Babies!!!

No no, I'm not having one...but my sister is! She already has a little girl who is almost 22 months old, and is expecting twin boys in the first part of November. YAY!!!

Now, many of you know I like to shop--one of the main reasons I'm in debt in the first place. I have so enjoyed shopping for my neice these last 2 years, and now I get to do it all over again for 2 little boys! But being the bargain hunter that I am, I do it the ultra-clearance way. For instance, this last weekend I went to two different Toys 'R Us locations and got two giant bags full of clothes for about $60! Combining that with some items I already had, these kids are off to a good start, and I'm having fun doing it!

To make sure I don't buy myself into deeper debt, I'm trying to only buy the necessaries. After going through this once with my neice, I've learned that babies don't really need shoes before they can walk (even if they are really cute!). I've also learned that most outfits aren't worth the extra dollars, since the baby won't even fit in it very long, or will probably ruin it with throw-up or a diaper blow-out. Good times.

Along those same lines, I found some interesting articles on what babies and toddlers truly need:

10 Items You Don't Really Need
  • Really? Baby perfume?....sounds like something from "Pregnant In Heels"!
Toddler Gear: The Only 5 Items You Need
  • I like that crayons made the list...make sure they're washable!!
Toddler Gear: When to Skimp or Splurge
  • Some of my niece's favorite toys are her old-fashioned wooden blocks that grandma found at a yard sale. She carries them around with her wherever she goes...and someday, she may actually use them as blocks!
Happy shopping!!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Trimming Cabinets

Image
After we got all the old floors removed, it was time to prep some cabinets for our built-in desk. We went with pre-fab kitchen base cabinets because they were already built and they were 15% off at Home Depot. Why did we want to install those before we laid the floor? Well, because kitchen base cabinets have a standard height of 36", and desks have an average height of 32", and we knew that the tile floor would add about 3/4" of height, so we wanted those base cabinets to sit as low as possible when all was said and done. We also decided to lower the cabinets even more by cutting them off from the bottom. Here's a shortened cabinet vs. the original height of the base cabinet, side by side: First, we had to prep the cabinets for their "haircut": We removed all of the "brackets" that were holding the bottom boards on. I believe those boards around the bottom are called "toe kicks" or "toe strips". The toe kick in the
Read more

Counters and Floors

Image
When we left off last week, we had just installed the base cabinets for our desk. Now let's talk about the desktops we built and installed. We contemplated all sorts of different options...we thought about butcher block, but knew it would have to be custom ordered to size = pricey. We looked at some other options in the home improvement store, but everything was either not wide enough (we needed a depth of 25") or not thick enough. Then I remembered an old blog post by my favorite DIYers over at Young House Love, when they built a 13' long built-in desk and used 2 by's for the top. So we picked up a few 2 x 10's and a couple 2 x 8's, not knowing which combination would be the charm (since 2 x 10's are not truly 10 inches wide, nor are 2 x 8's truly 8 inches wide). The combination of two 2 x 10's and one 2 x 8 ended up being the perfect depth, and we wouldn't have to rip down any boards! Here are the boards all cut to length and ready to
Read more

Goodbye Smelly Carpet!

Image
Do y'all remember that we have a basement? It doesn't make many, if any, appearances in the blog. That's mainly because we haven't done a darn thing to it since J got the keys to the house. After helping my parents with their house during our summer vacation to Michigan in July, I think we found our motivation again, because we came home with big ideas and energy to attack the basement! Remember what it looked like before? It pretty much still looked exactly like that, except add a bajillion more stains on the carpet (they seemed to creep up from below!) So, the carpet had to go! Once we got all the carpet out, it was time to paint the walls. We wanted to do that before we put in the new floors, because I tend to be a messy painter :) Oh, hi Penny! The walls were like an off-white that had yellowed over time. And speaking of yellow, the stairwell was painted a hideous yellowish-green. SO BAD. Also, the "built-in" bookshelves left a nice
Read more