Changing it UP!!

About a year ago this month- our roommate moved out and we finally got a room for the girls! Due to my daughters birthday being on March 31st- I had to be frugal or just pick things I wanted to buy to get the girls room to feel less like a "guess room".. So I looked for a girly bed set but nothing in a queen size. You know most younger beds are full or twin, but we have a queen so both girls sleep in one. It is hard to find cutesy bed sets in queen, so I picked up a semi not to adult like bed set and it worked! I had to find a dresser without spending too much money- found a small one for free and it worked up until about 2 weeks ago when the drawers just gave out and the top one broke! Which it was not a very sturdy dresser anyhow. It was fly by the seat of my pants anyhow to get it to together for the girls to enjoy. But, now I have some time & money to look around **Still being frugal, though**
I let them pick from 5 bed sets which one they liked and could agree on, so I had to buy that online due to the size not in stores. I also got some ideas of pintrest for decorating the girls room on a budget.
I got an awesome dresser for them! It was my mom's and she had it in storage. I finally talked her into giving it to me for the girls, since she has not used it at all over 4 years now. I was going to pay her something, but she said NO. I am okay with that! Thank you MOM!
The girls use to have about 3 posters up, but do the walls being plaster- only 1 stayed up! I will be taking it down and moving it, but for now keep it on the wall so it will not get ruined.

Before pics of the room:

 During pics of the room:

After pics of the room:

 They also got new curtains, they have a window by the dresser. It is 2 windows in the corner & we use to (this is going to be tacky, but the girls were scared to sleep in the room without some covering) have a raider blanket to cover the window. NO I AM NOT A RAIDER fan.





                                         ~UPDATE~ 6.27.13~
The 3 frames on the wall above, actually 2 of them ended up falling and breaking. I had taken the glass out of all 3 when the 1st one fell.  I glued, I glued again and these frames just did not hold up. That is what I get for #1. getting them from the dollar store & #2. having plaster walls and not knowing how to manipulate them..
So both of the girls are out of town, so I decided I will make it look nice again. So I got scrapbook paper and used that like a border.. Here are the pics that I took this morning: This is simple, cheap, and will not fall off the wall!

                                                          

Have you ever just wanted to sell your stuff and keep track of it??

So, I have been really thinking and thinking about selling things I make.

Then I started looking for templates on how  much to charge & keep track of things. I could not find very much online besides software to download. I did not really want that, so I decided to make one up for myself. I have something similar to this, but it is in word doc & not a lot of space to write things in & was really general.. So then I jotted down a rough draft of what things I wanted to keep track of and then just started putting my excel sheet together! 

I have formulas in the squares to tell me what my real profit would be. The only thing I do not have on here is the hours it takes me to make something. That really is not important to me, so I left it out.

I do however, have a 2nd tab on this worksheet to breakout cost of supplies. So when I buy something for a certain project- I jot down the price I paid. I also break it down by how much is in the package. If you bought a pack of 24 pipe cleaners & each project will only use 2 then you want to make sure you only have the cost of 2 of them down. If I bought something that can be used several times, like ink for a stamp- I divided that by 1 year. So that is the formulas I did on the 2nd tab. This works for me, it may not work for you. But it will  get your creative juices working and maybe help you create your own recording system.

  for stopping by.....            

If you shop online, why not get money back for doing so? ? ?

http://www.ebates.com/rf.do?referrerid=RmuUakWtetI8EDzlgLECiQ%3D%3D

Danika's Birthday

So I wanted to get a jump start on her birthday, since I want to do a budget. Her birthday falls on Easter this year.. But, we will celebrate it the weekend after. For the last couple of weeks, I have been talking to Danika about ideas she wants to do for her birthday and then looking up party ideas. Today, I went and printed up all my research, made a "rough draft" of my budget & it comes to about $1,000..
So now, here is my idea: MAKE IT CHEAPER!! I am going to see if I can find ideas I want to do and make it cheaper. Stay tuned for weeks to come to see what I can come up with. That $1,000 is including a bouncy house & petting zoo, food, favors, invitations, the whole shabang! Also, my idea is to keep track of what I buy, how much I spend, etc.. so I know years to come. Last year, my man thinks I spent about $1,000 and I thought to myself- uhhh maybe. But, I really thought close but not that much!! Now, that I looked at everything all together on paper for this year- I said OK probably!

