What I Saved: Time to get ready for Super Doubles!

My Sunday's are starting to develop a really nice rhythm. I get up, check out a few couponing blogs, get ready for the day, get my Raleigh papers at Books a Million, then there is Church and lunch with Darrin and finally grocery shopping and cooking dinner.

I'm sure that may seem boring to some, but I am really liking the way my weekends flow!

I mentioned last week that people show up and stand in line for the 10am opening at Books A Million.  I got there this morning at about 9:15am and even though it was POURING down rain, a woman got out of her car at 9:22am to stand in line!  Honestly, my first words to her when I jumped in line was "Really, you didn't want to stay nice and warm in your car??"

I got my three newspapers though and had fun chatting with some of the other couponers in line.

My savings this week were pretty decent and break down something like this:

Total value: $179.43
Out of pocket: $61.53
Savings: 71%

I didn't go anywhere but Harris Teeter this weekend and I also did not use ONE printable coupon.  I find it pretty amazing that I was able to save that much with just the coupons I get by buying a few Sunday papers.  It makes me feel a little better about the insanity that is standing in line for 40 minutes in the rain!

I forgot to take a picture of what I got today, but here is a look at a few of the things I was able to pick up on Saturday!

I'm also super excited because (and unless you're living under a rock, you probably already know this) Lowes Food's is having a Super Doubles event starting Wednesday and Harris Teeter is having their Super Doubles event starting the following Wednesday!  I can't wait to see what sales they having to go along with those events!

Well it's time to go cook some wings for the hubby while we watch football.  Although I'm loving being in the kitchen since I was able to get this made last night:

Pretty new cafe curtain! 

I'm starting to feel very domesticated!  Maybe this whole wife-thing isn't as hard as I thought it was going to be!


Did you do anything fun for the Superbowl?  Did the team you were pulling for win?

And It's Done!

So a few weeks back I mentioned my plans to paint a dresser we had in our garage.

Darrin had this piece of furniture before we got married and it's a nice piece...it just did NOT go with our house.

He wanted to keep it though.  And since I take up almost all of the closet and drawer space in our bedroom I realized he had a point (SHHHHH, don't tell him I said that!)

I was going for a shabby chic look and it was a surprisingly easy project and VERY inexpensive.

I started with the doors:

The design work was the hardest thing to clean!

I removed them, took off the hardware, cleaned them pretty well and sanded them just a little with fine sandpaper.

Then I took them outside and SPRAY PAINTED them.  Yep, that's right, I used spray paint.  It was so easy and it really let me achieve the distressed look I was going for.

From there it was a breeze.  I did all three drawers next.  Again, removing the hardware, cleaning them and doing a bit of sanding. Then just spraying on the paint.

Finally we took the base outside and after cleaning and sanding I started painting.  I wanted to make sure I really achieved the distressed look on the main part of the dresser so I took a little bit more time, but not that much.

When all of the pieces were finished and starting to dry I started working on the hardware.  Honestly, this was the hardest part.  The pulls are brass and difficult to get the paint to stick. I used spray paint intended for all types of material but I couldn't get it to stick that well.  I ended up with a very blue hand!

After a full night of drying we were able to put all the pieces back together.  Take a look at the finished product!

The finished product

I'm really pleased with the way this project turned out!  Honestly, while it took me two weekends to get this finished I really only spent about an hour and half total on everything and the total cost was about $15!

Up next...a cafe curtain for the kitchen window!

Any fun projects you've been working on around your house?  Anything you've been putting off? 

Remodeling Again???

No, I'm not that crazy - a home remodel once in 100,000 years is enough for me.  There are a few little updates I want to make to the house though.  To be honest, it's more fun little projects than actual work.

When we did the big remodel last year (Check out posts ONE, TWO, and THREE) we had the whole house, including the ceilings, repainted.

But guess what they forgot??

Poor air vents!

Yes, those are the air vents.  Now I forgot to take a picture of what they actually looked like on the ceiling, but let me tell you, compared to the freshly painted, white ceiling, those stuck out like a sore thumb!

Thanks to my very creative friend, Amy, I was able to make these look 100 times better for about $2.00!

That's Amy at her Small Group Birthday celebration!

All I did was SPRAY PAINT them!  I got a can of semi-gloss spray paint, had Darrin take them all down, and spent about 10 minutes outside painting them (and the screws!).

The Before and After!

I think they look so much better.

All finished

 And now the ceiling matches and that makes me happy!

The color didn't come out that great - the ceiling is white and wall is blue, but you get the idea!

Like I said, I have several projects I want to start working on, but the next one is going to be tackling this bad boy:

I'm going to paint it white, well shabby chic white probably.  It's going to go in the spare bedroom so Darrin has his own set of drawers.  Right now I have taken over 6 of the 8 in the dresser in our bedroom!

Do you have any big projects you'd like to start this year?  I'd love to hear about them so share them below in the comments!