Cooking, bargains, and my husbands big project

This is almost a week and half of what's been going on here.  

I did some baking last week because my in-laws were in town

Pecan pie from my mom's recipe- and the pecans were picked by us in the fall.  Yes, it tastes as good as it looks! 

Lemon pound cake muffins- an old Taste of Home magazine recipe 

Bread baked in our Zojirushi machine- that machine has truly been a work horse. 

My son has been doing meal prep- this is a bunch of chicken breasts and fajita beef he grilled.  He bags and freezes it, then eats it during the month for lunch and supper.  

He has also been making jar salads that he really likes.  

Super Bowl snacks 

I just used food we already had - sliced cheese and smoked sausage with crackers

2 kinds of oranges

A bag of microwave popcorn with a few white chcolate chips sprinkled on while still hot - Yum! 

Cheese dip and tortilla chips 

I used some of my Pyrex collection to serve it in.  

Funny grandchild of the week 

Braeden is watching PBSKids on an iPod.  

I usually sit in this chair but I don't pose like Braeden. 

I don't go to Walmart very often but I went this week needing 3 things I could only get there. 

At the front of the store,  there were 2 buggies full of Star Wars merchandise from the newest movie and EVERYTHING was 25 cents each.  Lots of shoppers were digging in the baskets and I ended up with

9 sets of little boy pajamas - I still can't believe they were a quarter! 

3 water bottles

2 Darth Vader soft balls 

And a bunch of glow stick toys. 

CVS -but this is too late for any of you to do these deals though 

I won't spell it all out but after sales and coupons and ECBs,  this was about $10 and I got back $15 ECB. 

Children's School Valentines 

Our daughter in law did these cute Valentines for Gavin in first grade.  She got the book lights at Dollar Tree.  They say - Valentine You brighten my day.m

These are some the Valentines that JJ got at his church preschool party.  He wanted to eat the dinosaur gummies first and he made dinosaur sounds through the whole bag.  

Can you guess what my husband and father in law are doing?  

They were staining the wood on this giant bookshelf 

Ta-da!  

There is this nook in the hall and after living here for 13 years,  it dawned on me that a floor to ceiling bookcase would be great in that spot.  

So now that husband is retired, he has time and energy to work on things like this. 

It is attached to the walls and holds so many books! 

It's 8 feet tall. 

Children books are on the bottom 3 shelves

Cookbooks are on the 4th

Bibles and adult fiction are on the top 4.  

That's what's been on going at the If You Do Stuff home.  We've been doing lots of stuff and I'll have more pictures for you all soon.  

Happy Valentines Day everyone.  

Friday already........

Good morning everyone.  This week flew by for us, I can hardly believe it's already Friday 

I changed out the snowballs and snowflakes on the winter tree to hearts for Valentines.  

Nothing is new. My mom made the crocheted hearts and I stitched the felt and sequins hearts years ago. 

I like the twinkling lights, especially in the early morning and evening.  

My grands haven't seen the Valentine tree yet but I know they will like it.  

I don't think this photo shows how big this new table is.  We put in both leaves and it's 115 inches long, 48 inches wide and fits just right in our diagonal shaped dining room after we moved out the hutch. 

I plan to sew some placemats but we bought these at Dollar Tree to protect the top for now.  

CVS (of course)

3 boxes of Liptons tea $3 a box, used $1 coupon on each and got back $3 ECB 

Pizzas $5.50 each, used 2 coupons Buy 2 get 1 free, and got back $10 ECB

Candy 99 cents, got back .75 ECB

Toothpaste was free after .50 coupon and $2.50 red machine coupon

Deodorants - used B1g1f coupons and got back $2.50 coupon 

Have a good weekend everyone! 

Another jumbled up post

Hello everyone 

I did a little planning this evening and wrote out a new to do list for the coming week.

I also clipped today's coupons and got a CVS list and matching coupons ready for when I can make a trip there.  

Below is the winter mantle my daughter decorated in their home- she was inspired by an expensive grouping she saw somewhere online. She put everything together with things she already had except she bought the battery-powered candles and she made the sign using her Cameo cutting device.  

