{Thats a Deal Thursday, Baking, Baking Baking}

Baking, Baking, Baking!....Baking, Baking, Baking! (I'm singing in my best conga line voice)
So many of you know that I am always on the hunt for a good bargain, and lately that bargain hunting has transferred to the grocery store. I have been trying to find more ways to stretch my hard earned dollars and still feed my family what they like.
This can prove to be some what of a challenge, but most of the time it's really fun!

One of the ways I have learned to save money is by making things in LARGE batches. Like soup, I made 5 gallon sized Ziploc bags of baked potato soup the other day for the freezer. I also made three bags of homemade pasta sauce, and this weekend I will be making chicken stock. But the one meal I always have trouble with is breakfast! I despise having to get up at 6:00am and not only make Lagan's breakfast and lunch, but then make breakfast for everyone else and I haven't even worked out yet! So my breakfast is always cold and gross and I'm the one that made it! (Can you see my frustration here?)
So I read on several blogs about baking, and freezing, muffins.

Brilliant Idea! Cheap and easy muffins that last for months! So Mom and I put on our aprons, rolled up our sleeves, and baked FIVE different kinds of muffins all on one day! And ended up freezing over 30 muffins for future use!!

Here is a glimpse into our "Baking Day"...



We ended up making banana nut, zucchini and nut, pumpkin chocolate chip, apple spice, and blueberry muffins! YUMMMM.....



So what's a girl to do with 1/2 a can of leftover pumpkin? Well, make pumpkin pancakes...duh!


All in all, I had a great time spending the day with mom and baking! We will defiantly be doing this a lot! And since this was a "That's a deal Thursday" I will let you know that the supplies to bake over 7 dozen muffins cost about $10.00!! Now, I defiantly think that's a deal!

{FINALLY....a new project!}

I promised I would post a new project, and I FINALLY got pictures of it! This project is SOOOOO easy, your going to wonder why you never thought of it!

This idea came to me when I was in the middle of the scrap booking supplies isle. I love to embellish my clothing and make it my own. So I saw the supplies to make this project and it was like a light bulb! So follow along and make your clothing one of a kind!

**For prices, I forgot. I bought these a few months back, but it is very low priced to do this! :)

Materials Needed:
1 package fabric flowers with large and small sizes
(I threw away the package so I don't have a photo! sorry!)
1 package fabric covered brads
Safety Pins
Here are the brads so you can see the brand and what the packaging looks like. The flowers are made by the same company! :)


Step 1: Gather all of your materials.


Step 2: Layer a small flower on a large flower.


Step 3: Push flowers through the brad (the flowers have a small hole in the middle)


Step 4: Flip flower over so brad is sticking up


Step 5: Push brad sides down so they are flat against the flower back.


Step 6: Next, take your safety pin and gently push it through the flower so its not visible on the other side


Step 7: Flip the flower over and make sure the pin is not visible


Here are a few that I made up ahead of time. You can make large ones with the small flowers on top, or without them. You can also make just the little ones.




Once you have made all of your flowers, then you can pin them onto your clothing. I love them on a t-shirt or even on a belt or my hand bag for the day. Today I decided to put them on my pea coat since its pretty chilly out today! :)


And speaking of embellishing your clothing, try some other ideas that make your clothing all yours. I LOVE buttons and use them quite often. I have had this cardigan since middle school!!! But it was getting a little dated, so I brought new life to it with a cluster of black and grey buttons of all different sizes! This is about $5.00 worth of buttons, and it makes it look like a whole new top!

{Pumpkin Patching}

Can I just say that class field trips are so much fun? I'm not even joking, I really had a good time. But there is something totally bazaar about me going on field trips. No matter what, I sign up and I feel great, I can't wait to go! Field trip day comes, I am totally sick! Last year, I had the flu. I had had the flu for 4 weeks, then I got better, then I lapsed and got it again for 2 more weeks. Needless to say, I thought I might die! Then this year, I got a really bad cold/sinus infection, but I went anyway because I told Lagan I would be there! (I know tons of moms are out there saying, "OMG! I can't believe you went on field trips with a cold or the flu!" But in my defence, both times I was totally hopped up on meds and when I had the flu I got the green light from my doc to go! hehe)

Anyway, back to what I was actually posting about! So this week, Lagan's class got to go to the Pumpkin patch and pick a pumpkin, plus learn all about different kinds of pumpkins and how to carve them and eat them! VERY cool! I even learned a few things!
It was a great time had by all and an awesome reminder that Fall is here, even if you can't tell in the 90 degree weather! :)
So I thought I would share a few photos from the day! Lagan was so proud to have her mommy there taking pictures, she told her teacher "She's taking them for her Blog"........do you think that's bad? lol
**Oh, and I do have that tutorial coming, Im just a little behind on posting!! hehe











Here is Lagan picking her pumpkin. The kiddo's got to pick a pie pumpkin and bring it home to decorate it for a class project, then we will get to make a pie! YUM!


there were sooooooo many pumpkins!


