Time for a New Room & Some Cheap Finds

My first post in quite a few months, and it’s not even going to be about homeschooling!

We’re on summer break right now, and my daughter just spent two weeks back in California with her Grandma. While she was gone, I decided to surprise her and redo her room. We had talked about what she had in mind when the time came to redecorate, and so on that note, I went full force on her bedroom with a vintage/shabby chic/French-type theme.

Something I did not expect to get lucky on was the wallpaper. It was a heavy, cream, pin-striped paper with a geometric border. I decided to just strip off the border to see if that made a difference and found a pale yellow painted wall beneath it. Bingo!! So down came the wallpaper without the messy sheetrock to redo. My husband painted a black border around the top of the wall. It’s not perfect, because ideally we’d like to patch, retexture & repaint, but it looks 100 times better than it did.

 

The quilt came from a local shop on Main Street, Linens & More, and is what Laina had picked out. The “Love” pillowcases are from Red, another neat store in town. The Eiffel Tower pillows I picked up at Tuesday Morning, while the small rectangle pillow, the red sheets & black pillowcases came from Wal-Mart! Now, for some of my cheap finds! The black bed skirt was a $3.00 thrift store find and the small monogrammed pillow in the front is not a pillow at all, but a $3.50 wine bottle bag that I stuffed with some quilt batting. Pretty clever, huh? The picture over the bed came from an antique/consignment store and is a poster for a French veterinarian’s office. I loved the animals in it and the color really ties that area together.

Laina already had the Eiffel Tower lamp, the white vase & the white nightstand, so I added some thrift store fabric for a runner, along with the butterfly picture ($3.50) and the stack of books. One is an old art book ($1.00), one is a French/English Dictionary ($3.00), and one is a Spanish/English Dictionary ($1.00). The had the correct colors & I liked the look of them, plus Laina could use them to study up on some foreign languages!

The black table was given to me by a friend. It was cream & I painted it black with some leftover house paint my husband had. The lamp came from Target. The silver cat ($3.00), small flower bowl (.50) and marble flower coaster (.50) came from a thrift store, while the bird vase was an antique store find ($5.00). I filled it with carnations from the Dollar Tree.

I had bought this desk a couple months ago at a thrift store & decided it needed to be more exciting, so I gathered up an old letter writing book (free), and some vintage looking scrapbook paper and proceeded to decoupage the desk. I had never attempted this before, but it was a lot of fun and I am really pleased with the results! I painted the backboard and knobs black and my husband attached a small bulletin board ($1.00) to the left side as a door.

Laina likes the look of the jars filled with common items, so that is what I topped the desk with. To the left of the desk is a vintage looking wire shelf ($10 from an antique store) that holds some of her personal collectibles. Underneath that is a cool key rack that has “Paris” stamped in it. I hung some music notes that I found at a teacher supply store on the hooks. On the wall directly above the desk is her baptismal certificate, of which I just repainted the frame. In the right side cubby is a wood artist’s mannequin that I found at Wal-Mart. The cupboard house her art supplies, which I reorganized in a small box found at Tuesday Morning; a tin pail holds her pastels & chalk, a small glass jar corrals her crayons & a large glass jar holds her brushes and sketch pencils. Below that are six little jars that I picked up months ago at a garage sale for $1.00. I put her paper clips, rubber bands, etc. in these. A little silver cup ($2) holds her school pens & pencils and a restaurant jelly holder is a good spot for her calculator, glue & time. (I should have taken closer pictures!)

Since taking the photo, we have added a couple candlesticks to the top shelf, a cool little black beaded lamp shade ($3 Ross) to the lamp ($2.50 thrift store-looks like hob-nail), and a antique-looking mirror to the back of it ($4.50 thrift store). I also found a wooden, white chair to use as a desk chair.

Here’s a close up of the desk top. The typewrite fonts I found in a bag of things at a thrift store ($2) along with the little dish (.75).

Some more of my cheap finds make for a great vignette on the hutch. The numbered bricks came directly from our backyard. We inherited them when we purchased the house. The checkerboard was $1.00 and the wooden checkers that came with it are perched in a little ice cream bowl ($2) on a lower shelf. The wire jug ($1.50) and the garden rake (.75) were thrift store finds. I had the decorative balls left over from another display, so they worked perfectly. The potting dish came from my outdoor shed and works wonderfully to hold the black globe ($5- Tuesday Morning). I just painted it cream & sanded it a little.

