96. Get a fire pit, maake S'mores and hang with friends

This is another long neglected post.

We had a ton of friends staying over with us for Thanksgiving weekend, so I knew I had to get crackin' on the fire pit purchase.

This beauty was on craigslist.com listed for $30.....but the guy took $20!!!!

A good deal makes me appreciate my purchases so much more!!!

Hookah, champagne, s'mores and fire pit!!!

What a fantastic way to spend the night!!!

Cup O Joe.

This past weekend, I replaced my collection of mismatched, chipped & broken, and random sized coffee cups for a more "grown up" looking matching set.



I picked up this cute set for ...................drum roll...............a buck each!!!!!! I was returning some supplies to Michaels (one of my most favorite places ever) and saw these in the $1 section.
















































































I love the simple black & white pictures on them. And the positive little messages of encouragement are a nice added pick-me-up to help with my Monday morning cup of coffee.

Weekend garage sale score.

This Saturday I was walking around the neighborhood with Dara, enjoying the awesome weather we've been having in Las Vegas the last few weeks and I came across a moving sale that one of our neighbors was having.

Look at this baby I scored for just.....................TWENTY FIVE CENTS!!!!!

They had a ton of jewelry boxes in a bunch of different sizes in this Asian-ish, mother of pear, inlay style, but they were all broken or missing drawers and pieces.

The only reason I even looked twice at this one was because as you folks know, I'm a sucker for any thing peacock and by some strange chance it was the only one that didn't have any major defects (and who am I kidding......it was only a quarter).

The fabric in the drawers and on the top tray was all ratty and torn up, so I cut up an old American Eagle shirt I had in a fabric pile and just replaced it.


I originally thought some of the inlay pieces were missing, but it turned out it was just
REALLY grubby, so with a bit of cleaning up it has found a home with the rest of my jewelry stuff.

The full collection.

Garage Sale Madness

This past weekend The Payne family (J.'s dad T.J., step-mom Meg, sister Devon, b.i.l Kevin) and a hand full of other awesome people who volunteered a Saturday morning, helped with a giant garage sale to benefit Jessica's Children Foundation.

Jessica's Children Foundation is an organization who offers aid for housing, school supplies, medical bills and financial assistance support to the children or murdered parents. It's heart breaking to read the stories on the foundations site that tell of the struggle these family and children go through, but it's also really encouraging to see that there are individuals and organizations out there that really do care and are making giant efforts to help.


Not only was the garage sale a great success for a great cause, there were some great deals to be had!!

Here we have a (really bad) picture of all the loot I scored!!

4 dresses @ .25 c each.

long flower printed maxi dress in the middle.

short black and white polka dots (Black and White Party dress......maybe?!?!)

short black bathing suit cover up/ long black skirt (blob on the right)

short black sun dress (blob on the left)

aluminum lantern for the back yard , also .25 c

2 books @ .25 c each

giant back of mixed yarn, craft odds & ends, and a new set of knitting needles for some undisclosed donation

and the most exciting of all.....

A brand new (unopened) chess set for $1.00 and the book "Learn to play Chess in 30 min" for a dime!!!

I was super stoked about this purchase because a.) HELLO.....it was a dollar!!!! and b.) it's # 17 on "The List".

I'll be sure to post up-dates on how the lessons go!