Lagan had a blast!

{An award for Reading...}

I just wanted to pop in real quick and say that my awesome buddy Anne over at Cupcakes and Sunshine sent me an AWESOME award!

I LOVE to read. I don't get to do it much, but I do really enjoy it. So this award was perfect for me!
The award is a reading award. This award requires I open the nearest book to page 56. Write out the fifth sentence on that page, and also the next two to five sentences...The CLOSEST BOOK, NOT YOUR FAVORITE, OR MOST INTELLECTUAL!!

So the nearest book to me at my desk is The Bible (KJV). Its always near by! :) So I turned to page 56, and it read:

"Judah, thau art he whom thy brethren shall praise: thy hand shall be in the neck of thine enemies; thy father's children shall bow down before thee."
Genesis 50:8

Wow! An award and a little piece of the good Word all in one! You just can't beat that!
So now I get to pass this award along, so I am going to pass it to my buddy Kyley! Love ya Ky! :)

{Getting better, Getting worse, and Getting presents!}

I feel so behind! I hate being sick. I have this terrible cough now and my throat feels like I swallowed razor blades! But at least I don't feel achy anymore, and I'm not as tired. So that's good news.


But some more bad news on top of being sick...my last wisdom tooth is coming in and it is killing me! I had one of them removed 2 years ago, plus another tooth that had given me problems since I was able to remember. My second wisdom tooth came in and I didn't even notice, so that was nice. But this one (the last one) is KILLING me! My dentist said that this one and the last one that came in are no big deal because they are coming in straight and I "have more than enough room for them"! Did my dentist just say I have a big mouth?!

So to help me get over all of this terrible-ness, (I know I totally made that up!) I am so happy get some awesome gifts!

First, I won a giveaway over at Nester's blog the other day. Thank you Nester for supporting women in business, and your email was so sweet! Your compliments on my designs made my day!
The giveaway is an awesome card design from Keri at Keri's Card Design on Etsy. Keri is so sweet, I cant wait to work with her!
Wouldn't these make AWESOME Christmas Cards?



Then I got an awesome gift from my buddy Leslie in the mail this weekend. She sent me an awesome Glade Plug in Scented Oil. It's Apple Cinnamon, and my entire house smells like hot apple cider! YUM!! I LOVE it! :) Thanks so much Leslie for hosting such awesome giveaways on your blog too! :) What was totally special was the sweet little note she sent with it, I love her little cards. They have her initials engraved in them...how cool is that?

So that has pretty much wrapped up the good, the super awesome, the bad, and the really ugly from the past few days. I want to say thank you to everyone who sent your prayers over, I really hope I get over being sick by the end of this week so I can share a NEW TUTORIAL!! :) I'll give you a hint, its NOT for your home or for a scrap book, but it involves scrapbook supplies! Any guesses?...

{I have fallen ill...}

Yep, that's me! Sick as a dog! See, My mom and I have started walking to go pick up Lagan from school in the afternoons, its about a mile walk, and yesterday it started POURING down rain! So we had to walk in the rain that was like a white sheet! As soon as we got home we all stripped down and got into dry clothes. My mom dried Lagan's hair while I was changing, and it didn't occur to me to dry my hair. Well, I sat around in wet hair all afternoon in the air conditioning and under ceiling fans. So needless to say, today I have a cold!

So I might not be around to post much in the next few days while I try to recover. While I was walking to pick up Lagan today, it was cool and windy (NOT good on my swollen throat!) and all I could do is have a conversation with God. I just asked Him to heal my body. I have Bible study tomorrow night, so I hope I am better by then, or at least I can have everyone there pray that I get better. I can't really afford to get sick!

So let's make a deal...You pray for me to get better, and I will pray for you. No matter what you need prayer for, I will pray. You can send me an email or leave it in the comments, but no matter what, I will faithfully pray! :) Love you all!

{Live Well Wednesday: Week:9}

Ok, so I totally dropped the ball. Last week was week 8 and I forgot to blog about it! I'm so sorry. It hasn't been a very eventful 2 weeks, I'm just trying to stay on my game, keep eating right and working out. I'm not having a problem with the working out anymore, it just comes naturally most days.

The eating right however....I am really struggling with it! I think because food and I have a love hate relationship. I LOVE food, I HATE what it does to my thighs! So if anyone has some healthy recipes or cooking tips, I would love to hear them. (Yes, a Chef is asking for recipes! I can never have too many!)

So just a weigh in check in, I have lost 13 pounds to date and I couldn't be happier about that! I pray I will never see that 13 pounds ever again!

