Thrift Store Scores

I love those days when the thrifting universe aligns and brings me amazing, wonderful things. Those days make me want to become a profession thrift store scorer when I grow up...that's a valid career...right? Here are my finds from today:

We have big plans for our backyard. A few years ago I started reading Animal, Vegetable, Miracle and The Backyard Homestead and since then, I have wanted to have a huge garden that can support my family of vegetarians all year-round. Last year we used a tarp to cover our future garden area and a few weeks ago, Andy started tilling the area. This week he started making the raised beds for the garden so we can start planting all the cool weather crops.

We are so excited about our greenhouse. We are hoping that is will be a major tomato growing factory for all the salsa and tomato sauce we want to can for winter. We will have 17 garden raised garden beds, a pumpkin patch, and the greenhouse...not to mention 9 chickens for eggs. Between our garden and our amazing CSA we should be set!

Mother Earth News has a really great online garden planner that I started testing out a few days ago...check it out!

I always like giving handmade gifts especially to kids. This weekend Blake went to our sweet neighbor;s birthday. He was turning five and is all boy. I have always struggled with gifts to make for boys until I came across Saltwater Kids and found the instructions for putting together a great fort kit and really, what little kid doesn't love creating forts! From Saltwater Kids, I found a link to Celebrating the Boy, a plethora of ideas for things to make for little boys...and man oh man, there are some way cute things.

I found the supplies for by fort kit at the dollar store and my not-so-favorite big box store. I made the the drawstring bag and the ties on the sheet out of a t-shirt that I was going to use for freezer paper stencils but never did. This was so simple and fun to make...can't wait for some more birthdays!