Good ol' Kohl's department store!

Chris has a girlfriend, Brooke, his first girlfriend, they have been an item for about 13 months.  She's a very nice girl, younger than him, she's in 10th grade and Chris is a senior.  Their relationship is all very normal for people their age, except for the duration of their time together, a year is quite long for people their age.

Brooke's 16th birthday is next week, I've asked Chris several times if he's been thinking of a gift for her, knowing that he will pull one of his typical moves (like his father), and wait until the last minute to react, then panic because he has nothing.  Last time I asked him about a gift he said," I dunno, maybe I'll make her a chair."  Huh?  A chair!!

While I've tried to teach Chris how to be a gentleman, as well as coaching him on being thoughtful, and applying just the right amount of romance, I've also cautioned him on jumping in with both feet.  They are too young to get "all serious", and I've tried to gently warn him about making verbal commitments in boy/girl relationships that he may later want to back out of.  Of course, he doesn't think that I know anything, and all you have to do is see their Facebook posts to know the words of commitment they say to one another.  However, a chair, handmade or not, is not exactly what I think Brooke would like... even though a chair for a gift would certainly say, "I am not committed to you", which is what I want.

If you're familiar with Kohl's department store, you know about the great sales they have.  If you have a store credit, you'll know about the extra savings coupons that come by mail throughout the year.  Last week I received a 30% off coupon, that's the maximum, and I rarely have received one of these.  And I thought about Brooke's 16th birthday, and that maybe I could save her the horrors of getting a chair, hand made by Chris, for her 16th birthday!

Last night, while Chris was at Youth Group, I went to Kohl's jewelry department to look for a necklace for Brooke.  I explained the kids situation to the sales woman, I told her that diamonds, or any gems were out- gems equal commitment to a 16 year old girl.  The same idea for anything with two hearts entwined (absolutely NO entwining), or anything with a key- as in- the key to my heart... I thought a necklace with a cross or an angel on it would be nice.  She led me to a display case that had several to choose from, all 14K gold, and marked at 70% off.  I picked one, and asked how much it was.  It was $150.00...but, with the mark down, plus my 30% off coupon, I paid $25.00 for it!  Happy day!

When I showed it to Chris he was happy, and said, "it even has a heart on it".... Yep, right there in the center of the cross is a heart!  How did that fact get past me?  I told him I thought that represented his love for Jesus, not his love for Brooke... 

Picked up a few new kitchen towels too!  At 1/2 off, plus my 30% off coupon!

Half price day at Amish Land..

Six Acorn squash, one Butternut squash, one Spaghetti squash, one Ambercup squash, and four pie pumpkins for $6.00.

My $2 Box

Go to my personal blog to see what I made today:

http://theresasermonineverything.blogspot.com/2011/10/recycle-repurpose-reuse.html

Garage Sale Bargains!

Jenny Strasbaugh and I went around Orrville for their annual garage sale weekend (last year on this weekend we were having a rummage sale for Joe and Jen's mission trip)! Jenny was looking for clothes for her daughter Elena and I had Jen's "wish list" for Brenan in hand. It was a successful adventure (even though the weather was awful!!).

The very first sale we went to was ALL baby stuff! The couple had twins; a boy and a girl. They had so many clothes and then two car seats, two pack-n-plays, etc. The little onesies on the left range from 6-18 months (you'll see some in the next photo, too). She had six in a bag for $1.25 so I figured I'd just buy them all. Four sleepers, one long and one short-sleeve onesies, two pairs pants, 3 bibs, 2 hoodies, and one hooded bath towel. 

I'm sorry this is blurry but I didn't realize it until after everything was in the washing machine! A woolly-warm hooded outfit, hooded bath towel, 3 bibs, more onesies, 4 sleepers, shirt, and an outfit.

All the clothes cost $23.50.

The swing cost $10.00:

I believe it was a successful day!

The Corduroy Rug.

Deb found a rug at MCC Connections (is that the correct name?) for that spot in front of my sink!  She texted pictures from the store of the choices, colors and sizes, etc.  I chose the brown one over a white one, because it's going to take a lot of abuse, abuse a white one could never take and come out lookin' good!  But, the brown one looks so nice against the wood floor, much nicer than one with a lot of white in it would have..don't you think?

It was $37.00, good price!  Then Deb mentioned it was so soft...corduroy... and I thought, "what? It's corduroy and it cost $37.00?"  I remembered seeing braided corduroy rugs during my search on the www, and I remembered them costing so much more.  So, I did another quickie search and found one of comparable size, hand braided, brown corduroy, for...... $450.00!!  This rug was at Etsy, from a place called fiveforty, and truthfully- I think she's dreaming!  And it is a woven rug, which I guess is different from braided, but $450.00?!.

A got a real Red Tag Special, and I love it!  Thanks Deb!




"Awww, mom!  We don't wanna play inside today!"


Stuart, our new puppy, also came to our house the same weekend as the rug.  Stuart chews on everything...he has chewed the rug, but hasn't left any permanent marks.   On this day it's cold and raining and they are driving me nuts!  Usually we would be outside going on a walk or playing catch...they have been following me everywhere looking at me like this!  Stuie's right ear is trying to stand up, soon they should both be up, like his big brother's.

