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Frugal Finds

Rules For The Teacher

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I fell in love with this year-end teacher gift…

{You can download the FREE printable here}

I am NO way near as crafty as Crystal over at Little Bit Funky, but I DO know how to send this adorable download to Walgreens and put it into a frame for my kiddos’ teachers!

{my Walgreens is having a [2 8X10’s for $2 special] during the month of June….maybe yours is too ~ yes, I missed it by a day and a half!}

Going to get these cuties in some colorful frames and see what other rainbow goodness I can find to present to our sweet teachers at the end of NEXT WEEK! Where, oh where did this school year go?

Dye Another Day

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I had all intentions of dying my grays in time for the Easter Bunny.

But after little missy fell ill, I just told myself, “Dye another day!”

So, I mentioned this stuff last week…

{pure darkest brown}

I’ve noticed, while looking at pictures of myself over the years, that I like my hair darker ~ almost black. I do not do the highlights thing. I am a one color all over girl. I have mucho grays. I need to color the ‘do about every 5-6 weeks. I get my hair professionally colored about twice a year, but to save money in between, I color it myself at home.

I hate coloring it myself at home.

Drips. Drops. Spills. Stains.

I’d heard about these new foams or mousses and decided to give it a try.

Love. It.

I was able to color my hairs this morning despite the kids running around screaming. No mess. No drips. GREAT coverage. Pleasant smell.

I picked this up on sale at Target for about 8 bucks.

Bottom line…doesn’t matter if I spend $80 or $8, the grays still reappear after 3 weeks! My hair follicles do not know the diff. I am thrilled that I can now do touch up between my twice a year professional colorings with ease.

For root touch ups I use this…

It’s fantastic and blends well with any professional hair color. Have used it MANY times and will continue to do so.

But today I needed the whole she-bang! I highly recommend L’Oreal Sublime Mousse.

The second best thing about this mousse?

It’s calorie free.

 

Easter Brights

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Today I found a cute little Easter outfit for Elliott. I think it’s perfect for her without being overly frilly.

After securing her duds at Marshall’s, I felt like I needed something springy and bright, too.

I was inspired by this post and headed to Old Navy to find this:

And in case it’s a bit chilly Sunday morning, I picked up this cute cardigan:

The whole oufit for about $20.

All the clearance stuff is an additional 30% off right now.

If you need something bright and cheery to match your vibrantly dyed Easter eggs, head over to O.N. and see what you can find for your {Sunday Best}.

*****

While the kids will be dying eggs in the morning, I will be using this dye….

{hoping the [mousse] will ease application and drips!}

*****

I hope your {Good Friday} had you surrounded with those that you love.

Krylon, Take Me Away!

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I think I {may} be on the verge of quite possibly becoming addicted to spray paint{ing}.

It is the quickest, easiest, cheapest way to transform almost anything.

It all started when I spray painted the glass candle holders to make some little candy/snack dishes for Elliott’s upcoming party as seen again here…

I love them and they have perked up our mantel for Spring. I had visions of jelly beans in the little one and daffodils in the big one and haven’t gotten around to picking up either.

{btw, the color is krylon [pumpkin orange]}

Then, this past weekend we went to Lowe’s and I picked up another can of instant happiness and got busy yesterday morning…

{color is valspar [exotic sea]}

Keeping with the nature, outdoorsy theme of Elliott’s party, I have been collecting pine cones and branches on my Tuesday/Thursday morning hikes. Elliott even spotted a couple nice sturdy, long twigs down in San Diego last week.

I think they will add an organic, yet chic {and not to mention inexpensive} look to the outdoor festivities.

The aqua twigs will be fun on the mantel through summer, too. They also take on sort of a beachy feel.

Twigs and branches like these would be gorgeous during the holidays in silver or gold…oh man, I am already thinking about Christmas!

If you need some spunk or pop of color in your casa or backyard, grab a can of spray paint, shake, press with your index finger and watch the transformation take place.

And oh how I love the sound of the ball clanking around inside the can when you shake it!

Psycho Bozo

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While killing some time in Kohl’s last week, I found some 49¢ inspiration for Holden’s 5th birthday party…yes, the one that is 11 months away.

There were some cute felt flags with a {circus} theme. They were 90% off! Five of them remained and that was a sign for me that I had to pick them up and use them as a springboard for H’s half-decade celebration.

I love all the bright, bold colors.

So, yes, I am psycho when it comes to planning parties ~ now it’s official if it wasn’t already.

I think a Circus/Carnival theme will be so fun to put together.

And I promise it will be {classy}…no scary clowns or carny material will be on the guest list!

Mod Podge Monday

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This morning I headed to Wal-mart at 8am to pick up some Mod Podge. I hadn’t ever heard of this stuff until I started reading blogs. It seemed like an easy enough craft since I would put my crafty skill level at about a 2…

I needed a couple birthday gifts for Holden’s darling little twin classmates. Last week I got a $10 off coupon at Kohl’s and put it to use this weekend. I am embarrassed to say how much I paid for these gifts so I will let you do the math…

These cute jewelry boxes were 80% off $30…go on, practice your mathematical skills. I bought 2 and used my $10 off coupon.

Ridiculously inexpensive, right?

I wanted to personalize them and was going to do it with a paint pen, but that made me nervous. Then I remembered that the Dollar Tree had some letter stickers that I thought would be perfect and match the colors of the jewelry box. I picked those up…again, 2 X $1 = cheap!

