A new thrifting treasure

A few weeks ago we had a very lucky thrifting day. We found ourselves a copy of this book for 65 cents. It actually turned out to be an even better deal than we knew at the time, because it is currently out of print.

We love Ed Emberley's drawing books. He uses basic shapes drawn out step-by-step that turn into unique animals and faces and other everyday objects. His method is easy enough to make anyone more confident in their drawing skills.

In fact, recently 4-year-old Owen has taken to drawing more than just scribbles and random shapes. I think it is because he discovered that he could follow the few steps given in this book

to draw animals and he and I and Jeff and James were amazed at the final product. It gave him the confidence to draw more.

For quiet time today I surprised him with a new notebook just for his drawings and I can't wait to watch the pages fill up and a new little artist finding his own style in our house.

Drying Cherries

The time I have spent recently searching Craigslist and garage sales for a food dehydrator has paid off. I am officially the owner of this beauty. I found her at a yard sale near my house; someone's grandma had purchased the thing on QVC and never even used it.

Tara and I went cherry picking here a couple of weeks ago and ended up with 6 lbs. of lamberts (dark red) and queen annes (yellow and pinkish). I did a little research on how to dry the cherries and found some great information on this website.

After getting such a great deal on the dehydrator and the cherries I almost broke down and bought one of these, but in the end, decided to be responsible and use a more budget friendly method--a straw--to get the pits out. (More info on how to do that here)

After our cheap straws bent under the pressure, Jeff and I were trying to think what fast-food restaurant or mini-mart had the sturdiest straws until Tara called with the brilliant idea to use one from a sippy cup.

Using the recommendation from the aforementioned website, pitted cherries were frozen, then defrosted and put into the dehydrator.

The 6 lbs. of cherries took up all 7 trays in the dehydrator and ended up taking around 26 hours to dry completely.

I learned that when drying fruit, the dehydrator can be opened at any time to check for doneness. This was helpful information, as some of the cherries dried quicker than others, so I could remove those and leave the others to continue drying. When the cherries look and feel like a raisin, they are done.

And the final product--definitely worth all the prep work, even though the piddly amount you end up with doesn't seem like it.

Another great thrifting day

Yesterday, Owen and I decided that spending another day at home on a rainy, cold day would only add to the gloom, so we headed out to wander around our nearby thrift store.

We weren't looking for anything in particular, but boy, did we find some 50 cent gems.

Remember paint with water books? Why these are so hard to find anymore, I still don't understand, but this one didn't even have a single page ripped out AND it came with a coupon for a free visit to the zoo that expired in 1994.

I was pretty excited to find this blast-from-the-past Wizard of Oz sticker book, also brand new. These are the stickers that you rip out and lick (they taste like bad spearmint--can't you just taste it?) and stick inside the dotted lines. If my boys think that Dorothy is too girly, I will just do the whole book by myself.

James has become quite the little drawing machine, so he was pretty excited about this "how to draw planes, trains, and battleships" book that came as a bonus wrapped up with the sticker book. This particular thrift store often puts two or three coloring-type books in a bag for 99 cents so if you want one in the bag, you end up with a couple more.

So on a rainy day, we came home with all sorts of rainy day activities. Thrifting never disappoints.