BAM!!

I am so very excited about my new ribbon storage!!! I have been struggling with ways to organize my GROWING supply of ribbon...and here it is!!!! First of all this is my second attempt at ribbon storage...
Here was my first attempt This storage didn't work well since I had such an abundance of ribbon, maybe if I had cute the dials smaller, but still its much easier to store horizontally.



I got this great idea from By Your Hands.

This is what I started with....a $3 frame from a second hand store.



I took the "wicker" out and then painted it white. Bought these ceiling hooks for $1.79, painted them white, and TADA!!!! Not only does it make a GREAT storage solution, but it's also WALL ART!!!!






I am just IN LOVE with it!! Cannot wait to get the rest of my room done!!!

Paper organized: check
Ribbon organized: check
everything else.......hmmm...

Weigh In & CVS Deal for last week!!

Well I weighed in on Monday, and lost the 4 pounds I had gained the week before!! YAY me! So that puts me at just 8 lbs lost for the year...not nice but manageable. I am still on track so I am hoping for a good loss come Monday. I keep telling myself, "Only 6 more weeks!". Yes, only 6 more weeks until our spring break vacation in the mountains!!! Very excited for that!!!

As far as the CVS deals I got on Satruday....I got 5-12packs of Coke products for $1.04!!!! The deal was you buy 5 packs for $15 and get $5 CVSBucks for your next visit-which makes it $10!! Well I had $10 CVS Bucks from a deal they had a few weeks ago...so that made my total $1.04-just taxes!!! LOVELY!! I was so excited!! Too bad I didn't take advantage of both the $10CVS Bucks deals a few weeks ago...I would have $15 in CVS Bucks...oh well. Still doing great on the coupon thing!!!!

SHOPPING DAY!!!

I have been so excited about the great deasl!! And even though I didn't have some of the coupons, I still got some INCREDIBLE DEALS!!!

I have made 3 trips to Target the last two days for the INCREDIBLE diaper sale!!! They have Huggies Diapers on sale for $8.99, you can print a $3 off coupon at Target.com and if you buy 3 packs they give you a $5 gift card toward your next purchase!!!! That's like getting a pack of diapers for $4.63!!!! I also got Red Barron Pizza (2pack of personal pan pizzas), they were on sale for $2.50 and I had $1 off coupons for those!!!! Makes them $1.50 each!! I had a few coupons for cereal too, they were $2.50 and I had a $1 off coupon-not the best deal-but oh well.

So total for the 3 trips: $263.35,
total spent: 167.65, plus I still have 2 $5 gift cards!!
Total Saved: $$95.70
I should not have to buy diapers/pull ups for a few months!!!





Kroger trip: $129.09
Total spent: $68.32
Total saved: $60.77 ($20.40 in coupons, $40.37 in plus card savings)



A few new items I bought, were the "Garden of Eatin" chips-the black bean tortilla chips-were fabulous!!! I also bought a bag of the "Veggie Chips", which were not on sale but they are fabulous too!!! We will see what the kids think!!!

Biggest Loser Weigh In #1 (1/9/2011)

OK this is WAY late, but I had my first weigh in on January 9th.....I lost 8 pounds!!!! I was very excited!! As far as the Biggest Loser contest at work, I lost 4lbs. Not sure where that puts me in the ranking but 4 lbs in 4 days is good!!

Now as for this week...I skipped the weigh in all together!! I knew it would be bad so I will just weigh in next week!!

Biggest Loser 2011

OK I have had a lot of success on ATkins in the past, so I started back up Sunday January 2nd!!! I have done great so far, have lost 5 pounds!!! I have eaten a few things that aren't allowed until phase 2, but all in all I have done well.

I found out today they are doing "Biggest Loser" at work again, so I weighed in this morning. Her scale was 2 lbs heavier than mine at home, but had already had lunch and 2 Sonic drinks.

So I will weigh in Monday at home and then again at work....stay tuned for my first week's results!!!! We have a trip planned to the mountains in March, so I had better get busy!!!

Coupon Crazy!

Well I am not exactly coupon crazy-YET!!! I haven't gotten the full hang of it, nor have I gotten the full benefit, but it looks like I am making progress. It seems all the printable coupons I want are always gone and the "special" coupon books you find around the stores are never to be found here. I have learned to look through the dollar list and try to stock up on those items as much as possible.