The other side of the hutch is home to an old Scrabble Board; the letters are in one of the jars. It was a $2 find. The three middle jars were all from the thrift store and I believe the cost $1 each. The one with the bow now holds some dominoes, and the one with the crown is home for some safety pins. That bottle came from Tuesday Morning and cost a little more, but I couldn’t resist. The one with the handle is a measuring cup that belonged to my husband’s grandmother. The buttons in the milk jug I dug out of my scrapbooking supplies & added to them with a .50 bag of red, black & white ones from a thrift store.

There are a few more little items that I added to the room, such as another wall hanging & a couple little knick-knacks on the dresser. I ordered some black ticking-striped valances today, and will hopefully have them up by next week. I would love to find an old iron headboard to add to her bed, and a tray for the top of her dresser.

Needless to say, Laina was absolutely surprised and pleased when she arrived home. She loves her room, and I have to admit, I do, too! It’s been a long time since I’ve gotten to redecorate anything, and I think I have the bug now! I always try to find good deals, and it’s been a lot of fun redecorating on a budget!  I’ll have to see what else I can get into before it’s time to head back to school.

I’ll keep you posted.

Cheap Finds

Although I have snapped some pictures of my "cheap finds", I haven't shared them on here lately. So, just a quick post to update on some of my exciting discoveries.

I found these items a few weeks ago at a thrift store during a 50% off sale.

This is a Jim Weiss cassette recording of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table. It was only .30 cents! We listened to it on our way to a field trip and it was very entertaining.

I picked up this Norman Rockwell calendar for .40 cents. I'll use it for our next artist/picture study.


I found this Abeka reader for Conman, who enjoys reading the short stories. It was .30 cents.

At the Friends of the Library bookstore I had two great finds. The first is a biography of Hans Christian Anderson by Opal Wheeler. The second is The Trellis and the Seed. I had been looking for this book as it is a suggested resource in our 106 Days of Creation science study. Our library did not have it to check out and I didn't want to order it from Amazon. So, imagine my delight when I walked into the bookstore and there it was! It's a very touching book. Both of these were only .15 cents each!

That's it for today. Now I have to go rest up for my Natalie Grant concert!

Cheap Finds of the Week

Some of my company and I decided to hit the flea market and a couple of thrift shops this week to see what we could find. Let me tell you, if you haven't ventured through a crowded flea market on a spring break day, herding six children, then you have not lived! It doesn't get much more exciting than that! I'm just kidding-the kids were wonderful and we did find some great deals-so here we go. Allow me to apologize in advance for the lack of photos this week.

Books I found for a quarter each:

• Marvelous Math-A Book of Poems
• Calico Bush
• Horton Hatches the Egg
• The Snowy Day

I also found Magic Math Multiplication and Subtraction/Addition learning aids. One was $2.00 and the other $1.50. I had actually looked at these for Conman at a school supply store, only they cost much more.

Blakester came away with a pair of Old Navy denim shorts for $2.00, and I found two shirts for $1.50 each. One for Lulu and one for myself.

The last item was a cute red platter with chickens along the rim for $1.00. It goes perfect with my kitchen. This one I should have taken a picture of to share with you.

Til tomorrow~

Cheap Finds

I had a cheap find today that I feel obligated to report upon!

After checking out some books at the library, we, of course, stopped in at the library bookstore. Lo and behold, on the shelf was the Harry Potter book #7. We own books 1-6 and just last week Lulu tried to talk me into buying #7 at Barnes & Noble. At $15.00, I said, "No way." I'm pretty sure I made her day when I was able to get it used for $1.00!!! She is feverishly reading through it as I type. This is actually her second go-round of reading the series. The first time we had to borrow #7 from a cousin. Blakester is hot on her heels, as he's about half-way through book #5.

