WeeTRADE is THIS WEEK!

All outfits pictured above were purchased from Wee Trade in years past from $10-20 each!

WeeTRADE is one of my most FAVORITE events in Jacksonville. I missed the sale while I was in California, but thankfully a fellow Jacksonville Mom writer shopped for me and mailed out some adorable clothing items to me! Thanks, Jessica!

The sale is open to the public starting on Thursday 9/19 at 9am. Admission is FREE and if you are a military, first responder or first time parent or grandparent, you can actually get a FREE ticket to shop the sale early on Wednesday. 

Register here for Military/First Responder 

Register here for First Time Parent/Grandparent

Location:

Shoppes of San Jose

2777 University Blvd W

Jacksonville, FL 32216

Some of my most favorite outfits for my kids have come from the WeeTRADE Sale! The sale happens once in the Spring and once in the Fall and this year they are celebrating 15 YEARS! Pam and Jennifer are the gracious women who put on this sale every year. They could have never dreamed the sale would grow this large as it started right in Jennifer's living room with about 30 friends and 600 items of clothing. This year the sale has over 500 consigners and over 50,000 items! 

What does that mean for you? You get access to adorable clothing, like new toys and every piece of baby equipment that you could ever imagine needing at a fraction of the price. Every item that goes into the sale is hand inspected by a WeeTRADE Team member ensuring the item meets criteria and quality. 

Here are just a few photos of the current inventory that you will get to shop. 

Every shopper is different, but my plan of attack is to go through the clothing racks first! Now I have two kids to shop for so this should be interesting! Then I go to costumes and dancewear, then toys. Even better, on Saturday from 9am-5pm you can bring your kids to shop the 1/2 off sale. 

I am literally giddy about the sale. I dropped off my items on Saturday and did a quick peek-around and saw some ADORABLE things for $10, 12, $15. You literally cannot beat the prices! I'll go live from the sale and I look forward to showing you all the goodies! Happy Shopping!

Budget-Friendly Fall Front Porch Decor

I know I say this every year, but fall really is my favorite time of year. You know fall is in the air when, Bath & Body Works starts advertising their fall scents (my favorite is Leaves), Costco gets their giant mums and pumpkin patches and fall festivals start popping up all over!

I love transforming my front porch into all things fall and this year I got started a little early. So early, that I didn't find pumpkins until Saturday of last week! Finally my front porch is complete, with the exception of some extra pumpkins I'll add from our pumpkin patch visits over the next month. Here are some tips to get your front porch ready for fall without breaking the bank!

Mums. Costco is my go-to when it comes to large potted plants. They have the best prices and products. Their mums are $14.99. I picked up this one last week and many of the buds were still closed. Pick a mum with less open buds so that it will last longer! 

Orange Pumpkins. Walmart isn't my favorite place to shop, but they do have some amazing deals. This is where I got all of my pumpkins pictured and the Indian corn. I'm hoping to accent with some more eclectic pumpkins after our next visit to the pumpkin patch. $3.88 for large pumpkins and $2.88 for pie pumpkins. 

Mini White Pumpkins. These were cute and 3 for $3.88. You could substitute these and add gourds as well. 

Indian Corn. Also, 3 for $3.88 at Walmart! I love the different colors and varieties. 

Hay Bales. I picked these up at Michael's during a sale. I got two of them for $6.00 each with my military discount. I placed one vertical and one horizontal to add some dimension. If I had more space, I would have added more hay bales! 

Scarecrow. This was a request from Charlotte. I am not in love with it, but Charlotte liked it and loved her pigtails. At $5.99, how can you go wrong?! I also purchased this at Michael's. 

The wreath that is pictured is from Hobby Lobby from 6 seasons ago. The little pumpkins are starting to peel, but it has definitely served its purpose. Here are some additional wreath options from Michael's that would be a good substitute. I also added a monogram on top of the wreath. You can purchase a monogram from one of my favorite small-businesses, Boogie & Bear. It is a great investment because you can use it with all of your holiday wreaths and paint as needed! 

Both wreaths currently on sale for $25 

I haven't gotten down my bins to decorate the interior of our house yet, but I did attend an awesome craft night with some girlfriends last night and wanted to share the final product! We used Annie Sloan chalk paint, gold leaf and wax to design to fall pumpkins. I put my finished pumpkins with some other fall accents into a shallow basket tray as a centerpiece for my dining room table. 

The before paper mache pumpkins!

Crafting Away!

Finished Product!

Happy Fall Y'all! 

Affordable Announcement Option

As technology continues to take over our world, I often wonder if the postal service will soon become extinct! I love snail mail, so I am really hoping that it doesn't! It is always a treat to get something in the mail! I have a little addiction to thank you notes, especially monogrammed ones! I should really add up how much I spend in stationary and postage every year! It is probably a scary number!

With a stamp coming close to 50 cents, it is definitely expensive to send announcements, invitations, Christmas cards, etc. So, when it was time to send announcements for Charlotte's birth; I started researching options. I found some adorable options on Minted, Tiny Prints and Shutterfly, but with our list topping out at over 100, I knew I would be spending a fortune on the announcements if I went that route. 

In the past I have used Etsy for invitation designs for my nephew's birthday and for an engagement party. The designs can range anywhere from $10-$20 or even a little more for a custom design. You are buying the PDF/JPEG image and then you can either print or send as an embedded file in an email.

Announcement design by  Four Harp Designs 

If you do a 5x7 invite, you can fit 2 per page. I would suggest this because it reduces the cost of color copies by half. When you are planning to print, keep an eye out for a sale. I used Office Max for Charlotte's announcements and they were running a 25% off all printing sale. (Side note: Office Max and Office Depot are merging and they offer a significant military discount) With the military discount, color copies are 39 cents. Then, you would need them to cut the prints to the proper dimension at $1.00 per cut. I would suggest at least 100lb. cardstock for thickness. If you aren't interested in the hassle of printing, most Etsy stores will also print and ship to you!

Then, you need envelopes. I was in a rush for time, so I picked up my envelopes from a local supply store in Hawaii at a great price! I spent $8 for 100 5x7 envelopes. I would also recommend Amazon and cardsandpockets.com for an assortment of colors and textures. 

And finally, you need postage! You can always get personalized stamps on Zazzle to complete your look. I was able to find some cute floral postage stamps that somewhat coordinated with my address labels and envelope wraps.

Envelope Address Wraps by Four Harp Designs

Total Cost for 100 Announcements: 

Design- $18.00 

Envelopes- $8.00 

Color Copies- $19.50 

Envelope Wrap Design- $10.00 

Labels for Address and for Evelope Wraps- $15.00 (with plenty leftover for next project) 

Postage- $46.00 

$116.50

 You would easily spend this much for just your announcements on a site like Shutterfly or Minted! I should also mention that Charlotte's daddy took all of her precious newborn photos. He did such a good job! :)