Mrs. McFrugal

Here's a quick tip to make your rugs stay in place without buying those expensive rug pads... I buy rolls of shelf liner at the Dollar Tree, they are made of the exact same material as the rug pads! Each roll is only $1 and is 12" wide by 5' long. I bought 4 rolls and just trimmed them to the length I needed, and placed them around the edges of my rug: It's so much cheaper than rug pads, and keeps my rug in place perfectly!! (If I were concerned about protecting the floor, I could run two more strips down the center as well...still only spending $6!) In my last post, I mentioned we were going to start looking for a dining room rug. Well, after doing a lot of research, I found that the right size for us would be 7x9. The room is only 9'6" by 11'3", so we didn't have a lot of room to work with. A 7x10 rug was too large, not leaving enough of a border around the edge for a cabinet, and it also covered part of the floor register--not good...

Sorry it has been so long since I've posted! We've slowed down on home repairs/renovations due to vacation, illnesses, and just being tired of renovating. I have just a few updates to share... First, I found an amazing rug at IKEA while we were on vacation. It's a little larger than 4x6, for only $20! It looks awesome in the guest room with the gray walls: Isn't it beautiful??! J doesn't like rugs covering up his expensive hardwood floors, but I look at them as protection for the floors :) Another room that received a new rug was the master bedroom. Bella gets fed on the dresser, separate from Fiona, but we noticed that she started digging her claws into the floor to get a good grip when she jumps up onto the dresser. So we decided a big rug would solve that problem! Found this one at Target for only $15: It's kind-of hard to see, but it has a nice pattern in it. Bella approves :) The next update we did was with some lighting. We had been search...

For those of you who may be in the market for an electric toothbrush, check out these great deals than can be found! Right now, Oral-B is offering a $20 mail-in rebate   (valid on purchases between 7/1 and 9/30) on certain models of electric toothbrushes. Combined with the following sales, you can get a pretty awesome deal! Check out this toothbrush at Target.com...this price of $47 (regularly $109) is only valid today, 8/5! This deal gets you free shipping, and if you have a Target RedCard, an additional 5% off! If you miss today's Target Daily Deal, check out this toothbrush at Walmart.com for $37 (regularly $75), and it comes with a bonus back of Crest White Strips!   These are 2 great deals, and electric toothbrushes are supposed to be much better for oral health. Happy shopping! And don't forget to send in those mail-in rebates!!

For a little change of pace, I'm going to share one of my favorite recipes. This is one that my mom and I created based on hash browns we had at restaurants, but tweaking them to exactly what we wanted. I usually make this recipe when I have about half a bag of potatoes that I won't be able to use otherwise before they spoil :) Whenever I go home, mom & dad ask me to make this--they tell me I'm better at it, but I know they're only humoring me because it's super simple! So here's all you need: As many potatoes as you want, usually 6-8 green bell pepper, diced onion, diced Shredded cheese (of your choice) 1-2 eggs (optional) Butter (NOT margarine) First, you'll want to bake the potatoes. I usually do this the night before, and then refrigerate them overnight. The potatoes are much easier to deal with when they have been chilled.  When you're ready to put it all together, put some butter in a non-stick frying pan. Let the butter melt on low heat...

Alright, as promised, here is another update of Fiona at 16 weeks. We have now had her for 12 weeks (3 months)...hard to believe how much she's grown! Let's take a look back at each 4 week interval: 4, 8, and 12 weeks Now, here she is at 16 weeks: Whoa!!  Big girl!!! I have a feeling she will surpass Bella pretty soon!

So this past weekend, we didn't make much progress on the "house remodel" but we did make a lot of progress on making the house presentable! We had a cookout for some of my coworkers, so we had to clean basically every square inch of the house, garage, and yard. There ended up being 16 people over...18 including me and James! (oh, and 3 dogs). Group pic on the stairs! Thank goodness the stairs held for this picture! So anyway, we cleaned up all the tools from around the house, organized the garage, tidied up the yard and patio furniture, etc. The house hasn't been this clean in...ever! Just look at the dining room: Yeah, we still have to paint the corner blocks and touch up the paint on the trim, but I think it finally looks like a room!! In hindsight, we should have centered this artwork vertically as well as horizontally...maybe someday we'll fix it, but right now I'm just happy it's not on the floor leaning against the wall. Here's a ...

...and by "favorite," I obviously mean least favorite, worst part of installing new trim: caulking and filling nail holes. What you'll need if you're about to tackle a caulking project: Painter's caulk (duh) Caulking gun Paper towls Wet rag That's it! We chose to use DAP brand Painter's Acrylic Latex Caulk for about $1.52 a tube at Lowes.   One tube can get you pretty far, but we have a lot of trim (wainscoting, chair rail, etc.) so I estimated about one tube per room. Make sure you get the paintable kind!! So as a reminder, here's a picture of a corner of crown moulding pre-caulk. It's all gappy and ugly, right? Here it is with the caulk fresh out of the caulking gun, still all goopy and messy. Not much better, really... Here's where the magic happens. The only tool you need for smoothing caulk is...wait for it...your finger! You don't need one of those "pro caulk" tools or anything, so don't waste y...