Got it done! Well, mostly done........

I normally do my big housecleaning on Monday but this week has been off that schedule.

I worked hard on the to do list I posted yesterday and actually completed all of it - except the ironing. 

All the cleaning, cooking and errands are done!

My trusty tiny helper make me a big batch of taco seasoning.  I've been using this recipe from AllRecipes.com for years.  It is so much better than store bought.  The jar will get shook up and mixed well but for now, it looks like sand art.

recipeTaco seasoning recipe

I made this amount times 3 to fill up a quart job. 

One very heaping Tablespoon seasons a pound of ground beef for tacos.

I also stopped at my favorite thrift store before I picked up JJ from preschool. The preschool and thrift store are not far apart. I haven't been thrift shopping since before Christmas.

I spent $10.88 and was very happy to get a lot of boys clothes.  Boys are hard on their clothes and the older boys get, it seems the selection for them at thrift stores is a lot less.

Stack on the left is 5 shirts all boys size 2-3.  

Right side is a nice pair Lee cargo jeans (slim and with the waist band adjusters perfect for my slim grands) and 3 size 5 shirts

2 girls shirt and 1 girl pants

4 newborn onesie outfits

2 boy sleepers

And

3 really nice GAP boy shirts.

 I was cutting off all the price tags and grandson Braeden got excited about the Orange shirt with vehicles on it. 

My daughter is still working on her home organization challenge. This week's assignment is the pantry. Her pantry is only 4 pull out drawers so she did it quickly and is already working on next week's Master Bedroom.

Late to-do list

Ok, I am up and dressed. Husband is off to work and I will pick up one grandson from baby preschool just before noon. 

I wrote out a shortened to do list and and I am going to try to do as much of it  as I can before I leave for errands. 

The toy room will only need a few minutes to straighten .....

But this ironing will take awhile. I don't plan on tackling it this morning, but maybe I can do it while my grandson naps or during evening TV watching.  

Here I go! I hope you are making progress on your to-do list too. 

CVS this week

There are some great deals to be had at CVS this week.  I've read about deals on men's deodorant, toothpaste and shampoos. My stockpiles on those are big enough so didn't buy any more but I did gets these deals. 

2 16 roll packs of Charming

2 bottles mouthwash

2 bottles dish soap

4 boxes cereal 

And not shown - 2 gallons milk

Everything I bought was on sale, I used a coupon on everything and $25 in ECBs from last week. 

I owed $9.03 and I paid that with a prepaid debit card I got from a survey.

I got back $13 ECBs to use later. 

I got a mailer from CVS with a coupon for 25% off any regular price purchase. I hardly ever buy anything there that is not on sale so I don't know how much good it will do me. 

But at the top of the page, all my CVS savings are listed for the last 12 months.

All the savings added up in one place are more than I would of guessed it would be. 

Again, the way to really save at CVS is to shop there consistently and let the savings from one week roll into the next.

The Monday holiday is still affecting what I am getting done this week. I never do much housework on Tuesdays as I usually have my youngest grandson all day. I did get the laundry done and the CVS shopping done today but that's about it.

I plan on making out a minimum to do list and working fast and furious on it tomorrow morning- I'll let you know! 

Monday's to do list is being postponed until tomorrow

In the USA, this is a holiday to celebrate Dr. Martin Luther King. Schools are out and many workers are off work so that means for us, today was a family fun day. 

Even though it is winter, here it is a warm and sunny today. But we did a snow man craft anyway.

Marshmallows, glue and cousins always make for a fun time.

Dr. Martin Luther King 1929-1968 

Bakery style scones

We made a planned at the last minute trip to Texas midweek. My dad a medical procedure done and it seems to of been a success. While he recuperated Mom and Dad both said they could manage but I knew they needed me so my husband took off work and drove me there.

We visited lots and I did some cooking and a bit of shopping for them. 

They usually eat oatmeal for breakfast so I cooked some different things. One morning was bacon, over easy eggs and biscuits. One morning was oatmeal muffins and the other morning was cinnamon scones.

I've blogged about these delicious scones before and I've seen the recipe on several other blogs so I think it is a very popular recipe.
And it should be because they are just delicious. They are quick and made with normal pantry ingredients too.
This is the batch I baked yesterday at my parent's home. 

If you want to make something special but easy for a weekend breakfast, I recommend these scones. 

