The Family CEO

Craigslist Find: A Library Table

2010-07-21T10:16:00.002-05:00

Old library tables are one of those things that make my heart go pitter-pat. Still, I didn't even know I was looking for one until I saw the ad on Craigslist yesterday for this beauty. A couple of hours later she was mine for $61. I had no idea where I would put her when I got her home, but I didn't let that stop me. Fortunately she looks great on this wall.

As an added treat, when I went to pick the table up, the home had a plaque out front indicating that it was on the register of historic places. That was fun for me, as I don't usually buy antiques so I don't often find myself in places like that.

I am linking to:

The Thrifty Home's Penny Pinching Party
Frugal Friday at Finding Fabulous

Fun Find at Savers: Ethan Allen Style

2010-07-20T08:43:00.001-05:00

Do you have a Savers in your area? This thrift store is new to me and I made my second visit to one today. I'm always impressed by how clean and well-organized the store is. And the ones in my area seem to be a great source for books and accessories, although not so much furniture.

Anyway, today I came away from Savers with this gem.

It's 219 pages of the kind of pictures you see here. All for $3.99. I pay more than that for most magazines. And speaking of magazines, Savers has back issues for 29 cents/each. There were several copies of Southern Living, Home, and some gardening magazines at mine today. Lots of ideas and eye candy for just pennies.

Decorating with Maps: Cavallini Papers

2010-07-19T19:47:00.005-05:00

I love maps of all kinds. I can study them for hours - and often do. So it's not surprising that I like decorating with maps too. I've had this magazine clipping in my idea file forever:

I love the aqua background of this map, which they so cleverly repeated in the pottery underneath it. Even the swirls on the frame remind me of ocean waves, which is so appropriate for a map of Cape Cod, Martha's Vineyard, and Nantucket. I think I love everything about this photo!

Another great example of decorating with maps: what Melissa at 320 Sycamore did in her playroom. Love the colors.

The be all, end all of decorating with maps, however, would have to be what Centsational Girl did in her family room/game room. She put a huge map of the world on a wall and built a frame around it. Here's her step by step of how she did it. It's amazing, as is everything about that room!

Today I'm going to share a decorating with maps idea on a much smaller scale. Not long ago a friend and I were busy browsing Nell Hill's, a fabulous home decor store in our neck of the woods. We noticed lots of small, framed maps around the store and fell in love with the idea.

Later that same day, in a bit of serendipity, we discovered some frame-worthy maps at an arts and crafts store (Urban Arts + Crafts and if you're in the Kansas City area that just happens to be across the parking lot from the Nell Hill's Briarcliff store). We each snatched one up to do our own copy-cat versions of the maps at Nell Hill's. Only later, did I learn from Holly Mathis' blog, that what we bought were Cavallini Papers. Holly talks about framing the maps as a large piece and that would be a fabulous way to use them. Instead, I cropped out some smaller areas of the map of Italy that I bought and framed them in photo frames like we had seen at Nell Hill's.

I used yard sale frames and displayed them like I would have photographs. So easy and so inexpensive since the Cavallini map I bought was about $5. It's not free artwork, but it's pretty close.

Linking to Nifty Thrifty Tuesdays at Coastal Charm.

For Sale on Etsy: Betty Crocker's Parties for Children

2010-07-07T15:16:00.000-05:00

I can't pass up a wonderful, vintage book like this one. Published in 1964, it illustrates how to have a party from a time gone by. So simple and sweet.

The illustrations are wonderful too. Suitable for framing even.

I've listed it for sale in my Etsy store if you'd like to take a closer look.

Recent Thrifty Finds

2010-07-05T21:04:00.001-05:00

I'm having some fun playing along with Rhoda's Today's Thrifty Treasures. Make sure you stop by her blog post to see the amazing suitcase she got for $1...plus a lot of other neat finds. Here are some of my recent scores:

Three Hobby Lobby mirrors on clearance for $10 each. I'm embarrassed to say that I thought one of them was a different style, but when I got home I found I just had it upside down. Oh well. I plan to use these over a living room mantle.

