Show and Tell #6

This weekend was a busy one! I went out with my parents both Friday and Saturday to the yard sales, and we found some great things. Mom and I got a lot for Peppers Pickins. I'm excited to get it cleaned and fixed up to add to Etsy. We also found stone to put around our pond that has been in the making for awhile. Ryan and I got busy doing that, so I forgot to take pictures for this post from the weekend. Luckily, I had a doctor's appointment down in Birmingham today, so Mom went with me to hit up a few thrift stores.

Burlap Curtains for the Kitchen

Our kitchen has a great big window in the eating area, and I knew I wanted curtains that only covered the top portion. I've been on a burlap kick and saw some cute ideas to use burlap sacks as curtains. Luckily, I found some coffee sacks at a local antique mall.

What you will need:

• burlap sack (maybe more, depending on the width of your window)
• scissors
• curtain rod
• curtain rings with clamps

To make them:

1. Pull or cut the twine holding the two sides of the sack together, creating one long piece. From there, I was able to cut it into four equal pieces.
2. To cut, measure your length out on the sides. Take into account any wording or pictures on the sacks.
3. Find a spot in between two of the strands. Cut through in between those strands. Your curtains won't be perfectly straight, but this will prevent them from falling apart and having little strings hanging off of them.
4. Hang a curtain rod above your window.
5. Use rings with clamps to attach the burlap. Three on each piece worked for me.

You now have a beautiful and simple window treatment!

Show and Tell #5

We have been super busy with our trip to Disney, baseball, and swim team, so it has been a LONG time since I've been able to go yard saling. It felt good to get back out there. I felt like we hit a lot of sales this morning, but I didn't find much. That's just part of the game!

I use Yard Sale Treasure Map to scope out potential places to visit. I even got more advanced today and used the different colors on the locations to show which ones I didn't want to visit (blue), which ones I wanted to visit (red), and once we visited them, I turned them to green. It was much easier on me when I was trying to figure out where to go next.

On to what I did find today...

Show and Tell #4

This past Saturday, I got started with yard sales after I dropped Jax off at lacrosse practice. I only had time to make it to three before having to return for the end of practice. The first two were a bust, but at the third one, I found a chair for my mom, a Tupperware tray, a small, old suitcase, and a box of mason jars. Brady also bought a cup of lemonade; anything to make him happy!

Show and Tell #3

Visiting my grandparents is always a lot of fun for our family. It seems to have become traditional for us to head down there for our school breaks, so last week, that's where we were.

Ryan and I love to go antiquing and check out the different shops they have in Fairhope. We tend to find at least a few great things to bring home!

Show and Tell #2

Yesterday, I began working on our taxes, and today, I somehow let my husband convince me that starting Insanity was a good idea. Before I get back to finishing our taxes, I need a pick-me-up! So here I am to share what I found this weekend at the Goodwill.

My parents and I traveled to Tennessee last Saturday to see what we could find. I'd say I was pretty successful!

Shopping Deals #7

One of the biggest ways I save money is with couponing. I'm not an extreme couponer by any means, but my goal is to save more than my total payment. With a little time, that's pretty easy to do.

In addition to the thrill I get from watching the savings click up on the register, it's fun to share the great deals I was able to find. It helps keep me motivated!

This shopping trip was to Kroger. They are having one of their Mega Shopping Events, which continues through this week if you're interested. It doesn't seem like I got much, but I was able to stock up on a few items.

One thing that did frustrate me as I matched up my coupons with the deals on this trip was that our coupon flyers don't seem to include all of the coupons that other areas must get. On multiple occasions, I have not been able to find listed coupons from the websites I use (Southern Savers for Kroger). Do you ever find that when you're trying to match up coupons?

Here's what I got:

1 Pagoda egg rolls (2.99, 2.49 wyb 6)
+ free cpn from BzzAgent

5 Ronzoni pasta (.49 wyb 6) ~ I could have gotten these free if I could have found the coupon!

3 Kleenex tissues (.99 wyb 6)

+ .50/3 mfc

3 Sun laundry detergent (.99 wyb 6)

1 Goodnights (8.49 wyb 6)
+ $2/1 mfc
10 Yoplait yogurts (10/$5)
+ $1/10 Kroger ecoupon
+ $1/10 SavingStar credit

My total was $20.62, and the receipt says I saved $20.89 (plus added $1 to my SavingStar total). I barely made my goal of saving more than I spent, but it still counts!

Happy couponing!

Valentine's Day Is Around the Corner

It's amazing how quickly Valentine's Day comes after the excitement of Christmas dies down! In our house, we concentrate on the love of our family and try not to get bogged down with the commercialization of the holiday.

We don't have many decorations around the house, but it's enough to make it festive. If you want to see some of the posts from years past for ideas, click on these pictures:

Amazon Prime Deal

Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links.

Our family has been going back and forth for a while about the best choice for movie streaming. We do not have cable, so it's important for us to have another reliable source for tv entertainment for us and the boys. Until 11:59 PST tonight, Amazon is running a special on their Amazon Prime for $73 in celebration of their recent awards. It is typically $99. We decided to get it and compare it to Netflix, which we currently use.

Show and Tell #1

I've had the post titles Yard Sale Finds and Thrift Store Finds, but when I'm with my mom and grandma, I can't keep up with both! We've been busy in Fairhope, Alabama finding some great things at both thrift stores and yard sales. Instead of trying to separate them, I've decided to combine them and rename the posts after what my family calls our sharing: Show and Tell. (Lindsay, this is dedicated to you!)