I think it's all really pretty together. 

I saw this dining set on a Facebook buy and sell group. My husband and stepson went to check it out and they knew it was a great deal so they bought it and brought it home.  

It is very sturdy heavy all-real-wood.  The table is 48 inches wide and 75 inches long and can be extended with 2 leaves that are 18 inches.

It looks so pretty in our dining room and I am so thankful to now own a beautiful dining set at a very low price.  (Below is the seller's photo) 

Grand daughters with lots of hair. 

This is Andie and she is almost 4 but she has more hair than many adults. 

Sister Charlie is 6 months and she has the longest, thickest baby hair I've ever seen. 

It's a blessing for them that their momma is a hair stylist and she will keep their hair looking pretty.

The granddaughters spent a good deal of the weekend with us. Andie just loves to "cut and glue" so that's what she did.  My dad enjoyed his sweet great granddaughters too.

I hope you all had a good weekend and get a good nights sleep tonight, ready to face the new week.  

Sewing, baking, CVS and a cousin sleepover

Hello everyone!

This a jumbled up, multi topic post- a little something for everyone I guess.  

I have a very stocked sewing room and in 2016, I hope to make useful items with this stockpile 

First, I used a pile of fleece and fur scraps.  Some were given to me and some were leftover from the Frozen costume I sewed in the fall.  I used that tunic as inspiration for 2 more Nordic-ish tunics.  Then working with the size of the scraps,  there was enough to sew make 2 Western style vests.
previous tunic 

the first Kristoff tunic sewn by me

actual tutorial for a Kristoff tunic   If you need to sew a similar costume, I highly recommend this tutorial

I cut fleece into strips of fringe to decorate the tunic fronts and vests backs.  

I think the grandsons will have great fun having dress up pretend play in them.  

Now, I need to make some costumes for the girls. 

My son requested some shoe bags.  

I made some for his dad 30 or so years ago to store and pack his Marine dress shoes in. 

Jimmy uses those bags and picked out this navy babywale corduroy for new ones.  

The ties are made with boot laces.  

My husband is an expert shoe polisher from his Marine days.  

He tried out a new technique to shine up this pair- but that is not how he learned back to spit shine in boot camp.  

My daughter asked me change this pair of mens size 2X pajama pants into 2 tiny pair of pajama pants for her sons. The adult pair had plenty of fabric. 

I tried out a Pinterest method to use pants that fit the child as the pattern, instead of using paper patterns.  It was quick but I'm not sure the shapes are exactly like I would preferred.  

They did turn out cute and I am not going to stress over toddler pajama pants,  right? 

The last project was covering a few more wire hangers with fabric strips. One is just wrapped and the others are loosely crocheted.  

We have been eating 3 meals a day but I guess it hasn't been too interesting as this is the only photo i took from the last week - a batch of our tried and true sour cream chcolate chip muffins - big ones for adults and mini ones for grands.  

I posted this recipe years ago on my first blog chocolate chip muffins recipe

I made 1 trip to CVS

2 16 roll packs of Charmin bathroom tissue

2 hair color for my daughter

2 cans of cinnamon almonds

1 gallon milk

And 12 Gold Emblem nut bars- they are really good! Not really a granola bar as they are mostly nuts and very satisfying 

I used coupons and ExtraCareBucks and a MyPoints gift card.  

The balance ended up $19.76 and j got back $11 ExtraCareBucks 

The receipt says I saved $62.95 = 76%

Below is why you need the CVS app to maximize deals.  

This is a printout of all the deals I had this week.

I didn't do all of them but I did use the 

$6 off any $30 purchase

$2 off Charmin and 

$1.50 off nuts 

Friday night,  4 of the cousins had a sleepover here.  We have beds they could sleep in but they prefer to sleep in the living room on a very big pallet of quilts.

Hope you all are having a good week! 

Delivered Fresh Fruit contest - link added

I think all my readers would be happy to win a fresh fruit delivery 

Laura Lane has a review and a giveaway on her blog for the Grub Fresh Fruit company in California.

