Must Be the Money Mondays!

…I just made that up…

Moving down to Florida has brought many joys, as well as plenty of challenges.  The primary obstacle we have had to face is our finances.  Our White House budget doesn't come close to meeting what is required to live life in Pines.  The cost of living is easily triple that of what we are used to.  That being said, we are definitely testing the waters of living by faith.  We are blessed to be able to say that God provides for our needs every step of the way.  Even in the moments when it's coming down to the wire, we see His hand moving to carry us through.  

I am so thankful for a husband who is working his HARDEST to provide for our family.  He is out every day making the most of each moment!  While I am in the process of acquiring a job (or jobs), I am trying to do my best to cut costs where I can.  So, with the help of the world wide web, and my good new friend, Shannon, I am learning how to coupon!  Do you coupon?!  I am definitely not gonna be one of those cray-cray people with no space to live because their home has become a warehouse for items they will never use… 

You know who I'm talking about, right?  The lady who who has diapers, wipes, and formula, but is single with no man in the picture, no children, and no plan to have them?  

That will not be me.  I WILL, however, save money on items that I will use, when I can.  I have just begun building my system, but I am excited to share my first experience using my newfound knowledge!

For this go-around, I am just going to show the items I purchased with coupons.  There were some other necessary purchases, and they will make it less exciting, so out they go!

All items purchased at Publix!

Item breakdown:

Mott's Apple Juice: 

           Original price- $2.87

           Savings- $.94 each

• BOGO
• $1/1 Mfg coupon

Country Crock Spreadable Butter: 

           Original price- $2.65

           Savings- $1.33 each

• BOGO

Hamburger/Chicken Helper: 

           Original price- $1.89

           Savings- $.72 each

• BOGO
• $.90/4 Mfg coupon

Nestle Cookie Dough (YES PLEASE):

           Original price- $3.49

           Savings- $1.12 each

• BOGO
• $1.25/2 Mfg coupon

Quaker Oats Chewy Granola Bars:

           Original price- $2.89

           Savings- $.95 each

• BOGO
• $1.00/2 Target coupon

TOTAL ORIGINAL PRICES- $31.36

TOTAL COST AFTER COUPONS- $11.56

37% discount!

This picture reflects more savings because it takes into account the sales Publix already had on certain products.  I know it's not paying $0, but I'd say that's $22.36 that I can use elsewhere in our budget!  Hooray for savings!!!  

Dear Couponers, do you have any tips?  Websites you love?  Awesome saving stories?!  Please share!

Oh, What a Beautiful Morning!

THE SPACE:

My Parents' Bedroom and Bathroom

THE MEMORIES:

1. This room never really changed that much.  (As you can see by the giant impressions on the carpet.)  The only major makeover was changing the bed from a waterbed to a Sleep Number mattress.  And when I say waterbed, I mean you could be sitting on one side and someone hop on the other side and you would think you were out to sea!  I missed that thing… So, when I got to get a new bed for my room, I got my OWN waterbed!
2. This used the be the room I would go to if I wanted to watch TV in bed.  It was always an awkward angle, but I felt cozy.
3. This is really the only bathroom I know.  I always hated the lack of water pressure in the bathroom I shared with Connor, so for most of my life, I made their bathroom my bathroom.  Of course, I was always the first one up every morning, so I had it all to myself.
4. Seeing as I was the only one awake, I thought I could take advantage of the time.  My mom would wake me up every 5-10 minutes for about half an hour before I actually got out of bed.  Then, I would drag myself in (with my blanket), turn the shower on, and curl up on the tile floor with my blanket and go back to sleep.  About 20 minutes later, my mom comes in the restroom asking what in the world I am doing.  "I'm tired!" I said.  "Get in the shower!  You're going to be late!" she said.  So, I would take my shower… and go back to my room and watch Saved By the Bell until 7:00am.  Who's with me?!  Z.M. and K.K. forevs!!!

 

Check out the intercom system on the wall.  IN EVERY ROOM.  I love-hated it.

