FREE Fun for Kids

Free Fun, sign me up!

Did you know that certain stores have FREE kids activities on Saturday mornings?  Check your local stores for times and availability.  Here are the ones I know about, plus some summer freebies at the end of the post.

JCPenney has a Kids Club where they host a free craft once a month.  This month is making a Mother's Day card and next month is a Father's Day frame. 

The Home Depot has workshops for kids and adults.  The kids activities are Saturday mornings, but the DIY workshops for adults vary.  

Lowes has a Build and Grow workshop for kids.  This Saturday they are making a chalkboard planter and next month is a birdfeeder.

Michaels also has a Kids Club as well as other family craft, spring break and camp craft activities.  Although not every craft is free.  

More freebies to look forward to this summer are:

Kids Bowl for Free

Kids Skate for Free

Free Summer Movies

 

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Office Chair Make Over

Happy New Year!

Hope everyone had a lovely Christmas and winter break.  

I'm back with the office chair make-over I mentioned on Facebook.  

Before Christmas, I went to a church rummage sale.  There I scored this office chair for just $5.  

My oldest daughter needed a chair for her desk and this style is what she wanted.  However, the color was not want she wanted.  I figured I could recover the cushions in a fabric to match her room.  My husband said I didn't need another project.  Knowing how some of my projects have turned out in the past, he had a point.  Of course I’m not the only one to recover an office chair, there were several tutorials on Pinterest.  So with Pinterest on my side, I decided to go for it.

The first thing to do was to separate the padded top from the plastic back.  Unscrewing the back from the chair and then using a butter knife was the easiest way to do this.

Then I laid out my fabric and cut to size.

I wrapped the fabric around the padded chair back and used a staple gun to secure it.

Here's what it looks like from the front.  I was happy to see that my pattern was straight and not slanting upward.

Then using the butter knife to pry open the plastic back, I slide the padded part back in.

The top is done and now onto the seat.

The process was similar however there were also some screws attaching the seat cushion to the black plastic base.

Once I got the seat cushion off, I laid out my fabric, cut it and stapled it in place.  Then I reattached the seat cushion to the plastic seat.

Voila!  A custom office chair!

I love the way it turned out, and it wasn’t too hard to do either.  This project only took me about an hour and now my daughter has a custom, one of a kind office chair to match her room.  $5 for the chair and $5.99 for a yard of fabric is all it cost.  I could have gotten away with half a yard but I bought a little extra in case I made a mistake.  So now we have some leftover fabric for another project.

It's these little touches to make things coordinate in a room that really turn a house into a home.  I can't wait to show you what else I've been doing to make our new house home.

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Matching Bow Ties

I'm a sucker for a guy in a bow tie.  And seeing all 3 of my guys in bow ties, well, that just melts my heart and takes my breath away.

I thought it would be cute for Father's Day to have the boys wear matching bow ties so I started shopping around online.  At first I checked Etsy to find some matching father/son bow ties but didn't like those prices so I quickly came up with an inexpensive plan.  Instead of buying a toddler bow tie and two men's matching bow ties which would run about $50 on Etsy, I could buy 3 of the same bow tie from any store.  My toddler had been wearing my older son's men's size bow tie to church anyway and it didn't seem too big for him, plus he'll only grow into the men's size.  So my next step was to find some inexpensive bow ties and just buy 3 of the same one.  I ended up finding the best price on amazon.com.  Less than $2 per bow tie and shipping was free.  I couldn't pass up a deal like that.  I had to rein myself in and not buy one for every Sunday of the year.

HERE is the amazon.com affiliate link to the 3 matching bow ties.

I also ordered a few more for just the boys since bow ties aren't really my husband's style, he was just being nice and humoring me.  My older son on the other hand, will only wear bow ties to church.  So of course my younger son wants to wear them too.  They had been wearing the only 2 bow ties my older son owned, but now they have an assortment to choose from each week including the ones below.

These bow ties are adjustable and able to fit a toddler all the way up to an 18" neck.  I'm already thinking I should have bought more.  

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The Best Patio Furniture EVER!

