Vday...on the cheap

Valentine's day is right around the corner and while I don't decorate or have any real prep for the "holiday", it is one of my favorites. I'm not sure why I enjoy it so much. Whether its all of the pinks and reds, the flowers and candies, or just the the openness that everyone seems to have with their feelings, I look forward to it every year.

The hubs and I have never really been big on "going all out" when it comes to the special day, maybe a card and a nice dinner, occasionally some flowers, but other than that our celebration is pretty low-key. Since we keep it pretty much under the radar for ourselves, I thought it would be fun to start a tradition of doing something fun for the kids in our lives. Catch your breath...NO, we don't have kiddos that have been running around in secret....I'm talking about our nieces and nephews. We love all five of them to death and I thought, "Well, why don't we send them a little LoVe nugget this Valentine's day!" I mean who doesn't like getting an " I <3 you!" on Valentine's when you aren't really expecting it...I know I do (Hint Hint...SWL are you reading this? ;o) ).

So, in keeping with the theme of low-key and under the radar I decided to hit up the $1 bins are Target (aka Taarr- jee') and I found some cool deals. There were lots of "love" themed socks each for only a $1 (Batman for the boys!). So I grabbed a pair for each of the kids based on what I thought they might be excited to see once they opened their package. Then I made my way to the sticker aisle, what kid doesn't love stickers, right?! I'm an adult and I would probably rate them in my top 10 favorite things to receive...is that weird? Anyway, I did the same thing there, chose a pack of $ o.99 stickers that reminded me of each of the kids. (I apologize in advance to the parents (love you guys) for any unwanted placement of the stickers that should occur.) Lastly, what is Valentine's Day without a little chocolate? So I scooped up a bag of milk chocolate hearts to divide between the kids. Even though two of the babes are still too young to truly enjoy the chocolaty goodness, I know my sisters will have no problem finding a home for the sweets!

On the way home from work, I stopped by the post office to grab some "bubble envelopes" in fun colors and then made my way home to pack it all up. I wanted to put a little note in to let the kids know we love them and say, "Hi!" since we don't get to seem them as much as we would like. I had some pink card stock left over from a high school computer class project...wow...just wow. So, naturally, I composed a simple homemade Valentine and stuck it in the envelope with the goods! Tada! Here are a couple shots...

Total cost, including postage, $26! Not bad for five Valentine's Day packages! I was pretty proud...I'm trying to exercise my thrifty bone a bit more this year...not to shabby for having to dust it off.

I hope the kids enjoy them! I wish I could be there to see their faces when they realize they have a "special" package in the mail. I used to love getting mail when I was younger...still do, minus bills.

So, if you're still wondering what to throw together for the loves of your life, at least the little ones, don't look past the $1 bins and sticker aisle...could be just what they were looking forward too! What thrifty ideas do you have for Valentine's Day? Do you celebrate?

Sidenote: I feel really guilty about posting this before posting anything about the buffet progress...but I couldn't hold out any longer. Only new info on the buffet front is that I have acquired (thanks to KAS and KMR) a new stripper that I plan on testing out hopefully this weekend!! Fingers crossed!

Until next time...

Oh Saturday...

Ugh, have you ever had one of those days where everything seems to be swirling around your brain and nothing seems to stick? That's me today. I have projects to get done, cleaning that could stand to happen, exercising, laundry, this, that and the other.... But all I can muster up the energy to do is sit on the couch and stare at the television, then computer, then television, then...you get the point. I did play a round of Qwirkle (current favorite game, FYI) with the hubs though, that counts for something, right?

Maybe it's the grey, rainy day. Maybe its the chilly weather. Maybe I just needed to take it easy for a day. Whatever it is, that is definitely what I am doing, taking it easy. Hanging at home with the hubs and the pup. And even though I could be checking things off a list that is probably lost somewhere in all the mess, I'm enjoying myself too much doing nothing to get up and put forth any effort. Hmph. :0)

I hope this weekend has brought some of the same relaxation to you and yours. Here's to Saturday. Ahhh, how I love you.

Until next time...

Total Bust...well not completely, I guess...

So, as you all might have noticed there is nothing posted about any kind of excitement from being finished with the buffet redo. It's because I failed....I didn't meet my deadline of January 31st. But I have been working on it. It's just taking way longer than what I anticipated.

Over the summer, back when I first purchased the buffet, I was in the middle of like 4 other projects and so I only sort of started working on the stripping of the buffet. I chose the top because it was flat and easy to work with at the time. I put the stripper on and you could see it begin to work almost instantly, even though the jug says to wait for about 25-30 minutes. Here's an example of what I'm talking about from another piece I was working on. Those bubbles were like perfection, it meant the stripper was doing its job and I was on my way to a "new" piece of furniture.

(This table is now white and lovely, you see, because the stripper worked. Hmph!)

