Scenes from my home

Simple fall decorations

Beer bread baked in a yard sale Pampered Chef stone- the bread tasted good but was way too heavy- I'll look for a better recipe next time

A quilt spread on the living room floor makes for a cozy spot where my grandson likes to play

2 foot tall stack of fabric- a great deal purchased from a local swap and sell list

I've been dealing with yet another cold for the last 10 days or so- my next project is to try to improve my immunities.  

Husband's knee surgery is this week

I'll be back blogging as soon as I can or when I have something interesting to blog about. 

Moon Sand - fun but kind of a fail

We tried a moon sand recipe from Pinterest.

8 cups flour and 1 cup baby oil. 

I made 2 batches and mixed-kneaded them in gallon bags until they looked combined. 

I also added liquid food coloring with the oil but it just didn't show up.

The grandsons are having fun with it but it is messy. A change of clothes will be needed when we go inside.  I think only very neat children could play with it in the house. 

It is lots of fun even if it quite messy. 

Gavin tasted it and declared it "skusting" but I think he meant disgusting. 

Next time, I want to try a version that uses corn starch and sand, no oil. 

Have you made any play clays? Advice is welcomed.

My grands are really sweet but they are not neat. 

This week's CVS deals

24 rolls of paper towels and 2 bottles of Pantene conditioner

I think we have enough paper towels, to last well into 2014, maybe all of 2014......

I spent just $5.94 cash for all of it.

The towels were $5 a pack and I had $1 coupons on each

Pantene was 2/$7 - I used 1 $3/2 manufacturer coupon and a $2 CVS coupon. 

Also used a $10 ECB from last week. 

And got back a $5 ECB. 

Weekend doings

It was cold and rainy all day Friday and we had not yet turned on the heater so I thought an oven supper would be good - easy to cook and would help heat the house up a little.

I made cole slaw (not in the oven though)

also baked chicken and rice which tastes a lot better than it photographs

banana bread 

and brownies.  The chicken and bread both bake for about an hour, so after they had baked for 30 minutes,  I put in the brownies as they take 30 minutes.

Then everything came out at the same time

Banana Bread

1 stick butter, softened

1 scant cup sugar (closer to 3/4 cup)

2 eggs

3 medium or 4 small ripe bananas, peeled and mashed (about 1 1/4 cups)

2 cups flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup or more chopped nuts, we prefer pecans or walnuts

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9x5 loaf pan or 4 mini-loaf pans.

Cream together the butter and sugar. beat till blended. sometimes I use the mixer and sometimes I just do it by hand.

Mix in the bananas.

Stir in the flour, salt and soda.

Then stir in the nuts.

Pour in to prepared pans. A big loaf will take 60-70 minutes. Small loaves take 35-45 minutes.

Cool for a 10 minutes, then remove from pans.

Slice, spread with a little butter and feed to your family.

Brownies

* 1/2 cup butter
* 1 cup white sugar
* 2 eggs
* 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
* 1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
* 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
* 1/4 teaspoon salt
* 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
*
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour an 8 inch
square pan.
2. In a large saucepan, melt 1/2 cup butter. Remove from heat, and stir in
sugar, eggs, and 1 teaspoon vanilla. Beat in 1/3 cup cocoa, 1/2 cup flour, salt,
and baking powder. Spread batter into prepared pan.
3. Bake in preheated oven for 25 to 30 minutes. 

in Saturday's mail, was a goody box from Debby- isn't this table runner cute?  

Yes, she made it out of very fun seasonal fabrics.  I really like all the purple and green mixed with the orange and black.   Thank you Debby! She blogs at Nanny's Place and I always enjoy reading what she is up to.  

now, it is time to do some fall decorating inside our home so the table runner doesn't feel lonely.  

Sunday afternoon,  I did a little sewing.  First I sewed up 2 blue aprons for costumes for my son and a friend, something about a Banana Stand in the tv show Arrested Development.  I've never seen the show but I have had a little experience sewing up aprons.  

Then, I followed an online free tutorial to make a chevron necktie for grandson JJ to coordinate with his sister's pumpkin dress.  Cute, right?  Well,  the tutorial was well written and so easy to follow.  It was a quick successful project.  

