weeds. I got the front gardens done and even got them mulched. I spread some PREEN around before I put the mulch down, so hopefully that will delay at least some of the weeds during the summer. I also got some summer bulbs planted.

Today I'm cutting back on housework and heading to the backyard to get (hopefully) two more gardens done today. It's supposed to be a beautiful and DRY week here, so perhaps by the end of the week I'll be able to plant the vegetable garden finally. Brayden and I will go buy flowers for the front of the house on Wednesday, and I'll have him help me dig holes to put the flowers in. While cleaning out a dresser in the garage this weekend, I found two kits for making bird houses from large pop bottles, so I want to do that with him this week as well!

It's going to be a busy week!

A little Brayden movie

Looking at the photos I posted yesterday, you'd think Brayden never smiles! He's actually full of giggles and beautiful smiles -- he's just very serious when he's busy doing anything that requires his full attention. But here's a short little movie of him in a more smiley mood. This is more of what I see during the day. At the time I took the movie, I didn't understand that he was pretending to be ME driving my car! By the way - check out my footstool in front of the chair in the background. That's an old stool they used to use at shoe stores! I found it at an auction many years ago and bought it so someday my grandchildren could sit on it and slide down it! And yes - he does! The music in the background is the Sirius Radio Kids Stuff channel. Brayden loves music, and I love having a radio on instead of TV all day.

Weeds, weeding, weeded

Lordy, weeds are going to be the death of me this year. Here in southwestern Ohio we are having such a lovely Spring with an above-average rainfall, cool temperatures and plenty of blue sky. Perfect weather for hanging out laundry and -- growing weeds!

Jeff and I made progress in getting the vegetable garden ready to plant. It's still very wet, but that just makes it easier to pull weeds. I've gotten my front perennial garden done and Jeff did the flower beds along the front of the house. I still have one more flower garden to do in front, plus the perennial garden in back, plus the gardens along the tiers of the retaining wall. And the vegetable garden is about 50% done now, with a lot left to do. Jeff got my raspberry plants cleaned out, trimmed back and mulched, and I've got the grape vines done.

The neighborhood teenager that was supposed to be helping me just hasn't worked out. Every time he shows up to help, his mother calls him and wants him to do something -- "I have to go with her and get gas," for example. He works 30 minutes and leaves for an hour. Comes back and works 30 more minutes and acts like he's put in a 10 hour day. I have to admit, I'm surprised and disappointed.

So if this weeding is going to get done, it's going to have to be Jeff and I that do it. I'm hoping the weather will stay dry enough this week to get out for at least two hours each day and get the garden weeded and tilled.

Here's a photo of some absolutely stunning golden yellow iris I have in my perennial garden. But what do you see around them? Iris leaves? No! Weeds!!! That's how high the weeds have grown this year already and it's only mid-May! These iris' are between 3 and 3.5 feet tall -- and, as you can see, so are the weeds. And this is in a garden that's mulched every year! I've just never seen anything like it.

Brayden photos

OK, for all you Brayden fans (yes, my family reads this blog!) here are some new pictures of Brayden. I tried to take our "typical day" in pictures yesterday. The only thing I didn't really record was our trip to Walmart and his nap. Other than that, here is my day with Brayden Lee!

Brayden arrives around 7:15 AM. We pack Umpa's lunch and then they have breakfast together and 15 or 20 minutes of play time.

And Brayden has to say good morning to Joey, the killer cat. At this time Joey let's Brayden know if it's going to be a good day (he'll stand to be patted) or a bad day (he'll turn around and bite Brayden). Sigh...
When he arrived, I had everything prepared to have Brayden help me make chicken soup in the crockpot. I get everything chopped and set out for him. The chicken is already in the pot.



Next, it's his time to "wash dishes" (use the kitchen sink sprayer and clean the dishes off). Once we get them in the dishwasher, he puts in the soap (tablet) and starts the dishwasher for me. Often we sweep the kitchen floor afterwards, but didn't do that today.

We like to go some place each day he's here. It's not normally shopping, but today it was a trip to WalMart. I found three sweatshirts for him for $1 each, and these sneakers for $1! He also got a great "race car" umbrella (another $1). Cost for five items - $5. Cost for the smile on Brayden's face when he got to try out his new umbrella? Priceless!

