Ahoy matey!

My little Dallen has been asking me for quite some time to make him a ship map. When asked what on earth that was he replied, "You know Mom, A map of the world that you just, you know cut off from a ship." *blank stare* Ummm ok. Now I find a lot of cool things on the curb here in Cleveland, but a pirate ship? I'm thinking those may be in short supply. So the search started. I needed to find something that would meet all the expectations of a very darling boy's hopes and dreams and still fit in the frugal mommy budget. I scoured craigslist for old maps and about died when I saw what some people wanted for these things! $30-$50 for your spider infested moldy old map. . . . . ummm I think that I will pass. So I started thinking that perhaps I might find something at one of my very favorite places to shop. TJ Maxx. Yep I scored, well sort of. I found this little beauty and fell in love with the way that it looked.

It had great color and character and the size was perfect for his very large, very blank wall. Everything about it was perfect...... Well almost everything. Once again I was looking at a $40 price tag. I know what some of you are thinking. $40 for a piece of art is really good. And you are right it is a great price just not when you are trying to decorate 3 kids rooms' and you are on a limited budget. So once again back to the drawing board. I loved how the TJ Maxx map was mounted on wood and decided if I could find an inexpensive map I could mount it on some of my ever growing pile of pallet wood. So with a plan in mind I set out to the thrift store and antique shops looking for a large map to put to work. Lucky for me there is an amazing antique shop about 30 minutes from me that has EVERYTHING. Now when I say everything I really do mean everything. You could spend an entire 24 hours walking through this place and still not see it all. They have and entire shelf of old maps. Some were more pricy then others but after about 20 minutes of digging through every map that they had and chatting it up with the owner (who is quite possibly the best part of going in the shop) I found the most perfect map. . . . . . for $3!!!!!! (insert singing choir of angels!) Nothing makes this chic giddy like scoring an awesome find for cheap cheap cheap! Now with a plan and all materials in hand it was time to get down and dirty!. Step one: Break down the pallet.

Step two: Sand it all down to make it smooth like Buttah. This is important because I'm going to be using mod podge to adhere the map and I need a smooth clean surface. Step Three: Connect all the boards together. I did this simply by using two pieces of wood on the ends and nailed the larger pieces to them. Step four: Ageing the map The one I fell in love with at TJ Maxx had so much character. The one I bought was very glossy and generic. So I tore the edges up and hit the whole thing with sanding and heat.

step Five: Mount the map. Once I had my map looking all old and loved I painted the pallet wood with mod podge. Doing one slat at a time and starting at the top I painted the board and then pressed the map down and smoothed it out. Not too much though. I wanted there to be some wrinkling and warping so that it looked like it had been on a lifetime of voyages ;) Step six: Hang um! I used a picture hanging kit that I found at Lowes for $3 and attached it to my new "ship map" I simply love how this turned out and best of all it cost me a whopping $6! Lets do the math shall we? TJ Maxx map $40 not including tax. My map $3 for the map $0 for the wood $.50 worth of mod podge $3 for a picture hanging kit. Grand total $6.50 That's a difference of $33.50!! (Fist Pump) Whoot! Whoot! Yep this is a total frugal Mom win!

Sorry I didn't take pictures of all the steps but it is really pretty simple and probably self explanatory. I'm just so happy with how it turned out and that I still have plenty left in the budget to do the other projects in his room!

Dancing Darling

There are so many wonderful things about being a mom. One of those is knowing that after the dance recital the chances that I will have to listen to "Let it Go" from Frozen is pretty much slim to none. Mostly because I will BAN it from our playlist for at least 6 months! Having said that our darling Gabby girl did an amazing job at her recital on Saturday. One of my dear friends little sister has been teaching a class for the last few months. It has been the one thing that Gabby has looked forward to doing every Thursday. The 2 dances that their teacher choreographed were absolutely darling. I was so proud of how well Gabby did. She practiced so hard everyday and it really paid off (EVERY DAY I LISTENED TO THAT SONG!) She invited all of her school teachers and hoped that at least one would come. Gabby and her sweet friend prayed that their teacher would come, and guess what? One did! I thought that was so amazing that she would support the girls that way. She cheered and took pictures and helped to make this such a special day for the girls. We are looking forward to Gabby being able to hopefully take dance again this summer. She has really loved it and we are seeing her cute personality come out! Bonus they will be dancing to "Fresh Prince of Belair" ...................EPIC!! I mean seriously how much cooler can it get!?

Updated Photos ........ as promised!

