Christmas highlights

We enjoyed a very sweet Christmas program at church, our grandson played the little drummer boy for the second year in a row. 

Great grandchildren and great grand parents had some very special visiting.

Lots and lots of presents!

Presents everywhere!

A very light snowfall

Waffles and pancakes for several breakfasts- especially good with real maple syrup from my brother 

A sweet funny photo from my brothers girlfriend - this is her pet Daisy modeling a Santa hat. I think it is cute as can be. 

My brother's dog, Boomer - he is not usually allowed on the furniture but he was especially tired and I am a big softy. 

I hope you all enjoyed your Christmas celebrations. 

Sons....

My sons are 14 months apart but obviously have very different personalities.

They did both learn to make stuff and do stuff when they were growing up. And here is proof. 

I think these photos from this week are just hilarious.

One son is wearing a camouflage Santa hat and ornaments in his beard. 

The other is at an ugly sweater party and they are wearing shirts they embellished with fabric and iron on adhesive from me and bows and tiny ornaments from their grandmother.

Vote if you want but I must say my comments are not always working.

Do you prefer the super handyman redneck son's decorations or the attorney son who usually looks like he stepped out of GQ with the bows and teddy bears on his shirt? 

Both are funny as can be!

Sorry for covering up the cute young woman's face but I don't know her and she may not approve having her photo blogged. 

Another weeks to do list

Monday's to do list - it's doesn't look too daunting. I have today to myself so I am expecting to get all of today's things done and may get a few of the others done too.  I am guessing most everyone reading this also has a lot to do this week and next week too! 

I've already taken out the trash, walked and have the laundry started.

You know I have a CVS deal to show.  I've been using Ponds cold cream and moisturizer for a long time, maybe 15 years. Ponds is made in th USA, simple, reasonably priced and just keeps my face soft.

Last week, these large jars of Ponds were buy 1 get 1 50% off.  I had $1 coupons on each, a $5 off $15 scanner coupon for face cleansers, a $4 ECB that came by email and I used a $10 ECB and about $3 on a CVS gift card.  I spent no cash at all. 

I didn't earn any ECBs on this purchase but the before deal cost of the Ponds will be added to my beauty rewards ($5 ECB earned for every $50 in beauty purchases and CVS tracks them on your CVS card)   The CVS deals in the next few weeks don't interest me much so I was happy to spend my ECBs and get enough Ponds to last me a long time. 

My husband uses the Ponds moisturizer on his face in the winter too.

My latest CVS deal 

My brother has been making beautiful fresh wreaths for us for years.  You all know that I am lousy photographer and the colors don't show up right but this years is bright colors, red and blue and green and even has a set of battery operated twinkle lights. 

I really like it and the lights are a fun surprise. 

I better stop this post here, and get busy if I plan to check off those tasks today. 

I hope all of you get lots done today. 

I'll be back later to show another spectacular wreath that is very different from the green one and was made by brother's girlfriend.

What a difference a week makes

Last Monday, I had so much needing done that it took most of the week to get things right.

This week, I've already made so much progress on my to do list.  I did cleaning and laundry first thing. 

This afternoon I've been sewing and in between I went to town for a few errands,

I needed to mail off a package and also mailed 2 letters that used our last 2 postage stamps. So I bought 4 books of stamps while I was there, I made sure to get all Forever stamps as they will always work 1 per letter even when postal rates go up. Right now, I think it is 49 cents a letter. I think when I was a little girl, it cost a nickel and when I was a newlywed it was 20 cents. 

These stamps should last us maybe 6 months or longer.  Most all our bills are paid online.

On Black Friday, I did less an hour worth of shopping and one store that I shopped at was Bath and Body Works as all their stock was buy 3 get 3 free and you could stack coupons. I got lots of products to last the year and the clerk talked me into buying their Black Friday tote bag, a very nice black and gold bag with 6 full size products inside. She said I could exchange any of the scents I didn't like.

Well, I didn't like several of them so I did even exchanges on them today.

The Vanilla Bean Noel smells just like a sugar cookie and I got it for my grands after their baths. 

And of course I stopped at CVS. I wanted to do this Schick razor deal. Coupons.com had a printable buy 1 get Schick coupon.  When you purchase $25 of Schick, you get $10 ECBs.

So I bought 4 packs, used a scanner coupon and and ECB and gift card from previous and weeks and got all the razors for no money out of pocket.   And got a $10 ECB for next time.

I had so many comments and emails about my messy house last week. It is something we can all relate to I guess. I am happy to say that now every bed is made, all dishes washed, all laundry put away and surfaces are cleaned off. I'm not going to photograph it all, you will just have to take my word for it.

I've continued to have trouble leaving comments on some blogs. So with some hesitation and after making almost all the settings private, I switched to Google.  It seems to of worked! I can comment now. 

Hope you are all having a good Monday!  We are having leftovers for supper but I am making a big salad to eat first. So I am off to the kitchen to chop .............

It's being to look a lot like Christmas

It's been a lot of work but I finally got our Christmas decorating done and I am very happy with how it turned out. This year, we have 4 small trees.

This tree has multi color twinkle lights, Santa things and scentamental ornaments.

My father in law painted the Santa on horseback.

A silver tree and a green tree with twinkle lights and pink ornaments. 

These ornaments are very vintage and all have little scenes in them. 

