Lights! Camera! Action!

~~ Lights! ~~

We needed new lighting in the living room so I bought a brand new ceiling fan light kit and WOW was it bright!

This gives Mike ideas. We had bought another palm frond looking ceiling fan at a garage sale and had installed it in Mike's shop. He got busy and re-installed in our dining area to match the one in the living room. Nice.

Now he's a project in mind. It involves these metal fence posts that we dug out years ago and some major power tools. 

He cut those posts to size and painted them white to match the lanai. He screwed them into the wall and installed our "old" ceiling from the dining area into the lanai.

Nice!

~~ Camera! ~~

Shrike!

Fence Flowers! 

Blooming like crazy!

This mocking bird gave quite a show. He was just singing away and hopping up and down on the wire. 

~~ Action! ~~

Not very exciting for action but it's a bowl of pinecones.

Yes, yes, it's a paint project. I had acquired this set of brightly colored bowls for cheap (read free) and I had an idea for a decorative project.

So I painted them to look like zinnias (kinda) and one that looks like an acorn.

The plant is an elephant ear. Cindy had sent me one a long time ago and it grew into this HUGE six foot plant. The original plant died but it had put out many babies. They never grew back. Every one of them got about this big and died but they still kept coming up. Maybe this time I can get one growing again.

Elby checking out the new area... and the new plant.

Um, Elby loves plants!!

And here's your action. She immediately, I mean like within 2 minutes, proceeded to eat the new plant.

BAD KITTY!

Aw, sad. It was so pretty. I've got to find a nice green, easy to grow plant that the cat won't tear to pieces.

Any ideas?

Scrat House

Another wood-built paint project at Low Roller Acres...

This is the Scrat House. Okay it's a squirrel house and we're hoping to get a whole family inside.

Dusty agrees. She's waiting expectantly for a squirrel to come down out of a tree. She is very patient.

Oh my! More Paint! When will I run out? The answer is:
NEVER!!!

The local Ace Hardware store was offering up an entire pint of custom color samples for only $1.99 each. Of course I took advantage. That little pint goes a LONG way at my house!

Mike had an idea, a vision, and he went to work building from the scraps of an older abandoned project.

At this point I didn't know what he had in mind.

 

Meanwhile, since it was such a beautiful Florida day, I went wandering around looking for something photogenic.

Aw, I found this dead butterfly lying on the ground, BUT
as soon as I took this picture he flew away!
Happy!

A giant yellow hibiscus blooming in the sky.

Mike has completed his project. It's a squirrel house! With windows!
He had taken apart an old window bird feeder I had and used them here.
Wow!

Look inside, it's a split level house.
Now it's my turn.
Paint!

Now while I was painting Mike borrowed the neighbors Mustang to do a little dirt work. He came riding home with Dusty in the bucket. He said she just jumped right in. I guess she truly is a farm dog!

So Mike got busy (having the time of his life) moving dirt. We've had this dump truck load of  black sand sitting here for a long time. It's been there so long it's covered in weeds.

There it is. Much better. 

And now I have finished painting the...
SCRAT HOUSE!!

We mounted on an old tree stob.
The squirrels can enter from below.

You can see their window view from here.

And I found this poor beat up rusted yard ornament. Hm... I have more...wait for it...
PAINT!!!

Much, much better!

And there it is next to the bushes, just waiting for someone to call it home.

A Plethora of Paint and Plentiful Precipitation

Time to get back to the blog, it's been awhile and I have bunches of stuff, odds and ends.

Let's start with....

I thought I had blogged this earlier. I'm old... Cain't remember. I know I posted it on the Facebook (as with most of the stuff you'll see here, but anyway...)

This is the table top to the old cement patio set we took part last time.

Oh yes! Another paint job. Mike hauled it up front and dug it in and I went to town on the paint. What a splash of color for the end of the driveway.

Next, I bought a wireless doorbell. This thing transmits all the way up the driveway from the gate and into the house. It plays music or your typical doorbell chimes. Mike insists that he isn't any good with wood but he cobbled together this little doorbell house for me in no time. (And I got to use up some more paint!)