(The recipe calls for 1/3 cup of buttermilk but every time I've made them, I've needed at least 1/2 cup.)

Now we are back in Oklahoma. 

2 of our grandsons will be spending the rest of the weekend with us.  They are really fun little guys.  

We went out for supper tonight and they picked Jack In The Box. They also wanted to sit at a table with the high stools instead of at a lower booth.

Fast food is never my first choice but they boys had a great time and so did we. 

Good times! 

My daughter's thrifty laundry room re-do

Linking up to the party at Mimi's Tray of Bliss Premiere of her brand new Five Star Frugal Link Up 


My daughter is a busy working mom with 2 little ones and another son due this spring.  To get ready for an even busier season of life, she is doing a multi week home de-clutter and organization challenge Facebook group thing.  The first weeks assignment was their kitchens.

This week's challenge was the laundry area.   

I don't have a complete "before" photo but here are the highlights 

First, she had some boxes she wanted to use for children's art supply storage. She thought about covering them with fabric but my fabric stash didn't have enough of any coordinating fabrics for all 4 boxes.

Then I remembered all this roll gift wrap that I bought at Hobby Lobby at least 5 years ago. The rolls are very long and the paper is almost too sturdy for one time gift wrapping.

Since their laundry room was already painted gray, she used the the black and white prints.

I think the covered boxes look so pretty and they really hold lots of stuff like glue and crayons and tape.

The only thing she spent money on was for these new laundry hampers.  She added their photos to help with sorting. 4 year old Elizabeth even told 1 year old JJ where he was supposed to put his dirty laundry. 

These hampers have a solid shelf on top that should be a good surface for laundry folding.

Their washer and dryer is not new, just cleaned off and decluttered.

She moved her heat press to the cabinet between the 2 appliances - its a perfect fit too. She uses the heat press to add custom designs to clothing and accessories.

 This space on the wall was damaged from an old rack. They didn't have any of the gray paint so they painted a big almost black square there to use as a faux bulletin board.

Here's the AFTER in one photo.

Really nice job I think! 

Monday to - do list ........

Good morning everyone! It is cold foggy month in Oklahoma so I will mostly be doing things indoors today. I started my week's to do list last night, I think it will keep me busy all day.  There are a couple of items from last week's list that didn't get done and had to be rolled onto this list.  And I need to add "clean stovetop" to the list as my morning oatmeal boiled a bit over.  

I know some of you are saying "ewwww" right now. Sauerkraut is one of those foods that people either like or they can't stand.  My husband and I like it, especially this German kraut from Aldi. I don't think they carry it all the time but have it during their German week events. 

I'll be baking the pork loin chops with diced onion and the kraut for our supper. 

Oven meals are great on cold days like this, the oven cooks the food and also helps warm up the house. 

About my previous post, I had no idea napkins from old tablecloths would be so popular! 

They really were quick and fun to sew. One son claimed the set of 12 and the others have been promised to my brother's girlfriend. 

About the size I use for napkins, I like about 17 inches.  On a reuse project like cutting up tablecloths, you just about have to let the fabric decide though. 

Have a good Monday everyone! I hope to get as many boxes checked on my to do list as I can. 

Sewing- napkins and baby cloths

I've been cleaning out a closet and got rid of several tablecloths that didn't fit our table but I kept 3 sort of vintage thrifted tablecloths even though  they didn't fit our table either. I thought about cutting them down into dish towel size but I am not really in need of more dish towels right now.

Then my son mentioned he wanted more cloth napkins. So yesterday, I cut the 3 tablecloths into napkin size and finished off any edges that needed it. 

I left the sewn edges in tact so some of the new napkins only needed 2 or 3 sides finished off with narrow hems. I first ironed them and then machine stitched. They were a quick project, 

There are 4 in the first stack, 6 in the middle stack and 12 in the last pile. 

It was the biggest of the 3. It had a repeating design of this big fruit bowl so I tried to center one on each napkin. 

I don't know if my son will think these are cool or hokey. But if he doesn't like them, we will use them.

My other sewing project used 3 little flannel blankets from the thrift store. They were really too tiny to swaddle a baby but I bought them because the fabric looked brand new and the color is fairly gender neutral. 

I cut them into rectangles and rounded the corners, then sewed them up into burp cloths. 