Another Hobby Lobby clearance item: this wall planter. It's on my patio, holding some herbs planted in clay pots. If I can keep them alive long enough, I'll post a picture.

And my favorite, this wicker chair and side table I got for $20 at a garage sale I ducked into on a whim. They are in perfect condition. Love them!

Free Shipping at Ballard Designs and Home Decorators Collection

2010-07-02T11:34:00.001-05:00

For anyone else who loves these catalogs as much as I do, here are the details:

Now through July 7 there is free standard shipping on $50+ orders at Ballard Designs.
Now through July 12 there is free shipping on all outdoor cushions and pillows, shades and blinds, select seating, and thousands of rugs. (I've been looking for outdoor cushions at stores in my town and the selection is sorely picked over!)

Also, remember to go to Mr. Rebates first when shopping at these stores for an extra 4% rebate. Plus, if you're new to Mr. Rebates you'll get a $5 bonus just for signing up and it's free. I've used Mr. Rebates for tons of my online shopping and have always had a great experience.

Happy shopping and Happy 4th of July!

A Picture Frame Redo: Painting, Distressing, Antiquing

2010-07-01T17:00:00.006-05:00

Before

I don't know if it's the summer heat or just a change in taste, but lately I have the undeniable urge to lighten up the house. My latest victim is this picture frame. This is a picture I've had for a while and the frame used to be brown. Never happy with that, I spray painted it black and hung it in my dining room but the look had become just too dark.

I decided to lighten it up by spraying the frame again, this time with an offwhite spray paint. Because I'm lazy I usually just cover up what is in the frame with newspaper and go to town, like you see above.


Lazy Spray Painting

The result was light...too light. My first attempt at distressing (are there distressing classes somewhere you can take?) helped a little, but not enough. So I decided to try what I have seen so many of you clever girls in blogland do...apply a stain and wipe it off. I used Minwax Special Walnut because that's what I had.

Antiquing it this way was easy, even fun, and I'm fairly happy with the results. I'm so happy I tried this technique and now have it in my bag of tricks. The room feels lighter already.

Linking up to Frugal Friday at The Shabby Nest, The Inspired Room and Feature Yourself Friday at Fingerprints on the Fridge.

Hanging a Wall Photo Gallery

2010-06-25T09:46:00.002-05:00

There are probably as many ways to hang a wall full of pictures frames as there are people who have done it. There are even wall gallery templates you can buy at Michael's. This way, however, worked for me so here are the steps I used:

1. I rounded up as many frames as I could find around the house for this project. They weren't all black; many were outdated gold or cherry frames, but I spray painted those. I also spray painted the large 'M', which was brown.

2. I laid the frames out on my dining room table and played with the arrangement until I was happy. This was the longest part of the project for me as I would leave them for a day and then come back and arrange some more. This was also when I chose the pictures for the frames.

3. Once I was happy with the arrangement on the table, I used plain, brown wrapping paper and traced each frame and cut them out individually. I hung the 'paper frames' on the wall with painters tape so I could look at the arrangement from that vantage point.

4. When I was satisfied that the arrangement was the way I wanted it, I began hanging the photos one by one.

This project was really super simple once I got going. Here are a few final details:

The 'M' is one I had already. I bought it a few years ago at Kirkland's.
The frames with ribbon are from Michael's and the hooks they're hanging on came from Home Depot.
The spray paint I used was Krylon black satin.
The silhouettes were done of my kids years ago and were on the white cardstock the artist had put them on. I carefully peeled them off and put them on the scrapbooking paper you see. This was not my idea but was one I copied from someone out in blogland. If anyone knows who it is, I would love to give them credit!

Thanks for visiting! I am linking to Frugal Friday at The Shabby Nest and Feature Yourself Friday at Fingerprints on the Fridge.

Have a great weekend!

Framing Free Art: The Dining Room

2010-06-23T22:39:00.003-05:00

When it comes to budget decorating, one thing I'm particularly passionate about is framing free (or nearly free) artwork. Not only does it save money, but it makes a home far more interesting. I love going into a home and finding decor that tells me something about the people who live there and their passions and interests. I prefer that over a piece of mass-produced art any day.