This tree has long pink bulbs and some birds. My son thinks all Christmas trees need birds on them, even when the bird ornaments are old and very shabby.......

This one is my favorite. The ornaments, all made by my mom, are Christian symbols call Chrismons and crocheted Angels. 

On this fridge are my parents stockings that they used years ago. They are not very big and we all found it tricky to find tiny things to stuff them with.  

The stockings  don't weigh much and I hung them with clothesline that glued magnet strips on the back of. Aren't they pretty? 

The little stockings are plastic canvas and I made them a few years back.  The grands can play with the little ones but not the big ones as they are a bit fragile.

I hope you all are getting in the holiday spirit too!

My daughter's mantel

My daughter and her family have started their Christmas decorating. Their mantel is almost finished and I think it is really pretty.

She made the "O Holy Night" with her Silhouette cutting system. 

The stockings are new and were bought last year during the 90% off clearance at Target. 

To finish them, she plans to add their names in red, again using the Silhouette. 

At my home, things are a little more normal than they were yesterday. The 8 time-consuming gifts are finished, some of my other to-dos got done today and I think lots more will get done tomorrow. 

I laughed at some of your comments on yesterday's post - it seems so many things just get out of whack this time of year- 😄

blame it on Cyber Monday

I wrote out a to do list this Monday morning but I can't cross any of it off just yet. 
I took these photos in a rush with my ipod and they are even worse than usual

I have been busy but you sure would never guess it by looking around our home

the sink is full of not clean dishes

the table is covered with coupons to clip and file and some paper work to do

clean laundry on the sofa needs folded and put away

yesterday,  I put up some our Christmas trees but they are not yet decorated

this guest room is full of decorations- some will be used in our home this season but many will be donated to a thrift store as I continue to simplify and declutter

this guest room needs made back up

the craft room- ACK!-  the fall decorations are packed but need stored away

 

and the master bedroom needs to have the clean sheets put on the bed.

So,  I've been home all and it's after 4 p.m.  but I have spent almost all my time working on 8 Christmas gifts.  Some of them are done using a computer and with a Cyber Monday offer.  I've completed 3 and really, really, really hope the other 5 will be completed tonight.  

And I need to get most of the housework done before my grandson gets here tomorrow morning.  

Please cheer me on!   

Is Cyber Monday keeping any of you busy today? 

A fun week for freebies at CVS

CVS has so many deals this week. Most all of these things were free after an Extra Care Buck refund for the purchase price.  I had about $15 in ECBs from previous weeks purchases. I used them as well as manufacturer coupons on a few things.  I made 3 visits to CVS and rolled ECBs onto the next check out. 

Toothpaste-Parmesan-5 candy-Mac and cheese- 2 cans of corn and a bag of chips

3 small packs of OTC meds-wipes-pull-ups- laundry detergent 

 

Milk- floss-4 toothbrushes-gum and candy- and Excedrin

Besides all the items in the 3 photos, I also purchased 6 large sodas.

I spent about $8 in cash on the 3 transactions and ended up with $16.79 in ECBs for future weeks. 

Other stores like Walgreens, RiteAid and Target have similar sales. I like CVS as it is close to my home and this CVS is very coupon friendly store and well run. 

This is the time of year for exceptional sales. If you are needing something, I hope you find a great deal on it. 

Monday To Do list

I have a much cuter than an ordinary plain paper to-do list this week.

Thank you to Annabel at The BlueBirds Are Nesting for this free printable sheet that I am doing my weekly plans on.  She has such a good blog,  lots of ideas about doing things yourself to make your home pretty and to save money.

 

With Thanksgiving on Thursday,  this is an especially busy week for all US homemakers.  

Hope you all have a good week! 

How I hem men's suit pants

Lori @ Frogs Lilypad said she needed to hem some suit pants for her husband and asked me how I hem my son's.  Well, my son bought more pants that needed hemmed so I took step by step photos while I hemmed them.
 
Hemming is not hard,  it just takes some measuring and some bravery if you have to cut them off.

most suit pants come unhemmed- the bottoms of the legs usually have a serged finish on them.  If you don't have to shorten them much,  you could just turn them up the pants the needed amount and use that as the actual finish.

this pair of pants needed to be shortened by 5 1/2 inches. 

I like to put a 2 inch them on dress pants so I needed to cut this pair off 3 1/2 inches. 

I just mark the cutting line with anything that will write on fabric- this part will never show

Then,  be brave and cut!

to finish off the edge,  I like to use hem tape.  This is a sewing notion that looks a little like ribbon and is sold with other notions like Rick Rack and bias binding.

turn the pant legs wrong side out,  then lay the hem tape on the underneath and machine sew it to bottom pant edge,  close to the edge.  I used a zig zag stitch but a straight stitch would work if the fabric does not ravel easily. 

Now,  turn up the hem.  I did this one just a bit more than 2 inches to account for the hem tape.
Hand sew the hem with a blind stitch.  If you take very tiny stitches  and use matching thread,  the hem stitching shouldn't show at all. 

take out all the pins and trim all the straggly threads.

it would of been nice to use a matching gray hem tape but in my town,  I couldn't find gray so I used this beige hem tape.  It won't show anyway and won't change the look of how the pants look when done 

Now turn the pants right side out and press the hem.  You might want to have the wearer try them on first before you press them.

that's it!