Dealing with Cashier Error

Today I ventured out into the damp greyness and went thrifting despite the freezing cold temps. I'm not sure why I was thinking that today was their monthly half off sale, when I know darn well it's the last Tuesday of the month. Fiddlesticks.

I bought a piece of fabric with very realistic money printed all over it (I thought this would make a nice something-or-other for St Patty's Day), six children's books at 50c a pop, and nine articles of clothing for Joel, all for either 50c or 25c. There were several items that were 1.99 however all were pink tags and 75% off. Woot, woot! I won't spend more than 50c for a piece of clothing for Joel unless it's super special. Herein lies my problem. Today the cashier forgot to ring up one of my items 75% off like it was supposed to be. That means I paid two dollars for one of his shirts. Gasp! She almost missed another one, however I caught that one and reminded her that yellow tags are 50% off. I'm not very happy about it, but I keep telling myself that the extra buck fifty I was charged is a donation to the thrift store. The little devil on my shoulder keeps reminding me that with a buck fifty, I could have bought three more articles of clothing for Joel, but his angelic counterpart reminds me that in the big scheme of things, this is not a big deal!

Now off to the sewing machine I go. I want to sew up another shopping-cart-kiddie- cover-germ-keeper-awayer. I keep one in my car, however it seems like every time we're out and about and need it, we're in my husband's car. This way, we'll each have one. Toodles!

Felted Wool Baby Mittens

It's gotten C.O.L.D. these past few days! So cold, in fact, that I am having second thoughts about going to tomorrow's half-off sale at the Volunteers of America. (You know it's cold if I'm thinking of passing on a 50% off thrifting trip!) With these frigid temperatures, I figured I better get my act in gear and sew Joel a pair of mittens.

This project is easy peasy. First, I chose a felted sweater that still had sleeves. I cut several inches off from the base of each sleeve. I figured I'd utilize the finished wrist section to make less work for myself.



Then I sewed a generic "U" shape onto each cuff and trimmed away the excess. You're done! It's a five minute project- woohoo!





Here's the little squirt passed out on daddy's lap while he played video games.

Your initial on a Wreath!

I saw this wreath by Living with Lindsay and I just had to make one. I had a large cardboard "R" that we used as a decoration at our wedding, and I had some evergreen garland that I used to hang outside.



Put the two together, and voila!


I think it looks a little small for the front door so I might have to hang it somewhere else.

A Brand New Used Stocking

Yep. That's right. I thrifted a blue stocking with tags still attached for the mere price of $2.92. I then purchased some silver glitter glue specifically designed for personalizing stockings, which set me back another $2. I was very excited to come home and put Joel's name on his stocking. Unfortunately, the silver glitter did not turn out at all. It wasn't silver. It wasn't glittery. It looked like crap.

Luckily, I had a bunch of leftover white felt in the basement, so I cut out letter's and glued them onto the stocking with regular old Elmer's glue. Thankfully, I was able to cover up the not silver, not glittery debacle with the felt letters. I am bummed that I wasted $2 however am very glad with the way it turned out!

Awesome Felt Castle

I really should be sleeping since it's after midnight. When I woke up this morning to go to work, I already had massive bags under my eyes... but it's so much more fun to catch up on some much needed blog reading! I stumbled across two toy posts that I wanted to share since it's the holiday season, and we all have toys on the brain!

The first is a tutorial on how to make a castle out of felt. It definitely is the bomb diggety.

The second one is about how people these days tend to go to their local Walmart and stock up on plastic toys that leave nothing to imagination. This is not what I want for my child! For example, I want (and have been purchasing) real vintage enamleware for my son when he plays "kitchen." And she does too! This post is amazing... check it out!

Bad Blogger, Very Bad!

Sorry for the hiatus.... I went back to work and haven't stopped to breathe for the past three months!

Earlier this month, our school levy failed (again), and the superintendent told me that my job would be eliminated (again) although it wouldn't be officially voted on until January, and would be effective at the end of the school year. Last year when the levy failed, they eliminated music K-6. Since I had seniority, I got shifted from teaching fifth and sixth grade band to teaching seventh and eighth grade band. Twelve music teachers out of nineteen were laid off. I was the lucky number seven (and the last one) that was kept. Now they will be eliminating probably all but three music teachers, and so I'll be gone for real this time. That is, unless the levy passes in May.

I of course don't want to lose my job (I feel so bad for the kids who are missing their art, music, and P.E.) however the thought of getting to stay home with my little rugrat is very appealing! I would love to be able to stay home and do crafts with my son (like these wonderful Christmas crafts from No Time for Flashcards)

I haven't been very crafty lately due to a lack of time. My friend T-3 and I did find the time the other day to pump out four of these chef hats for some of my students. We're doing a piece called Christmas in the Kitchen in which four percussionists are playing water glasses and pots and pans. We made them chef's hats and I thrifted some aprons for them to wear. It will be so cute!

I did make a blue baby quilt for my husband's cousin's new baby, Jacob. It was my first attempt at actually quilting. (I usually just use yarn and tie the layers together). Here are some photos of his cousin opening her gift:




I have been out on many thrifting and garage sale trips this fall and have found lots of good deals. My favorite item from my last trip was a Santa Claus suit for Joel. The outfit cost $5 which is 10x more than I usually spend (since my limit is 50c), however I figure the photos we take of him in it will be priceless and so it was worth it! I also found a tiger Halloween costume for Joel for $3:





My last thrifting trip also yielded a $9 black peacoat for myself and a wooden dollhouse (which I am so excited about!) for under $2. I took it home, cleaned it up, used some wallpaper samples to the walls, and painted a light blue over the old bright red paint job, and voila, a wonderful masterpiece for Joel when he's a little older!

The only other (somewhat) interesting thing I've done lately is clean out my closet, set aside many t-shirts that are past their prime downright ratty, and either place them in a dusting-rag pile or a make-a-tee-shirt-quilt-someday pile. I did start to make my aunt a lap quilt from my four Breast Cancer Walk t-shirts, however I don't know if I'll have the time to finish it before Christmas. I also intended on making a baby quilt for a pregnant friend, but as her shower was a week ago, and I didn't finish anything more than cutting out some squares, I ended up buying her some gifts instead. (I'm so ashamed!)

Hopefully it won't take me three more months before I post again!

You say Tomato, I say To-mah-to

Yes folks, it's that time! Time when tomatoes are ripening, and I'm bringing them into the house by the truckload.

I haven't done menu planning lately, but as I'm about to go back to work in a few days, *sigh,* then I better get my act together and get organized!

This week our meals will be based on tomatoes. This morning, into the crockpot went ten fresh tomatoes, an onion, two tiny lovely garden-grown, yellowish-orangish bell peppers, along with chili powder, pepper, curry powder, paprika, oregano, and two pounds of ground turkey. Hopefully this turns out like Cincinnati style chili, but we'll see. I'm going to cut up a pack of hotdogs and toss it in too, and the whole concoction goes over spaghetti and is topped with cheese and oyster crackers. Never heard of Cincinnati chili? Boy are you missing out!!!

After that's gone (maybe Tues?) then I'm going to make turkey burgers with some garden-grown shredded zucchini, topped with... you guessed it... sliced tomatoes! To go with that, I think I'll make some macaroni and cheese with chopped tomatoes in it.

That should last us until Thursday maybe. By then I'll be back at work, so my stay-at-home husband will have to start learning how to cook! He can grill very well, so we'll probably round out the week with marinated pork chops on the grill and some frozen vegetables. (Not tomatoes) And after heading back to work, a tall glass of wine might on the menu!