Fabulous Friday

What better way to spend my Friday making some EASY; CUTE; CHEAP decor for my staircase? Ben is away for field training, so I have challenged myself to do a project a day while he's gone. So this is my third project, I have 9 more days left!

Ben got a rustic Auburn sign from his AWESOME wife for Valentine's Day! :) So I hung it up on the stair case in the middle and began brainstorming and this is what I cam up with!

What you'll need: 

4 equal cuts of wood (I used 10x12 (About 1.5 inches thick) from Home Depot 8.94$ a board)

Modge Podge 

Sand Paper 

Pictures (I used 4x6)

Wood Stain (I used MiniWax Dark Walnut)

Foam Brush (I ALWAYS have some of these on hand) 

Step One: Sand the Wood

I gave the wood a rough sand, and a good hard sand around the edges to make them look rounded and more worn.

Step 2: Stain the wood

I painted a layer of water, then stain, then rubbed it off really quickly to make it look older.

Step 3: Let Dry (AT LEAST 3 HOURS)

Technically it recommends 24 hours, but since I put such a thin coat on, in 3 the stain was dry.

Step 4: Place photos on the board with a little MP on the back, then a very thin layer over top of the photos to seal them

Don't freak about the white color, it will dry clear! 

Step 5: Let the MP dry! I waited about 3 more hours, and this was the result! 

See! All clear! Here are all 4 I did! 

Since I live in Military Housing, the fewer nail holes, the better for us. So I opted to use Command Strips, for items that weigh 5 pounds. They worked perfectly! 

Easy fun project!!! 

Enjoy your Friday :)

7 Easy Crockpot Dinners Under 70$

I love my Crockpot! If you don't have one, I highly suggest you invest in one! I also love saving money on groceries. I looked online and through Pinterest, then decided on 7 recipes to try this past week! I was VERY frugal when I went to the grocery store, I stuck to a tight budget of 70$. Most of these recipes were big enough to save leftovers for Ben and I's lunch the next day.

Recipe #1: Sweet and Spicy Meatballs

Ingredients:

Large Bag of Italian Meatballs (Costco) 9.99$ 

**I bought the meatballs in bulk because I wanted to use them for several different recipes in the end I used the meatballs for 5 different meals which comes to about 3.80$ a meal**

16oz Grape Jelly (Kroger) 1.49$

Bottle of Chili Sauce (Walmart) 2.75$

Large 10lb bag of rice (Walmart) 3.89$

**This is enough for 2 batches of Sweet and Spicy Meatballs**

Instructions: 

Fill the bottom of the Crockpot with meatballs, still frozen.

Empty half of the grape jelly and chili sauce on top of the meatballs.

Cook on high for 2.5 to 3 hours (Stirring occasionally)

Serve on a bed of rice.

**Alternative I have used before is using lettuce to make wraps**

Recipe #2: Beer and Hot Sauce Crockpot wings

Ingredients:

Bottle of Hot Sauce (Walmart) 1.09$

**Only used half the bottle**

1/2 cup of butter (Had in fridge)

1 Beer (Had in fridge)

**Can substitute one can of chicken stock which in under 1$ at Walmart**

Chicken Wings 4.92$

**I originally planned to use drum sticks, but I went with what was on sale**

Instructions:

On stove top melt butter in with hot sauce.

Slowly stir in can of beer.

Add chicken wings to Crockpot and pour about 75% of sauce over the wings.

Cook on low for 5 to 6 hours.

Remove from Crockpot and place wings on a pan and turn on the broiler on the oven.

Pour remaining sauce on wings and broil for 3 to 4 minutes to crisp them up.

I served this with rice on game day, my husband and his friends loved it!