And while he was rocking the wood-working I asked him to make me a shoe rack. Sure enough, that man has skills he wasn't aware of. 

It's been a strange winter, even for Florida. Here we are in late January flooded to the hilt. But the birds are plentiful. 

Two Ibis high up a tree. Watch for poo bombs!!!!

A red hibiscus plant that's all but dead and yet manages to spit out a flower for me every now and again.

The view of the neighbors "lake"!

A turtle making his way out of the pond.

Another neighbor's horses insist I come over and say hello.

An interesting (to me) close-up of the moon.

And another sign of a strange Florida winter is my owls, who generally don't show up until the middle of March. He (she?) sits in the hole and waits for his mate to show up.

So today Mike has proved to be quite industrious while I'm not paying any attention. He got with it early and built this bird feeder. Pretty nifty for a guy who is no good with wood, don't you think?

Uh oh! While no one was looking I managed to procure more paint. These colors are much more muted than what I'm used to but I think I have a use for them!

Mike's Bird Feeder painted and mounted.

He even made a lower circular stand for the birds.

 I put some seed in it already although it's still wet.

Speaking of which, it was just a matter of time before I managed to paint myself and my nice white shirt... crap!

Screw it! Go with it! So, I just painted it some more and hung it to dry. Can't wait to see how it looks after the first wash!

And meanwhile, the owl waits...

Comments are always welcome. See ya'll next time.

Happy Holiday Loot

The Holiday season is the time for a slick deal or two. Unfortunately this year we have been out of work so my normal spending has had to decrease. When this is the case I resort mostly back to my roots, the roots that got me started doing this in the first place: Freebies!

Years ago I started doing Freebies just for the household samples. Truly addicting, as the mailbox filled up every day. I had to have more. I found me a few good freebie sites and clicked like hell. I learned the basics like more than one email, more than one address and more than one browser. But that eventually paled.

Not enough! The addiction had to be satisfied. More! So on I went to extreme couponing. I did that for a few years, walking out of the stores with more money in my pocket than when I walked in (truly) and so much stuff stockpiled I had to sell it at a fraction of the cost just to make room for more. But that eventually paled, too.

On to the true slick deals: coupon codes, free shipping offers, credit card offers, cashback sites, rebates, and the list goes on. I was bringing home straight cash and merchandise for literally pennies on the dollar! And I still watch for a deal on a regular basis. It's the thrill of the deal, the hunt and chase, the victory.

So on to the holiday's, which always offers the best deals, especially for folks on a budget... like me.

Black Friday is the obvious answer. I don't do the traditional Black Friday. You won't catch me walking into a B&M store (that's brick and mortar for you non-deal shoppers) much less standing in line for hours on end beforehand. Part of that is because of my anti-social nature and another part is the lack of stores nearby, me being in a small town and having to travel 45 minutes just to get there. So, I shop online. That's my forte.

So, I present to you my Holiday Loot for this year under these conditions:

1. I'm on a strict budget. That means there were many deal that were great but I had to let them go because it would have cost me "some" money and I just really didn't need it. Some of those left behind deals like to have killed me.
2. Everything was purchased online and shipped to me at the house here.
3. Deals beget deals: some were purchased considering the value of the bonus I would get later.
4. I'm showing you all costs OOP (out of pocket) including taxes and shipping BUT NOT including your normal cashback on credit cards or bonus sites which are almost impossible to define accurately unless it's a big purchase. (In other words, more coming.)

