Frugal Living

What We Did ALL Week: July 29-August 4

August 5, 2012 By Thaleia Leave a Comment

How bad is it that I cannot remember everything that we did this week? Good thing I have some pictures! We celebrated Princess’ birthday on Sunday with an AG Craft party. She had 4 friends, 2 cousins, and 2 brothers in attendance for the kids. She got some nice gifts and money. She loves getting cash to figure out what deals she can get and how much she can buy:)

The kids spent so much time out front playing with neighbor kids that our next door neighbor asked if we needed to borrow his mower:) Oops, our backyard grass and weeds grew suddenly and needed mowed. I got inside our fence mowed one day and outside the fence mowed another. I took hedge clipper and chopped some way overgrown weeds and tress to fence level. Hoping that using round-up full force (after all these storms/rain are gone) will kill them so we can dig them up by the roots! I had the revelation that if I dig some of the small trees and weeds up by the roots they cannot grow back so quickly. I set to work to create more places to plant something more beautiful in our backyard. It is still a work in progress, but I want to be able to enjoy out back yard and not dread it. After all, that is where our climbing toys, garden swing, and picnic tables are.

We met up with more cousins at Newport Aquarium and quickly I realized why we like the zoo SO MUCH better. Not just because its way cheaper, but much more kid/family friendly! It was very packed and we had to just stand in wait to get through with our umbrella strollers so we didn’t run flip-flop feet over (zoos have ample space even in busy season to roam and enjoy the views)! The kids were getting restless ’cause we were late for lunch. We chose to follow the rules and leave our cooler checked before entering and did not have any snacks! (usually at the zoo we can eat whenever and wherever we want so no whiny kids!) Both Princess and Eldest took pics and videos which they turned into collages to share with you:

She fancied her collage up!

He kept his plain and simple!

We also worked on tweaking our calendar pieces a little more. (See post about replacement calendar parts.)

Frugal Ways to Stake Tomatoes

August 1, 2012 By Thaleia Leave a Comment

Some may say “redneck”, but I claim Frugal! I was given 20 plants from my mom. (We kept 8, gave 8 to the neighbor, and 4 to a friend.) These were volunteer plants that grew up in a garden bed she did not want tomatoes in. I planted these in our front-side yard. They are watered daily sometimes twice a day, but have been neglected to be staked! UNTIL TODAY.

I saw some really nice orange to small grapefruit sized tomatoes that were very pale green. The sun has not been able to reach them due to the stalks, vines, and leaves blocking them. I also found another cantaloupe that was hiding under the tomatoes! So I decided today was the day to get them exposed to the sun so they can ripen before they rot.

Here’s what I did:

Found 2 free wooden stakes & 3 torches (from MIL’s garage), 3 large sticks, and large plastic coated twist ties left over from toys.

Used rubber mallet to pound the stakes into ground.

Used twist ties to attach various vines to stakes making sure that the tomatoes would be exposed to the sun and ripen. Our tomatoes are the low-acidic yellow and orange kind-yummy.

What have you done in your garden today? Do your children help? What are your favorite veggies that you grow? I would love to hear what you are growing.

Calendar Replacement Parts- Works for Me Wednesday

July 31, 2012 By Thaleia Leave a Comment

Okay, if you know me you know that I am a bargain shopper. I went to a huge community garage sale and found this calendar for .50.

Yes, that’s right a savings of $26.49! The big kids love it and will help to teach Lil’ Red during Tot School! The only problem is that it is missing some things like: Thursday, Rainy, Sunny, Windy, September, and years 2013+. Realizing it’s August and we are starting school soon made we want to get this calendar complete!

So I set out to make the missing pieces myself. Matching fonts tended to be the trickiest part, but I was successful. I used Word with clip art and text boxes. Text Box instructions over graphics:

1. Select graphic or clip-art. Resize to what you need.

2. Create a text box. Adjust font to Century font size 28. Type in text.

3. Format text box. Select No fill and No outline.

4. Format image with Text Wrapping- Select In Front of Text.

5. Drag text box onto image and adjust to where you want your words to be!

Viola you should have something wonderful like this

Now the fun part of printing the images on a transparency and using it like a rub-on to transfer onto fabric since I’m too cheap to buy fabric that is thin enough to send through my printer:) Will show pics of the next steps of printing, rub-on transfers, and sewing backs with soft velco or thin flannel.

Note: printing in reverse took my over an hour to figure out:( Newer Word and printer drivers do not allow mirror image printing like they used to. I could do it on my laptop within WORKS, but never in WORD.

Here’s how it’s done. You have to create a word art and you can play around with fill/outline/shape to get it to look “normal” and match the calendar. Then under format tab you can flip to create reverse image. I printed on the SHINY side of a transparency and laid on top of fabric (old pair of white pants- see I told you I was ~~cheap~~ frugal!) Rubbed while I held transparency taunt. VIOLA! a pretty decent transfer. Princess helped me and then used a fine tip sharpie to go over the letters to darker them:)

Linking up with Works for Me Wednesday!

New Header Photo Collage

July 27, 2012 By Thaleia Leave a Comment

Thanks to Amy Lynn Andrews @ bloggingwithamy.com for suggesting ipiccy.com! I was able to upload some pics from my non-smart phone and create a great blog header. On to create a blog button and then new profile pics-soon I hope!

Do you like my new header? Have you created a unique cover for your Facebook page? Do you need help with creating your own avatar pic or blog button?

What are your MUST HAVE School supplies?

July 24, 2012 By Thaleia Leave a Comment

You know the ones that you MUST buy for your children ‘cause you love them and you want them to have an awesome year! Not required necessarily, but a little something special or extra ‘cause you now they will need it Maybe it is an item on the “school supply” list that really isn’t requested enough of (like glue sticks or report folders) and you ALWAYS run out and have to pay FULL Price (gasp) in the middle of the year.

Does anyone else over stock on school supplies for Christmas stocking stuffer? How about Operation Christmas Child? What about .25 or .50 flipflops on clearance? Those make great items for shoe boxes at Christmas time since lots of countries receiving them are in hot climates.

Our MUST HAVES:

Lots and lots of glue sticks for lapbooks and TOT SCHOOL Tons of notebooks– spiral or composition BLANK journals/ Sketch pads– anything you can create comics on Colored pencils-crayons are NOT allowed in our cars. We prefer twistables! Mechanical pencils– mostly for mom and dad for college 3-ring binders– never can have enough of these in 1”, 2” or 3” Index cards– blank or lined New socks and underwear-hopefully on sale and with a coupon or special deal! New shoes– my oldest has holes in his soles of both pairs he has been wearing all summer long. Now to scour clearance racks to find new ones! Foam core board or Science Tri-fold board– just in case we need it for Homeschool Art Display or for stop motion videos or some other creative project. Those guys are way too expensive to buy after sales are over unless one sneaks into a clearance isle somewhere, lol.

What are your must have school supplies? I would love to hear what unusual things your family needs or thinks of?

Frugal Living

Footer