Through Every Season

Tag: Bargains

2 Bicycle Wheels = 1 Pot Rack and 1 Mobile

I love bicycles as art.  
Mike and I’s first piece of art was a poster of bicycle. 
It’s hung in many homes; 
living rooms, a bathroom and now in our kitchen.
I found this bike at a thrift store last Friday.
 It was small, old, rusty, and the seat was torn to shreds
and the color of the wheels remind me of my car!
 It was exactly what I was looking for 
and for the exact price I was hoping for – 5 dollars!
I “hid” it in my garage with our other bikes 
over the weekend hopping Mike wouldn’t notice and 
I wouldn’t have to explain why I bought it.
 Saturday morning he asked,
“Why is there a little girl’s bike in our garage?”
I didn’t want to say, 
“I am going to use it for a pot rack and a mobile that I saw on line;
see how cool they are?”
So I said, “I bought it for parts.” 
He was a trooper and didn’t ask any more questions.
Thank you, Sweety.
Monday morning, I got to work.. 
I looked up on youtube “How to take off a bike wheel.”
I LOVE youtube.  I learned that you have to disconnect the brakes
first then turn the nuts “counter clockwise.”  Knowledge is power.
The only problem I had was with the little safety screw thingy above.
The screw wouldn’t budge.  I had to cut it off with a hack saw.
Once I had both wheels off, I took one to the store for parts
which came in a little under 6 dollars.
 Then I cleaned up the wheels a little with soap, water and sand paper;
they were pretty rusty. Then I taped up and painted the inside rims
with rustoleum primer (to stop the rusting) then metallic paint,
which I had on hand from other projects.  🙂
I saved the smallest gear to hang up my back wheel;
I thought it was cute and I needed something to fill up the big hole.
I had the ceiling hook on hand, too.  It matches, too. 🙂
This nut from the bike was big enough not to slip through the gear hole.
I took some picture wire (from other projects) and tied on 
with an overhand knot to secure it,
 then wrapped the end of the wire around and 
pulled it through the gear and back wheel.

I made similar loop/knot on the other end to hang on the hook.
I dug through my school supplies and found this world map.
Pretty isn’t it.  It’s from 1975.
So old that I felt guilty using it for school 
way back when the kids were little. 
I googled “How to make paper airplanes” and found diagrams on this site.
I cut up my map and made it into 8 paper air planes.
I tried to make each one a little different.
I “laminated” my map with clear contact paper 
way back when.. so they were nice and thick.
I stapled in a small strip of map to make a loop to hang them from,
 then hung them from my back wheel.
 Isn’t it great?  That space looked so naked before.
 On to the Pot Rack:

 These are the parts I bought earlier.. 
(all 3/8″ – same as the bolt from my bike)
a wood to metal screw, couplings, hex nuts, jam nuts,
 washers (I only used one), 
and a 10 inch carriage bolt that ended up being too long,
so I switched it out for a 6 inch one later.
 I really appreciated the instructions from the link above.. 
but felt like I needed more pictures, so I took some.
I filled up the medal side of the wood to medal with nuts
and topped it off with a washer,
 leaving just enough threads for the coupling to screw halfway up.
The jam nuts are what keeps everything from unscrewing.
When you tighten them against the other nuts, they lock in place.
 I found a joist in my ceiling with my stud finder,
 drilled a small hole through, then I used my wrench 
to screw the wood to medal screw into my joist.
I always wondered how you were supposed to screw those
things in without missing up the threads.
 I tightened all the bolts together 
and I had a secure place to hang my pot rack.
 The threads on my bike wheel bolt were tighter than the threads
on my carriage bold so I was unable to keep my ball bearings and cone. 🙁
I exchanged my 10″ carriage bolt for a 6″ one.
filled it up with nuts and the extra coupling.
The guy from the web site above used a bunch of washers.
The nuts were more economical and lock nicly.
I left enough room to screw into the coupling
and a little room near the wheel so I could 
get to the tightening ridge under the head of the bolt, and
so I it would be a little loose for turning and reaching my pots.
I screwed it into my coupling and tightened all the nuts.
Next I got out these $9.00 shower curtain hooks I found at Target.
They were much cheeper than any pot rack, or “s” hooks I could find.
  And ta-da.. they match my cast iron pots and pans..
I like it..
Much easier access than in my crowded cabinet,
much cheaper than any other solution I could find
(just under twenty bucks), fun and a little artsy,
and my pans can air dry without getting rusty.
Hope Mike lets me leave them up.
Love,
Jenny