This week I found LOTS of "manager's special" deals at one of the Krogers (there are 3 within 5 miles of my house-since Kroger took over Brookshires). I found some prepackaged Ceasar salads for $1.99, regularly $3.99, lunch meat for $1.50, regularly $4.39, bologna (which my husband and kids have become fond of lately for some reason) $1.25 regularly $3.59, nurtrigrain bars $1.50 regularly $3.59-I actually thought these qualified for a buy 4 get $4 back-but apparently not since the sale price was 2.99 and these were specially marked down to 1.50-but at 1.50 a box they were a GREAT deal!!

total 300.93
coupon savings 15.04
kroger plus savings 56.29
other savings 56.43---from marked down "manager's special"
-------------------------------
total savings 127.76

Embellished T-shirt

I have been so inspired by Make It and Love It's Embellished T-shirts. I made a knotted t-shirt several months ago and have been wanting to try another one, so I did.

This one took a lot more time than the knotted t-shirt. I had two shirts I bought on clearance. I cut strips from the second shirt and then sewed a "basting stitch" and gathered the material to make a ruffle. This was my first attempt at making a ruffle-fairly easy. I then cute longer sleeves-because I HATE short, skimpy sleeves. So now the sleeves are to my elbows...just perfect for me. So here it is....still need some practice, but I think it turned out cute enough.

BEFORE

After

Mother-in-law's Christmas Gift

I bought a nine pane window to make a picture frame for my mother in law-she has 9 grandkids. pERfect!! I cleaned it up and sealed it....


but I didn't like the look of it. So I brushed a little bit of brown paint on it. I think it looks much better!!! I was very excited about it and cannot wait to do one for myself!!!

IT'S BAKING DAY!!!

Today my family and friends are getting together to bake Christmas sweets!! I got an early start yesterday while my 2 little ones were napping and my older one was visiting his cousins. I figured with everyone coming over I would go ahead and get my baking started, plus I wanted to bake some sweets for their teachers and it just wouldn't be nice to bake and not share with my guests....LOL.

So everyone is coming over after noon today. I have taco soup in one crock pot and I am trying white bean chicken chili in another crock pot. I have had it a couple times with my bunco group, but I have never made it myself. So we shall see how it turns out.

Starting off this morning I am making "pretzel turtles . Someone made them this week at work and they are just delish!! Very easy too. Here is the recipe I got offline, but who needs a recipe?! They are so easy!!


Ingredients

* 20 small mini pretzels
* 20 chocolate covered caramel candies
* 20 pecan halves

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 300 degrees F (150 degrees C).
2. Arrange the pretzels in a single layer on a parchment lined cookie sheet. Place one chocolate covered caramel candy on each pretzel.
3. Bake for 4 minutes. While the candy is warm, press a pecan half onto each candy covered pretzel. Cool completely before storing in an airtight container.

Paying for the next person in line...

Today after running around trying to get my phone fixed...a story for another entry...I pulled into Penn's to grab a quick bite before heading back to work. I pulled up to pay for my order and heard the cashier tell the next customer in line her total. So I got the great idea to pay for that customer!!! It's on my "34 before 34" list.

Redo: I had to redo a bulletin board

I hated it the way it was and just couldn't live with it. So I redid it this weekend. It looks so much better.

Before


After

Santa treat cup...another idea I must try!!

found this cute Santa treat cups at CRAFT TOWN ...and I cannot wait to try it..hopefully...soon!

"Sew Many Ways" posted this....

I love it!! I actually saw it a few months ago and told one of the teachers I would do it for her class, then couldn't remember where I had seen it. After searching the internet for it I just gave up. So I am linking it here so I can find it next year!!!

SEW MANY WAYS

A halloween craft

I know a certain someone that will LOVE this!!

Before and After Pillowcase Dress

My baby girl had this cute, plain red pillowcase dress. So I thought I'd fix it up a bit for the holidays. I changed out the ribbon with a cute bright green ribbon, then added a little white trim to the bottom. I made a cute bow to match!!! NO SEWING!!! FUN FUN. I cannot wait for her to wear it tomorrow when she has her photo taken with Santa. If I was a sewing person I would attempt to sew ribbon in the shape of a Christmas tree on the front-but I was afraid I'd mess the entire thing up. So here it is....for now.

BEFORE

AFTER

Personalized Coloring book-idea from Ruffles and Stuff

I just love her idea on a personalized coloring book!! Brilliant!! I quickly printed off one of each of my kids and I cannot wait for them to color them. So ADORABLE!!


