I love the Dump!

Let me just start off by saying that I love our dump. There is a store next to the dump called Last Chance Mercantile. You can donate pretty much anything there. So they sell pretty much everything you can think of. Yes, a lot of it is junk, but every once in a while you find a steal!

I was dropping off a box of some old shoes and clothes and randoms, when I noticed out of the corner of my eye a big, beautiful mirror. I asked if it was for sale, because it was off to the side in a big pile of plastic bins. I was told to ask the manager who told me that he just hadn't put it out in the store yet. So he went to get it for me and the whole time I was thinking, hmmmm, I wonder what price it will be? Hopefull under $20, that would be awesome. Well when he brought the mirror over he showed me that the glass had a crack. Nooooo! So I contemplated over that, picture texted it to Akoni and he said get it if I have to have it (which I did) and if it doesn't work, we're only out $4! Awesome, I love him!

So here is my $4 amazing find. People don't believe me when I tell them how much I get things for at this store, so here is a picture of the price tag. And see the crack isn't too bad. I'm just going to vinyl over it and hopefully no one will know!

And I will post pictures once it's cleaned up and on my wall, I can't wait!

Fun Crayon Project

I love when school is about to start. All the art supplies are super cheap and I stock up. I usually just throw away all my old crayons and start fresh, I love a fresh box of crayons! But I found this fun thing to do with all your old crayons and so I put the kids to work and it was a lot of fun!

The tedious part is peeling all the crayons. I ended up taking a razor blade and slicing along the crayon and then the kids could easily remove the paper. It was a lot faster then peeling the crayons and trying to rip the paper. And you got less crayon under your finger nails!

We then put them in my car cupcake pan. This is what the lady did and that's why I wanted to do it because I happened to have the same pan! It kind of ruined my pan, but I hated cleaning it when I made cupcakes, so I think it has now become a crafting pan! You have to make sure that you spray your pans really good, otherwise you will have a tough time getting the crayons out. Then you bake them at 200 degrees for about 40 minutes. I just kept watching them to see if they were done melting. Also, the crayons as they melt shrink down in the pan, so it would have been nice to add more crayons as they melted, but we didn't have anymore and I didn't think about it till after.

And this is what they came out looking like! Aren't they cute? I don't know if you can tell, but we didn't really get any wheels on the cars because of when the crayons melted they ended up not filling the whole mold. I did however make the mistake of letting the kids take them to church and Kamden thought they were cars and was rubbing them all over the backs of the benches! Yikes, had to put them away after that, we kind of got crayon all over. And then he did the same thing on our wall. So they are not allowed to be used when he is around! One of them looks like Mater, so he loves that one. I thought these would be a cute present to give, or even a party favor if we ever did a car themed birthday.

Adorable gift my Sister-in-law made!

How cute is this car seat cover that my sis-in-law made?! I just had to share it because I think it is so dang adorable. I can't wait to use it!

She also made this baby wipe case. Well she covered a baby wipe case, but it's so cute too!!

Where all my Flour is going....

I have been making a lot of bread. And I am sooooo bad at it. I can't get my bread to rise. I can get it to wonderfully rise in the bowl, but then I punch it down, put it in the loafs and then it could sit there all day, seriously, and not rise above the edge of the pans. I have tried sitting them under lights, in my front room by the window, in the oven with a pan of hot water and even putting them in the pans before I punch them down and they won't even rise then! The bread turns out tasting great, but it's short and no good for sandwiches which is what I wanted it for. Oh well, at least it looks pretty and tastes good!!

And slap some homemade strawberry jam on it.....DELICIOUS!!!

I also got a recipe from a girl at church from the Pioneer Woman's blog, and it is to die for!! These cinnamon rolls are the most delicious thing I have ever made and they are SO EASY! It's basically a one pot wonder recipe. And it made 8 pans of rolls! It was perfect to put some in the freezer for later. I did however have to use a different recipe for the icing. She uses brewed coffee and since I don't have any of that, I found a delicious cinnamon roll icing recipe and used it instead. Just so all my local friends know, you will be getting these rolls next year for Christmas, and you will love me for it!

Jam and other things...

The price on strawberries finally went down and no one will eat the jar of store bought jam that has been in the cupboard for a while, so I happily have been making jam!! This is batch #6 in about 2 weeks. I can't stop, it's so good that I don't want to run out.

And this is my other project that I have sitting on my table to make. What could it be for? You'll have to wait and see! (BTW, those huge bags of flour are only $2.99 at Grocery outlet right now!)

Adriann's Dresser

I bought this dresser for a steal on Craigslist a few years ago and have been wanting to paint it ever since, but have never had the urge to actually get it done. The lady I bought it from had put one coat of stain on it and called it good, so luckily I didn't have to do much prep work.

Here is the finished dresser! I love it and it finally looks like it matches her room.

Quick closet fix!

Embarassing photo of our closet, but it's a before picture so I don't mind as much. The floor of our closet has always been a disaster. But it has always seemed like shoe racks or organizational things are so expensive. So I have been putting off doing anything about it and just kept shoving shoes and 72 hour backpacks and who knows what into the closet.

Well I needed a new project, so after our Relief Society class on Organization I decided to tackle the closet.

Here is the After picture of the floor of our closet now. All I did was buy a $10 piece of wood, painted it with some paint we had in the garage, and set it on some food storage cans, and voila!! Don't mind the bag in the middle, those are Kamden's birthday presents that are not there now, so there is actually way more room. Everything is much more organized. I know it's not much, but it works!

Bench and Shelf together at last!

I FINALLY finished the Shelf to go along with my Bench that I made forever ago. I would put a link in here for it, but I don't know how to do that. But it's in the bottom picture, so just look there. So here in the shelf before I painted it.

And the finished shelf hanging on the way, thanks to my wonderful husband that hung it up for me after going to Home Depot and buying hooks and putting those on also. Without him, it would be sitting my garage forever because I had no idea how to get it up on the wall once it was finished!!

These side hooks were also Akoni's idea. It's so nice to have the keys up there because then we aren't losing them on the desk, except that I keep forgetting they are up there and run around the house trying to find them until I remember where they are!

And the finished project, Bench and Shelf together at last!!

Finished my bench!!

I made this!

Yes, I probably should wait till it's painted and completely finished, but I am just so excited that I made this!! It's for our front hall. Bins will go in the cubbies and then that's where we will hide our shoes! I can't wait till it's done and in the hall!! I'll post pictures of it when it's done.