Pinterest 5 in 5 days challenge and some other doings

Happy Fall Y'all!  I knew fall would be here soon but I don't look at the calendar much and was happy to read on Betsy's blog that fall had for sure arrived.
I bought a couple of mums and a couple of pumpkin type things.  Baby JJ and I found the green things,  I think they are horse apples maybe, growing on a tree behind the pond in our addition our morning walk.
I really like their apple green color and free always makes me happy.
That tonka truck belonged to my sons when they were little and now my grandsons like it just as much as their uncles and dad did.

Carlye Jo is having a Pinterest challenge on her blog,  to make 5 Pinterest pins in 5 days this week.  I love to do stuff and my first one will be some breakfast pockets.  The dough is mixing up in the bread machine as I blog.  The pockets should be quick breakfasts to keep in the freezer.  There is plenty of time to join in with us too.

Speaking of freezers,  I defrosted ours this morning.  The frost on the sides was starting to build up and pushing up on the baskets making it hard to get the door closed all the way.

I also put away some clean laundry that was air drying and straightened up the garage.
I don't usually get so much done when baby JJ is here but he is especially sleepy today.  He must of had a great weekend with his parents and big sister.

JJ likes to hold things while he sleeps and at my house,  he likes a bird potholder.  

Hope you all have a good Monday- whether you like to do stuff like me, or nap like sweet JJ.  

feeling a little nostalgic about beef stew

I am making Beef Stew this morning for Sunday lunch.  I am not feeling sad but I am remembering how I made beef stew so many times for other Sunday lunches when our children were younger and living at home.
I would get up early to cook the meat and some onions. Back then it was usually hamburger as it was much cheaper than stew meat.  Then I would put it in our big crockpot.  I would peel and dice so many carrots and potatoes,  enough to fill the crock pot as full as I could get it and then top it off with tomato sauce and some beef boullion.
It would simmer all morning and would be ready when we got home from church.  Sides were usually a box of saltine crackers and some sliced cheddar.
Our children and any friends they brought  home to spend the afternoon all liked that crockpot stew.  Rarely were there any leftovers.

Today,  it will just be husband and me and maybe the one bachelor son.  That is fine.  I am glad my children have grown up to be productive adults with sweet families of their own to raise.

Beef stew is not my favorite thing to eat but I sure have fond memories of it!



I know young parents don't always like hearing this but the days when your children are young and dependent on you just might be days you remember as the best of your life.
The days may seem really long but the years go by so fast!  

Pumpkin chevron dresses

My daughter in law showed me a chevron print peasant dress with pumpkin applique from Pinterest.  Of course it was expensive and she asked if I could sew something similar. Peasant dresses are quick and easy so I said yes.  And since I was making one little dress,  I also made a second one for our other grand daughter.  

the dresses are brown and white chevron with machine appliqued pumpkins

I used Mccalls 6530 for both dresses. The larger one is like the long sleeve version but I just cut the dress part longer and did not add a ruffle to the bottom.
The smaller one has no hem ruffle either and I did not add the chest elastic. Also, the smaller dress has elastic at the wrist of the sleeves.

The brown and white chevron fabric was bought on EBay. I was very happy with its quality, reasonable price and the fast shipping. The seller was FantasticsTreasures4U.

If these dresses get handed down to other little girls,  I put a size tag in the back of each one.  I used a small piece of seam tape and hand wrote the size with an ink pen.  

Home tour part 6- living room

This plaque hangs in the living room and is one of my favorite poems. Mine is painted on glass and was bought on EBay. Years ago, my mom made a big cross stitched sampler with this poem for her sister, my Aunt Bernice.  I keep looking for a cross stitched one for my own but have not found one yet

My husband built this little shelf and it holds some of my Longaberger baskets. I would like to put doilies under them, but any doilies in reach of my grands get grabbed and wadded up by them. The grands don't bother everything but they sure go for doilies. 

The living room - looking in from the front of the house. This room was redone before Christmas when we bought the new couches and chairs and that giant TV that my husband picked out and our son hung over the fireplace for us.

The couches have recliners on each end. We wanted this room to be comfortable for us and our guests.

I did not realize I liked golds and dark reds and greens so much until this room came together and most of the accessory pieces were things we already had.

Looking into the living room from the back of the house.

The green vase was a gift from brother and was handmade in Oklahoma from Oklahoma clay. I did not get flowers put in it right away so on my brothers next visit here, he filled it with it with silk roses. And spent an hour or more arranging them.

I got this old treadle sewing machine from my parents. It works but I prefer to sew with electricity :) I do like all the details on it and drawers are great storage for little things.

I sewed the curtains in the living room and in the kitchen-breakfast room all from the same fabric- roses on a gold background. I got the whole bolt of fabric for $19.95 at the antique mall in our town. It was a very good deal! 

Below- the toile pillows and table cloth are from a yard sale on the fancier side of town. The pillows are even filled with down. 

The faux Tiffany lamp is from a clearance sale at Lowes.

Yes, there is a loveseat in front of the gas fireplace.  We don't use the gas fireplace and would only use it if the electricity was off and we needed neat.
We do need lots of seating all our children and grandchildren are here.  So,  we have a comfy loveseat in front of the fireplace.  

That's our living room- thanks for dropping by. 

Coupon and thrift store shopping this week

The bulk of our groceries are now being purchased at the new local Aldi.

They don't accept coupons and I have not used many food coupons in the last few years anyway,

But I do still save coupons and save money with them by purchasing sale health and beauty items at CVS and also on a few things at Walmart. 

CVS had their own store coupons for $3.50 on Huggies and there was a printable manufacturer coupon for $2.50 on Huggies. So, I got the Huggies, that were $9.49 minus $6 in coupons on each one. I thought I could get another discount on them with my just downloaded Ibotta app but when I do the refund, the Huggies offer was gone.  Yes, couponing is complicated. 

I saw the CVS dish soap for 2/$3 and the bottles are big, seems like a good value. 

Walmart - used a newspaper B2G1F coupon on the Mr Clean erasers.

$3 newspaper coupons on the hair color that were $4.42

Thrift store shopping - and these pictures are not great

I just did some organizing and noticed we had just a handful of baby toys. I know we used to have a lot more but maybe the older grands were hard on them or took some home or they just got lost. 

I was ver happy to buy a bedspread bag full of nice baby toys for just $3. One is a mirror to attach the headrest in front of a rear facing car seat. Another is a string of action toys that can be attached to a car seat or stroller. 

I also got a batch of little boy clothes for the 2 youngest grands- lots jeans and shirts, 2 sleepers, a cute Nike one piece suit. The thrift stores in my town sell children's things for 50 cents up to $2. Most of the ones I got today were 50 cents or $1 each,

No pictures but I also bought 5, all like new, tops for me.

 3 are button up blouses (a red one, a light blue one and a dark denim one) with 3/4 sleeves, my favorite style, all from Dress Barn. 

1 is an aqua v neck sweater from Dress Barn and the last one is a brown short sleeve pullover, Chaps brand. 

I did not spend a lot of time shopping but the deals I got were things we need and use, the time spent was more than worth it.