I hope you all had a nice weekend too

Home tour part 7 -the last bedroom

This is the last room of our home tour- kind of a lag because I am not happy with the lighting in these photos but I can't seem to do any better- so here goes......

I know the first thing you see is the pretty quilt. My mom made it in the early 50s when she was living in rural Oklahoma with my dad and brothers who were just babies then. I think she said her mother in law gave her the kit and it is all sewn by hand.

Close up 

It is fragile and not usually on the bed but on a quilt rack. The quilt looks so pretty on the bed but it will mostly stay on the quilt rack to keep in good condition.

This is a pretty big room. One corner has a comfy thrift store rocker. Another corner has a toddler bed for grandchildren. 

My husband built the oak 4 post bed with LOTS of help from a professional cabinet maker friend,

On one end of the bedroom is a bathroom 

It has double sinks (which really just means there are 2 sinks to clean) 

A big bath tub my husband likes and behind the dark red shower curtain is a shower with a seat in it that I like.

Then through that bathroom door is the walk in closet.

On the bench is the same fabric that the bedroom curtains are sewn from. 

When I took these pictures a month ago, this is how I stored our CVS stockpile. I have changed it, inspired by Manuela's shower pantry, and will show it soon. 

Thank for coming, hope you enjoyed the tour. 

Pretty happy funny real

Pretty

My husband had a pre surgery check in this morning. It all went well from good tests to very helpful friendly caring hospital staff. 

This is just a portion of the stained glass that is the first thing you see when entering the orthopedic wing,  it is so big and beautiful-

funny

not much funny this week-  at least nothing with a picture

Happy

The gas we bought today- we saw gas for this price at a number of stations in Oklahoma City. 

Real

Even though we were gone all morning, we ended up eating all 3 meals at home today. Restaurant food just didn't work with our schedule and didn't sound good.

This is all the dishes we used today for very simple meals, washed in one session after supper.

Eating at home just results in dishes to wash- no way around it. 

Linking up to Pretty Happy Funny Real at our mothers daughters. Their button link is on the very bottom right of this page.

Prettied up storage shelves

 Inspired by Manuela's shower pantry  thank you!

I've been getting so many good deals, mostly at CVS and a few at Walmart, and I needed more storage. I remembered a very cute plastic shelf unit, decorated with pretty papers, stocked with canned goods and hidden away in an unused shower from Manuela's old blog. And here is my version. I put in the silly-big master bedroom closet.

The shelf unit I ended up with is bigger I think than Manuela's.  I decorated mine with cushiony shelf paper and the lace is strips cut from the by the yard tablecloth vinyl in the fabric department at Walmart.

This is the middle 2 shelves. It has 4 total. I don't shop in the same quantities as the TV extreme couponers but it does seem like I have a years worth of hair products, soaps and dental products.

And a lot of toilet paper.........

Above you can see part of the top shelf

And below is a close up of the gingham check shelf paper bought at Dollar Tree

And the vinyl tablecloth strips used for the border.

This is the best full length photo I could get, it is a closet and I could not get any farther away to get the whole shelf in one picture. 

The orange cord is from my husbands drop light I brought in to get better light for the photo. There is no natural light in the closet.

I suppose there are lots of people that like to fill up their closets with clothes and fancy handbags - I prefer our closet to look like a drugstore :)

2 finishes and 1 funny

I finished the rainbow string quilt yesterday. It's been washed and rinsed with Downy and is soft and comfy. Grandson Braeden approves.

On the back, I used some of this giant length of shamrock thrift store fabric

I think the 3 leaf shamrocks that legend says St. Patrick used to teach about the Trinity is a great background for a very bright rainbow quilt, 

I finally finished this blouse 

and like it so much that I am wearing it right now,  I think I will wear it a lot this fall.

I ordered some bath sheets from amazon and when I opened the box, it was a funny surprise to see the towels cushioned with those pesky air pocket things. And thankfully, neither towel was smashed or chipped with their careful packaging,

CVS tip

At CVS, I always scan my card 2-3 times at their coupon machine. I scan until it tells me it has no more coupons for me. I usually get 1-2 I can use that trip and the other 5-10 of them don't match up the sales I want to do then. I have been throwing them away, especially at the expiration date printed on them. 

I had kept a scanner coupon that was $5 off $30 any baby purchase and it expired 10-10. 