I also count the following as some of my "cheap finds":

• The Silmarillion by J.R.R. Tolkien ($.50 at Goodwill)
• Homeward Bound movie ($1.50 at Goodwill)
• Great American Nature Writing by Joseph Wood Krutch ($1.00 at library book store) This looked very interesting. It's an anthology of nature stories. I recognized a few of the authors included: John Muir, Thoreau, Ernest Thompson Seton.
• Sounder movie ($1.00 at library book store)

That's it for now. I haven't really been out looking, but am always happy when I do find some treasures!

Cheap Finds of the Week

The weather was so nice this last week. We spent as much time as we could doing some outdoor activities.

Wednesday we spent about 3 hours at a park just enjoying the sunshine.

Tuesday we ventured to the flea market and a couple of thrift stores to see if we could find any good deals.

At one of our favorite vendors I picked up a CD that I had mentioned in a previous post. It is titled 53 All-American Bird Songs and Calls. Each bird is introduced and then it plays about a minute of their song. A really fun tool to use in our nature study. I paid a whole 25 cents for it.



I picked up a few books between the flea market and a thrift store that offers 50% off on Tuesdays.

The four Dear America books and The Wizard of Oz were $2.00 total.

• Dear America: My Heart is On the Ground
• Dear America: Voyage on the Great Titanic
• Dear America: When Will This Cruel War Be Over?
• Dear America: The Winter of the Red Snow

Charlie's Raven by Jean Craighead George and The Organized Homeschooler by Vicki Caruana were .15 cents each! I've checked The Organized Homeschooler out of the library before and she has some useful ideas so I was glad to add it to my library.

I don't usually buy knick-knack type things, but I found this cute little jar. It was 50 cents, so I decided to go ahead and get it. The top part comes off and the bottom is a little ramekin. The apples on it are very similar to a teapot I have, so I couldn't resist.

Lulu found 2 pairs of Old Navy brand capris at the thrift store. They came to $3.00 total. Great for spring weather!

Now it's back to some more cleaning out and organizing. I'm hoping to finish up this weekend so we'll start our school week fresh.

Til tomorrow~

Cheap Finds of the Week

I'm finding it is difficult to blog every night as I had originally intended to do. Life tends to take precedence over the computer, and it definitely did this last week.

Thursday I was able to take some time, without the kiddos, and complete some errands I was needing to do. I needed some new tennies for my exercising. My old ones were hurting my feet. I also wanted to drive up to a homeschool supply store that is about forty minutes from my home and see about trading/selling some of the curriculum I've been clearing out. I was able to accomplish those things and make a couple more fun stops on the way.

I have shopped at Eagle's Nest at the local homeschool convention, but had not been to her store. I was excited to find she carries the science, copywork and English products we use. So I will definitely be purchasing from her in the future! I only brought home a couple of items for now.

• One was the Landmark Book John James Audubon. Next week I'll be adding picture study to our day and we had decided to start with his prints. They will tie in nicely with our nature study. We'll start reading this to go along with it, also. It was $3.00.
• I also picked up Wisdom and The Millers by Mildred A. Martin. We'll be using this in our character trait study in the future.

I stopped at a couple thrift stores and found a few more books I thought the kids would like.

• The Real Book About Indians by Michael Gorham. This looked like it fit under the living book definition and would go well with Blakester's study of the west and California. This cost me 99 cents.
• Mr. Brown Can Moo! Can You? and Hooper Humperdink...Not Him! by Dr. Seuss. These were 49 cents each.
• The Magic School Bus Takes a Moonwalk. This one was only 29 cents.
• I also picked up a magazine for myself for a dime and another Jodi Picoult book for 59 cents.

I thought the boys would enjoy this game. It was only 99 cents. The players use cards to determine what they are to build. Then they spin to find out what piece they can use next. The fun part is they get to nail the pieces to a board to complete their picture. The game came complete with a little wooden hammer, nails, pattern blocks, cards, and the wooden boards to nail to.

The last stop I made was at a teacher supply store. They had a large 50% off section I browsed through. I found a pack of construction paper crayons. They are brighter colors that show up better on construction paper and paper bags. Blakester tried them out and they really do work.

We already have the living math book Sir Cumference and the First Round Table. I found three other ones in that series that were 50% off:

• Sir Cumference and Isle of Immeter
• Sir Cumference and the Dragon of Pi
• Sir Cumference and the Great Knight of Angleland

That was it for this week.

It was great to find a homeschool resource close by and I will definitely be shopping at and supporting her store in the future.