Dad's closet and the location of the ironing board

My favorite bathroom and the tile floor where I would sneak in an extra 20 minute nap before school

Countless baths in that whirlpool tub… Except, we never used the jet part because it always shot out black stuff...

Mom's closet… oh to have this much space for just yourself… (And this isn't the whole thing… it continues on to the right.)

THE SPACE:
The Siblings' Bathroom

THE MEMORIES:

1. Like I said, I didn't use this one very much… So, there aren't nearly as many memories…
2. Drawer to the left: mine… Drawer to the right: Connor's
3. This used to be decorated with purple, blue, and green fish.  Not sayin' that we should have kept it that way, but when my parents decided to remodel, I did NOT have a say in the new decor.  I never liked it.  Wah… wah… wahhhhhh……
4. I did, however, like the needlepoint pictures my mom had hanging up.  She made them herself: one for me and one for Connor.  They had the little sayings… "Sugar and spice and everything nice… That's what little girls are made of…" "Snips and snails and puppy dog tails… That's what little boys are made of…"

Lame shower and a toilet that wouldn't stop running...

View from the throne room to the hallway...

In My Room

THE SPACE:

My Bedroom

THE MEMORIES:

1. This is where I spent the majority of my personal time.  My room was full of pictures of all my friends and family.  I loved mementos from different events and activities I had been a part of and I displayed them everywhere.
2. This is the room where I would run to be alone when I had my own phone line and I wanted to chat with all of my girls about things that didn't really matter.
3. This is the room where I would run to be alone when I was crying over a boy that broke my heart... And then I wrote poems about it.
4. This is the room where I would lay my Bible at the end of my bed at night because my daddy told me that God's Word would protect me from Satan's attacks, and I put that to the test!
5. This is the room that is covered in glow-in-the-dark stars from Wendy's kid's meals LONG ago.  I didn't take them down.  I wonder when the new family discovered the planetarium in their new house...
6. This is the room that shared a wall with my dad's office, so I would hear the choruses, or one line of a verse of songs on repeat alllllll summer long as he worked.  I knew those songs inside and out!  Amy Grant, Michael W. Smith, Sandi Patty, etc.
7. This is the room that I got to design and thought I was the coolest for having a beach on my wall.  I personally came up with the idea to have a palm tree hang over the other wall so I could sleep "under" it.  Who knew I would actually live near the beach some day??

Here is the wall I designed.  One of my dad's piano students had a mom who painted murals, so she brought my idea to life!

From the palm tree corner looking to the rest of the room.  This is the most common view I had.

Out of my window... Growing up, this is where I saw/heard all the neighborhood kids playing.  I actually popped out the screen one day while shouting something out to them.  

This is my closet.  Exciting, yes?

THE SPACE:
Connor's Bedroom

THE MEMORIES:

1. Obviously, I don't have nearly as many in here, seeing as how it was not my room.
2. I remember cleaning this room on many occasion.  I was responsible for vacuuming and dusting. And what was it that he had to do again?  I don't remember...
3. I remember reading to my brother when he was little.  My mom got the first Harry Potter book for me to read before it was even a popular thing.  I got through the first chapter and looked at Connor and said, "Do you have any idea what's going on in this story?"  He laughed and said, "Nope," and we didn't revisit it again.  (Years later, I fell in love with the series.  He like the movies.)
4. My brother and I did have many fun moments lying back on his bed and taking pictures making crazy faces.  We would laugh until our faces hurt.
5. I wish my brother and I hadn't been so far apart in age.  It put some distance between us for awhile.  My mom miscarried two babies in between us.  I will never know them, but God is sovereign.  Today, Connor turns 21, and I am so proud of the man he is becoming.  Love you Boo Boo!

Total opposite of me, his room has ALWAYS reflected his athletic nature.  Once Connor got to redo his room, it basically became a Chelsea (soccer) haven.  

