Consignment Sales

My day has been spent getting all of the clothes ready for one of the biggest consignment sales in Chattanooga.  I have been gathering all of the outgrown spring and summer clothes for a few months now but true to fashion I waited until the week of the sale to start tagging all of the clothes. Consignment sales are a great way to get rid of all your good condition, outgrown kids clothes and make some money, too.  As a SAHM, it is important to me to find all the little ways that I can to help my family our.  I love to coupon and save a lot on the things that we buy.  I also love participating in our local consignment sale.  It takes me a lot of time to prepare everything but I love seeing the extra money come in and all of the deals that I get for my kids.

Last year I decide to also become a volunteer at the Just Between Friends consignment sale.  I only volunteered 8 hours, just enough to let me shop a little early.  This year, I am going to be volunteering 24 hours.  It was so much fun!  I stayed busy the whole time that was there and was able to shop early and get some great deals.  When volunteering this many hours, I am able to shop the night before everyone else, even other volunteers.  It is also a great way to meet other moms, some that are SAHM and others that are working moms.  Last year, I was one of those working moms.  As a SAHM, I love finding new ways to have any adult time that I can get.  This is a great way to meet new people and who knows, maybe make a new friend or two while making a few extra dollars for your family.

If you are looking for a way to get rid of some of your kids clothes and toys, maybe look into your local consignment sale.  You will definitely make more here that at a yard sale.  The one that I consign and volunteer at even has the option to donate anything that you do not sale at the end to a local charity.  What a great way to get out socialize, make some money, and get some great deals for your children.  I think of it as recycling my kids things.  Much better than just packing away or throwing away things that are in good condition.  You don't always have to volunteer to consign (JBF does not require you to volunteer).  You could just drop your stuff off and make a few dollars just while doing what you do everyday.

Reorganizing with DIY projects

My husband and I have begun our spring cleaning a little early this year.  We have been working on reorganizing our living room the last few days.  We for some reason have a lot of scarves even though we live in the south where it rarely gets cold enough for us to even where one.  We have had them piled together in a box near the front door for a while now and we wanted to box/shelf so that we can repurpose it into our pantry.  I went through Pinterest (my fav!) to see what I could find to help me out with this task.
As I was perusing the site I came across where someone used a yard stick and clothes pins to create a scarf holder.  I started by dying my clothes pins.  In my pantry I had red and blue food coloring so that is what I used.  I filled three glasses with very hot water and added the food coloring along with a tablespoon of white vinegar.  I did red, blue, and purple.  I submerged the pins into the colored water and placed them outside so that they would not get accidentally spilled in the house.  ( I know, how could that happen with a very active 4 year old and me, who is extremely clumsy.)  I left them the glasses outside for over an hour just because I got busy inside with the kids.  The red and purple did a great job but the blue had not changed the color of the pins at all.  I decided to just do red and purple and moved the blue pins into those glasses to sit for at least an hour.  After the hour was up, I took all of the pins out and let them dry in the sun. After they were dry I used wood glue to glue the clothes pins to the yard stick.  I let it dry for at least an hour if not longer.  My husband was kind enough to hang it for me so that it would be straight on the wall and not lopsided.  It turned out really cool and it is a great place to hang our many scarves! I can't wait until my next Pinterest project!

DIY Projects and Saving Money when Shopping

As I have been trying to reorganize the house, I have been perusing Pinterest to get inspiration. Today, I made an art wall for Alex.  When he does an art project we usually hang it up on the front door or refrigerator.  I found a way to display his art on Pinterest so that it would more of a focal point.  I took some twine and fancy push pins and created a clothes line like art wall.  I found some fancy clothes pins on clearance today at Target that were meant for scrapbooking but I knew that they would be perfect for this project.  I love finding different uses for items!  I followed the handrail up the stairs with the twine and pinned it up tight so that when the art was hanging it would not sag too much.  Alex helped me find some of his artwork and it is now proudly on display up the stairway.


