A cute little boy in a thrifted tie

Or as most people would call last Friday, my brother's wedding!


We had the wedding at my parents' house. My mom did most of the cooking (I helped make the Ambrosia salad!), and I was in charge of things like wrapping plastic silverware in napkins then tying them with pretty little bows, and putting the tablecloths on the rented tables. Very strenuous. I also had the very important job of photographer :)

I had some time to squeeze in a little thrifting because we arrived to my parents' house a day early, and so we hit up two thrift stores and a neighborhood garage sale. At the neighborhood garage sale, I scored this dresser for $10. The lady had $12 on it, but when I was pulling out the drawers, one of the knobs popped off. She said "I'll take $10 on it." Deal!


I thought my mom was going to kill me because I dragged another piece of furniture home to store in their basement, after she just spent the past several months cleaning out the basement, getting ready for the wedding. My dad thought it was hilarious... my mom, not so much. I'm sure some day she'll look back and realize that baby Jonas needs a dresser, and $10 was just too good a deal to pass up!

I found a few pieces of clothes at the thrift stores, including a still new-with-tags dress for one of the cousins at Christmas for $2.60 and a cute, like-new toddler camouflage raincoat for $2.11. (Goodwill was having a 35% off everything sale, hence the odd prices). At the second thrift store, I found two more kiddo ties and a pair of little Old Navy khakis for baby Jonas, all for a total of about $1.50. I don't know what it is with me and little boy ties, but every time I see one for about 50c, I feel compelled to buy it. Isn't he handsome in his new tie?!

A birthday party!

Back in February, my little boy turned T.W.O. How time flies! My baby has turned into a full-fledged little boy with his own likes and dislikes, mood swings, and sense of humor :) He absolutely loves monkeys, so when it came time to pick a theme for the party, it was a no brainer.

If you google "monkey cake," a million and one cake images come up. I opted to go with the monkey cake from parenting.com. The only bad thing is that all the little things you have to buy in order to make the cake look like a monkey really rack up the price. You need mini chocolate donuts, licorice, brown M&Ms, peppermint patties...

I really like how it turned out!


One cake isn't enough for my husband's ginormous family our large guest list, and so I made some monkey cupcakes to go with it. I used these cupcakesas a jumping off point, however for the life of me, I could not get the vanilla wafers cut in half correctly to make the ears. I eventually gave up, raided the cereal cupboard, and decided that Cinnabon cereal made pretty good ears. They were a little Princess Leia-ish, but they did the trick.


And here's an action shot of my son enjoying said cupcakes:


This one's not the best photo of him, but it does show off the shirt I made for the special occasion. At a thrift store, I found a blue, furry, (still new-in-package!) "2" applique and a solid colored turtleneck to adhere it to. For under $2, Joel had a special birthday outfit :)

Upcycled Baby Gowns

Baby sewing! That's all I've done since about 9 or 10 last night. (I do believe I'm in the nesting phase right now). Following thismamamakestuff's extremely awesome tutorial, I was able to create three baby gowns for baby Jonas for free, just using old t-shirts from around the house. Even the elastic used at the bottom of each of the gowns was thrifted :)

This first one was actually a 50c thrifted tee that I bought awhile ago. I had intended to make Joel a long sleeve shirt to wear in December, but since I never got around to it, I figured I'd turn it into a baby gown.

For two out of the three gowns, I was able to utilize the bottom hem of the shirt for the cuffs of the sleeves. For the Chris Kringle: Designer Chimneywear shirt, however, I had to hem the sleeves. I made it easier on myself by hemming the sleeve before I sewed under the arm. (Once the sleeve is sewn, the cuff is so small that it's difficult to sew. Just a little pointer from me to you!)

The second one was a shirt that's been in my closet since 1996 when my family took a trip out west. It's seen better days, but it did make a pretty cute baby gown.
I got this last t-shirt in junior high. It's by far the rattiest most well loved of the three. And guess what? Ratty t-shirts make ratty baby gowns. Who would have guessed it?!

In about four months, I'll have an actual baby that I can model these gowns on, but in the meantime, these photos will have to do :)

Pregnant! And other updates

I am officially the worst blogger ever. So I haven't posted a single time this entire school year. In fact, it's been so long since I've posted, that I actually FORGOT how to log into blogger! I finally got that figured out and thought I'd give you an update because a lot has changed around here since last August! (Oh, and also let me apologize for the lack of photos in this post. One of these days, I'll get around to photographing the new house, my son's new summer haircut, etc.)