Next week, weather permitting, we plan on hitting the flea market for some fun!

Till tomorrow-hopefully~

Cheap Finds of the Week

Today Grandma and I packed up some sandwiches and snacks, loaded the kids in the van and purposely drove to some neighboring towns to visit their thrift stores. It was nice to get out of the house, and the weather was decent so we made a day of it.

The kids don't mind shopping through the thrift stores. They grab a book off the shelf and sit in a corner to read. They usually make a pile of things they're interested in and then I get final say as to whether or not it goes home with us.

Today we found:

A huge stack of books! I won't bore you to tears with the complete list. But some of the highlights were:

• The Story of Doctor Dolittle by Hugh Lofting
• Pippi Longstocking by Astrid Lindgren
• King Arthur and His Knights by Howard Pyle
• Home Style Teaching by Raymond and Dorothy Moore
• Next Door Savior by Max Lucado
• Several Magic Schoolbus books, a puzzle book, Read About.... books, dinosaur, bug and snake dictionaries, a couple of Jodi Picoult books for me, and some other odds & ends. This stack is already missing a couple the kids snagged out of it before I took the picture.

Now, this whole stack of books, including the one in the following picture only cost me $24.56. The book in the picture is Munschworks by Robert N. Munsch. If you're familiar with Love You Forever, which is a favorite around here, then you know what a wonderful storyteller he is. Apparently this is the 2nd of 4 books of his collections. Anyway, this book has a retail price on the jacket of $29.95, and sells on Amazon for $16.47. I wouldn't have paid either price for it because, well because, I'm cheap. My husband doesn't call me Mrs. McFrugal for nothing! But when I found it for $2.99 I snatched it up.

I had never seen this magazine before and since I won't pay full price for a magazine that's going to just get tossed or used as fire starter, these were definitely in the budget. They are Mary Engelbreit's Home Companion. At 29 cents each I thought they'd make for good light reading.

Lulu found a puzzle for 59 cents to keep her entertained.

The best thing, in my opinion, that we found, was this game, Gone Birding, for $3.99. I'm sure you know how expensive games are, so I only buy them second hand. Even at $3.99 it was a stretch for me because I'm used to finding them for under $1.00; however, this seemed like a good addition to our nature study. It's a video bird identification game. In summary, the players map out their travel routes on the game board, then watch a video "trip" and try to identify as many birds as they can when the trip is over. There are cards to be played and points to be tallied according to how many birds you identify correctly. It seemed like a unique and fun way to expand our bird study.

The kids were really excited about the next find. It's a large backpack chuck full of playdough tools. Conman was quick to combine these with the ones we already had and start sculpting. This was $4.99, but it was 50% day at that store, so we took it home for $2.50!

We made a stop at the dollar store and picked up a Spiderman puzzle for Conman. It's waiting on the kitchen table for him to work on when he gets up in the morning. I also found some cute rub-on stickers to add to my scrapbooking stash.

Those were our fun finds this week, now we just need to get to reading! Leave a comment and share some of the great buys you came across in the week.

Cheap Finds of the Week

Today on our weekly library trip, I just had to stop back in at the Friends of the Library bookstore. I didn't find anything new and exciting on the shelves, but tucked back in a corner I did find 4 boxes of books waiting to be unpacked! For me that is like discovering a hidden treasure!

I dug through the boxes and came up with some great finds! My total cost today was only $3.25. Just for fun I added up the retail prices on the back of the books and came up with $88.33! And that would have been before tax!

Here's my list of goodies for the kids:

• An Acceptable Time by Madeleine L'Engle
• The Egypt Game by Zilpha Keatley Snyder
• Jo's Boys by Louisa May Alcott
• Rose In Bloom by Louisa May Alcott
• Julie by Jean Craighead George
• Julie's Wolf Pack by Jean Craighead George
• When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit by Judith Kerr
• Eleanor's Story-An American Girl in Hitler's Germany by Eleanor Ramrath Garner
• I Have Lived a Thousand Years-Growing Up in the Holocaust by Livia Bitton-Jackson
• Cut it, Fold it, Glue it-Bible Story Paper Crafts-This is a reproducible that has patterns for bible crafts. Great to have them in one spot rather then searching the net.

