Got a Kid in College? CampusBookRentals Can Help

Now that my son has graduated from high school, we are spending our summer focusing on getting him ready for college. Registration, immunization records, housing, food plans, college dorm room purchases - it's enough to drive a mom to drink! Okay, not really (much), but it's a lot to think about. We have saved for years for Jake's college but we don't have all the little costs covered that he'll encounter over the next four years, and those things add up. He's put in some sweat equity too here. According to the College Board, the average cost for in-state public college was $22,261 in 2012. That's per year!

This is how I feel when I think about all the college bills headed our way...

A couple months ago I started a My Kid Goes to College Pinterest board. Since I've never had a kid in college before, I'm looking for all the help I can get to make sure our son has a successful college experience while we stay out of the poor house (do they have poor houses anymore?). One of the resources I had read about and pinned a couple months back was for a college textbook rental service called CampusBookRentals.com. When I first read about them, I was all like, "I have GOT to remember this come fall!" There were no textbook rental services available to me back in my college days - but then again, it probably would have been cost-prohibitive to send those stone tablets across the country. #dinosaur

I'm trying to find ways to reduce our costs however way we can in the least painful way we can, and with the average cost of just the textbooks alone running $1,200 per year, you bet I'll be trying to find ways to cut that cost. Why do some textbooks cost more than some countries' national debts??? This is where CampusBookRentals can help. Not with helping to reduce national debt, but it will help you reduce your debt. Whether you're a student or parents with kids that you're supporting through college, this program may be a great program for you. Check out some of the benefits of using CampusBookRentals:

• You save 40-90% off of bookstore prices
• There's free shipping both ways
• You can highlight in the textbooks! 
• They have flexible renting periods
• They have Live Customer Support 
• They've been a trusted source since 2007 
• They have a Price Match Guarantee
• They have the largest selection of textbooks for rent in the nation 

So say you need to get the book Fundamentals of Operative Techniques in Neurosurgery for some college summer reading. The list price for this book is $110. If you rent it from Campus Book Rentals, right now it would cost $29.00 to rent for the summer. It doesn't take a brain surgeon to figure out that renting college textbooks is just smart.

Check out this quick video if you want to see more of how CampusBookRentals works:

So, what if you already own college textbooks? CampusBookRentals has a program called RentBack. RentBack is a new initiative that allows students to rent out the textbooks they own to other students. With this program, you can get 2-4 times more money compared to what they'd make through those traditional buy back options. Isn't that awesome? Remember standing in long lines at the University bookstore to sell your books back at the end of the semester only to get barely enough money back to buy a hot lunch? The money you spend on college textbooks is money you thought you'd never see again for something you only use for a short period of time, but RentBack gives you a chance to get some of that back. So what are you waiting for? You might as well get something out of those books and free up some space on that shelf to make room for, say, something like this:

image source

  

Here was one of my favorite parts of CampusBookRentals when I first read about them - they've partnered with Operation Smile to donate over 1,000 life saving cleft lip surgeries this year to children around the world in need. For every textbook that is rented, they donate to Operation Smile. So let's think about all this - you can save money, make money, AND donate to a worthy cause just by using CampusBookRentals for the textbooks you have to get anyways. What's not to love? I'm definitely going to pass this on to my son and encourage him to use them for his college textbook needs.

Disclosure: This is a sponsored post. You're helping a mama out here, I've got a kid going to college! Don't worry, you won't see a lot of sponsored posts around here, just every once in awhile - I will only share things that I personally like and is useful to me that I think might be useful to some of you too. Thanks for reading! 

Photo Friday: A Fabulous Week + An Old Fish

Can you see our boy?!? He's the tall one! :)

It has been a GREAT week around here. Our son graduated from high school last week! We had graduation commencement on Friday night, a family graduation brunch on Saturday, and on Sunday we crashed after a week filled with rehearsals, parent/senior breakfasts, and other graduation events. Since commencement wasn't until 8 in the evening, I found a couple little ways to make graduation day feel a little more special, like placing a graduation rubber ducky in his sink and hiding Dr. Seuss quotes from Oh the Places You'll Go taped around the house where he would find them. I also put this on our front door:

Yes, I'm one of those moms.