I will be the first to admit that I am horrible at taking pictures. I never remember to bring a camera and when I do I usually forget that I have brought it until it is too late. I've been telling myself for months now that when the weather is nice I will do it. Well the weather was nice for all of one day so I scooped up the camera, loaded some not very happy children into my car and told the hubby to drive! We have a really pretty cemetery close to our house that I wanted to go to. Oh come on, I know what you are saying. "A cemetery? Really Tye?" My response to this would be..... are you really all that shocked? I mean honestly? This place is more of a park then anything and there are some really beautiful areas. Now I may or may not have had my children pose by a building that there were coffins .............. ummmmmmm yeah. But hey the pictures turned out nice I think and I promise that no ones "rest" was disturbed. OK OK gees stop rolling your eyes now and just be impressed that I posted these pictures in the same month that I took them. Small victories people!

Glorious garbage everywhere, as far as the eye can see!

I have quickly discovered that one of my favorite things about living in Ohio is how wasteful people are. I'm not kidding people throw away everything! Much to my husbands dismay I go and collect it all and bring it home. Ok so this sounds worse then it really is. Maybe I should note a few specifics. I have a list of wants. I'm perfectly aware of how odd this also sounds. Yes, I really do have a list of things that I hope people throw away and on trash day I shamelessly drive the neighborhoods going shopping. I stick to my list and only pick things that require minimal fixing or that can be easily disassembled to be used as something else. I only do a few projects at a time so my garage doesn't get too scary! It is my FAVORITE! I love garbage day! I have collected some of the best stuff and refinished it. I'm not going to lie, my curbside shopping treasures have become my all time favorite things in my home! Don't believe me ? Check out some of this fun stuff I've found and used! People keep telling me that I need to do tutorials on this..... That's work people. And not the fun kind. Maybe some day I will take the time to do step by step pictures and then sit down and write cute little how to's for each of them. Today isn't that day! For now here are some pictures of my most recent finds. I'm loving the potting bench which was frankensteined from a couple of different finds. It is made up of and old door, table legs and shipping pallets. The hardware is new from Hobby Lobby. Face it I'm always looking for a good reason to go to Hobby Lobby! The Headboard just need some sanding and painting. The lamp sadly was missing a cord and a shade :( Not to worry though. One $20 trip to Lowes fixed me up with both and 15 minutes of threading a cord through the base gave me a fantastic lamp that I simply painted to match my décor! My garage has just a few more things that are awaiting my attention before I can go out shopping again;)

Bring on Soccer!

It's spring time so that means that soccer is in full swing and I just said goodbye to my nice calm life....... ha ha ha. Calm life! Well I did think that if I said it enough times it may come true. The Boys LOVE playing soccer and have great coaches! We are loving the league that we are in and have had so much fun going to watch them play. Here are a few pictures from their most recent games. I'm so proud of all the effort that they put in when they are on the field. Gabby's dance recital is coming up this weekend so stay tuned for more cute then you can possibly handle!

Easter in Ohio

This year Easter was really low key for us, which is a first. Normally we are surrounded by friends and family doing big Easter Egg hunts and dinners. We decided to go the simple route this year. I'll be honest it has been one of my all time favorites! Spending time with Brian and the kids has been something that I realized that I take for granted sometimes. I'm glad that I have a sweet husband who helps to remind me how doing things simple and just with us can be the best of all worlds. I was grateful for the ease of this holiday so that we could remember what it is really about..... and not the answer is not chocolate bunnies. :) Here are some pictures of the kids doing our egg hunt. As soon as I find my camera cord I will post the pictures of them in their Easter clothes.

Been a while now!

So rather then going into a huge explanation about how blogging is not my thing, I'm just going to jump in as if no time has passed and you all know what has been going on since we moved cross country and stopped keeping in touch on a regular basis...... I am perfectly aware how horrible we are at this. Sorry..... it probably wont change :/ Moving on. We just wrapped up spring break and are now in full swing of spring soccer. I giggle as I say this seeing as how most of our practices have been canceled because of SNOW. Despite that we are loving living in Cleveland. We went to some of our favorite places for spring break and shared it with some of our favorite people. Our last of fun filled activities ranged from going to the thrift shop and the kids doing a lip sync performance for Bri, to going to the Zoo and Natural History Museum. For my sanity we had to throw in the West Side Market so I could indulge in yummy food and cooking therapy with all the kids home. Hey a Mom has to have her fun too. Here are a few pictures just so you can see how much we have all changed. Love and miss you all. I would promise to keep this updated more regularly but we all know that is a hollow promise! :)