Update: a photo of my son's new summer haircut! Woohoo! (And he's in a thrifted outfit, of course)

We finally got the okay from the seller's bank to close the weekend before school started. We moved in from about 5 PM when we finished with closing until 3 or so in the morning when it wasn't so doggone hot. And then of course there was more moving on Saturday too, and then finally putting things away on Sunday, and then school started the very next day! As a teacher, I would not recommend moving the weekend before school starts. The beginning of a new school year is busy, crazy, hectic, and stressful the way it is... add moving into a new house on top of it, and I just about lost my mind!

With the housing market the way it is, we didn't ever think our old house was ever going to sell. It sat on the market for months with only one or two people ever even looking at it. Then all of the sudden in February, four families went through it in one day, one of them made an offer, and we closed in March, right before we left for vacation in Hilton Head! Woohoo! We were finally able to bring the rest of our furniture to our new house (we had left some of it there for staging), and our new house is finally becoming a home :) We put artwork up on the walls last week, so that makes me happy :)

We also got Joel's big boy bedroom painted last weekend. My baby boy is two years old and is just about ready for his big boy bed! We're going to move him into his new room as soon as school lets out so that we can start painting the "baby room" for his little brother! I probably won't post again for two more weeks until summer vacation, but hopefully then I'll have some time to show you the kids' rooms.

Wait a minute... "baby brother?" you say? I found out at the end of January that I'm pregnant again! About a month ago we found out it's another boy, which is a bit of a bummer because I always thought I'd have one of each, but on the flip side, we had good boy names picked out and never really could decide on a girl's name :)

This little peanut's name is going to be Jonas Alexander. Joel has my husband's initials (JMR), so this one will have my initials (JAR)! We decided to stick with names from our family tree, and of course they have to start with "J." That left us with either Jackson, Jonas, Josiah, or Jeremiah as our top picks. Jason really liked Jackson, and while I love that name too, it's too common right now. As a teacher, I'll probably have a dozen Jacksons in my class in about a decade. I wanted something that is a little less common, but still classic and timeless. One of my 10-great grandfathers on my mom's side was Jonas Potts. He was a Quaker who lived in Philadelphia in the 1600s. I figure a 400 year old name is pretty classic! What's also cool about this name is that if you take my husband's name, Jason, and rearrange the letters, you get Jonas :)

And there's one more reason I love the name Jonas. On my dad's side, in the late 1800s my great-great grandfather, Joseph Martin Bruhen, came from Switzerland all by himself at the age of 16 and settled in Ohio. He never saw his family again, and in fact had siblings born after he left that he never got to meet. (How sad is that?) But in the new world, Joseph prospered. He sent money home to Switzerland, and eventually he got married and had my great-grandmother, Josephine Marguerite Bruhen. Sadly, she was their only child, as their other two babies were either stillborn or died right after birth. Josephine, or "Nan" as we called her, had a daughter name Joan (pronounced JoAnn). My parents then decided to carry on the JO name even though it skipped a generation, and they named me Jodie. I wanted a name that started with the JO sound that hadn't been used in this line already. Jonas is perfect :)

I think there's a cup of coffee calling my name... it's only 6:30 in the morning. Pregnancy insomnia is at it again :)

Are you sick of Baby Thrifting? Me Neither!

I'm trying to keep my mind off of the house. This house is a wreck with boxes stacked everywhere, and we can't get into our new one yet... so how about a post chock full of thrifted baby clothes?!

I love posts where I can combine my two favorite things: photographs of my son and thrifting! Woohoo! Here we go :)

Thrifted Soccer tank top, still new with tags, and 50c khaki shorts.
Notice the pretty bush in the background :)

Thrifted brown Gap Polo with adorable plaid shorts that were a gift.
Notice the cardboard box in the background... packing is good times!

I have become addicted to thrifted baby ties.
The dress pants and dress shirt were thrifted too.

59c pants with a 45c "Beep, Beep!" shirt

A rocket onesie, because my little man is as smart as a rocket scientist!

A very thrifted outfit, right down to the shoes!
I splurged a little on this sweater ($1), and he only got to wear it twice. Bummer!

Another one of my favorites! Same black dress pants, but different thrifted tie and dress shirt.

Thrifted plaid shirt, Gap jean shorts, and Champion shoes all for under $3.
Will someone please tell my husband that those jean shorts are cute and not straight out of the 80s?! He doesn't like the faded look AT ALL.

A little polo and blue shorts

We got a lot of mileage out of these 59c pants and little polka-dotted jacket :)

Well, after LeBron James left, this jersey isn't very fashionable anymore.
We can't wear it in public for fear of getting jumped by angry mobs of ex-fans.

