Amy Butler Pattern Giveaway

Several months ago I found a blog that had the tutorial to make over a T-shirt....the one I posted a short while ago. I love keeping up with Tea Rose Home because she has some really great ideas for sewing projects that I can actually do, even though my sewing abilities are pretty limited! Tea Rose Home has a great giveaway right now for an Amy Bulter Pattern. I love love love Amy Butler fabrics and the patterns are really fun and seem pretty easy! If I had the budget to buy some fabrics of hers I have a whole list of fabrics I would love to purchase. Tea Rose Home will be selecting five winners, so if you would like a new sewing project you can check out her site and register!

My first thrifty furniture re-do

I have had this inexpensive console table for a few years sitting behind my sofa.

I have never been all that thrilled with the piece for a variety of reasons: 1. It is stained a dark cherrywood color that has a lot of red in it and that isn't quite what I was wanting 2. It got scratched very easily and then just looked kinda warn and dingy 3.
I just wanted to something lighter and a little more fun. So, I decided I would paint it a pale blue. I used two coats of Zinsser oil based primer on it.Then I mixed several shades of blue sample paint that I already had until I got a shade I was happy with. I haven't put on a polyurethane coating yet but I am sure that will be in my near future! In fact, I have a couple of painted furniture projects in my near future.

And this was the end result.

Paying with cash.....update

In the last few months, we have started paying cash for all our purchases. We have had to tweak our budget quite a bit to get to a really workable place and we are still tweaking it, but it is working! I will admit it is a big change to use cash all of the time when you are used to using a card for everything, but once you get passed the learning curve, its not a big deal. I have found that it really does help me spend less and be a lot more frugal because I know that if I only have $70 left in my grocery budget for the month I don't waste those dollars on stuff that we don't really need. The irony for me of sticking to a tight budget is that I find it freeing because I know we are living within our means and we are working towards a goal. I know I am not over spending or buying things that my husband may say "why did you spend that much money on that!" So, for any one that is at a point where you feel like your spending habits need to change, I highly suggest you try paying for everything with cash. Its crazy that everyone used to operate this way not so long ago and now we are totally dependent on debit and credit cards! Being free from that dependency is also really freeing!