This photo is from Laura.  CONTEST

 ://harvestlanecottage.blogspot.com/2016/01/grub-market-california-fruit-bounty.html

The contest is easy to enter and closes on Feb. 1. 

We lived in California for a number of years and the fresh produce there is one of the things I miss.

CVS, Cooking, Our Pantry and Rocking

Hello.

Below is this week's CVS purchases.  I did go earlier in the month but didn't blog about it.  

CVS nuts were $3/15 with a $1.50 App coupon and I got back $5ECB

Shakes were $2.50 for both and gave back $2 ECB

Hair color was $8.49 each.  I used a $8/2 newspaper coupon and got back $5 ECB

Lady Speed Sticks were $3 each.  I used 2 B1G1F coupons from Sunday's paper and got back $6 ECB.

After coupons and ECBs from earlier, I spent $1.75 from a gift card I earned from MyPoints.com and got back $18 ECBs for next week.  

For CVS deals info - I look on Facebook at some of the big couponing pages called IHeartCvs, Couponing ar CVS and 

On YouTube, I watch LASavings8 and SavingWithJanandShirl The Coupon Queens. 

To see CVS ads early, I look at IHeartCVS.com 

Also, I have a CVS card that I got at my local store.  I always scan it at the red coupon scanner before I shop at CVS.  I went online and signed up  my CVS card at CVS.com for their Beauty Bucks program and for their pharmacy rewards.  

And I get more coupons with the CVS app.  

I know this all sounds complicated but CVS is the only store I regularly do deals at and I don't spend massive amounts of time at the above deal sites.  I do watch the weekly videos which are short and I just scan over the Facebook pages when I have time, only looking at posts that really interest me.

This week's cooking so far 

Monday- I cooked 5 pounds of ground beef and seasoned it all with homemade taco seasoning.  I froze 5 containers for future meals.  We also had tacos and tacos salad for supper Monday and Tuesday. 

Wednesday morning, I cooked a pot full of homemade pasta sauce.  I put 5 containers in the freezer for future meals and we will have pasta for supper Thursday with a big salad.  

Wednesday afternoon- I repeated our New Years Day meal of black eyed peas cooked with ham, rice and sautéed cabbage.  I also baked a pecan pie.  Some of these leftovers will go to my parents tomorrow.  I know they will be especially happy to get Pecan Pie, made with Mom's recipe. 

Our Pantry 

I've showed our pantry before, but since I spent several hours this week straightening and organizing it, I'm going to show it again.

It is tricky to photograph because it is narrow.  

The shelves are about a foot deep and go from floor to ceiling.  

Cereal, tea, chips, crackers, some baking things, oils, a giant smoked sausage we didn't eat Christmas....

Paper goods in the corner, extra bags and wraps on the top end 

Ramen type noodles in the corner, jars of salsa and drink mix, lots of past and panko bread crumbs.m

The jars are 3 deep so you can't see what's in all of them - they hold rice, dried beans, dry milk, cocoa, oatmeal, popcorn, salt....

The glass containers mostly hold snacks like nuts, bars and some candy 

Lots of condiments and spices, peanut butter, vinegar, jelly, molasses

Canned goods 

Mostly canned goods on the bottom

On the tray is where we keep opened snack chips and bread products 

On the floor - the crocks hold fresh onions and potatoes

The pink tub holds bags of sugars and baking chips

The dark red basket holds prepackaged snacks for the grands

The clear tub holds flour and the other pink tubs holds cartons of shelf stable milk and broth.

Several years ago I used red checked vinyl shelf paper and strips of lace-look vinyl tablecloth material from Walmart to cover all the shelves.  Because it is vinyl, it has held up all these years and I still enjoy it.  

And in case it sounds like I've just cooked, organized and shopped all week,  below is what I did Tuesday.

We had this little guy who is almost 8 months old and not much of a daytime sleeper.  So, I held him for both of his naps. 

Rocking babies is one of my favorite grandma activities.  

