Modge Podge and craft night with Nate

With the holidays here, it's really hard to stick to a budget so I am trying my hand at some home-made decorations and gifts.  I did some research and picked out a few things that I would like to make.  Most of the items I decided on making are made with re-purposed items.  So with my "list" of junk I needed to find, I made a trip to Stuff Etc.

I was surprised by how much STUFF Stuff Etc has.  It was hard to navigate the aisles because it was so full.  And busy. I picked up my junk (or as much as I could find) and got home to get crafty.  Here are my frugal finds:

4 pane window frame with mirror

This one also had a mirror in it. 

And these gorgeous coasters for $0.99

Disclaimer: I am not a naturally crafty person. In fact I didn't even know modge podge was until a few days ago.  Now, I want to use modge podge on everything!  

This may change your life!

Disclaimer number 2: This is not a tutorial.  It's a before and after.  (If you want to know how to make these, let me know...I'll give you the details).  

The old coasters with a cute picture of my cute little Nate.  Adorable.  P.S. If this is your Christmas present, pretend to be surprised...

Not the best caption and I may be changing it a little.  I think I may change the ornaments a little and maybe add a few more embelishments...

Disclaimer number 3: I have to admit that I didn't make these all by myself.  I had help.  Please see below:

I can't figure out how to rotate it, but isn't he so cute?

Nate getting ready to help me paint the window pane frame.  He was an animal.  Going for it with two brushes!

But he got tired and Jag had to babysit:

Keepin' the Nater in line.

So the moral of this story is that Modge Podge is great! (But not near as great as my buddy and craft partner, Nate). 

Extreme couponing and a new family member?

Who knew couponing could be fun?

Really.

I've never watched "extreme couponing," and to be quite honest, in the past I have gotten annoyed when the lady in front of me at the check-out line has some forty coupons and requests "price matches" from ads from other stores. (By the way, Walmart in Marion does that).  I get especially annoyed when the cashier and lady in front of me get into an argument about prices or the fact that she can only use a certain number of the same coupons in one visit.  It's even worse when I'm crunched for time, or when my sweet, precious Nater starts to get fussy.  <--Yes, that does happen.  My baby is just like yours; he cries.

But today I may have to join the couponers; I have experienced the "thrill" of saving money with coupons.  I saved a whole $2.40 with coupons on my weekly grocery budget, and probably about $20.00 more by grocery shopping at my least favorite store--Walmart.  I've found that when I go shopping with Nate I spend more money.  Partly because he's strapped to my body with the Baby Bjorn and I loose some range of motion necessary for strategic grocery shopping and partly because I am afraid if I take too long I will face the stares of all the other shoppers when Nate starts to cry.

To be honest, since Nate has been born I have not been very good at sticking to a budget.  There's cute clothes to get (he is almost out of his 6 month onesies, and he isn't even 3 months yet!) not to mention diapers, wipes and all the other baby necessities.  Also, I have been spending money on thing to make our house look cute for the open houses and then there is my desire to buy stylish clothes since I have not looked cute for the past 9 months.  (Who am I kidding...I wouldn't wear stylish clothes even if I had them.  I live in jeans and sweatshirts!)  But now that I am only going back to work part-time--16 hours a week--I need to do better about sticking to a budget.  So I am going to focus my next few posts on my journey to frugality.  We will see how this experiment goes.

But in other news, there is another male living in our house...our garage actually. (Although he is well-behaved enough that he gets supervised house privileges).  Here is Jag, our "trial dog:"

Jag, 5 months, looking at Austin (who is standing in the corner).  Jag has really taken a liking to Austin!

Jag and Austin.  Austin says it's strange being around a dog that doesn't need to be "tazed" in order to behave.  Just in case anyone is going to call the humane society on us, the tazer is an e-collar and it's not harmful. 

And just for fun, here is a picture of Nate from this morning while I was doing my quiet time.  Isn't he a cutie?