Also, I was able to stock up on a lot of cleaning supplies at Target today.  I saw a coupon in the Sunday flyer for $20 off $50 worth of cleaning supplies.  I did not think much about it because I could not imagine spending that much on cleaning supplies.  I am a serious bargain shopper and love to coupon!  I am a follower of Southern Savers (www.southernsavers.com) and her daily updates on great ways to save money.  I was able to attend one of her workshops in January and have been seriously hooked since then.  I have always couponed but now I am really starting to see all of the savings.  One of her posts this week was about the coupon that I saw in the Sunday flyer.  It was amazing!  Today I was able to by the following for $19 with a savings of $46.48!

Glade Started kit
3 cans of Scrubbing Bubbles bathroom cleaner
Swiffer Duster starter kit
Swiffer WetJet refill
Palmolive dish soap
2 Down Unstoppables (This was awesome!  I love these!)
a bunch of bananas
a pack of cardstock (for tagging my consignment items)
a pack of fancy scrapbooking clothes pins
2 boxes of Ziploc baggies
2 boxes of 50 ct Ibuprofen
Pledge Floor Care


All of this for $19!!!!  Plus I still have to take a picture of my receipt for Ibotta and that will add another $3.75 to my account. I was so excited!  It is amazing when the highlight of your day is a great deal on cleaning supplies!

What great deal have you been excited about lately?  Leave me a comment below!

Chicken Pot Pie, Caterpillars and Home Organization

When Alex got up this morning he told me that he wanted chicken and rice for dinner.  He said that his daddy thinks chicken is great so that is what he wanted.  I really did not want to just bake or roast some chicken so I went on a quest for a good chicken recipe.  I kept coming across recipes for chicken pot pie in the crockpot.  I could not find a recipe that I really liked so this is what I came up with.  Sorry there are not any picture of this.  When I went to get my camera it was dead.

Chicken Pot Pie in the crockpot.
3 Leg quarter pieces frozen (this is just what I had in the freezer)
4 potatoes, chopped
1 onion chopped
1 large back of carrots and peas (what I had on hand - you could use corn or green beans or whatever you have in your freezer)
2 cans cream of chicken soup
1 can of cream of mushroom soup
salt
pepper
garlic powder

I cooked on high for most of the day because of the frozen chicken.  If you do not use frozen chicken then I would cook on low all day.

The rest of my day was pondering ways to reorganize our house.  With two small kids things can get out of hand quickly. I am in need of new cool organization tips.  I love DIY so I have been searching through Pinterest and have found some great ideas.  I will be implementing several of these in the coming days and will post as I do the project.

Alex and I are working on the letter C this week.  Today we made a caterpillar out of pompoms, googly eyes, glue, pipe cleaners, and a clothes pin.  It turned out so cute although we had a hard time getting the pompoms to stick.  It just took a little extra time to dry.  He has really enjoyed playing with his new insect pal!

What are some fun and cheap ways that you have found to organize your house?  Leave me some comments with your ideas below!

Awesome Buttermilk Pancakes!

Today is National Pancake today.  Instead of going to IHOP to celebrate one of our favorite foods we decided to make breakfast for dinner.  My husband Tim grew up on really good diner pancakes.  Me, being a southerner growing up where diners are few and far between did not understand what it meant to have a diner pancake.  A few years ago, we finally came across a recipe from Guy Fieri's Diners, Drive Ins, and Dives cookbook that has become a staple when we make pancakes.

Here is our go to recipe.  It is the best that we have found so far.  This recipe does make a lot of pancakes so you may have leftovers.  You can freeze the leftovers for a quick breakfast (or lunch or dinner) another day.

Buttermilk Pancakes

3 cups All Purpose Flour (we use unbleached flour)
1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon baking powder
2 teaspoons sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 quart buttermillk
2 eggs, beaten
6 tablespoons butter (3/4 of a stick) (unsalted), melted
Butter for the griddle or pan

You can also add blueberries if you would like.

