Frugal Friday 10-31-14

*earned $40 through Swagbucks: redeemed into Amazon bucks. Ordered some Christmas gifts and items to use for a refresh and revitalize banquet at our church
*made my own hamburger buns. My 8 yr old nephew says they are the best buns ever. 
*made banana bread with over ripe bananas in the freezer
*made homemade corn chips with corn tortillas 
*made Mickey Mouse costume for my nephew for under $5
*50% off fall napkins for a banquet I am decorating for
*also for banquet, I have been able to create the decorations for under $20 (for 150 people/19 round tables) using stuff I already have: 
items left over from B & K's wedding
craft supplies I already own
nature....grasses, tree limbs, etc.
**will have pics of it on my blog next week.

Grocery Deals:
*used coupons for free Chicken of the Sea Salmon at Walmart. Scored 3 of them
*Lays potato chips 1.79/bag regularly 2.50
*Lipton Tea Bags (100) 1.99 w/ coupon
*General Mills Cereal sale price 1.99 minus 75¢ off coupons I had (I rarely buy name brand cereal as it is too expensive)
*spaghetti squash normally 3.88/lb and I had a price match of 49¢/lb! very excited!
*50¢ off milk on Milk Monday. I scheduled my dr. appt on a Monday purposely to be able to get this deal

Greatest score of the week:
I didn't buy this mom did...June was our 25th wedding anniversary. Silver represents 25th anniversary and since I am always borrowing her silverware when we have company (I don't have a lot), she said she would buy me some silverware.

Well, yesterday was the first day that worked for us to get together and me to pick out some. She had been in Penney's before and saw they had some for $100 (set of 8) and said she would buy me a box, just to pick out what I wanted.

So we get there and they are having a 50% off sale! So she told me to pick 2 boxes, which would be perfect...set for 16 plus what I have and I wouldn't have to borrow from her when everyone is here for the holidays.

So there are signs on the different boxes and we pick boxes from the $100 sets (so we thought) and get to the counter and see there is a tiny price tag that says $180. I am bummed, but I tell the lady that the sign sitting on the box said $100. So we go back and look and the sign has a list of all the names of the silverware and the ones that mom and I picked out (mom decided to get 2 boxes for herself as well) weren't there. BUT the name wasn't on the sign for the $180 set sign as well. 

The sales lady is trying to figure out what to do and I'm looking around. Back behind some dishes is a sign...WITH the names of the sets that mom and I had picked out AND saying the sale price is 44.99 for mine and 39.99 for mom's! SCORE!!!! So there was a saving of over $550. All four boxes would have come to $720 and we got them for 169.96. I am pretty excited as we are having Thanksgiving here and we can use the new silverware!

So glad we were paying attention. I wonder how many had to pay $90 box (what they rang up as) when they are really over 1/2 of that!

Pinned It Made It Monday Week 43

Made THESE chocolate chip cookies with my youngest nephew this past weekend. He requested "made chocolate chip cookies with sprinkles; eat chocolate chip cookies with sprinkles; and play legos" for when he knew he was coming to stay. LOL

I've been making this recipe for quite some time now, but don't think I've ever posted a picture. And how can they get any better with this cutie showing off what we made.

Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies
Cooks Illustrated from Ourbestbites.com
2 C plus 2 T flour
1/2 t baking soda
1/2 t salt
12 T butter (1 1/2 sticks) melted and cooled until warm
1 cup brown sugar (light or dark)
1/2 C granulated sugar
1 large egg + 1 egg yolk
2 t vanilla extract
1 1/2 C semi-sweet or bittersweet chocolate chips
    
Heat oven to 325 degrees. Adjust oven racks to upper- and lower-middle positions. Mix flour, salt, and baking soda together in medium bowl; set aside.

Either by hand or with electric mixer, mix butter and sugars until thoroughly blended. Mix in egg, yolk, and vanilla. Add dry ingredients;mix until just combined. Stir in chips.