I first blogged about framing free artwork back in 2007, so I've been thinking about this for a while. This week I took my framing free artwork philosophy into the dining room with this small addition:

It couldn't have been more simple...the definition of 'Dine' printed out on the computer and placed in a $1 yard sale frame. I printed the dictionary definition on a piece of scrapbook paper, using the Papyrus font. It took about five minutes.

I think this could be applied to almost any room in the house...'Rest' or 'Relax' in the bedroom, 'Play' in the playroom, 'Eat' in the kitchen, etc.

I linked to this post at Tranformation Thursdays. Find more great transformations at The Shabby Chic Cottage:

Vintage Copy of The Joy of Cooking for Sale on Etsy

2010-06-23T16:01:00.000-05:00

Do you love old cookbooks? I love browsing the pages to get a feel for the times in which it was written. Some people read cookbooks as a hobby and I can certainly relate to that. Sometimes in my garage sale and estate sale travels I run across and old cookbook that seems especially collectible. Since I can't keep them, all I have a shop on Etsy where I list them. Today I listed a vintage copy of Joy of Cooking by Irma S. Rombauer and Marion Rombauer Becker. The original copyright was 1931 and this edition was published in 1962.

Joy of Cooking has includes some much sought-after recipes like Joy of Cooking fruitcake, Maryland chicken and chicken cacciatore. For details on the cookbook, see the listing: Vintage Joy of Cooking Cookbook for sale on Etsy.

Some Mr. Rebates Updates

2010-05-01T13:55:00.000-05:00

Here are some updates on Mr. Rebates you may be interested in if you'd like to either save money or make money online. Some of these are time sensitive so be sure to check them out right away.

Mother's Day Specials (Now through May 9)

Avon Skin So Soft Bug Guard @ Half Price with a 7% rebate and possible $5 bonus and free shipping (Now through May 5)

Make Money with Cash Back Sites: A new blog devoted to creating residual income online.

Shopping with Mr. Rebates Blog Stay up to date with the latest deals and learn to use the Mr. Rebates site to your full advantage!

Shopping with Mr. Rebates on Facebook

Ballard Designs Review: One Shopper's Experience

2010-04-08T13:25:00.004-05:00

If you get many home decor catalogs at all, chance are the Ballard Designs catalog is one of them. (If not, request it right away; the ideas alone are worth it.) Like a lot of amateur home decorators, I LOVE this catalog. I drool over the furniture and accessories. I remember once telling my sister-in-law, "If I could afford the whole Ballard Designs catalog, I'd order everything in it." She agreed.

And while I had ordered an accessory or two over the years, I had never ordered anything major. Until last year. I was redecorating my dining room on a budget, and while I had bought some furniture pieces off of Craigslist, I really wanted to spring for something special: two Ballard Designs parsons chairs in my own fabric.

That experience went great. I bought the fabric in the amount Ballard requested and sent it to them on a bolt. Not long after they received it I got a call from them making sure that I wanted my stripes to go vertically and not horizontally. (I breathed a big sigh of relief with that phone call because I knew that 1) they had received the fabric 2) they were working on my chairs and 3) they cared enough to make sure they got it right. A few weeks later my chairs arrived and they were beautiful! Exactly what I needed to make my dining room special.

Last week I decided to take the plunge again and order Ballard's terrific table trio with a burlap tablecloth like the one in this picture. I placed my order online, received an email confirmation a few days later and received UPS delivery of the table two days after that. I was thrilled. I ordered the 30" table, which is $149 plus shipping, although I was able to get it for a bit less. (More about that below.)

The table came in three boxes, which was great. Because even though the UPS man put the boxes in my entryway, I appreciated not having one, large box to deal with. The table came in three pieces, which concerned me at first. Until I realized that it fit together without any tools or bolts or nail. It didn't even need instructions. I had it together in under a minute and had the tablecloth and glass topper on in a minute after that. (I was in such a hurry to see it put together that I didn't bother to press the tablecloth. I'll have to make time to do that later!)