Whisk the dry ingredients together in a bowl.  In a bigger bowl, whisk together the buttermilk and eggs.  Next, add the dry ingredients to the buttermilk and eggs.  Now whisk in the melted butter.  This is where you would want to stir in your blueberries if you are using them.

2.  Heat the pan or griddle to a medium heat.  Add butter and melt.  I use a 1/4 cup measuring cup to pour in the batter.  When you see bubbles forming on the top, it is time to flip over the pancakes.  If you want to keep them warm as you make the others you can place them as you make them into an oven heated to 200 degrees F.


These are so easy to make. We always use this recipe when we want to make pancakes.

Teething Babies and Read Across America

Today was a fun day!  We got to spend an extra day at the library this week for Read Across America.  This year the focus was on Mo Willem.  He is one of my favorite authors and I love reading his books to Alex and Amelia.  For those of you that are not familiar with his work, he writes and illustrates children's books.  Here are just a few: Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus, Don't Let the Pigeon Stay Up Late, Knuffle Bunny, The Elephant and Peggie books, and many more.  His books have great illustrations and the writing is so funny and entertaining for the young and old.

Today at the library several of the librarians took turns reading some of his books to the kids there for Read Across America.  Amelia and Alex loved every minute of the books.  It was great when they showed the video of Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus because it brought to life a book that Alex and I have read many times.  While I love to create the voices of the characters as I read, it is just not the same as seeing it.

After reading the books, the kids where shown how to make a pigeon for there craft today to be used in a surprise at the end of the class.

Finally after everyone complete their pigeons all of the kids were lined up against the wall.  For the big surprise the librarians had created a bus out of a very large cardboard box.  All of the kids were invited in so that their pigeon could ride the bus but not let the pigeon drive the bus!  The kids are parents alike had a great time during this special event.


Also, in the last few days we have had the fun of a teething almost 8 month old in our house.  She has had no teeth up until last Friday and now she has two.  Amelia is not a fan of teething rings although she will chew on just about anything else.  She has become extra attached to her pacifier although up until now she really just has wanted it for sleeping.  Oh the joys of a teething baby! Last night was awful.  We somehow managed to loose all of her pacifiers so out of desperation Tim made a quick run to Target to pick up a new pack.  Yesterday, she was clingy and moody.  Today, she has been feeling much better at least until the ugly teething monster shows up again. (We all know that it will return soon to bring more teeth!)

What are some of your tricks to dealing with a teething baby?

Family Day

Today was spent having fun with the family.  My oldest nephew turned five earlier this week and we went to his birthday party today.  This gave Alex his first opportunity to go bowling.  He really enjoyed the bowling but really hated how loud the bowling alley was with all the arcade activities going on around us.  Alex had a lot of ear infections as a baby that eventually led to tubes.  He has not had an ear infection since but has always been sensitive to noise since the ear infections started.  His hearing is fine just a little extra sensitive.  He even managed to get a spare!  He had a great time with his cousins and seeing all his old friends from daycare that he has not seen since I became a stay at home mom.

The rest of the day was spent at the new playground near our townhouse and watching movies.  It is a Redbox kind of weekend at our house.  Last night we rented Monsters University and Wolverine. Monsters University was really cute.  I enjoyed watching it with Alex last night.  Tim watched Wolverine while I wrote my blog today and browsed Pinterest.  I love Pinterest.  So many projects so little time!  I am always finding recipes to try, sewing projects to complete, and things to try with the kids.  Maybe one day I will get to do at least half of the things that I have pinned to try.  There are so many people out there with so many great ideas.  Later we will be picking up Thor and The Internship both of which I am excited to see.

Tomorrow will be hopefully be a beautiful day at 70 degrees so that we can spend the afternoon after church at the park.  I really love having lazy weekends.  They do not happen often enough.