On 10-13, I was doing the the Huggies deal and saw I still had that baby coupon. I asked the cashier about it and she said it was store policy to honor expired CVS coupons, she thought the policy was for 2 weeks after the expiration but that she would always honor them up to a month past expiration. 

The Huggies deal was already good and another $5 off made it great!

So, I will be holding on to these scanner coupons, just in case they will match up with a deal even after their expiration date. 

I will add that the CVS I shop at is very customer and coupon friendly. I've heard that other stores are not so user friendly and that is a shame. So this may not work at every CVS but it wouldn't hurt to ask. 

Weekend scenes

Sunday has been quiet but our Friday and Saturday were full and fun and busy.  Here are some pictures, but I don't think I posted them in order.......

All 3 grandsons played hard on Friday and I laundered their clothes late Saturday. Aren't these 3 little pairs of jeans cute?  Seeing their sweet little jeans made me wonder how many pairs of jeans I have laundered in my lifetime, I have no idea but it is lots!

4 of our grandchildren in action. The bigger 3 played in the garage while Grandpa and their 2 dads did some vehicle maintenance. Grandpa's rolling stool turned into a very fun riding toy. 

After lots of family time, just us grandparents went to eat Saturday supper at Olive Garden. 

We tried their promotion where you buy an entree to eat there and they send you home with a second chilled entree to eat or share later. 

That is our packaged entrees, in very sturdy trays with lids and instructions.

Lids off - in case you want to see them better. 

Grandpa got smoked mozzarella chicken. Mine is the penne with 5 cheeses. We had them for supper tonight. 

I don't like to heat things in plastic so I transferred the food to our corelle bowls  to heat. 

They reheated great!  I only had half of my penne tonight so if I want, I can have the rest for my lunch tomorrow. 

I also found some time to start tying the rainbow strip quilt.  

I hope you all had a nice weekend too!

Lots of breakfast and lunch pockets

My daughter asked if we could make a bunch of pockets to stock their freezer for quick lunches and breakfasts for her family.  I like to cook and of course I said yes.
So Friday, I loaded up my bread machine with the bread part and just let each batch go through the kneading process.  Then I bagged up each batch of dough in a lightly oiled gallon zip bag and let them chil until we did the baking today.
You can make the dough just before you make the pockets but if the dough is able to chill and rest in the fridge for at least a few hours,  it rolls out so easy.

For the fillings- we made a double batch of the scrambled egg, sausage, potato and cheese ones.  Then with the last batch of dough,  half were filled with diced ham and grated cheddar and the other half were pepperoni, mozzarella and marinara sauce.

We made a total of 47 - each batch of dough makes 16 but I gave grand daughter Elizabeth one ball of dough to roll out.  She spent the whole time rolling out and adding flour to her one ball while we made the other 47.  I've tweaked the original Pinterest recipe a bit and here is how we like them

Breakfast and Lunch Pockets 

Dough
• 2 1/2 t yeast
• 1/2 c warm water 
• 3/4 C milk- heated in the microwave just to steaming
• 1/2 c vegetable oil
• 1/4 c sugar
• 1 egg- well beaten
• 1 tsp salt
• 4 c flour
• you can mix and knead the dough anyway you like but I like to put all the ingredients in my bread machine and let it knead it all to perfection.  
Filling
• 1 lb breakfast sausage
• 1 1/2 c frozen hashbrown potatoes
• 7  well beaten 
• 1 1/2 C cheddar cheese, shredded
• Cook and crumble the sausage until brown and then drain, then add the hashbrowns and heat through,  Add the eggs, stirring the whole time until the eggs are set.  Add some salt and pepper now if you want.  Just when the eggs start to look cooked,  stir in the cheese. 
• Set the filling aside while you move on to rolling out the dough. 

1. Preheat oven to 350°.
2. Punch down the dough and cut into 16 equal pieces.
3. Roll each piece into 7 in circle on a floured surface. Top with 1/3 c filling in the center of each dough circle then fold the ends up, then sides up and then lay on your baking sheets with all the folds on the bottom. This seals in the filling and it is not neccessary to wet the edges or spend lots of time crimping either.  
4.  No need to let rise again and Bake for 15-20 minutes or until brown.  
To freeze:
5. Allow to cool on the baking sheet. Once cooled, place in the freezer until frozen. Store in a zip bag in the freezer for 3-6 months. To reheat, place on a paper towel and microwave for 1 1/2-2 minutes.

