Last minute costume

My daughter had bought an Olaf the snowman costume for little JJ. It is a very cute costume but he doesn't like it at all, I think it limits his movement too much.  Since his sister will either be Elsa or Anna, JJ also needs to be a Frozen character.
She sent me this link and asked if I could sew this tunic.

Some online tutorials are good and some are not but I give this one a big thumbs up!
It had an easy to print free pattern and a list of exactly what to buy and where she bought it.

So yesterday, I spent $7.49 at Joann's and 80 minutes constructing this tunic from start to finish.

I also think this blogger, Neka at Thrive is genius! She and her 6 children made and modeled 100 costumes with mostly things in their wardrobes.

I must say that I don't like Halloween and I don't celebrate it  And    I'm not much of a Disney fan either.  I do help with costumes when asked by my children.

And I do pass out candy and compliments to children when they knock on our front door.  

And about the candy, I don't buy it early as we tend to eat it and then need to rebuy :) 

A jumbled up post about what I've been up to

Bargains 

I don't buy much at Walmart but I do seem to need to go there once a week or so for something we can't buy other places.  I always look at their clearance aisle when I do go. 

Last week, I found these children socks for $1 a package

And today, I found more little girl socks for 50 cents a package! These all have 6 pairs in each bundle

Aren't the owl ones so cute?

Cooking

My husband picked out this Butterball oven ready turkey breast a few weeks ago.

It sure came in handy when I needed to cook a meal for seven with not much notice.

In the package is a whole turkey breast on the bone wrapped in an oven bag and a bag of gravy mix.

It was so quick and easy to just put that turkey in the oven to bake.  It baked for about 3 hours while I cooked a few simple sides and played with my grandsons. 

I don't have a photo of the cooked turkey but it turned out great! It was moist and delicious and so easy.  I will be buying this again! 

Crafting

I helped my grandsons make these acorn inspired crafts. Their mother sent the photo above for inspiration and their other grandmother sent some tiny acorns.

So, we found some ribbon and Pom poms in the craft room and started crafting.

After separating the acorn caps from the we used fabric-tac glue to adhere the pompoms and ribbon to the acorn caps. 

Cute and fun! 

Here are the boys busy with crafts last week.

Sewing 

My son wears suits every weekday and he just got 3 new ones. One was mail ordered, one is from Nordstrom Rack and the other one, a Ralph Lauren pinstripe, is from a local salvage store and was just $40.  All the coats fit but the pants needed hemmed and I was happy to do that. 

Suits can cost a bundle and I think he ended up with 3 nice ones at much less than retail.

This is a terrible photo of 2 denim aprons I sewed for myself, the necks and pockets are finished with some vintage bias tape. One is blue polka dots and the other is red checks and yellow calico.

This little guy kept me busy most of today. Who needs toys when there is a big box to play in?

About the wipes, I have changed many diapers in the last 5 years and used many brands of wipes.  Huggies wipes are thick and moist and by far my favorite brand. 

I get them by subscription from Amazon- that big box comes every 2 months for about $9-$10. 

The shipping box is really fun too. 

CVS last week and this week

Actually, I am so behind in blog updates. These purchase are 2 weeks and 1 week ago. None of these items are currently in the CVS ads and I am showing them as examples. We all have different stores available to us. I think to get good deals on a sort of consistent basis, it is best to pick one store and be familiar with them. 

So, this is my CVS purchases when we took a quick trip to Texas to visit our parents. 

Everything was on sale and had manufacturer coupons, plus I had a CVS scanner coupon for the hair products and 2 CVS ECBs from the previous week. 

The cash total spent was about $9 and that Texas sales tax was a lot lower than it would of been in Oklahoma.  And I got $6 ECBs back. 

Last week, the deals were good but it didn't go quite like I planned. 

My local CVS had a shopping buggy full of assorted Dawn, 4/$1. This was not in the national ad. So, I got 8. Instead of ringing them up at .25 each, he said they scanned 1 for every 4 bought so they actually only cost 4/.99.

I had $2 coupons on all the Colgate products, plus a 25% off any oral care products and last weeks ECBs. 

The wrong part is, I thought I would get back a $10 ECB for buying $20 in Colgate but the twin packs were not included.

Even still, $11 for 6 tubes of toothpaste, 1 big mouthwash and 8 Dawn is a good deal to me. 

I thought about going back and purchasing more of the correct Colgate products to get that $10 ECB but I realized our home was stocked enough. 

I didn't see anything in this weeks CVS that we needed so I won't be going this week. 

That is the benefit of shopping this way- I spend less and we have extras on hand and I don't have to shop every week. 

2 product reviews

We took a quick trip to Texas and we wanted a snack on the drive back. We got this box of Pepperidge Farm cheese crisps at a travel stop. They taste very good but they sure don't look like the picture on the box.

Mess-free fingerpaint by Crayola is something my 4 year old granddaughter brought here. She had a day off from school so we happily spent the day together and did lots of crafty things.