4 of them are a good size for a burp cloth but the 5th one is pieced from the scraps and is a bit small. But maybe it will be used by an older sibling on a baby doll when the new babies arrive.

My craft room has no shortage of supplies to continue with similar sewing projects. Hopefully I'll get more done soon! 

CVS this week

I recently found a YouTube channel that spells out her bargain deals in detail. She shops at a number of stores and I like the ones she does on CVS as that is the store I concentrate on

She posted a video yesterday of her CVS deals,  I think she bought over $300 and paid for it all with Extra Care Bucks and got back more Extra Care Bucks than she spent. 

http://youtu.be/BeuejaCCziI

So after I watched it, I organized my coupons and went to CVS.  I am very happy with my deals though I spent $38 but I got items we really need.

I got 7 packs of diapers ( they are all little sizes for the 2 future grand babies)

6 bottles of Bayer low dose aspirin

3 bottles vitamins

3 boxes band aids

And the little cans of butter cookies were on clearance for 75% off. 

All their Christmas and special toys were 75% off and I looked hard but only got my husbands favorite store bought cookies from all the clearance aisles.

I used coupons on everything, some were in yesterday's paper and some were printed from coupons.com, I also used some ECBs from last week, quarterly rewards, beauty club rewards and a mailed $5/15 and some coupons from the in store scanner.

My receipt says I saved $104.58

And I got back $25 ECB for my next shopping trip.

If you are interested in great deals like this, look at the YouTube link and look at other stores she shops at if you don't have a CVS. 
LASavings8 on Youtube

http://www.iheartcvs.com/ I Heart CVS is another site you where can see the current and next few weekly CVS ads. 

happy shopping everyone
and for you who don't or can't shop CVS,  I'll be back with non-shopping posts soon. 

Snow Tree - use what you have project

I packed all the Christmas things away yesterday. I left one tree up because I want to decorate it for Valentines. But it is just the first week of January and it still seems a little early for pink and hearts.

So I had the idea to do a snow themed tree since it is so cold! But I don't have any snow ornaments.

I looked on Pinterest last night for ideas and saw lots of cute ideas but I didn't have the needed supplies. So, I just went to bed and left the tree bare.

Then this morning, I thought about snowflakes and used my Cricut to cut assorted snowflakes out of white card stock.  I also found a box of clear glass craft ornaments that my daughter bought years ago (looking at the price tag, I am guessing in 2005)

I also got out a bunch of silver pipe cleaners and some beads.

The finished snow tree

We used white school glue and lots of glitter on the paper snowflakes 

My daughter and granddaughter swirled paint and glitter inside the clear balls. 

If you look close, you can see the silver pipe cleaner snowflakes my son made. 

I am really happy with this project that required no trips to a craft store. 

Later in the evening, our other granddaughter was here, she likes the snow tree too.

Another CVS post

If you've read my blog much at all, you know I get great deals at CVS.

Seems the more I shop there, they more incentives they offer me to shop there even more. 

I got 3 emails from CVS this week, notifications of a total of $12 in Extra Care Bucks and a coupon. These can be used on just about anything.

I don't have access to many major retailers or the time to go to every store. So for me, focusing on CVS deals does add up to big savings. 

First day of Twenty Fifteen

Happy New Year to everyone! 

This little statue was bought years ago at a thrift store. 

He was handmade by someone who left his legs bare. In the front, he is fine. But his backside, well, my children all giggle about it.  So I just keep his back turned where it doesn't show. 

A southern tradition we follow is eating black eyed peas and cabbage on January 1. I'll cook the peas with a little diced onion and ham and we will eat them on top of a bed of rice. 

The cabbage gets sautéed in a little butter with some onion just until tender, then seasoned with salt and pepper and a tiny sprinkle of sugar.  Sugar on vegetables is Southern too but not something I do except for this cabbage dish.

Dessert will be a cherry pie- it's not traditional to New Years but my husband has been wanting one. 

Apparently I am a rusty pie baker as I didn't cut the vent holes nearly big enough. 

Yes, there is a big mess in the bottom of the oven where the pie bubbled over. 

Thankfully we have a self cleaning oven and I will run than cycle later. 

I used canned tart cherries - the label says they are healthy (healthy before they get cooked in sugar and a crust anyway)  and 

I used the recipe on the back of the can. 

Happy 2015 everyone! 

Do you have New Years traditions?