*If for some reason your dough is too soft to form balls at this point, don’t add more flour.  Just cover and place bowl in the fridge until dough firms.

Take about 1/4 C dough and form into a ball.  Break ball in half and place dough on cookie sheet with broken edge facing up.  (Or just use a standard sized cookie scoop). Bake until cookies are set around outer edges start to harden yet centers are still soft and puffy, 10-13 minutes.  Cool cookies on cookie sheets. Serve or store in airtight container.

Blog Hop with Lindsay Weirich

October 24^th: Blog hop with Guest Designer Lindsay Weirich also known as the frugal crafter. Today we are all creating projects using Tombow's  New MUTED Dual Brush Pen Set.

This is a card I created with Inky Antic's stamped image in black using the paper to acetate technique I talked about HERE.

The moon is colored in to accent it. I used Mono Adhesive Permanent and the wine red, yellow gold and burnt sienna Dual Brush Pens from the New Muted set.

There is a fun prize that you can enter by hopping along with us and leaving comments along the way.

 

The Prize includes:
Dual Brush Pen Set, 10 Muted
In order to be qualified to win this amazing PRIZE, PLEASE comment on each of the designers projects. Tombow will announce a winner Monday 10/27.
Tombow's “No Tricks just Treats” sale also starts today.

The sale is…
Purchase any 10 piece set and receive a FREE Blending Kit!
Offer is available 10/24-10/31
Now it's time to head over to Melissa's blog, to see her amazing project!
The Lineup for this hop is:
TombowUSA
Debbie Fisher
Melissa Cash
Jennie Garcia
Marie Browning
Lindsay Weirich
TombowUSA Blog

Pinned It Made It Monday Week 42: Wedding Shower & Kassy's Birthday

I had a very busy, full, and wonderful weekend! Aaron came home for fall break, Saturday, I co-hosted a couple's wedding shower for a gal who grew up in our church, and Sunday, Benjamin and Kassy came out to celebrate Kassy's bd and spent the day. So much fun!

For the shower, Ashlea's colors were plum and ivory with a vintage theme. I headed to Pinterest right away to get some ideas for a shower for them.

I made these hydrangea balls using Cutting Cafe's Pocket Shaped Card Cutting File. My inspiration was THIS pin on pinterest.

Here are the blackberry cupcakes I made using THIS Jello Poke Cake recipe. I used blackberry Jello and then added a few drops of blue food coloring to it, to make it purple. The "frosting" is just Cool Whip with melted Blackberry Jam drizzled on top.

Kassy really liked THESE Salted Caramel Cupcakes I made last year for Thanksgiving and had commented that they need to be made more than just at Thanksgiving. So I turned the recipe into a beautiful birthday cake for her.

Instead of cupcakes, I made a 2 layer cake and then piped roses on the top with the frosting, drizzled the homemade caramel and sprinkled with sea salt.

My beautiful DIL with her cake:

Frankenstein Belly Box

My Scrap Chick has the cutest belly boxes and I just had to make this adorable Frankenstein one. In fact I made 5 of them and have them at the Hobby Shack if you would like to purchase one for yourself or as a gift.

I used Tombow's Xtreme Adhesive to put it together. I think this turned out so cute and it's ready to fill with candy.


#mschalloween  You can go to Facebook HERE or to their blog HERE to like my project. I entered it into their Halloween Contest.

Frugal Friday 10-17-14

Frugal Garden:
*picked the rest of the tomatoes from the garden. They are STILL green, but hoping that they will turn red eventually
*harvested the rest of the peppers...must have been a great year for them as we had a bumper  crop of peppers...not much anything else, but definitely peppers
*the beans were in a sad state, but we just let them dry out and harvested the bean "seeds" from inside. I will use them like dried beans and add to soups
*picked ONE little zucchini. The ONLY zucchini from 2 plants that we got all year. I think this is a record for zucchini as I didn't know one could get so FEW. LOL
*ended up with 3 pumpkins. kinda sad, but it's more than none
*FIL brought over potatoes from their garden. Bruce helped him dig them up. We will share with the kids
*SIL shared some of their sweet potatoes with us for helping them dig them up. Oh my!!! We definitely will be planting some of these next year. What a treat!
*great deal on shredded cheese for $1.50/bag