Ruffles and Stuff

HOBBY LOBBY IN STORE COUPON

In-Store Coupon : Weekly In-Store Specials : Hobby Lobby - Hobby Lobby

I was in Hobby Lobby today and the clerk said you don't even have to have the printed coupon for 40% off. All you have to do is show the coupon from your phone!!!!!

more bulletin boards from ceiling tiles

Here are my finished bulletin boards-minus the ribbons.

Christmas Card 2010

Here IT is!!! Christmas Cards ordered!!! I haven't sent out Christmas cards in YEARS!!! YAY ME!

20 bucks worth of groceries for $1.29 !!!!

This past week I started clipping coupons after getting information from a co-worker. She went to a coupon clipping seminar by Jenni at Southern Savers. After my second week of clipping coupons I took a trip to Kroger today for just a few items.

Grocer list:
Four boxes of GM cereal
12pack of cokes.

coupons:
-free 12 pack of cokes (thanks to mycokerewards.com)
-$1 off 2 GM cereals
-.75 off one GM cereal
-.55 off cinnamon toast crunch cereal (which was doubled)
-$1 ecoupons sent to my Kroger card for November customer appreciation
-.55 ecoupon off GM cereal
-$1 off coupon which printed last time I went to Kroger

total at checkout $20.18 and I only paid $1.29!!!! YIPEE.

C25K Week 5 Day 1

I have gotten a little behind so I just skipped Week 4 Day 3 and went straight for week 5. It was really tough. Three intervals of 5 minutes running followed by 3 minute of walking. The last 5 minutes of running was really tough-but I was able to make it. Day 2 will be two intervals of 8 minutes running and 5 minutes walking. Day 3 is 20 minutes running! YIKES!

I don't know when I will be able to run again, tomorrow my son has a program at his school. Maybe tomorrow night, although I don't really like running at night. So we will see...

some of the projects I've done lately...

HALLOWEEN- a little late posting

We went to my parent's house for Halloween! Our town was doing trick or treating on Saturday night but they were trick or treating at my parents' house on Sunday night-this proved to be a challenge. Since we had to leave Sunday night by 6 in order to get home at a decent time, the kids had to trick or treat at 5pm. this meant not many people were ready for trick or treating. Oh well. They still had fun and got plenty of candy.

Baby girl said she wanted to be a "birthday cake on the table" which turned out to be her "I'm the birthday girl" t-shirt. But I convinced her to wear her LSU chearleading outfit. We also tried getting her to wear a princess dress-but she wouldn't have it.

I wanted baby boy to be a scarecrow but never got around to getting his costume made-fail-again.

So here are a the few pictures we got from the night...

C25K Week 4 Day 1 DONE!!

I completed my run today-week 4 day 1. It was tough, but not as tough as I thought it would have been. Halfway through my first five minute run I had a 4 legged friend sneak up behind me to join me in my run. It was a great distraction to have him run with me, but he sure did give me a scare. I didn't get a chance to run at all last week. I have GOT to get a routine down-it's just so hard with my schedule and my husband's schedule.

Tomorrow I weigh in for my first week back on "Atkins". I have cheated here and there a bit-had an Almond Hershey bar yesterday, and a scoop of mac and cheese with my lunch today. All in all not too bad. Looking for a big loss tomorrow!!!! Keeping my fingers crossed.

cute ideas from....

Ryz Mom Plus 2

MORE Make It and Love It

I just love this chick!!! She is amazingly creative and makes everything seem SO EASY! I just want to run home and pull out my sewing machine and get to work....if only I could sew...LOL! I think I could do the cozy...but as for the tote-well I am not so sure about that one.

so go check her out at Make It And Love It and check out this GREAT tutorial on how to make a snack cozy and a snack tote!!!

Week 3 Day 3 fo C25K

DONE! I ran today around the soccer fields instead of running in my neighborhood. It was easier on my back but I wore my cleats for the first time in ELEVEN YEARS, and they just fell apart....lol. My feet got soaked, but at least my back isn't killing me.

Not sure when I will start week 4 as I am busy the next 2 mornings-but I will get them in somehow!!!!




I painted a canvas tonight!! I copied one that I had one at Bunco. It came out cute!! I was very suprised!! I have a friend that had asked if I would paint some for her for Christmas gifts. So I wanted to try this cross and I am VERY pleased with how it came out!!! I cannot wait to paint more!!!




Also here is one of the ceiling tiles I have painted for one of the preschool teachers. She does these every year as a gift from her to the students. I love the way it came out-except for the name. I am not very good at writing/painting words. I think it needs to be outlined-but I am afraid of making it worse.....what to do? what to do?