Why I love being Thrifty

Over Christmas one of my brothers made the comment that I was 'thrifty'.  He meant it as a compliment because I do my best to find the best deal possible but it would be easy to take it the wrong way because there's often a stigma attached to people who seek out lower prices as  being cheap.   In my view there's a huge difference between being cheap (spending as little as possible and sacrificing quality to do so) and being thrifty.  Don't get me wrong, as you know I'm all for picking things up at the dollar store, especially when there's little to no difference in the quality of a product when you buy it for four times as much somewhere else OR when the quality itself makes little to no difference! 
If I really step back and look at why this is important to me, the most fundamental reason is because when my son was born I became a stay-at-home-mom who was completely dependent on DH to support us.  Out of respect for how hard he works to give us a beautiful life, I do my best to not waste the money he earns but I also don't want to feel like I can't buy something because I didn't earn the money myself.  From those two competing forces was born a deep-seated need to get things at the lowest prices possible.

At this point I'm completely addicted to being thrifty.  It's really like gambling in the sense that you sometimes stumble upon something that makes you feel like you hit the jackpot and then you want to keep searching for the next unbelievable find.

I'll give you a couple examples, in the last month (or so) I've picked up the following items.  Most of the pictures are close approximations to give you a visual and aren't the 'actual' ones I bought:

A black Hogan purse (retails $600-$1000) - I bought it for $35 at a consignment store.  Looks similar to this Chloe Heloise but it has a little less detail on the body of the bag:

(Re)decorating the kids rooms: Avery's room

We moved into our house in January of 2010 and have done very little decorating other than paint.  But painting was necessary because the previous owners, for some reason, thought it was a good idea to paint the ceilings the same colour as the walls in every room.  Don't get me wrong, I've seen painted ceilings and they can look beautiful, but ours did NOT fall into that category because every room was a different colour (hunter green, maroon, navy blue, fairy purple, Pepto Bismol-ey taupe) and they'd completed the 'look' with carpet to match.  Avery's room was the exception upstairs with a light coloured wood laminate floor.  I'm not sure why her room alone had laminate when all the rest were carpeted, but hers was the fairy purple room so I'm not sure if there was much reason in any of their rhymes.

Avery's room still isn't finished, I need to sew a slip cover for her chair, I would eventually like to re-paint her bookshelf and there are odds and ends to add, but it's much better than how it looked at the beginning of December.

Before Avery was born I found this fabric at Designer Fabrics on Queen St. W in Toronto.  I fell in love with the sweet nursery rhyme feel of the graphics, the neutral background and pops of colour and it became the foundation of the design in her room. 

Sorry for the wrinkles!  This is her crib blanket and she uses it every night.

I used the fabric to sew her crib (set bumper pads, blanket & cushions) and I've tried to mimic the neutral background and pops of colour throughout the room while keeping the nursery rhyme theme without being too literal about it.

You'll probably be surprised at where I've sourced many of the pieces.  Over the holidays my brother described me as very 'thrifty', which is true.  I'm not too proud to buy second hand.  I know how hard DH works for the lifestyle we have and I try to honour his hard work by not wasting money if I can find great (less expensive) options.

Here's a walk around her room...
 
When you first enter, there's a built-in & reading nook.  A comfortable chair with a place to put up my feet was a must for this space, when Avery was born I spent a ton of time feeding and holding her in her bedroom.  Now we read stories here every night before bed.  I bought this chair on Craigslist for around $30 and once it has a slipcover its clean lines will be the first thing I see rather than the colour. 

Our comfy reading chair that needs a slipcover!

I love the olive coloured duck & cat ceramic figures beside the chair and have fought to keep them in the room - DH doesn't like them much!  The mirror was $10 at Goodwill and the side table & lamp are from Homesense.

One of my best friends bought the beautiful cream piggy bank for Mason when he was born but it looks much better in Avery's room. The fish picture was painted by my Aunt who's an incredibly talented artist and happens to be a perfect match for the green in this room. I love the whimsical vintage bunny driving the carrot race car that I bought on Ebay. He looks like he stepped out of a Wind in the Willows chapter.

You might see glimpses of the chandelier. I bought it on Craigslist and spray painted it the sunny yellow colour that's in the fabric. There's a beautiful store downtown where I'd driven past yellow chandeliers and fell in love with them and jumped at the chance to include one in this room. It makes me happy every time I look at it!

I haven't done much to the space around Avery's crib.  The vinyl tree (bought on Ebay) was pretty much the only decorating I did other than the crib set before she was born.  I'm hesitant to add anything that she could reach and pull down right now.

