ProlificMom

I love Campbell’s chunky soup, but its so expensive.  Actually, it was so expensive but for quite a long time our Walmart has been selling it for $1.50 for the large two serving cans.  These are great and I usually eat one can every day at work.

I don’t know how long these will be posted but here is a link to coupons at Chunky.com

http://www.campbellkitchen.com/coupon.aspx#chunky

Enjoy!

Its Snowing In Texas!

Snowing in Texas AGAIN!

In case you haven’t heard, we had a white Christmas here in Texas.  My kids were totally hyped up, and I never ever thought I would hear them arguing over snowballs.  I told them I didn’t care who’s snowball it was.  Just go back outside with a bowl and make another one. Duh!  And today its snowing in Texas again – what an oxymoron!.

When its cold outside soup is my favorite thing to eat.  Well actually, its my second favorite thing to eat.  The other cold weather food I love the most is chili.  That’s about right for this Texas mom.

I love the Goodwill Store

I can’t tell you enough how much I LOVE THE GOODWILL STORE.  Fortunately for me, there is one just down the street from where I work.  Unfortunately for me, I am totally addicted to it.   Its like crack for frugal moms.  Every day it calls my name and it takes every fiber of my being  to not get into my car at lunch and drive down there.  And, if I do drive down there, it pains me not to walk out with a shopping cart full of re-purposed treasures.

Recently, the Mister surprised me at lunch on his day off and showed up at the office to take me to lunch.  After a quick lunch I told him we were going somewhere that I wanted to show him.  I directed him down the street to the Goodwill store.  I was thrilled and he indulged me.  The first thing I found was this decorative Christmas tag looking thing FOR $1.99!!!

The Boat Anchor

The Mister calls it “the boat anchor”  because its made of cast iron and weighs a ton.   After debating where it will be mounted in my plane-jane undecorated house for the last two weeks, I decided on the bare space over my kitchen window.  By the way, those kitchen cabinets are getting a planned makeover in the next few months.  At one time we were going to replace them, but they are so expensive to replace.  So, we decided to paint them Kilz Casual Colors ‘blackbread’.  Its going on all of the cabinets in the house and a few furniture pieces as well.  I can’t wait to show you the results.

Over the Kitchen Window

Freecycle Armoir

Look at what I found through Freecycle!

I couldn’t believe it.  Saturday morning I opened up my email and there it was, listed for FREE.  The only catch…there was no photo.  So, I called the Freecycler and asked if it was still available.  Then, the Mister and I scheduled a time to go over and take a look.  We took the seats out of our van just in case she was a keeper.   As soon as I walked into the room I knew I had to have her.  Isn’t she just ugly beautiful?  My new motto:  Ugly – Its the new beautiful.

Can you see all the potential?  The Mister is not crazy in love with her but I think she will grow on him once we complete her extreme makeover.  As soon as we got her home the mister insisted that we deposit her in the garage so he could start sanding her down.

And the hardware?  He insisted that it will go.  We have the perfect pulls picked out at Target. These are Liberty Half Round Foot Pulls and Liberty Hammered Pull in oil rubbed bronze.

I cant wait to get this project completed. So, here is what I envision.  She’s going to get a good sanding down with some 80 grit sand paper.  Then, primed inside and out.  Followed by two coats of Kilz Casual Colors “blackbread” which is so dark brown its almost black.  I cant wait!  She is going to be gorgeous!  And when we are finished, she’s going into my bedroom.

One of my my favorite inspiration rooms can be found here by the lovely Rhoda at SouthernHospitalityblog

For More Bedroom Inspirations:

Here are some more of my favorite inspiration rooms.  I think they were all from Better Homes and Gardens Real Life Bedrooms but  I lost the link.

Where I’ve Been:

You’ve probably been wondering where I’ve been lately.  First, I decided to change my habits.  Instead of staying up late and blogging past the midnight hour, I have been making myself go to bed at 9:00pm.  This has drastically improved my life.  I’ve been a lifelong insomniac and there is no end to the reasons for staying up late.  After all, there are not enough hours in a day to do everything I need to accomplish.  But I’m getting older and I have too many day time responsibilities, so  my life has to change.  No more late night blogging for me.  I’m just going to have to find another time to do it.  Being a full-time working mom is a challenge

I fell in love at Goodwill:

So, here is what I’ve been up to.  I started reading other mother’s blogs and learning about being frugal and shopping at places like Craig’s List and Goodwill and Freecycle.  Now, instead of having a problem with insomnia, I have a problem with Goodwill.  Its addictive – like crack for moms.  Recently, I innocently went to our local Goodwill store to drop off a few bags of donated clothing and decided to go inside.  One hour and $85 dollars later I walked out totally smitten, in love with thrift shopping.  Its totally addictive.

Goodwill finds – Before (the after will be in a later post):

Here are only a few of my thrifty finds.

Look at these three beauties!  the Tall one is a very heavy Stiffel lamp and I didn’t  pay more that $8 for any one of them.  And I got two perfect lampshades for $2.50 each to go on the smaller lamps in my bedroom.  I can’t wait to show you.   This is my before shot when I was taping them before painting.  Stay tuned for more on these beauties!

Sorry, but this photo is turned on its side.  Just look at this beautiful mirror.  It is plaster cast and heavy as a boat anchor. Just wait till you see what I did with this thing.  There is an interesting story literally behind this one.  It was my most expensive purchase at $8.50.  Check back on a later post for the full step by step before and after on this vintage mirror.

And finally, this was just too cute to pass up for $2.50 and I painted it brown and hung it in my newly refinished laundrey room.  I can’t wait to do a blog on that one.  It’s now my favorite room in the house.

Goodbye for now and happy thrifting.  I’ll see you at Goodwill.