So, this is the first ever Good Deal Day post! I’ll be posting a round-up each day (assuming it’s a good deal day) and sending it your way. Cause I can’t just keep all this goodness to myself! Without further ado…

Right now you can get all of this Baby Einstein goodness for only $5.95 SHIPPED – 3 Board Books, 1 Plush Book and a set of Discovery Cards with attachable ring! And there is no commitment to receiving products, just call and cancel when you receive this first order!! *THINK BABY SHOWER GIFT!!*

“Dancing bears, painted wings, things I almost remember…and a song someone sings once upon a December…”  Yes, I sang that as I typed it. There are no words for how much I love this cartoon! It comes a close second to The Little Mermaid for my favorite, and that says a whole lot!

Right now you can get the blu-ray copy on Amazon for…wait for it…$4.99!!!!!!!!!!! Yeah. $4.99. In case you couldn’t tell by me repeating myself, and my abundant use of exclamation points – that’s a heckuva good deal!

So, starting tomorrow, Target will have flip-flops on sale for $2!! Which in and of itself is worthy of my first ever Good Deal Day post! But someone on their printable coupon posting team (I’m sure that’s a thing) has made a serious oversight! Head over here before they figure it out to print a coupon for $2 off a pair of flip-flops…and BAM free shoes! You are welcome!

Have you heard of Thred Up? It’s like an online consignment store! Right now through May 31, you can get free shipping on any order with code SHIPMAY13 at checkout! And if you add a Thred Up bag to your order (it’s free), you can send in your own items to consign for money!!

I got these cute cargo shorts and a Thred Up bag to send back for only $3.99 SHIPPED! AND if this is your first time signing up you can get $10 off your first order!! I don’t know if the $10 off and free shipping can be combined, but if they can…FREE STUFF! Sign up here and check it out! Oh, and they have kid’s and women’s items in case you’re tired on only ever shopping for your kids…

Say what?! This stuff is free y’all!! I play this little game called Deals vs. Bills each day when I check our mail. The goal is for the freebies and coupons to out number the bills, and usually the Deals win! If you wanna get in on this game, here’s some free stuff to sign up for:

• Free Sample of Gevalia Coffee
• Free Sample of Fixodent
• Free 1-year Subscription to Shape Magazine
• 4 Free Samples of Air Born

So, I looked around for a project to share with y’all (since I’m uber lazy today and didn’t feel like tackling something new). I decided to share my first use of chalkboard contact paper! I apologize in advance for the lack of photos of the process, but it’s fairly self explanatory.

I found this adorable chunky plastic yellow frame at the thrift store for $2! TWO DOLLARS PEOPLE!! Which is why I have such a love affair with thrift stores! And an alleged hoarding problem, which I will neither confirm or deny.

I wasn’t sure what I was gonna do with it, so it sat in my pantry for a month or so. (What? Stashing a frame in a pantry is totally normal.) And then I found this chalkboard contact paper on Amazon! *Insert the angelic choir!*

P.S. – This contact paper is the bees knees! And you can get a 6-foot roll on Amazon right now for only $7.66! And shipping is free with Amazon Prime or a $25 purchase.

So, after my roll…okay two rolls of contact paper came in, I simply cut a piece of cheap Dollar Tree thick poster board to fit the frame, covered the poster board in chalkboard paper and got to drawing! It took me a few attempts to get to this design, but I love it! 

I could use a bit of practice on my chalk drawing skills, but I am so happy with this fast and inexpensive project! At $2 for the frame and about $1 worth of chalkboard paper, it cost $3 and took all of about ten minutes!

• We are moving soon – as in  6 weeks soon! – as in across the country – as in 2,000 miles!
• I am a mega-procrastinator
• Not only has no packing and/or moving prep commenced, but…
• This place is a MESS – as in Hoarders – as in…

The kitchen doesn’t look quite that bad anymore. My last post before this thing hit the fan was showing you the improvements of a day of kitchen cleaning.

Spoiler Alert — it’s kind of a mess again. Not a total and complete mess, more of an hour of cleaning will fix this kind of mess.

Also, before the crash I had updated everyone on my plan to get things under control before our move. I’m somewhat on track with those plans, but will end up changing them at least 135 times before we drive away from here. I’ll write up my plans again sometime this week – not that you care, but this site is kind of my virtual to-do list along with dozens of other things!

So, that’s where we are now. Summary: It’s time for me to start cleaning and decrapifying this place some more. I’ll post this evening with a few updates of how things are looking now. See ya then!

As you can see my site of three years is empty. Totally blank. I switched to a different server recently and in the process lost all of my content! All 1,000 plus posts of it!

At first I panicked. Then I yelled via caps lock at tech support people. And then I laid in fetal position rocking back and forth for a couple hours. Then I started thinking about how my family is starting over soon – a new state, a new place, a new life. And it seemed fitting that this site start over along with us!

So, here I am, three years after starting my journey as a working blogger. I have a little more knowledge, a lot more experience and a clean slate! After all, I did tell the universe that I wanted to totally redo this site! Be careful what you ask for!

That having been said, welcome to the new and improved (and empty, but bear with me on that) Homemaking Expert! Oh, and I’m kidding about the fetal position thing…maybe.

Sorry, y’all! When I lost all of my content, I also lost this post. AND I no longer have the jpeg to upload! I plan to recreate it soon, and I’m sorry for the wasted trip.

But look around, maybe there is something else that interests you!