Here Comes the Sun

THE SPACE:

Backyard

THE MEMORIES:

1. This yard saw a lot of imaginative and active play.  Oddly enough, most of it was from our neighbors.  We had the biggest yard around, so the neighborhood kids were constantly on our property.  It would make me frustrated, mostly because they were all boys, and I didn't want to play with them!
2. I did, however, love spending time on the playground set my parents got for Connor and me.  I loved hanging out in the fort and pretending it was my own secret world.  My neighbor Erin and I enjoyed creating and selling our own "perfume made from mixtures of my mom's good-smelling products and pieces of nature, like acorns... and flower petals... We did actually have a customer!
3. When we had grown out of the fun, we gave the playground to my high school Sunday School teacher and his family.  That did open up the yard for Connor to have a decent soccer field. (Never mind the giant slope in the yard.)
4. In 2004, my mom had this deck built with some of the inheritance from my Grammie and Papa.  The deck was nearly completed just in time for my high school graduation party.
5. The deck was never utilized to its greatest potential.  We probably only used the outdoor table enough times to be counted on two hands.  Dad was in charge of keeping the hot tub clean, but he was also the one who used it the most.  
6. I love the look of the yard, but I will always look back and laugh at all the times my mom wanted to revamp the greenery.  It would look BEAUTIFUL.  Then, the weeds would take over.  (P.S. Weeding was my least favorite chore.  LEAST.)

Coco, what are you doing here, silly?  The only memories you have in this yard involve #1 and #2.

Before it was removed, the playground was right back there.  It took a long time to get the grass to look natural covering up the space where small rocks used to reside.

The table sat on the rounded section.  We had pretty cheap furniture that didn't hold up very long in the weather conditions.

We had lounge chairs up top.  I would lay out there on occasion, but I always felt awkward if the neighbors were in their backyards... Plus, we didn't have a pool to cool off.... Only the hot tub...

These are just the pretty planters my mom collected.  See how alive the flowers look?!

Three Oh Three

This is gonna get real.  Like, I have to let it all out.  The tears have hit, and probably not for the last time.  Say goodbye to 303 Saddlebridge Lane.  Moving around a lot as a child, it was actually house number 5 and I was only 7.  However, this house is what I will always remember as "home".  It belonged to our family for 20 whole years!  We moved to Tennessee on Thanksgiving Day, stayed in The Landings apartments, and then moved into this house on my mom's birthday, February 5, 1994.  The memories range all the way from the joys of childhood to the sadness of a broken family.  I would not take back any of those moments.  They brought us to today.  Made us the people we are.  Set us on the path to who we will become.

But now 303 is going to tell the stories of a new family.  A young couple with a toddler and a baby on the way.  As I stood in the house for the last time, alone, I took a moment in each room and prayed over the family who will now be filling this home with brand new memories.  I prayed that the children would laugh like we laughed, play like we played, create like we created.  I prayed they would become children of God who share His love with others.  I prayed that the mother would love her husband and serve him with humility.  I prayed the father would lead the household and fight for them.  But most of all, I prayed that God would bring them joy, joy that can only come from Christ.

Over the next little bit, I am going to be sharing some memories and pictures from the place I will remember has home.  If you were ever at my house throughout the years we lived there, I would love for you to share some of your favorite memories in the comments.  The reminiscing is primarily for me, but it would be fun to hear from you as well.

Down Time Craft Time

  

Spending all day, every day at home has been great, except that I have so many ideas and goals (and so little self-discipline to accomplish them all!).  I have come to consider myself somewhat of a "Jack of all trades".  I dabble in a lot of areas, but am not GREAT at any one thing.  I guess I will consider this time a 'make it until you find it' moment of my life... Meaning, I will do a lot of things until I find the thing that really gets me going, and I will work on becoming really good at that.

This started as a piece of artwork I had gotten for our TN house, but now that we have moved, the colors didn't really fit with our new scheme, so I decided to paint the 'G' white to maybe match my office.  But...... I felt like the white was TOO white next to the vintage yellow, and so I didn't like it, really.

THEN, I saw this thing on Pinterest about "quilling".  It's a paper technique that is super easy and looks really cool!  I pretty much just looked at one instruction page and created this.  It is definitely not the greatest, and it is DEFINITELY not gonna last considering I used the wet paint and a glue stick to apply the paper.  