Frugal Grocery Deals:
*bought a quart of buttermilk for 99¢ with in-store mark down. I like to use this for biscuits, pancakes, scones, muffins, etc. Now that the weather is cooler, I'm baking more
*97¢ for 5 lb flour and 4 lb sugar...stocked up for fall and winter baking
*cream of chicken soup 49¢ each-the only thing I use this for is hashbrown potato casserole
*Hershey's chocolate chips $1.48 each! Bought four of these for holiday baking or just because. Ü
*Mission brand flour tortillas $1/pkg. I know I can make them homemade, but at this price, it is a huge time saver and so worth it.


Frugal Baking:
*made pumpkin bread in little loaf pans and froze one for son to take back to college after fall break (or he may just eat it this weekend and I'll make more. Ü)
*made cinnamon rolls to thank my brother for helping out on Wed night youth group (DH and I have 12 3rd grade boys on a regular basis...14 if they all show up), made a double batch and shared with son and DIL


Misc Frugality:
*helping host a wedding shower tomorrow using a lot of things I already had. Her colors were plum and ivory, so was able to use some of the flowers from B & K's wedding and her mom shared some decorations left over from the wedding for us to use. Purchased candles from the Dollar Store, some fabric from Walmart and then pretty much used things I had around the house. I will have pictures posted Monday.


*decided to try my hand at homemade laundry soap. I didn't think I could as several articles I read said it doesn't work with hard water, but SIL found some info for THIS recipe that is suppose to work with hard water. So far, I can't tell any problems


*redeemed $35 in swagbucks, used part of it (plus what I already had saved) to buy birthday and Christmas gifts (I have actually earned more than this in the last 2 weeks, but haven't redeemed those points yet)


*earned $10 via Memolink. I am working on another $10 then will be done with them. I have been SLOWLY earning points through them for over 2 years! Swagbucks is MUCH faster. I was trying for $25, but they dropped it so you could cash in for $10, so did that and had several points left over, so will keep going to get the other $10 then done.


*rec'd a LARGE roll of paper towels with a message saying I had signed up to receive this, use for a couple of weeks and write a review for them. I don't remember doing this at all as I write down everything I sign up for, but that is okay. It is by Bounty and I only buy cheap brand paper towels, so was a nice surprise to receive.


*posted this on FB, but will post here. Used a coupon for a $1.79 runza at Runza (normally 4.39 which I wouldn't have paid for to begin with), but it comes with a funny story:


me: "I have a coupon for $1.79 regular runza, can I use this for a swiss mushroom runza"
guy working: "um, just a minute...comes back, yes, but you will have to get extra ingredients on it...is that okay?"
me: (so GLAD I was in the drive thru as I'm afraid I wouldn't have been able to keep a straight face) "yes, that will be fine"


they just charged me 50¢ extra. since that ended up being my dinner and supper, it was a fairly good deal

Flexi Clip Winner

Michelle Pearson, you are the winner for my Flexi Clip Give-a-Way! Lizzie will be contacting you soon. Congratulations!

There is a sale going on right now...   www.lillarose.biz/zizzie78  ... its for 72 hours. These would make great gifts and it's something you can't find anywhere else.

Pumpkin Shaker

Fall is in the air this week on Cutting Café. We were given a choice of two different sets to work with: HALLOWEEN AND FALL IN A JAR or the HALLOWEEN AND FALL SHAKER SET.

I chose the pumpkin file in the HALLOWEEN AND FALL SHAKER SET. this was so fun to create with. I realize I need more items to use in a shaker and that FINE glitter does NOT work. LOL! Thankfully, I had some chunky gold glitter and white sequins that went okay with the pumpkin theme.

