I am not much of a "fryer." I think I have maybe fried something in oil once, maybe twice in my life??? I don't like the way it makes the house and clothes smell and it just seems like a lot of work. And I always laugh when I think of the line from Sweet Home Alabama when Candice Bergen tells Reese Witherspoon's mom "why don't you go back to your double wide and fry something" and then gets punched out. Oh, that makes me want to watch that now.

Anyway, for our little rotating preschool, I had the letter "d" and I found this super simple donut recipe. It looked so easy in fact, I was willing to fry. We tried it and liked it so much, we made them again for our family night.

I just want to give a shout-out to my friend Shandy. She is a photoshop, scrapbook genius, AND a mother of 4 boys and twin girls. Yea, she's amazing.

I promise she's not paying me to do this, I just think it's a great service. She just launched a new website called Photo Flattery. So, basically you send her a photo and she makes it look fantastic for only $5 on up, depending on what you have her do. You know I love a good deal, and trust me, this is. Google it and you won't find anything less expensive. She also does announcements, invitations, christmas cards, etc. The nice thing with her is that she designs it, and then you can print them wherever you would like to, which can save so much.

Melissa over at the Inspired Room is having a Fall Porch tour. I love looking at front porches, especially in the fall! I not only love her name, but Melissa's got a great site dedicated to home. From her site: a happy mix of realistic interior design, simple homemaking and inspiration for authentic living.

So, here are some I took out on my yard sale adventures. I have no idea who lives in these and I was getting some very strange looks from the gardeners and workers around the neighborhood, so I just snapped a few and ran!

Tip Junkie is having a "favorite project of 2008" party. Go check them out!!

My favorite post of 2008?? It was between the kitchen or bathroom makeover, or the 3 legged table ideas, but I think I like this one the best, because it's a small, do-able project. You can see the before and after here.

The top layer was already peeling off, so I finished the job with a wallpaper scraper to reveal the wood underneath

Remember the poor neglected table at the yard sale for $3? We got her and brought her back to her new home.

Here is what I came away with! Now, this is from the past 2 weekends, so it wasn't just one amazing day. I did get the little green beat up table and can't wait to show you how it turned out. I also caved and got that baby swing, but now am having second thoughts. Do I really need a deluxe swing like that? All of my other kids have gotten along fine with just the basic back and forth one. I'm thinking I may just Craigslist it and be more happy with the money. What do you think?

I decided to take my camera with me on Friday when I headed out to yard sales. I dropped the girls off at school, and the boys and I hit some around the school. Everyone was really nice about me taking pictures, except for the Dooney & Bourke lady (see below) that kept asking if I was going to put this in the paper. She looked pretty worried, so I put it away. I love going on Friday mornings because there just are not as many people and better selection.