While we waited for the rain to stop and the temps to go up a little, Brayden played with his blocks in the family room while I cleaned the kitchen. At his last doctor's visit, the doctor asked if he could stack up THREE blocks! LOL! I said heck, that kid's not only stacking up 10 blocks, but they're tall skinny ones!

After our trip to WalMart, it was time to play outside. It had rained that morning, so there were little puddles in the chairs and on top of the tables. Brayden LOVES puddles, so he gets one of his cars and brings it out to make the car go through the puddles.

See those steps behind Brayden? Unfortunately, about 20 minutes later he fell off those steps and banged his head on the cement. UGH! Poor little guy. He decided it was then time to come in and get some lunch -- spaghettio's, cheese stick and juice today.

Next comes nap time (YAY!). I'm as ready for a rest as he is. Today, he actually slept THREE AND A HALF HOURS!!! Because of the bang to his head, I actually went up and check on him three or four times because he normally sleeps two hours at nap time. Guess he was just tired!

Jeff (Umpa) came home at 4:00 and went up and woke Brayden up. After a quick snack (crackers and juice) they headed outside. Brayden loves to ride the lawnmower with Umpa, so they decided to mow today. Brayden is wearing his "mowing hat". He BEGS to go on the lawnmower, but never, ever smiles once he's on it!

Next, Jeff decided to combine two of things Brayden loves - puddles and riding the lawnmower. They drove the mower to the front of the house and went through the puddle fast enough to make big splashes. Shortly after this, Brayden was riding his tricycle through the puddle and when I looked up, he had his legs up in the air like Umpa did!

Finally, at 5:30 Mary arrived to pick up Brayden. He's always so happy to see Mama! Behind them, you can see the 20 tomato and pepper plants Brayden and I transplanted last week.

Events of the day: Brayden climbed up into the high chair by himself today! But even bigger than that, he put his shoes on all by himself! He was so proud of himself that he insisted on taking them off and putting them on about 20 times throughout the day.

That's my day with Mr. Brayden Lee. :)

Updates

I'm still on my month-long spending fast, and doing fine. The only money I spent this week was budgeted money for grocery shopping. I managed to use $11.73 in coupons this week! When I got home I got online and transferred that money from my checking account to my savings. We have a Home Improvement loan I'd like to get paid off soon, so on the day that loan payment is due, I will add the money saved by using coupons to the principal of the loan. It might not be much, but it will help!

Today I wasn't babysitting and didn't have a particularly full day, so initially thought I'd drive to Ikea to see what there was to see. Talk about impulse buying! I decided the most frugal thing to do was just stay home and get caught up on some projects.

If you want to join the Spending Fast, you can read about it on The Simpler Life blog.

I'm really surprised at how many of my books have been ordered from PaperBackSwap.com . I currently have 7 credits to use (which translates to 7 free books to order), even after ordering two books. I just think this service is such a great way to get rid of books I've read, and get in new books to read! Then I discovered their sister-site SwapaDVD.com, which works on the same principle! I joined right up and went straight to our family room and pulled about 30 DVD's that we've watched several times and will never watch again, posted them, got orders within 15 minutes, and now have credit for 8 DVD's that I can order. How cool is that?!? I've spent about $20 in shipping, and for that $20 I can now order a total of 9 books and 8 DVD's.

Today is another rainy Spring day in southwestern Ohio. At this rate, I won't be able to get into my vegetable garden to plant until the end of May. Weeds are growing faster than I can pluck them out! I've transplanted all my tomato plants and green peppers to larger pots, but they may need to be transplanted again if I can't get them in the ground soon. No complaints though! This has been a wonderful Spring in Ohio, still staying in Spring-like temperatures (60's and 70's) instead of diving right into the 80's and 90's like it often does.

I purchased a small fryer chicken when I went grocery shopping, since they were on sale for .89 a pound. Today I put a layer of onions and layer of celery on the bottom of the crockpot, put the chicken on top and sprinkled it with poultry seasoning and black pepper, then put in just enough water to cover the bottom vegetables without touching the chicken. I let it cook on high for two hours, then turned it down to low for the afternoon. When it was well-cooked, I popped it in the oven at 325 degrees to brown it up a bit, and mmmmm... it was so good! The chicken was so moist and flavorful! This may be my new favorite way to roast chicken.