And for me:

• Peace Like a River by Leif Enger
• The Gathering by Anne Enright
• Gap Creek by Robert Morgan

My next stop today was a thrift store with my mother-in-law. Here I found a few items:

The books were a total of $1.86. Again, I added up the retail prices on them-$43.30. The Pit game was $1.00. It's an older version, but if you've ever played it, you know how much fun it is!

• The Journals of Lewis & Clark by Frank Bergon (This one Blakester picked out for himself) Love it!!
• A Child's Garden of Verses Coloring Book A Dover coloring book for Conman
• Counting is for the Birds by Frank Mazzola, Jr.
  
• Manners by Aliki
• Rain Forests by Anna O'Mara

So my cheap finds for the week added up to $6.11. Full retail price would have been $131.63 not including the game. Not bad for a little digging!

Why so many books, you might ask? I have a life-long love of books and reading. Curling up with a good book is what I would rather do than anything else. My husband and I wanted to build up a home library that our children would be able to use regularly. So when I find something good, I just can't resist! We still use the local library for some reference or short readers, but want to be able to go to our own shelves for first choice.

By the way, I've finished "Before Green Gables" and have started on "Anne of Green Gables". More on that tomorrow...

More Cheap Finds....

While we were at the library yesterday, I found these books at the Friends of the Library bookstore:

Now, I know they appear to be old & ratty; the inside & outside covers have been written on in some places and the covers are frayed. But that's ok. They are well-worn, well-read classics bound in red cloth published in 1937 by Spencer Press. "The Last of the Mohicans", "The Count of Monte Cristo", "The Hunchback of Notre Dame", "The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin", and "Ben Hur". I like to think they might have been part of someone's well-loved library.

There's something about an older book that appeals to me. In this case, not only was it the look, but also the price. For only 50 cents a piece I was able to add these to my library. I was rather excited!

I also picked up some children's books for a quarter a piece:
The Moffats by Eleanor Estes
Esio Trot by Roald Dahl
My Apron Book by Eric Carle

More later....

Cheap Finds

I was so glad to see the sun out today!

We had to take a break this morning from school to run a few errands and I decided to stop at a favorite thrift store of mine. Usually I visit this store on Tuesdays, because everything is 50% off. But I was in the area today, so why not? I was happy I did because we found a few treasures.

I found three interactive poster sets. They are the history of flight, the dinosaur era and dinosaur giants. The sets include the poster, 20 reusable stickers and a teacher's guide. These were marked with a retail sticker of $7.95, but I paid only....are you ready for this.....29 cents each!





I bought this Hexed logic puzzle game. 49 cents. Thought it might be a good workbox item.

I picked up this Children Around the World poster set. There were supposed to be 16 posters, but it only had 8 in it. I have some workbooks & flashcards that I can use with these for a children around the world study. This was 99 cents.

This next one might very well become a favorite of mine. It is Teacher Tested Timesavers, a workbook filled with reproducible forms. I skimmed through it and found so far: award pages, bookmarks, subject banners, story starters, checklists, blank calendars, month banners, game board sheets, word lists and planning forms. I'm going to look through it more tonight. This had a retail sticker tag on it for 99 cents and I paid 29 cents.

For crafting, we found a bag containing 220 small googly eyes for 29 cents. Lulu picked out a bag of fabric scraps for quilting for a dollar.

I always find a few books to bring home. Today I found:

"Feelings" by Aliki

"What Time Is It? A Book Of Math Riddles " by Sheila Keenan

"The Cloud Book" and "The Mysterious Giant of Barletta" by Tomie de Paola

"Maggie and the Pirate" by Ezra Jack Keats

"What Am I Made Of?" by David Bennett

"The Crayon Counting Book" by Pam Munoz Ryan

"Counting on the Woods" by George Ella Lyon

Pilgrim's First Thanksgiving by Ann McGovern

"Where's Gomer? " by Norma Farber

These were all 29 cents each!

I also picked up a couple magazines for the kids to cut up to make a large food pyramid and a book for myself.

Can you tell I love a good deal? Homeschooling can become expensive if you let it. I'm always on the lookout for something inexpensive to add to my supplies. So I'll post a "cheap finds" section when I find some good deals!