Cereal obsession part 3 = FREE

Free cereal coupon follow link below to have your free cereal coupon mailed to you.  Please note that it is valid for one day only  June 21st, 2011 - So mark your calendar so you will not forget. 
If you do not have a websaver account you will need to take a minute to sign up - the minute will be worth it once you see all the coupon potential at this site.

https://www.websaver.ca/en_ca/portal/cheerios/?source=gm_email&RNLUserUID=D323924D-A192-4980-A786-AC58A3EC2A52

Just a little Craigs list love....

Just before bed last night I quickly checked Craigslist.  And there it was... the entertainment unit I have been waiting for, well one that would work wonderfully for us.  It fit the criteria...  Pine, tall, not too big, FREE, not too far away.  The hitch.. it was 10:41 PM -  it was posted about an hour before that.  It would take us about 15 min to get there - it could be gone.  The question, do we go, or do we not go?  I debated for about 15 minutes before I put the question out there... 

I just have to say that my hubby is the best.  He did not even bat an eye when I said, "hey babe want to go for a little drive?" This is not the first time this crazy wife has asked such a question at such an hour of the night no less.  And still he says sure, I know many men out there would say NO way crazy woman.  Last time we did this it backfired, the item was gone.  And he still says yes, I do love this man.  This time we had success! This unit is beyond what I ever hoped to find.  It is a very well made piece of furniture, I am sure that when it was new it was well over $500.  Solid wood, it has doors that fold totally away so the TV will not be obstructed when viewing, and can be pulled out for better visibility.  Lots of storage underneath too.  Can you tell I am excited!  I actually did a little happy dance on the side of the road when it was still there when we drove up.  I am hoping that by having a unit to house our TV that can hide the TV it will be like the TV is not in the living room.   

I truly miss having it in a different room.  This just goes to show, that patience does pay off, and it is o.k. to ask odd questions at odd hours in this house. 

Blockbuster bonus.... WOHOOO! $72$

I wanted to post this yesterday but we were having serious Internet issues here.  It was not working - and not having any portable devices that would allow me to hook up somewhere else things got delayed.

We do not have cable in our house, I know, shocking to many right?  Over the years we have amassed quite a collection of DVD and VHS movies.  Many we watch over and over, others we have watched once and there they sit.  A friend told me about this great promotion on at Blockbuster video that  we should check out.  In checking it out I learned that  BLOCKBUSTER  video has some great promotions throughout the year.  This has not been our video store of choice, as it's a little out of the way and we have a great little local family video store within walking distance from home. That may be changing.  This past weekend we took my friends advice and took advantage of Blockbuster's DVD trade event.  Take in your old DVDs and as long as they were in good condition and on their "approved" list they were giving a $4.00 store credit.  WOOHOO that means free money to me.  We have a very extensive video and DVD collection.  Over the weekend we went through it and weeded out 24.  Sunday after church we headed to the store to see what we could do.  They accepted 18 of them and I now have a gift card in my purse for $72.00.

I am not sure how long the trade in event is going on, but it sounds like it is something that they do on an ongoing basis.   If you have DVDs laying around the house that you are not watching - hop on down to a local Blockbuster & you too can score some free cash... (Well gift card).

Fun spring break freebie....

Free is always good.  Free entertainment over spring break, when the weather is supposed to be not so hot at the end of the week is even better.   Here is my recommendation for FREE fun over spring break. 

I would like to introduce you to Goovy Lime games.  Free down loadable games for the whole family.  The game creator is a close personal friend who likes to build computer games in his spare time and created  the Groovy Lime website to share his games with the world out of the goodness of his heart. I am not suggesting this because he is a friend, but because the games are super fun, challenging, & creative.

Gliderman is our family favorite.   A game of block busting, bomb (not in a violent sort of way) exploding race against ones self.  The goal to turn the blue blocks green and advance to the next level.  BEWARE of falling cows, soccer balls and UFO's oh and a few rockets tossed in to keep you on your toes.  We have been playing for years, and now Trev has just finished the 3D version.  I downloaded it on Friday night, when my middle daughter saw it her reaction was "Sweet, something fun to do over Spring break"  I would highly recommend it for kids of all ages.  The only down side is I will now have to fight for computer time even more than normal.  Oh well it is all in a Groovy day's play. 
Happy Spring break one and all.

Getting creative with storage for my 'stash'

Weather you call it a 'stock pile' a 'stash' or practical hoarding  one thing for sure is you need to have a designated space to put things.  Oh how I wish I had a basement, a garage that was closed in, or even an extra closet.  That is not the case so I have to get creative with the space I have.  Creative is only the beginning, I have to make room, in our 4 bedroom town house is occupied with 5 adult sized bodies, this is not an easy task.  It is a work in process, it has taken me some time, and quite honestly some sacrifice of my creative space to come up with something that will work.  It has been a slow slog, it started with a major clean out of our linen closet....  

Here is where my "stash" started  about 8 or so months ago

It was apparent fairly soon that this space was going to be much too small.  The wheel's were turning. Eventually the sewing machine (that is the white box in the bottom left of the first photo) moved to a new home which gave me almost double the room - however in a couple of months that was full. 

I needed some sort of shelving unit, but did not want to put out any $$$$ to make that happen.  There were no shelves around home to make that happen so I turned to Craigslist and the free section, with in days I had new shelves that cost me nothing!  They were in a neighbourhood that we frequent often.  All the peices were coming together. You have got to love FREE!  They are not pretty, but they are clean & sturdy and will do the job.   I then cleaned out a corner in my creative space (studio)  (oh there is so much more work to do there....) and set up the  shelves. A Perfect fit! 



 A quick visit to my local dollar store where I picked up the coloured baskets for $1.00 each and the white wire hanging baskets for $1.50 (6.72 including tax).

The plan is to put smaller items like dental floss, and tooth brushes into the baskets.

The little things that will get lost on a shelf.

Larger and boxed items will stand on the shelves.

There is space washer & dryer so I am able to store extra detergent & fabric care product extras there. As well as lots of space under my kitchen sink for dish washing supplies. 

This worked out better than I had hoped, a little creativity and planning went a long way.  I especially love that it took very little out of pocket expense to pull it all together.  It makes me happy.

There is still lots of  "creative" space in this room plus a little room for expansion if needed for the "stash" as my family refers to it as. The sewing machine is back in it's original home, shared only with the toilet paper, just like the good old days. The task at hand now is to get the other end of the room sorted and organized, so I could actually create in my creative space, a novel idea seeings as I can hardly get to the table, right now it looks like a disaster zone.  Another project for another day.....