All in all my shopping experiences with Ballard Designs have been great! I love their stuff and their prices are reasonable (even for a bargain shopper like me). Speaking of bargain shopping, I like to do my Ballard Designs online shopping through the Mr. Rebates site. I get a 4% cash back rebate on all my Ballard purchases that way. It is free to sign up with Mr. Rebates and they'll even give you a $5 signup bonus to start you off. They're rated 'A' by the Better Business Bureau as well.

I can't wait to thumb through the Ballard Designs catalog and plan my next purchase. Such good shopping experiences with them has made me confident to do more!

Related info: Bradford Exchange Discount Code and Bradford Exchange Coupon Codes

80% Off at Restaurant.com

2010-03-26T15:48:00.000-05:00

Restaurant.com is always a good deal. You can buy $25 gift certificates to local restaurants for $10. Between now and 3/31/10, however, you can get them at 80% off with the coupon code COOK. That's right...$25 restaurant gift certificates for $2.

But it gets even better than that. Mr. Rebates will give you a 25% rebate on your Restaurant.com purchases. So just visit Mr. Rebates first, and click through to the Restaurant.com site from there and you can save even more. I plan on buying some restaurant gift certificates to use for our own dining out but they make great gifts as well. Mother's Day, for instance.

As you know, I love Mr. Rebates. I've been using them since 2006 to get rebates on almost all of my online shopping. Here is my Mr. Rebates review.

Sign up for free at Mr. Rebates and save at Restaurant.com and thousands of other stores.

Spray Painting Used Furniture

2010-02-17T18:22:00.001-06:00

I just published my 200th article on eHow.com and since it's relevant to being a Family CEO, I thought I'd share it here. The article is How to Spray Paint Old Furniture and the reason it occurred to me to write it is because I've recently done just that.

The chairs I painted were part of a dining room makeover. I spotted some painted Queen Anne chairs on the Pottery Barn website, but at $250/each they just weren't in the budget. I decided to buy some Queen Anne chairs off of Craigslist and paint them myself. I did a little Googling about painting wood furniture and then decided to have at it. Since I paid less than $200 for all six of my cherry Queen Anne chairs, I didn't have to be too concerned that they wouldn't turn out. The eHow article details the method I used and I couldn't be happier with the result.

The rest of the dining room makeover also involved Craigslist. Specifically a pine hutch and a pine Ethan Allen table. I love home decorating but I don't love the cost and Craigslist has made the whole process much more affordable! What have you been able to find on Craigslist?

Related info:
How to Decorate with Cheap and Free Artwork
Ballard Designs Coupon Code

eHow Earnings Update

2010-02-11T15:12:00.000-06:00

If you're interested in following my eHow residual income progress, read my latest two month eHow earnings update.

Disclosure Policy

2010-01-21T12:59:00.001-06:00

This blog is a personal blog written and edited by me. This blog accepts forms of cash advertising, sponsorship, paid insertions or other forms of compensation.

The compensation received may influence the advertising content, topics or posts made in this blog. That content, advertising space or post may not always be identified as paid or sponsored content.

The owner(s) of this blog is compensated to provide opinion on products, services, websites and various other topics. Even though the owner(s) of this blog receives compensation for our posts or advertisements, we always give our honest opinions, findings, beliefs, or experiences on those topics or products. The views and opinions expressed on this blog are purely the bloggers' own. Any product claim, statistic, quote or other representation about a product or service should be verified with the manufacturer, provider or party in question.

This blog does not contain any content which might present a conflict of interest.

Get a Cashback Rebate on Your Weight Watchers Online Subscription

2010-01-03T09:58:00.001-06:00

It's the new year and millions of people are signing up for weight loss programs as part of their renewed effort to take off pounds. Thousands of those people will be joining the popular and well-established Weight Watchers program, either in a meeting center or online.

If you are one of those who will be joining Weight Watchers online, don't miss your chance to save a little money when doing so. By first visiting Mr. Rebates and then clicking through to the Weight Watchers site, you will earn a $5 rebate on your Weight Watchers online subscription. If you're new to Mr. Rebates, you will also earn a $5 bonus just for signing up (it's free and takes just seconds!).

