Has it really been that long?

It  REALLY has! 

I had someone come up to me the other day and asked why I haven't updated my blog and if I am still doing my project.  The answer to the first one is...I am seriously SO busy and with doing this project I'm even MORE busy, digging through thrift shops for that perfect gift, clothes for my kids, and household items that we need, or I'm hand-making the gifts which take A LOT more time then running to the Mart and picking something up.  So you see something has to give and I'm NOT willing to let it be my family or my house so (sigh) it's my blog.  PLUS I still don't have a camera and so that makes for BORING posts.  But YES I am still doing my project!  Can you believe it?  I've almost made it half way!  HOORAY for me!  I'd lie if I said that it's not starting to give me anxiety though, especially with Christmas looming around the corner.  CHRISTMAS!!!  What was I thinking?  It will be good though.  I honestly almost have my kiddos done with already except for my 6 year old who has informed me that he wants one of these...

Spy Gear Spy Video TRAKR

Any of you have one of these in mint condition that you want to sale me?  I'd LOVE you forever, and ever! :) 

So sorry about the LOOOOOOOONG absent I'll try and do better.  Hopefully I'll get a camera soon and can show you my fun second-hand finds that I got for my 30th birthday.  Nothing big but I am excited about them! LOVES!

School Clothes and Hand-me-downs

Little Miss J started Pre-School and she is looking pretty darn cute in her second-hand finds.

Shirt: $3 (Old Navy)

Skirt: $4 (Old Navy)

Shoes: Free (Carters)

Back Pack: $3 (Osh Gosh)-this was purchased a year ago before my project at the store.  Great Deal though!

 

These are the cutest shoes! Miss J loves them and now wants to wear them with everything.  They were a hand-me-down from her cousin.

  

Her pile of school clothes either purchased second-hand or hand-me-downs.  That is probably $20 spent.  AWESOME! Yes?  YES!

 

This outfit cost me .20 cents.  it is really cute with her black boots that she got from her cousin who  grew out of them.  LOVE HAND-ME-DOWNS!

I really, really do love hand-me-downs!  They are absolutely the best and one of the many benefits of coming from a large family.  I have 2 brothers and 4 sisters. :)  I'm the 5th child and so I have plenty of nieces and nephews that are older then my kids, and my Sisters are more then generous when passing the 'grown out of' clothes down to my kiddos. I lucked out!

Here are a few more of my favorite hand-me-downs that I recently got....

Cutest coat (Old Navy)! Love the faux fur around the hood.

Cutest little preppy outfit (GAP), perfect for school!

Saturday I didn't go Yard Selling but I still seemed to come home with a car full of stuff.  HAND-ME-DOWNS!  :)

Thanks Jen and Angie for dressing my kids and for having such great taste in clothes!!!  Love YOU!!!

Getting Our Thrift On.

Last week I took one of the girls in my ward to a Local Thrift Shop to show her how inexpensive and awesome Thrift Shopping can be.  She is a poor college student and was complaining that she needed new clothes (mostly shirts) but had no money.  Well this is what we found.  She didn't buy all these but I made her pose for a picture in them all anyways.  She was SUPER thrilled. :)

She did NOT buy this one. I love how she is so happy about me taking her picture. LOL!

She bought this one.

She also bought this one. 

No not this one.

This one was my favorite!  The green looked so good on her and love the style of it.

This one had a really cute tie that went around the waist, but it wasn't her 'style'.  She didn't get it.

This one fit funny so she didn't get it either.

So she got 3 shirts for $16.00.  Which actually was kinda pricey for Thrift Shopping, but still a LOT LESS expensive then her shopping spree in the mall the week before.  The shirt she wore to go shopping with me cost her $20. 

What do you think about Thrift Store 'Clothes' Shopping?

Weekend Finds!

Are you ready for this?  Brace yourself!  I left the house with $25 and this is what I came home with...

Books!  Awesome, awesome books.  I'm a huge sucker when it comes to books.  I actually got 4 other ones also that are not in this picture.  The ones in the pictures are so great for beginner readers and readers transitioning into chapter books.  Love them! 

Books in picture cost...$.00.  Other 4 books cost $1 for the 4.

 

Little Miss J got hooked up with this adorable little chair.  The kids both did reading this past Summer but we never made it to the Library to turn in their charts and get ptizes so this is what she got for her reading prices.  Guess how much it cost me? $0 :)

3 pairs of Old Navy shorts for Mister C to add to his pile of school clothes.  He loves that they have the stretchy waist.  Happy kid=Happy Mom.  These were also FREE.

Big stack of plan white legal size paper.  For what you ask? Art projects...lots and lots of art projects. :) My kiddos are constantly coming and getting paper from our printer.  Now they have their own little pile to use.

Paper-$1 for the whole pile

 

I picked up a pack of 6 baby bibs (not the baby)!  Thay are brand spanking new, and where muchly needed.  My old ones had been through 2 kids...you can imagine.
Bibs-$2 for 6

Mister C learned to ride his bike without training wheels this summer and has been living on his bike ever since.  Saddly he was still cruising around on this bike (pictured above) that he got when he was 2 1/2.  He is now six and tall for his age.  It was time for a new bike. :)  I'd been looking for the past month on KSL but hadn't found anything in our price range that was close enough to drive and pick-up.  So I made it a goal to find one Yard Selling last Saturday.  But was striking out left and right. :(  Then my sweet friend called and said that they were just going to take a load to DI and if I wanted anything to come back and take it...FOR FREEEEEEEEE.  Oh, and guess what they had......a BIKE! :)

This bike!  Isn't so cute.  I love that it's a little beach cruiser.  So cute! This was his prize for the reading he did for the summer.  Mister C was beyond happy!  It doesn'e end there though.  I sent the HH to a Yard Sale to check-out a set of Kid golf clubs and the bag to go with it.  He bought the golf Clubs and this bike.....