Black Friday Deals

We are not one of the brave shoppers that spend their 
Thanksgiving waiting in line then shop all night, but we do enjoy 
going out late Friday morning and seeing what they’ve left behind.
The last year or so having popcorn popping in the house
hasn’t been the best thing for my corn allergy.
It makes me dizzy, confused, and really irritated.
So for a while I stopped buying it.
I finally suggested that we buy a microwave for the back porch.
We found this one for $40 at Target on Black Friday.
It’s actually too small for a regular bag of popcorn,
but it works great for those new microwaveable popcorn bowls.
 I made this shelf totally out of scrap wood. $0
Then bought two cans of spray paint for it. $8
 And now we have a popcorn station.
We could have gotten a used microwave for less.. 
but Mike has this thing about used and public microwaves.
Our other great Black Friday deal was these golf clubs.
There’s a group of men at our church that plays golf 
together from time to time that Mike would like to hang out with.
He needed someone to practice with before playing with them
and suggested that it would be a good way for usto have fun and exercise together.. especially if we walk the corse instead of riding a cart.
I made him promise several times that it was
 just for fun and not competition.  
We played a couple of times before and really enjoyed it.

The clubs were regularly $400 for each set.  We got both sets
for around $150.  I didn’t think I needed my own set..
Maybe Mike didn’t want to share his with me.

Mike rented “Golfing for Dummies” from Net Flicks.. and
we found a driving range and have gone out a few times.
I might be enjoying them even more than Mike.
We also found a cheep course near by.
It’s closed for the season.. so we’ll have to practice up for the Spring.

Love,
J

Comfort Shopping

I gave up comfort food in November; 
partly because I was fasting and partly because of my allergies. 
My appointment with the allergist was less than a mile from Plato’s Closet,
 so I decided to do some comfort shopping while on that side of town.
I was so happy to find this top and one other for $7 each.  
If I had several of tops in this style, that’s all I would ever wear. 
I have two now and one almost like it.
It has a bunch of my favorite colors.
Love that it matches my pale turquoise jewelry.
 
The second day I was feeling worse and found these wonderful Easy Spirit shoes on sale.
I had two pair of tennis that I needed to replace.
 They had to be comfortable because I was feeling so uncomfortable.  
They fit like a glove.  I’ve never had shoes so comfortable.  🙂
And they are slip-ons.  No more retying my shoes all day.  Yay!
Maybe I need new strings for my hiking shoes.
Love,
J

Judi’s Room Make Over

When we moved to Montgomery, we bought Judi a bed in a bag set of the internet. 
Had I seen it in person, we would have never gotten it.  It started falling a part almost immediately.
This time we tried something different.  
I didn’t want to re-paint her brand new room and I didn’t want to spend a bunch of money so..
We were inspired by my sister, Wendy, to shop the clearance isles for a black and white bedroom set.
It’s much easier to mix and match when everything is black and white.
Much easier than matching shades of red for example.
We were able to find everything we needed in 3 different stores for about $40 total on clearance.
The demask “curtains” pulled everything together and made it work with the paint color.
We used some black fabric from my closet to make accent pillows and a valance.
 The ribbon cost more than anything else, but we put it to good use.
We “made” the curtains out of a duvet cover; we just hung it up with ring clips.
Judi and I are both happy with how it turned out.. a feat in itself.
🙂

Farmer’s Market

Mike went with me to the local Farmer’s Market this morning.  
I really miss the huge out door market that we had in Florida; one of my favorite things about FL.
Our local Farmer’s Market is much smaller, but everyone was friendly 
and there was a pretty good selection to choose from.  
Here’s what I got for $10.. Do you think it’s a good deal?
I was tempted to buy some watermelon, pears and yellow squash.. 
but we had apples, oranges, and strawberries at home.  
We just finished up some cherries.. Oh, my!  I didn’t know fresh cherries could be so good.  
I just ate a peach.. wonderful.. can’t wait to have some fried tomatoes, okra and onions for lunch..
I am not sure what I should do with the egg plant.  Any ideas?
Hope you’re having a wonderful weekend!
J

Eye Glasses progress

I went to the eye doctor.  My eyes hadn’t changed that much, except the +1.00 
for reading.  Judi went with me and helped me find glasses to try on 
and see which looked best.  
I decided not to get progressives because I don’t need them to see the computer.  
I could get bifocals.. but I would have to get frames twice as big as I am used to.  
The doctor said that my eyes will continue to change every year or two 
for the next 10 years or so.. 
I can get two small, stylish pairs on line for about 1/3 the price of one 
extra large bifocal pair in Walmart, so that’s what I decided to do.  Maybe I can 
just up my reading glasses and keep my driving glasses next time
and save even more money.  I’ve known for a long time that those 
eyeglass makers were making a bundle off me.  Glad I finally discovered 
how to buy them online.
I am trying to decide between two pair now.
This pair comes in two colors.  Red/black and pink/gray.  I’d get one of each.  Anti scratch, anti glare, polycarbonate, photochromatic, a hard case, microfiber cloth and shipping for less than $85 for both pair.
I found two like this one that I could get for $12 more than the ones above.  They are all at Zenni Optical.  I bought James’ at Eyebuydirect.. I think these are even a better deal.    
We are taking George to get spayed today and I am hoping 
to find some frames like these to try on while we are out grocery shopping. 
I need to get them ordered because they will take a week or so to get in.
Which do you like?
J

