Company coming for lunch

It’s Saturday and I think a simple lunch is suitable for our guests coming today.  

I made turkey and cheese on little buns from Walmart

Ham and cheese on croissants from Aldi 

Mustard and mayonnaise for each person to add as desired 

A bowl of chips- Poppables and 2 kinds of Sun Chips

Fresh cantaloupe, strawberries and red grapes

Homemade cookies 

Beverages will be iced tea, lemonade and water. 

I have both the coffee maker and tea maker loaded and ready to turn on if anyone wants a hot beverage afterward. 

Paper plates, cups, utensils and napkins will also be used - they are only used when we’re hosting a group

That’s it 

The cookies are a recipe that I’ve been making since 2012.  They stir up quickly, no mixer needed.
I make as the recipe says but I omit the raisins, use extra cinnamon and usually use vegetable oil and plain Greek yogurt.  I know those sound odd for cookies but if you read the recipe,  you’ll see.
https://www.cookiemadness.net/2012/09/26/one-bowl-oatmeal-raisin-cookies/

I made these cookies earlier this week and took them to my parents when my brother and 5 grands were there.  Everyone enjoyed them.  One grandson said “Grandma,  I know what job you should get when you get a job,  you should be a chef”.
I have zero plans to look for a job but I do think I’ll bake cookies for my grandchildren more often.

And the cold things are covered and in the fridge just waiting for lunch time.

Swim poncho and succulents update

As promised,  one of the towel ponchos modeled by a very cute 4 year old.  

And of the 75 or so succulents I hope will grow,  at least 2 of them are showing real signs of new growth.  It takes patience the experts say.  But I’m very pleased with this bit of quick progress

We will see!

Second hand chairs, sewing, CVS deals

 Hello blog readers.  I hope you’re all having a good summer.  

I wanted some rolling chairs for my sewing room.  

I didn’t like the retail prices of new chairs.

So we looked at a local thrift store ran by Habitat.  

We bought these 2 for $10 and $2.  

The green one was in great shape but the other one doesn’t match and was missing the back rest cover.  

  

So I looked in my fabric and found some linen like fabric that is a very close green.  

I sewed a simple slip cover for the back rest and stapled on a seat cover.  

There the chairs are in my sewing room.  

I do use both sewing machines.  

One sews knits really well.

I prefer sewing so the older machine and it sews woven fabric just fine so both machines get used.  

I've been the "new" chairs for a week or 2 and really like them

 can you see the pink fuzz on the chair? 

It's from 2 wraparound towels I made for a granddaughter to take to camp.  

and from 3 towel ponchos I sewed at the request of my daughter.  

they were just beach towels with a hole cut in the center that I finished with bias tape and the sides partially sewn so the towels stay in place when wearing. 

blogging problems-

here is supposed to be a very cute little guy modeling a poncho towel-

 I'll add the photo to my next post.  

CVS this week 

not a huge haul but big enough I think the savings add up-

I spent less than a dollar cash for the above and got money for my next weeks trip too.  

If you can't tell from the photo,  I bought a bag of laundry pods, 3 packs mens razors, 2 lipsticks and 2 toothpaste for $0.92. 

if your looking for ways to spend less on home and personal care products,  I really recommend CVS or Walgreens or RiteAid  or whatever store is available to you.  They are all have good deals if you don't mind spending a little effort to work out the best deals for yourself and then use your store earnings to mostly pay for the next deal and so on.  

Gardening - but I’m no expert

Hello
Some of our outdoor plants have really thrived this summer.
One is succulents

We have several pots of succulents and they all started this year  as little 2 inch or so plants

They’ve grown and multiplied in their pots.  

But this one grew the wrong way, according the online succulent experts. 

It has fallen and that can’t be corrected.  

However the leaves can be removed and may grow into more plants. 

After reading some online advice, we got some succulent-cactus potting soil and I started pruning.

The method I’m trying is to lay the leaves on a shallow bed of soil and keep them moist with a spray bottle. 

With patience,  some the ends will harden or change then they can be planted and should grown into their own plant.  

We will see!

Below are our zinnias, that I grew from seeds I saved from last years zinnias.  

So, i deadheaded a few of the tall zinnias and some short zinnias that were growing in one of those .50 Lowe’s pots and imhabe those spent flower heads drying.  

I’ll label them short and tall before I bag them up.  

I also cut off the dead tops of some other flowers in hopes their seeds will grow and bloom next year too.  

If anyone is wanting to try these methods,  I hope you’ll do online research and not just take my advice.  

Happy gardening everyone 🌱🌸🌻

Still doing CVS deals, reading and sewing

Hello 

I’m still shopping at CVS, usually once a week but sometimes I skip a week if I’m busy or the deals don’t work for me.

I went yesterday bought these on sale items using ExtraCareBucks, CVS coupons and newspaper coupons. 

It takes a bit of planning but I save so much, it’s worth it to me. 

I opted to get Email receipts so it’s easy to show them here. 

I spent $9.78 cash on all the products in the photo and got back $20 in ExtraCareBucks for my next transaction.  

I rarely buy food with coupon deals but I do get great deals on household and personal care items.

There are many coupon experts on YouTube and Facebook and instagram.  I usually view a few of their posts to see all the details on deals and then I plan my shopping around their advice.  

Reading

I just finished this series of books and I enjoyed them so much! 

I bought all my books used from ThriftBooks.com  

I’m happy with their quality, prices and rewards.  

Sewing- son Bobby got a super deal on an older camper for his family and he’s redoing the inside.  

He used some of this cork-looking vinyl fabric to change out inserts in the cabinets.  Then he asked me to sew some pillows with his leftover fabric. 

The 2 bolster shaped ones are for armrests on a bench seat and the oblong one is because that’s exactly how much fabric was left after I made the first 2.  

I like the way the fabric looks and it looks so nice in the camper.

My sewing machine sewed it all just fine.

The difficult part was handsewing the first 2 pillows closed.  I used a thimble and pliers to pull and push that needle. 

For the rectangle one,  I added a zipper closure and that was somewhat easier.  




I’m still fiddling, trying to get my posts to look like I want them to. 

I’m hoping this one publishes right..........

But whatever, I’m done today and need to go put the fresh sheets on the bed, vacuum and prepare a meal or too.  And maybe sew and continue reading the first book in another series.  

Have a great day everyone ❤️