another I Spy quilt

This I Spy quilt is for grandson JJ who just turned 1.  I finished it about 2 weeks ago but am a bit behind with my blogging.  Anyone notice?  it seems a lot of my favorite blogs are not posting too often -I think everyone is busy.  

so, here it is.   I think this is my 4th quilt finish for 2014.

 I tried to use prints that had some meaning to JJ and his family.  The sewing mouse on the spool is because I sew.  The tractors for his tractor loving cousins.

 JJ's family visits the beach most every summer so the little beach boy and seashells really suit them.

the funny chicken fabric came from my Aunt Evelyn's scrap box.  

 these last 3 are all turned wrong but I am on the big PC instead of my Ipad and can't get them to turn.  

a golfer because his daddy is a golf coach
a dinosaur because of his 1st party's theme

cowboys and a coyote because we live in Oklahoma

The church sort of resembles our church

JJ had a very fun dinosaur 1st birthday party and enjoyed his cake about as much as anyone could.  

He ate a little of the cake but it was mostly a wonderful plaything. 

some grow, some don't

another picture of another batch of celery and romaine ends- trying to be regrown in saucers of water

there were all started within a few days of each other.  

One Romaine took off growing and looks great,  it has been planted outdoors and continues to grow. 

But the other 4 didn't grow a bit

the celery is trying to grow in the center- but I have no guess on whether or not it will

in the background,  I was making  a big salad for Saturday supper.   

Yes, I saved those romaine ends too

Thrift store dining room table found ........

Our dining room has the strangest shape but it still needs to seat a big group.

See how the window wall is on an angle and the back wall closes off the space with a curve, I would change both of those if I could. 

I got this old heavy handmade trestle table at my favorite thrift store this morning.

Before I found this one, i thought I wanted a longer table than this 6 footer. 

But once I got it home and set up, I could see our 9 dining chairs fit around it just right. A longer table would just take up more room than we really have to spare anyway. 

The price of this one was really good too - $70

I would prefer a different table cloth but none of mine were long enough so I will be on the lookout for a pretty floral length of fabric to sew one up. 

I am really thankful for good thrift stores! 

Swagbucks - how I do them

I have been a member of Swagbucks for years and I used to do just a few searches and their dailies and that was it. But Swagbucks has added so many ways to earn, it looks complicated but is usually pretty easy.

First let me say, this probably looks like lunacy to people who have never done online earning programs. If you think this is crazy,   fine,    just come back later when I blog about something else. 

But I like doing Swagbucks and I like what I earn from them.   Some of you sweet readers have asked for advice on them.  

So here goes! 

Swagbucks can be earned on a PC or iPad or tablet or smart phone or Kindle Fire. It is ok with Swagbucks to use multiple devices simultaneously.  I mostly use a laptop and Kindle Fire.

This is how I start my day. In the kitchen, while I fix my husbands lunch, unload yesterday's clean dishes, and get ready for the day - I start Swagbucks.  See the 2 devices on the right? 

There are 2 apps for the Kindle Fire that pretty much run un-attended. They do take a couple hours to do them all the way but the SwagBucksTV apps will earn 50 and the EntertaiNow will do 30 every day. 

On the laptop, I start out by going to Swagbucks and looking at the homepage. Sometimes there are new quick offers there.  If nothing looks quick and easy, I click at the top on Discover and then Encrave on the drop down menu. 

Encraves changes a little every so often. I like to do the auto run ones, they have an arrow in a circle in each one. I click on an auto run square and wait for the screen to come up. Then on the new screen, in the top left, click on the X until to switches to a green check and discovery mode. Now, you can go about your other business but keep an eye on the screen. When the cycle finishes, a pop up box in the right corner will announce your earnings. Now, click on another video, be sure to check the discovery mode and just do as many as you want to. 

They may change around during the day and go away if you play a lot of them. 

Back to the homepage, 

In the top left you will see a box with your daily goal. If you make goal for a week straight or the entire month, you will earn a bonus that will be paid on the 5th day of the next month. 

They will also give you a second bonus after you complete the first and second goals. 

The goal sizes depend on your past scores. Mine are about 100 for the first and 250 for the second. I try to make both goals everyday but if I am really busy or won't be home much, I just concentrate on getting the first one. 

Under the goals are the To Do List. 

Toolbar - if you put this on your PC, you will get 1 SB for logging on everyday - I don't use the toolbar 

Poll- I do this everyday, 

NOSO - I do this everyday 

Searches - search wins are random and you can search anytime you want but the winnings seem to spaced out though the day. I hope to get 3 wins a day but have gotten more than. Searches may award 6 up to 50, but 7 or 10 or 14 is most common. 

