alive!

just a quick note to let you all know im alive! we had a family friend pass away and i came home a day early. so after a very long shower, a nap and a mani/pedi-i almost feel like myself.

thanks for all the comments about camping. (and prayers that i wouldnt be eaten by a bear)

(this is a photo of my car next to one of the tents. it was pretty, but i can only be in 'nature' so long.)
i will be back monday with more thrifty fun!

i regret to inform you...

i am going to girls camp.
for a week.
in bear country.
with 250 teen girls.
that is on a 5 mile dirt road off of the main road.
if any rain hits the road, it isnt passable.
there isnt any cell phone coverage.
or showers.
the lake is covered in green slime.
and bugs.
there isnt electricty.
not there there will be internet access anyways.
and my husband is in charge of the kids and the house.
so i will not be posting until i get back.
if i make it.
if the kids make it.
if the house makes it.
pray for me.
the thrifty ba

nap time!

for the past few years, sleeping thru the night with out drugs isnt easy. and i love sleeping. i have even trained my kids NOT to even bother coming to my side of the bed at night. dad is the one they go to for a midnight belly ache.

best thing i ever taught them.

about a month ago i found these lovely things in a junk drawer and decided to use them. mostly because chris made fun of me. (hey-they were free!) but let me tell you-i sleep so soundly now it is CRAZY!
crazy wonderful!
as most of you know, im headed to girls camp very soon. (proof that God has a sense of humor) i wanted to make a pair of these that could get ruined and i wouldnt cry.

i found a scrap of galexy fabric (left over from a star wars birthday party years ago) and some brown felt to help block the light. (too bad nothing will block the sound of 250 teen girls awake in their tents!) i also had some string like elastic to go around my head. i traced my tylenol eye shades onto the fabric and cut that and the felt out. i zig zag-ed them together just to keep them from moving around and trimmed the edges.

then i realized i should figure out how to do the elastic...

good one ba.

i just measured what i have on my original one and added an extra inch for me to have room to sew them down.

i sewed those on by going back and forth a million and 2 times.

finally i made some edging with the rest of the galexy fabric. i had to cut a slit in the fabric to get the elastic thru, so i had the fabric start/end right where the elastic came thru.

im not too worried because i plan on chucking it when i get home.

that is if i get home.

we are camping in bear country.
who thought this was a good idea?









 

my $3.97 camp outfit

yes, even at camp i wear outfits. im like that.

these jeans (that i hope that they last past camp because they make my non-exsistant butt look good) are from pennys for $2.97! I KNOW! (i JUST got them! head on out right this second and see if yours has some!)

i love the dark wash and how well they fit my hips and thighs! and for $2.97, i wont cry if they get ruined at camp.

but i hope they dont.

and my rocking shirt (it has a microphone hanging over the other boob. i just couldnt get a good photo of that side) was $1 at walmart.

(i couldnt have scored better if i went to the thrift store.)

so here is what i will be wearing to camp.

where i will be covered in dirt.

and yuck.

but at least cute.

**and yes, im still looking to catch strep throat before i leave next monday.**

i love thrifting!

today i had to go shopping for jeans at the d.i..
not just any jeans. 'jeans-that-i-dont-care-about-because-im-wearing-them-to-girls-camp' jeans.
but they still need to look good.
but that my friends is another therapy session!
i waundered out of the jeans area and found this beauty!
ta-da!

isnt it beautiful? and it was only $2! the lid is all tarnished and beautiful! (really hard to tell in the photo)
there were 3 all together, but i didnt want to be greedy and only got one.
i also found this for $2...im going to be making this look pretty here in a few days for a wedding shower.
more on that later...




and, yes, i ended up with finding 2 pair of jeans to wear to girls camp. which is good since that is only 40 days away!

girl's camp is going to ROCK! and it will be because of THIS

if you haven't heard the crying, i have been asked to be the young women's camp director.

im not the 'outdoorsey' type.

i like being outdoors to get some sun at the beach, or watching my kids playing sports

(ooohhh-remind me to tell you about THAT!).

i met with my 'team' today and i just want to tell you-

this camp will be so much better because of them!

just an example...the new theme of the camp is

'CAMP IS LIKE A PARTY...

BUT WITH RULES'

who comes up with this stuff?

stacey and hillarie that is who!

i digress...

so we decided that the girls needed to make water bottle holders for when we hike (**gasp**) in the woods

with the tics and snakes and BEARS!

this is what i came up with

almost by all by myself

i found a couple of tutorials but all were either too many steps or things about it that were expensive and since we have to pay for 30 of them, i needed to modify what i saw.

i went to joann's and got 4' of webbing AND NOTHING ELSE! (that is a minor miracle right there!)

then to home depot. this took a little longer. i needed rubbery 'o' rings that fit around the top of a disposable water bottle. it took 2 orange aprons and a pack of sweettarts but we found some (in case you want to make this, DANCO size #18 'o' rings is what you need).

once home i just folded over one end and sewed back and forth a million times to make sure it wasn’t going to come undone half way thru our 20 mile hike (ok, it might not be 20 miles. but it will feel like it!)

then, making sure my webbing wasn’t all twisted, i sewed the other side.

i used some fabric fuse liquid on the edges of the webbing to keep it from coming unraveled.

then i slid it over the top and there you go! one sweet water bottle holder for about $1.60 each!

so chalk one up for me doing something with out stealing it completely from another blog!