Thrifty Finds!!!

Last week I stopped by our local Goodwill on Thursday (Thursdays are 50% off all infant and toddler toys and clothing). I was thrilled with my findings for our little girl-it was a good trip! (sorry about the reciept being upside down, I couldn't figure out for the LIFE of me how to make it right!!!)

Four items in great condition! The pumpkin on the butt is my favorite though :-)

Grand total: $5.45-thank you ma'am!

In other news...I am now 36 weeks pregnant! Starting next week, my baby will be considered term so she can offically come any day. We are still putting the finishing touches on the nursery, but are feeling fortunate for how great this pregnancy has gone and we are anxious to meeet this baby girl :-)

April Showers...bring a May baby?

Last weekend my husband and I were blessed to truly be "showered" by good-wishes and gifts from family and friends. It started on Friday with my amazing co-workers over our noon hour. Our work has had a lot going on with people getting married, having babies, retiring, graduating, etc-yet they found time and energy to put on a great shower for myself and baby Harper. They even went with our owl theme and served pink owl cupcakes!!

Saturday morning, I woke up early and intended on heading to my mom's house to help her prepare for a birthday gathering for my cousins. My husband however was doing an excellent job of distracting me by making my favorite breakfast, scrambled eggs! Then my mother called and gave me the task of picking up a last minute cake, so I didn't make it until almost 11am, a hour later than I intended.  I was kind of stressed and mad that I was late, but my mood quickly changed when I walked into a surprise shower from my family! Again, they ran with the owl theme..

We spent a fun afternoon playing shower games that my aunts and Grandma had worked on coordinating. I am not usually a fan of games, however these were a blast! Espeically when my teenage boy cousins got involved in them!

Sunday came and I had one more April shower! My friends Lindsie and Amy had coordinated an amazing shower totally through email and having never met each other! We gathered for desserts and more owls!

It was a great afternoon with friends! Harper got lots of books so she has a more complete library. I came home and tried reading some of the books, but found myself sitting on the floor of Harper's nursery crying :-) I love children's books!


I can't thank all my friends and family enough for helping us celebrate our little girl. We can't wait for everyone to meet her soon! Stay tuned for nursery pictures and some thrift store finds :-)

From Old to New...

So today I am 32 weeks pregnant!  The excitment of the new baby is really kicking in for me as we finish preparations for her. I can't say that nesting as completely kicked in, but I do find myself engrossed in little projects around the house and trying to stay on top of things at work, so I think that is my way of "nesting."
    One of my new found "loves" is thrift stores and garage sales. I have an aunt who has been going to thrift stores and sales for years but I never really got into it myself. This winter though I found myself at Saver's one day looking for some baskets to use for a fundraiser. About a hour later I was walking out with all sorts of fun finds! I now have hit all the major thrift stores in Rochester and even know their sale schedule so I have specific days I go to certain stores. I am also hoping to take full advantage of garage sales this summer, espeically since I will be on maternity leave!
   Recently, I was in Saver's and happened upon a baker's stand in the furniture section. They had a $12.99 price on it, but I had a 25% off coupon, so I decided to take this darling little peice home for the hefty price of $9.98....

Now, once I got it home and unloaded into the garage, I wasn't entirely sure what to do with it. I hated the white color so that needed to be changed and I wasn't so sure about the grapes at the top. So  left it for a week until I was walking through Hobby Lobby and they had a sale on spray paint for $2.50/bottle. I found some chocolate brown spray pain, found matching stain, and went home in a hurry!!!
   Once I got home however, I realized that I was not suppose to be around paint or stain during pregnancy. So I preped the baker's stand and gave very specific directions to my darling husband...

I will spare you the details, but it did take twice as much spray paint as I had anticipated and the stain was kind of a disaster. However, the entire project cost me less than $35 and I am pretty happy with the end result:

I'm still looking for little items to add to the shelves, so I'm hoping my next thrift store/garage sale adventure turns up some more fun finds!

Is It a Boy or Girl?

