Thrift Store Treasures

Hi, how was your week?

Ours was good. I had all sorts of ambitious plans to post and write and craft more. Erp. Didn't happen. Part of the problem is that I is all kinds of super-broke right now. See, my older son is having a big #6 birthday in a mere 10 days. And birthdays mean presents. And birthday parties. And hungry kids that expect food at said birthday parties. So all spare $ goes to that right now(Ha! Like I have extra to begin with!)

Anyway, one of my favorite places(broke or not), to find fun stuff and random treasures are the thrift stores. I was able to find some good stuff over the past weekend, and work on it this week.(And even better, I got my husband to pay for it!).

We had bought a desk, desk chair, and dresser for our older son last spring. Mr. Crazy sanded and stained it all, but the actual seat on the desk chair was a mess. It was an ugly institution-looking fabric(read:something you'd see at school). I hated it. I kept planning to go to Joann and pick out some new fabric for it, so we could just recover it. Yeah. That was about 10 months ago. (What can I say, I'm cheap! and a procrastinator!). I finally got the idea that I could find a decent fabric on a shower curtain or other heavy duty fabric at the thrift store, then I could finish the outside of the square(so it wouldn't fray), and the cover the chair seat.

This worked out better than I had anticipated.

We found some precut fabric at the thrift store. It was appx a yard of pirate fabric, which works perfectly in his room(it's a beach theme), and also perfect for a 6 year old boy. Here's what the final result looked like...

There were some HUGE staples sticking out of the bottom of the flat chair base. I pushed the fabric down on top of it, then glued the fabric to the chair. I was not comfortable with the way the staples were sticking out(hello! I have a 6 year old and a 3 year old. That is a recipe for disaster!). So I took an old washcloth, cut it into strips, and  glued them down over the staples. JUST IN CASE.

Good to go! He is THRILLED with his new chair!

My younger son LOVES Cars. I also found this at the thrift store.

Cute, right? And only $3!

Here's the problem.

Yeah. That sucks. BUT. Easily fixed up on Ye Olde Sewing Machine.

Lined it up, just below where the hole was.

The original hem was double stitched. So I figured 'what the hay!'. Then trimmed the excess off with my pinking shears

DONE!

He ended up getting a bath shortly after I was done, and was sorely disappointed when he was not using his new hooded towel.

We are big fans of the thrift store, so lots more thrifting/cheap projects on the horizon!

Cheers! Jennie

Football Food Fun

Maybe you didn't notice, but there was a football game on today. Did you watch?

We did. We actually LOVE football. I am a Colts fan, and Mr. Crazy is a Chiefs fan. It was kind of a rough year for both teams("kind of" is perhaps a vast understatment.......)But the Giants are our #2 team, and we both agree on extreme dislike of the Patriots, so we were thrilled with this match-up. Oh, and the outcome was pretty sweet too.

I'm not from Indianapolis, but I've spent a lot of time there, and have many friends and family there. I loved seeing all of the pictures coming out. It's really a fun little city. There are lots of things to see and do, some fun areas, and lots and lots of places to eat and bars to drink in.

We decided to go all-out for the game,...well, as "all-out" as it gets for a family of 4, with 2 young children. I made a little buffet table in the living room, and pretty much let the kids have at it... and have at it they did. I was a little suprised at how much they ate, but hey, isn't that what the SuperBowl is all about?
So, here's what I made

 I made these cheesy garlic breadsticks.... pretty tasty! My youngest child, who loves bread, ate about 1/4 of this himself!


We had some cheesy hot bean dip. YUM! Holy cow, I ate SO much of this. I think this is my new favorite bean dip. I'm definitely going to make this for my older son's birthday party in a few weeks.


We all love devilled eggs, and these football devilled eggs are just SO cute! I did get a pic of the ones that I made, but umm, I haven't figured out how to get pictures on here yet, so that may have to wait.... but seriously, these are so cute and super easy! My mom makes the best devilled eggs, so perhaps I will share her super-secret recipe sometime soon!


For dessert, I made some football brownies. My kids loved them, and were BEGGING to eat them. Unfortunately, I made my icing for the laces to thin, so they looked a little tragic. It was a brownie fail,.. in as much as edible brownies can be a fail... which, in my book is about impossible!

I wanted to get a picture of the little table, but Mr. Crazy and the Crazy Kids attacked it before I got a chance to. We also noshed on some veggies and hummus. Soda is a big treat in our house, and I let the kids drink a little Sierra Mist(cause uhh, I ain't down with the caffeinated kids, if you know what I mean....). As it was, they STILL ran around all sugared-up for a good 45 minutes before they were able to settle down and play quietly.

We're not really into any other sports, so I'm a bit sad that football is done for the next 7 months. Oh well. I'm sure it will be here before I know it.


I've got some things I've made that I'm hoping to post about this week! I'm awfully excited. And hopefully I'll learn about how to post pictures too!

Did you have a nice weekend?

Cheers! Jennie

Starting Off.

Hi. And welcome.

I'm starting this to give myself an outlet. I'm hoping that by starting a blog, it will make me a little more accountable about crafting. I find that I keep making excuses for not taking the time to make crafts. I'm also hoping that this will help me come up with more creative ideas. But, most of all, I'm hoping to have fun.

So look for crafts, recipes, and fun family updates. Glad you are here!