My wife and I took our children to the beach and the house we stayed in introduced my 3 little girls to the concept that bunk beds could look like a castle. Up to this point they had been more than satisfied with their plain Jane bunk-beds. As soon as they saw the castle bunk beds in the beach house the begging began, Daddy can we have castle bunk-beds? My wife and I googled the term “castle bunk bed” only to be shocked and a little horrified that some places wanted anywhere from $800 to $4000 dollars for a child’s bed. Knowing that in a few years they would be too cool for such beds I set out to make them. I purchased 3 sheets of 1/4 Lu-an siding - a thin smooth board and got to work. I used a jig saw and then just let the imagination take over. There are windows in the top castle for the princess to look down from, scrolling cuts in the opening of the bottom bunk to look like curtains ( Which my wife will paint to look like it) . In the end the kids love it. Net cost was about $40 for parts and $40 for paint - much better than the $800-$4000 we had originally seen . I will post a update as soon as my lovely wife gets them painted - Shes the artistic one and has grand visions of ivy crawling up the corners.
Tags: Castle Bunk Beds, Children, Do it Yourself
My kids love hard boiled eggs and so do I, they are easy enough to cook, just put them in some boiling water. However, they can be a pain and a mess to peel. This is a cool technique that someone recently emailed me and I thought it was worth passing along. Enjoy, it is pretty cool!
Instructions:
- Cover the eggs with water and boil on low for about 12 minutes
- Cool the eggs by placing them in cold water with 1 teaspoon of baking soda and ice. The baking soda raises the pH level and reduces adherence.
- Crack the top of the egg and remove a small piece
- Crack the bottom (wide end) of the egg and remove a small piece
- Hold the egg in your hand and blow vigorously into the narrow end of the egg, Out pops the egg!
Tags: Eggs, No peeling eggs
As a stay at home mom I am always looking for ways to earn a little extra spending money. The only problem is if I searched the web I always found a million links for how to make $5000 a month. They have lovely little encouraging video testimonials of how they got rich in just ten hours a week. Usually that’s when they tell you that this life changing program will only cost you $69.99. One thing I have learned is that legitimate opportunities usually will not cost you anything. There are two places I have found to be legitimate and work as advertised.
Survey Savvy is a great way to make a little extra cash. I stress extra, you are not going to get rich, but it is cash for answering surveys. You get paid anywhere from $1 a survey to $10 a survey. Some months you may get one $1 survey but the next month you might get fifteen $10 surveys. So over a two month period you could easily pocket $50 to $300. Not bad considering you never left your home, responded to an email and answered some questions. They also have very low payouts (you don’t have to wait until you have $100 to get paid). Click here to check these guys out. It is important after you join to go and click on the ‘my portrait’ tab, there will be different options with coffee cups beside them, these are basically questions that identify you so that they can more accurately direct surveys your way. You will still get sent surveys if you do not answer these, but it wont be as successful for you.
Hits 4 Pay is a little different, again this is free , and you don’t get charged to join. This company basically gets paid by marketers to have you view all the emails they can not get through your servers, you know all the ones you normally see as junk mail and delete that urge you to; buy this, join this, eat this, make money and this list goes on. You sign up and when they have ads that need to be viewed you will receive an email saying you have adds in your internal mailbox. This is the best part - your account has a web-mail account linked to it so you do not get your personal email flooded with loads of garbage. Instead, you get a single email stating they have messages for you to view, you then log into the ‘hits 4 pay’ website, look in your mailbox and click on the emails, once you have read the email (usually in 10-15 seconds) you will see a message that your account has been credited. Once you reach a certain dollar amount they will transfer the money to pay-pal upon request where you can get paid. Again, not too bad for just clicking and reading. Click here if you want to join Hits 4 Pay.
The bottom line is, I have not found any “get paid $500 a day and work 1 hour a day” offerings to be legit, But you can spend a little time reading emails and answering surveys and the next thing you know you have something that can add to your 9 to 5 income– A little cash in the pocket spending money.
Tags: Extra Income, Get Paid, Hits4Pay, Pay to Click, Survey Savvy, Take Surveys
This is absolutely hilarious! It is not exactly related to decorating but after all it is Wednesday and cant we all use a good laugh?
Tags: Funny, Olympic Spoof, Paul Hunt, Uneven Bars
We all are aware that we can take digital family photos or scenic photos to a craft store or professional and have them framed and matted for $50 and up, but what if we can do it a lot cheaper? I took some of my favorite pictures of my children - face shots worked well (scenic shots would also work!) and used our basic photo editing software and applied the ”picture effects”, chose black and white, and increased the picture size to what I needed. If you preferred a more ‘old-time’ photo with a bronzed hue, then choose ’sephia’.