The mess free paint squirts out of the tube as a beige looking substance. Then it gets smeared onto the special paper that goes with the paint. The paper has a hidden design that shows up when the paint touches it.

Elizabeth had a great time with this but I kept expecting the next sheet of paper to have a different  background design. All of her packet had rainbows. Rainbows are one of her favorite things and she likes them but I think the product would be more interesting with multiple design sheets.

After she did all these blob paintings, she started doing her handprints.

The paint really was mess free. It smells like play dough and I did have to help Elizabeth wash her hands as she had done a thorough job of covering her hands. 

2014 fall decorating

I didn't buy or make a single new thing- I just opened up the storage tub from previous years and put out the things that I still like and still look fresh. (Some stuff from the tub went in the trash)

Wreath on the front door

Dining room - oops, there are some the new things. The owl print vinyl tablecloths were purchased this month at Walmart. 

The patchwork pumpkins wall hanging was sewn by my mom. 

This is our first year to own the  hutch_we found it at our favorite thrift store this year and it was fun to decorate. 

I have a really nice Thankful banner made by Debby and will put it on the mantle when it gets closer to Thanksgiving. 

I like to have seasonal things out, I think they make a room look more cheerful. But I am just not going to do anything elaborate, I've decided everything for a holiday needs to be easy to put out and it all needs to store away in a single storage tub. 

CVS deals -last week and this week

No extreme couponing here but I do try to do deals at CVS when I can buy things we need at a very low cost.

The trick to consistent savings at CVS is to do a deal every week or so so that you can use the Extra Care Bucks earned one week on a different deal the next week that will also generate more Extra Care Bucks.

SuperMomOf3plus1 on Youtube

This YouTuber does a good job at CVS. She usually buys different things than I do but she spends very little and gets a lot of good stuff for her family.

Shopping at CVS regularly adds up as they pay quarterly bonuses, I think it is 1% of all your purchases every 3 months.
They also pay beauty bonuses, $5 for every $50 spent on beauty products and that is more that just cosmetics, it is also hair care, skin care and maybe other products that I just don't know. 

Last week 

Our laundry room has several containers of detergent already but I saw how cheap I could get Tide with coupons and an ECB from the previous week, I happily did this deal.

After coupons and sales, the 4 Tide and 3 Dawn were $8.10 and I got $5 ECB.

This week- I had a CVS scanner coupon for $5 off any $15 cosmetic purchase and I had $1 ECB when I filled a prescription last week.  So, I used those and the $5 ECB and 2 coupons on 2 mascaras. 

The 2 mascaras were $3.42 and I got a $5 ECB for next week.

Pumpkin Muffin Tops

Hello everyone! September was really a bust with not but the necessities done but I feel good again and am hoping October will be much better.   I have missed you all and plan to now be back blogging and reading your blogs with my pre-crash regularity. 

Here is a recipe I tried and baked the last part of September and they turned out great. 

Inspiration recipe for pumpkin muffin tops

I had less than a cupful of canned pumpkin in the refrigerator leftover from a pumpkin scone recipe I tried that was not wonderful.  But I saw this Pumpkin muffin recipe and thought it sounded like a good recipe and would use up the leftover.  

I mixed up half a recipe and changed it a bit.  They turned out great and I will be making them again. I think mashed Banana or applesauce could be used instead of the pumpkin.  The muffin tops bake up much faster than a whole loaf. 

My small batch version - I mixed it all up by hand with a fork and spatula

1 egg

1/2 cup sugar

1/4 cup oil

1/2 cup canned pumpkin

Stir all these ingredients together until blended

1 cup flour

3/4 t baking powder

1/2 t baking soda

1/4 salt

1 t cinnamon

1/2 t ginger

1/8 t cloves

Stir the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients just until combined and sort of smooth. 

Add 1/2 cup chopped pecans 

Use a large cookie scoop and put batter on a greased or parchment lined baking sheets. They won't spread much but they will rise a little. 

Bake in a preheated 350 degree oven about 16 minutes until done. 

The original recipe has a topping but we liked them plain. 

In the photos, they do look like cookies but they really have a muffin taste and texture. 

Highlights and low spots from the last 3 weekends

I did not mean to take such a long blogging break. 

3 weekends ago, we had a big group here for a meal - I think there were 16 of us. 

The main course was make your own taco salads. 

The day before, I cooked a Dutch oven full of seasoned ground beef. We also had Ranch style beans, tortilla chips, lettuce, tomatoes, onions, assorted salsas, grated cheese and sour cream. 

This menu was easy and a crowd pleaser. This is son Bobby showing his Taco Salad. 

The 2 oldest grands were just amazed at how large some of the adults made their salads. They were giggling as they described the big salads as volcanos with lava on top and running down the sides. 

This is a silly selfie that I took in the bathroom after Andie took a bath - I love this little sweetie! 

2 weekends ago, I went to my parents house with my husband and son Jimmy.  We visited and I did a little cooking and we all cleaned out some more storage spots. 

1 weekend ago, my husband and I were out to do a couple errands. We were traveling south on a 4 lane road. Another driver was going north on this same road. Then she decided to turn west and she turned right in front of us. My husband tried to stop but it happened so fast and we collided. 