Finding bargains in Erie

So, I'm visiting Sue for a few days; something I have never done by myself! We had a nice little jaunt today checking out some stores here and there. I told her what I was looking for for Brenan so we went to a Salvation Army store in Erie.

One long sleeve onesie, one long sleeve and two short sleeve shirts:

One lined plaid flannel and one blue flannel:

Two onesies and one pair cordoroy pants:

One jean shorts and one cute little onesie outfit:

One pair of jeans, one cargo pants, two flannel pants:

Two pj's:

This one is from Great Auntie Sue:

All of these clothes were $32!!

THEN we went to another store that is like an indoor flea market. We were walking along and I saw a high chair that had $40 marked on it. We checked it out but started walking away. The woman loudly said, "I have some wiggle-room on the price of that high chair!" I asked, "How much wiggle room?" She said, "I'll sell it to you for $30." I said, "Okay!"

The top tray shown above comes off for a full regular tray, and that comes off for this:

There are multi-level height settings. We cleaned it all up and it looks great! What a fantastic deal hunting day!

Clothes for Sweet B

Jen sends the grandmothers a list of needed items.
I was at MCC Connections today and bought the following:

3 long sleeve onesies (one brand new)

3 pairs of pants

1 t-shirt

1 long sleeved body suit (new)

1 short sleeved body suit

Total Price: $16.75!!

WOOT!!

To the tune "The 12 days of Christmas".

On the 14th day of September my neighbors sold to me;
75 lbs. of potatoes,
8 or-ange carrots,
1 purple cauliflower,
1 or-ange squash,...a  n  d....
2 zoo-oo-chi-ee-ee-neeee!

Pretty good deal huh?  btw, That really is a squash, I asked the girl how her mother fixes it and she said, "we cut a lid into it, and put butter, salt, and sugar inside before we put it in the oven".  :-)

Wanted: throw rug.

http://www.homesteadweaver.com/purses_totes.htm

I need a kitchen throw rug.  I always have a paper towel on the floor to wipe up the frequent drops of water that I find around the sink,dishwasher,fridge,and range area, and that's not such a good look.  Now, you may notice the link says purses and totes, that's the way it always goes on the world wide web isn't it?  You start out searching for something specific, and one link leads to another...  But, back to the rug, I'd like a rug that is no more than 4' wide and no less than 3 1/2' ,that would cover the area between the kitchen sink and the range.  The perfect length would be 4'.  I like braided rugs.  A braided rug made of recycled material would be very nice.  Googling those words I eventually ended up at the above site.

At this site the material that caught my eye was the recycled plastic bag rugs, "wow, bet those are ugly", I thought.  Wrong!  I can't believe how pretty they are!  I happen to have hundreds of plastic bags, and the website provides instructions (horrible), and at least one link to other instructions (better), with a choice of weaving, crocheting, or knitting the rugs so a person with some talent (not a person like myself) could make their own rug.  I'm not saying that I want one of these type of rugs on my kitchen floor.  I may be suggesting that someone with sewing/crocheting talents (a person unlike myself) might see something at this site to give them ideas on how to make a little extra cash by making and selling some rugs, or purses (which are really cute, braided rug purses!).

Plastic bags were only one material, recycled blue jeans, corduroy, and t-shirts were also used.  I also have a box of blue jeans that I've kept for years intending to make a tablecloth with them.  Since I am "sewing challenged", this will probably never happen.  I think a rug made of these materials would feel better under my feet than plastic..

I used to crochet, I was never as good at it as others closely related to me, but who knows- maybe I'll give it a try this winter, or maybe the weaving....  Maybe.

Wardrobe Update

Jen suggested we have a blog where we can share our thrift store, garage sale, or just plain "look what I found!" treasures. I said I would get it going....so it's going.

I thought I'd share my most recent quest--a new wardrobe. In the spring I realized that I would need some new clothes (aka, a new style) once I left camp. Shorts/jeans and t-shirts will not cut it in any pastoral position I may have! So last month I started looking for some "grown up" clothes, as I called it.

My first few purchases came from MCC Connections, and then Goodwill. I do not remember how much I paid for these:

Four shirts, two dresses, one pair of dress pants, and two skirts.



My next purchase were these two dress jackets:

The grey one is new and the label says $54.98. I paid $4.99 from Goodwill. 

I paid $4.25 for the blue and white one!

Yesterday I went to the Salvation Army store on Whipple. It turned into a sad trip because 1) Donna wasn't with me, 2) I didn't know what Brenan needed, 3) I kept seeing things that I'd think "I should buy that for camp....oh wait...."  But it was a successful shopping trip because everything was 50% off!

So here are the results:

One dress jacket, two casual tops, three dress tops, two pair dress pants, one semi-casual pair of shorts, and one casual pair of pants. Can you guess how much I paid????

$28.95

For serious.

Cool huh?

And who can forget the dress that I wore to Donna and Tyler's wedding.....

Brand new with tags, exactly my size, the right colors for the wedding......all for less than $9.

Can't wait to hear about YOUR adventures!

Momma