Recipe #3: Orange Chicken 

Ingredients:

One pack of Chicken (Costco) 24.93$

**Buy meat in BULK! It will save you so much money. I had a 6$ off coupon from the original total of 30.93$ The Costco chicken breast packs come in easy to separate packages, so I freeze what I don't need**

3/4 Cup BBQ Sauce (Costco)  2.50$

**Bought a 2 for 5$ deal at Costco, BBQ is an easy and cheap way to spice up chicken or pork**

3/4 Cup Orange Marmalade (Walmart) 1.99$

2 tbsp Soy Sauce (Had in pantry)

Instructions: 

Cook the chicken in the Crockpot for 2.5 hours on high.

Drain the juice from the Crockpot

Mix the marmalade, BBQ, and soy sauce together and pour over chicken.

Cook on high for an additional 30 minutes.

 Serve with rice and broccoli (bought a HUGE bag from Costco for 4.97$)

Recipe #4: Asian Meatballs 

Ingredients:

1 Cup BBQ Sauce (Previously used)

1/2 Cup Hoison Sauce (Kroger) 2.49$

Meatballs (Previously used)

**This is enough for 2 batches of Asian Meatballs**

Instructions:

Place frozen meatballs to cover bottom of Crockpot.

Pour BBQ and Hoison over meatballs.

Cook for 2.5 to 3 hours on High.

Serve over rice

**Could also serve with lettuce wraps**

Recipe #5: Beef and Broccoli 

**This was my "Splurge Meal"**

Ingredients: 

Beef Chuck Steak (Kroger) 4.92$

Half of a white onion (Kroger) 1.00$

1/3 Cup Brown Sugar (Had in Pantry)

1 tbsp Mirin (Had in Pantry)

3 tbsp of garlic (Had in Pantry)

2 tbsp of Cornstarch (Had in pantry)

1 cup beef broth (I already had chicken broth so I used that instead)

2 cups of broccoli (previously used)

Instructions:

Cup the beef chuck into thin strips and dice half of white onion.

Mix together everything, but the cornstarch in a bowl and pour over beef and onion.

Cook on low for 6 hours.

Laddle out 1 cup of broth from the Crockpot and mix in cornstarch.

Add the mixture and broccoli back to Crockpot and cook for an additional 30 minutes.

Serve over rice.

Recipe #6: Buffalo Ranch Meatballs 

Ingredients:

1/2 Bottle of Hot Sauce (Left over)

4 tbsp of dry Ranch (Walmart) 2.99$

**Ranch seasoning is a must have**

Meatballs (Previously used)

Instructions:

Cook meatballs in Crockpot for 1.5 hours.

Over the stove combine hot sauce and ranch, whisk together.

Pour hot sauce over meatballs and cook for another 1.5 hours.

Serve with broccoli. 

Recipe #7: Asian BBQ Chicken 

Ingredients:

Chicken Breast Pack (From Costco pack)

1 1/2 cup of BBQ (Leftover)

1/2 Jar of Hoison Sauce (Leftover)

Instructions:

Cook chicken in Crockpot for 2.5 hours on High.

Drain Juices and pour sauce over the chicken.

Cook for another hour on High.

Serve with rice and broccoli

Grocery FINAL total: 69.93$

A weeks worth of dinner with minimal effort and a great budget! 

Trash into Treasure

There's only two pieces of furniture I always buy new; couches and mattresses. I am a firm believer that new furniture is a load of CRAP! The minute you buy something from the shelf it immediately looses value. There is no way you will ever resell your particle board Target dresser for the 400$ you purchased it for. Speaking of....particle board....probably one of the things I hate the most, but it's really hard to avoid. It really irks me that furniture is so expensive, then on top of that it's made of particle board. EVERYONE is guilty of it, Walmart, Target, and YES even Pottery Barn. So, what is the solution may you ask? BUY used! 

Why is buying used better? While it might be time consuming it is SO worth it! Older pieces of furniture have so much more character that you just can't find in brand new furniture. Plus, this is how I have "me" time. It relieves stress and I really enjoy painting! Where to find pieces? I get so many of my pieces from other PCSing Military families and Craigslist. Secondhand shops are just as useful.