But I never got the bubbles with the rest of the buffet. I don't know what is going on but so far it seems like all the buffet is doing is soaking up the stripper. Awesome. I even let it sit for the entire amount of time mentioned in the instructions...and nothing. When I start to scrape its like I might as well sprayed the thing with water! Extremely frustrating.

At first I thought the issue was the kind of stripper I chose. I was out of the old, so I opted for the "environmentally safe" choice. It did "okay" but took forever....and while the smell was way more bearable and I felt better about cleaning my supplies and throwing things away, I couldn't take it. I broke down and bought some of the "real deal" stripper. The stuff that has to be "disposed of properly". (I hate it...I do.) But when I gave that a shot thinking, "I'm in business now! Bwah hahaha", nothing. More soaking up, waiting, and a whole lot of no real results. Here is what I got...

(One of the doors from the buffet..all butchered up now, sad.)

A sorta, kinda, half way there, but not really done door. What the?!?! So, here I am...and I need your help. Names of strippers (ha), tips that work, anything....please? This was supposed to be easy, well not easy, but not this hard.

I'm quite discouraged and thinking I might have ruined a perfectly good piece of furniture just because I wanted it to be a different color. Tear :*-( Any advice, or pointing in the right direction would be greatly appreciated.

Until next time....

Well, would you look at that...

It actually snowed this time. I'd like to send a big high five out to all the weather people who got it right this time. *High five* Just playing, seriously, I know the best you can do with predicting the weather is give an educated guess....so whatevs. But it is a little discouraging when you think a wave of snow is coming your way, time after time after time, and it doesn't show. So, I convinced myself that if I didn't think about the snow, didn't watch the weather, and acted like it was all just a bad joke maybe, just maybe it would come. And it did, woohoo!!! I good bit too! Here's to the first real snow of the winter.

My favorite tree in the yard...and Riley with her face in the snow, usual.

Again, with her face in the snow. She has this thing about sniffing until she hits ground...yea, I love her.

My attempt at a snowman...kinda creepy, but a snowman just the same.

Bubbly bushes

Hope everyone enjoyed the fluffy white stuff as much as I did! p.s.- Tomorrow's Friday... :-D

Until next time...

Treasure...?

While I will say my progress is not what I thought it would be at this point, at least I can say there has been some in the buffet redo department and that I fully intend on having the project completed by my deadline (January 31st, 6 days from now...). I have also decided no photo updates until it is complete, because really I shouldn't be blogging about it right now...I should be working on it. Buuuut, here's a little something to keep you interested.

While I was disassembling my lovely masterpiece, cleaning, and what not, I made a discovery. I found these tucked in the back of the buffet, under one of the center drawers.

A rubber band, an old poptop thingy, some old coin wrappers, and a black and white school photo (the most interesting of the bunch).

Whether you can call it treasure, I don't know. But fun to make a find just the same. Alright, that's all you get for now...more to come...in no more than 6 days to be exact. :0) Wish me luck!

The one and only, ever curious, and totally excited (can't you tell?) helper, Riley.

Until next time...

Simple Solutions

For a while now I have been hounding my hubs to get a "recycling center"... fancy for " small bins to throw your trash in at home until you take your trash somewhere else to throw in bigger bins". Yea, so it took me a while to come to the realization on the whole "seriously, they are just bins" idea. I thought I needed the ones with labels, holes specific to what you were throwing in the bin, color coordinated, slanted lids, yada yada...you know bells and whistles. But once again, "seriously, they are just bins".

So, shortly after Christmas, the hubs and I made our way to Lowe's because, of course, what happens after Christmas...SALES! We weren't specifically looking for anything that had to do with recycling. But we were looking for things to help us get organized. Along the way we came across a great deal on bins like these...
Regularly this little ditty is about $14 and we snagged it (along with as many we could find and thought we might have a use for) for only $5!! Five buckaroos, is way cheaper than any piece of a recycling center I could find.

As for labels, well my handy dandy label maker set to the largest letter option worked fine for me.

A grand total of $20 later, plus a few labels and my recycle center was up a running. It may not be as small as other options, but it saved me a good chunk of change and the bins are big enough to hold all the garb that we are throwing in until we can make it to the "bigger bins" to unload!

Hope this inspires some simple solutions around your ranch! Do you have any to share? Until next time...

PS- there has been some progress on the buffet redo...more to come on that later!

Weekend Walks

I love a good walk with the pup, Riley. She knows when it's coming, she loves when it's happening, and she is beat when it's over. These days we've taken to power walking it up and down the streets of town. Even though it's a bit chilly out (like really super 8 degrees chilly), there's something about getting all bundled up and strolling around with the pup that warms me up in no time at all.

Hubs and the PupRiley Girl

Hope everyone had a wonderful weekend! Congrats to all you Packers and Steelers fans out there, I was one of only a few sporting my Skin's gear...one day. Hope everyone has a great week too....Happy Monday!

Until next time...