~Starting to look good!! I can print up my own invitations, so no need to buy anything there. But, I do need stamps, which I have already bought. I will do some evites, but I still like the whole concept of mailing an invitation. Kids get excited for mail and then it is on the fridge and they bug their parents to come!!  :)


UPDATE: We did Rock Star Party, I made badges for all the kids that RSVP'd and laminated it. I hung them on a cardboard that I painted. Print up pics and the badge. Glue them together and laminate and I added a necklace.

Blue Badges for boys & pink for the girls!

Iced Coffee

I think I saw this on Pintrest- but not 100% sure. This is the greatest idea ever and I am so impressed that I do it all the time now!
I love Iced Coffee, I did not mind that regular ice cubes watered it down- I do admit though this is great! The girls asked what I was doing with the leftover coffee I was pouring into the ice tray.. It was funny.



I put it in a bowl and put it back in the freezer, in the way
back so no one else that comes over grabs any.
Then I can leave the ice tray for the real ice, also.

Treats for SuperBowl & just because..

I was going to do this project with the girls, months ago. The problem is the recipe or picture I saw had round pretzels and I have been hunting for them for months. I finally gave up about 3-4 weeks ago & figured I would just buy regular pretzels. I just lagged on getting the treats. So bored at home one day with one of the girls, I decided we could do the treats to pass time and to eat a little bit. We can make enough for the game, we made these on Saturday 2.2.13

We ran to the CVS down the street, to grab the essentials.
Now we started putting them together: Pretzels down on baking sheet- 350 degrees- I figured out after the

first batch only put enough so that the 2 of us could put the m and m's  on top before the kiss or rolo start to cool. So pretzel down and whatever chocolate piece next (rolo or kiss), then put in the oven..
Once you see the chocolate melt, you pull them out and add the m and m on top- pushing the chocolate down a little...

I did not really have the timer set, I just watched the chocolate melt. 

I would just make sure to check it every couple of minutes. The first batch was maybe 8 min- due to the oven not warmed up yet.

 
The picture is sideways, but you get the idea of what  they are suppose to look like! Hailey is grabbing them off the baking sheet and putting them on another tray I got out. This way I can put them in the fridge or freezer and cool them down pretty quickly. Also all the guys like them from the fridge. Hailey liked them warmed up, though.. So during the game I told her to put the one she wanted to eat in the microwave for 5 seconds. I have to say I am not a chocolate lover by any means, but those were so yummy! I thought I would like the rolo ones better than the kisses, but I was wrong. My boyfriend I thought would be opposite of me, because he loves chocolate- but he preferred the rolo ones. Very interesting I must say! What a fun way to spend a little time and make some delicious treats!

Home*made Chicken Soup

Maybe it is the weather, but I have been craving some soup. Chicken rice soup to be exact. I just wanted to go with what I felt I wanted int he soup and not by any recipe I found. So I started with cream of chicken, cream of mushroom, boiled one thigh in water, used that water as broth, better than bouillon, Knorr chicken stock, seasonings, minced garlic, etc.... Most of it was not measured out, it was just added to what I thought would be nice and taste good.

My 2 favorite things to use for cooking:

I have used Better than Bouillon for awhile now, but only the last year
the Knorr Stock!
I cooked my jasmine rice in my rice cooker and added the rice at the end, before putting the soup in the fridge. I brought it to work for lunch.
I added an all seasoning I read off Paula Dean's Coleslaw recipe.
I only used what I had in the house, otherwise I might have added celery & carrots. I do admit it turned out delicious...