Recently I've used 3 different techniques to refurbish 3 different pieces to mimic more expensive furniture. Each technique requires a little work, but I promise the results are amazing!! AND money saving! Which I like! 

Project #1: My dining room table

(Side note: I AM OBSESSED WITH JOSS AND MAIN! GET ON THAT SITE FOR GREAT IDEAS!) 

I wanted my table to look this style

This is a Wakefield dining set that sells for nearly 1,600$

OBVIOUSLY way out of my price range, so I bought this

For 60$ off Craigslist, I got a SOLID oak table with 6 chairs and a leaf. I opted to take the leaf out and only use 4 of my chairs, because my dining space is very small. So far I have only done the 4 chairs, crafting and being a mom is a hard job.

So now the challenge of how to get the look! I searched online for the perfect tutorial and honestly, I couldn't find one, so I kind of made up my only and used several different tutorials to get the look I wanted. Here's two ladies that really helped:

Thrifty and Chic

Cherished Bliss

Materials I used:

80 grit Sandpaper (5$ for sheet pack)

120 grit Sandpaper (5$ for sheet pack)
Steel Wool (4$ for 6 pack)
Cheap White Spray Paint (Use the project kind from Lowe's it's only 2$ a can)
MiniWax woodstain in Dark Walnut (9$ A little goes a long way and will last for multiple projects)

Step one: Use both sandpapers and give the chairs a rough sand.

Step two: Spray paint the chairs white, doesn't have to be covered thoroughly

Step three: It is very important you let the spray painted chairs dry for 24 hours
Step Four: Take the steel wool and rough up the chair, make sure there are spots where the wood base is showing through

Step Five: Clean the chairs off, make sure there is no dust or residue left on the chairs. 

Step six: Take a brush and paint stain over parts of the chair, every 4 or so strokes, take a towel and wipe away the stain. Repeat this process until the chair is completely covered in stain, making sure the completely wipe off all residue. 

Step seven: Let the chairs dry for 48 hours

Here's my outcome. In total the project cost me roughly 85$ and about a week of my time. 

Project #2: Our bedroom dresser

Our bedroom is teal and burlap, I am slightly obsessed with teal. I was shopping online and on Pulaski I found this amazing vintage dark teal dresser! For 420$ 

So I bought a 100$ vintage dresser from a family here on post who was moving down to Georgia. I opted to buy a pint of paint in Sherman Williams Costal Wave because I wanted to keep the paint to do more projects. I spent 15$ on the paint and I already had primer and sand paper on hand. I purchased new handles for about 1.79$ each. This is the end result 

This cost me probably 140$ in total! 

Project #3 My dining room hutch, I am so happy with how this turned out! I will share a seriously CRAZY technique I used! 

Pottery Barn has these beautiful country white "distressed" hutches for about 1,200$. This wasn't in my budget or in my color scheme. I wanted something bright, since all post housing is plain and painting the walls isn't really in my plans. So I decided on a mustardy yellow spray paint I found on clearance in Lowe's. I bought the hutch on Craigslist for 100$. The final product was AMAZING! And yes, this is particle board, but you would never guess that. 

The key to redoing particle board is primer. The spray paint I bought said paint plus primer, but I decided to paint white primer over the hutch anyways and it worked really well. I then did two really good coats of spray paint, I let the first coat dry for 8 hours and the second coat dry for about 24 hours. 

You don't have to distress furniture, but I really enjoy the look and it fits into what I am doing in the dining room, style wise. 

This technique almost makes the hutch look like I used chalk paint, but I didn't! 

Step one: Take sandpaper or a sander and randomly sand spots of the dresser down to the wood or particle board. 

Step two: Wipe all the spots clean of dust and debris

Step three: Dip a q-tip in stain (I used MiniWax Stain in Dark Walnut) and rubbed stain into each of the random spots only where the wood was bare. 

Step four: wipe the stain away and let the stain dry another 24 hours. 