Sign ups - there are a thousand or so of these but I don't do many of them. 

 Contests - I will enter these when SBs are rewarded 

Coupons - I do look at their coupons and use ones that help us. Each one you use at a store will earn 10 SBs sometime in the future. 

Shop and Earn - when you make purchases at merchants through Swagbucks, you will earn so much per dollar spent. It takes about 6 weeks or more to get credit but it can be really. I have used it a few times when I bought things at our local Walmart and Bestbuy. I shopped online but then picked up the items at local stores and earned SBs for doing so. 

Swagbucks has dozens of stores in their network. 

There are many other ways to earn but I mainly play videos on the Kindle Fire apps and Encrave videos. 

I look on the Swagbucks Facebook  page and see want others are talking about. I've got good hints about easy opportunities and snags here. 

Special days- Swagbucks has special days when they offer lots of codes and contests and giveaways. I do pay attention to these and check often on Facebook on those days, especially for codes. 

Codes - short phrases with time limits offered randomly and on special days.  At the top right on a Swagbucks page is a circle that kind of looks like a wheel. When you click on it, a drop down box appears and that is where the codes are entered. When I find a code, I cut and paste it as spelling counts and they be odd. 

iPad - I do have a swagbucks app there and use  it mainly for special offers. They offer a lot of game apps but once I get credit for them, I usually delete them afterward. 

Surveys- you can earn a lot of SBs at once doing surveys and I have friends that do well with them but I rarely do them unless Swagbucks send me an email asking me to take one and I have time to sit- surveys can take 5 minutes to an hour I think. 

Smart phones-  I've read that SBTV can be watched on a smart phone but I've never done it. 

Swagbucks TV on about any device- you can earn a lot from and their are lots of video catagories,  I don't do it much because it requires to viewer to click after each video to advance to the next one.

there are even more ways than to this to earn but what I listed are the ways to score.  But if you want to really put a lot of time into it,  you can find more.  

Yesterday was a special day at Swagbucks with everyone divided into 4 teams and the higher your team scored , the bigger the bonus.  I earned about 300 SBs and contributed 172 points to my team. If you look just under that, you can see the high point earners on my team, they REALLy earned a lot. 

So with Swagbucks, if you have time and multiple devices, you can earn about as much as you want to Swagbucks. 

If you have read this far and want to try earning with Swagbucks,  I hope you will sign up with my referral link

swagbucks.com/refer/stwoliver3

referrals are another way to earn Swagbucks. 

Comment if you have any questions or if you do Swagbucks and have any advice or anything to add. 

this link will take you to a site if you have a Kindle Fire and want to try the EntertaiNow app. 

Asian Noodle Stirfry

I made this delicious and thrifty recipe Friday night, again!
The original recipe is here at Heavenly Homemaker

It is flexible - I started by looking in our fridge for vegetables that especially needed  cooking. The big head of broccoli is what I started with. I also added onion, celery, and carrots and a little fresh garlic.
This is big batch- I wanted to have leftovers.
So, there is a big pot of water coming to a boil on the right, out of the picture. It will cook that pound bag of penne pasta.

I sauté the veggies, in Olive oil, one or two at a time, just cooking them a little and leaving a little crunch.
The veggies usually finish cooking about the same time as the pasta.

Drain the pasta when done, then the cooked veggies and soy sauce and pepper to taste are added. Stir a little and feed to your family.  I add salt to the pasta water and use low salt soy sauce - for our taste buds, it is plenty salty without adding more salt.

I've made this with spaghetti noodles and with frozen stirfry noodles. 

Cabbage and water chestnuts are good too. 

CVS deals this week

I stocked up this week on laundry detergent and diapers. 

The 6 packs of CVS diapers were $5 each. I used a $3 scanner coupon and got back a $10 ECB. I think 6 packs of diapers for $17 is a super bargain. 

I used a $2 scanner coupon on any Kleenex item to get the 2 tissues free. 

All detergent was $3.50 each. I used 2 $2/2 coupons on this deal. I also got diet Pepsi for my guests with this deal.  All, Pepsi and some other products were in a deal where you spend $20, you earn a $5 ECB.

Venus razor - used a $4 coupon and a $3 scanner coupon, and got back a $5 ECB. 

I won't be buying anymore diapers or detergent soon, I already had 10 packs of mostly Huggies from previous CVS deals. In the laundry room, there are 15 bags of laundry tabs and 12 assorted bottles of liquid. 