Other weight loss rebates at the Mr. Rebates site include:

Medifast: 10% rebate
Nutrisystem: 10% rebate
24 Hour Fitness: 5% rebate
South Beach Diet: $20 rebate
eDiets.com: $10 rebate

Now is the chance to lose weight, get in shape and save a little money doing it!

I've used Mr. Rebates extensively and have been paid by the site reliably and consistently. You can read more about my experience here: Mr. Rebates review.

Related Information: Weight Watchers Member Blog

More eBay and Amazon Fun

2009-12-09T14:02:00.000-06:00

I was able to make a couple of sales this week on Amazon and eBay. The first was a Vera Bradley purse and coin purse that my daughter no longer wanted. Together they only brought $18, which was a little disappointing but since they were (gently) used I guess it's better than nothing.

The other was a Calculus book we had that brought $85. Now that's more like it! Text books are insanely expensive!

The $18 will go to my daughter but the $85 (less fees) from the text book will go to debt repayment. More about that after the first of the year!

By the way, the Chief Family Officer has some great posts on selling on Amazon. I encourage you to check them out!

How to Get $25 Retaurant Gift Certificates for $10 (or Less)

2009-12-08T14:34:00.000-06:00

Here's a cool idea to save some money on Christmas gifts or eating out yourself. The site Restaurant.com offers $25 gift certificates starting at $10. The restaurant selections are somewhat limited, but they have over 13,000 restaurant choices nationwide and when I enter my zip code I get 28 results within 15 miles. Not bad!

The restaurant choices are everything from fine dining to pizza and bbq places. And a lot of them are local, non-chain type of places which is really cool too. You can use these gift certificates to save a substantial amount on your eating out.

But the gift certificates can be offered as gift as well. You can choose to send the gift by email, print them out on your computer, or order actual gift cards through the mail. The recipient chooses their own restaurant which is really great too. I can think of a lot of ways to use these Restaurant.com gift certificates:

Gifts for teachers
Employee gifts
Client gifts
Gifts for those who have everything and don't need another dust collector

The list is kind of endless as most people like to eat out at one time or another. It's a great way to stretch your eating out budget or Christmas gift budget.

But here's a way to save even more. Mr. Rebates offers a 27% rebate when you click through to Restaurant.com through the Mr. Rebates site. That's one of the highest rebate amounts at Mr. Rebates. So in addition to the deep discounts available through Restaurant.com, you can earn an additional 27% back on your purchase by going through Mr. Rebates.

By the way, those Mr. Rebates links above are referral links. The Mr. Rebates referral program is set up so that if you refer someone to them (it's free to join) you earn 20% of whatever rebate your referral earns. For life! And it's at no cost to the person you refer. It comes out of Mr. Rebates' cut. I earn quite a bit of money from on my own shopping through Mr. Rebates and also from my referrals as well.

So go check out Mr. Rebates and Restaurant.com to see if they could save you some money! Happy shopping!

Related posts: Savings Sites Reviews
Save Big Money by Doing Your Christmas Shopping Online

Making Money on Amazon and Craigslist

2009-11-29T15:15:00.002-06:00

I was so inspired by the story about paying off debt by selling on eBay that I decided to list a few things of my own. I had some books to sell, so I listed them on Amazon. So far I've netted about $80 selling five books and one game on Amazon.

I also sold a couple of large items on Craigslist. Last week I got rid of a hammock for $25 and a wrought iron bar with two stools for $50. They weren't being used and we were going to have to store them for the winter anyway.

Selling online is addictive. I now find myself looking around for other things that would be good candidates for eBay, Craigslist or Amazon sales.

Related info:

Tips for Craigslist Buyers
Five Reasons Why I Love Selling on eBay

eHow Earnings Update for October

2009-11-06T09:45:00.000-06:00

I have posted about my October eHow earnings at Write for eHow. I reached a new milestone this month!

How to Buy North Face Denali Jackets for Less

2009-11-06T09:13:00.000-06:00

My kids, like all other teenagers I see, love the Denali jackets from North Face. That being the case, I was in the market for two new Denali jackets for them but I was balking at the $165 price tags. I did all the usual online shopping searches and couldn't find much of a break anywhere so I headed over to eBay. Here is the process I used to save big money on these jacket purchases.