The results are so great and it's so much easier than using chalk paint in my opinion! The whole project cost about 115$ I had most of the materials on hand, but I did buy more antique looking handle for the hutch! 

Feel free to email me with any questions and remember UP-CYCLE!

Blakelee

Baby Bumpkins!

Well hello there! It has been quite a long time since I posted, but between PCSing to Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio TX to getting ready to OCS to Fort Richardson in Alaska, I have been one busy momma bee! I'm happy to say that I am back, and posting a whole lot more content!

Today's post is going to contain 2 fun activities! One that is an everyday and one that is a fun fall activity!

#1 DIY EDIBLE FINGER PAINT 

My daughter, Boston, is working on developing her hand motions, so I thought finger paint would be super fun, plus she's attracted to bright colors. Most moms would agree that finding a "baby safe" finger paint in stores is nearly impossible, so I resorted to making my own! Here's how I did it and spent less than 6$!

Step one: Buy your ingredients! 2 large tubs of plain yogurt 2.40$ each and Kool-Aid (you can pick and choose your colors) 

Step two: Blend the yogurt and Kool-Aid! I used one cup of yogurt and I poured little by little of the Kool-Aid powder until I got the color I wanted!

Step Three: Let your kiddos enjoy! I recommend putting them outside, but if you're brave then inside would do just fine! I just a dab of each on some paper for my daughter and she loved it! Her little friend AJ tasted it and didn't like the taste so much, so I wouldn't be too worried about them eating it, it's a trial and error type of deal! 

Presto! You have a fun activity for your kids that takes less than 5 minutes, cost less than 6$, and will make some really cool memories for you both! 

#2 BUMPKIN CARD 

Okay, so I totally have to give my good friend Sarah for this idea! This is such a fun activity and makes the sweetest card for daddy and a cute picture for mommy! First you have to work up the courage to paint your baby's bottom like a pumpkin! I used acrylic paint and two sponge like brushes, but I assume any brushes will work. DON'T WORRY the acrylic paint comes off in a few moments with baby wipes and didn't cause any trouble for my daughters skin! 

Take a quick little pic for mommy to embarrass baby with for many years to come! Then you do the CUTEST thing I have EVER seen! I suggest having a friend help you, it's hard to get a good butt print without two sets of hands helping to sit the baby down!

Put your darling baby's butt cheeks on paper! I made this for my husband and he loved it! It's a fun little craft and takes less than 10 minutes! Plus we all got a good laugh out of it! 

Cheap Diaper Alert!!

On March 26th, 2014 at 11:45 am I became the mother of Boston Kay LaFrancois. I had no idea what was in store for me, but I can honestly say this has been the most amazing journey and I'm only one month in!! I thought I had everything figured out about parenting, I thought I knew what to expect, but BOY was I wrong!

I never in a million years really thought about how many diapers I would use, it's starting to burn a whole through my pocket. I HAD to get smarter about buying diapers, so the quest for diaper deals began!

This week I ran into a HUGE sale at Walgreens, which I have found to consistently be the best place for bargains! Everyone's all time favorite Pampers are on sale right now for 2 packs of 42 for 18.99$ which is a great deal! BUT there was an even better deal I found! I'm not too keen on store brands, but I found that the Well Beginnings brand from Walgreens is AWESOME! My little girl has super sensitive skin, so I saw that Well Beginnings diapers are hypoallergenic. So I thought, why not I'll give them a try, and I am SO glad I did. They are so awesome! And get this -- right now at Walgreens they are 5.99$ a pack for 42 diapers!

HOLY COW! They can be purchased online or at the store for this price! Seriously, go out and buy some, stock up, you will not regret it!


Love,
Blakelee

DIY Bows

 

 

Here is the finished product of my latest DIY adventure! I must admit this was way harder than I thought it was going to be, and it took me a very long time to come out with a product I was happy with. I've been wanting to make Boston some bows for while now, I just didn't know how or where to begin. One day I just got bored and decided to go to Hobby Lobby and just GO FOR IT!