I stuck the stickers on the tops of the boxes and wanted to secure or seal them a little so this is where the Mod Podge comes in.

I think they’re just darling and the perfect gift for a couple sweet 4 years olds.

Five minute gifts for under $5.

I wish the letters were a bit smaller {or the girls’ names were shorter. Ha!} so I wouldn’t of had to overlap them as much…

Now I’m not that cheap, so I’ll be picking up a little something else too, but I love the way I stretched my dollar.

And, I look forward to seeing what else I can Mod Podge!

Happy Monday!

I Had No Idea What I Was Doing

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My sweet little fireman in training turns FOUR mañana.

I’ve wanted to make him a special shirt for his party. I shopped for all the materials at Joann’s {after asking MANY questions} and just settled on a shirt today.

We made a quick Target run this morning and I found a long-sleeved black crew neck shirt on the clearance rack…surprise, I know. I never shop clearance! Anyhoo, I held it up and he immediately said, “That shirt is for ‘El-yit’…that’s a girl’s shirt!” You know what, I think he’s right, but we slipped it on and the {slim} fit is in, no?

I have been dreading this project because I am a heat n bond virgin, but I took the bull by the horns and traced and cut out a “4” on a piece of printer paper. I then took a piece of heat n bond and some flame fabric and pinned the 3 pieces together —> the printer paper, heat n bond and the fabric. I HAD NO IDEA WHAT I WAS DOING. I cut that out. Then I carefully followed the directions on the package and set my iron to medium and went to town.

This is what I ended up with:

Not too shabby, eh?

In my mind the fabric was more red & orange ~ I thought it was going to stand out more on a black shirt. It just so happened that part of the outside of the “4” is black and it blends in with the shirt…thinking about getting some orange or red thread and doing a little hand stitching around the edge to make it stand out more. If there’s time….ha!

I’m pretty proud of myself. Not going to win any blue ribbon at the county fair, but I think it deserves an honorable mention.

It was SO easy.

Maybe the Dr. Seuss tie shirt won’t be so bad to whip up after all….

Me, Myself & I

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This morning was fabulous.

I had 3 hours to myself.

No calls from the school. No laundry. No vacuuming.

Just me, myself and I.

I ran some errands…picked up a few treasures and some goodies for Holden’s birthday.

I am attempting a {much} smaller version of this…

{via}

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How cute is this Roxy dress I scored for Elliott {6 bucks!}…

{via}

Anxiously awaiting Spring!

*****

And, yes, I did go back and pick up another pair of $4.48 gloves at Target:

{via}

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Have you tried the new fruit & maple oatmeal at Mickey D’s?

It’s great for a quick breakie on the road…290 calories with 5 grams of fiber!

It really is {undeniably delicious}.

*****

Remember this {Friends} episode:

There is a woman that I see every Tuesday/Thursday morning on the way to Holden’s school. She has a very {Phoebe-esque} running style and I always get a kick out of it ~ brings a smile to my face at 8:45am.

*****

Hope your Tuesday involved a few laughs and some {YOU} time!

22 Degrees

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Nothing like a little cold air to wake you up on a Saturday morning!

By 9:00am, after a quick stop at the bagel shop, we were about 45 miles from home for a little early morning sledding.

It was gorgeous!

Last night we ran to the local children’s resale store and scored some snow pants for Elliott. They had ONE pair left in a size 6…perfect!

I love this one…

Do you like my mustard gloves? They were this week’s frugal find at Targé…$4.48 {reg. $17.99}, and yes, they are leather. I bought them for the early morning walks to school and took a chance wearing them in the snow today. I thought for sure they would get ruined, but they held up fabulously and dried out nicely. My hands stayed surprisingly warm, too. They had TONS of pairs left…I think I need to go back and pick up another pair in turquoise suede…that is if they’re still there!

*****

Looking forward to staying in and trying out a new recipe this evening. I know it’ll be one that I pass along….yum yum! Also looking forward to popping open that bottle of almond champagne from Valentine’s Day, as well.

Happy Saturday to you!

Thrifty Thursday ~ Simple, Inexpensive, Homespun Birthday Invites

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I’ve mentioned this before…you can spend LOTS on invitations.

I refuse to do that anymore. Personally, I also refuse to use evite. I think evite is genius and I’m all for being more {green}, but I prefer and enjoy coming up with cheap, crafty invites for my kids’ birthday parties. I love the idea of a hand or snail mail delivered invitation. I guess I’m sort of old-fashioned that way…

This year for Holden’s party I found some blank note cards at Michael’s for 50¢ a pack {8 cards/package}. I chose these specifically because of the red envelopes ~ so much better than plain, boring white!

The cards had a small graphic printed on the bottom right corner so I just made a {flame} template out of cardboard, cut it out, traced several flames on some orange construction paper, cut those out, used Elmer’s glue and some red & gold glitter and voila! It covered the picture perfectly. I chose a font we already had {cracked}, formatted it, came up with the wording and popped them through our printer.

I picked up some fire truck stickers at Target for 99¢ in the scrapbook area and added one to the inside of the invite and also to the front of the envelopes.

I addressed them “Firefighter so-and-so” and put the return address for the ones I mailed as “Fire Chief Holden”.

I calculated the cost of these invitations as less than 25¢ apiece.

We hand delivered most of them to save on postage, too!

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