Mondays bargains

I rarely shop at Walgreens anymore as their deals got really complicated when they introduced their points system along with register rewards and their customer cards. But I earn $1 a month at Walgreens with walking steps counted on my FitBit and had recently got an email that I could redeem $5 there. Yes, walking is good for you but you won't get rich doing it. 

Then I read about this Purex B1G2free with some printable coupons so here is how I did.

6 bags of Purex 18 count laundry detergent - just $4.04 after sale price, coupons and rewards redemption.

CVS

Mitchum was $1.99 and I had $1 coupons on each

Ajax was 88 cents minus the 39 cent coupon I got at the scanner

Razor blades were $10.49 and I had 2 $3 coupons- I needed to spend at least $25 to get a $10 ECB - so I bought 3 even though I did not a coupon for every one. 

I had a $10 ECB from last week and I got a $3.50 ECB at the scanner. 

I always scan my CVS card when I enter the store for the print out coupons and deals.

Total spent $14.44 and I am got back another $10 ECB for my next shopping trip. 

Friday night supper

First we started with a big salad.

Then we had a no meat meal of

Corn bread sticks 
and

copycat  Ranch Style Beans 

the links to these recipes go  through my Pinterest account and my notes are there too.  

Pinterest 5 in 5 - Day 5. Hot chocolate mix and Pumpkin Pie Sugar Scrub

I did 2 very simple Pinterest recipes today. I spent maybe 10 minutes in the kitchen and had both done and the counters wiped off and the ingredients put away.

Hot chocolate mix is in the big jar. It calls for
2 cups nonfat dry milk
 1 C sugar 
1/2 C unsweetened baking cocoa - mine was kind of lumpy so I sifted it first
 1/2 C dry non-dairy creamer
dash of salt 
 Combine all ingredients and stir well to mix. Store in a jar with a good lid. 
To serve, add 1/4 cup of mix to 8 ounces of hot water


And

Pumpkin Pie Sugar Scrub
I just made a half recipe for the first time to see if I like it
I used 1/2 cup brown sugar, 1/4 cup white sugar, spices and just enough coconut oil to get the right consistency.  The original recipe calls for a lot of spice but I cut them back by about 2/3s.
I used 1 t cinnamon and about 1/2 t of ginger, cloves, and nutmeg.
I like the idea of a light scent, I don't really want people 10 feet away from me to wonder why they smell Pie.

I have not taken a shower with it but it did use just a dab after I washed my hands and it felt great. My hands still fell soft and that was hours ago. 

Homemade sugar scrubs will save me $$$. Every winter, I buy several jars from Bath and Body Works and theirs is priced at $20. I think the homemade is just as good and truly costs only a tiny fraction of the retail kind. 

Pinterest 5 in 5 challenge- day 4 -corn dogs from scratch

Corn dogs from scratch

There were 7 adults and 3 little eaters here for supper tonight.I have never made corn dogs from scratch but it sounded like a fun supper. So, after looking at a few recipes online, I settled on this one. 

They are not something I will cook often but they were really good. So good, I don't think any other batter recipe would be better. 

For sides, we had a big green salad and homemade cole slaw. 

My version of corn dogs from scratch

Batter

2 cups all purpose flour

2 cups yellow cornmeal

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 t salt

1/4 t black pepper

8 t baking powder

2 cups milk

2 eggs- beaten a little

Stir together the dry ingredients. Then whisk in milk and eggs. Batter will be thick. 

Heat oil to about 360 degrees- I used almost a gallon of vegetable oil in our countertop fryer. I bought the fryer 2 years ago and I think this was the 3rd time we've used it. 

We used 17 Hebrew National kosher beef hot dogs. I cut them in thirds and dried them on paper towels.

For the sticks, I found a pack of 75 flat wood skewers in the craft department of Super Walmart. 

Put a stick in each dry hot dog, then roll in a little plain flour to help the batter stick. Then roll each hot dog in the batter until they are coated. 

Now, deep fry each dipped corn dog. I could do 5 at a time and they took about 3 minutes each.

Drain after cooking- I use paper towels. 

I do not suggest these are for a regular menu plan but for a special family meal or a party, they are yummy.