Tombow's Foam Tabs come with a sheet of 414 pieces - 1/5 in and 50 pieces - 1/2 in. I use the 1/2" size a lot and had all these sheets with 1/5" that I rarely use and they ended up being the perfect size for making this shaker. Took awhile to line them all up around the edge and only used less than 2 rows. Ü

Be sure to stop by the Cutting Cafe blog Tuesday the 21st and leave a comment for a chance to win 3 files of your choice.

Skull Treat Box

This week the Tombow DT is creating with pink in their projects in honor of it being Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Since it’s getting close to Halloween, I created this fun Skull Treat Box using the file from Cutting Café.

I used Xtreme Adhesive to put the box together as you want a very strong adhesive so it doesn’t come apart. I also used Power Tabs for the buttons and bow. I actually made 5 of these as well as some other ones that I have at the Hobby Shack in Broken Bow if any one is interested in them.

Pinned It Made It Monday Week 41

**UGH! this didn't prepost again! Awww BlogSpot, how I love to hate you at times! Thank you to those that e-mailed me. Now I know some of you are paying better attention than I am to my blog. LOL

This weekend I used the first pkg of peaches that I froze this summer using a recipe from THIS pin. It was so-so. Not bad, made the house smell amazing, but not great enough tasting for me to make again.

For me it had way too much of the crumb topping. I think it would have been better to have made in a 9 x 9 pan with about 1/3 of the topping, so that the peaches shined through more.

Flexi-Clip Review and Give a Way

A few weeks ago I won a Flexi Clip via A Joyful Chaos' blog. I was really curious about this product as I have very thick hair and I've never found anything that will keep my hair up and if I do find something it is so tight I end up with a major headache. It is even hard to find pony tail holders to fit.

I was so excited when I rec'd this Flexi Clip. I put my hair up and wore it all day and my hair did not fall or come undone the whole day, nor was it too tight. I ordered the large as I roll my hair up and then fold it down. This type of clip will work on any hair. You just order the size you need for your type of hair. Now I need to get a smaller one for when I just want to pull part of my hair back. The large was too big for that as I tried. (I didn't realize it was in a bit crooked, but it still works.)

Lizzie is letting me give one of these away for one lucky winner to try!

To enter the giveaway you can go to her site, www.lillarose.biz/zizzie78 and watch the sizing video and pick out what size and what flexi you like and then come and leave a comment on my blog.  For more entries...

1. Go to her site and log in as a customer (you aren't required to buy anything) (attached is an image  to show how easy it is) 

2. If you have a Facebook account go to her Facebook page and "like" it https://www.facebook.com/LillaRoseZizzie78

3. If you have a blog or facebook and share this then you can get additional entries into the giveaway.

The winner will receive one free flexi clip in stock (their choice of size) ....however not the flexi of the month. I will draw a name on Thursday morning for a winner for this prize.

Getting Krafty with Inky Antics

I had the pleasure of creating some fun projects for Inky Antics. The image is from 10904L Costumed Quartet (drawn by artist Ronnie Walter), which actually includes four different trick-or-treaters from which to choose. I just used 3 as they were all boy images. (The 4th is a cute little girl witch.)

For my first projects I also used Inky Antics' X1-0020 Gift Bag Template stamp.

Then I created a tag. The little image is perfect for tags and still allows you to do some decorating of the tag to coordinate with the image.

 And for my last project a card.

The "designer paper" is digital images from Daydream Designs by Diane. It is in their Birthday Bash DK Kit. I had already colored the images and then had rec'd an e-mail from them saying they had a free digi image for World Card Making Day. I downloaded it into my Daydream file and looked at what I had in there and saw that digi paper and couldn't believe how perfectly it worked with my colored images. So I just printed it onto kraft cardstock and love how it turned out.

 

I definitely need to be stamping on kraft cardstock more!