Black Friday Conquests

We kinda fell into Black Friday Shopping this year.
Judi was dying to find a pair of these shoes.
I didn’t think she would wake up early enough to go shopping.
She hates waking up early.
So what did she do to avoid waking up early?
She stayed up for 36 hours straight.  🙂
Since we were at the mall anyway I got this shirt 25% off at Charlotte Russe.
I think it will be a long time favorite.
I had a coupon for Bed Bath & Beyond.
I got this mirror to help me see the back of my hair when I cut it.
These gloves were $1.50 for the pair.
I plan to use the fingerless pair when I knit and type.  🙂
Doorbuster Cd’s were Mike’s motivation for getting out of the apartment.
Then for a bonus we got this DVD set.
It was cheeper to buy them than to rent them.  I’ve seen 3 or 4 of them.
Mike says we have to wait till Christmas to open and see the rest.
Judi got a T-shirt that says, “Bass your life on Christ” with a picture of a bass of course.
And James got a T-shirt that says, “Christianity isn’t a Religion.”
Refer to this entry when you want to see what we got for Christmas.
Tomorrow’s Cyber Monday.
🙂
Jenny

22nd Anniversary Trip

Mike planned a great anniversary trip for me 
to DeSoto State Park up in Northeast AL.
He was speaking to me in my love language.  
Taking me out doors to walk along a river is the best.
To top that he threw in some mountains and waterfalls
  
and a kiss by Queen Anne’s lace.  
We stayed in this really nice little cabin in Mentone, AL 
on top of Lookout Mountain.    
It was fully equipped with everything from a kitchen to a hot tub.  
Hubby and I talked about how it’d be nice to have money to invest 
in a cabin like it, rent it when we could, and go up on long weekends to kayak, ski, golf etc. up in the mountain.  We saw several for sale.
Mike made us some great big stakes on the gas grill.  
It’s been so hot at home that we’ve started thinking twice before using our grill.
We are used to Florida’s milder weather.
It was a little cooler, much more bearable up in the mountains.  
Water falls were easy to find a long Little River.
The park was really nice.  It’s nestled in the mountains between a couple of little towns.  To get from one town to the other you have to drive through the park, so there was no entrance fee.  I like free.
I don’t know what it is about big rocks that are so impressive.  
Mike gave me some cool, new jewelry that matched my top perfectly.  
It’s not in this picture.. I got it later that day.
It’s my new favorite color.  
Blue has been my favorite color since I can remember.  
A few of years ago I discovered purple.  
Now I am into this steely aqua color.  
I’ve decided that I like changing my favorite color from time to time.  
I still love sky blue and lavender.  
I think my favorite, favorite color is a mixture of the two, periwinkle.
This rock was so cool that they built the road around it.  
Once the morning started warming up, we decided to head down the 
mountain to Fort Payne to find some air conditioning. 
We stumbled across a big homecoming celebration for Alabama.  
It took us a while to figure out that they meant 
the country western band “Alabama”.  
Turns out that they are from there originally.  
For a little town of 12,ooo that’s a big deal.  
We had chicken fried steak at the Santa Fe Cattle Co.  
The food was good and we got ice water to go.
Our next stop was the Unclaimed Baggage Center.  
It’s a in a little town called Scottsboro on the Tennessee River.  Seeing all the stuff people had lost on planes was interesting.  They had a Kirby vacuum cleaner just like mine that’s a steal at $300, 
but most of the stuff wasn’t that great a deal for used stuff especially considering that they got the stuff for free.  I guess that’s the law of supply and demand at work for you.  
I found a Message Remix Bible for $10.  I was thrilled.  It’s practically new and I’ve been wanting one for months.  Mike found some sun glasses and we also picked up some DVD’s; Felix the Cat, Home Alone, The Grinch, Skillet Worship and a few others.  Most of them were around $4.  A deal but non-returnable.. so we’ll see how well they play.  
I wanted the Felix the Cat DVD because the kids have from time to time asked me what I did when I was a kid.. basically my answer is.. I watched TV and they have no idea what I am talking about when I tell them how I had a cat that looked just like Felix the Cat that I made watch the show with me everyday.  
 The kids survived the weekend.. new responsibility of driving and all.  
We’ve got a busy week a head.  Our creation scientist got his acceptance letter from AUM this weekend and has a lot to do before school starts. 
Thanks for your prayers..
J

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