Marty at A Stroll Thru Life is having a cloche party! She is one of the sweetest, most sincere people I've met through blogland and I adore her.


Here is a cheeseboard with a glass cover I found for $1 at a yard sale:

It now sits on a stand from a Target clearance

with a sweet nest inside:

I also have one in my bedroom with a (fake) flower pot inside:

Here are some other glass fillers I've used throughout my home:

Summer is in full swing!

Holy cow! I was a little taken aback to have all 5 running through the house again (okay, the baby doesn't run, but still...) with their friends all day. I was going crazy and then I remembered a delightful little thing I used to use called chore cards. My friend, Lynee introduced me to them when we lived in Idaho, and I have been using them in the summer since then. It's a fun way to get your kids to get their work done before you all go out to play.

I made up a list of all the chores my kids help me do. Walk through your house and see what you would like done. Maybe you want dusting to happen at least once a week. Maybe your glass screen doors are covered in fingerprints like mine. Maybe everyone's shoe baskets are spilling into each others and you need to organize them and distribute them to the rooms. Or better yet, why couldn't your kids organize them?

Your kids can do more than you think~it may take some time to teach them how the job needs to be done, but in the long run it will pay off for years and years on both your parts.
You all live in the house and you all need to help take care of it, right?
Right. :)

Then, I typed up the list in Microsoft Word and added clip art pictures with them to make them a little more fun and also for the younger ones that can't read. I printed them off on different color of cardstock for each child,

cut them into cards,

and then took them to Mardel to get them laminated (I've found teacher and homeschool stores the least expensive for laminating)

The kids cut them up,
(if you're type A, you can straighten up the cutting when they're in bed :)

Then I punched holes into them and put them onto a ring.
Remember that frame I turned into a bulletin board? Turns out the hooks are a perfect place to hang chore cards on!

I uploaded my chore cards here. Feel free to copy, paste, and change away to fit your family.

This is how we use them:

The "essential" ones like getting dressed, making bed, brushing teeth, etc. are done every day. I put a little star with a sharpie on those ones. Then, each day I add in one or two extra jobs that I decide need to be done that day. It makes a world of difference to divide the jobs up. Our big rule is that no one plays with friends, outside, on the computer, tv, or wii, nothing until their cards are finished. It's amazing how fast they work when their friends are waiting for them outside and their "cards" aren't finished yet. Now, lest you think my kids wake every morning and come in and ask, "how can I help you today, mom?" I need to tell you that there will most likely be opposition. There will be some days of wailing, whining, protesting, gnashing of teeth, crying, howling, BUT

If you look...you'll also see some fun cards. I don't throw these in every day, but they just love these. It's a fun way to make them look forward to something and the chores seem to be done extra quick on those days.

I like to change things up every few months to keep the momentum going (especially with chores) so in the fall, we switch to chore charts. Also, I would recommend making some blank cards to write on with a dry erase marker for new ones you think of and want to add...

I hope these help you out!

Have a great weekend~

ETA Again!: I uploaded it to 4 Share. Hopefully this works. I tried to fix the Google Docs link~ It may or may not work for you here (the formatting isn't there, but you get the idea)

I bought this sweet little bundle of sticks at Rod Works in Utah for $2.50:

As I was playing around with where to put them, my husband saw it and said, "more sticks?"
I said, "what do you mean, more sticks?"
He raised his eyebrows.

Then, I looked around and had to laugh:

sticks in nests

topiaries made out of sticks

balls made out of sticks in glass jars:

more stick balls in stick baskets

sticks with starfish

wreaths made out of sticks

sticks in the bathroom

sticks in pots

Yea, I got sticks.
I like sticks.


What about you...
got sticks?

Kimba is having a garden party!

And since you know I have such a green thumb, can you believe I'm joining? :) I did take out a can of spray paint this weekend for some outside projects:
You remember this hanger from my weekend yard sale treasures?

She got a new coat of green and I hung her up on the side fence to hold towels.

I got this decorative metal thingy at Hobby Lobby last year in their garden clearance for 90% off, but wasn't crazy about the color.

Our light fixture was in desperate need of a change out as well:

So, we changed it up a bit:


Love this color for outside.
Isn't this supposed to be a garden party? We do have a vegetable garden, and it's off to a pretty good start. The White House garden pales in comparison, don't you think? :) Er, minus a few hundred weeds or so...

So, if you have a real vegetable garden, is it okay to have a fake plant outside on your table?

Have a terrific Tuesday~

It's time to share thrifty treasures over at Rhoda's:

There were so many yard sales this weekend~holy moly!

I had to share some inspiration I've seen for old headboards and footboards:

Look what Kate from Centsational Girl did with a footboard she picked up at the thrift store (for half off nonetheless!):

She turned it into an outdoor message center!
Oh, but that's not all. She shows an alternate version for inside:

Look at what Karla from It's the little things that make a house a home did with a free headboard she got from the side of the road:

She turned it into an outdoor bench!

And finally, this one comes from the last page of the May 2009 Better Homes and Gardens. It's what is behind the headboard that caught my eye: Erin Diegel from Arizona upholstered her wall behind the bed:

Thank you for having cute sunglasses in your dollar spot section for $2.50. For people like me that lose them, that sit on them, whose kids play with them and break them and can't stomach seeing $20+ sunglasses go down the drain. Thank you.

Thank you, sunglasses.
For being my headband in the summer, and for shading my eyes that have no makeup on them so I can look like one of those with-it moms at swimming lessons that woke up at 6 a.m. and fed her kids organic oatmeal and fruit before lessons instead of one that leaped out of bed 1/2 an hour before lessons, threw her hair in a pony, and tossed the kids granola bars to the backseat on the way.
I bought 3 pair that I'll try to make last through the summer.
Thank you.

Making a fool of myself trying to show what they look like on and trying to make him laugh at the same time...

there's a smile!

I thought these wooden earrings were pretty cute for a dollar too...

You just never know what you're going to find in that dollar spot...