But I will use the $20 in ECBs on other bargains in the weeks to come. 

Can you all tell I am a CVS fan? I have built up some great stockpiles with CVS deals with not much effort. 

Finances on Friday

I found out late Tuesday afternoon that there would be 12 here for supper on Wednesday. I did not want to add shopping to my list of things to do so I planned a menu of easy to make dishes made with groceries on hand. This is what we ate

Chicken cooked on the grill by my husband-thawed and trimmed up Tuesday night.

Twice baked potatoes and baked beans - prepared Tuesday night and then reheated

A big green salad

A big loaf of bread baked in our bread machine

Banana bread and Pecan Pie Squares - both baked early Wednesday when I only had baby JJ to care for, and thankfully he sat happily in his high chair and played with some mini tongs and an empty paper towel tube the entire time I was mixing them up. 

The twice baked potatoes were a big hit. I knew my sons liked them a lot and we were all tickled to see the grand daughter who is a bit opinionated about her food liked them so much, she was picking hers up and eating it like a muffin. She ate 2 small ones and her uncle's empty peel as well.  Twice bakeds require a little effort when making them, but they go together fast and then are easy to reheat. 

Mine are nothing fancy, just baked and scooped out potatoes, mashed with some butter, milk and yellow cheese, S & P to taste. No sour cream or cream cheese are needed for how we like them. I use a small scoop to refill the shells and top each one with a little more grated cheddar.  My family liked them so much,  I really need to make them more often. 

Saturday morning, there were 10 here for breakfast. That menu was

Oven baked bacon- I stockpiled bacon several months ago when the Oscar Mayer was $1.99 a pound but my stockpile is getting low

Scrambled eggs

Freezer biscuits   I like to multiply this recipe by 4 or 6 and keep several dozen in the freezer for meals like this

Cream gravy - that's how we do big breakfasts in Oklahoma 

Bananas, orange juice, coffee and hot tea

What do you all cook or serve when you feed a big group? I am always looking for new menus that are easy and crowd pleasing. 

Paid off the last of my husbands surgery bills. In our experience with these last 3 surgeries, the doctors, physical therapy, home health, etc seem to be happy to take just what our insurance company offered them.  But not the hospitals- they want 100% of what they bill.  Thankfully, husbands work insurance paid about 90% or so, less deductibles. 

As always, we use the free online billpay our credit union offers - it is easy and quick too!

My gardening and second hand purchases have been thrifty so far. 

We are having mild, thrifty weather- not much need to run the heat or air conditioner. 

Have baked all our bread in 2014

Cashed in a few weeks of Swagbucks points for $50 Paypal
swagbucks.com/refer/stwoliver3
if you don't do Swagbucks and want to join,  I would love for you to sign up with my referal link.  My daughter said I should do a post about how I earn them and I will if anyone wants to know.  

We are having a vegetarian supper -This vegetable pasta stirfry. It is so good and we like it so much, we have had it every week, except last week, since I first found the recipe. it is very thrift too- any pasta will work, and just about whatever vegetables you have, especially the ones that need to be used soon- and some garlic and oil.

Walgreens is having 7 days of Egg-Cellent photo deals this week.  I got a free 8by10 collage on Monday and 10 free 4by6 prints yesterday.  

Linking up with Rebecca at Renaissance 

Some of our family and recent guests

Notice what a helper our grand daughter is, stirring the scrambled eggs. 

Thrift store and church rummage sale finds

April has already been a good month for thrift shopping.

I went to my favorite store yesterday, looking for warm weather clothing for the grands, 

I found lots for the youngest grandsons

4 shirts and 8 shorts $1 and 50 cents each

Cute rompers - the orange one was $2 and the gray one was 50 cents

Little big Jammies, a swimsuit for the oldest grandson and a swimsuit for the youngest grand daughter.  

I am a sucker for polka dots. 

Rummage sale finds

These toys were 25 cents each. Both grand daughters are fans of Mickie and Minnie.

When you push the button on the side of the truck, it makes a sound like a truck or animal- I think all the grandsons will like it. 

Free magazines- old Country Living, from 1984 and  2002

Tupperware

Books were 25 cents each,  The Fox is a song my grandmother sang to all her grandchildren.

Cross stitch booklet

I think these are potholders as they are double sided. They are crocheted of cotton yarn and very pretty, 25 cents each. 

A really BIG spoon rest. Maybe it is a ladle rest.

And a mystery box- it was not an old Santa........