If you do stuff, stuff gets done list for this week

Good morning everyone!  I didn't mean to disappear for 2 weeks.  At the first of the year, I even thought I would try to blog everyday. Well, that sure didn't happen.  

I've had a long lasting cold that has worn out its welcome with me.  I think it is 99% gone and I'm very happy about that and ready to get back to doing what I want to do instead of coughing around the clock.  

So, here's my list for this week.  I don't use a fancy planner,  just notebook paper decorated with rubber stamps and washi type tape.  The clipboard is hung on the wall right by the pantry door.

I even added a section for my newly retired husband.  He has been helping around the house but there are a few areas that are bugging me and now he knows.  I don't know about your family but my family has always preferred a list- verbal requests can come off as nagging but everyone likes marking things off a list.  

There were several questions asked in my last blog post and I will get to those very soon.  

Have a good week everyone! 

Saturday cooking, boy fun, some make-do sewing and CVS

I got busy with some cooking Saturday morning.  I made a Dutch oven full of chili.  I put some aside in a saucepan to reheat for our supper.  2 chili-loving grandsons were here for an overnight and that is one reason I cooked chili.  My dad has been wanting chili so I filled a quart jar to take to him.  The other containers were labeled and went in the freezer for future meals. 

Chili is such a convenient freezer food- it reheats quickly and is just as good after freezing as it is fresh cooked.  We like it with corn chips or rice or crackers or pasta.  

I have based my chili loosely on the Flat Landers Chili recipe on AllRecipes.com for years.  I don't add the celery or bell peppers, sometimes I make it heavier on meat and sometimes heavier in beans but the spice mixture in the recipe is simple and just right to us.  

I also sliced a pound roll of breakfast sausage into 13 slices and cooked them.  I also baked 2 small cans of biscuits, bought with coupons for 19 cents a can.  We had sausage biscuits for breakfast and the extras all went in the freezer for future breakfasts,  

I prefer homemade biscuits but store bought biscuits really do freeze and reheat better than scratch biscuits. M

The grandsons wanted to do a craft so they painted some pine car kits from the thrift store. 

I set out acrylic paints and was a little nervous that 3 year old Braeden might be trouble with permanent paints but it was just fine.  The table was covered with a big sheet of brown packing paper I saved from a delivery box.  

The boys had lots of fun painting the cars and playing with the cars once the paint dried.  

They wanted to sleep with the cars but I said the cars had to stayed parked on a table all night.  

Saturday sewing was 5 potholders.  The blue squares with appliqued hearts were in 2 huge bags of scraps given to me awhile back from an acquaintance.   There were not enough heart squares for a quilt but they were the perfect size for potholders.  

I put all the old potholders in the laundry.  Once washed, some may return to the kitchen, some may get recovered and some might get thrown out. 

CVS 

I had coupons for everything and I had $27 in extra care bucks.  

It didn't go quite like I expected.  The Gold Emblem coupons I blogged about yesterday can only be used 1 kind per customer.  So, I checked out a second time and got more nuts and snacks on the second receipt

I thought I was buying the right things to get the $5 back on Gold Emblem like in the ad below but only $6 of it counted.  

Still- I am very happy with the outcome.

5 6 roll packs of Viva paper towels

4 100 count Lipton tea bags - we drink lots of hot and iced tea!

6 bags of cashews and mixed nuts

6 bags of assorted snacks

2 pounds of elbow pasta

2 boxes organic white cheddar shells and cheese- we had them for lunch and it was delicious 

Total spent was just under $15 and I got back $13 in extra care bucks.

CVS shopping takes some preparation and organization to get the best deals but for me,  it is worth it! 

CVS is the only store where I try to do deals.  I've read about other shoppers doing good at Target, Dollar General, Publix, Rite Aid, Sears, Kmart .....if you want to stretch your shopping dollars and are willing to do the preparation, my advice is to look on Facebook for a deal group for a store you can shop at or to look at the forums on SlickDeals.Net 

I hope you have all had a nice weekend!