So how is everyone else doing this week? Getting plenty of water? Doing your workouts?


Oh...and just a little P.S. if you have Time Warner, go to the exercise on demand channel and Jackie Warner from "Workout", Jillian Michales from "The Biggest Looser" and John Spencer Ellis from "The real housewives of Orange County" all have workouts that are AWESOME! Like, you cant walk for three days without your legs giving out and your abs constantly shaking, awesome! Its a great way to give your body a challenge! I have been trying to follow them and LOVE it!

{Love Revolution...Shine Conference 2008}

What a weekend! I had the most amazing time at our Women's Conference SHINE. This years theme...Love Revolution.
The weekend was filled with praise and worship, prayer, sister time, love, healing, and some amazing works by Jesus.

We had three amazing speakers that really changed my life with their teachings.


First was Holly Wagner from Oasis Christian Center, located in Los Angeles, CA. She was amazing. Her style is awesome and kinda in your face. I love it! Her book, God Chicks, is awesome too!! You can visit her website here: http://godchicks.com/


Our Second Speaker was Charlotte Scanlon-Gambill whi is the Senior Associate Pastor at the Abundant Life Church, in Bradford, England. Her teachings are so real, plus I love hearing her accent! Her newest book, In her Shoes, is just amazing. You must read it!


And Last but certainly not least, is our own Pastor Laura Koke. I love Pastor Laura. She is so in love with our church and strives for only the best for all women. From the nursery to highschool, singles, and on, Laura is always planning something amazing for the Women of Shoreline! Her book, Fit for the King, has shown me how to get my body strong for the Lord!

I also have tons of photos from the entire weekend! Feel free to take a look! :)

{Charting your Chores...}

Hey Everyone!! I am so excited to share this post with you, but first I wanted to say thank you to everyone who wrote me about the book review. I was ecstatic to see some of you go check it out or buy it just based on my recommendation! :) I'm totally flattered!!

Ok, on with the post at hand! :)
Keeping a house clean while your trying to sell can be quite a chore all on its own. But when your doing it by yourself, it is a nightmare! So I was surfing the web the other day and came across this post...but I thought "I can do that for really cheap!" So I did! One trip to hobby lobby and about 3 hours in between working, and I had a really cool chore chart.

And I wanted to share it with you all, so I took pictures along the way! I hope you enjoy doing this project as much as I did!

You want to start with:
-an unfinished wooden shelf
-1 piece scrapbook paper
-craft paint in choice of color
-2 yards of coordinating ribbon
-1 sponge paint brush
-1 set alphabet stickers
-1 picture hanging kit (only if your shelf doesn't already have this.)
(a hole punch and tape are also needed)


Next you want to wriggle the pegs out of their spots from the shelf

Now lightly sand the entire surface until smooth.
(I used a 220 grit sandpaper) and wipe down with a dry cloth.

Paint the sides and slightly up the top of the shelf, also paint the pegs.

Cut the scrap booking paper to fit on the top portion.
Mine is long so I had to cut two pieces to match the length.

Using Modge Podge (or glue medium a.k.a Elmer's school glue with a little water added)
paint on the paper to cover the top. Allow to dry for about 2 hours.

After glue dries, use a small knife to cut an "X" into the paper where
the peg holes are, then push the paper down into the hole.

Fit the peg in the hole just to make sure the paper is cut enough.

Now, if you were to just use this as a shelf, you could add wood glue to the peg holes and allow to dry.

Remove the pegs and use your stickers to write out your families names under each peg hole.

On my computer I designed these tags just using 3 different fonts.
Once printed, I used a pencil and a ruler to measure around them so I know where to cut.

Once you cut along the lines, you will want to cut out the sides around the { }

and this is what that should look like.
Now you want to punch 2 holes into the sides at the top of the cards...

Next you will want to measure your ribbon. I used 2 yards for 4 tags.
For each tag, I cut the 2 yards into 4 pieces (18 in.ea.)
then I cut each of those into 2 pieces (9 in.ea.)
I now thread the ribbon just through the hole and tape to the back of the card.

This is how it looks with the ribbon taped to the back.

I then hammered on the photo hanger to the back of the shelf.

Now you can tie your chores onto each person's name, and rotate them throughout the week! :)


And now for the price breakdown:
Wood Shelf $3.99 plus 30%off sale: $2.79
Alpha Stickers $2.99 plus 40% off coupon: $1.79
Ribbon $0.50/yd X 2yds plus 30%off sale: $0.70
Scrapbook paper $.50/sheet plus 50%off sale: $0.25
Picture hanging kit $0.99
Craft Paint $0.69
and I already had glue, sponge brush, tape, and hole punch
Project Total: $7.21
w/out coupons or sale: $10.16