1. First I had the kids go to a big sporting goods chain store near us to try on jackets. Since you can't return on eBay, I wanted to make sure we were getting the right size. (I discovered that my daughter can wear a youth size in these jackets, which saved us some money as well.)

2. I went to Mr. Rebates, searched for eBay and then clicked through to the eBay website through Mr. Rebates. Doing this earned me a 3% cash back rebate on my purchases just for about 30 extra seconds and a couple of mouse clicks.

3. Once at eBay I did a search for Denali North Face jacket in the size and colors I was looking for. I narrowed my search to only items that were offered using the 'buy it now' feature because I didn't want to mess with bidding. The buy it now prices were low enough I limited myself to those.

3. Keeping in mind shipping costs and seller ratings, I selected the lowest-priced jackets in my sizes/colors that were advertised as new with tags.

By using this method I was able to save almost 50% on these North Face jackets. Now that my purchase is complete, I can earn an extra 50 cent rebate by doing an eBay store review at Mr. Rebates. Hey, every little bit helps! ;-)

Here's Why It Pays to Learn to Sell on eBay

2009-10-29T13:17:00.001-05:00

I loved this guest post at Man vs. Debt about paying off debt by selling on Ebay. The author paid off $15,000 in student loans in nine months by selling stuff she had laying around. I did something similar one year when I financed Christmas by selling on Ebay.

A lot is written about staring a part-time business by selling online. I dabbled in that at one point but ultimately chose to make money by writing online instead. Still I think knowing how to sell on Ebay is a good skill for every Family CEO to have. At some point we all end up with stuff that we don't need anymore and it's surprising what some of that will bring. If you've invested some time learning how to sell on Ebay, it's pretty easy to sell some items in a minimal amount of time. In fact, I don't think it's out of the question to set aside some time once a year to sell unwanted stuff on Ebay or Craigslist and earn a significant amount of money in the process.

Related Articles:

How to Make Money on eBay with Effective eBay Titles

How to Photograph Books for eBay

How to Save Money on Shipping as an eBay Seller

How to Make Money Selling Cookbooks on eBay

How to Make Money Online Selling Kids Clothing on eBay

How to Make Money by Decluttering Your House

How to Start an Online Business Selling Used Books

How to Find Out What Will Sell on eBay

Another Way to Make Money with Mr. Rebates

2009-10-22T12:58:00.004-05:00

I am a fan - and regular user of - Mr. Rebates. Recently I discovered a new feature they have (well, new to me anyway), where they will pay you 50 cents for each short store review you do. It's called a Store Rating Bonus and here's how it works:

You have to have shopped at the store through Mr. Rebates.
Go to the very bottom of any page on the site and click on Store Ratings. (By the way, this feature is helpful to you as a shopper as you can see how others have rated the store.)
Click on the name of the store where you have shopped and then click on Rate and Review Store on the review page that pops up.
You'll be asked to enter a name and a nickname is fine.You'll then be asked to rate the store from 1-10 in five different categories. Finally you'll be asked to write at least a few sentences in the comments section about your experience with the store.

That's it! The whole thing takes maybe a minute and you can add 50 cents to whatever rebate you earned from shopping at the store. Store Rating Bonuses are added to your account and made available immediately.

Since discovering this feature, I've reviewed stores that I've shopped at up to three years ago. So if you've done shopping through Mr. Rebates, you could likely spend a few minutes on the site doing store reviews and earn some money for your trouble.

If you're new to Mr. Rebates, don't miss this opportunity to increase the amount of your rebate every time you shop!

(Note: Mr. Rebates also offers a referral program where you earn money for referring others to the site. This comes at no cost to those you refer - their rebates are the same - so it's truly win/win for both of you. By far the most amount of money that I've earned from Mr. Rebates has come through the referral program. I mean there's only so much shopping one can do! :-) The links in this post are referral links to Mr. Rebates. I say that in the interest of full disclosure because I am happy to recommend this site.)

Related info: Mr. Rebates Review

eHow Earnings for September

2009-10-04T10:39:00.000-05:00

I've posted my September eHow earnings at my blog Write for eHow.