That's our car- a 2014 Juke with 6000 miles- 

Both our airbags deployed and that is an experience I hope I never have again.

This is the other drivers car. Her daughter was in that car seat during the collision. They were both unhurt except for a cut on the little girls head where the broken window glass blew in on her. 

I still can't believe this young mother was so reckless to turn her car into ongoing traffic, especially on the side where her daughter was.  

If my husband had not braked as much as he did, we would of collided where the child was and I think she would of had much worse injuries. I am so thankful it was not as bad as it could of been. 

The airbag deployment hit me hard. I went to the ER and was Xrayed. Nothing is broke or fractured but  I have acute sternal contusions - meaning deep bruising that still has me sore and doing everything a lot slower. 

The mother was ticketed and we all have insurance so all the vehicles will get repaired or replaced.

I just hope when she is back behind the wheel that she drives a lot more cautiously. 

And a funny for you - those grandchildren sure get old fast, don't they? 

I'll be back blogging but it may be awhile....... 

2 simple projects

Both of these projects took only minutes to make and were made with supplies on hand, 

Most of the meals here are served buffet style. I did recently fix a utensil holder for the dining table and I also wanted one to keep on the kitchen counter.

I made this one with 4 recycled fruit cans, some spray paint and jute twine. After I lashed the painted cans together, I reinforced each spot where the cans meet with a dab of E6000 glue.

It doesn't take up much room at all but will be handy.

The front door wreath was 7 years old (silk hydrangeas from my daughters wedding) and they were just faded and tired looking. So I pulled them all off and covered the styrofoam wreath form with strips of black and white check fabric. 

I used my Cricut to cut out the HELLO pendants and strung them together with some jewelry size twine. 

The whole front door.....I am really happy with this quick fix.  ( except for those weeds but it is too hot to pull them)  This should be good until is time to change to Autumn things. 

And one more  photo of the front yard zinnias.......

Hope you are all having a good Thursday

Do Stuff Monday #4

Whats on my to-do list this week? Not many chores as I am in the middle of an unusual grands here everyday and staying with me stretch of days. I enjoy the grands so much and I know these days will not last much longer so I am adjusting my homekeeping things.

I did quite a few things Sunday evening - all the laundry, changed sheets, grocery shopped, etc- that I would normally do during the week. 

I also cleaned the floors and one bathroom before my grandson got here this morning.

My husband grocery shopped with me yesterday at Aldi and we bought quite a bit of fresh produce.

I want to be sure and use them all so just to keep myself reminded, I wrote down the ingredients that I need to incorporate in meals this week. 

Supper tonight will be   Crispy Chicken Tenders with this new recipe that I made last week to use some the rice crispy cereal that I also used in those yummy granola bars. Also the last of the French bread, watermelon, and green beans. 

My grandson and I have already done the errands. He is happy riding in the shopping cart and so many other shoppers talk to him and comment on his curly hair. 

We stopped at Dollar Tree and got more Bacos that my husband requested.

Walmart - dill relish in a giant squeeze bottle. My husband and son are dill relish fans and I think they will very pleased to see it in a squeeze bottle instead of the tiny jars I have always bought it in before.

Also bought at Walmart, a 4 quart crockpot. 

Hobby lobby - some the jewelry things were 50% off and I got some narrow natural cord to make a bracelet I've pinned.  Also a storage box that I used a 40% off coupon. 

I got all these beads and jewelry supplies from my mom. I hope to do some beading this week but it may wait till next week.

In case you want to laugh at my gardening adventures, here are the assortment of tomatoes picked last night. 

I think I might of grown the worlds tiniest tomato- maybe I should contact the Guiness book of records people......

My shopping helper is napping now. But before I worked on this blog post, I cleaned the hall bathroom and fixed the breading for tonight's chicken.

I love this little quilt. It is the last piece of patchwork my grandmother sewed. 

Hope you are all having a good Monday.

If you do stuff, stuff gets done! 

Coupons and shopping

I have been using this small organizer for coupons for several years and liked it OK 

Except long coupons would not fit in it without extra trimming or folding. 

During the clean-out at my parents, we found 2 organizers just like my old coupon holder but longer. 

Mom did not want them but my dad wanted 1 and I kept the other. 

It is roomier and easier to look through the coupons in it.

And it is small enough to fit in my purse! 

Speaking of coupon shopping, we didn't have a very long shopping list so I bought everything at Walmart. 

The best deals were the GoGoSqueez-$1.98 minus a $1 coupon on each. All my grands like them.

Almay face wipes were $5.24 minus $4 coupon on each

Grapes were 88 cents a pound. 

Cilantro is for homemade salsa thus weekend

This ultra-pasteurized milk costs more than regular milk but it also stays fresh a lot longer. 

Unless my grands are here for a long time, milk usually sours before we finish a carton. 

So I am hoping this milk might save us money in the long run. 

See that date? Almost 2 months away?

My register tape - lots of coupon deductions!