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!

I can't believe it is the last day of March. Before April fully takes over you need to go to the Calendar of the Month Club and download their super cute paper calendar for April. Get it here.

World Water Day 2011:: Raising $20,000

Water. It's so simple, right? You get thirsty or need to wash and you go right over to your tap and turn it on. It's not that simple for millions of people around the world. For these people, water means going down to rivers or walking miles and miles to bring home water to use and often this water is unsafe for drinking. Contaminated drinking water is the number one cause of deaths in developing countries. The average distance tha

t women in Africa and Asia walk to collect water is six kilometers and the weight of the water they carry on their heads is about 20kgs - the equivalent to the average airport luggage.

How can we help? What can we do? Well, it's your lucky day. Today is World Water Day. The AdVenture Project is rallying to raise $10,000 for rural villages in India to train locals to repair wells. One third of all hand pumps installed in the last 20 years is developing countries are now broken. 4,000 children die every day because of lack of clean drinking water. The money raised today will train and employ hand pump mechanics. The mechanics earn income, brining themselves out of poverty, and they are saving lives by turing water back on for

thousands of people each year.

If we help raise $10,000 today, The Prem Rawat Foundation (TPRF) will match our efforts - doubling the impact in India! Donate $5, $10, $20 for water today! Click here to donate and watch us raise $20,00 for World Water Day!

Last summer we went down to the river one day to play in the water. We caught frogs, fished, and just had so much fun. After I got home and I was looking through my pictures, this one caught my eye. This is my daughter who was playing in the river on a hot summer day, but this easily could have been a picture of her going to the riverside to collect water for her family, something that millions of children and women do each and every day. Help give clean water today!