"One MILLION dollars!" (Doesn't he look just like that guy from Austin Powers?!)

Thrifted soccer tee with handmade t-shirt pants.

50c tee with a pair of pants that were a birthday gift.

Isn't this thrifted Gap hat the absolute ca-utest?! Still new with tags!
The blue jacket was thrifted too for 50c.

My baby's first steps!
To do so in a thrifted outfit is just an added bonus!

Celebrating our independence in a thrifted tank top,
while holding thrifted flags!

Another small splurge on this tee. I saw it at the thrift store, and even though it was a whole dollar, I bought it. My husband grew up on the south side, and this tee just spoke to me :)

A cute 45c football sweatshirt, matched with Wrangler jeans for 75c.
What I loved about those jeans was their orange trim!

Packing and Moving, Blech!

So I thought I'd be around more these past couple of months since I don't work over the summers, however at the beginning of June we found a new house that we liked in the next suburb over. We put in an offer, and it was accepted! We were all set to close on July 30, however it got pushed back and we are now anxiously awaiting a phone call with a new closing date (tomorrow perhaps?!) We've been fervently painting, staging, and fixing things around the old house, as well as packing and carrying things to the first floor to make the big moving day go easier and quicker. I'm a little worried about moving in 90 degree heat and a million percent humidity. That is seriously going to suck.

I've also been out thrifting buying things both for the new house and things to stage the old house. I watch all those HGTV shows like "Designed to Sell," "Unsellables," and "Get it Sold," not to mention "House Hunters," "My First Place," "Property Virgins," etc. I know wall color should be warm and neutral. My red dining room wall probably isn't cutting it. Neither was the country wallpaper borders all over the house. Hubby and I got to work removing all the borders and repainting. Of course, paint can get expensive, and so I had a plan. We went around to just about every Lowes, Home Depot, and Walmart in the city and gathered up various "Ooops" paints. In large five gallon buckets, we mixed various tans, browns, yellows, and creams and actually came up with a B.E.A.U.T.I.F.U.L. shade of butterscotch. We had ten gallons of it for about fifty or sixty bucks. We also bought some blues and some greens to mix. I found a wonderful shade of turquoise for the laundry room at the new house. I'll almost want to do laundry with a turquoise laundry room :)

I found some window treatments at the thrift store that I fell in love with. (Photos to come later once we get all these boxes out of here). We also took a trip to IKEA and found packs of two panels of sheers for five bucks! I bought three packs! They also had a duvet cover with matching pillow cases for five bucks! Don't you just L.O.V.E. IKEA?! While at IKEA we also bought some contemporary end tables for ten dollars apiece, and an awesome entertainment center for $220. That was a bit of a splurge, but we love it :)

The little one is waking up, so I better go tend to him. Hopefully the next time you hear from me, I'll be moved into a new house!

Catching up and toy shopping

The end of the school year is rough when you're a band director. There's solo and ensemble contest, the concerts at the beginning of March, the concerts at the end of May, the trip to perform at Kings Island and then hang out in the park all day... There's barely enough time to spend with my husband and son, let alone blogging.

I'm pleased to announce, however, that Summer. Is. Here!

Already, I've gotten a few sewing projects finished with more ideas spinning in my head. I hemmed and elasticized the refashioned t-shirt shorts for my son. They turned out pretty big... 2T I'd say. He'll have to wear them next summer I guess. I also want to make little tool belts for each of the three boy cousins, as well as finish the one for Joel. I'm planning on appliqueing their names onto the fronts of the tool belts... won't that be cute?!

The reason I'm so driven all the sudden to sew these tool belts is because I found toys on clearance for half off at Dollar General!!! I went wild and bought about $30 worth of toys today (which would have cost me $60, of course). I bought four tool kits, one for each of the boys, for a whopping $2.50 apiece. I actually saw kiddie tool kits for 99c apiece at the Vanity Fair outlet the other day, but they were much smaller. The DG tool kits were pretty large. There's really no rush on this since the tool kits are for ages 3+, and these kiddos are currently aged 1 month - 18 months, but I like to shop ahead :) I also got Joel a large, yellow metal dumptruck for $6, a couple paint-your-own dinosaur kits for $2.50, and a shopping cart full of play food for $6. (Don't tell my husband but I think I'm going to go hit up some other DGs to see what clearance selection they have left!)

While I was out shopping, I also finally bought some countertop paint. After we painted our kitchen white, the beige countertops really stood out in a bad way. For $20, we got some rustoleum tan paint, and I began my transformation. It takes three days to dry; it's going to be difficult to not use the kitchen for the next three days, but it will be worth it!

So that's what I'm up to. What about you?