Result: The technique is really cool and I loved it... But... I still don't really love this piece itself.  Needless to say, I ended up throwing it away.  *GASP*  It was fun, but I wasn't about to be hanging it up anywhere, so....

On the other hand, I DO love this craft project that D helped me bring to life!  I saw something like this on Pinterest, and I decided to make it my own.  I originally thought I could use scrapbook paper in the frames, but I couldn't find any that fit my color scheme, so I resorted to fabric.  I found some great pieces that I loved and put them in 5x5 frames.  The OCD side of me could not handle the stress of actually hanging them up on the wall.  Fortunately, I have a way more patient husband who was sweet enough to let me leave the room and put my mind at ease while he plotted out the grid and hung them!  This is my favorite part of the room!

This is my second favorite, though it is not at all what I will want it to be eventually.  For now, it holds all my treasures and it's functional, so.... yeah.  The best thing is that I created this entertainment center-like structure from two black shelves, a TV stand, and a black board on top to connect them all!

P.S. Does anyone notice my stack of Harry Potter books with an owl and the Elder Wand?!

(*love*)

This project was my favorite!  I LOVE how it turned out :)  My mom will appreciate this (I hope) because this was her shirt that I took forever ago when she didn't want it anymore.  I loved how it was incredibly soft, and I used it as a night shirt.  Well, I still love the shirt, but I never wear it because, well,  it's too big for a T-shirt, and it's not... ya know... shmexy enough to wear to bed!  (Is that too awkward to say?  Well, too late.)  So anyway, I looked up tutorials on how to turn it into a racerback tank.  

1: Cut off sleeves, neck, and bottom seam.  Create the shape you want with the scoop neck and how thick you want the straps.  Make a V on the back.

2: Take the bottom seam you cut off and STREEEEEEETCH it out!

3: Tie a double knot towards the top of the V and wrap, wrap, wrap it around and knot at the bottom.

4: Create high-low effect by turning shirt to the side and cutting at an angle.  Start and end the cut in more of a straight line than an angle or else you end up with arrows... and that's always awkward.  (Found that out the hard way!)

5: Put it on!  (With something underneath, duh... Otherwise, that's inappropriate, young lady!)

6: Get your husband to take a picture of the back since you can't quite stretch that way on your own!

Basically, I love it, and I can totally wear my mom's old shirt way more often!  D said it looks "dancery".  I'll take it =)

D's Official Office Project

You would think that with all this extra room in our new home, we would have an easy time putting everything away in a nice little place.  Notthecase.  Instead, we have found that it's more exciting to recreate our home into something new and our own.  Well, that takes time... and money... one of which we have.  And that's money.  Ha, just kidding, folks.  The problem is, we have plenty of time, but I want it all to be done already!!! 

Oh well...

The first project we have fully completed is D's new office which occupies the "loft" space we got as a bonus in our new home.  As a reminder... here is the space I'm talking about:

Walk up the stairs and look to the right.

Blank canvas.

Well, D has taken advantage of my Pinterest obsession and came across a picture that I pinned about loft offices.  (See below)

Found here

D got it into his mind and has been working toward a VERY SPECIFIC idea to bring his office to life. And let me tell you... this specific idea was not the easiest to put together.

He wanted: 

• One Turquoise wall
• CLEAN white desk
• Burnt orange chairs (MUST be comfy, MUST be cool-looking)
• Plants
• Gigantic picture of the Miami skyline

We got the turquoise wall.  We got the CLEAN white desk.

We got the comfy burnt orange chairs.  We got the plants.

AND.  We got the painting.  Originally, D wanted a black and white photo, but since he couldn't find it, I offered to paint it.  Then, of course, he wanted color.  I have NEVER taken on such a humongous painting; Nor have I ever painted such a detailed painting based on a real object.  I like abstract... words, design, shapes...  Like this painting I did for my mom a few years back:

Not buildings.  Alas, I finished the project.  Voila!

Step One: Sketch

Step Two: Water and Bridge

Step Three: Sky
 

Step Four: Buildings

Step Five: Put on wall

So there you have it, people!  One room done!