I think it's finally feeling like spring around here and that means spending more time outside.  I'm slowing starting to spruce up our patio and make it look fun and inviting.  A couple of years ago I found a great deal on some patio furniture that I absolutely love.  It's been one of the best investments we've made.  We were lucky enough to score this set of 6 chairs and a table on craigslist for only $900.  Considering the cheapest chairs I could find were $150, that price is a steal.  And since it's made out of poly wood, it still looks new and that's really saying something since our patio is very exposed to the elements such as the wind and sun.  Add in the fact that we don't do anything to maintain it and hardly ever clean it unless there's been a spill and that makes it ...

the best patio furniture ever!

Our backyard is on the south side of our house so it gets all the sun all day long.  Anything out there gets faded.  The yard and surrounding areas next to it are flat and it can get pretty windy.  So whatever is out there has to be pretty sturdy or it will fly off the patio and into our neighbor's yard.  Case in point, last month we had some strong winds and they blew our playhouse into our flower beds.  This is actually our 2nd playhouse.  Years ago, wind blew our playhouse to pieces.  It came apart and we never did find one of the roof pieces so we had to get rid of the entire thing.  Luckily our latest playhouse has yet to meet it's windy demise. 

This is not our first patio set.  We had a smaller one with four chairs and that would blow away in strong winds too.  I'd have to stack the chairs and line it all along the side of the house to prevent it from blowing into our neighbors yard.  This set here is not going anywhere.  I love that I don't have to worry about it moving much less getting blown away during strong winds.  But what I really love is that it's maintenance free.  I'm busy with four kids, I don't have time to be sanding and painting picnic tables when they get weathered.  This poly wood is great.  I don't have to worry about paint chips, splintered wood or fading colors.

Here are some more shots of my patio furniture.  Seriously, if you are in the market for a new patio set, I can't recommend this type highly enough.  It's more money than the wood kind, but the fact that it's maintenance free and will last a lifetime makes up for it.

I mentioned that we found ours on craigslist which was a rare find.  However if you are local and looking for a good deal on poly wood furniture, this is the cheapest place I know of:

http://www.lancasterpolypatios.com/

No, I'm not being compensated in any way for this post, just sharing what I love and a good deal.

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FREE fun at the Lancaster Science Factory

Saturday we took the kids to the Lancaster Science Factory.  One of our local libraries has museum passes that you can check out for free and it allows you free admission into various museums.  If you can't get a museum pass, you can still get in for free.  This Saturday, March 25th, the Lancaster Science Factory is having FREE admission, no museum pass needed.  Regular admission is $8.50 per person which can quickly add up for a family of 6, so we're always on the look out for a good deal and free is even better.  You can check out their website HERE.  This post is not sponsored by the Lancaster Science Factory, I just wanted to share a good deal and a fun place to take the kids.

The science factory is great fun for kids of all ages (including adults).  The place isn't that big so it's easy to keep and eye on your kids when they all want to play in different areas.  It can be as fun or as educational as you want.  Each 'station' has things to do, kind of like a science experiment, and tells you how it works.  It is very interactive and some of the stations require team work, while others let you work alone.  We did most of the stations and stayed for about 3 hours.

My two year old was especially fond of anything that had to do with balls.  He loved watching the balls roll down this gravity well.

Of course my oldest daughter had to check out the art and music stations. 

There were several puzzles and brain teasers that kept my teenage son and husband busy.  Seriously, my son must have spent a good 30 minutes figuring out the Towers of Hanoi puzzle.   

Pulleys, more balls and dam building. 

It took some teamwork but they finally built the arch and even got it to stand still for an entire second until it came crashing down. 

Making designs with the sand pendulum.  

Gears, gears and more gears. 

Colored shadows. 