I'm pretty sure my son is sick of me posting pictures of him on the blog and Facebook so I'll spare him more grad photos and move on to what else was happening this week.

Went for a walk in the woods with two of my favorite friends that I talk about a lot, Amy and Ashley. It was a beautiful day and since they both like being outdoors too, we decided to walk the Big Gulch trail which is within walking distance of my house. Here are a couple spots along the trail that I stopped and took pictures of because I like taking pictures. My galpals were patient with me as I stopped to ogle over a big tree or point out the berries that were starting to pop up. In this next photo, I jokingly said we were going down into the depths of hell on these stairs. They actually wound down even further to the right beyond this photo:

The first signs of blackberries!

We have great trails around here.

Finally, a totally random "just because" picture that doesn't fit in with anything else in this post, but since it's Photo Friday, anything goes. Meet The Goldfish:

He doesn't even have a proper name. The Goldfish came into our lives as one of those not-very-well-thought-out prizes that was given away at some elementary school activity when Jake was in the 4th grade. You heard me right, the 4th grade, and Jake just graduated this week. That fish is 8 years old! How long are goldfish supposed to live?!? He's huge, like, big enough to fry up in a pan! Not that we would.

None of us really expected The Goldfish to live very long. He came home in one of those plastic bags and what could we do? You can't just let it live in a bag so you go out and get a little fish bowl and fish food. Then you get a bigger fish bowl because he's getting bigger. Then you start decorating a little with aquarium rocks and a couple of fake plants to make it a cozy fish home, and then after a couple years you decide it's time to move up to an aquarium with a filter to make him more comfortable. Pretty soon we'll be buying him his own car! It just keeps going on. What will happen when Jake goes off to college and this guy is still around? Jake doesn't want to take him to college with him. Am I going to have to be responsible for feeding him? Because if I am, I will surely forget since he lives in Jake's room - how often do I go in there?!? As little as possible because it's a teenage boy's room. Oh, the pressure! Maybe I need to give him a name so that I can build a connection with him, maybe that'll help me remember. I shall call him Squishy, and he shall be mine, and he shall be my Squishy. Anyone remember what that's from? :)

Okay, that's enough randomness out of me. I will be taking a bloggy break for the next week or so except for a couple posts here and there. Hey, gotta enjoy that kid of mine while he's still around! :) Have a beautiful weekend.

Aloha,

Sharon

"Operation Sultrify the Master Bedroom" is Complete! {Bedroom Makeover Reveal}

/sult'-ri-fī/: to make suuultryyy, but not in a mirrors-on-the-ceiling kind of way.

After 5 months of first declaring Operation Sultrify the Master Bedroom, I am so happy to tell you that the makeover is complete! Today is the day for the big reveal and I'm so excited to share it with you.

Here's what I wrote back in January about what we wanted to accomplish for our room, "I really like our room as it is now, but I'm aiming for more passion - for the room, not us! ;) - a little more drama, a little more color, and a little more sparkle. I still want it to have a coastal vibe though". I'm not really good at sticking to any one theme, but I do seem to gravitate towards beachy/tropical/modern-yet-a-little-traditional/eclectic/NOT frilly or fussy look. Does that narrow it down? I just like what I like and I try to put it all together and hopefully it all "goes".

Come on in! Let's take a before and after tour together, starting with the view from the entrance door and working around the room clockwise (click on any before/after image to view it larger):

We Interrupt This Photo Friday for a Very Special Grad Announcement!

From my favorite Dr. Seuss book Oh the Places You'll Go - image from Catalyst54's Etsy Shop. 

Today is a special day. It's the day our son graduates from high school! Today we get to recognize this milestone and celebrate him, so I'm ditching my usual Photo Friday post to reminisce about what it's been like to be Jake's mom. I hope you'll indulge me and join me on this little trip down memory lane. I've been sappy and happy and so full lately that I just need to get it out! I have no idea at this point what I'm going to write, so it might be long, it might be short (unlikely), and there might be ugly misspellings and run-on sentences. And lots of sentences that start with "And". I suspect I'll be laughing AND crying as I write this, but I'm just going to write until I'm done. It's like projectile writing - bleggghhhhhh! 