I then went to a local discount store - there are many to choose from! Try Family Dollar, Dollar General or Roses - to name a few! I found 6 basic black frames with white matting for $2-$3 each - Tip -just be sure to look for those that are matted with crisp, even edges. I took my pictures and used a scrapbook/page cutter ( I got one from Walmart for $5) carefully took apart the picture frame, placed the matte over my picture, framing what I wanted to display, and traced the outside edges of the matte. Using the page cutter I carefully trimmed the picture to fit perfectly into the frame and slid the frame back together - be careful not to leave fingerprint smudges inside the glass! Presto! This is an easy and gratifying afternoon project! I chose to hang these pictures in my children’s playroom, above some bookshelves. I displayed them in a line format, holding them up and spacing them evenly apart. You could also group these pictures in a random grouping - the unifying theme will be the black frame and white matte so just get creative! This is a fun, easy and rewarding project for the beginner and expert alike!
I recently had a difficult time with curtains for our family room. Living in an older, historic house causes challenges with windows. Our windows are not the standard height or size of newer houses today, and finding a window treatment the length I need is difficult. Most, if not all curtain lengths run 84 inches long and to get one longer you can expect to pay $100 per panel. I knew I needed approx. 108 inches long and didn’t want to pay over $100 for 2 panels. I took a sofa cushion to one of my favorite spots - t.j. maxx - and went to the back curtain isle.
I found a beautiful paisley pattern I liked at approx. $25 a panel. I bought two and headed to the local fabric store. Inside, I found a beautiful faux velvet - which matched the curtains and an elegant, beaded trim. Using this material as a border - to add the extra inches of length I needed - I could have put this solid red velvet border at the top or at the bottom of the paisley curtains, but chose the top, and added the beaded trim right between the velvet and the curtain. This was a quick, easy, cheap fix to a rather expensive dillema. Even the most inexperienced sewing beginner can add a border to an existing curtain! My total cost was approx. $90 - and I was able to design it and personalize it the way I wanted!
Tags: affordable window treatments, budget window treatments, creative window treatments
A little while back I decided our den needed a coffee table. We had one in the past, with a glass insert which promptly broke when our toddler sat on it! Not good or safe! We tossed it and decided to leave the den area open. Well I decided we needed a table for puzzles, guests coffee cups and casual movie nite meals, so it had to fit several criteria: first, it needed to be a good size for our little ones to sit/play around, it had to have rounded edges for safty ( little children and adults constantly get bruises from sharp edges) and needed to look nice but be cheap! I rarely buy new furniture as I hate the price and prefer the shopping/rehabbing adventure. I went downtown to one of my favorite spots to buy furniture - an antique, estate shop (which to many may look like a junk shop!) You would be amazed at some of the treasures you can find if you are willing to look!
In the second room, buried under a couple of other items, I found what I was looking for. A plain looking pine square table, solid, with decorative legs. One look at the color did not turn me away as I knew that a good coat of black paint (one designer I respect says that every room needs 1black piece of furniture -adds elegance!) would totally revamp that table. I have a good relationship with the owner and he gave me a deal - $35 - right up my ally! I immediately decided I needed good paint for this, as it would get lots of wear from my little ones, so I headed to Sherwin Williams and told them what I was looking for. They gave me the supplies (which ran about $30) and I headed home to complete my transformation.
My hubby had a rather puzzled look on his face when he saw the table, but held back his comments. I went to the back patio, put down a clear, plastice sheet (the kind you get for one or two dollars at Walmart) and pulled out the paintbrush and paint. I gave it two good coats, waiting about an hour between coats, and finished with a clear spray acryllic sealer. The table took on a completely different life! We put it in the den and almost immediately I called up our local glass company (it pays to find who has the best glass prices and is the easiest to deal with - my experience has shown that the large home improvement centers do not usually have some one working in that department and can also run a lot more money than the local, small-town business). I requested the thinnest glass 1/4 inch - just for protection to the top of the table, gave them the measurements, and about $40 later came away with exactly what we needed.
This modified table, to suit our needs, cost a fraction of the price it would have cost to buy it new, plus gives me great satisfaction every time we use it! I do not sweat the scrapes and spills it receives regularly - as a black marker or touch up pen at the local hardware store can solve most problems, plus I do not freak out when the children play on it, because that’s what it was made for! So the next time you think a piece of furniture is too expensive - rethink it and revamp it!
Tags: Cheap Table, elegant, rehab, shopping adventure, treasure
This is a neat site for finding Wall Art, sure you can find your picture and have it shipped, framed for you and ready to hang- at a mere $100-$250, or you can buy the print for $10- $15 and then buy a frame at any local store as cheaply as you are willing to go. www.imagekind.com
Tags: Wall Art
Hi all
As a stay at home Mom on a budget I am always looking for ways to decorate my home. It has to pass 2 tests, first it must stand up to 3 little girls and second it can not break the bank. I will be writing trying to share some of the ways I have discovered this can be done. Hang in there and please stop by frequently and hopefully you can find/share some ideas that could help us all