My latest TV segment...

I just did a segment on NBC15 in Madison on Easter Egg Safety with Amy Carlson -- enjoy!

Beach Party!

Tomorrow is the beach party at Sarah's Preschool. Since we are the "snack helpers we will be there for all of the fun! We can only have healthy treats so what we made this afternoon will get passed out as the kids are leaving. What they WILL eat for snack is a "fish pond" that involves blue cream cheese and pretzels along with their grape juice ($1 a bottle from Copp's yesterday!). We even have Hawaiian leis for them to wear as it is a tad too chilly yet to dress for a day at the beach.

We took a spice cake mix and turned it into 24 cupcakes. While they were cooling, I made a simple glaze (2 cups powdered sugar and 1/4 cup milk) to act like our glue. My beautiful assistant dipped the cooled cupcakes into the glue and then pressed them into the graham cracker crumbs. Now they looked like a sandy beach! All we needed to do was top them off with the cute paper parasols that you find in the blended fruity drinks and Ta-dah! You have beach party cupcakes! (and one very happy little girl).

I did place them inside an additional cupcake liner for presentation and then, for transport there is nothing better than the Tupperware Rectangle Cake Taker that doubles as a cupcake carrier!

Until next time -- create your own family memories!

New blog!

I have a blog to document me saving $40,000 this year for the new house...it's called Operation $40K. Feel free to check it out-- that is where a lot of my frugal talk is going to be from now on...how to pinch pennies without pinching the family fun!

I will be having blog candy on there shortly...so keep an eye out!
http://operation40k.blogspot.com/

That being said...here are a few deals I found this week:
1)
www.customcrops.com -- Cricut original machines for $65. Great if you are like me and need to finally replace yours...they have a lot of cartridges under $30 here often!
2)
Big Lots has been reported to have Cricut cartridges for $30 - selection varies by store, but usually the older ones
3)
Roundy's stores have buy 6 boxes General Mills cereals for regular price and get $10 off instantly ABD get a coupon for a free gallon of milk. Go on double coupon day with 6 coupons for $.75 off a box of cereal...5 of them will be doubled. That makes $8.25 off in coupons...so I shoot for boxes that are roughly $3 each. 6 x $3 = $18...take off $10 and then the $8.25 and all cereal is FREE! I know they are smaller boxes, but FREE is FREE! I could go up to the next size and spend about $1 per box...but why pay more? To bring that $18 up to $25 I will add $.99 packs of english muffins (for breakfast sandwiches and english muffin pizzas) and I am running low on sugar (for baking)!

I hope that helps you save a little of your own money -- stop back soon, as I will have some blog candy to give away!

Un-Circle Journals...

There are so many reasons to join a circle journal. Participating in a circle journal means you get to make new friends, have fun, contribute to another’s book, see other's work and end up with a creative book at the end. Holding someone else’s work in your hands can be very inspiring. Just think of all the different and unique contributions different people can make in your journal!

I am with a group that does things a little differently...instead of mailing the physical books to each other, in a round robin, to make our contributions...we list our topics on a website and make pages to mail into the swap host. That host sorts them, repacks and ships them back to us. This particular group does 2 a year, sometimes 3.

Above, you see some samples of what I did for the current round. One gal had the theme " My Brother's Wedding". She asked for black, white and silver/platinum colors only -- so I used my Cricut Wedding cart to cut out the bridal silouhette and stickles to make the silver buttons. My Sure Cuts A Lot (SCAL) let me do the letteringt for the overlay...and then there is the awesome scroll work! They came 2 to a package and I found them at Michael's last weekend. They totally make the pages, LOL!

The Hard Rock Cafe layout was for a gal who was making an album about her vacation. I used SCAL again for the lettering, and thought it needed more "zing". Stickles to the rescue again! The guitars were from the Cricut cartridge EveryDay Paper Dolls...again, stickled. The photo mats were embossed with the Allergra Cuttlebug folder and then inked...tying it all together.

There are 9 of us in this round, I don't want to bore you with all of the layouts, but you get the idea. My theme was Sarah's 3rd Birthday (It was a Fishy Party). When I get the pages back and add the pictures, I will share the finished product.

Until next time...be crafty in your own way!

Chicken Chili

My awesome friend La, who has the blog The Curvy Life, shared her chicken chili recipe a while back...and it intrigued me as it was not a white chicken chili - but a regular chili.

I did tweak her recipe a bit as hers used salsa and we have the huge bell pepper alergy in this house, so here is my version.

Chicken Chili

1 small onion diced, sautee in the bottom of the pan in 1-2 TBSP olive oil.

Add 1 12 oz can or bottle of beer (yes, I said beer!)

Add 2 cans chili beans in chili sauce ( I did one mild and 1 hot)

Add 2 cans diced tomatoes and don't forget to add a pinch of sugar to counter the acid in them!Simmer 5-10 min. Add chili powder, cumin, salt/pepper to taste.

Stir in 1 can corn and 1-2 cooked off chicken breasts that you have shredded.

Simmer 5 min more and dig in! I like to stir in a bit of sour cream and then top with cheddar and enjoy!

*****WARNING, this is addictive! Hubby has had me make this several times already, LOL!

42

It's been another great year - topped off with a fantastic day!

Today was my birthday.
I slept late and had quality Sarah time. Lunch was just the girls then I had a TWO HOUR NAP!
Sarah went to the sitters and Andy took me out for a great dinner to one of my favorite places, we hadn't been there in years! Add a spa gift certificate, lots of cards and wellwishes from the family and friends to top it all off and it was a perfect day!

I hope YOU can have a great day in your near future.
:)

Under $25.

That is my goal for weekly grocery shopping! I want to feed my family of 5 (includes 1 cat and 1 dog) for $100 or less a month...and I have been doing pretty darn well at it this year!

I did spend more this week than I should have, but it's almost all protein. 3# bonelss, skinless chicken (which went into the crockpot as soon as I took this picture, 4 # of ground turkey and 10 packages of yogurt all took up the bulk of the space. Get this: the store had ground turkey 10 for $10 - limit of 2. The signs should have said 2 for $2, LOL!
(yes, I had more than one transaction to get 4 for $4)...

Coupons for Free Oreo Cakesters (hubby's lunch), flavored coffee creamer (my guilty pleasure)and a buy 1 get 1 for the Purex rounded out the deals like Gogurt. It was buy 1 get 1 - so 2 for $2.99. I used $1 coupons that they doubled so I got paid $5.05 to take them all home!! We freeze them and the kiddo eats them like a popsicle.

The chicken breasts were shredded as soon as they were done ( 6 hours on low ) and turned into 4 different meals. 1 package of tortillas was used and we had chicken enciladas for dinner. Today I have chicken chili simmering onthe stove to go with the corned bread muffins in the oven. In the freezer are chicken ala king (to go over a package of those biscuits and chicken fajitas (with out the green pepper) to go with that last pack of tortillas next week.

The potatos will become swiss potato soup next week (stop back for the recipe!) and I need to make some scalloped potatoes to go with the diced ham livin' in my freezer. Add a baked potato night and that should kill off the bag, LOL!

The ground turkey is living in the fezzer for the momment - except for one pound. I plan to make Chef Stuart's Tupperware Turkey Burgers this weekend. I had these at Director Summit last year and have never gotten around to making them - I'll let you know the verdict!

Until next time -- keep living the thrifty lifestyle so you can put your money where it really matters! I have to grab a bowl of that chicken chili!