In case you are wondering about what types of stations or exhibits they have, here's the list:

Light & Vision:

• Benham's Disk
• Color Changeup
• Color Filter (Chameleon)
• Color Illusion Disks
• Colored Shadows
• Duck-Under Kaleidoscope
• Lens, Mirrors & Filters
• Scope on a Rope
• Visual Illusions

 Electricity & Magnetism:

• Crank Power
• Conductors and Insulator
• Electrical Circuits
• Light It Up
• Magnetic Field Visualization
• Magnetic Sculpture

Mechanics & Motion currently on display in the Museum:

• Ball Tracks - Galileo Track
• Ball Tracks - High Road/Hilly Road
• Ball Tracks - High Road/Low Road
• Ball Tracks - Identical Tracks
• Gear Power
• Gravity Racer
• Gravity Well
• Kinetic Energy Machine
• Magnetic Pendulum
• Mechanical Advantage
• Mini-Racers
• Newton's Cradle
• Pegboard Pendulum
• Pendulum Lab - Period
• Pendulum Snake
• Roller Coaster
• Sand Pendulum
• Super Bounce

Structural Engineering:

• Catenary Arch
• Ceiling Beam
• Earthquake
• Truss Bridge

Acoustics:

• Bongophone
• Drumbone
• Whisper Dishes

Fluid Dynamics:

• Air Play
• Dam the Creek
• Flight Deck
• Hero's Fountain
• Minimal Surfaces
• Parachute Launch
• Tennis Ball Launcher
• Water Tornado

Puzzles & Brain Teasers:

• Army Ants
• Big Magic
• Box of Many Holes
• Circle Packing
• Crossing the River
• Cyclograph
• Horse & Cowboy
• Hyperbolic Slot
• Magic Square
• Pyramid Puzzler
• Shut the Box
• Square Deal
• Tangram
• Towers of Hanoi
• Trapezoids 2 Triangle
• Vanishing Leprechaun

With kids of varying ages and stages, from toddlers to teens, it can be a challenge to find activities that everyone likes.  The Lancaster Science Factory is one of those places where everyone can play and have fun.  I'm sure we'll be checking out the free museum pass again and again.

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Decorating Your Home For Fall on the Cheap

With the change of seasons, many people like to change their home decor.  I'm not talking about just bringing out a few seasonal decorations (which is what I usually do), I'm talking about a whole new look to the living room.  Transitioning from a light and airy summer look, to a warm and cozy fall look doesn't have to cost a fortune.  The change can be done by swapping out a few things such as curtains, pillows, throws, and the accent decorations you have on your tables, bookshelves and mantles.  I'm always looking to save money so I try to buy second hand when I can.  Yard sale and thrift stores are great places to find seasonal decor.  

In my area there are 8 thrift stores within about a 30 minute drive from each other.  For all you local folks, here's a link to an article that tells a little about each one HERE. That's a lot of places to find good deals.  Some stores like Goodwill, get new items (usually overstocks) from Target.  You never know what you'll find and just like regular retail shops, they also stock their shelves seasonally and get in new items all the time.

Recently I got two new blackout curtains.  They are the Threshold brand from Target.  They were marked $9.99 each but I got them even cheaper because of a 50% off sale.  Most stores have some sort of sale going on each day.  You just need to check what color tickets are discounted when you walk in and you can score pretty good deals, as if shopping second hand wasn't cheap enough.

I love autumnal colors and a few rooms in my house are decorated in these warm colors already including my bedroom.  I used to have off white curtains in there which matched the bedding but did little to block out the light.  I love these warmer colored curtains and the light blocking feature is amazing.  Now if only I had the time to sleep in.

One of the thrift stores even has a blog you can check out HERE.  It gives ideas about decorating and such.  This cute little wreath would make a great front door decoration for fall.



Besides shopping thrift stores, I love to yard sale.  I found this wreath for FREE last week and hung it up on my wreath hanger outside.  On the other side of the door is a fake pumpkin my mom was getting rid of.  I've had several people think that pumpkin is real and compliment me on my pumpkin carving skills.  

I'm still working on decorating my front porch.  I need to add some mums to those flower pots and then I'll call it done.

Antiques and vintage decor and a nice warm and cozy feel to any home.  If you want to add some antiques into your fall decor, you can find them at thrift stores but you might want to check out antique stores as well.  There are lots of antique stores in Bucks Co. PA and THIS articles lists them all along with other favorite antique shops all over the US and tips for finding antiques in any state.

New Hope, Bucks County. Photo courtesy of Visit Bucks County

I'd love to hear how you find good deals on seasonal decor, just comment below.  I also love to shop after season sales so I can get a jump start on next year's decorations.

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