So now Mister C has really thought that he has died and gone to heaven. :)  This one is bigger though and still a little hard for him to ride.  He can grow into that one, and now we'll have back up for when he has friends over.   The cruiser bike is perfect for him right now though. 

Cruiser Bike- FREE

Huffy Bike-$10

Kid Golf Club Set w/ Bag-$10

Snow clothes-FREE

Tricycle for Mister E-FREE

Cute little Princess Pens.  These are going to be GREAT for gifts.

Pens-$2 for 5

Brown Leather Chest-FREE

As you can see I pretty much got HOOKED-UP by my friend with the trailer full of stuff she was taking to DI. I am not against hand-me-downs. :)  Everything that was FREE came from her.  Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!!!

Back to School

My big boy Mister C started the 1st grade today!  Are you kidding me!  He was so excited to say the least.  he has been bouncing off my walls for 2 days now.  I've had an ache in my chest for a week straight thinking about him going to ALL day school.  Saddness!!  he told me last night that I have to stop "Boo-hooing" over him going to First Grade. LOL.  So I put on my happy face this morning and sent him off to hid first ALL day of school!

Like his outfit?  Paid $10 for the whole thing including the shoes!

Old Navy shirt: $2.49

White undershirt: .25 cents

Children's Place shorts: $3 

Old Navy Flip-flops: $5  

*I actually got the shoes at the beginning of the summer, before my project.  Still a great price though.

Shirt and shorts from local thrift shop.

He's in HEAVEN sitting by two of his best buds!I go yard Selling with one of these little boys Mom and I know she got some AWE-SOME deals on his school clothes too.

  Mister C didn't need a whole lot when it comes to clothes.  He did need pants though and I struck gold! The most I spent on a pair for him was $7 for a  pair of gap pants in excellent shape and so cute!

 2 pair of socks for .75 for the pair. :)  Not second-hand...put can't get much cheaper then that.

 A few xhirts I picked up at Yard Sales.  I didn't pay more then .50 on anyone of them.

 The gap pants that I scored on.  below are some Old Navy pants that look brand-new paid $5. LOVE!

Cute little Old Navy athletic outfit that I paid $1 for! :)

DC shoes that I got for .25 cents.  I almost felt guilty!  Mister C loves them.

I hardly spent anything on school clothes this year it was so great!  Mister C is loving all this stuff and is still young enough to think it's cool for his Mom to buy his clothes second-hand.  he actually kinda brags about it.  He'll say, "My Mom got this at a Yard Sale for a quarter" like it's the coolest thing ever. LOL.  Actually it is the coolest thing ever! :)  

Miss J starts pre-school on September 8th.  Wait until you see the school clothes I got for her...A-DOR-A-BLE!!!!! 

Compliments...I heart them!

I recieved this comment on my Facebook page yesterday.

"hey heather, i have to tell you that i really admire your talents :) i went to DI yesterday, and was so overwhelmed, all i kept thinking was "what would heather find?..." it's not as easy as it looks ;)"

I loved getting that and to know that my little blog is actually helping people and that they think I'm talented. ;)  I get this question a lot, "How do you find anything in those places?"  I just love the hunt of the treasure I suppose, and a trained eye I guess.  The more you go the easier it is to spot those great finds.  It's hardly ever a quick trip though, but I LOVE IT. 

Also I'm guest posting over at Diligent Joy which is a HUGE compliment that she asked me to.  her blog is so great and she gives little tidbits from her life and how she finds joy.  You'll want to check it out for sure!

P.S.  Sorry I've been so laaaaaame on the posts lately, I have so many posts on my 'to-do' list but they'll have to wait.  School starts on Monday and I need to take advantage of my kiddos being home. Oh yeah, and read  "The Help" I just got my hot little hands on it last night and can't wait to devour it.

 

Park City Adventure...

I went with my in-laws for a girls weekend up in Park City and of course we had to hit us up some Yard Sales.  It was A LOT of fun.  We took a 12 passenger van so we could all ride together and fit our awesome finds in it. 

On the way up to Park City we hit up a couple of Yard Sales and I got some great stuff.  My favorite find is a brand new toaster oven for $10! Score!  Ours recently broke so this was an AWESOME find for me.  I also got a couple gifts, a crossword puzzle book (for the HH's grandpa who loves crosswords) and a coin counter bank, each for .25  cents and each are brand new!  25 cents for a present, YES please!   My sister-in-laws got some books, a 5 disc CD player, a fishing pole, a SUPER CUTE old chalk board that I am kinda coveting ;), a soccer ball, to just list a few. 

Saturday morning we ended up not getting out until about 9:30am to the Park City Yard Sales and if you Yard Sale then you know that that is about 2 1/2 hours too late.  But we stayed up really late talking the night before so we opted for a late start.  We still got some fun things though.  Most of us left with a pair of shoes either for ourselves or a family member.  I got some really cute sweater boots for $5!!! I also got some cute clothes for my Miss J and a cute bear hat for Mister E.  It was really fun!  I love that no matter where you go you can find a Yard Sale.  AWESOME! 

We hit the outlets after that and guess what?  I stayed strong and didn't buy anything but 6 pairs of socks (which are on my list of things I can buy new) for Mister C and Miss J for school.  But I got all 6 pair for a total of  $1.50.  Now that 's THRIFTY! :)  It was a blast!  Thanks ladies for the good time, great shopping, and even better conversation.  I loved it SO MUCH!!!

I know that these pictures don't do all of our stuff justice.  It kinda just looks like a bunch of junk in the back of a van.  But there are some TREASURES in there!

The girls!  Love them!!!

We LOVED our 12 passenger van!