Brayden's here tomorrow. He's still recovering from last week's illness, but doing a lot better. There's a huge puddle in front of my house, so if the weather is warmer, I'm pretty sure that's where we'll be most of the day! That child does love splashing in water!

If you've never seen it, stop by Brayden's blog to see his life photographed by him.

Is there such a thing as eating out frugally?

My husband and I don't eat out often -- perhaps twice a month at the most and many months, not at all -- mostly because we're hard to part with our money. A middle-of-the-road restaurant -- Red Lobster, Macaroni Grill, Olive Garden - costs us $40 to $50 for dinner for two, including a drink or two for Jeff and a decent tip for the server. That's a lot of money for one meal! But I've discovered a way to eat out for a reasonable price and at a discounted rate! I go to Restaurant.com , put in my zip code, and find participating restaurants in my area. I buy a certificate for the restaurant of my choice -- often paying as little as $10 for a $25 gift certificate -- and print it off right then and there. We go out to eat to a nice restaurant and when the bill comes, I hand them the certificate and most of our meal is paid for! I save at least 50% and sometimes as much as 75%, depending on what specials Restaurant.com is offering. I'm always amazed at the number of local restaurants that participate. I've also used this service when we travel. In fact (don't tell my son!), when we hosted my son and daughter-in-law's wedding rehearsal dinner, I purchased a $50 gift certificate (for $20) to apply to the bill! Shhhhh...don't tell! If you're watching your dollars, this is a great way to still enjoy yourself but at a discounted rate. If you go out to eat anyway, why not save money doing so!!

Decluttering books

I recently spent two weeks cleaning and reorganizing my quilt room. Besides the fabric stash, I discovered I also have a book stash. Back in the day, I used to sell audio books on Ebay, but fee increases from Ebay, PayPal and the Post Office priced me right out of that market. Now the audio books have contributed to the overall book clutter in our house.

I am big on library book sales. We have an exceptional library in my town -- number 8 in the nation for a community of this size -- and this exceptional library happens to have exceptional library book sales twice a year. We used to take two cars so we could fill both. Unfortunately, I'm not kidding.

I have a lot of books I want to get rid of -- those I've read and those I'll never read. I've seen blogs talk about the PaperBackSwap web site, but I assumed it meant I send you a paperback, you send me one in return. I don't normally buy paperbacks, so didn't think it would be useful for me.

Last week I had a few minutes and actually went and read the web site. I was so wrong about this site! Here are some things you may not know:

First, it is an absolutely free service. No fee to you to list your books, no fee to you to receive books.

Most important, it accepts ALL books - NOT JUST PAPERBACKS! It accepts fiction, non-fiction, cookbooks, quilt books, audio books -- any book that has an ISBN number!

You list 10 books, and get 2 credits. You use your two credits to request 2 books from someone else.

Everytime one of your books is requested, you receive another credit (when you ship the book). Thus, you can go get another free book.

There are over TWO MILLION titles currently listed.

When one of your books is requested, you pay postage. You CAN ship Media Mail, which is the least expensive way to send books via the USPS. When you request a book from someone else, that person pays shipping, so it all evens out.

For actual paperbacks, they even provide you with a "wrapper" that includes the shipping label.

You have the OPTION to purchase postage that you can print on your computer (there is a reasonable fee for this). No special labels required. This allows you to print the label with postage and stick the book in your mailbox for your mailperson to pick up. No trips to the post office. If
you prefer to buy your own postage, no problem.

A few days ago I joined, and grabbed 5 books from a nearby bookshelf and posted them. In 15 minutes, I had two requests. I still need to post 5 more to use my original two credits, but now I have two more credits for the books I'm mailing out! That's four free books.

Check it out for yourself. If you have book clutter, but you're an avid reader, this may be the way to go! And don't forget -- there's cookbooks listed, quilt books, craft books, audio books and more! (In fact, soon there will be a LOT of audio books! LOL)

And if you use the link below, I'll get another credit - and another free book. I'll forgive you for contributing to the book clutter in my house!