Jake's Mom. <---This is the most rewarding job title that I've ever had. With that title I've experienced the most joy I've ever felt, been more worried than I've ever been, felt frustrated as hell sometimes, swelled with pride like I've never known, and been blessed with the greatest kind of love a person could ever have, and it's all because of this kid:

Paint a Gold & White Side Table

Follow me on Pinterest! C'mon, it'll be fun! :)

Check out this bed frame and all the other room projects in our Completed Master Bedroom Makeover!

I probably sound like a broken record by now with how many of my projects start with "I'm updating my master bedroom!" I mean, can I finish it already? Yes, please. It is so close to being done! I'm talkin' days away! I checked one more thing off the to-do list for our bedroom with this little side table.

You might know by now that I'm almost always looking for the least expensive way to do something when it comes to home decorating, but that doesn't mean I want it to look cheap. Sometimes that means I take a long time to get something done; I'm not in a hurry to buy something just to fill the space, especially if I think I can find or make it for less. I love creating things just for the sake of creating, but let's face it, sometimes I make or reinvent things because I don't want to pay full price to buy it. When I find an item that's a great price but it's not quite what I was looking for, I look to see if it's enough like the idea I was looking for that I could make it work. Maybe it looks a little cheap, or maybe it's not the right color or it's outdated, but there's something about it that's appealing. It has potential, and if you can see that, then let that inspire you to make it into something that you really like. Take this little table for instance:

Photo Friday: Silly Birds, Home & Garden Show Highlights, and Other Randomness

Happy Friday! Friday is the day that I share with you a week in the life of yours truly, captured via photos. We'll just jump right in, starting with the bird picture above. I snapped this pic when I was at World Market yesterday. I was just walking by and it caught my eye because of the passionfruit (lilikoi in Hawaiian!) flower on its head. It's called Donna, You Silly Bird! by artist Dylnn Roll. I love the description included with this picture: "Dylnn Roll hopes to create art that makes people smile, and her painting titled "Donna, You Silly Bird" does just that. Each of her paintings represents someone who has touched her life. Here, she depicts Donna, a love ambassador wearing a passionflower, which represents her own passion for the encouragement of others." I didn't buy it (though I'm tempted!) but it sure made me chuckle. I love whimsy like this. I'm sure no one thought I was lolo (crazy) standing there all by myself laughing at this bird and taking a picture of it.

Here are some other happenings this week in the life of LJ:

She's Got Legs: A Simple Bed Frame Makeover

Follow me on Pinterest! C'mon, it'll be fun! :)

Check out this bed frame and all the other room projects in our Completed Master Bedroom Makeover!

I figured out why I'm not done with our master bedroom makeover yet since I first declared Operation Sultrify the Master Bedroom over FOUR months ago. 'member? You 'member! It's because I keep adding things to do in there that I never ever thought ever needed to be done, and then suddenly I'm all like, I must DO that! Take this little project for instance. I had noooo intention of making over our bed frame; I barely gave it a glance. But then we got the new rug, see, and it's just so pretty that I didn't want the dust ruffle on the bed to cover it up, see, so I removed the dust ruffle and had this ugly black bed frame, see, and I had to do something to cover that up ... see? And another project was born.

We have the comfiest, coziest bed ever. It's a Sleep Number bed and I can't tell you enough how great it is to sleep on this bed. That comfy cozy bed sits on a frame that is made of a super durable black plastic that's supposed to last at least 20 years. It's only 8 years into the thing so I'm not getting rid of it any time soon. For some reason it has a lot of legs on it, like 12 altogether, 8 of which are visible. The extra legs are not the point of my rambling though, I don't really care about that; I just don't like the way the black plastic looks. It soo doesn't fit in with my sultry/colorful/coastal chic theme (my whaaa? Mah theme). The other day as I sat looking at the rope that was on my nightstand (that's not going to cause any raised eyebrows), I looked down at the legs, looked at the rope again and thought, "Hey! I should wrap those legs with sisal and make us a beachin' bed!" So that's what I did.