Chevron hand towels - how I got 4 for just a bit more than the price of 1

Hello everyone!  I'm still here, just been too busy to take photos of what I've been doing so I could blog about it.  Yesterday, I had some free time alone and I spent about an hour wandering around Walmart.  It has been months since I went to Walmart without a mission to just go in, buy what's on the list and get out as fast possible.  

I did buy the vitamins and scented wax on my list.  I also bought a few random things like some t shirts for me marked down to $2 and $3, a nice gallon plastic pitcher for $1.24. 

Then when I saw the yellow, gray and white chevron towels, which match our hall bathroom, I really wanted them.  

The bath towel size sells for $6.94 and the much smaller hand towel size are $5.94.  

I was shopping slow so I unfolded the bath towel and liked how it felt and decided I would just buy 1 bath towel and try to turn it into 4 hand towels.  

I folded the bath towel in quarters and compared it to a hand towel we already had.  The cut size would be slightly smaller but it still seems plenty big enough to me for a hand towel.  

So, I cut the 1 bath towel into 4 hand towel shapes.  There was no waste, I just cut it once right down the middle horizontally and then once straight up the middle the length of the towel.

The store towel was sewn in gray thread but I didn't have any gray thread on hand.  I wanted to finish today so I just used white thread.  I left the original towel hems except for where they were cut, I just turned under those edges about a half inch and zigzagged machine stitched to hold in place.  

The zigzag will also prevent raveling. 

The zig zag pretty much blends in with the towel loops and is not very noticeable.  

The hall bath- the walls were already yellow, the rugs were already gray and now

the hand towels hanging in there match 😄

I spent less than an hour doing the cutting and sewing.  

My towels net cost was $1.74 each compared to 5.96 each.  

If I had bought 4 hand towels, it would of been $23.84.  So my hour of sewing saved $16.90 and I don't think I would of liked the store bought towels any better than the ones I just sewed. 

Purslane, cactus, mermaid craft and another big meal

Thank you all for the information about our mystery plant, purslane.  

We haven't eaten any of yet but I did move it's pot where it shouldn't be able to spread to anyplace we don't want it.  

My son made this cactus arrangement for his uncle's birthday.  

I saw this mermaid craft idea on Instagram.  My daughter already had the Popsicle sticks that have a head and arms.  I set out play dough and a box of assorted sequins, tiny shells and buttons.  

The grands had the best time making these as did the adults who helped.  

This is a craft that is mostly enjoyed in the making, not for keeping, as so many of doo-dads did not stay attached as the dough dried.  That pile of doo-dads on the right is just what fell off.  

Some have tails and some have princess dresses and some are supposed to be boy mermaids.  

Some have hair and are embellished on both sides.  The children who made them were ages 3-7 and all thought it was a lot of fun.  

For my brother's recent birthday, we had a big family meal here.  

This meal was one of the easiest group meals I remember serving.   

The main entree was make your own taco salad.  

I set out tortilla chips, chopped romaine lettuce and tomatoes, a dish of beef taco meat and a bowl of homemade salsa.  All the tomatoes were from our backyard.  

We had a pot of spicy beans and taco salad toppings. 

Meals here always include fruit - this was a cantaloupe from our backyard and strawberries from Aldi (and an adult hand snitching fruit early) 

My daughter brought the desserts- a lemon pound cake and key lime yogurt pie. Both were delicious.  

These grandsons were the last to leave and they love desserts.  They ate lots of supper and then wanted a little more cake and green pie before they went home.  

If you look, you'll see they are using disposable bowls.  Big meals here are always served on disposable plates and bowls.  I find Aldi and the military commissary have the best prices,  I was shocked how much they cost at Walmart now.

The disposable plates and bowls just make clean up so much quicker and easier! 

Summer will be around another month or so but the area schools start next week.  

We've had a fun summer break with lots of cousin fun.  This was a picnic last week after 5 of the cousins played at one of our town's splash pads.  

I hope you all enjoy the rest of your summer- however much longer it lasts ❤️

A mystery succulent, planting and a bit more CVS

My son likes to buy succulents and cactus when Lowes has them on the clearance cart for $1-$2. 

Then he re pots them and leaves them at our house for us to plant sit.  

They aren't much trouble and they are thriving in the summer heat and liking all the summer rain.  

But the succulent in the big white pot is a mystery.  My son says he didn't buy it and I sure didn't.  It has grown lots and when I looked at early this morning, it had dozens of tiny yellow flowers.  I guess they close up in the heat of the day.  

Anyone know the name of this mystery succulent? 

He also has some jade plants that have tripled in size this summer.  

The zinnias we grew from seed were slow to get started but are growing up and blooming so pretty 😄

My husband is starting some seeds for fall crops - broccoli, onions, lettuces.......

And Surprise! Or probably not..............

I made a second trip to CVS this week.  The deals were too good not to do them. 

I used my $16 ExtraCareBucks from yesterday.

$2 coupons on each Gain- from the Sunday paper, Coupons.com and the PG website

.25 coupons on Puffs from Sunday newspaper

.25 coupons on Dawn from Coupons.com

Those products came to just a but more than $30 and gave back a $10 ExtraCareBuck

The Body Armour sports drinks are a freebie - they were $3 for 2 and give back a $3 ExtraCareBuck

My mom asked for deodorant and they did not stock the exact kind she requested but the ones I got were too good a deal to pass up and if she doesn't want them, I'll keep them and look at other stores for hers. 

The Lady Speedstick was $2 for $5 and gave back a $2 ExtraCareBuck and I used a 50 cent coupon on each. 

I had a $2 off $8 any deodorant coupon from the CVS printer and also a $1 on any Mitchum.  

So I added a Mitchum to make my deodorant purchase over $8 and I also used a $2 Mitchum coupon.

All 3 deodorants after coupons ended up costing  $3.19 and I got the $2 ExtraCareBuck on the deal.  

Total spent was $10.06 and I got back $15 total ExtraCareBucks for my next trip.

Hope you are all having a great start to August 😍