Improvise, Adapt and Overcome- Crib Assembly

This past weekend we took advantage of Scott's 3 day weekend and drove up to Branson to spend a couple days. This is the second year we have taken the kiddos to Silver Dollar City and it was so much fun! Brooklyn was finally tall enough to be able to ride a lot of the little kid rides. She even rode her first roller coaster! Proud roller coaster loving momma over here!

That's my brave 3 year old and myself in the third car back! You can barely see her head sticking up out of the car. But she did it!

We also took the kids to play mini golf for the first time. It was actually my first time at mini golf too. I was pretty surprised to find I wasn't to shabby either! The kids loved golfing with their own kid sized clubs, but we figured out we were a bit adventurous when we prepaid for 36 holes… At 5 and 3, they would have been good with only doing the first 9 holes. 

Ah well, live and learn!

During our weekend away we had a very small queen bed for myself, my 6 foot 4 inch husband, and our small 7 month old adorable baby. At home we still co-sleep with him, but we have a king so it hasn't been much of an issue. 

I know there are probably a lot of you who share a queen bed with a kid (or maybe even two!), I seriously don't know how you all do it! 

I hardly slept both nights we were out and vowed when we got home we were going to figure out the crib situation.

So yesterday we got out the crib that a friend of ours so graciously gave us! The crib was missing all the screws to attach the panels together. I had called Delta the crib company and inquired about replacement screws. I was told that they no longer carried that crib model and didn't make that particular screw size anymore.

Back to the drawing board I went and called a crib building company I found online that sold crib parts.

This route I actually found the correct screws we needed, but they were going to cost $67 for the screws and an additional $11 for shipping. 

Now I'm not sure if it's just me, but I was pretty sure I could figure something else out for a lot cheaper then $78! 

We still needed a crib mattress too, which was going to be $40 for one at Walmart. So I was pretty determined we could improvise and use different screws for quite a bit less. 

Easy Laundry Detergent Recipe

Sometime after we had our first baby, we realized how fast we were going through detergent. Every time we went to the store we were buying another jug. So I decided to try a homemade laundry detergent and was hooked!

At that time I was making a liquid detergent and it would make 10 gallons at one time!

It worked great for the 1 1/2 years we used it. I have since moved to a powder recipe and have to say I love it even more! The liquid recipe is pretty time consuming with melting down the bars of soap. So I decided to try a powder detergent recipe I haven't looked back since! 

There are no perfumes or dyes in this detergent and is safe for those with sensitive skin. However, this is not a good recipe for washing cloth diapers. The Fels Naptha can build up on the diapers and create repelling.

This recipe is a modified version of one I found online. I can't remember where I first saw the original recipe or I'd post a link. 

Homemade Laundry Detergent

3 bars Fels Naptha

1 box Baking Soda

1 box Washing Soda

1 box Borax

First, pour the baking soda, washing soda and borax into a large bucket. We bought a 5 gallon bucket at Lowes for around $3.

Bye-Bye Gold Knobs!

We have been wrapping up all the house projects around here and are finally just about done! Praise the Lord! It has been a long road and a lot of hard work, but things are looking great around here! I will be posting a tour of the house soon and highlighting everything we have done.

Do you have any of these shiny gold door knobs in your house? All of our door knobs looked like this and to us screamed "dated". So of course we had to do what we do best, update them! Take a look at how easy and cheap this update was…. 

A few of the door knobs had been replaced to brushed nickel when the locks were changed so we really needed to finish the rest of the house. But replacing them would have been more money then we wanted to spend. To cut the costs we chose to simply spray paint them with Rustoleum's metallic silver paint.
Let me tell you the hardest part of the job was removing the knobs and hardware! That really wasn't hard either just a bit time consuming.

Once all the knobs were off, I used some steel wool to lightly rough them up. The goal was to help the paint stick to the knob, but not make deep scratches in them.

Easy and Frugal Dishwasher Update

 Last week we made some great progress on our To Do list. Not everything got crossed off, but we did get everything started! Amid us painting trim and doors in the whole house, drywall repair, yard work, and pressure washing the outside, I managed to squeeze in a few projects. This dishwasher update was one I wedged in the To Do list one morning.

I saw Young House Love's blog about their recent dishwasher update and thought the end result was pretty dramatic. (You can check out their dishwasher's new look here.) Painting a few dishwasher door pieces can make a big difference! So you know, in all my many opportunities of spare time I thought I would give it a shot.

Here is what I started with.....

Our basic black oldish dishwasher....most likely has been here since the house was built in 1996. 

I started by unscrewing the side panels.

DIY Beadboard Backsplash

We are LOVING this kitchen update and only wish we had done this when we moved in four years ago!

After we treated the counters with Rustoleum Countertop Transformation kit here, we had bare torn up drywall for a backsplash.

The laminate countertops extended up the wall, where it had been glued to the drywall. When we scraped it off, it decided to take bits of the wall with it. Up until that point we were thinking to keep the costs down we would just paint the wall. Now looking back I really am glad we had to do a backsplash!

Here are some photos of the kitchen before the awesome beadboard was installed...

Fabulous Fabric Circle Art for under $5

We recently painted our whole house as we are preparing to sale it.

So now I've been a bit hesitant to put a bunch of nail holes in the walls again.

I knew we needed to do something to warm up the rooms, but wanted to keep it lightweight to avoid large holes.

Looking for inspiration I loved simple yet colorful shapes hung in clusters!

This project is easy and cheap.  I just gathered up different patterned fabric from my fabric collection.