Pinned It Made It Monday Week 40

My Pinned It Made it is in conjunction with our challenge for Cutting Café. I loved this pumpkin treat box that Regina created and knew I wanted to sew on mine as well.

The Cutting Cafe Blog will  be revealing all the Design Team's Pumpkin projects tomorrow. Of the files we were given to choose from, I chose the Pumpkin Treat Box. I ended up making 5 of these fun boxes. I can just see them filled with those overly sweet pumpkin candies that I do NOT like, LOL, but they would sure be cute in these boxes. Oh wait...even BETTER...Resees snack size would be perfect!

Tombow's Xtreme Adhesive was used for these boxes. It is super strong and perfect for projects like this.

Be sure to stop by the Cutting Cafe blog tomorrow and leave a comment for a chance to win 3 files of your choice.

And stay tuned here as well as this past weekend I was a busy beaver! I made 21 boxes, 2 cards and a tag. You will get to see a card, tag, and box tomorrow. Ü

Shadow Box Challenge

The monthly Tombow challenge is this week and Marie is the hostess. She is challenging everyone to make a shadow box. If you would like to play along, please got to the Tombow blog to read all about it.


Here is one I created for the Cutting Café awhile back. You can click on the image to make it larger. I used a lot of Xtreme Adhesive to make sure that everything stayed together.

WCMD Card #2

This card is created using free digi images from Daydream Designs by Diane. She is offering the hedgehog image and sentiment for free until Monday. I also used a couple of background papers that I had received a long time back from her blog as well called Dancing Tulips and Pink Grid.

Using pre-colored images make card making even quicker. This card took less than 5 minutes to make, but I think it still turned out very cute. Come and play along...

World Card Making Day

Operation Write Home is celebrating WCMD with a huge hop. Just post a card on your blog and then link it on Operation Write Home's Blog.

This year the theme is love. This card with an Inky Antics image and sentiment would be perfect for Valentine's Day to a friend.

In keeping with OWH's guidelines, this is a flat card with no bumps for mailing and no glitter. The image is colored with Tombow's Irojiten Colored Pencils and I used Mono Adhesive Permanent and the Mono Glue Stick for this card.

Frugal Friday 10-3-14

*used some Menards rewards to purchase DH bd gift
*just "happened" to be at Cabela's at the right time to purchase hard to find ammo for DH for bd
*Walgreen's had yellow legal pad notebooks in clearance for 19¢ each. I picked up 3 of them. Probably should have picked up more, but just wanted a few for my Sunshine Baskets.
*Jo Ann Fabrics had Ctirus Mint Handsoap (yellow) and Pina Colada candles for $1 each. Bought one of each for Sunshine Basket
*Our state hosts a Junk Jaunt. I didn't go the whole 4 days, but did stop in a couple of places and used a gift certificate at one to pick up some yellow goodies that ended up all being free and picked up some VHS movies all free
*bought 2 boxes of deli fried chicken priced at $7.20 and $7.50 for 99¢ each. Tore the meat off and froze for chicken and biscuits, chicken enchiladas, and/or lasagna or whatever else I decide
*borrowed punch and die from a friend to finish up some fall projects
*cream cheese on sale for 98¢ each
*used store coupon for $1 off gallon of milk making it $2.80
*fresh bananas for 39¢/lb
*earned $30 in swagbucks

Simplify

I have signed up for Living Well Spending Less' The 31 Days to a Clutter Free Life Challenge for October.
This is what she says we will accomplish this month:

During this one-month challenge, we will:

• Eliminate clutter in all areas of our homes and instead create functional spaces for all our family’s many activities.
• Stop overcommitting and instead learn to say no without guilt.
• Reduce stress in our homes and families by clearing out the excess stuff that takes up so much of our time and energy.
• Create practical and functional storage solutions for every room in our homes.
• Develop a working control center that keeps our entire family organized and on track.
• Learn the four simple strategies to staying clutter free forever.

 

Clutter doesn’t have to control our lives, and together we can totally do this!

Anyone else want to join me in this month's challenge?