Thursday, August 12, 2010

School Supply Savings


Last year, Ben started at one school and ended up at another school. By the time we made the decision to switch him back to the original school over the summer, it was too late to buy the prepackaged school supplies. Turns out, I saved A LOT by doing it myself. Buying them from the PTA costs $54.00. I spent a total of $15.53 -- a savings of 73%!! And, I have extra pens, dry erase markers, hand sanitizer, scissors and tissue to contribute to the classroom. I think I'll definitely be doing it myself from now on. It may take a little more time, but if you think of it in terms of Ben's school career + Nick's school career, it's a potential savings of about $1000. And, it still takes time/aggravation to try and park/fight the crowds at school on supply pick up day. Ugh.

Monday, August 2, 2010

Decorating Project

I was flipping through a Pottery Barn catalog the other day and noticed a picture of a bedroom with some grayish tiles on the wall above the bed. I thought something like that would look good in our bedroom, especially since we recently painted it gray and have gray and white linens. Then, I remembered that I ALREADY HAVE four tiles, just like this. Except, they are dark. Hmmm. I have white paint in the garage. I wonder....?

So, I took the picture from the catalog, the tiles, some white paint and an old t-shirt and headed up to my sewing room,




I grabbed the t-shirt, stuck it in the paint and sort of dabbed it against itself to spread around the paint. then, I put it on in a circular motion (wax on, wax off). It dried pretty quickly, then I hung up three of them above the bed and one in the bathroom (not shown). What do you think?