Holiday Loot - $321.48

1. 55 inch Insignia HDTV from Best Buy - Yes, I know there were better deals B&M (see above) but I pulled the trigger here for several reasons. I had two $20 gift codes ($40) from a promotion with Visa Checkout, I had a $15 gift card that was refunded to me via my Chase credit card, AND it was shipped to my front door. Keep in mind this is my biggest buy and accounts for $265.99 of the total above. That leaves $55.49 left to be assigned to everything below.
2. Moto E cell phone with blue case
3. Hamilton Beach Flexbrew coffee maker (used $20 Amazon gift cards  - see MCR below)
4. SnapFish - 2 orders of personalized Xmas cards with envelopes- 12 total
5. Timex Camper's watch
6. SanDisc 16 GB Class 10 SD card
7. Fun Loops Set 500 pcs.
8. Tiki totem sticker kit 12 pack
9. Giant wiggly eyes 100 count
10. Jos A Bank King sized brown socks
11. Jos A Bank shoe laces
12. Peanut M&M's 42 ounce packages x2
13. Hershey's syrup 24 oz
14. Cheez-it's 12.4 oz x2
15. Nestle Pure Life grape water 16.9oz x6
16. Maxwell House K-cups 12 count
17. Swiss Tech Multi-tool
18. Portable chargers Generic x3
19. Francois et Mimi Slix Bluetooth 4.1 Hi-Fidelity Stereo Wireless Bluetooth Headphones
20. Francois et Mimi Elite Genuine 3.5mm Wood In-ear Noise-isolating Earbuds Headphones with Mic
21. 3.4A Apple Certified Rapid Coiled Lightning Car Charger for iPhone
22. Francois et Mimi In-Ear 3.5mm Aux Hi-Fidelity Flat Cable Non-Tangle Headphones Earbuds Red
23. Two movie rentals - Ender's Game and Minions
24. Digital movies to own - Kung Fu Panda, Paper Planes, Jackie and Ryan, and Divergent
25. Android apps - Flow Free and Shiver:The Lily Requiem CE
26. Strange Adventures - bundle 5 PC games
27. Earmuffs for my bottle and ear warmers for me
28. Money clip/bottle opener

And then there was Shutterfly. Between Kellogg's Family Rewards and offers from P&G (subscriptions still active from my freebie/coupon days) I had several codes for all kinds of stuff with free shipping. Remember these are all personalized and I have the photos to go with them! These are kind of tricky to put together but here's what I got:

1. Mix and Match 3x5 folded Stationery cards and envelopes set of 12
2. 6 foot roll Xmas Wrapping paper
3. 8x11 Soft cover Photo book 20 pages
4. 16x20 Print
5. 8x8 Soft cover Photo book
6. 15 oz Ceramic photo mug
7. 4x5 Stationery Photo cards and envelopes 12 count x2
8. Metal Xmas Ornament and gift bag
9. 8x11 Photo Calendar
10. 5x7 Greeting Card
11. 11 oz Ceramic photo mug x2

And the Piece de resistance this Holiday season were the offers from MyCokeRewards (MCR). I had several hundred points in my accounts accumulated over the past year but with their Instant Win Game (Boxes of Joy) I have won several thousands of extra points and still going. Here's what I have either won or redeemed points for so far:

1. Thirty (30) coupons for a free 12 pack of Coke products. These go on sale every year. I will most likely redeem them for B2G1 (buy 2 get 1 free) in store for a total of 45 twelve packs.
2. Two $10 Amazon Gift cards (I redeemed these for the Flexbrew deal mentioned above.)
3. Seven (7) $10 Nike Gift cards (I cashed these in for $56. Already got the check!)
4. Four (4) coupon for 32 oz PowerAde (Hoping for a BOGO sale!)
5. Four (4) $5 Wal-Mart Gift Cards
6. Two Personalized Bottles of Coke
7. $25 BoneFish Grill Gift Card
8. $5 Rewards Digital code (Redeemed for one of the movie rentals above.)
9. $5 Dunkin Donuts Gift Card

Whew! That's a lot! But wait. I am still sitting on the following:

1. $13 MGo credit
2. $5 Amazon Digital credit
3. $5 Best Buy Reward (earned from the TV purchase above.)
4. 35562 MCR points 
5. Eight (8) Shutterfly $20 codes won with BOJ and MCR (I think I only used one of these. If you are interested I can send you a code or two. Please, just ask!)

I think this year turned out really well considering my budget!

Happy, Happy Holiday Loot!