The biggest change is in the corner opposite her crib.  I found the bookshelf on the curb (yes, I bring trash home sometimes to DH's chagrin!) and loved the shape and size.  I knew it be perfect in this space.  I think I want to paint it white or cream, but for the time being it still works in the honey finish.

The little rocking chair was left behind in the house when we moved in.  It used to be red, but a litle spray paint made it fit right in!  The mirror was on drastic clearance at Homesense, marked down to $15 from the original price of $150.  It was so perfect for my vision of the room that I couldn't believe I'd stumbled upon it at such a ridiculous price.  The bird cage I found at Goodwill, the tree shaped candle holder is from Value Village & the owl is from Dollarama and spray painted a glossy antique white.

The wall shelves are from Goodwill as well.  The 'Avery' art was created by my uber-talented cousin and given as a 1st birthday present.  The clock doesn't work (boo) but I found it at Value Village the same day I found the beautiful vintage poetry books stacked under the mouse on the shelf below, and loved it because it reminded me of the pocket watch the rabbit carried in Alice in Wonderland.  It's perpetually 8 o'clock in Avery's room but I don't care!

I can't describe how peaceful and serene it feels sitting in this room.  Maybe it's because the clock makes it feel like time stands still!   I know it needs some tweaking and a little more work to make it perfect, but I love it.

- Jacs

Fabulous Kids' Parties (on a budget)

A friend recently asked for some advice/ideas for her son's 4th birthday.  When I was planning my son's 2nd birthday, I fell in love with this site: The Cake Blog it has amazing images and descriptions of real birthdays that parents have thrown for their kids.

I used it as my inspiration for his Transportation themed birthday.  I tried to stick to a blue & brown colour scheme and I made everything myself, to the chagrin of my DH because I was up until the wee hours of the morning almost every night for over week before the party.




Candy Bar, Favour & Cake Table

I made the invitations (unfortunately I don't have a pictures of one!) and used the design details from them to guide the rest of  my choices.  For example, in the picture of the cake below notice the pinking shears edge on the brown bands of the cake - they're also on the signs for the candy and the party favour tags.

The polka dot table cloths were a complete find! I was at my local grocery store a week before the party and stumbled upon bedsheets with the exact blue and brown colours I was using.  I think they were $5.00 each and no one would have ever guessed the price tag or their intended function!

When I was looking through the cakeblog site, I fell in love wtih the candy bar.  Which kid doesn't love candy and to be presented with an entire table full ... it's kid heaven!  As you can see, I chose candy specifically based on colour (yes, I'm ridiculous).  There was a TON of candy left over and I spent around $150 on candy alone which wasn't as budget-friendly as I'd hoped.  I think if I did another candy bar in the future, I'd put 1 to 2 inches of mini marshmallows in the bottom of each jar before putting the candy in.   

Plane, Train & Car Cake

I was pretty happy with the cake.  I'm still not fantastic at leveling the cakes before I fill, mask & cover with fondant.  This creates a few issues when they're stacked because you have to adjust the cakes after you stack each layer to adjust for the discrepancies.  But overall, it looked the way I wanted it to.  I had a couple big discussions with DH re. whether the cake should be more kid-like.  He thought my vision was too grown-up despite the clear kid theme.  His position was that I was making the cake for myself, rather for our son.  I think in some ways he was right.... but I wouldn't have changed a thing.

Homemade Oreos & S'Mores

I spent a week perfecting recipes for homemade oreos and s'mores.  They sound easy to replicate and the recipes looked straightforward, but even after 5-6 different tries they still weren't as perfect as I'd hoped!

We rented a riding train for the back yard.  It cost $89.00 for the day.  Who knew it would cost so little?! We picked it up Friday evening and returned it on Monday.

I made t-shirts for the kids with pictures of planes, trains & cars with their names.  I searched high and low for the right plain white shirt to use.  You'd be surprised how hard it is to find them.  I ended up getting them at Old Navy not only because they were the best ones I could find but I also got a discount code via email to receive 30% off a couple weeks before the party (what good timing!).    The shirts were done in exactly the same pattern for both the boys and girls but I used orange images for the girls and blue for the boys. They were given as party favours at the end.  That's my son wearing his shirt for the party!

The blue chairs were $2.00 each at Dollarama - I just love them because even though they're blue, it's a beautiful vibrant blue that can easily be used for either girls or boys.

My daughter's 1st birthday is coming up in the next couple months.  We'll likely have a family dinner.... but there's still the invites & the cake to plan!  So much fun :)

- Jacs