 

Materials:

- Ribbon (In Hobby Lobby they have a whole section dedicated to hair bows and headbands and all that jazz. There in a wall of "hair ribbons" in all different colors, so I started with 2 shades of pink, white, orange, navy blue, and red. While you really can use any kind of ribbon, this ribbon really holds a knot well and I recommend using it for toddler and baby bows.)

- Clips (You also have many choices of clips, also found on the same isle in Hobby Lobby. I bought the "alligator mouth" clips for 50 for 3.99$)

- Hot glue gun

- Headbands (If you're making these for a toddler then the headband isn't necessary, but since I am making them for my newborn who won't have hair, headbands are essential.)

 

 

I purchased this 3 pack at Hobby Lobby for 1.99$.

 

 

Step 1: Making the bows.

 

I recommend not trying this unless you have a lot of patience or you're just a bow making queen. I am OBVIOUSLY not a bow making queen. I went through about 10 different tutorials until I found one that was just perfect and easy for me to understand. I am going to provide links for the two tutorials I used most (I hope that isn't cheating).

 

Site 1 This tutorial came in handy because I could try making several different types of bows. I tried tying all of the bows in this tutorial until I found one that I could do the best and was most satisfied with. Some people like BIG bows and some people like little bows, it really just depends on what you want for your child.

 

Site 2 This is a youtube video that really helped me, since I am a visual learner. The bow I used, as a I did further bow research, is commonly called a butterfly bow. 

 

 These are the smaller bows I made.

 

And these are the larger.

 

Step 2: Adding the clip

 

I added clips to mine because I want to be able to change the bows from the headband. I didn't want to waste money and time by just hot gluing the bow to the headband. One, because your infant will most likely out grow the small headband size she we need at first. Two, once she starts growing hair I can use the bows as regular clips.

 

Here is the "alligator mouth" clip I referenced to earlier. I simply glued the clip to the bow.

 

 

TIP: My mom offered a very valid suggestion (which I am in the process of doing) which is to add a small strip of ribbon or felt to the bottom of the clip so the metal doesn't irritate your baby's small head.

 







 Once again the finished product! TADA! I purchased this ribbon hanger at Hobby Lobby for 6.99$ it was less than 5$ after I used my 40% off coupon!

 

Happy Bow Making,

Blakelee

DIY Pom Pom Water Bottles

As you all know I am having my baby shower this upcoming Sunday! My wonderful mother is in charge and has been doing some pretty crafty things, after work tonight I went over to her house and she was making the cutest POM POMs attached to water bottles. I think this craft would be so cute for a baby shower, a birthday party, or any occasion really! The BEST part about this is that it literally takes minutes to make one of these!

So let's start off with the tools you'll need.
- POM POM loom
(These can be purchased at Hobby Lobby, Joann's, and any other craft store alike. They can also be purchased here, on Amazon.)
- Your color choice of yarn

TIP: I will warn you, make sure you purchase the half-moon POM POM makers instead of the donut shaped ones. The donut shaped contraptions require you loop your yarn through a hole each time. With these half moons you just wrap the yarn around the loom.

Step One:
Choose the size POM POM loom you desire to use, then wrap the yarn around until you fill the entire arch of the loom. Pull the yarn tightly to make sure your POM POM is nice and fluffy and full looking.

 

 

Step Two: Cut all the way around with scissors.

 

 

Step Three: Slide a segment of yarn through the arches and tie tightly, then pull to create the POM POM.

 

TIP: Since these were made for tying around little water bottles, I suggest you leave the ends longer on each side to make for easier tying. it's better to have more than less!

 

 

TIP: You will probably need to use scissors to trim the edges of the POM POM to make them more perfect and fluffy!

 

 

Tied around mini water bottles for the shower!

 

 

Credit to my fabulous mother and her best friend Lynda!

 

Craft on, Blakelee!