But these treasures

Look at all these pins! And I need new pins. 

Old needles- I think they cost a lot more than 15 cents now

A bunch of gold and pearl beads, and silver chenille stems

So much glitter- I've never seen glitter in bags. 

Lots of good crafting supplies. 

And this pretty tatted piece. I think it was made to go around the neckline of a top or dress. I hope to do something with it for me. 

Spring thrifting is fun! 

Gardening update

First, I was asked where I bought my portulaca -moss rose seeds   I got them on EBay for $1.79 shipped from this sellerSeeds and Scents
They shipped fast and also inclosed a free pack of wildflower seeds.

If you've ever been on Facebook or Pinterest, you've seen posts about regrowing vegetables from the the scraps of the vegetables you've bought at a grocery store.
I am trying it with the the root end of a celery and 3 romaine lettuce. I don't think I really read the instructions. I just sliced a very small sliver off the root end of each one, then let them set in a saucer of water until they sprouted. 

Most of the tomato plants are doing fine except for 2 in this planter. 

So, I added the celery and romaine in with the 2 cherry tomato plants. 

When I bought groceries today, celery was $1.99 at Aldi.  I bought some because I like it but I kept that root end too and hope it will sprout like the other one. 

It would be great if these actually produce an edible crop. I'll keep you updated.....

Truth from my Sunday Morning devotion

 “An anxious heart weighs a man down, but a kind word cheers him up” 

Proverbs 12:25

This photo is from our trip to Branson. We are outside the Dixie Stampede.  My husband has an especially big smile because he had just chatted with 2 other Marine veterans. One of those Marines took this shot for us and we used their IPad to take their photos. 

We were having a good time just being on vacation but visiting with those 2 Marines made my husband even happier. He had never met them before, one served during Vietnam and the other during Desert Shield. Marines just seem to always greet each other, shake hands, say ooh-rah, and they bring each other up.  - it works just like the Bible verse promises it will

those flowers, they are pretty, but it is too cold in Missouri for outdoor blooms, all of those are silk. 

It still makes for a pretty photo background. 

Thank you for coming by- I hope my blog is always kind and a cheerful place to visit. 

Spring Fever

Does anyone in North America not have spring fever? It's been a long hard winter and I am sure glad it is spring.  This is our weather forecast, and I must brag on Oklahoma meteorologists,  I think they are very accurate, maybe the best in the world. I don't always like their forecasts but they are very dependable.

With this warm forecast, I think it is probably safe to let my tomato and zinnia seeds move out of their egg shells and be transplanted into pots outside.

The cherry tomato plants are in these big planters, outside but also sheltered by the pergola roof. When they are bigger, we will move the pots into full sun. For now, they will be protected from any heavy rain we might get.

Zinnias are now in these pots, and for now, right beside the house for a little extra warmth and protection. 

For thrift and cuteness, I really like using egg shells for the starting pots. 

Still in the house, are some tiny petunias and moss rose growing in more eggs. I am also going to start some heirloom tomato seeds I bought in Branson.  

What is your weather like?  I hope winter is finally over for everyone!  

Groove Book

Have you heard of GrooveBook? It is a very easy and thrifty way to get prints of all those photos on your phone, PC, Mac, IPad, android device.

Groove Book will print up to 100 of your photos and ship them to you in about 12 days for just $2.97. 

This is a picture of my first GrooveBook.  They hope customers will print a book every month but there is no obligation. 

I liked the idea so much, I also had the same book sent to my parents and my in laws.  And I plan to do it every month. 

If you look close at the spine, the date of each photo is printed there. 

The photo quality is good, not as good as more expensive photo processing, but more than good enough for every day snapshots. 

If you want to try it, you can get your first GrooveBook  free if you use my code OLIVER537

It may benefit me if anyone uses the code but I looked and can't see what. 

I used the GrooveBook app on my iPad and it was very fast and easy. Much easier and cheaper than any other way I have printed and shipped photos. 

http://groovebook.com

CVS deals and a savings tip

Hi everyone- my husband and I took a last minute trip to Branson MO, partly to celebrate our wedding anniversary and partly because we just needed a vacation.  We had a great time and hope to go back in the fall and we would like to take our grandchildren when they are a few years older.  Branson is very fun, family oriented town.

So,  I will be doing the same frugal things with another vacation as my goal.