A few weeks ago, my husband and I hosted a little get together with our family and friends. Earlier that week we had our "offical" ultrasound to see little baby Hesby and ensure everything was going well. It was by far the most exciting day of this pregnancy. Not only did we get to see the baby, but the ultrasound tech was amazing and we were able to see the baby's brain, the spinal cord, the heart, and lots of little bones that are growing fast! We were able to take a big sigh of relief as we were told everything was in the right place and looked great!
     Then our tech checked for the sex of the baby, and placed the results in an envelope. I took this envelope to Hy-Vee Barlows bakery where they made cupcakes for us. These were vanilla cupcakes with green frosting and a very special filling.

Once everyone was there, we passed out the cupcakes and everyone bit into the cupcakes at the same time. Now, I was preparing myself to act surprised as I had been pretty sure that while we were in the ultrasound, I had seen some "boy parts" but I didn't want anyone to know. My husband has also been convinced this entire pregnancy that we were having a little boy, so I was ready for the blue filling!

 So here we go!! My husband, myself, my mom, and my husband's parents all stood together....

And we all got a HUGE surprise! Its a GIRL!!!!

It was such a fun night with friends and family to celebrate this little girl coming into the world this Spring. Thank you to Hy-Vee bakery for working with me on this little project and a HUGE thank you to Stacy Epps for coming over and taking pictures so we could have somethig to show our little girl when we tell her about the night we all ate pink cupcakes!

Missing in Action

So, my motivation for blogging as really been missing in action lately. Not because I don't enjoy it, but because I have been a little busy getting ready for the holidays. We only have three family events to attend, with very little travel, so that isn't stressful, thankfully! However, it never fails that no matter how organized I was the previous year, I never seem to find all my decorations or they don't fit in the same place that I thought they did last year!

I have several "projects" that are in the making right now, so I will post those as soon as they are complete. But in the meantime, while I was finishing up winter semester in school, we also found out the most exciting news: we are having a baby!

I find that I use the baby as en excuse for a lot of things: " The baby is craving a long-john so I need to have one" or " The baby is tired, so I think I will lie down instead of folding laundry"

I have to admit though that in the second trimester I am getting a little more energy and am excited to get our home ready to the newest edition.

We are currently in the process of updating our kitchen/dining room on a very tight budget. My husband put in new lights a few weeks ago that he found on sale for under $50. Now we are awaiting new appliances and I'm working on a backsplash...more to come...

We have been busy cleaning out our office as it will be the baby's room. This has led to our office being crammed between my husband's hockey room and my craft room. Since we are both only children, we are finding this "adjustment" a little challanging, mostly because we like our own space so much!

I am really hoping to use this blog as a way to stay in touch with our family and friends who are not close to us here in Rochester, and will share with you as we prepare to bring the next generation of Hesbys into the world!

I hope everyone is healthy and happy and has a safe and happy holiday season!

Pintrest Obsession

Anyone who has been around me lately, has heard about my latest obsession: Pintrest. This website is a virtual bulletin board that allows you to "pin" things from any website and save them on your "board." The best part of it though is you get to see other people's boards, which leads to get brainstorming! If you haven't already, you need to check this out...www.pintrest.com
    My mom and I recently celebrated her birthday by having dinner and attening an orchestra concert.Today though, is my day off work and I'm bringing her some birthday "treats" for her office. I got the idea for these from Pintrest....

Hopefully she likes them-Happy Monday!

Fall is in the air!

I have tried blogging once before and had to start over due to some "technical" difficulties. So here I am, at it again! 

As much as I love summer weather, my favorite time of the year is Fall, mostly because it means my favorite holiday is around the corner (Christmas!!!). After I had put out our usual fall decorations around the house, I got the itch for something new. I'm budget conscious so I started digging around my house to see what I could find.

A friend of ours was cleaning out his garage and had this old chair that he was going to throw away. I cleaned it up with hopes of making something for the walkway up to our front door.

I went to Ace Hardware and found their paint on sale for $2.00 a can! So I stocked up on these three colors. The can on the far left is my FAVORITE paint color right now-Antique White. It brightens up any room when used on a small piece of accent furniture or other home decor.

My mom lives on an old greenhouse that was run by her dad and grandfather, there are clay pots all over the place! I found this pot and cleaned it up. It had some old paint splashed on it that I wasn't able to get off, but the spray paint covered it pretty well!

And this is the finished project! My mother-in-law bought the mum plant from her youth group at church and brought it over when she heard I was decorating for fall.

 All in all the project cost me less than $10 and was done in an afternoon!!!