September Home Challenge

After a busy August with lots of grandchildren days, our entire home is in need of cleaning and organizing just about every corner. It’s a bit overwhelming as it can’t all be done in a day or 2. 

So I made a list of everything I wanted to fix and was surprised it added up to 30- which is  also the number of days in September.  

So,  my plan is to work on least 1 area a day and by the end of September,  our home should be good shape again.  

I’m off to a good start as 3 of the areas are already back in order and another one is started.  

Before and after pictures below and I am rather embarrassed by them but I know everyone wants to see results.  

The last photo is the before of the messy breakfast room- it will look much different when I’m done.  

The month is just getting started- anyone else want to join me on this challenge? 

Get ready for Fall 

organization and clean up plan 

1. Back room desk

2. Back room closet 

3. Hall bath under sink cabinet

4. Hall linen cabinet

5. Toy room closet 

6. Sewing room closet

7. Sewing room fabric

8. Front closet

9. Hall book shelf

10. Hall dust photos

✅11. Dining room dust wall stuff✅

✅12. Dining room table top ✅

13. Laundry room cabinets

14. East hall- cabinet and hat rack 

15. MBR end tables

16. MBR vanity

17. MBR general declutter 

18. MBATH cabinets and wash curtains 

19. MCloset file cabinet 

20. MCloset my clothes 

21. MCloset Jeff’s clothes

22. Garage- sweep, spray and declutter

✅23. Tornado building- sweep, spray and declutter✅

24. Kitchen junk pantry

25. Kitchen big pantry

26. Kitchen upper cabinets

27. Kitchen lower cabinets

28. Kitchen drawers

29. Breakfast nook and hutch - started 

30. Living room tables & mantel 

Tornado shelter before and after 

(It’s an 8 foot square above ground concrete room in the backyard, rated to withstand and E5 tornado)

Dining room before and after 

baby succulents, bobbing for marshmallows, meal planning and coupon shopping

Most all of succulents I started from leaves and cuttings are growing.
I ordered a set of 16 tiny clay pots on Amazon but that was not nearly enough.
So I looked on Pinterest and found an easy way to make seed pots with the larger plastic Easter egg halves hot glued onto tiny tiles from the Lowe’s flooring department.

They seem to grow almost daily and I’m really enjoying their progress.  

Public schools in our area are all in session except for the elementary school where these 3 grandchildren are enrolled.  That school is moving into a brand new building and all the heavy rains we had in the spring for the construction work off their schedule.  

Hopefully their new school will be ready for children by next week. 

In the meantime,  these 3 are mostly spending their days with me as their parents work at different schools that are in session.  

We’ve been looking for fun things to do and I made a list of things we can do this week.  

So far, we’ve scratched off 3.

Above, they were having a great time ‘bobbing for marshmallows “ 

I filled that tub with water and then we dropped in a few of the larger marshmallows. 

The kids each put their face in the water until they caught a marshmallow with their mouth.  

I thought it was kind of gross but they had an absolute ball doing it. 

With busy days,  I thought a detailed menu plan would be helpful.  

And it has been! We aren’t eating these meals in this exact order,  but I  have all the ingredients on hand for everything and it’s easy to just decide what to serve each day as we go along.  

side dishes are fruit,  salad, fresh veggies like celery, carrots and tomatos from our backyard,  also frozen vegs, crockpot baked potatoes and veggie straws. 

These grands are especially fond of fruit and my husband and I usually eat several servings of fruit daily.  I was happy to find peaches for .48 a pound, red grapes for .75 a pound and the pears were 3 pounds for $1.  

I also found our favorite kinds of bread and buns marked to less than half so I bought some of  those and put them straight in the freezer when I got home.  

Yes, I still shop at CVS most every week and has been trying out Walgreens.  

I’ve found some good deals at Walgreens but their digital coupons don’t always apply and their register rewards and points system is complicated.  I will shop there st least an few more times as I have quite a few points built up but after I spend them,  I think I will pretty just stick with CVS and occasionally Dollar General and Family Dollar.    

I used coupons and rewards for all this stuff at CVS and Walgreens,  spent about $25 cash and got about that much back in store money for my next trips.
my husband is happy I found deals on his 2 favorite kinds of coffee,
and I was happy to find deals on bags and disposable plates and bowls.
The grands like the fries and chicken nuggets for fast meals- there are 2 bags of each as they are Buy 1 Get 1 Free at Walgreens this week.

hope you all have a good rest of your week

and hope it is cooler where you are.  

We've been under a heat advisory but the weather people  say cooler days are coming soon! 

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 ❤️ 

Finally doing a new post

Hello friends

I’m fine,  just been busy over the summer and doing some relaxing over the summer.

I hope you all have had some relaxing time too.  

Last month we were in Lowe’s and my husband asked the garden center cashier what was on sale today.
The manager heard him and came over and said, kind of quiet, “anything with a clearance tag is .50 for you at the checkout”.
There were so much clearance and we bought lots!
It pays to be friendly to the workers at stores you frequent.

All the plants piled on this picnic table were .50 each!

I’m still meal prepping and I guess I was doing this way before it was so cool/ 

This is pretty typical food prep at our home _ a big salad, hard cooked eggs, orange juice made from frozen concentrate because it’s much cheaper that way and a frozen berry sorbet.  

Below is just a funny
And I’m afraid I’m guilty of saying this and meaning the same thing 😂

We have a Goodwill near our home.  We went there one morning looking for a water bottle  for my husband.  They didn’t have any bottles but I did buy this heavy duty Pampered Chef cookie sheet for $3.93 and a band new muffin pan for $1.

Below are just some flowers bought much earlier this summer - on sale but not .50.

The caladiums are growing from bulbs that I got for Mother’s Day.  They are much bigger now and have been so much fun to watch grow.
All the yellow plants were .50

I have a new device that so far, is making blogging much smoother.  

So, I hope to get back to regular posts.  

June Sewing - so far

This month’s sewing so far-
I made a top for myself with a pattern by LoveNotions.com

I finished off all the edges with single fold bias tape and I like how it looks.

I also sewed an apron but it was such a complicated pattern and I don’t like how it turned out so I’m not showing it.   I disliked both sewing it and the finished apron so I threw that pattern away.  I kept the apron and may wear it, but I doubt it.


Granddaughter Elizabeth has Girl Scout day camp this month and the leader chose these stools for all the campers.
folding camp stool

 My only part of the process was to sew the seats.  The leader bought this outdoor fabric at Joann.  She picked it because it was 90% off.

 I don’t think I’ve ever sewn with outdoor fabric but it was very nice.  It’s sturdy but not bulky.

When I finished sewing the very last one,  I took it off the machine along with the 4 inches of thread left on my bobbin- that was great! It’s no fun when the bobbin runs out before a job is finished.  

This reminded me of my Brownie and Girl Scout days.  We did outdoor camp at a lake not far from our town.  We didn’t have stools but made SitUpOns with woven newspaper strips.

I found a tutorial on Pinterest for retro Girl Scout Sit Up Ons and may try making them with my grandchildren.  

Retro SitUpon