This week, when you scan your CVS card at the scanner,  you will get a coupon to get one roll of CVS paper towels free.
CVS also has a super  deal on laundry detergent.  Wisk,  All and Snuggle are Buy 1 Get 2 Free~
limit 6.
I think the Wisk 24 tab bags were $8.99 each. (So you get 3 for about $9.)
I used 4 Wisk $1.50 coupons that were in the Sunday paper a few weeks ago.  I could of used 6 coupons as I bought 6 Wisk but I only had 4 coupons, there are also recent All and Snuggle coupons. 
After coupons, my total was $13.02
I  used ECBs from a previous purchase for this purchase and paid for  the tax with a CVS gift card.

I have 2 CVS gift cards right now.  One was for $50 and I earned it through Mypoints.com

The other one is for $27 and I got it when I returned some defective reading glasses.  I had saved the sales receipt but did not have the tag from the glasses so a cash refund was not allowed, but the allowed gift card was fine with me.  

I've blogged that we buy and budget our gasoline with a Walmart prepaid card.  I bought a new card at the first of March for $200 and the first time my husband tried to use it,  just before our Branson trip, that card wouldn't scan at the pump, even with the attendants help.   Thankfully, I had the sales receipt from the card purchase and I will take the card to Walmart later and get it exchanged for working card.

I've been putting my receipts  my homekeeping notebook and plan to continue.  Having those 2 receipts saved $227!  

Mid-March catch up

I am fine and still here- just have not been visiting or writing blogs much. But I have no plans to stay away from the blog neighborhood - just took a little break

I have done very little shopping but I was in Walmart today and a worker in the children's department told me I should look in the buggy where she has just marked down an assortment of things.

I didn't dig through it all but I did pick out a nice assortment of socks for all my grandchildren, 

The packs with 2 or 3 pairs were 50 cents each. 

The packs with 6-10 pairs were $1.

9 of our family members were here Saturday. This is the lunch I put together. 

Homemade honey oat and white sandwich buns

A meat plate with cheese, sliced ham and chicken salad

Sandwich toppings -sliced onions, tomatoes, lettuce

A veggie plate with dip 

A fresh fruit plate 

And a peach crisp- not in the photo
most all the ingredients for this meal were purchased at Aldi- I am so thankful for this affordable and easy to shop at grocery store

I've baked lots of sandwich buns but have never got the hot dog buns quite right. But I've baked them twice lately and have been a lot happier with them. When I cut out the dough, it seems the unbaked unrisen dough for the hotdog buns needs to start out just a tad bigger than the hot dog. The dough will rise quite a bit and doing it like this gives a bun that is just the right size to hold the hot dog. 

All 5 of my grands at one time - this was at Andie's 2nd birthday party. The other 75 or so party goers were trying to get these 5 to smile for the photo. But instead of smiling, I think the grands were overwhelmed. So, instead of their usual smiling faces, this photo kind of looks like a group baby mugshot.

The seeds growing in eggshells are doing great. If next weeks weather forecast is warm, I am going to move the tomatoes to the outdoor planters then. 

I've been saving most of my eggshells and planted flower seeds in 28 more yesterday.

The tomatoes are the tallest. 

Our country friends with chickens are selling eggs after a dry spell in the winter. 

They have the nicest eggs with bright orange yolks and the shells are light blue and shades of brown.

I am so happy to have good eggs again!

Handwork  - I've been working on a gingham check cover for a tissue box, made with yarn and plastic canvas. Once I got the pattern started, it is almost a no brainer. Sometimes it is nice to just work on something and not have to concentrate much. 

I've been quiet because I have just been sad. A neighbor  passed away unexpectedly from pneumonia.  

Also, a very good friend was killed, so unexpectedly, in a 104 car pileup in Colorado.  She was a very dear, sweet lady.  

This is one of  the songs that was played at her funeral,  and it really sums up her attitude- Love God,  love your family

I am thankful to of known both of them but I do miss them and I know their families are just heartbroken.

 I am also thankful to know so many of you sweet bloggers through the nice  comments you leave  here and through your blogs.  

Hopefully, next week,  things will be more normal here and I will be back to regular blog writing and visiting. 

Weekend Sewing

This sweet little baby doll cradle was handed down to Grand daughter Elizabeth from some church friends. It has already been played with by 2 generations.  The wood bed was in great shape but it needed new bedding.

The old bedding, kind of eww, right?  But I am glad I had the old bedding to use as a pattern.

Sewing up the new bedding was easy. I had pink polka dot and solid white squares left from Elizabeth's 1st birthday quilt. I used them for the quilt and pillow. The mattress is covered with striped vintage sheet fabric. 

I think she will like it. :)